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Week One, Done

Posted by DCA Theater on December 10, 2008 in July-December 2008 Season, INCUBATOR Series: The Plagiarists

Week One, Done - 11 Characters and 57 scenes

By Gregory Peters, Plagiarist, writer & project facilitator

So the first week was dedicated to discovering what this play is about. We came up with a lot of answers, here are some of them:

Main Characters

•      J.B. HENRY DE SEVIGNY, ship’s surgeon and raft survivor
•      CHARLOTTE PICARD, Medusa passenger and memoirist
•      THÉODORE GÉRICAULT, painter
•      ALEXANDER CORRÉARD, engineer and raft survivor
•      COLONEL JULIEN-DÉSIRÉ SCHMALTZ, merchant and French Governor of Senegal
•      GRIFFON DU BELLAY, Schmaltz’s clerk and raft survivor
•      François Joseph de Gratet, vicomte Dubouchage, Navy Minister,
•      Viscount HUGUES DUROY DE CHAUMAREYS, Frigate-Captain, Captain of the Medusa
•      ÉLIE DECAZES, Minister of Police, later Prime Minister
•      LIEUTENANT JOSEPH PIERRE ANDRÉ REYNAUD, second in command of The Medusa, Commander of the Governor’s barge
•      Richefort, Medusa passenger

Important Events & Scene Ideas

•      Appointment of De Chaumereys as Captain of The Medusa
•      The Medusa departs
•      Schmaltz lowered into the lifeboat while sitting in his armchair
•      Raft abandoned by the other boats
•      Unveiling of the painting
•      Correard/De Sevigney look at the painting for the first time
•      Someone ignorant of the event observes the painting
•      Richefort presents the Captain with the raft idea
•      Richefort gains Captain’s ear/control of him
•      De Sevigny decides to cut rations to the ones he judges too weak aboard the raft
•      Nightfall of the first day on the raft
•      Storm on the raft

•      Morning after the first night and less than half of the people are left on the raft
•      Delusional survivor signs a false account of events
•      Attempt to force Correard to sign the false account
•      Gericault looking at a decaying limb
•      Gericault grave robbing
•      Gericault and his aunt’s last time together
•      Reyneud tells De Chaumerey he’s wrong
•      Man overboard dies early in the voyage
•      The first longboat reaches shore
•      Raft is found by the Argus
•      3 survivors are found still on the Medusa
•      De Sevigny breaks down either due to the play or the panorama
•      Posing for the painting
•      Account is published and Dubouchage condemns it
•      De Chaumereys receives his lax sentence
•      Du Bellay jumps off raft with letter for Schmaltz
•      Charlotte’s father asks her to write her account
•      Moment the ship runs aground
•      Reynaud takes it upon himself to start taking soundings
•      Correard meets Gericault
•      Losing the Echo
•      Attempting to dislodge the ship
•      The plan to abandon the ship
•      Espiaux going back
•      The first act of cannibalism
•      The raft survivors see the Argus sail away
•      The raft survivors see the Argus again
•      Dubouchage confronts De Sevigny about the published account
•      The publication of the account
•      Schmaltz & De Chaumereys find out about the story in Senegal
•      The false account
•      Decazes decision to publish the account
•      De Sevigny realizes the Navy is blackballing him and resigns
•      Griffon & Correard & De Sevigny reconcile
•      King’s reaction to the painting
•      English officers come to the hospital and save the survivors.
•      Correard dressing the dressmaker’s dummy every day after his wife dies
•      Gericault seeing the panorama
•      Survivors awarded the Legion of Honor
•      Charlotte reaches the shore of the Sahara
•      A description of the physical effects of starvation and exposure to sun and salt water
•      De Sevigny and Correard meet for the first time
•      A moment touching on the surreality/horror of cannibalism
•      The sighting of Cap Blanco
•      Correard/De Sevigny/Gericault see the play and react to the humour in it (Just Gericault