Production Concept for The Mascot

A dark satire rendered with Durangian absurdity, The Mascot pokes fun at Notre Dame University’s deification of football, and by extension, all such vaunted institutions. Though not specifically within Hickey’s sphere of ridicule, the likes of KU basketball or our beloved Chiefs and Royals are not far removed from his lampooning of the Fighting Irish. We could just as well envision Phog Allen or George Brett as potential echoes of Hickey’s treatment of Knute Rockne. In sum, our audience will be treated to an evening of caustic wit, cartoonish gags, head-spinning ridiculousness, and (like Durang) a requisite dose of human truth.

The story centers on Rockne’s namesake, Knute, whose quest to outmaneuver his manipulative father⎯the hard-nosed Darby⎯results in being cast as ND’s venerable mascot, The Leprechaun. Knute’s half-hearted pursuit of becoming “the mascot” facilitates the play’s crazed antics, comic hijinks, and Aristophanic silliness. From the foibles of Darby and Dooley to Dia’s cunning and Astrid’s wiles, we will conjure an irreverent brand of comedy in the key of a Warner Brothers cartoon. Dooley’s continual comeuppance might remind us of Wiley E. Coyote, just as Darby’s empty bravado does Foghorn Leghorn; Chaplain Reamus could pass as a crosspollination of Porky Pig and Daffy Duck, with the former echoed by Reamus’s bumbling charm and the latter his propensity for injury. The alluringly devious Dia has more than a hint of Bugs Bunny, and there is a lovable—if often feigned⎯innocence in Astrid that channels Tweety Bird. Indeed, the Warner Brothers cartoon serves as the basis for The Mascot’s soundscape and scenography, a comic world in which anything is possible, such as Dooley falling from atop the ND Dome and rebounding off Reamus, who for the sake of comic absurdity, consistently and conveniently arrives in the wrong place at the “right” time. Thus, the sounds of our world will be punctuated by a combination of live and recorded music, with the former provided by a foley artist, who will deploy everything from a slide whistle to a crank to punctuate comic moments and augment the action. Scenic projections will likewise support the storytelling and be a crucial part of executing the script’s numerous “special effects.”

The production’s rhythms will be as upbeat and bouncy as its visual elements cartoonish and off-kilter. We will use malleable set pieces that help suspend disbelief while serving as a sofa and dorm bed in one scene to a ledge atop the Dome in another. The projected images will supplement these set pieces to create each of the world’s locations, the configuration of which will be the responsibility of our 3-person ensemble of cheerleaders, all of whom will exist as characters in the play’s zany world. As such, they will partake in choreographed numbers that flesh out and complement Hickey’s satirical jest at ND football.

All the elements of design will serve as a canvas of sorts to support the most critical element of the production: the performances. Indeed, The Mascot is an actor-driven piece that—like all worthy theatre-—is designed to engage the audience’s imagination. It is therefore our goal to create a world that captures the play’s satirical spirit, as we take our audience on a journey into the theatrical imagination in which amusement and delight are its leitmotifs.

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Press Release & Reviews

Concept Statement for The Legend of Georgia McBride

Mathew Lopez’s The Legend of Georgia McBride is a raucous comedy replete with spectacle, spritz, sass, and an appropriate dose of sentiment. Centering on the personal development of a handsome protagonist, Casey, whose greatest talent initially appears to be impersonating Elvis, Lopez’s “fabulously” feel-good story is written in the key of diversity and inclusion. We trace Casey’s journey from erstwhile impersonator of the King, to inadvertently becoming a successful drag queen, whose persona, the titular Georgia McBride, changes his professional and personal lives. With respect to the latter, Casey is married to Jo, a no-nonsense African American woman whose dutiful maturity counterpoises her husband’s boyishness and lack of responsibility. From paying the rent to frivolously responding to his newfound role as an expecting father, Casey appears on the fast track to failure in his low-level performance career as well as his marriage.

It isn’t until Casey transitions into Georgia McBride that hope prevails and his identity as a caring, sensitive, loving, and responsible friend, colleague, husband, and future father emerges. Our charming—if flawed¾hero matures in real time before us, as we are treated to a dramatic world filled with love, acceptance, shade, and a whole lot of fun! Assisted by the drag legend herself, Miss Tracy Mills, Casey transforms into Georgia, thereby facilitating Lopez’s parable of acceptance. It is of course intentional that Jo is African American, Tracy and Rexy gay, and Casey a straight white dude with an identity complex. Each of these characters—as well as the supporting cast (Jason, Rexy, and Eddie)¾all undergo significant change in their perceptions and acceptance of others: Jo overcomes her initial resistance to Georgia McBride; Eddie and Rexy learn to appreciate those who don’t share their sexual orientation, and most significantly, Casey/Georgia evolves into a responsible husband and future father. 

These transformations constitute the leitmotiv of Lopez’s play and form the basis for our production. Transformation will not only apply to a dramaturgical interpretation of the text, but likewise guide our design and directorial concepts. Just as Casey and the other characters all demonstrably change, our production will transform from the performance space at Eddie’s cabaret to the dressing room and other locales with fluidity and sparkle. Casey will transform before the audience as he assumes Georgia’s costume and persona, before convincing us through his brilliant lip-syncing of Piaf and others that he is a woman. A drag queen in the richest sense, he possesses Georgia as if she were a part of himself, an alter ego, one for whom he has an unmistakable connection, which is of course the underlying message to Lopez’s heartwarming spectacle. 

To facilitate these transformations and transitions, I would like to use the revolve as well as extend the forestage into the audience, with a rake not unlike what we used recently for When the Rain Stops Falling. In doing so, we want to clearly distinguish between the cabaret’s performance space, backstage, the dressing rooms, and the two domestic locales: Jo/Casey’s apartment and the threshold of Bobby’s (Tracy Mills) front door. Lights will be crucial in capturing the lively, fluid, spectacular, fantastic, Vegas-styled motifs constituting the “gay” world of Eddies, which of course will juxtapose the humble confines of the two domestic locations. Costumes will likewise reflect the performative and pedestrian sectors of play’s two environments (the performative and the domestic). By clearly establishing these distinct worlds, we can better bring them together through the transformative processes that give The Legend of Georgia McBride its delicious appeal.

Types of Drag to Consider for Costumes:

1. Club
2. Camp
3. Pageant

The Pitch Review

Reviews

Set in three distinct New York City apartments around the turn of the 21^st century, Guirgis has created an urban world focusing on members of the working poor whose lives collide at the intersection of love and hate.  Yet in many respects he has given us a comedy.  Yes, Guirgis’ nuanced characterizations, street-savvy vernacular, and high-octane action jaggedly shift between humor and violence, vulgarity and hilarity in a New York second.  Collectively, his ensemble of five form a chamber piece of sorts steeped in swift and bitingly eloquent dialogue, giving rise to a situation comedy that is as poignant as it is funny.  At the heart of their plight is the anxious need to cope, survive, and ultimately, find love and meaning in their desperate lives: the addictive Jackie; the self-sabotaging Veronica; the wolfish Ralf D; the affection-starved Victoria; and the righteously avuncular Cousin Julio; all empathic portraits of imperfection in the context of an urban battlefield, where one’s words are as dangerous as the drugs and weapons that pervade their quotidian existence.