Grey Squirrel Project

Elyssa Livergant at Central School of Speech and Drama has asked me to be the dramaturg on a project she is working on for the next three weeks. It is all about Grey Squirrels invading a ladies home! Check it out at http://www.cptheatre.co.uk/event_details.php?sectionid=theatre&eventid=194

This is the first of my diary entries for it:

I met Elyssa and Lou from Rough Memory at Camden People’s Theatre to discuss the project they are working on for the next three weeks. It is called Kiss From the Last Grey Squirrel and is to be performed in mid-June as part of CPT’s performance festival.
Lou has had to take the decision to drop out as one of the main performers resulting in a radical rethinking of the narrative content. With Elyssa as the main performer, Lou may well appear in it as the musician/squirrel representative.
Elyssa went through the narrative structure established so far with me and we decided that there was a gap in the final scenes that needed to be fleshed out, so we re-jiggled things, bringing the scene where the protagonist receives a letter from an anxious friend nearer to the end, therefore becoming a primary motivation for the final dream sequence being more frantic and tense.
The idea of the lady making jams throughout the piece was a particularly strong one for me and I immediately had visions of her fortifying her house against the invading squirrels with hundreds of jam-jars, all gooey and red.
Elyssa has asked me to particularly think about the whole jam-making process, whether it should be one continuous jam-making session throughout the piece (which I think should be the case, as it will add to the tension, that the lady perhaps has to keep checking on the progress despite being terrified of the squirrels, and this is her main concern) or separate jams. For me, the making of the preserves is the key because, the state of it, i.e. whether she has accomplished her task, or failed/burnt it, whatever, determines the message given out about the feeling towards the invasion of the squirrels. Does the lady give up all that was previously important to her in order to fight the battle against them and protect her home?