Initial Research
We started off by sharing the artists that we knew about, which were the most famous ones. Even still I didn’t know some of them. Lynn then gave us a list of artists that we could search to inform ourselves more. That put together with my own research I put together a list:
Leonardo da Vinci – A polymath who is considered to be one of the best painters.
Salvador Dali – One of the most prominent surrealist painters.
Van Gogh – Post-impressionist painter with over 2000 artworks.
Banksy – Anonymous graffiti artist.
Edward Burne-Jones – Paintings of people and stained glass.
Egon Schiele – Expressive portraits and self-portraits.
Rene Magritte – Surrealistic witty and thought provoking images.
Auguste Rodin – Sculpted complex and detailed human figures.
Maggi Hambling – Contemporary painter and sculptor.
Edward Hopper – Painted scenery and locations in oil and watercolour.
Degas – Painted and sculpted a lot of ballet dancers.
Aubrey Beardsley – Illustrated theatre programmes & posters.
Arthur Rackham – Some lovely illustrations of Midsummer Nights Dream and Alice in Wonderland
Quentin Blake – Illustrated lots of Roald Dahl
Rob Gonsalves – Paints magic realism (surrealism)
Simon Stalenhag – Modern painter (neo-futurism)
I started coming up with ideas even before researching any artists. My first idea has stuck to me since the start, maybe I have become too attached to this idea or maybe it’s just that good. I won’t know unless I develop on it – is what I thought. That idea was to perform a scene inspired by the painting ‘The Last Supper’. Initially I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with this idea but it sounded fun to do because it could involve multiple people all sitting at one side of a table which can be made into a comedy sketch, especially since you have someone playing as Jesus. This also works amazingly in a proscenium arch.
After some research and discussing with tutors I had come up with many ideas that weren’t as good and three that stuck out a bit more.
The Magic Paintbrush: The Musical. We had done the play, and now we could perform it as a musical. The whole of actors performing this would be really fun, we would have the opportunity to create our songs to add in to the story that we had already created but alter it in ways to suit the musical.
Improvisation from Van Gogh’s Chair painting. We could have all sorts of improvisation games with a chair like: moving hands; the expert; sit, stand, lean and many others. Although it is very hard to make this work because it would mean that the people performing would need to know a lot about artist from every era of paintings so that it could be related to that.
It was very hard to find anything that could be inspired by theatre mostly because I haven’t seen many plays or musicals. I have read some though, so I decided to watch the performance of The Foreigner. I thought it was great and I’d love to do a scene from it, now all I’d need to decide is which scene.
The Last Supper – Original performance
The first idea I ever had has now developed into something more, I think. I did not want to let go of this idea because even though it could not be picked I just thought there was something very interesting that could be done with it. Especially if I were to make a joke out of the fact that they’re all on one side of the table.
I now know exactly what I’d like this idea to be like. I have even planned how we could get a table on with all the plates and cups and stuff. Since there would be 13 people each person could take something while we also use the benches to sit on. Basically, it would be very easy to get all the props in and out with 13 people. We would then all start laughing and talking, cheering, drinking, eating and loud conversations. Jesus would then stand up and start singing this song:
The song could be split into multiple parts for various people to sing to it. We can also even change the rhythm of the song and notes to make it sound even better and not monotone as it is in the video. Or you could just make it sound as monotone as it is, the group would have to decide which one would be the preference.
At the end of the song a waiter would come in and the group of 13 would pay for a bill of 26 because the people on the other side left. This joke could have a great punchline if properly formed and delivered. At the end the script could also go something like:
Waiter – They left and took the chairs, plates and cups with them?
Jesus – Yeah.
Waiter – You’ll have to pay for that because it’s property of the restaurant.
Jesus – Oh, shit, yeah.
Jesus then calls his other mates and tells them that they need to pay up with some funny dialogue and the ending could go in many different ways.
The Foreigner – Inspired by theatre
This was one of my only ideas for a theatre inspired piece and I think it is perfect in terms of opportunities.
I was reminded of this play however by looking at Rob Gonsalves paintings, which if you watch the play and look at the paintings you can clearly see why they reminded me of the play. More specifically it was ‘Water Dancing’ and ‘Night Lights’, which instantly made me think of the KKK and a globe.
There are a lot of moments in the play that would be great to recreate but the scene from 1:33:40 until 1:49:38 is what I consider to be the best one to show. It will be funny and everyone will have a decent role to play. There aren’t many props required for this either, in general it seems like something not too hard to recreate.
Casting suggestion:
Charlie – Karolis Vaitkevicius / William Rice
Betty – Jessica Bellamy / Abbie Cameron-Laker
David – Chris Gray / Ryan Adams
Catherine – Chloe Sheehan / Lauren Dunning
Ellard – Dylan Brown / Eren Kucukkaramuklu
Owen – Ryan Smith / Liam Swain
I must admit that I chose this partially because I would like to play the foreigner but I have also made a second choice for the casting which I don’t think is as good in my opinion but it could work as well. I do think that the chemistry between the suggested casting could work really well.
I also thought about suggesting this scene but it only had two people in it and I think giving opportunity to more people at the same time is better. As well as having to get all the props for this scene would have been a slight bother.
Bibliography
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David Blatty. (2015). Edward Hopper Biography. Available: http://www.biography.com/people/edward-hopper-9343823. Last accessed 10th Mar 2017 .
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Karolis Vaitkevicius 
