Stage Model and Blog Post from Linda Li

Generally, “setting”  in theater literally means the given circumstances and world of the play. Specifically, the setting of this scene in the play the Caucasian Chalk Circle by Bertolt Brecht was in ancient Europe where wars and armies were popular and common. Based on the story from the play Caucasian Chalk Circle, the scene I picked which is the climax of the story, which was when the Judge Azdak fully set Natella the governor’s “on fire” in front of the public in a court. Also, in my vision, there aren’t a lot of furnitures on the stage except for a chair for Azdak in the center and everyone else sitting around him. I want the audience to focus more on the characters that are standing and doing something on the stage more instead of the background. A director’s vision is used to shape the look and feel of a film or a video. The director's vision shapes the look and feel of a film. Basically director’s view and direction are the center of the stage. It is so important that actors, cinematographers, writers, and editors all depend and account on the director and his vision. My director vision of this particular scene in the play the Caucasian Chalk Circle includes arranging my stage in a traditional Proscenium stage; looking at the stage through the eyes of my audiences (basically looking from the front and below the stage that is relatively a little bit higher than the audience); having eight people in that scene on the stage; and the scene is in a rectangular shaped “screen”. The lighting of the scene is “weird” because I want two colors, which are dark red and bright green, in one scene. For example, the bright green light will shine on Natella when she is yelling at Azdak in front of the public and the dark red light on will shine on everyone else on the stage. The purpose of the bright green light shining on Natella and Azdak is to show the extreme absurd, emotional, and savage-like nature of Natella and Azdak’s absurdities and frightening as well. Also the sound that moment on the stage is really “splitting” because Natella would be screaming on the tip of her lung and the rest of the characters on the stage would be silent and so supposed at the instant when Natella starts screaming, because this should be a surprise for the audience, which could actually scared them by implying Natella’s screaming as the main sound effect. This could also highlight Natella’s power and importance on the whole stage. Basically, the scream could be considered as the most important thing in my director’s vision. However, I also want some drum beats when Natella was screaming at Azdak’s face because it could highlight her anger and very emotional nature even more. Facial expression of everyone on the stage matters much to me too. Natella should be the one who appears to be really angry and completely exploded; Azdak should show pain on his face because Natella was so loud that could actually hurt his ears and brain at the same time; everyone else, which were Grusha, Michael, the soldier, and the lawyers, could show surprise and cover their mouth to show how terrify Natella is.