Blog Post #11b: Storyboards

Blog Post #11a (Write Up)

Rationale: The prompt we selected was the 1977 prompt which entails a character looking back on their life with bitterness in order to show an overall theme. The feelings of bitterness are easily seen through all the characters and the theme is shaped with them. Through the harsh memories she comes to the realization that the greatest time in her life is when it’s all  over. This theme is presented through their bitter outlook.

We chose the final scene of Act one as one of the scenes because it allows for a transition into the rest of the play, and is a place where you can see A’s general negativity on her life. In this scene A has a stroke, and this sets up for the rest of the play as A has an out of body experience and looks at her life from an outsiders perspective. We wanted to show how she made this transition as well as show a crucial moment from the plot. The second scene we picked because it showed how B also has a bitter perspective on the past,and also show their relationship with their son. He is framing the scene and this helps to bring him into better context. The third scene was chosen because it is the most important scene of the play. It is the final scene and the monologue that A has is very critical relating to the overall meaning of the play. It is in this scene where A becomes the most rational and concludes the play with bringing to the forefront the fact that the greatest moment is the end.

We chose to have dim lighting in many scenes to give them a darker and more negative feel in order to coincide with the bitter feelings of the characters. We also spot light the characters faces on some of the longer monologues to focus on the speeches and allow people to know the importance of what they’re saying. The focus of the play is always on the character’s speaking, not their actions, and we wanted to stay true to that in our rendition.   

• prompt

• 1977. A character’s attempt to recapture the past is important in many plays, novels, and poems. Choose a literary work in which a character views the past with such feelings as reverence, bitterness, or longing. Show with clear evidence from the work how the character’s view of the past is used to develop a theme in the work. You may base your essay on a work by one of the following authors, or you may choose a work of another author of comparable literary excellence.

• thesis
• In Three Tall Women written by Edward Albee, the oldest character, A, looks upon her past with bitterness and regret, through her past selves represented by women B and C. Albee uses a stream of consciousness style of writing and direct dialogue expressing the idea that despite the expectations of your young self, the happiest time is when it’s all over. Albee creates an out of body experience for A so she can have an objective perspective on her past.

3 Scenes

• pg. 349-351 “The things we’re able…” to “I’ll call her doctor.”
• pg. 372-374“No! How did I change?” to “Thank you”
• pg. 382-384 “Is it like this?” to end
• framework
• The son will frame the play and will give his perspective on his mother’s life. It will start with the son in a empty hospital room, or empty bedroom. “A” (his mother) will have just died and he is telling the nurse, maid, butler, etc about his mothers life.

Synopsis Sheet

A General Synopsis

Three Tall Women  by Edward Albee, tells the story of the life of a women. There are three women in the play, “A” “B” and “C”. “A” is an old women, “B” is a middle aged women, and “C” is young. Each woman represents the same person, just at different stages of her life. In Act I, A, B , and C are all separate entities who represent different people. A is an old, rich lady who own the house. She hired B to take care of her. C is there because she is from the law firm that handles all of A’s personal affairs. During this Act I, A tells the stories of her life and by the end of the Act has a stroke. Act II starts with a mannequin of A in the bed, and the three actors (A, B, and C) are all next to the bed. It is an out of body experience. During this Act, all three women represent different times in A’s life. C is the 26 year old version of herself, and is still happy and full of life. B is 52 years old and very cynical and angry with how her life is going. A is 91 (or 92) and is very close to death. During this Act they all discuss important moments in their lives. It ends with all three women stating what the happiest time of their life is.

Playwright Background Information

Edward Albee:

• Born in 1928 in Virginia
• Openly gay at 12 and a half
• Adopted parents owned theaters where he grew up
• dominant and oppressive mother, did not like the fact that her son was gay
• At 20, he left his family and moved to Greenwich Village. He never saw his father again, and wouldn’t see his mother for 17 years.
• Helped reinvent the post war american theater
• Wrote plays from 1958 to 2009 (32 plays)

Primary characters:

A: She is a very old woman in her 90s. She’s bitter, angry, forceful, and proud

B: B is A's 52 year-old version, to whom she is the hired caretaker. She’s is very cynical, but is patient and kind to A.

C: C is B's 26 year-old version. She is present on behalf of a A's law firm because A has neglected paperwork, payment, and such. She has all of youth's common self-assurance.

The Boy: The son of the three women,. He doesn’t have any lines, but is in many scenes, just standing. there. The three women talk about him, and both A and B know him personally.

Key Plot Moments

• A’s stroke allows for a transition into the second Act and starts the new scenario of the three women all being the same person
• The son walks in during the second half, and then the center of conversation revolves around him. His presence connects all three of the women.
• At the very end of the play, all three characters give their own opinion of what the happiest moments are in their lives. All their views are different because they are all at different stages of their lives.

Key Quotes

“When it’s all done. When we stop. When we can stop” (Albee 384).

“I was talking about...what:coming to the end of it;yes. So. There it is.You asked,after all. That’s the happiest moment” (Albee 384).

“No! How did I change? What happened to me!?” (Albee 372).

“You all want something;there’s nobody doesn’t want something” (Albee 322).

“God, remember the lies?” (Albee 363).

“The things we’re able to do and the things we’re not” (Albee 349).

“Double your pleasure, double your fun? Try this on for size. They lie to you” (Albee 372).

Symbols/Motifs.

C is the innocent. Has no experience in her life yet and is unaccepting of what is to come.

B is the caretaker. She takes care of “A” and helps her as she reaches the end of her life.

A is the mentor by the end of the play. She has experienced this life and can share her knowledge of it with the younger ones who are yet to experience it.

The son is a symbol not only of their disappointment, but of the author himself, Edward Albee.

The three women represent the stages of life that all women go through

Themes

Feminism, discussing the differences between why men cheat and why women cheat.

As she gets older she has a greater acceptance for death, and for the cruelties of  life.

Everyone changes throughout their life, it’s inevitable.

Stylistic Devices

• short and blunt diction
• long monologues
• Flashback
• rhetorical questions
• short sentences
• vulgar diction

Script

Title: Three Tall Women

Playwright: Edward Albee

Cast: A-Allie Specht

B-Anna Wirth

C-Endya Brandon

Boy-Jack Specht

Introduction: I am my mother’s only son, and unfortunately I have seen more than I care too have. She was always waiting for a happier time, for happier moments, but all she got were more hard times, until she slowly started to fade out. She got older, meaner, more bitter with every concern of her life. Towards the end of her life she started to have moments where she would look at her life from an outsiders perspective, she went steadily through her past. Her life is not happy, her memories are not happy, as she comes to the end, the last moments, where she has no longer has to go on, that is the best.

Scene 1: “A: (Propped up; eyes opening and closing from time to time, eyes wandering; very stream of consciousness) The things we’re able to do and the things we’re not. what we remember doing and what we’re not sure. What do I remember? I remember being tall. I remember first it making me unhappy, being taller in my class, taller than the boys. I remember, and it comes and goes. I think they’re all robbing me. I know they are, but I can’t prove it. I think I know, and then I can’t remember I know. (Cries a little.) He never comes to see me.

B: (Mildly.) Yes, he does.

A: When he has to; now and then.

B: More than most; he’s a good son.

A: (Tough.) Well, I don’t know about that. (Softer.) He brings me things; he brings me flowers-orchids, freesia, those big violets…?

B: African.

A: Yes. He brings me those, and he brings me chocolates-orange rind in chocolate, that dark chocolate I like; he does that. But he doesn’t love me.

B: Oh, now.

A: He doesn’t! He loves his...he loves his boys, those boys he has. You don’t know! He doesn’t love me and I don’t know if I love him. I can’t remember!

B: He loves you.

A: (Near tears.) I can’t remember; I can’t remember what I can’t remember. (Suddenly alert and self-mocking.) Isn’t that something!

B: (Nicely.) It certainly is.

A: (Rambling again.) There’s so much: holding on; fighting for everything; he wouldn’t do it; I had to do everything; tell him how handsome he was, clean up his blood. Everything come on me: Sis being that way, hiding her bottles in her night things where she thought I wouldn’t find them when she came to stay with me for a little; falling...falling down the way she did. Mother coming to stay, to live with us; he said she could; where else could she go? Did we like each other even? At the end? Not at the end, not when she hated me. I’m helpless, she...she screamed; I hate you! She stank; her room stank; she stank; I hate you, she screamed at me. I think they all hated me, because I was strong, because I had to be. Sis hate me; Ma hated me; all those others , they hated me; he left home; he ran away. Because I was strong. I was tall and I was strong. Somebody had to be. If I wasn’t then…(Silence; A still, eyes open. Has she shuddered a little before her silence?)

(After a bit B and C look at one another. B rises, goes to the bed, leans over, gazes at A, feels her pulse.)

C: (Looks over after a little.) Is she...oh, my God, is she dead?

B: (After a little.) No. She’s alive. I think she’s had a stroke.

C: Oh, my God!

B: You better call her son. I’ll call the doctor.

(C rises, exits right, looking at A as she exits; B strokes A’s head, exits left.)

(A alone; still; silence.)” (Albee 349-351)

Transition: When I got the call that my mother had had a stroke I felt obligated to go see her once again. Although we are no longer close I still had to go see her. She’s still my mother and despite it all I don’t want to see her dead.  I know she hates me but the feeling is mutual.

Scene 2: “C: No! How did I change?! What happened to me?!

A: (Sighs.) Oh, God.

C: (Determined.) How did I change?!

B: (Sarcasm; to the audience.) She wants to know how she changed. She wants to know how she turned into me. Next she’ll want to know how I turned into her. (Indicates A.) No; I’ll want to know that; maybe I’ll want to know that.

A: Hahh!

B: Maybe. (To C.) You want to know how I changed?

C: (Very alone.) I don’t know Do I?

B: Twenty-six to fifty-two? Double it? Double your pleasure, double your fun? Try this. Try this on for size. They lie to you. You’re growing up and they go out of their way to hedge, to qualify, to...to evade; to avoid-to lie. Never tell it how it is-how it’s going to be-when a half-truth can be go in there. Never give the alternatives to the”pleasing prospects,” the “what you have to look forward to.” God, if they did the streets’d be littered with adolescent corpses! Maybe it’s better they don’t.

A: (Mild ridicule.) They? They?

B: Parents, teachers, all the others. You lie to us. You don’t tell us things change-that Prince Charming has the morals of a sewer rat, that you’re supposed to live with that...and like it, or give the appearance of liking it. Chasing the chambermaid into closets, the kitchen maid into the root cellar, and God knows what goes on at the stag at the club! They probably nail the whores to the billiard tables for easy access. Nobody tells you any of this.

A: (Lay it on.) Poor, poor you.

...

B: (Points to him.) That?!-gets himself thrown out of every school he can find, even one or two we haven’t sent him to, sense he hates you, catch him doing it with your niece-in-law and your nephew-in-law the same week?! Start reading the letters he’s getting from-how do they call it-older friends?-telling him how to outwit you, how to survive living with the fucking crystal ashtray if he doesn’t stop getting letters, doesn’t stop saying anything, doesn’t stop...just...doesn’t...stop? And he sneers, and he says very quietly that he can have me put in jail for opening his mail. Not while while you’re a minor, I tell him; you just wait, I tell him, you just wait; I’ll have you thrown out of this house so quick it’ll make your head spin. You’re going to fire me, he says, quietly, smiling; you going to fire me too? Just like you fired him? He’s good in bed, isn’t he! Of course, you wouldn’t know about bed, he says. He gets up, stops by me, touches my hair. I thought I saw some straw, he says; sorry. And he walks out of the solarium, out of the house, out of our lives. He doesn’t say good-bye to either of us. He says good-bye to Mother, upstairs; he says good-bye to the Pekingese, too, I imagine. He packs one bag, and he leaves. (To him; rage.) Get out of my house!! (Pause; to C.) Does that tell you a little something about change? Does that tell you what you want to know?

C: (Pause; softly.) Yes. Thank you.” (Albee 372-374)       

Transition: My mother’s life was not a happy one. It was filled with regrets and she was bitter and it just got worse as things went on. I saw the progression, that’s why I had to leave. As she got older, she became worse. I don’t know if she’ll ever truly see things how they should be seen.

Scene 3: “C: Is it like this? What about the happy times...the happiest moments? I haven’t had them yet, have I? All done at twenty-six? I can’t imagine that...I get to the point I can begin to think about looking back without feeling silly, though God knows when that will be!-not feeling silly-if ever. Confirmation, for example, that wonderful time: the white dress Mother made, Sis all jealous and excited, jumping up and down and sulking at the same time. But even now, you see, I’m remembering, and what I’m remembering doesn’t have to do with what I felt, but what I remember. They say you can’t remember pain. Well, maybe you can’t remember pleasure, either-in the same way, I mean, in the way you can’t remember pain. Maybe all you can remember is the memory of it...remembering, remembering it. I know my best times-what is it? happiest?-haven’t happened yet. They’re to come. Aren’t they? Please? And...and whatever evil comes, whatever loss and taking away comes, won’t it all be balanced out? Please? I’m not a fool, but there is a lot of happiness along the way. Isn’t there?! And isn’t it always ahead? Aren’t I right? Aren’t I? I mean…all along the way? No? Please?

B: (Comes downstage to where C is not-either right or left, leaving center open free for A later. Shakes her head to C, not unkindly.) Silly, silly girl; silly baby. The happiest time? Now; now...always. This must be the happiest time: half of being adult done, the rest ahead of me. Old enough to be a little wise, past being really dumb…(An aside to C.) No offense.

C: (Looking forward: tight smile.) None taken.

B: Enough shit gone through to have a sense of the shit that’s ahead, but way past sitting and playing in it. This has to be the happiest time-in theory, anyway. Things nibble away, of course; your job is to know that, too. The wood may be rotten under your feet-your nicely spread legs-and you’ll be up to your ass in sawdust and dry rot before you know it, before you know it, before you can say, This is the happiest time. Well, I can live with that, die with that. I mean, these things happen, but what I like most about being where I am-and fifty is a peak, in the sense of a mountain.

C: (An aside.) Fifty-two.

B: Yes, I know, thank you. What I like most about being where I am is that there’s a lot I don’t have to go through anymore, and that doesn’t mean closing down-for me, at any rate. It opens up whole vistas-of decline, of obsolescence, peculiarity, but really interesting! Standing up here right on top of the middle of it has to be the happiest time. I mean, it’s the only time you get a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view-see in all directions. Wow! What a view!

(A moves downstage center, B and C stay where they are.)

A: (Shakes her head; chuckles; to B and C.) You’re both such children. The happiest moment of all? Really? The happiest moment? (To the audience now.) Coming to the end of it, I think, when all the waves cause the greatest woes to subside, leaving breathing space, time to concentrate on the greatest woe of all-that blessed one-the end of it. Going through the whole thing and coming out...not out beyond it, of course, but sort of to...one side. None of the “further shore” nonsense, but to the point where you can think about yourself in the third person without being crazy. I’ve waked up in the morning, and I’ve thought, well, now, she’s waking up, and now she’s going to see what works-the eyes, for example. Can she see? She can? Well, good, I suppose; so much for that. Now she’s going to test all the other stuff-the joints, the inside of the mouth, and now she’s going to have to pee. What’s she going to do-go for the walker? Lurch from chair to chair-pillar to post? Is she going to call for somebody-anybody...the tiniest thought there might be nobody there, that she’s not making a sound, that maybe she’s not alive-so’s anybody’d notice, that is? I can do that. I can think about myself that way I’m living-beside myself, to one side. Is that what they mean by that?-I’m beside myself? I don’t think so. I think they’re talking about another kind of joy. There’s a difference between knowing you’re going to die and knowing you’re going to die. The second is better; it moves away from the theoretical. I’m rambling, aren’t I?

B: (Gently; face forward.) A little.

A: (To B.) Well, we do that at ninety, or whatever I’m supposed to be. I mean, give a girl a break! (To the audience again now.) Sometimes when I wake up and start thinking about myself like that-like I was watching-I really get the feeling that I am dead, but going on at the same time, and I wonder if she can talk and fear and...and then I wonder which has died-me, or the one I think about. It’s a fairly confusing business. I’m rambling. (A gesture to stop B.) Yes; I know! (To the audience.) I was talking about...what: coming to the end of it. yes. So. There it is. You asked after all. That’s the happiest moment. (A looks to C and B, puts her hand out takes theirs.) When it’s all done. When we stop. When we can stop.”(Albee 382-384)  

Conclusion: The end, the end is the only enjoyment, the end, when everything is over, there is nothing else to worry about, nothing else to reflect badly upon, there is nothing more. When there is nothing, when it all stops, that’s the greatest moment.