KEROUAC: A REMEMBRANCE - Groundplan

 I never actually drew up a groundplan for KEROUAC, Johnny Simons and I walked out the space Upstairs at the White Elephant and decided what would go where to facilitate the staging. Our aim was to recreate the atmosphere of a 1950's coffee house. The evolving performance piece would be played out in and among the actual audience, as if everyone present, both cast and patrons were a single collective unit. That "Painfully Intimate" Theatre I was so fond of ( the room above the famous Saloon downstairs was not quite 40 feet square!) Above is my recollection of how the space was laid out.

 JOHN MURPHY, who conceived this show played Jack Kerouac, holding court, as it were from the coffee house "stage". A collective group of his Friends and Critics sat at tables around the stage and moved among the audience when their specific narrative came up. The Critics Corner was a platform slightly "above it all" in the back of the house. The MICHAEL BODYCOMB Jazz Ensemble played live from a platform in another corner.

All the words spoken during the show were taken verbatim from published interviews and Kerouac's own writings.

Here DOLORAS HOGGARD, CINDY GRIFFIN and LYSTER CONNELL portray some of the many women in Kerouac's life as they listen to a Critic's words.

The real design elements in the space were a series of banners I painted which were taken directly from photos and images of the time. My next few posts will detail how I came up with these...