Goals for "Elephant's Graveyard"

Daniel had asked us to collaborate on a new draft of Elephant's Graveyard, one that allowed more air into the play, that reduced the density of words and invited the actors to contribute their bodies - not just language - in performance. Putting every word in the play under a microscope was an eye-opening experience and resulted in many changes beyond the basic text.

In the spirit of this new draft, we want to continue to shepherd the script into the theatrical, to ferret out any remaining shreds of literary dressing. While the play is a form of story telling, inspired by this new draft and direction, we want the experience to be very much the here and now: electric, threatening. The audience cannot be lost or bored. We want to create a play that crackles with life, that is not “nice,” that feels like repeated blows to the face and gut.

In the current draft, we have rearranged the order of a few pieces to create a feeling of tension, possibility of salvation, and explosive pressure under the big-top. We have also changed the "Man Who Walks on His Head" to a Strongman, added more women into the mix, and experimented with moving the Hungry Townsperson's "lynching monologue" to earlier in the play.

The image we have of this play is one of those golden Swiss clocks, where every gear is not only beautiful but essential to the operation of the whole. As we move forward, one of our goals is for every character, every action, every word, to be essential to the function of the whole play.

For class on Tuesday, we plan on reading the new draft out loud for the first time with the cast and:
- judge how effective the new draft is overall
- find which systems listeners are aware of and are paying off
- note where the rhythm of the play breaks down or is stalled
- judge how the presence of a female among the mob affects the play
- judge how the new placement of the Hungry Townsperson pays off

Future sessions may include, but are not limited to:

- thinking about production elements of the play, such as scale, color, realistic v. expressionistic styles, and texture, to get a sense of what people enjoy imagining and what they want to see in front of them. We want to develop a vocabulary of production desires for what we are hoping to explore in the workshop, so that we will be able to more clearly advocate our vision.

- as we continue to work, one of our major goals is to make sure the scenes between Red's death and Mary's hanging are clear and compelling in their in-between-ness, not just an extended transition.

- explore the arcs of the individual Townspeople, charting and differentiating their stories.

By the end of the process we hope to have a living, breathing, complicated play in front of us, one that is both intellectually and emotionally stimulating.