Betrayal at House on the Hill

30s

Attempting to play Cat’s Cradle by herself

Did you ever play this game? I used to play it all the time…played it with my little cousins, so…

But it’s harder to play by yourself.

I’m not planning on having children. Never was. The things I want to do, have done…not possible. And that’s okay. It’s great. Besides, the responsibility? Having a little human following in my footsteps? And then they grow up and what happens if they’re little shits? If they’re rude or racist or…who knows what else. I don’t want that responsibility. And besides, I’ve got things to do…

My friend from high school, Caddie, she’s got three kids. Started having them as soon as graduated. She was just…so ready to be a mother. And now she has three little terrors, running around, complicating things…her house is littered with board games. And I’ve never seen a kid play one. They’re always playing games like this. Gestures to Cat’s Cradle. Plays silently for a few moments.

No wonder kids grow up crazy. A cat’s cradle is nothing but a bunch of X’s between somebody’s hands and little kids look and look and look at all those X’s…and…..no damn cat, and no damn cradle.

Linear Park Map

Link to scenes: https://drive.google.com/a/williams.edu/folderview?id=0B4_bx6AvnsJqSWwzVDhSSEpqSkE&usp=sharing

“Petrichor: Part 1”

“Petrichor: Part 2” Spring Break Work

Character Asides

Reunion E-mail

WIP #2 Brainstorm

Performance Outline WIP #2

At a tree in the woods, Margaret is alone and narrates two letters she finds.

 

Finding a letter Caddie has left for me.

 

M:

I’m sorry that I didn’t come today to meet you. I feel like such a coward, but I couldn’t face saying the words to you in person. This spot in the woods was our place. It was safe and happy, but it wasn’t real. It’s not a part of the real world we live in. I’m afraid of what will happen if we are ever found out. What happened between us was sinful. We both have to move on.

Please let’s not talk after this. It will be easier that way.

-C

 

.   .   .

 

 

Delivering a letter to the tree, which now has many letters left unread.

 

C:

This will be the last I write to you. I know you won’t bother coming out to find it.

I saw you in town today with that new man from out of state. You were laughing and flirting with him.

I know you C. You were forcing those smiles. What are you doing? Where did you go?

I found out that there’s something wrong inside me. Something wrong besides the obvious, I mean. I can’t have children. I can’t be with the person I love and I can’t have children. C, I don’t know what’s left for me.

Please come back.

Love Always, M

 

She burns all the letters and leaves.

Scene 1: Mrs. Compson (Maddie), Caddie’s mother, and Caddie (Gabrielle) as a child

Scene 2: A stranger, Daniel (David), meets Caddie (Maddie) in the park

Scene 3: Margaret (Molly), Caddie’s childhood friend, and Caddie (David) discuss Margaret getting her period. Some romantic feelings and hinting that Caddie may be in an abusive relationship.

Scene 4: Quentin (Bailey), Caddie’s brother, berates Caddie (Molly) for having sex. Quentin has romantic feelings for Caddie.

Scene 5: Mara (Sophia) deduces that Caddie (Bailey) is pregnant

Scene 6: Caddie (Sophia) plans to run away with her lover (Carina) but her lover abandons her

Scene 7: Caddie (Carina) abandons her daughter Q (Gabrielle) on the playground

(CADDIE, 14, sitting in a field. A strawberry field. The stage is covered in strawberries and dirt. CADDIE is humming. She is tearing the stems off the strawberries and not wearing shoes. Her feet are dirty. She has a bruise on her arm. She hears something in the distance. MARGARET is running toward her, wearing a white dress.)

MARGARET: I GOT IT I GOT IT I GOT IT I GOT IT I GOT IT

CADDIE: You got it?!?!

MARGARET (sliding down next to CADDIE, out of breath): I got it.

CADDIE: Finally.

MARGARET: Geez.

CADDIE: I’m just saying.

(MARAGARET takes a wig out of her bag. It is a pageboy haircut)

CADDIE: What are you doing?

MARGARET: My mom said that when I got it I could cut my hair.

(She puts her hair in a ponytail and puts on the wig.)

MARGARET: Ahhhhhh. Way better. I’m free.

CADDIE: It looks good.

(They smile at each other.)

CADDIE: Does it hurt?

MARGARET: Not too bad.

CADDIE: Mine hurts. Mine hurts so bad I have to stay in bed.

(MARGARET touches CADDIE’s arm. She accidentally touches the bruise and notices. But CADDIE doesn’t.)

MARGARET (softly): I’ll bring  you strawberries.

CADDIE: Yes let’s! Let’s eat strawberries!

(They stand up and begin to gather the strawberries, using the fronts of their dresses as baskets. They hum while they do this. They sit back down with the strawberries in their laps, look at each other, silently count to three, and spit on the strawberries. Then they each pick one up and rub it on their mouths, like lipstick.)

CADDIE: Oh, Mar-guar-ette!

MARGARET: Oh, Candace!

CADDIE: Yes! Well, yes I can! I can-dance! I Candace!

(They get up quickly, letting all the strawberries fall to the ground, and giggle as they do-si-do.)

CADDIE AND MARGARET: CANDACE CAN DANCE. CANDACE CAN DANCE. WEEEEEEEEEE!

(They twirl until they are hugging and tripping over each other. They fall to the ground. Whose body is whose? They slow down, laying next to each other. MARGARET touches CADDIE’s bruise.)

MARGARET: Men are bad.

(CADDIE recoils.)

CADDIE: Shut up.

MARGARET: I won’t be bad to you.

CADDIE: Shut up!

MARGARET: Caddie! I—

CADDIE (pulling on a cardigan): You don’t know anything. You just got it. You don’t know anything.

(MARGARET is silent.)

CADDIE: You shouldn’t wear white, you know. Not anymore.

(MARGARET is hurt. CADDIE’s anger begins to melt. She picks up a strawberry. She feeds it to MARGARET.)

CADDIE: I’m sorry.

(CADDIE begins to walk away. MARGARET sits in silence, chewing the strawberry. Then she grimaces in pain.)

MARGARET: It’s starting to hurt now…Caddie? CADDIE!

(But CADDIE is gone.)

END SCENE

Keep It:

I’ve been interested in the pieces we’ve made where the main part of the experience for the audience is their interaction with a character, like gabrielle’s albinism or bailey’s box (the ones where WE are the art). I wanna see how far we can take that, in terms of the extent of audience participation and specificity of character. David’s recollection about the folks who would come out and chat with the audience before the start of the show struck me as well- those of us who weren’t in a piece during the museum portion of the showing seemed to fall into a version of that, and I think it’d be interesting to do it intentionally, maybe with a group character or twist.

Leave It:

I’d like to leave behind the use of technology like iPads and whatnot as a means of presenting our work to people, unless that tech is a part of the work itself. Most of the art/media our audience consumes  comes to them in that form, and I think there’s a sort of oversaturation or level of comfort that develops that makes it hard for something viewed on a digital device completely on one’s own terms to have the same impact as a live performance (or a piece of digital work presented in a lively way), especially when the two are right next to each other. It seemed like a solid half of the work we showed last week was just sitting around the room on iPads or computers waiting for people to interact with it, and that prevented it from really reaching them. This isn’t to say I think we shouldn’t make/show videos or audio work, just that we need to find an effective way to present it. The way the Remember Me video and Paige’s genesis piece were presented seemed to allow them to land properly.

Want It:

This might be obvious, but it’d be cool to collaborate on stuff. I have this possibly silly/unfeasible dream that by the end of the class we will show some piece, big or small, that’s the product of a collaboration between all fifteen of us.

 

Keep it:

Blindly leading the audience. It worked really well, and I think we should continue to explore options in blurring the performer/audience. Madeline was talking about only doing the leading for a few people, and I think thats an interesting idea to explore–only having a few people participate in each of the pieces while the rest observe. I really like experimenting with form, and I want to continue that. I also want to keep the concept of failure (but I think we should expand outward and get more than just that–someone was talking about relationship between failure and success and i think that would be cool).

Leave it:

The museum exhibit style showing was a bust and I think it’s gotta go (at least in the form it last took). I do like the idea of working in a space like the directing studio rather than a real theatre because it further distorts audience/performer relationship, but I’d be open to explore other options. I think if we do keep the same space, we should avoid showing videos on ipads–it created a weird space where not everyone was in tune to their surroundings. It just felt off. In general, the more static work i think just doesn’t have a place anymore as objects in an of themselves. That being said, they explore really interesting ideas and it would be good to use them as stepping stones to new pieces or incorporate them into performances.

Want it:

I think there should be one on one performing. When we separated people from the group (like jackson’s closet), it became a much more personal experience. I also want more of a unifying aesthetic and general direction. Because we’re experimenting with form (which i really like), I don’t know whether having a narrative would just complicate things in a bad way. That doesn’t mean we shouldnt have a general path or message or experience that we want the audience to see. I also think it’s time to stop creating work individually and in small teams of students–our work is very disjointed because of individual creations, which was cool in the early stages; but if we want create a more unified piece, it would help to have smaller groups of students. Probably not splitting the class in two–not everyones voice is heard in larger groups. I think perhaps we should look at creating pieces with context in mind–say we decide on a theme, a narrative. The david carter stories are great, but as others were saying in their posts, it didn’t present the way we were hoping so perhaps using those stories as a basis for a performance would be interesting. It would create much more flow if we are thinking as we make it WHERE we want to take the piece next.