Directorial Ideas and Inspirations

On this page, you can find research that is developing as we get further along in our process. To find information quickly, click one of the links below:

Man Ray
Marlene Dietrich
Weddings

Man Ray

One of the artists our director, Peter Cirino, is interested in exploring conceptually is Man Ray.

Glass Tears

A surrealist and dadaist of the early 20th century, Man Ray was celebrated in the United States mostly for his contributions to film. He was also a photographer, sculptor, and painter; a true artistic experimenter.

Le Baiser (The Kiss)

For more information about Man Ray, find a biography and selected works at the Museum of Modern Art website: http://www.moma.org/collection/artist.php?artist_id=3716

Or check out the Man Ray Trust website, here: http://www.manraytrust.com/

Below are favorite selections of of Man Ray's works.

Two-Faced Image

Kiki Montparnasse, actress

A "Rayograph." Read more here.

Untitled, 1929

The Veil

Also see this recent Wall Street Journal article from May 2012 about the Man Ray Trust: The Surreal Selling of Man Ray

Jaques/Marlene Dietrich 

In this production of As You Like It, Jaques is played by a lady– the lovely Megan McGrory. One of the film icons Peter directed Megan to study is Marlene Dietrich:

A German-American actress, Dietrich's fame took off after she played a cabaret singer who demolishes a respected school teacher's reputation in the 1930 film Blue Angel, pictured below:

Marlene was most often cast as the seductive femme fatale in her films. Later in life, she performed as a cabaret dancer. Interestingly, Marlene Dietrich's only Oscar nomination came from the film Morocco (1930), in which she dresses as a man and kisses a woman in the most famous scene of the movie:

The scene demonstrates a remarkable showmanship and considerable charm. Marlene was known to dress androgynously prior even to this film, as well as in her cabaret shows afterwards.

Megan is certainly having fun imbuing Jaques with Marlene's flair!

Weddings from Around the World

As You Like It ends with not one, but four weddings!

(I won't bother flagging this as a spoiler– come on, people! Rule of thumb: Shakespearean comedies almost always end in weddings!)

Peter Cirino has asked the dramaturg (me) to locate some interesting rituals and traditions from weddings all over the world to incorporate into the play.

One of my favorites is this candle dance, performed by bridesmaids in Indonesia:

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/WN/popup?id=5311173

Another favorite wedding tradition is the increasingly popular wedding dance, in which the wedding party may either dance down the aisle during the ceremony, or at the reception.

This is a great one– I love the mix of American and Indian tradition here:

I also uncovered some video footage of a UK drag wedding aboard the HMS Belfast in London:

This brought me to a whole new layer of thinking about gender and sexuality– as gay marriages become legal in more and more places, what traditions or rituals will they encompass? How can the queer community reclaim the matrimonial ceremony (an institution dominated by heterosexuals) for its own? This article from the New York Times offers some interesting ideas.

As our ideas about gender and sexuality change, so do our notions of marriage and family. Come and see As You Like It to find out what our four weddings will look like!