Fun Home production response PDF

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Summary

production response to the performance of Fun Home...

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Fun Home Production Response Fun Home is a musical based on the graphic novel Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel. The graphic novel is about Alison Bechdel as she remembers her life and memories while sorting through her father’s old belongings. The novel includes memories of Alison as a child and a college-level adult, when she realized she was a lesbian. The musical and the novel talk about Alison discovering as an adult that both Alison and her father (Bruce) were gay, and her father had affairs with high school boys. Alison thinks about her crushes on other girls and women as she grew up. The musical includes how Alison’s parents, Bruce and Helen, might have felt and both the novel and the musical depict Bruce’s suicide. The graphic novel is a memoir by Alison Bechdel about her childhood and early adulthood memories. The purpose of the novel is mainly for Alison to tell her and her father’s stories and experiences, but in a comedic manner. The musical was written by Lisa Kron about the graphic novel to help spread Alison’s story. Lisa also identifies as a lesbian, so many of the stories in the graphic novel were similar experiences for her. The graphic novel was transformed into a musical rather than a play to keep the light and comedic feel of the novel. Music is often more expressive than simple words, so the musical aspect of Fun Home helped communicate the emotion of the story to the audience. Lyric Theatre’s Artistic Director, Michael Baron, said during the post-show question-andanswer meeting that the Lyric Theatre program tries to produce a variety of diverse and inclusive plays. Fun Home became one of the programs diversity-inclusive plays for this season. He also mentioned that he wanted to be able to include deaf actors into theatre. By producing this play, the Lyric Theatre’s artistic team wanted to expand the acceptance of LGBTQ individuals in

society. The artistic director shared that some of the cast, crew, and artistic production staff members are gay and the topics of this play were not controversial to them. The production received several rave reviews and the performance was exceptional. During the question-and-answer session, one audience member stated that he and his wife come to the theatre, not for the content or messages of the plays, but to be dazzled by the magic of theatre. He said the performance and design choices were remarkable. Some of the things I found interesting and unique to this production were the inclusion of a deaf actress, the set and costume designs, and the talent of the performers. Since the actress portraying Joan was deaf, the production incorporated American Sign Language into the performances. Instead of using an understudy or voice for the actress, the artistic production staff used captions on a screen above the set to interpret the ASL for the actress. Since the set design was based on the pages of the graphic novel, these captions fit well into the stage design and allowed ASL-friendly inclusion into the story. According to the Artistic Director, the actress playing Joan created a video for the choreographer that portrayed an ASLfriendly dance sequence for the song “Raincoat of Love” so the production wouldn’t need ASL interpreters during the song. Except for grown Alison and her personal objects, the scenic and costume designs were in black, white, and blue to represent the pages of the graphic novel. The set pieces and properties used were painted white and blue (Alison Bechdel’s favorite color) to show they were part of a memory. Grown Alison’s personal objects were in color to show that they are part of Alison’s present rather than her past, including her drafting table. Everything was intended to represent how Alison Bechdel would have drawn or remembered them.

While all the actors were excellent performers, the main actress is a remarkable singer and performer. The child actress portraying small Alison was also remarkable. Child actors are often just learning the craft and can sometimes be unreliable as performers, but the actress was incredible. Both grown Alison and small Alison were played by excellent singers with beautiful voices. I loved the performance and would definitely return to see the production again. I enjoyed the creativity of the artistic production staff and the set and costume design, the ASLfriendly interpretations, and especially the content of the play....