Clybourne Park

Clybourne Park is a very insightful play that reflects the discrimination issues happening in the past and in the present day. The performance should show the importance of the African-American history, as well as the American history. The colors of the stage and the costume should be between black and white in order to make a relatively contrast between the minority and the majority in the society.

Ken and Trisha Margeson Theatre 

The content of Clybourne Park is about prejudice and discrimination. The play involved with extreme social problems and issues, and because of that, it is directly targeted to elder and mature audiences that have highly and critical thinking skills. In order to particularly target to this kind of audiences, I would select the Ken and Trisha Margeson Theatre at the Orlando Shakespeare Theatre as the location of the performance. The theatre is located in the center of Orlando surrounded with colleges, schools, and businesses which gather many of the students and businessmen in the area. The theatre is fairly large that provides 324 seats for small amount of audiences to view the show quietly. The set up of the theatre also provides a pentagon shape stage that gives just enough space for the all settings and lighting.

The setting of the play should be a house with accessible view to each room; therefore the audience can see what each character is doing at any time. The house should be two-story high with a stair that can also view by the audience from every side of the theatre. There should only be one door for enter and exit purposes. The house, in the first act, should provide a setting that similar to the house in Chicago in 1959. The decoration in the house should reflect the family is wealth, middle class people. As well as in the second act, the house should also provide an idea that indicates the family is rich. The house doesn’t have to be changed too much since both acts are happening in the same house. However, the furniture and the decoration of the house have to be replaced with the style of present day. The house itself does not have to be symmetrical and the line should appear in curve which, in my opinion, represents the mystical of the play. The texture of the setting should be rough and uneven, helps reflecting the theme of discrimination in the play. Black, white, and grey should be the major colors of the setting because it provide a sense of sadness and hopelessness to the audience. All the elements should provide a vision that relates back to the discrimination problems that exist in both acts.

The costume of the play should indicate the wealth and the status of each character. In the first act, Francine and Albert should be wearing simple style and plain color clothing as a reflection of the minority of the society, and other characters should dress nice to show that they are the majority. However, in Act II, everyone should dress nice equally without anyone outstand others. The clothing should also change from the 19^th style to the modern style.

The lighting of the play should create a mood of sadness. It should effectively indicate the time by using a dim and a brighter light. In the first act, the lighting should not be as strong as Act II. However, every time Russ talking in Act I, a bright light should be shined on him reflects that he is irritated and annoyed by the people that around him. And when Francine and Albert talking in Act I, no light or a darker light should shine on them to indicate that they are insignificant in the conversation and usually being ignored. In Act II, all the light should be stronger than what are used in Act I. The light can indicate that the time has changed as well as the story. It can also reflect that view of the discrimination issues in the society have also slightly improved. The technique of using darker light in Act I can also be used in Act II; however, the person should be changed. In the end of Act II, when Kenneth comes down from the stair, the light should only shine on him and Dan, who is reading the letter. The use of lighting in both Acts helps to indicate the importance and the significance of each character, which also helps to tell how the society has changed from time to time.

The sound of the play should be regarding to the topics and the themes, which are discrimination, bias, and prejudice. The background music should reflect the loneliness and the darkness of each character. The music that plays on the radio in the beginning of the first act should also parallel with the one that plays in the end of the second act. In addition, the music should be dark and mysterious in order to show how Kenneth is abandoned by the community.