“The Maids” by Jean Genet
Directed by Brenda Huggins April 15, 2008 Semel Theatre, Emerson College Boston, MA
“The Maids” By Jean Genet Directed by Brenda Huggins Spring, 2008
Table of Contents
1. Rehearsal Schedule. 2.
Example Rehearsal Reports and Rehearsal Journal
3. Research and Inspirational Images.
Tech Rehearsal, April 14th 2008
The Maids By Jean Genet Directed by Brenda Huggins
Spring, 2008 st
UPDATED MARCH 21
Rehearsal Schedule: Date:
Time:
Space:
Sun, 3/16
3:00pm to 5:00pm
C304/ CANCELLED
Mon, 3/17
8:00pm to 10:00pm
P-Row, 117 / CANCELLED
Sun, 3/23
3:00pm to 5:00pmish
Mon, 3/24
8:00pm to 10:00pmish
P-Row, 232-Solange Only
Sat, 3/29
4:30pm to 6:30pm
P-Row, 232-MAKE UP
Sun, 3/30
3:00pm to 5:00pm
C304 (Colonial Building).
Mon, 3/31
8:00pm to 10:00pm
P-Row, 117 .
Sun, 4/16
3:00pm to 5:00pm
C304 (Colonial Building).
Mon, 4/17
8:00pm to 10:00pm
OFF BOOK/ P-Row, 117
Sun, 4/13
3:00pm to 5:00pm
FULL DRESS/ C304 Colonial.
Mon, 4/14 . Theatre
6:00pm GO TIME
TECH/DRESS in the Semel
Tues, 4/15
7:00 to 9:00pm
PERFORMANCE/
C304 (Colonial)-Claire Only
Semel
Theatre.
*Please notice that there is a slight change in the tech/ performance times. The Tuesday evening performances begin at 7:00pm, and we are the last play of the evening. Also, our tech begins at 6:00pm on Monday, so call will be at 5:30 (in costume). I am thinking a 6:30 call for Tuesday, but we can discuss what works best for you.
“The Maids” By Jean Genet Directed by Brenda Huggins Spring, 2008
Rehearsal Report#7 Called: Claire and Solange Date: April 6th
Time: 3:00 to 5:00pm
Location: Colonial Building
Rehearsal Objectives: -Work the Last section of the play from where we left of last time, “That’ll do” into Solange’s turn. -Work the piece OFF BOOK. -Get a feel for the length of the piece.
Rehearsal Notes: -The first exercise of the rehearsal was a mirror exercise in which t he actors took turns leading and following each other in the space. The next coaching added the element of the color imagery that we have been working with. Each time the leader switched, they had to choose a new color, and communicate that color through their body movement and with out words. -For the next exercise, I wanted to again incorporate music into the work, so I chose an instrumental piece by Miles Davis. Playing with the idea of power and control, each of the actors took turns “molding” each other to the music. The “clay” had their eyes closed, and the “molder” with give them physical touch cues for which body part to move and when through the space. This was not a stationary “clay molding” exercise, but one of control, trust, and rhythm as the pair move around in space in almost a dance. When the impulse calls, the clay will become the molder. To add another layer to this exercise, I asked the actors to explore the text of “The Maids” during the work, and notice how the power, control element of the movement influenced the text. -We started OFF BOOK for the first time, starting from the ending section where we left off from last week. After working Solange’s “turn”, we began working the play from beginning to end, off book. We made it through the piece two times from beginning to end, off book. -(The lovely Lialia was available to be on book for me, so I could take notes and not have my nose in my script. Journal Entry: It is becoming very challenging to come up with new, fun, and relevant exercises with out being to repetitive, but I am enjoying the challenge! So far, the exercises that we worked with today have been my favorite! The work with music and rhythm has bee n fantastic, and it is exciting to see the actors really respond to them. With the leading and molding in this one exercise, especially when we a dded in the text from the play, there was a magical connection to not literal body movement and voice that had a freedom and
expression not yet seen in our rehearsals. Something that really drew me to this play, besides Genet’s brilliant text, is the absurdist quality to the piece. I have never directed or acted in an absurdist piece, so I had no idea how to really approach the piece. With today’s exercise, I think that I have found that starting point. It’s just too bad that I made this discovery after everything has been blocked and the performance goes up next week! With this having been said, I do not feel that the work we have done is worthless, on the other hand, I feel that every decision we have made and continue to make are true to the text, but also to the over all vision of the piece. After today’s exercise however, I am inspired to someday direct the entire play, and use these types of exercises as a starting point in discovering the play through space. All though there are certainly absurdist qualities to the work that we have do ne in terms of the props/lack of props, the idea of space, as well as the idea of time and setting, as well as some stylistic body movement, I am inspired by today’s work to take these shapes and images a step further in their expression of Genet’s text. I am finding my self on the cusp of an artistic epiphany in my development as a director, but the answers haven’t quite made their way to the surface of my brain yet. In choosing this play for this project, I knew that I was going beyond the immediate realm of my experience as a theatre artist, and I am now realizing through the pro cess of directing the piece, I have truly opened doors to a new understanding of what theatre is and can be. My infatuation with Genet’s play began with the richly layered text, and is now culminating into the realization that the expression or co mmunication of that text is only limited by my own imagination. I am also in awe of the collaborative process that has been the keystone in the organic realization of the play. It was been extremely rewarding as a facilitator of impulse and directing force for the process of this work. On a final note, I was blown away by the work of my actors today in terms of their memorization and handling of the text. Having Lialia on book for us was essential to the success of the rehearsal, but the work that Charlotte and Lisa completed since last week in working with the text and memorization was above and beyond my expectations. Although there were maybe moments that didn’t seem to quite click together as the dominoes so to speak continued to miss each other by centimeters as the actors worked off book for the first time, we were able to make it through the piece at least two times. I feel as though we are right on track for the next two rehearsals. One more rehearsal left, and then we have our dress rehearsal. I think that we will be ready!
“The Maids” By Jean Genet Directed by Brenda Huggins Spring, 2008
Rehearsal Report#8 Called: Claire and Solange Date: April 7th
Time: 8:00 to 10:00pm
Location: Piano Row
Rehearsal Objectives: -Continue to work OFF BOOK -Reconnect the “Dominoes” in the OFF BOOK stage of the process -TIME PIECE -Talk about costumes and Entrance/Exits Rehearsal Notes: -We began rehearsal with a quick vocal warm-up, incorporating Linklater exercises followed by diction exercises. -We continued to work the play off book, reconnecting the “Dominoes”, and fixing a few points that are still not working such as the “Limits Madame section”, as well as changing the transition from the boa chase sect ion into the maids room section. -In reworking the “Limits Madame” section, we found a new motivation for Solange, and experimented with new places for her to explore in the space in this mini-mono logue. As soon as we found blocking that made sense for Solange, Claire’s blocking changing in order to respond and react to Solanges new motivations and tactics for the section. What we have now flows much better. -We changed the transition into the maid’s room section, so that it begins a little earlier. This gives Solange and Claire more time to interact with each other in this section, and it works much better. In continuing the scene with the new changes, it was interesting to discover how this change affected another point of the play later on. In giving Claire more time to speak of the “Garret”, it makes her mention of the Garret even more cruel when she is role-playing as the Madame soo n after in the scene. -TIME: 18mins
-Costumes: An actor’s neutral attire. Black. White arpons. The use o f a red boa replaces and “red or white dress”. -I decided that the actors with make the scene c hange in their “actor neutral” state, and then transform into the maids as the lights go up to begin the scene.
Journal Entry: Something that I have been struggling with this piece from day one is the idea of time and setting. When I directed Mozart’s The Impressario last spring, it was the time period that drove the vision for the play, but with this piece, there was nothing that really called out to me in terms of time or setting. My first thought was, well, we will just work
through the piece, and then something will come to me. Well, I find myself only weeks before the end of the project, and I am elbow deep in a script with layers and layers of socio-political images and themes, but no time. No specific space. My final thoughts or conclusion about this issue is, well, then the time and space is now and in the Semel theatre. Inspired by a kind of Brechtian understanding of theatre and the importance of letting the audience know that what they are about to see is not “real”, I decided to minimalize the costumes to simple white aprons, and the t ime and place is here and now. I never really understood what that meant until now, directing this piece. All of the blocking and beat changes made during today’s rehearsal feel great. I have had a wonderful time working with Charlotte and Lisa and their understanding that it is their motivations and objectives that are driving actions, and not my brain moving puppets around the stage. When there were a couple of small moments that weren’t quite flowing right, it was a consensus felt by all of us t hat something needed to change, and we discovered collaboratively to find what those changes needed to be. Awesome. I love this kind of process, and having the privilege to work with actors who truly understand what that means. I had a dream last night that for as an impulse exercise, I have each o f the girls plastic forks, and as they go through the text, they would pull out their forks to literally jab the other in parallel to the text that is achieving the same effect in a non physical way. I don’t know why, but this image of the poking fork has really stuck with me in the p iece, and perhaps it is something that I could incorporate into a production of the entire p lay, if I ever have the chance. Claire is constantly using the milkman to keep Solange into the ritual, and Solange motivates Claire to go there d ue to her lack of interest in the ritual, or the fact that she does not take the ritually as seriously as Claire in the beginning.
“The Maids” By Jean Genet Directed by Brenda Huggins Spring, 2008
Rehearsal Report#9 DRESS REHEARSAL Called: Claire and Solange Date: April 13th
Time: 3:00 to 5:00pm
Location: Colonial Building
Rehearsal Objectives: -Discuss technical cues such as music and timer ringing. -Run through the piece three times. Rehearsal Notes: -I began the dress rehearsal with a dance, impulse exercise that allowed the actors to explore the music in the beginning of the piece. Lisa was super creeped out by the music, which was perfect, because that is somewhat the desired effect. I found a midi clip that has a very circular melody and thematic quality that is almost childlike, but some how creepy at the same time. I thought this would be a good way to begin the piece. The actors worked through the space taking and giving power to the other with the use of the red boa connecting them. I too k some pictures of this work, and will put it in my director’s book. -We made it through the play three times, the first two I watched and took notes, and the last time, I took pictures. -The piece is consistently running at about 18mins. With a two minuet or so set up, the who piece should be about 20mins long.
Journal Entry: I feel very ready for the tech and performances tomorrow. The costumes look great (in concept, I thought it would work, but it was very exciting to really see a ll of the simple elements jell together during this dress rehearsal.) I wanted to incorporate Nina Simone’s “Ne me quitte pas”, but the song didn’t really set the right mood for the piece if played during the beginning, and or leave the audience with the right feeling to end with the song. So, I decided that the Simone song could play while the actors are setting up the stage, and then transition into the creepy “candyman” music. After the music plays for about 35 seconds or so, and the actors have made their transition into the maids, and are setting up the space for the ritual, the “candyman” music fades into a ticking sound of the timer clock. We worked the ending of the piece a couple of times to find the right moment for the underscoring of the outro music, and discovered that it is Solange’s “Is that what’s killing us Claire” f elt like the right transitional point into the end o f the piece. The more I think about the costuming of the show, the more and more happy and confident I feel in my decision. I feel as though adding the element of role playing in
“these are actors playing the maids playing in their role playing”, we are connect ing in a way to Genet’s desire for the maids to be played by men. I also really like the idea of the actors wearing pants in their “actor’s neutral” because they do n’t need to be wearing skirts in order to show their femininity. There is something so inherently feminine about theses woman playing the roles, no matter what they are wearing, it is apparent that they are woman. This is our last rehearsal, and I am so excited and proud about the work that we have done! This has been a hugely life changing experience for me as a director and as an artist, but I feel as though it is only the beginning. I am so glad that I chose this piece, because it really challenged me to think outside of my comfort zone and experience new planes of theatre arts. Hey, it was wicked fun too. A part of me is worried that people won’t “get it”, but I am confident in all of the decisions I have made in the artistic vision for the piece. Even if all of the subtleties of the piece are missed by the audience, I am sure that the power struggle, playfulness, and sadness of the p iece will touch the audience in someway, and they can at least take that with them.
'Maids x 2,' Contrasting Two Styles of Jean Genet
Photographs by Elizabeth Bick
Left, Leah Loftin and Alejandra Cejudo in the all-female "Maids x 2." Right, Kevin V. Smith and J. J. Brennan star in the male version.
It may be the oddest dinner theater of the season.
Readers’ Opinions Forum: Theater
"The Maids," Jean Genet's 1947 play about two maids who simultaneously love and loathe their mistress, is strange to begin with, but the EgoPo/Cocteau ensemble ramps things up considerably with "The Maids x 2" by staging it twice in the same evening: once with the three characters played by women, and once with them played, as Genet specified, by men. In between comes the world's longest intermission, long enough that dinner is served in the Bouwerie Lane Theater's downstairs cafe while the set is struck and replaced — a necessity
because the versions envisioned by Lane Savadove, the director, are so radically different. It's a lot to ask of the audience: at the first preview performance, the show cracked the three-and-a-half-hour mark, though the running time will no doubt shrink considerably as the set-change crew works out the bugs. But Mr. Savadove is not just being self-indulgent; the juxtaposition of the two versions is starkly illuminating, if you can stand the wait. The female version (Leah Loftin and Alejandra Cejudo as Solange and Claire, the maids; Taylor Wilcox as Madame) is fairly straightforward, if such a word can be applied to Genet's play: the maids are in Madame's lavish bedroom, enacting a bizarre role-playing ritual until Madame comes home. It's only when the men take over (Kevin V. Smith and J. J. Brennan as Solange and Claire; Nick Lopez as Madame) that you realize how comparatively normal the female version was: the whole tale becomes a homoerotic nightmare. The male version is staged in the round (thus the long intermission) and also, eventually, in the raw. The nudity is unnecessarily distracting, because Mr. Savadove has your attention without it. The male maids are in a prison cell, and "Madame" is a guard who interrupts their mutual abuse to do some abusing of his own. How radically different are these versions? In the female one, the flowers that are repeatedly referred to are, in fact, flowers; in the male version, they are dirty underpants. It's as if the female version were how the sick men in the male version might see themselves in their deluded fantasies. The actors in both halves, but especially the male, are fearless, slapping and throwing one another around like stunt doubles; if someone doesn't end up in a cast before the run is over, it will be a small miracle. The production is the first in the new collaboration between EgoPo, out of New Orleans, and the Jean Cocteau Repertory. While it is certainly not for everybody, it makes a clear statement that the Bouwerie Lane may be in for some lively fare.
"The Maids x 2" continues through April 23 at the Bouwerie Lane Theater, 300 Bowery, at Bond Street, East Village; (212) 677-0060. More Articles in Theater »
The Maids By Genet. Directed by Jess Burkle. Loeb Experimental Theater, Cambridge. May 2006.
