Thursday, April 3, 2014

The 3 Cuckolds - HPT - 1985

I found this rendering I did for our production of the commedia del-arte play THE 3 CUCKOLDS.
Produced in conjucnction with an exhibition of Italian art at the KIMBELL MUSEUM in Fort Worth, Texas in 1985.

We performed in a long narrow and very steeply raked lecture hall just off the museum's main gallery. The space was NOT intended for any kind of live performance, just an occasional slide show or the preliminary rounds of the VAN CLIBURN piano competition.

As an added negative point, we were not allowed to do any kind of permanent installation in the space...every set had to be completely removed after every performance. Luckily, I had some experience with touring shows from my days with THE TROTTER BROTHERS puppet company in Kansas. So I was able to concoct a plan to create a workable stage set which not only projected the action of the play up and into the audience, but could be completely struck and removed from the hall in less than an hour.

The play calls for the set to represent the 3 houses of the 3 main male characters: COVIELLO, PANTALONE & ZANNI. Here, as rendered, appear three"doorways" with the character's noses forming the upper archway of each. Not seen here is the backing curtain, which supported 3 long red fuzzy "tongues" draping down from the "mouths" of each character. A break in the curtain behind each of the center panels allowed the cast to pop in and out of any of the "doorways" at a moment's notice, accentuating the sexual antics the men and their wives in the very slim plot of the play.

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