New Play Project: COKEhead by Justin Cioppa - - First Pass

COKEhead is a new play by Justin Cioppa that I am designing for my "New Plays" project. In this project we are paired with a first year writing grad, and through the design process help them see what kind of world their play would take place in and how design can help supplement their work. The other goal of this project is for us to have a chance to develop a piece of theatre with no previous standards in place.

I had the chance to design one new play before this, Sweet Water Taste by Gloria Clunie. That experience, in the middle of my undergrad, was a very positive one, opening a lot of doors, design-wise, for me. It is very exciting to work on a brand new play. Knowing that you are the first person to design a world, it's almost "God-like". It is also one of the most freeing excesses one can do as a designer.

COKEhead is a play about a man named Nestor, who lives in a time where corporate advertising has gained a lot of power in the day to day world. If people do not have health care, they can have a corporation underwrite their bills for them. In exchange, they become "Brandeds", literally becoming a living mascot, indentured to their parent company. Nestor is the man that invented this idea, and through a series of events in trying to destroy it. The themes explored in COKEhead include: Slavery, Civil Rights, Greed, Health care, Poverty and Revolution.

At this point in my design, I'm working in a very loose, non-specific, way. Justin and I talked a lot about places like Times Square and Tokyo Square. When I did my initial research I found out that the average person, living in a large city, is exposed to around 3000 ads a day. 3000 per day. You don't notice all of them, because at some point they just become "noise."

The picture below is the base set. There are quite a few scenes that don't take place anywhere specific, and this is the idea for that kind of location. The words are all copy from famous ads, but are meant to just become pattern.In a few of the scenes the characters meet at an unnamed fast food restaurant. The next image is an idea for the feeling that I'd like to evoke in those scenes.
The last image is an idea for the scene when one of the characters, a man who "plays" Poppin' Fresh, is waiting for the bus. The idea behind this image is that ads constantly tell us that "everything is okay," and "wouldn't life be better if you drove a Ford?" Poppin' is inundated with these ads as he waits for the bus, being tormented by a mother and child.
I think this is a very good start to this design. I am very interested to see how it develops.