"I think it’s necessary to believe that feeling and meaning can survive—and in fact, be derived from—whatever ruptures you can cause in the language."

-Will Eno, BOMB Magazine interview, 2008

my favorite photo on the internet:

(NYT)

Will Eno's women

Notes, Draft #1

• PAUSE. (longer.)
• “Allow her to change her mind and think of something new.”
• Not a speech, not a poem, though there is speech and poetry--it is a performance.
• And a dialogue.
• Consider rhythms beyond lines.
• What are / where are her moments of difficulty?
• Pull away from cynicism.
• Why does she sit?
• How does one pose for soliloquy?
• → transitions ←
• Show-and-tell can be illustrated, even if non-literally.
• *Beat. Microbeat. Find the way to the end. Find her actions.*

I can sing, if you made me.

Midterm

script

stage properties

notes

"The history of plays and the history of the world is a set of the same conversations being had by different people."

-Epilogue, The Flu Season

Ambiguous illusions

"Ambiguous illusions are so powerful because even after we know that both images are on the page, we can only see one of them at a time. When we see the young girl, we can't simultaneously see the lines in context of the mother-in-law. When we switch our perception, the young girl disappears and we only see the old woman...Essentially, when we focus in on certain details, our brain makes sense of the rest of the image around these contours. Ambiguous illusions show the way that vision is a work of both the eye and the mind. The eye takes in a set of lines, and, depending on what they are, the brain organizes them into a recognizable pattern which we then "see." We can't see both images at once, because, at least at first, it isn't possible for the brain to construct both images and overlay one on the other. While it is possible to train the mind into recognizing two sets of patterns at once, that fact that it is a process shows that "seeing" is still a matter of mental practice, not simply taking in an image passively with one's eyes."

-The World's Most Famous — And Ambiguous — Illusion (io9)

Etymologies

lady (n.) 

"c. 1200, lafdi, lavede, from Old English hlæfdige (Northumbrian hlafdia, Mercian hlafdie), "mistress of a household, wife of a lord," apparently literally "one who kneads bread," from hlaf "bread" (see loaf (n.)) + -dige "maid," which is related to dæge "maker of dough" (which is the first element in dairy; see dey (n.1)). Also compare lord (n.)). Century Dictionary finds this etymology "improbable," and OED rates it "not very plausible with regard to sense," but no one seems to have a better explanation. 

The medial -f- disappeared 14c. The word is not found outside English except where borrowed from it. Sense of "woman of superior position in society" is c. 1200; that of "woman whose manners and sensibilities befit her for high rank in society" is from 1861 (ladylike suggesting this sense is attested from 1580s, and ladily from c. 1400). Meaning "woman chosen as an object of chivalrous love" is from early 14c. Used commonly as an address to any woman since 1890s. 

Applied since Old English to the Holy Virgin, hence many extended usages in plant names, place names, etc., from genitive singular hlæfdigan, which in Middle English merged with the nominative, so that lady- often represents (Our) Lady's, as in ladybug. Lady Day (late 13c.) was the festival of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary (March 25). Ladies' man first recorded 1784; lady-killer "man supposed to be dangerously fascinating to women" is from 1811. Lady of pleasure recorded from 1640s. Lady's slipper as a type of orchid is from 1590s."

-Online Etymology Dictionary

ladylike (adj.) 

"also lady-like, 1580s, "refined, well-bred, courteous;" see lady + like (adj.). Middle English had ladily "queenly, exalted" (late 14c.)."

-Online Etymology Dictionary

Lady Grey: past productions

May 9 - 11 2014

Horn Rim Productions @ The Mix Studio Theater

Actor: Kristin Beckett 

Director: Ron Miller

(x.)

March 11 - April 10 2011

The Cutting Ball Theater

Actor: Danielle O’Hare

Director: Rob Melrose

(x.)

February 2010

Inscription @ Griffin Theatre Company & Melbourne Theatre Company

Actor: Tanya Burne

Director: Julian Meyrick

(x.)

What must a dramaturg do?

"To illuminate meaning in non-realism, dramaturgs do not trace a narrative or mine a character’s depths, but rather identify complex patterns of action, image, and language. They must encourage the spectator to see both what is present on the stage and also what is absent, unsaid...Because non-realism follows a different kind of logic and creates meaning in a different way than realism does, it redefines the processes of spectatorship and rehearsal. Working with non-realist productions changes the dramaturg’s role in the rehearsal process...Dramaturgs working with non-realism must cultivate more playfulness in their own questioning. They must open up meaning, not secure it. They must point to the gaps in the text not as holes to be filled in, but as sites of meaning that escape simple representation through language or image. They become less the source of answers and more the source of questions"(p. 50)

Dramaturging Non-Realism: Creating a New Vocabulary 

Tori Haring-Smith, Theatre Topics, 2003 

Aliveness

"I do not think that what makes strong theater is accessibility at first instant, mainly because my first experiences in theater were not simple—I didn’t understand it. But I did sense that there was something there. I find immediate accessibility easily forgettable. All the great theater experiences I’ve had have either been too long, or too difficult, or I’ve had to reach...I don’t necessarily think that the sign of a good work is where you have to come back to understand it; I don’t understand most of my work. I have to look at it and constantly redefine what it is. If I did understand it, it probably would not be as volatile. I don’t think that understanding is necessarily the best thing in art."

"What is?"

"Aliveness. In the theater, certainly a sense of event. A sense of human beings reaching towards something, a sense of inspiration. As in great music: you are taken to a place where you are not in familiar territory, where one encounters new landscapes. That’s what I want in the theater. I want the audience to be in new territory, I want myself to be in new territory. I mean, I am the audience, ultimately."

"...all of the detours are part of the research"

Anne Bogart, interviewed by Daniel Mufson, 1995

NYC (in photos)

Go to the library. Why not?

NYC Research Trip

Sundown, Yellow Moon

Review: Songs Say What a Family Can’t in ‘Sundown, Yellow Moon’ (NYT)

Non-Consensual Relationships With Ghosts

Wakey, Wakey

Review: ‘Wakey, Wakey’ Stars Life and Death (NYT)

Map

Quantification

I am trying to learn this text. 

Trying to understand it.

     Last night.

          Ink gliding over paper.

               I copied each line into my notebook. 

This was much slower than speaking the words aloud. 

It was an exercise that didn't help me to understand voice or embodiment. 

But it did help me maintain a connection to the text. I have something to hold on to now, as I continue traveling this week, with no spaces to move in and say these lines (without disturbing the peace).

I can hold the understanding of a newly discovered pattern--the same sentence repeated, pages later, in a new context. 

I wonder if Lady Grey keeps a journal. 

I wonder if Will Eno writes his scripts with pen on paper or if he types them on a keyboard. Probably a keyboard.  

Last night I counted the punctuation in this piece. 

# of periods: 425
# of question marks: 49 
# of commas: too many to count.

Tonight I am sitting here wondering, what, exactly, these symbols signify. Sometimes there's a period. But the thought, the sentence as I understand it, does not end. And sometimes a question ends with a period. Even when a question ends with a question mark, there are so many types of questions. All signified by the same little symbol. And then there are the commas.

How do the commas relate to the pauses indicated in stage directions, the spaces between each word, the capacity of my lungs to hold and ration a breath?

Bibliography

Some of my favorite interviews with Will Eno and writings about his work.

Butler, Isaac. “The Great American Living-Room Play Gets a Remodel.” American Theatre, March 25, 2015.

Hooker, Jake. “In Dialogue: Stepping into Darkness with Will Eno.” The Brooklyn Rail, September 1, 2005.

King, Darryn. “Will Eno’s deconstructive theatre.” The Saturday Paper, October 8, 2016.

Reynolds, Kyle. “Will Eno: The Page, The Stage, and The Word.” Master’s thesis, Texas Tech University, 2009.

Steketee, Martha. “Will Eno’s Theatrical Rhythms.” HowlRound, December 10, 2015.

Silverstein, Marc. “‘A word by which you will be revealed’: the problem of language in Will Eno's monologues.” American Drama 15(2006): 61-90.

Simons, Seth. “Pulitzer-Nominated Playwright Will Eno on the Upside of Sleepless Nights.” Van Winkle’s, November 10, 2015.

Sola, Joe. “Will Eno.” BOMB Magazine, Summer 2008.

“Etymologically, monologue (mono-logos) derives from the Greek term for solitary speech. In linguistic terms monologic speech is both univocal and monophonic, meaning that monologue can be broadly understood as being any sustained speech by a single subject that does not require an ‘other’ to speak to, nor needs a reply. However, ‘pure’ monologues are almost an abstraction, because solo speech is far more likely to exist in a complicated relationship with dialogue, meaning that even the most isolated monologues (a speech to ourselves spoken out loud or in our heads) tend to address an other, even if that other is the self, and thus implicitly seek a kind of dialogue.” (Eddie Paterson,The Contemporary American Monologue: Performance and Politics, p. 13) 

A timeline of Will Eno’s work

  ? - King, a problem play

      Kid Blanco

2001 - Vaudeville, Population Two [preview]

Tragedy: a tragedy [preview]

2002 - A Canadian Lies Dying on American Ice [full text]

Mr. Theatre Comes Home Different [full text]

Intermission [preview]

Behold The Coach, In Sorrow, Unemployed [full text]

2003 - The Flu Season

2004 - Thom Pain (based on nothing)[preview]

Lady Grey (in ever-lower light)[preview]

2006 - Darkness at seven

2007 - Oh, the Humanity [preview]

Behold The Coach, In a Blazer, Uninsured [full text]

Ladies and Gentlemen, The Rain [preview]  

The Bully Composition [preview]

Enter the Spokeswoman, Gently  

2009 - Excerpt from Gint (an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s Peer Gynt)

Unum

2010 - Middletown [preview]
2011 - The Birth of Something

2012 - Title and Deed* [preview]

The Realistic Joneses [preview]

2014 - The Open House* [preview]

2017 - Wakey, Wakey*

*written during Signature Residency   

"I'm trying to think: What is language, anyway, what is speech? Does it just float, like smoke from fire, away from the speaker, signifying rather than being the thing that caused it? Is speech, like smoke, a byproduct of some burning rather than the burning itself? It is that, isn't it, my speech is like smoke and my body is the burning, can't you see that, I'm sure you can see that, be gentle with this eternal flame as you extinguish it be mindful of its eternity, and bring it back dear gentleman dear older older gentleman who speaks to me and touches me like the Mediterranean sea."

Deb Margolin, “To Speak Is to Suffer” and Vice Versa, TDR 2008