staging proposal for MLML

MLML for me is like a fairy tale, if I am the director, I would like to give audiences the feeling similar as listening to an old nursery rhyme. It is a long and dramatic bed-time story. The characters should seem like imaginary. 

Firstly, I need a pretty big stage, which is bigger than the black box. A changeable back wall, which is easier to show the place changes. One back wall should be painted on “forest” images, with many trees, flowers and a stream. And also the Black Mountain should also be drawn on this wall. That is the village where DDD lives in. Another back wall should be painted with the view of the city and Daniel’s hotel(put some little bulbs on the painted buildings, which are used to decorate the Christmas tree). This two back walls are the main places where the play take place. One row of ground lights will be placed in front of the back walls in line. 

Secondly, the main sound effects are also separated into two different parts. One is in the quiet village, and the other one is in the busy city. For village’s part back ground music, it should have sound effects of “birds’ singing in the morning”, “river floating” and other “animals”, in order to create the feeling of nature and fresh. And also it should have some happy lively tone background music (flute can be a perfect instrument to play it). For the city part, we should prepare “car noises”, “noisy crowds” and also “party music” sound effects, and also use more modern style back ground music(I think piano can do this job), in order to show the audiences how busy and crowd the city is and to emphasize the contrasts between two different scenes. Generally, the sounds of “rain”, “storm” and “thunder” are also needed for both parts. 

Thirdly, lighting choices are very important as well. It is not only affected by different scenes, but also by different weathers, time and emotions. Basically, I would make the lights as colorful as possible, for creating the atmosphere of “fairy tale”. The variable of lighting colors can also catch audiences attentions, so it is one of my focus. 

Fourthly, costume is another one of the biggest parts. The main characters DDD would wear a light yellowish dress with little colorful flowers embroidered on the edge. And she also makes herself and shiny pebble necklace to let her stand out among other peasants. She is bare foot when she lives in the village. Her hair worn in a bun with a pure white flower on it. Other villagers would wear brown and grey clothes with some patches on it, and also some of them could wear a straw hat. Their skins are dark, and their trouser are rolled up. And also they can hold some farming tools in hand. The other main character, Daniel, should wear suits to symbolize his high social status and also his family’s wealth. And also people in the city will wear shoes and more expansive colorful clothes. Then talking about the four gods. PPG should wear all black, and mainly he wears a cloak with bat patterns on it because he is the massager of death. Erzulie wears nearly white long dress, but it has red rose patterns on the bottom of the dress. She has a white and yellow flower roll on her head, and she also has long golden curly hair to show that she is very beautiful and graceful. Asaka is in green, orange and brown because she symbolizes the ground and plants. She could wear some tree branches and birds on her shoulders. She has a scepter in her hand which shows her power. And she should wear gold eye shadow. And for Agwe, he is in dark blue, and he has long hair. He wears a huge pearl ring on his thumb in order to show his status. He also has a cloak but it is much similar like a hard jacket. He wears many shell necklaces and bracelets. He has a tattoo (maybe shark pattern) on his shoulder.

In a conclusion, MLML is a very lively play for me. It should be bright, dramatic and colorful, and it is able to give audiences strong visual impacts. Everything happens in an unspecified time period and places. It should let audiences feel free and relax.