Machinal - Grade: A PDF

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Summary

Preliminary round for final project on Sophie Treadwell's Machinal...

Description

Machinal Sophie Treadwell Episode One: Narrative: This episode is very busy, filled with the white noise of typical office sounds. Yet, no specific sound outweighs another sound. The background noise is monotonous and (almost) obnoxious, but still largely ignorable. The audience should be able to tune out the whole of the white noise to listen to the dialogue but the soundscape should also tie the dialogue to atmosphere of the office. This soundscape provides the audience with the feeling of business, but not haste or rush. The time is start of business hours on a weekday at a typical law firm. Soundscape: Background collection of the switchboard clicking (sounds like a marble sliding into a lock), hum of printers, filing cabinet squeaking, paper shuffling, typing on a typewriter, adding machine clicking and sliding, phone ringing, etc. Episode Two: Narrative: In this episode, there isn’t much action but the young woman feels like her mother isn’t listening to her. The soundscape should provide a bit of white noise in the background to almost overpower the voice of the young woman. The time is late afternoon on a weekday, right before the typical dinner time and is located at the home of the young woman and mother. Soundscape: At the start of the scene, the radio fades in with the sound of indiscernible radio voices. The voices shift toward the sound of singing. Street sounds can be heard through the open window: car engines passing by, street lights turning on, children’s voices, etc. In the home, the audience can also hear the curtains fluttering and the faint hum of the refrigerator. The radio fades in and out during certain portions of the dialogue. Episode Three: Narrative: The mood of this scene starts calm, but grows disconcerting. The young woman is obviously uncomfortable with her husband and he treats her more like a sex toy than a real human being. The time is afternoon to early evening at a luxury hotel. The walls of the hotel room are largely sound proof, but the audience can still hear the playing of a jazz band in the background. Soundscape: The jazz band softly plays a song representing the young woman’s heartbeat. It start calm and slow, but gradually speeds up.

Episode Four: Narrative: The young woman has just given birth to her daughter, she is in shock and exhausted. She is in so much pain she is unable to speak for herself so her heart monitor should represent her emotional state and thought process. Each time the nurse, doctor, or husband expressly ignores her wishes, her heartbeat fluctuates. The time is during the late morning to early afternoon and is set in a maternity hospital. Soundscape: The first sound the audience should hear is the sound of steel construction outside of the hospital. The rapid beating of the heart monitor should soon follow, along with general hospital machine beeping. Outside of the hospital room (off-stage), there is indiscernible mumbling and footstep shuffling....