nicely disorients those of us who know how arid these parts actually are). Projections have been eschewed in favour of less literal effects that create images one might encounter in a nightmare or a dream, and yet the look is in keeping with the most sophisticated of television procedurals. Saturated hues play on the cow skeleton and bison skulls from time to time and vivify the glorious ex-beings. Spirits and ghosts come and go via beams of eerie, beautiful light.
Costumes
Costume Designer April Viczko has used graphic novels and stylish television dramas like Damages as her guide: real clothes from actual stores, looks that are ‘on trend’ but not trendy. She has favoured classic lines: nothing that has come violently into fashion or that threatens to go violently out. The look skews oil town – lots of very tall boots, super body-conscious silhouettes on the women, western business casual on the men (i.e., no ties – Noah wears a bolo, the Sage a flowing scarf). The juxtaposition between the recognizable looks and the sometimes extreme nature of the world keeps the comedy ship tight (in our experience, anything too ‘crazy’ or clownish on the actors tips the hand and diminishes the impact of the performances and the text). April has created a wardrobe for our cast that is stylish, elegant, flattering and, in its smoky monochrome, delectably grounds the prime red set pieces and the white of the bones. Even the stage management team are coiffed and look like they just stepped out of a Sin City strip.
Sound
Richard McDowell has created a spare but potent sound score that evokes urban, noir, western and Rocky Mountain wilderness all at once. It exists largely between the scenes, escorting the characters from place to place while also offering the audience a moment of deeper reflection under his cover. He has combined the theme from The Beverly Hillbillies by Earl Scruggs with ‘The Opening Number’ by the Northern Cree Singers and laced it all through with drum and bass. Animals feature prominently and we hear everything from a howling wolf to a barking labradoodle to elk moos. There is an ‘approaching’ grizzly bear. The brief tracks have momentum and infectious rhythms and are usually scary. The dream world is alive in them.
Tone and Style
Blake Brooker describes the performance style as ‘artificial realism’: the situations are artificial, the feeling is real.
Drama: Pilot Episode is a drama. It is also a satire, whose tone is never one of ridicule. It is highly theatrical but borrows style from television. It is meant to be restrained in its delivery. That said, it is highly melodramatic at times. As I was writing the play, I drew on graphic novels and neo-noir as stylistic templates. Noir’s emphasis on psychology offered an attractive intellectual ballast for a story that could run up on the potentially soft shoulder of soulfulness, or dismiss itself through its comedy and occasional absurdism. And while one might describe the play as parodying certain gritty television shows (Damages, anything CSI, The Unit), it never veers into spoof – and certainly never into classic film noir Bogey-isms or forties Manhattan dialects. Drama is not meant to mock television; rather, the play uses television genres in an investigation of TV’s effect on the human soul – and theatre itself is not spared in the inquiry.
Drama: Pilot Episode is a trans-genre piece. That is, it is itself. Performance benefits from a light touch … until, as Mr. Brooker would say, ‘You have to go there.’ All characters, in the end, are fighting for salvation, simple as that. That said, as in the classic films noir, any catharsis should only momentarily pierce the sheen of anxious cool.
Cast of Characters
The Sage: A renegade frontier psychiatrist. Ageless – but perhaps circling sixty.
Fyg: A fifteen-year-old girl. A spirit.
Dr. Penelope Douglas, M.D., Ph.D.: Thirty-five. An ex-forensic psychiatrist who has fled her government post at the Toronto morgue to counsel the living in an oil town.
Columbia: Thirty-five. Penelope’s oldest friend. An Oil Wife.
Noah: Perhaps thirty-three. A young Content Provider in the television industry. Then, a ghost.
Deedee: A Decision Maker in the television industry. Forty, give or take. Never without her small baby.
Lily: Twenty-nine. An Actress in the television industry.
Concierge: Played by the actor playing Fyg.
A Delivery Man: Played by the actor playing Noah.
Petra: An oil wife, played by the actor playing Deedee.
Realtor: Played by the actor playing Lily.
Waiter: Played by the actor playing Noah.
Thai Masseuse: Played by the actor playing Fyg.
Production History
As this book goes to print, Drama: Pilot Episode has played to two preview audiences, but has not yet opened; therefore, this ‘history’ exists in present and future tense. The play opens February 10, 2012.
The world premiere of Drama: Pilot Episode is being presented as part of the Enbridge playRites Festival of New Canadian Plays 2012 produced by Alberta Theatre Projects, with special support from Mr. Hugh McGillivray.
The cast is as follows:
Deedee: Lindsay Burns
Columbia: Mabelle Carvajal
Noah: Christian Goutsis
Lily: Alana Hawley
The Sage: Allan Morgan
Fyg: Amy Sawka
Dr. Penelope Douglas: Daniela Vlaskalic
Direction is by Blake Brooker
Dramaturgy is by Vicki Stroich
Set Design is by Scott Reid
Costumes are by April Viczko
Lighting Design is by David Fraser
Sound Design is by Richard McDowell.
Production Stage Manager: Johanne Deleeuw
Assistant Stage Manager: Patti Neice
University of Calgary Intern: Kara Sturk.
For Alberta Theatre Projects
Artistic Associate Festival: Vicki Stroich
Producer: Dianne Goodman
Artistic Director: Vanessa Porteous
The playwright acknowledges the assistance of the Banff Playwrights Colony, a partnership between the Canada Council for the Arts, The Banff Centre and Alberta Theatre Projects.
Acknowledgements
It is difficult to articulate the debt of gratitude I owe my inspired collaborators, director Blake Brooker and dramaturg Vicki Stroich. They recognized this play before I did, and they offered their beautiful ideas openhandedly. They saw it through with skill and patience, and helped me to be brave. The play would not have come to be without either or both of them.
The process of bringing any new play to stage is taxing. The script of Drama
