Rocket Man
Flat Earth Theatre, August 2013
Dir. Lindsey Eagle
Rocket Man, by Stephen Dietz, is a two-act play with a really neat structure. The first act depicts Donny, a divorcé who's filled with regrets for the projects he never started and the marriages he never fixed. His best friends are Buck, an older widower who believes God is sending him life missions, and Louise, a friend-zoned seminary student whose ruminations on the past are keeping her awake at night. His daughter, Tricia, and ex-wife, Rita, also blame him for letting their happy home life fall apart. The colors for the first act were stark, earth-toned, with Donny providing the only pop of color with his dreams of escape. Tricia mirrored his pop of blue, while Rita's pink was a strong foil.
The second act, meanwhile, takes place in a different universe with different rules. Instead of growing older and putting off projects into eternity, people begin life already old, knowing exactly how many years they have to accomplish their goals. This means that Tricia is now the matriarch of the house, Buck is the wide-eyed innocent, Louise has finally made it through seminary, and, while trouble has certainly not disappeared, everyone's problems are decidedly different. The atmosphere was much more lively, full of hope and accomplishment, and brighter and more saturated accordingly. Now, Donny is the landscape architect he dreamed of becoming in Act I, but is washed up and disillusioned with his work, hence his earth tones. The reversal, of all the other characters going from drab to colorful while Donny went from a bright spot to boring, was really fun to work around.
Another important motif was Donny's watch. A major theme of Act I is Donny being unstuck in time, losing days and forgetting important events. Act II Donny is much more grounded, painfully aware of how many days he has left, and keeps closer track of time as a result.
One other fun idea the director and I explored was the concept of what "old" clothing would look like in the second act. Would people be ashamed of their young bodies, just as we in "normal time" are ashamed of signs of aging? Would people want to dress more comfortably in their young age, as they near the end of their lives? This exploration is most evident in Tricia's outfit, going from a very stylish teenager to a trim-but-comfortable matriarch. She also inherits Donny's colors, since she takes up his habit of day-dreaming as an astronomer in Act II.
Photos courtesy of Flat Earth Theatre.
Dir. Lindsey Eagle
Rocket Man, by Stephen Dietz, is a two-act play with a really neat structure. The first act depicts Donny, a divorcé who's filled with regrets for the projects he never started and the marriages he never fixed. His best friends are Buck, an older widower who believes God is sending him life missions, and Louise, a friend-zoned seminary student whose ruminations on the past are keeping her awake at night. His daughter, Tricia, and ex-wife, Rita, also blame him for letting their happy home life fall apart. The colors for the first act were stark, earth-toned, with Donny providing the only pop of color with his dreams of escape. Tricia mirrored his pop of blue, while Rita's pink was a strong foil.
The second act, meanwhile, takes place in a different universe with different rules. Instead of growing older and putting off projects into eternity, people begin life already old, knowing exactly how many years they have to accomplish their goals. This means that Tricia is now the matriarch of the house, Buck is the wide-eyed innocent, Louise has finally made it through seminary, and, while trouble has certainly not disappeared, everyone's problems are decidedly different. The atmosphere was much more lively, full of hope and accomplishment, and brighter and more saturated accordingly. Now, Donny is the landscape architect he dreamed of becoming in Act I, but is washed up and disillusioned with his work, hence his earth tones. The reversal, of all the other characters going from drab to colorful while Donny went from a bright spot to boring, was really fun to work around.
Another important motif was Donny's watch. A major theme of Act I is Donny being unstuck in time, losing days and forgetting important events. Act II Donny is much more grounded, painfully aware of how many days he has left, and keeps closer track of time as a result.
One other fun idea the director and I explored was the concept of what "old" clothing would look like in the second act. Would people be ashamed of their young bodies, just as we in "normal time" are ashamed of signs of aging? Would people want to dress more comfortably in their young age, as they near the end of their lives? This exploration is most evident in Tricia's outfit, going from a very stylish teenager to a trim-but-comfortable matriarch. She also inherits Donny's colors, since she takes up his habit of day-dreaming as an astronomer in Act II.
Photos courtesy of Flat Earth Theatre.