Everywhere Signs Fallis about a brother and sister who travel around the country investigatingaccidents. They interview and record people who have experienced accidents thathave changed them somehow, then they pack up and head to the next town. Whenthe play begins, we see Juliet and Jeremy interviewing a down-on-his-luckbartender in a hot, seedy motel room in the Phoenix, Arizona in the middle ofthe summer. It’s hot. It’s very hot. And something isn’t exactly right. . .
And so it begins.
The way we’re describing it in our press materials is: “EverywhereSigns Fall is a thrilling psychologicalrollercoaster ride set in a steamy hotel room in hot, seedy Phoenix, Arizona. Outof the Past meets Donnie Darko; Petrified Forest crossed with Memento. After losing their parents under mysteriouscircumstances, Jeremy and Juliet take to the road, recording and analyzingrandom accidents around the country that have changed the course of people’slives. When they bring a down-on-his-luck bartender back to their hotel roomfor an interview, their investigation takes a dark, deadly turn. This play isfor anyone who has ever experienced loss and wondered about whether fate orfree-will control our destiny.”
Other things you should know about the play:
- They’ve got video equipment. In Jeremy’s words, “We’re really scientific.” Which means that we get to not only have incredible live actors on stage but also beautiful close-ups of their photogenic and expressive faces. We get to do this within the context of the play itself rather than with some large and strange video screen behind the actors that gives nothing more than the impression that someone in the theater thought they had to be multimedia in order to be cool.
- The scenes take place out of order – hence the reference to the film Memento above – and, for some reason, I’ve taken this as an opportunity to do cool things with sound too. (You’ll have to see the play to discover the reason.) We’ve got Ivey award winning sound designer Mike Hallenbeck helping us out; sometimes you just increase one element of a play’s content because you have the chance to work with someone so good.
- Film noir is fun. A hot motel room. A mysterious stranger. A dangerous investigation. A young beautiful girl. Somewhere in the process of writing this play I slipped in to certain film noir tropes. Some people associate film noir, it seems, with dark lighting, brooding actors, and windows whose blinds are always down in order to make that slatted light effect on a person’s face. What I notice now that I’ve been watching and watching different films is that all the dialogue is damned funny and the characters are usually more amused than depressed. They’re active and strong, and they know what they want and how to get. It’s just the damn corrupt world that keeps getting in their goddamned way. O, and they aren’t really angels themselves either. . . I don’t know. Sounds like life to me.
- The play isn’t film noir. It’s noir-ish.
After two evenings of rehearsal everyone is still feelingtheir way just to the place where they can actually see the way in front ofthem and my thoughts aren’t coherent enough to share. I’m still processing. Ican say that John Middleton can go from looking like a Classics Professor at asmall liberal arts college to Humphrey Bogart just by the way he holds hisshoulders. And Tracey Maloney looks nowhere near the age of the birthday she iscelebrating today. . . I have sometimes seriously thought that we all couldmake more money in theater if we could somehow market it as a real Fountain ofYouth. Think about the theater people you may know in this town. Can you reallyaccurately guess their age? Odds are better than average that you’reundercounting by at least ten years. Isn’t this the type of secret everyonewants to know? If only we could bottle it. . .
Tomorrow, I think I’ll have something more specific to say.For now, let me remind you of the reservation hot line to see this modern takeof a film noiry premise live on stage. 651-228-7008
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