Platonov, or the Disinherited freely after the play by Chekhov as a live-cinema immersive performance experience adapted and directed by Jay Scheib Table of Contents Table of Contents page 1 Synopsis page 2 - 3 Character Description page 4 Story Design Document page 4 - 6 Brief Dramaturgy page 6 Existing Work / Time Line page 7 Artist Bios page 8 - 9 Brief Essay / Recap page 10 Jay Scheib & Co. http://www.jayscheib.com [email protected] +1-917-612-2137 Jay Scheib & Co. http://www.jayscheib.com [email protected] +1-917-612-2137 Summary / Synopsis “Platonov, or the Disinherited” is Jay Scheib’s remix of the traditions of Shakespeare-in-the-park, the ribald nostalgia of the drive-in-movie, and the unpredictability of live-on-location-broadcasting to create a new live-cinema performance based on Anton Chekhov’s unfinished, first full-length play. The work is currently in progress and will begin as a site- specific motion-portrait of a society on the brink of foreclosure in partnership with the Without Walls Festival, La Jolla Playhouse in Fall 2013, followed by an indoor theatrical performance event at The Kitchen in January 2014 with live (televised) broadcast. At The Kitchen, I intend to experiment with and intervene in a few conceptual models like the MET’s Live HD Broadcasts. In this experiment, Platonov, or the Disinherited premieres indoors at The Kitchen as “Platonov” but also indoors at a movie theater near you as “The Disinherited.” One production thus results in two simultaneous events, each with unique points of view each unfolding in wildly different mediums—re- plete with wildly different demands. This Live Cinema Performance intervenes in the usual discourse about the death of the theater by actively seeking a unique televisuality that challenges, under the bright light of Chek- hov’s inimitable humour, our assumptions about liveness and reality both on stage and on the screen. Platonov, or the Disinherited freely after the play by Chekhov adapted and directed by Jay Scheib, Associate Director Laine Rettmer, Assistant Direc- tor Kasper Sejersen; Stage Design Jay Scheib and Josh Higgason, Sound Design Anouschka Trocker, Video Design Josh Higgason, Live Camera Jay Scheib, Costumes by Alba Clemente; with Performances by Sarita Choudhury, Mikeah Jennings, Rosalie Lowe, Jon Morris, Ayesha Ngaujah, Laine Rettmer, Jay Scheib, Natalie Thomas; Produced by ArKtype Developed in collaboration with La Jolla Playhouse as part of their new environmental theater initiative: Without Walls. / Thomas O. Kreigsmann in collaboration with Jay Scheib & Co., La Jolla Playhouse Without Walls Festival, Massachu- The site above is located on the UCSD Campus. setts Institute of Technology, and The Kitchen in New York. page 2 Jay Scheib & Co. Summary / Synopsis (cont.) http://www.jayscheib.com [email protected] +1-917-612-2137 Platonov, or the Disinherited freely after the play by Chekhov as a live-cinema immersive experience adapted and directed by Jay Scheib Found after Chekhov’s death in a safe deposit box, “Platonov” is an unfinished comic text about an emotionally als enter, leave and return to the ensemble depending on schedules and project makeup, the current configuration bankrupt society of “anti-heroes” who are less hilariously losing their homes. Tailor-made for the age of foreclosure, includes performers and designers such as Sarita Choudhury, Rosalie Lowe, Jon Morris, Mikeah Ernest Jennings, the project will be staged in two unique but equally vibrant environments: 1) an outdoor presentation in a vacant lot Ayesha Ngaujah, Laine Rettmer, Natalie Thomas, Josh Higgason, Amith Chandrashaker, Anouschka Trocker, and converted into a makeshift drive-in movie theater complete with a small house, snack bar, swimming pool, sauna, Alba Clemente. Regular relationships with artistic directors, managers and producers such as Thomas O. Kriegs- and one-room schoolhouse; and 2) an indoor performance for a standard proscenium or black box with limited mann of ArKtype, Chris Ashley of La Jolla Playhouse, Matthew Lyons of The Kitchen, and Didier Fusilier of Maison on-stage seating designed to be performed for a live audience in a theatrical setting while simultaneously 3) be- des Arts, Creteil (Paris), complete a charged constellation of like-minded collaborators. Unique to more traditional ing broadcast as a live-action film to a movie theater near you or to the television in your very own living room. The new play development processes, Jay Scheib and Co. spend weeks improvising with image and text, sound, video action of “Platonov” is filmed and projected live onto a screen that looms above a conceptual hybrid of affordable and scenic design materials. Everything evolves simultaneously from the first days in the studio. Operating from the (cheap) theatrical architecture while one particular point of view from “Platonov” is broadcast live as a film under assumption that the organizing principle of a scene (as a theme or a particular type of rhythm) or the motivating the title “The Disinherited.” This conceptually scalable project is experienced as a live performance, as a live-feed, force for an entire play could reveal itself at any moment, the rehearsals bristle with energy, designers respond in drive-in-movie for an audience in cars, or in bleachers or at the bar, and as a live-broadcast film. real time to the improvisations of performers and vice versa. Importantly, the process stays dynamic through the closing night. They rehearse every day while in production. Working with a revolving group of independent performers, designers and producers from various disciplines in- cluding dance, film, nouveau cirque, experimental and traditional theater this ensemble in its various configurations “Platonov, or the Disinherited” is designed as the alternately comic and lyric evening that Chekhov envisioned—a is known for their daring physicality and rigorous handling of complex and idiosyncratic texts. While new individu- tragic comedy–laughter spat-up from unmistakable humanity. Difficult moments exact terrible tolls such as the hu- miliation of bankruptcy and loss of a home, farm or business that has been in the family for several generations. Chekhov was a doctor, and though his plays feel sometimes like unrelenting chronicles of societies on the threshold of loss, they are also a kind of salve. “Platonov” is envisioned as a salve for out-of-control emotions leading up to and away from loss on a grand scale. The suffering is horrible, but those midsummer-night affairs in the blinding heat could not have seemed more invaluable or exciting. Coaxing this work dramaturgically from the arms of nights we wish would never end to morn- ings hung over sweetly or sick with regret is exactly where we are headed. To face the truth of what happens at the county fair, drive-in, farm auction is all a part of experiencing the tragic with the salve of being fully alive. In summer 2013 the ensemble will convene in New York City to develop a full prototype for the outdoor production. In the Fall 2013, Scheib & Co. will en- ter the final phase of rehearsals and production leading to the outdoor world premiere produced in partnership with La Jolla Playhouse. Then, the ensem- ble will then return to the studio to re imagine a production that holds the rhythm and energy of the outdoor production intact but transfers its force into the frame of an intimate and classical understanding of text and action for a premiere in January 2014 at The Kitchen in New York City. Developed in collaboration with La Jolla Playhouse as part of their new environmental theater intitiative: Without Walls. The site above is Ground plan layout. located on the UCSD Campus — just across from La Jolla Playhouse and next to a public sculpture known as Stonehenge. page 3 Characters Platonov is thirty something years old, like Hamlet or Jesus. At a crossroads. Fed up with working full time as a country school teacher and still unable to afford that extra chord of firewood that would transform the damp cold living quar- ters into something that would at least be warm. Life has passed him by or he was just sleeping it through and he can feel it brutally inside of him like a boat steaming doggedly against the all too powerful currents of want not, want not. Sasha is different. Sasha is content, in part, and able to be happy just taking long walks in the forest or bathing in the many cold clean streams. She has no need for fame and doesn’t fear she’ll pass without having been written about sufficiently or photographed enough. Something of a contradictory personality, Sasha’s brother Nicholas Triletsky is a disillusioned family prac- titioner with an unmatched sarcasm who tends to drown his insecurities on most days first with coffee and then with vodka. Anna Vengerovich is an arrestingly or asymmetrically elegant woman in her late forties. She is the unrea- sonably attractive widow and owner of a soon to be bankrupt estate. Anyway up for an affair, Anna’s sexual frustration shows in her every smile—she’s a super intelligent, soon to be homeless woman who finds her- self painted into a corner by a society whose evolution will thoroughly exclude her. 3D Rendering of proposed scenic design. Sergey laughs like one who will not survive being cuckolded. Like precisely the inferior that will implode like a lesser satellite. He is not much younger than his stepmother, Anna, and secretly loves her madly—though Story Design she treats him like an imbecile and in truth she enforces passively that he remain, sadly, a real imbecile. World — Phase One Jacob is really the only individual here with a job. She is the only one who really knows what it means to Beginning site-specifically as part of La Jolla Playhouse’s Without Walls Video Tools — A partial list work.