Marianne

PRODUCTION BRIEF

 
 

Staged preview performance of scene two of Marianne.

CONCEPT

Marianne is a dance/musical performance anchored in noh - the traditional Japanese lyrical dance form. Written and partially developed as part of day-long performance for a festival in 2020, the production was a casualty of the pandemic.

It shows and tells the story of a young mother’s life of fighting against expectations of motherhood, social oppression, and generational trauma in rural America in the late 1960s.

Production elements reflecting noh will be:

  • A single protagonist dancer performing as Marianne.

  • One or two other dancers will join her for certain scenes.

  • Verse text sung, spoken, and chanted by performers seated to the side of the stage.

  • Musicians playing upstage of the action.

  • Masks worn by the dancers.

Though anchored in noh, we will translate the styles of music, instrumentation, dance, singing, and design into new, contemporary forms.

The story is written in 14 scenes. The form is based on the Christian Stations of the Cross. Each scene reflecting the character’s progression. It is modeled after a warrior play, a type of noh that recounts a famous battle - often one the protagonist has lost.

Music

Marianne will be fully scored. Space and silence will be deployed consciously with vocalization, ambient sounds, practical stage noises, and the sound of dance adding to the soundscape.

There will be a number of discrete songs and recurring/evolving themes. The music will reinforce the dancing. Rhythmically punctuating movement at times, acting as ambient reinforcement other times.

Instrumentation is flexible. Staging will dictate no large instruments and percussion will be primary in some scenes.

Story

Prologue: Inhale. Choral introduction.

Station 1: Little Stone. Marianne recounts crossing a hospital parking lot, learning she is pregnant. Her marriage is not healthy and she does not want the child, but there’s no other way.

Station 2: Heeeeere’s Johnny. Marianne checks into a hotel in a town far away where she secretly heard of a place that offers abortions. She reveals she is pregnant with twins. She tells the story of her struggle to come to this decision and the worry she’ll turn out like her mother and neglect and abandon her children. In the end, she doesn’t go through with the abortion.

Station 3: Ikuzo! The first of a set of three scenes showing her struggle against authority. She is in labor, fighting with the doctors because she needs to give birth standing. She ends defeated and falling unconscious as her children are born.

Station 4: Still. Her family comes to visit her to meet the babies. Her mother doesn’t show and Marianne swears her off for good, inadvertently restarting a cycle of maternal abandonment.

Station 5: Mama Misty. Raising the children isn’t natural for Marianne. She relies on help from a large family dog.

Station 6: Il Ricordo di More. Marianne plants a mulberry, remembering her mother. She is determined to not repeat her mistakes.

Station 7: Tumble. The second of three scenes where she fights authority. Her daughter broke her arm and she fights with the doctor.

Station 8: A Good Woman. Marianne argues with her husband about her sheltering a “damaged” woman who left her husband because of her abuse.

Station 9: Borrowed Name. The third scene of fighting authority. Her husband has left her. She faces eviction and fights the bank to get a loan in her name - something banks would not do at the time.

Station 10: Snowblind. She can’t find a solution to her problems and sends her children to live with a family friend, abandoning them to save the house.

Station 11: Meandering. She dances her descent into despair.

Station 12: The Last Cup of Coffee. She starts an office job, descends deeper into depression.

Station 13: Final Offer. Another fight with the banker and she wins a temporary loan to keep from foreclosure.

Station 14: Kiddy Pools at High Noon. The children are coming back, but she realizes she doesn’t really care. After fighting so hard to save the house, they are another unwanted burden.

Epilogue: Exhale. Chorale exit.