Broadway Star Joined: 11/4/03
Just out of curiousity, for the people who have been in productions or seen productions of this show, what were the various interpretations of the Snake? What did they do at Papermill?
I'm doing this show right now, and our director has us being extremely dark and blatantly sexual. It's to the point where I'm crouched on the ground basically massaging and stroking one of the other girls' legs. There are 4 girls and 1 guy. We strip Eve onstage from a white pure dress, to a red sexy one. I think our interpretation is very cool, but this is a high school show (and in Alabama, no doubt), and I have no idea what the administrators will say about it.
The part we have a problem with, however, is the transition to the jazzy part of "In Pursuit of Excellence". We're all dark, but then we randomly start tap dancing.
So, yes what are the other interpretations you have witnessed?
Wow that's different.. I'm not one to say if it's right or wrong but definately different.. When we did it our snake was very snake like.. very fluant in it's movements and it consisted of 5 people 3 females and 2 males. They were always "conected" to each other.. It was really cool.. unfortunately our costumer had a fetish with unitards in that show..
Is your director an adult male? If so, I'd say that's a little too far to ask high school girls to go for a musical about the book of Genesis. If it's someone in your peer group who came up with it, like a student director, then cool, go rub some authority figures the wrong way. But, if an adult is directing you to rub another girl's legs in a "dark and sexual" way, then that's a little much.
And, please don't be offended, I know lots of high school students who are incredibly mature. But there's a very clear line when you're in a position of that kind of authority.
I directed the show once, and we did part snake/part vaudeville. It started with the five people in a Pilabolus kind of tree formation, and then they split up, slithered out and became five beings. They were also in serpentine masks, and I had them voiced by people in the chorus, so it was kind of like Kabuki.
As far as the tap thing goes, I think the suddenly breaking into the soft shoe type thing is supposed to be funny, right? That might be the gag...you're all dark and sinister, then all of a sudden, you break into this cheery number.
If I direct it again, I really want to use a tiny snake puppet at the beginning of the song, and gradually it becomes a huge snake that's more like the Chinese dragons you see in parades, manipulated by the dancers.
I do like your changing Eve from a pure white dress to the red one. That's pretty cool. I might steal that next time. :)
Swing Joined: 4/25/05
I saw this at a small college several years ago, and they used hula-hoops and fabric to make a snake that kind of resembled one of those chinese dragons in a parade (like someone said). I love this show--I listen to it all the time.
Broadway Star Joined: 11/4/03
Ohh, I like all these interpretations! You know the first time I heard about the Snake, I invisioned a Chinese dragon.
Well, our director is a woman and she wanted to make it seductive, but never blatantly sexual. Then our tech director, who is a man and directs all of the straight plays, stepped in and that's where it took a sexual turn. I think he's basing the whole thing on a play called The Serpent, though. I don't know exactly what the show is, but I know that it was incredibly dark, and the Snake experience for Eve was a sort-of sexual awakening.
Today we started doing the snake tongues. It's creepy.
Our costumes are incredibly horrendous, though. We have these ugly metallic silver triangle poncho things and some dark pants. It's wierd. We do get to have hats and canes though.
How did you all split the lines up? We have each person kind of overlapping the other. Like one says "If God made all this" and the next says "this, who made God?" and they say "this" at the same time.
Yeah, we did the same type of thing, with overlapping "sss" sounds and stuff, too, so that it sounded like more than one.
And, seductive is good. It should be seductive. I'm just trying to picture myself holding a discussion with the cast about my vision of this song as a sexual awakening for Eve, and feeling all kinds of uncomfortable, for myself and for the students. Even though, you know...he's...kind of right.
I was having this discussion with someone last night: with THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST, Mel Gibson used extreme violence to show what he believed to be a realistic portrayal of those events. But, if I were to use the same rationalization in directing COE at a high school, or a small community theater in the midwest, and say "Adam and Eve must have full frontal nudity, because that's the way it is in the Bible..." I'd probably run into some problems.
It might be really beautiful, and pure and innocent, and gloriously theatrical. But, still not appropriate to the environment where the show is being produced.
By the way, best of luck to you. It's a really wonderful show to be a part of, both times I've done it (once as an actor, once as a director) were lifechanging experiences.
Videos