Pride: Changes along the way

Props: 

Original Idea: Ideally, I had planned to use a big bowl of water as a prop in my scene. The water would help to emphasize narcissism, and help the audience to understand that the actors were falling in love with their own reflection. I’d planned to use a round glass bowl with a diameter of approximately 1 meter filled with water. See the picture below for reference. 

Problem: However, I was not able to find such a bowl and therefore I had to change my plans. I had planned for the actors to interact with the water (dropping it on themselves, flicking it, smearing it on themselves etc.) and therefore I had to look for a prop the could fulfill the above functions. 

Changes/Solutions: My first thought was to use confetti. I would create a “pool” of confetti on the floor down stage, replacing the bowl of water and then the actors could interact with the confetti, just like they would have with the water. But before I went to buy the confetti, I looked at what we already had in the drama apartment. There I found a piece of silver shiny cloth from our previous production- Agamemnon. I tried it moving with it and it worked really well. The texture of the fabric is very shiny and glitters almost like water. Additionally, it’s flows and and falls very nicely. When dropping it from a height, it falls very slowly and almost promiscuous when looking at it in an abstract way. I really liked this aspect of it, and therefore I choose to incorporate it into my scene. 

The picture below shows how the prop looked on stage during the dress rehearsal. It picks up the light beautifully, it's easy to interact with and it matches with the multimedia in the background. 

Entrance:

Original Idea: I had planned for us to enter in a “V” shape, with one person in the front and the rest following behind forming a “V”.

Problem :  After stepping back and viewing the entrance, we realized that this looked a bit dull and unoriginal. 

Changes/Solution :After discussing this problem with my drama group, I decided to change the positions to the ones on the below, with one X representing one person.

 There will be 3 pairs, consisting of one boy and one girl each. The girls will walk in front pridefully, and the boys will hold them, almost as if they are pushing them forward. This part shows how pride can be caused by external factors as the boys are pushing and overpraising the girls, e.g proud parents constantly telling their kids how outstanding they are, or media portraying a person as a super star etc. 

I will enter holding the cloth without a partner. I will stretch my arms out, creating a cross with my body, and then lay the cloth over my arms so that it covers the cross. The cross is meant to symbolize religion. By putting the cloth which is used in a way to show narcissism over the cross, one of the ideas I’m hoping to make the audience aware of is that pride is partly when you put yourself above God, and believe that you are greater than everything else. So to conclude, by changing my entrance, I’ve now added two more connotations to the movements. One, pride is partly caused by external factors as seen when the boys praise and flatter the girls. Two, part of pride is when you put yourself above God, which can be seen when the cloth is placed over the cross. 

The picture below shows what the new entrance looked during the dress rehearsal.