Ruined

   The great thing about Ruined is that there is a posibility for it to be interpreted a couple different ways. Being the director for this mock production of Ruined, I interpret the meaning of the literal soldiers in the original story, could have the possibility have the meaning harsh business men on Wall Street who only see women as objects. The women in the story are prostitutes who just want to make a living on the street of New York City, but are being taken advantage of by the business men working on Wall Street. This "war" that the men are fighting is the "cutthroat" life they have chosen to lead but the mens anger and frustration, the women feel it in their own bodies.

 We can't have a play without an actual location for the play. Also, we want the location to possibly display the overall darkness of the play, to give audience a true feeling of the show in which they are coming to see. We want a traditional space with just the front of the stage as a focal point for the audience and the director wants to have a "rotating set" in which he wants the seperate scene to be on a track and to be able to rotate them as story moves along.

     Since the director is wanting to have a grand production of Ruined, placed in the style New York, what better place to have this production than the historic Hudson Theatre. Because the director was wanting a traditional type theatre, this was the top pick to house he had for his vision of this production. Now this may seem like a bit of white noise, having a new york style play in New York but, the costumes is what really sets Ruined from any of these thoughts.  

 The set design for this production will be two main locations. Showing how the two main locations in which most all the sequences in the story occur. Since the director has New York City to be the back drop of the production, we have to do some hunt and find locations, therefore  we know how we want the set to appear to the audience. Since Ruined is potrayed as being a very dark play, part of the director vision for the play is to the surroundings of the set to be as close to the original production as possible.



      For Mama Nadda's house in which she houses the "ruined" girls, if we are to translate the location into that of New York City, we most definitely be going with an alley way, with a door and one light to that there this the entrance to whorehouse. The director chose this location because a house that involves this type of ladies, probably wouldn't want to be on the main street. They would want to be hidden to therefore show the fact that they are ashamed of this tragic thing that has been done to them by the men of this "cutthroat business." So both the director and the set director both agreed that this alleyway would be a good, sort of the beaten path scene for the house.



     The director and the set designer also had another idea for a set design. The director that a bar would be good place to show in the production. He thought this possibly a place for Fortune to come looking Salima, the director thinks this a good place for any action to take place, what better place to have it then in a bar. 

      This is a reprensentation of how the costumes for how the "soldiers" will look like, as approved by the director. Now, the men in the production will not scorned faces as to make them look the have been in a fire, but notice how the suit gives the appearance of being burned. That's what was decided on the costume designer and then approved. The director thinks that having this effect to the mens costumes will have a frightening affect on the viewing audience to show just how cruel, dangerous and vicious these men can be. Not just in their business lives, but this will also show their carried anger and frustration which unfortunately becomes how they treat the girls in the play.

      For the girls costumes, the director wanted to be as true the story as possible. The book portrays the ladies as being as conservative as much as they could and they were found, so below are just a couple of options for the ladies in the play.Such as the actor who plays Sophie, we probably choose the yellow sundress, which is included in the pictures below and for Mama, the director would probably put her in the dress on top, just to show her as an example for the girls.

                                   

                         

Sources: Google images