Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Steampunk Tempest Regie Buch

During my first term at Stony Brook University I was tasked with creating a Regie Buch of a show I would like to direct. The first play that came to mind was a sort of Lolita Goth version of Middleton's The Changeling, but then, after much thought about the impracticality of transposing a Jacobean Revenge Tragedy to a Lolita Goth setting and how it would seem ludicrous and funny looking to an audience unfamiliar with that odd assortment of fashion statements, I landed upon a Steampunk version of The Tempest.


A Regie Buch is a director's book chock full of visual and literary notes on a project; it will include things like French scenes, phrased scenes and a spreadsheet breakdown of scenes, special effects, audio effects, lighting notes and other technical considerations.
Here's a sample of a phrased scene - all technical theatrical stuff I might pontificate upon at a later date.








A Regie Buch can be used to show designers where you want to go visually with your production and sets the tone of the play.




It can also include breakdowns of characters. Here are collages of what I thought was going on in Prospero's mind:














Here were my thoughts on some of the rest of the characters: Ariel, Miranda, Caliban, Fernando, Gonzalo and the drunkards.













I also included ideas for set design and costumes. I thought it would be cool to have a ship that broke away as it was being destroyed by the tempest.







And on the inside of the back of the notebook cover...

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