Directors Statement

What happens when the kind of violence on the TV in your living room actually happens in your living room: A tale of the venue size and experiment.

This comic satire on the absurdity of killing and gun violence was selected as a student designed production for our Black Box Theatre. I kept asking myself, how are we going to fit all this violence in this intimate studio space? Gunfire, murder, torture, dismemberment, plus two real cats and their faux corpses, must all happen just a reach away for our audience. Literally. It was like all that violence we see on the screen would suddenly become 3D. The production inspiration was born because of the tiny physical space: this is what happens when the violence on the TV in your living room REALLY happens in your living room.

As a commentary on the power of television to de-sensitize our perception of violence, I asked that we infuse a television set with live feed as a through line. Violent acts, mundane programming as well as location changes appeared on the TV in transitions between scenes. The digital/TV spectacle idea was extended into how we changed locations. We could quickly move from a Belfast warehouse, a starry-night meadow, or a green bucolic landscape with projection on to the bare minimal walls or the drawn curtain that intersected the playing area. I asked that the audience seating line two walls of the studio, in a V-shape, so as to allow for maximum depth; hanging a man by his ankles and mortal gunshots to the head at point blank needed as much distance as we could muster.

Finally, I wanted no blank guns to be fired. I didn’t want to jeopardize the audience’s perception of safety, but I wanted to maintain the sensory, visceral experience of gunfire. Firearm safety and audio needs offered a chance to engage with community experts. At Flushing Pistol and Rifle Club we were extensively trained in handgun etiquette, operation and safety by Mr. Walter Soon. Our partners at Lake Fenton High School Digital Recording program, (whose audio recording resources are far superior to ours), recorded and engineered original sound effects of actual guns being fired by the actors training at the rifle club.

This design and production team was comprised completely of UM-Flint students, as the program notes. It was an honor and a joy to work with students as “peer” collaborators on this project. A few of these students were Lake Fenton Digital Recording alumni, so the chance to partner with their old high school was very exciting.