The musical Man of La Mancha serves as another example of a production that I consider very successful. With its prison set conjuring images of both Western and Eastern theatre, my flexible staging, and the imaginative creation of scenes by adding a few props or costumes, the show served as an excellent example of collaboration and creativity.
One of the best parts of this was visiting a local flea market—it had once been a cinema multiplex but had been converted into different shops—to look for props.
We (the set designer, the student stage manager, and me) entered one of the “theaters.” Where once there had been rows of seats there were now, well, thousands of objects in what appeared to be no particular order. We were greeted by the owner who said, “Tell me what you’re looking for, and I can help you find it” amidst the piles. My reply: “I’m not sure what I’m looking for yet.” I wanted objects to spark my imagination.
I found a few usable items. Besides the LP version of the Broadway production of Man of La Mancha (“It’s a sign!”), I discovered a couple of cooking pots, including a double boiler. I thought it might be funny during the fight scene if Sancho used the combined pot to strike one assailant on the head and then separate the pots to smash two others on the skull. I guess seeing Jackie Chan movies paid off! While the scene never looked quite like the fight choreography of the Star Trek: TOS episode, “The Trouble with Tribbles” that I was going for, I thought it was appropriately engaging and comic.
Inspiration for a director can come from a variety of sources; it might be a sculpture (we used Giambologna’s “Abduction of a Sabine Woman” for a moment in the so-called “rape” scene, all done with dance) or it might be a used cooking pot. You never know where it might strike!
Klunk!
MUSOFYR 