DIRECTORS NOTEBOOK NOTES AND EVERYTHING

The Long Christmas Dinner by Thornton Wilder

A: PERSONAL RESPONSE/NOTES.

I truly think that the best absurdist plays are the ones that let the audience see human beings from an "aerial view" in which they can be detached, see how small the people are, and think outside of their own lives ( a rare occurrence.) Hence, the audience may even feel like they are watching/reading a very pathetic or comical scene that is temporarily hilarious until they realize how similarly repetitive, empty, and essentially meaningless their lives are too.

This effect, unique to the theatre of the absurd allows the audience to have a subjective, quiet, and honest reflection about themselves and the human condition.

The Long Christmas Dinner by Thornton Wilder gave me this perspective and as I am a fan of absurdist theatre I selected this play and am eager to develop it.

Theme 1: Inevitable passing of time
Theme 2: Ageing is a performative/social construct
This play somewhat speaks out against stereotypes towards the process of ageing 

This play is generally quite straightforward...so the play itself can be staged in this manner. Ex.) The stage can be set, simplistically, linearly, like in the spirit of "Young to old and One to ninety."

*The stage should stay consistent throughout.

Ideas brought up by Wilder
The stability of human identity over one life time

This is found in the fact that one actor plays one character for "ninety years" and the only way in which their identity truly "changes" on stage is through their acting and costume. Hence, the audience is aware of the actor's consistence and ageing is therefore not perceived as a morphing of identity but becomes a simple process.

Actors will also play characters that are not accurate to their actual age which raises an argument about how the notion of "age" perceived in society is performative and ultimately socially constructed.

The repetition found in life/Human's don't change much in terms of the essential's
Firstly, the whole play is set in one setting and with one family. The play is also focusing only on christmas as the marker for each passing year. There is a sense of repetition here as the setting, characters, and event is not only consistent but also the discussions that go on are constantly about daily sometimes silly 'people' things that don't seem to change much over time.

Further, birth, death, and ageing are so blatantly communicated in this play over a course of ninety years (which not to mention is a huge time span in which a civil war and a world war can happen along with industrial revolutions and various other social ups and downs,) the play is further endearing to the audience who starts to reflect on what time means to them in the reality of a repetitive cyclic life.

Basic notes (not particularly filtered or detailed.)
SET
consistent interior setting
- long table horizontally facing audience
window located in the top left of the stage.  (use film??) show the passing of time through the window
- ex.buildings change but there is always snow tree grows outside.

GENERAL BLOCKING
- vignette style
- for example lighting would dim with the tallest person in the middle of the table two shorter people on both sides and medium sized people on the very end to create depth and make harmony with the window on the top left (directions given from audience perspective of proscenium stage)

LIGHTING
- anything but hard lighting
- robert wilson and robert lepage both used very deep and atmospheric colors that were not realistic and therefore gave the feeling of transcending time.
^ I want to use this kind of lighting. The pictures of existing adaptations of The Long Christmas Dinner use very realistic lighting and vibes which I don't particularly like.

SOUND
- will the music be very loud? When will i use music appropriately since there is so much text?
- what sound effects will I use? To what extent?

* I am really keen on using the concept of a vignette
* shadows were used extensively in wilsons work and also in lepage's
* film inspiration from lepage
* Symbolism through set is important especially when dealing with the two portals representing life and death
^decide on how to present these two 'portals'

The Director’s Notebook

By Hayeon Kim

Based on the works of Thornton Wilder

DB PART I: WHY I SELECTED THE PLAY

The ironically significant relevance the absurd theatre has to real life has always interested me. Hence, it was to no surprise that Thornton Wilder’s quaint and straightforward interpretation of a typically formidable concept: time, in The Long Christmas Dinner inspired my directors notebook.

DB PART II: CONTEXT

The “context” of any play consists of three interrelated categories. The first is literal, as in not only what is happening to the characters in the play but also the category in which it falls in. (ex. Absurd Theatre.) The second is the world of the author or the cultural and historical environment in which he/she wrote the piece. And lastly, is the world of the audience, also known as the time period and situation of those reading the text. Therefore researching a play text in all these ways is essential before bringing it to life. Wilder wrote this short one act play in 1931 when America was facing the Great Depression. However, as most of the upper class did not suffer significantly from the economic downfall, Wilder successfully continued to write after attending the most prestigious institutions in the country such as the University of Yale, Oberlin College, and later even taught at the University of Chicago. 

The Long Christmas Dinner therefore does not reflect the historical context in which it was written in as much as it shows Wilder’s personal musings on the inevitable passing of time and the strangeness of life itself. Although not considered absurdist to the extent to which play’s like Beckett’s Waiting for Godot are, The Long Christmas Dinner nevertheless falls into an absurdist category because of the way in which it allows the audience an objective perception on life and thus ponder their existence.

The following are characteristics specific to the Absurd Theatre.

1.     Life is essentially meaningless, hence miserable.

2.     There is no hope because of the inevitable futility of man’s efforts

3.     Reality is unbearable unless relieved by dreams and illusions

4.     Man is fascinated by death which permanently replaces dreams and illusions

5.     There is no action or plot. Very little happens because nothing meaningful can happen.

6.     The final situation is absurd or comic.

7.     Absurd drama is not purposeful and specific, as it solves no problem.

 The theatre of the absurd originated from morally disorientated artists of postwar Europe, when questions like, is there even a God? What is the meaning of life? Began to manifest the minds of many and eventually led a group of people called the “absurdist’s” to gather in France and surreally express cynical perspectives on life.

Yet, it is important to note that fundamental concepts revolving absurdism have been around long before its theatrical movement during the 1950’s and that absurdism is not synonymous to existentialism, which is a primary branch of philosophy that deals with very similar concepts. Absurdism is, instead,  an idea that is found within various existential works and is a perspective that one can have without necessarily being existential. This is because existentialism includes the belief that although there is no meaning in life an individual can create his or her own purpose by making choices. Hence, existentialism is a thought process that may initially seem cynical but ultimately heralds the power of the individual existence, freedom and choice, whereas the idea of absurdism focuses specifically on the notion of a cruel contrast in which there is no solution.

 French philosopher, Albert Camus in his book, “The myth of Sisyphus”, clarifies this contrast by saying that “The absurd is born out of the confrontation between the human need and the unreasonable silence of the world.” In his work, Camus characterizes the world as a cruel and unresponsive entity in which humans are doomed to ignorantly live in. Camus thus describes the inherent difference between the desperate and vain human search for meaning from the universe and the empty response.

Prior to Camus, Soren Kierkegaard, a Danish philosopher, also explored topics of existentialism as early as the 19^th century. The Absurd Theatre can therefore also be seen as an attempt to restore the importance of myths and cosmic wonders. It was a method to make man feel small once again and realize not only the emptiness but also more importantly the strangeness of existence.

  

However, the most important factor is that while existentialism states that there is a solution to meaningless in life which is the individual’s choices, absurdism suggests the contrary: the human search for meaning in life and the lack of it can not be counteracted but simply accepted and enjoyed by embracing everything life has to offer. 

In fact, it is the last part, the ironic and sadly optimistic part of absurdism that chiefly motivates me to direct this play. I want to deliver to the audience the message that because our lives are so short, repetitive, and seemingly meaningless we can and should do whatever we want and feel is right. 

Ultimately, it is not the meaninglessness that is the focus but the meaningfulness that comes out from the meaninglessness that truly matters.

Works Cited 

 Wilder, Thornton. The Long Christmas Dinner: & Other Plays in One Act. New York: Harper & Row, 1963. Print.

http://www.twildersociety.org/works/the-long-christmas-dinner/

references to workshops I've been in (alfie and mark hill) 

http://ageculturehumanities.org/WP/putting-on-her-white-hair-the-life-course-in-wilders-the-long-christmas-dinner-2/

references to plays ive seen this year by the two roberts