Notes to Director:
[1. The difficulty in communicating the power of this work lies in making the facial features of the Rabbit character visible. This issue might be addressed through video projection, intimate seating, or having the action of the play pause from time to time while "Rabbit" moves to the edge of the stage allowing the audience to perceive Rabbit's emotive features. Once registered, Rabbit then returns to his mark and the drama resumes.
2. Regarding the part of Rabbit, it is best played by an actor no larger than 18 inches in height. The actor should be flexible and nimble with quick reflexes. A background in Mime Corporal is also helpful to the part. Rabbit needs to embody a range of emotional expression including: terror, nervous terror, cautious terror, nocturnal terror, terrified shock, confused or misplaced terror, terrifying rage, wistful terror, curious terror, and lust. Unlike most children's plays that resort to oversized masks and stuffed costumes, it is best for the facial features of the Rabbit character to be visible. The actor should be sans costume, painted in the black and white patches of a traditional Dutch bunny, with a simple cotton tail above the buttocks and some sort of elongated ears attached to the side of the head.
3. Note the use of a video screen placed above the stage. Much like background music in cinema, this screen is used to display words and images that cue the audience to the emotional meaning within the scene.]
Setting: Present day. A town in rural Oregon whose economy depends on the rise and fall of the biomass industry.
Staging: A pellet stove glows orange on stage left. A leather couch with visible teeth marks on the four legs sits facing the television set in the center of the room. There are also claw and teeth marks on the television stand, the wood paneling, and every other prop within two feet of the floor. The electrical cords for the television, lamp, playstation game are all taped two feet above the floor, out of Rabbit's reach. A small kitchen sits stage right.
Characters:
Rabbit
Daughter [Five years old]
Father
[As the scene opens, Daughter is watching a public television show entitled, "Baby Animals." Father is absorbed in preparing his morning coffee. The portable rabbit cage sits center stage, its water bottle empty and wrenched sideways, the feed trough filled with wood chips and rabbit droppings. There is a partly chewed Kleenex box in the cage. Rabbit sits in his cage facing the audience with a look of uncertain, unfocused, terror.]
[1. The difficulty in communicating the power of this work lies in making the facial features of the Rabbit character visible. This issue might be addressed through video projection, intimate seating, or having the action of the play pause from time to time while "Rabbit" moves to the edge of the stage allowing the audience to perceive Rabbit's emotive features. Once registered, Rabbit then returns to his mark and the drama resumes.
2. Regarding the part of Rabbit, it is best played by an actor no larger than 18 inches in height. The actor should be flexible and nimble with quick reflexes. A background in Mime Corporal is also helpful to the part. Rabbit needs to embody a range of emotional expression including: terror, nervous terror, cautious terror, nocturnal terror, terrified shock, confused or misplaced terror, terrifying rage, wistful terror, curious terror, and lust. Unlike most children's plays that resort to oversized masks and stuffed costumes, it is best for the facial features of the Rabbit character to be visible. The actor should be sans costume, painted in the black and white patches of a traditional Dutch bunny, with a simple cotton tail above the buttocks and some sort of elongated ears attached to the side of the head.
3. Note the use of a video screen placed above the stage. Much like background music in cinema, this screen is used to display words and images that cue the audience to the emotional meaning within the scene.]
Setting: Present day. A town in rural Oregon whose economy depends on the rise and fall of the biomass industry.
Staging: A pellet stove glows orange on stage left. A leather couch with visible teeth marks on the four legs sits facing the television set in the center of the room. There are also claw and teeth marks on the television stand, the wood paneling, and every other prop within two feet of the floor. The electrical cords for the television, lamp, playstation game are all taped two feet above the floor, out of Rabbit's reach. A small kitchen sits stage right.
Characters:
Rabbit
Daughter [Five years old]
Father
[As the scene opens, Daughter is watching a public television show entitled, "Baby Animals." Father is absorbed in preparing his morning coffee. The portable rabbit cage sits center stage, its water bottle empty and wrenched sideways, the feed trough filled with wood chips and rabbit droppings. There is a partly chewed Kleenex box in the cage. Rabbit sits in his cage facing the audience with a look of uncertain, unfocused, terror.]
Screen display: "Guantanamo"
Father: [While carefully filling coffee grinder] Shouldn't you let the bunny out? I don't think he's been out of his cage in two days.
[Father grinds the coffee. The electric whir startles Rabbit sending him to scramble for safety within his four by two foot cage. Rabbit kicks up wood chips, black rabbit droppings, and bits of chewed cardboard in search of shelter.]
[The grinder stops.]
Father: [Glancing at Daughter]: Sweetie? Shouldn't you spend time with your rabbit? Rabbits need attention to feel loved.
Screen display: "We all need petting."
[Daughter stands, eyes still directed at television screen, walks over and unlatches cage door. Rabbit, startled by the sound of the latch, frantically attempts to dig through plastic cage floor. Daughter returns to couch. Rabbit eventually stops digging, nervously peeks out of cage. Meanwhile, father opens dishwasher door, removes coffee cup]
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