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What are we doing here?

Posted by DCA Theater on March 16, 2010 in January-June 2010 Season, INCUBATOR Series: The New Colony

by Andrew Hobgood, The New Colony Artistic Director and Director of Sordid Little Story

For the month of March, The New Colony will be shifting its operations downtown (we’ll be back Lincoln Square!) to begin work on the final show of our season: That Sordid Little Story. Throughout the month, we’ll be keeping you posted on the happenings of rehearsals, the progress of the show, details about how our process works, and the discoveries we make.

DISCOVER NUMBER ONE: During break, our cast likes to do aerobics to the songs of David Bowie in Jim Henson’s Labyrinth. Though our ensemble is certainly known for its quirkiness - this is one that even I had never anticipated. Though I probably should have.

THE FIRST STEP:

The New Colony uses an organic, collaborative method to create, workshop, stage, design, produce and even market our shows.

However, the first step of any show is the story. When I select our season, the script hasn’t been written. All we have is a short story of what we will be putting on stage. To give you an idea of what the cast receives before our first workshop - here is part of the short story that we are using to build the show. From here, who knows what will change and happen - but this is where it all begins:

PROLOGUE

The show starts with the audience arriving and the band, That Sordid Little Story (SLS), is setting up for a concert. It’s 1963, and SLS is warming up and tuning. At the top of the show, they start playing the opening number, “That Sordid Little Story,” from their self-titled album: That Sordid Little Story.  That Sordid Little Story!  The song is a southern-folk “ditty” (whatever that means) with sort of a patter feel and sort of tells an epic tale that somewhat maps to the show - but not entirely.

As the opening number ends - they transition into the next song “In the Back Room” which tells the tale of a woman in April of 1941 who works at a little bar down in Dallas 21 years earlier. She is homely and socially awkward. One night, when she is closing up, a young man on his way to South America has stopped by and is having some drinks before his trip. He ends up closing down the bar. The woman goes into the back room to start finishing up for the night and unbeknownst to her - he follows her in. When she realizes he is there, she nervously tries to get him to leave, but he forces himself on her. Though she is upset about the way he has assaulted her and in pain from her first sexual experience, she is also overjoyed because this is the first time any man has ever shown her any attention or done anything to make her feel like a woman. After he is done, he leaves her on the floor of the back room and she never sees him again. Soon after, she discovers she is pregnant and moves east, to Atlanta. She does not want him to find out about the baby. We see this played out onstage in silhouette as a sort of “dream ballet,” without necessarily presenting the action literally.

ACT I

Part way through this song, we will see a young man, Billy, listening to it on the radio in his truck. Beside him is a young lady, Abigail, and beside her is her brother, Caleb. Caleb seems surly, not very talkative, and quite protective of his sister; but ‘Abby’ is very friendly and we learn from her conversation with Billy that he heard this band on the radio a while back and is headed to Montgomery, AL, to see them live. We also learn that Abby and her brother were hitchhiking home to La Grange near the GA/AL border when Billy picked them up.

Billy drops Abby and Caleb off just outside La Grange, but his truck breaks down while he’s in town and he has to get it fixed there. It will take the rest of the day and be ready in the morning. While he is wandering the downtown area, wondering where he’s going to stay, he meets the sister while she’s running a few errands. They spend the afternoon together and hit it off quite well. While they are in a store together, SLS comes on the radio again, this time with the prophetic song that started Billy’s journey. He points out the lyric, “You can’t give away what isn’t yours/ When it’s taken from you, you’ll get your reward,” to Abby, and tells her he thinks someone in the band knows about his father, whom he never knew. She invites him to dinner with her and her brother (their parents are dead).