ORlando
By Sarah Ruhl,
Adapted from the original by Virginia Woolf
Directed by Linda McInerny
Produced by Eggtooth Productions
Scenic Design by Linda McInerny
Costume Design by Christina Beam
Lighting Design by John Bechtold
Stage Management by Nikki Beck
Production Photos by Kate Hunter
Color was very important in my thinking about Orlando’s journey through the play. I chose to start from a neutral palate where I placed him in a white shirt and breeches that blend in with the world of the chorus, as well as the world of the set. As Orlando evolves through time, we see him emerging into his individuality and away from that neutral environment.
The color journey through the production is a kind of voyage of sunrises and sunsets. My idea for which is that the setting for the different phases of his/her identity never leaves or enters but is always becoming. Orlando spends much of his/her time in liminal space, discovering portals into the next era. So the sun is always there just in different forms.
In the end, we depart from those tones and we finally see this really striking green, the very element Orlando seeks to find words for. The quest throughout his/her lifetime was to be able to describe that oak tree, to find the words for that color green.
When we see her (as woman) in the 20th century, she finally has just the right words, she knows how to articulate the color through her poetry and so she is that green. Even in the beginning of the show, I’ve placed traces of that element in the doublet that he wears when he meets the queen. Though the fabric in that costume is of a neutral tone, it is embroidered with a leaf pattern that reminded me of the oak tree. For though he (as a young man) doesn’t yet have the words to describe those leaves, the color inhabits a part of who he is. It was important to me to imprint the idea even before he/she discovers the words. The poetry of the oak tree is yet and still always with Orlando.