Collaborative Questions

1. What is the stimulus you are using? Describe it.

The stimulus that we are using is the song Just a Dream by Carrie Underwood. The song starts with a young woman getting married. Her husband eventually joins the military and leaves her alone at their house. The woman eventually finds out that her husband was killed because a military representative brings her a letter. Most of the song is her singing about how she feels like what she is living is just a dream she wishes would end. She sang about why this had to happen and that this wasn’t how she imagined her life turning out.

2. What are/were some of your initial ideas based on the stimulus?

Our initial ideas were to something historical and somewhat dark. This eventually developed into ideas about maybe doing something about a person leaving for war, and the people around them don’t know what to say and do. This progressed into somehow including a dream in our piece, where the person getting left behind is saying all of the things that they want to say to the person leaving but they don’t know how.

3. What ideas and themes are you exploring in your performance?

There are a few major themes in our performance. We want to touch upon love and how much the sisters care about each other even though they both want different things. Even though they are fighting throughout a lot of the performance we still want it to be clear to the audience that they love each other. Another theme is death and how much the death of Sophia and Ellie’s mother affected them both in different ways. As a result of the mom’s death Ellie needs more support and sophia feels like she needs to go to the military because that’s what her mom would have wanted.

4. What will your plot be? (beginning, middle, end -- scenes, transitions)

In the beginning we have a scene where the two sisters are arguing in the bedroom about Sophia leaving for the military the next day. Sophia eventually leaves and Ellie goes to bed. Ellie has a dream about the next day when Sophia is leaving for the war. The dream eventually progresses to Sophia getting killed in battle. When she is killed Ellie wakes up and Sophia has a scene with her in real life. Sophia leaves for the military that day. We are still somewhat unsure about what is going to happen at the end but that is the next thing that we need to do. 

5. Who are the characters and how will they grow, change, or stay the same?

Sophia is the main character, she is the sister that is leaving for the war. In the beginning she is very set on going to the military and she stays like this throughout the entire performance. Ellie is Sophia’s sister, she is the girl who has the dream.In the beginning she is nervous about Sophia going to the military because she is scared of being on her own, at this point she has thought about Sophia dying but she has suppressed these feelings. In the dream Ellie changes and when she wakes up she really understands what might happen when Sophia leaves because in the dream she dies. By the end Sophia has matured and understands what might happen if sophia leaves.

6. How might you use theater tech to enhance the story?

Theater tech is a very important part of our piece. We plan on using lights and sound to enhance our performance. This is mostly important during the dream. To show that Ellie is dreaming we want to use purple lights and if it is possible maybe some star shaped lighting. We also are going to need to use sound to show what is happening while Caroline is away at the war base. We are planning on using audio to show that a plane is leaving for the war as well as to show her training. This can be shown through using audio of a general giving commands. 

7. Who is the intended audience and what is the desired effect you want your piece to have on the audience? (reaction, meaning)

The audience for this piece can be anyone but the people that would relate to this story most are people that come from military families. Our intended audience also includes people who are in their twenties and are growing up and moving onto the next steps of their lives. We want them to take away the meaning/importance of family, as well as making them think about the themes of death and love.

8. What are the important moments of tension and emotion?

An important moment of tension is during the dream when there is a gunshot and Sophia is killed. At this point Ellie screams and the lights come up lights come up. An emotional moment is during the dream when Ellie says goodbye to sophia for good when she leaves for the war. 

9. Why is this piece important/meaningful to you personally?

This is important to me because I feel like this is the kind of story that most people don’t think about when they think about the military. It is important to recognize how families are affected when someone is going to the military.

10. What influences are you drawing on or engaging with in your work so far? (In class, for example, someone mentioned doing something similar to Livi's solo performance and someone else references viewpoints and perhaps Moment Work)

We used the Moment Work exercises to develop the lighting that we are going to use, as well as some of the plot points. Viewpoints are going to be used during the battle scene with Caroline because it is more abstract and movement based than the rest of our project.