Director's Vision
I want to challenge our audience to be active participants in the making and telling of their life stories. (Who has the right to tell your life story?) We are holding an intervention for our audiences, forcing them to laugh, love, and watch others tell their truths, in order to then in turn ask them to tell their truths. We are asking them to become more loving, understanding, and more truthful with themselves and each other. The play will serve as our intervention love letter to the audience in that we will remind them that everyone is flawed and has addictions, but more importantly, they are the only ones who can change the course. And because of that, they are the only ones who can tell their true story.
Tyrone Phillips
Research
I started out my research by watching Intervention and other reality tv shows to better understand where O’Hara got his inspiration. The episodes dated back to the mid-2000s, so I continued to collect information from that era. I interviewed a few people from lower income homes and cross referenced that research with what was said in the script, stereotypes and all. From there, I created two inspiration boards that served as a basis for the rest of my research.
Evocative Images
The image to the left is 'Comfortably Numb' by Mario Sanchez Nevado. I was drawn to this image because it depicts all sorts of addictions. The vices have taken over the head, making them blind to the chaos that goes on behind them. There is a fire that's burning down the city, but the focal point in the swirling mess of pills, ideas, and memories making them unable to even focus on ongoing destruction.
I've taken my color palette from an American fire fighter uniform. This is to represent the siblings attempt to go into the fire of Barbara's addiction and save her. There will be a theme of red, white, and blue with neutral tones to connect back to American roots. Bright colors will be introduced with accessories, like the top layers on fire fighter uniforms.
Design
Design Changes
James T
His costume that was put on stage stayed like the original design. This rendering shows what both actors wear during the first act with the man on the left. The man on the right shows a slight change in color for White James T. I wanted to brighten up his outfit and steer away from the light wash jeans.
Lillie Anne
Initially, both Lillie Annes was to have coordinated outfits with the same color and silhouette. Black Lillie Anne was to wear denim Bermuda shorts, a red patterned top, and a white denim jacket while white Lillie Anne wore white Bermuda shorts, a red patterned top, and a white denim jacket. I wanted their outfits to reference each other without being exactly the same. This all changed when the second batch of designs came thru. For the first act, they wore plaid with denim shorts, and then White Lillie Anne wore the same shorts with a blue and gray striped button-up. This change from the jacket was to reflect the warmer weather in the play.
Adlean
The cheetah print dress stayed in from the first design. In the first set, they were going to wear similar prints with different cut dresses. When redesigned, both Adleans wore a bold cheetah print maxi dress. In the second act, White Adlean wore a gray maxi dress with a red cardigan.
Marie
The choice to simplify and go with Black Marie’s outfit in the redesign was based on the body type of our actors. I felt that the bodysuit would be flattering on both of them. Originally, I was going to White Marie in a pink halter top and denim skirt with aqua cowboy boots and elements of turquoise in her accessories. The whole outfit was toned down with a switch to a pink tank instead of halter and used as White Marie’s outfit in Act II.
Barbara
For Barbara, her outfit stayed the same but they both wore the black tracksuit. IN the original design, Black Barbara was going to wear a white one while White Barbara wore a black one, just add in a little extra humor. During one of our production meetings, the director asked to decide on one and we both agreed on black or dark gray. White Barbara’s outfit Act II remained the same.