Allegro

Vision Notes

In the swirling social network that is the 21st century, more and more we stay plugged in at every waking moment to a digital social sphere where bandwagons welcome trending followers by the thousands each minute. Attempting to keep up with the blizzard of texts and tweets of our own microcosm, let alone society and the world at large, can be dizzying. Which is precisely why the cautionary themes of Rodgers’ & Hammerstein’s ALLEGRO resonate with prophetic clarity today, though given the chaotic pace of our lives perhaps “Prestissimo” would be a more appropriate title.

An experiment in form of monumental proportion for its day, ALLEGRO serves as an allegorical exploration of the subtly precarious slope one’s integrity can slip down while climbing the social ladder. Rather than facing a tempting Mephistophelian offer and abandoning his morals in one fell swoop, Joseph Taylor, Jr. innocently navigates his life making small concessions to those he loves and trusts only to find the accumulation of those concessions nearly cost him those who truly love and support him. Thus, Joe’s journey throughout the piece doesn’t lead to a sudden realization that he wants to improve the lives of his community on a personal level, but the realization that he’s been going about it in all the wrong ways. By catering to those who seek to capitalize on Joe’s altruistic nature for their personal benefit, Joe finds himself farther and farther from his own goals to uplift the community at large. Indeed, this road to hell is paved with Joe’s good intentions, the pivotal transformation is sparked when Joe realizes that to thwart this precarious path for the one he intended he must follow his own heart rather than attempt to follow and please that of everyone around him. In the wise words of Shakespeare, “To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.” By following his own heart, Joe will ultimately have a more positive impact on all who he aims to serve.

While time generally does not look favorably on the relevance of pieces that depict life in “days gone by,” I believe the passing decades actually make the allegory more effective sixty-five years after its tumultuous opening. Though a linear series of flashbacks, in the 1940s ALLEGRO was essentially set in present day (i.e. the audience members were watching the life story of someone their own age). Hammerstein took great care to construct a book that functioned as an allegory, a symbolic extended parable where the actions of secondary characters were designed specifically to highlight the progression of changes in the protagonist; however, many who saw the original production misconstrued the text as a watered down attempt at the musical theatre realism so brilliantly captured in “If I Loved You,” for example. Though aspects of the show lend themselves to modernizing (particularly in the second act), by staying true to the period of the early 20th century the distance of time allows our contemporary audience to receive the show as they would a fairy tale, once upon a time. This allows the production to be figuratively painted in more stylized expressionistic strokes that help to highlight the symbolic parallels to our lives in the allegory, rather than asking us to suspend our disbelief to accept the play as our own time and place being reflected from the stage.

To that end, the design of our production will be heavily informed by the paintings of Norman Rockwell. The palette of life in the small town will encompass the rich, warm tones that infuse many of his paintings, “Homecoming Marine” and “Saying Grace” in particular. In addition to the nostalgic connotations associated with Rockwell’s body of work, it is important for the visual vocabulary of our production to always serve as an artistic representation of life rather than a naturalistic recreation of it, in support of this distinction between our allegory and a more traditional theatrical realism. As our story shifts in the second act to the city, the tone will shift into a cooler palette (particularly blues and silvers). Additionally, this urban landscape will be visually informed by the photography of Jef Van den Houte, especially his Urbanscapes Mono collection. Not to abandon the Rockwell influence later in the play, I aim to work with the designers to infuse the world we establish in the first act with the sharp contrast and perspective of Van den Houte’s more modern photography.

I envision staging the show in a circular thrust space with a revolve where the proscenium bisects the circular playing area, providing an upstage traditional stagehouse that allows scenery to be tracked on from the wings or flown in. Given a text that includes a “Greek chorus”-esque ensemble (who engages directly with the audience) as well as a number of glimpses into each character’s private thoughts during large group numbers such as the wedding, the revolve opens up a number of possibilities in the spatial relationships of the characters to each other and to the audience that can aid in the storytelling and in guiding the audience’s focus.

In the first act scenery will be kept to a minimum, with one or two units (e.g. a bed, a lamppost, a doctor’s examining table, etc) serving to signify location. An upstage cyc will be used to support and enhance the atmosphere of the scenes as well as express the shifts in the emotional life of the characters. In the second act, when Joe and Jenny move to the city, the open-air atmosphere of the space and the design will begin to be invaded by more imposing and constrictive architecture. Upstage units representative of an urban skyline will block much of cyc throughout this section. Interior units will track on further downstage comprised mostly of stairs connecting tiny playing spaces on many levels across the set. I envision using ensemble members throughout the piece to subtly represent the life of the community through transitions and in the background of certain scenes. In the first act, these crosses will all take place on the deck level in arcing travel patterns at a leisurely pace (e.g. children carrying balloons, a young couple meandering through town holding hands, an old man strolling with a newspaper) whereas in the second act these travel patterns will be comprised of brisk, direct patterns utilizing the stair units as a physical manifestation of the ambitious and often ferocious social climbing that is prevalent in the city. In the final scene when Joe renounces his position at the large commercial hospital and returns home these units will gradually track off, once again revealing the expanse of the cyc and returning to the warm, vibrant palette of his past.

As ALLEGRO tracks the universal journey of finding one’s place and path in the world it truly speaks to us all, but a target audience core would definitely be the Young Professionals demographic, the prize group for nearly all theatrical marketing firms these days. Whereas the late-career professionals and retirees can look back on their past decisions through the lens of Joe’s experience, the young professionals are in a position to identify with Joe in ways that could potentially have a real impact as they forge their path in a society that is exponentially accelerating every day. One way to help attract this demographic could be to create a series of pre-show cocktail parties geared at young professionals marketed as “Adagio Affairs,” where guests have a chance to relax and unwind before the production rather than schmooze and network. Additionally, the piece could be an interesting outreach opportunity for the theatre to connect with graduating high school seniors who are about to take their first steps out in the real world. A series of student matinees could be arranged specifically for high school seniors with post-show discussions led by career counselors as a forum for students to discuss their ambitions and fears in the context of Joseph Taylor, Jr. and his journey in ALLEGRO.

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