Sake with the Haiku Geisha played Off-Broadway at the Perry Street Theatre and was produced by Gotham Stages. The play is about a trio of foreign teachers who attend a party at a Japanese lodge hosted by a mysterious Geisha who speaks
only in Haiku. The story is inspired in part by the playwright's own experiences as a teacher in Japan.
Structurally, Randall David uses classic Noh drama as a basis for the play's dramatic movement. The play follows the classic
five act story structure complete with formalized movements and character introductions. The content of these acts and the
dramatic action within this formal structure lies very much in a contemporary American mode of storytelling.
The blending of these modes action also make possible the cross cultural tensions that weave through the play. English, American
and Canadian come face to face with rural Japanese culture and must find ways of integrating these new experiences into their
already difficult lives.
The scenery was kept quite simple and elegant. While not a reproduction of a Noh stage, it certainly evokes the underlying
aesthetic principles. A patterned wood floor contained within a box of light pink silk. There was a three foot trough that
surrounded the main stage space, allowing for formalized entrances and 'off-stage' action.
Lighting this space was quite an exciting challenge. The silks provided a wonderful surface that billowed softly and took
light in an amazingly dynamic way. The formality of the stage space that David created provided a key insight into the lighting.
Along with being a box, there was a very low header that opened up only eight feet above the stage floor. Thus, the lighting
had to be primarily from the top and from footlights in to fill out the performance space.
The formal rectilinear shape of the stage was very useful in informing the lighting. The patterned stage had several systems
of light that were tightly contained to the box allowing sharp delineation between the formal stage space and the surrounding
trough. The trough too had tightly focused systems of light to again contain the light and shape the stage according to
the aesthetic rules set forth by David's scenery.
The play, while having a very rigid structure, broke through that structure at times as western modes of storytelling forced
themselves onto the stage. Thus I also had systems of light that would break across the boundaries of the formal space set
up by the series of boxes on the stage floor. This became the basis for lighting the fifth act as Sumiko attempts to break
free of the rigidity set forth by her mother.
The set as a whole contained this idea in it as well. The fabrics that created the soft but confining box were released to
flutter to the ground and a particularly dramatic moment in the action. This exposing of the raw theater space caused a change
in the lighting and the style of visual storytelling in the piece. Here we go from more classic 'theatricality' to an environmental
style of lighting. From top light to low side lighting. Rich lush colors and textures to raw clear light. The space that
was so clearly and orderly controlled became literally flooded with light as the space exploded into wholly new mode of dramatic
action.
This thesis/antithesis transition from acts three to four could only be resolved through a synthesis in act five. Here we
reintroduce elements from the first half of the play and use the floodlights in a more controlled atmospheric manner. The
result is a dynamic dialogue between light and space and action culminating in a very powerful final moment for the Haiku
Geisha.
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