Big Theatre for Little People - Geva Theatre

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Sean Daniels Interview with the Director Sean Daniels What was your first theatre experience? My first experience seeing a show was a community theatre production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I thought it was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. I laughed, I cried (I did!). As we walked out, I decided that I wanted to find a way to be part of all that. Since then, I have promised to never see that show again, as I’m sure it will never look as glorious as it did in my little eight-year-old head. What skills do you find most useful in being a director? I always try to fill the room with the best artists out there, and collectively work together to investigate the piece. It’s not my job to come up with every answer, but it’s my job to hear all of the ideas and pick out the few really golden ones. Can you tell us why you cast Eliza, Luke and Anthony in this production? I’ve been lucky enough to work with each of them before. Eliza is a wonderful clown who works with the Kapoot Clown Theatre in Chicago; Luke has the quickest wit of any actor I know and Anthony is one of the most versatile actors that I have worked with. It’s not an easy piece of theatre, so I really needed three amazingly talented comedic actors. Lucky for me, I found the three of them. Can you tell us about the concept for the design of the show? We really wanted to create a palette and a language where, at the top of the show, it’s like looking at the world through the eyes of children. Everything is bright, everything is exciting and there’s magic in the air. As we grow up, or the play goes on, we make choices that help us to decide whether to keep that magic in our lives or to let the color fade away. Why should young people see this play? I think it’s one of the few plays out there that is smart enough for kids and fun enough for adults. It’s smart and sophisticated, but it’s also just a good time and a great piece of theatre. “He jumps around like a bull frog!” Zacharias 4 How do Pepper and Zacharias change from the beginning to the end of the play? In what ways do they remain the same?
5 From the Set Designer, Dan Meeker The ideas behind the design are rather simple. As I was reading the play I was intrigued by the playwright’s use of the box; the characters’ boxes are almost like additional characters in the play. When I thought more about this, it seemed clear that the box was a metaphor for Zacharias and Pepper’s friendship. A box has edges; it’s predictable, sturdy and protective. The boxes and the characters’ relationships to them and each other create a bubble of sorts, a world if you will. This is where the larger box [the set] comes in. The world within the play feels small and contained. Zacharias and Pepper are in control of their space until the wall is broken by the Drum Major. While I was sketching through rough ideas, trying to find a way of conveying this, I kept coming back to the idea of them being inside of a larger box. The larger box offers the same containment and security of their own smaller boxes. When the Drum Major joins the scene the box is broken. With this break, so too comes a change in Zacharias and Pepper’s relationship. They don’t mind that their space has been invaded; it takes this break to remind them how strong their friendship truly is. Once we decided on the box as a larger environment for the play I pushed it and twisted it until it seemed like the characters’ environment to me. The characters are clown-like. The angle of the floor and the leaning of the walls exemplify their quirkiness. I like the repeated shapes and patterns that one might find on clowns’ clothes, which is where the patterns came from. The play feels exterior to me which made me think of sky and clouds which can be both calm and comforting as well as eerie and mysterious. In the end we decided that the world should be able to transform over time, as their friendship does. I used translucent surfaces for the walls so their appearance could be altered with light. “Please, water, please.” Zacharias Intrigue: To catch the interest of Metaphor: A figure of speech used to make a comparison Contain: To have within itself; to hold Convey: To communicate Exemplify: To serve as an example of Quirky: strange or unusual Eerie: Strange and frightening Mysterious: Something that is not fully understood or is kept secret Transform: To change into something else Translucent: Letting some but not all light through Alter: To change in some way
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Page 3: 3 Appreciation telegram: Start by c
Page 7 and 8: 7 Both Pepper and Zacharias are con
Page 9 and 10: 9 Do the characters remind you of a
Page 11 and 12: 11 Staff Skip Greer Director of Edu

Big Theatre for Little People - Geva Theatre

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