The Citizen-Blyth Festival, 1999-06-23, Page 29BLYTH FESTIVAL SALUTE, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23, 1999. PAGE 9.
Carley wants audience to laugh, think
By Janice Becker
Citizen staff
From a CBC radio series to the
Blyth Festival stage, Dave Carley
brings to life his wonderfully
funny and comic story of the little
person fighting the huge shopping
outlets.
Big Box began as a 52-minute
radio play set in the future,
specifically 2015. And no matter
how much some things may
change in the next 15 years, others
stay remarkably the same.
In Carley’s tale, an older woman
promises her husband on his death
bed, that she will seek revenge
against the big box store which
moved into their community,
destroying small retailers. She sets
out across the country, trying to
bomb each Wal-Mart in North
America.
Soon she is tracked by an array
of characters trying to stop the
bombing as well as an interesting
messenger from God.
In converting the radio show to a
two-hour play, Carley also
included some local touches, such
as naming Listowel the “sex
capital of Ontario.”
However, in 2015, being known
as the sex capital may not be quite
the same as in 2000. Apparently
having become quite a moral lot,
the rubbing of ankles is considered
sexy. How? Well, the men of
Listowel hide in the sewers,
rubbing women’s ankles as they
walk past
drain outlets.
Adjustments
for the stage
were also
made in the
length of
scenes, cast
numbers and
the quantity of
different
sounds heard.
Carley says
the play is
technically
sophisticated
with the use of
lots of
explosions and
music.
“It is a lot of
fun.”
Carley’s
inspiration for
the play came
from his own
concern about
the future of
downtowns in
smaller
Community
concerns
Dave Carley wants
people to laugh at the
outrageous comedy of |
Big Box but he also |
hopes they’ll think
small communities.
communities across the country as
the big box phenomena spread.
Having been the playwright-in-
residence in Stratford three years
ago, Carley took tours through the
rural counties in southwestern
Ontario.
At that time, he was impressed
by the small towns. They looked
like healthy places to live (in terms
of economic viability), he says.
Now, he believes some of those
same communities have suffered
from the expansion of big box
stores, a fact which he says is
backed up by considerable
research done by many
Continued on Pg. 10
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Creating cartoon-like setting for
Big Box proses special challenges
By Janice Becker
Citizen staff
It will be big, bright, full of
colour and cartoonish.
The sets created for Big Box, by
Teresa Przybylski, were designed
with fun in mind, suited to the
hilarious comedy of the script by
Dave Carley.
‘The script was the starting point
for me,” says Przybylski. “I get a
sense of what the writer intends
and how I can help make the
transition from paper to three
dimensions on the stage.”
“It is important for me to be in
touch with the director as well. He
has a strong influence on where to
go with the design. It is easy if we
are on the same route.”
When people co-operate,
Przybylski says, everyone is happy
if they agree where the production
is going.
building, she says.
The boxes can be made to look
like houses and shops in the
background or simply disappear.
The need to use lighting as the
scene setter arose from Carley’s
crafting of fast-moving scene
changes. Przybylski helps the
audience envision the changes
through clear clues in strong, bold
colour changes.
From her “cartoony” set derived
from the comic script, Przybylski
carried the theme into the
costumes.
“If the set has a lot of greens and
blues, the costumes may be
orange. The costumes have to play
with the background.”
Przybylski is very excited about
working in Blyth for the first time
and is eager to see how her
experimental concept with lighting
works.
Teresa Przybylski: Light,
special materials help stage
‘fun” show.
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The story of an elderly woman
who has vowed revenge on giant
retailers, Big Box takes comic turns
as she tries to blow up stores, is
pursued by a bumbling detective,
his girlfriend and son as well as
Sam Walton, Wal-Mart patriarch
whom God has allowed to return to
earth to deal with the situation.
“It is crazy commotion, very
peculiar and yet very funny and
charming,” she says.
In trying to develop a set which
could represent six or seven
different locations with very little
change, Przybylski says it was
very important to maintain a sense
of fluidity throughout the
production.
To devise the intended affect,
Przybylski utilized a special
material which allows the audience
to see through it if lighted from
one direction, but not if lighted
from another perspective.
She also relies heavily on
lighting to establish the changed
locations.
The set, consisting of large
boxes made of this material, may
be lighted green from inside to
imply bushes, blue for the sky in
heaven or red for a burning
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