timeline response

I went through and copy and pasted everything that people have written into a word document, so we can start examining what we have. We seem to have a lot of dialogue pieces, as well as a lot more descriptive image pieces (which could serve as transitions between the scenes/dialogues perhaps?). I think there are a lot of similarities at least in the voice and tone with which we have approached writing for this project, and we should try to organize what we have in order to determine what we need/want to add.

I'm going to send out the word document I put together with all the pieces in one place (hopefully I didn't forget anything), so we can all have it to visually move stuff around and copy and paste, rather than having to go through all the blog posts. I think a logical next step would be for everyone to try and come up with a possible structure or plot flow as they see it, working with what we already have?

After we work out a detailed outline, I think it'll be easier to know what types of prompts and things we need from there. And I think it'd be good to start taking prompt lines from the pieces we already have (perhaps it would be a good exercise for everyone to pick a line out of someone else's piece and expand upon it? things like that).

Timeline?

Hey guys,

So I just got a bunch of my information from NTI, and it seems as though I will have absolutely no time to work on this project next semester. Not an exaggeration. Also, internet access is super limited (!!!!!!!), so I won't even be that available, for talksies. Basically, what I'm saying is, we need to either get a really solid working draft of this up by the end of summer, or I may have to give up the "shapey" role, and someone else can step in.

The way it's been going has been pretty patchy, with a lot of cool ideas, but not much output or cohesive story/plot. Would it be more helpful for Ashur and I to give more homework assignments? Those seemed kind of random to me. I feel like we just need to all step it up a little bit and get an outline of what happens, and then get going on it.

What do ya'll think?

why chicken legs?

So I was looking up pictures of chicken, thinking about attempting to sketch some chicken legs, when I suddenly asked myself...why chicken legs? Why is BY's house set up on chicken legs? I started doing some research into this matter, and didn't come up with any particularly solid reasons (the only thing was an indication of her sometimes being portrayed as a bird goddess, at one with nature, and that her house being made of chicken feet supports that), but I did come across some other really interesting things.

I found this interesting article about Baba Yaga's hut being considered an entrance into the underworld, making BY a guardian of the passageway between death and life. The most interesting part of the article was that it mentioned that in some versions the hut is not only propped up by chicken legs, but also sits upon a spinning wheel which allows Baba Yaga to spin the thread of life from the bones and entrails of the dead.

I really like that Eva mentioned the word organic, and this whole idea of fungi and decomposition being a natural part of her world...it really fits with this whole idea of her being a guardian of the natural balance to our world.

Horses, sticks, terror, age and beauty

Hey lil pandas, 

I've had some musings of late. Here are some themes I want to explore:

Horses/Daughters: How she acts towards them as sort of a barometer to the rest of the world. Is she being nice? Does she eat them? I also was thinking about connecting the riders as entities that she has married some of her daughters to. And they are now beholden to her. 

I also pulled a couple of phrases from some stuff that rachel posted that I really like and want to pull from :

I'm telling you its not pain, just the embrace of a very strong god.

She thinks famine is nutrition

and Ashur and I have been talking about age and beauty, the rejection of the old and ugly

oh actually, I'm just going to post what he said (hope that's good with you ash):

Fear/terror of an incomprehensible power, one developed by age and solitude instead of by birth or intention... something horrifying (not necessarily evil) that is organic and just as much a part of the world as something beautiful................

beauty juxtapozzed with grotesqueness.........

grotesque organic materials, like funghi and decomposition......

Age - the shunning of the elderly. Society which does not look back in time, or learn from its past although it offers a wealth of information... BY recognizes her position and perhaps fights back against it... maybe she relishes the terror others feel at her power.....

house as organic material, like abig beast in the woods, The space which BY occupies is a beast, in my imagination, from the house and yard to the surrounding trees. I imagine approaching this cabin through the woods, you can only find it by the light seeping through the windows so you wont find it until the sun begins to set.. you can follow the horse riders there. As you approach the trees take on a terrible aspect, they loom over and judge you, and then threaten you. The woods alone prevent the weak from setting foot in the clearing where the house looks down (down? I imagine noticeable elevation from the also noticable chicken feet) upon you with total indifference. The house could care less if your entire species lives or dies. It is something bigger. BY coexists with this house. She neither built nor owns it. She occupies it as a hermit crab would occupy a shell. But we're nowhere near the ocean...

infanticide, (abortion?! fuck...) killing for convenience, the motivation to murder that does not involve hate. I don't think BY is hateful. I don't know why she kills children, but something tells me it has to do with protecting herself...

Sexuality, sexual tension between BY and a strong prince, kind of a power showdown but something else is there... so weird. 

And then I also wrote just the beginning of a scene as a sort of experiment:

Scene opens on Baba Yaga, facing upstage, feeding her horses and singing softly to them. Something makes her turns around and stare out into the twilight.  We see that she is not an ordinary old woman. There is something both intriguing and terrible about her. She looks around and then says to the house

Baba: Another one today: (considers, listens) a girl. alone. quite alone and need of me. (smiles) oh, she needs my gentle guidance. (laughs)

horses shift, they are nervous or excited

Baba: nothing to worry about my girls. Your baba will take care of this one herself.

the night will be here soon. Satisfied now, I hope. It may be a long one.

B.Y. hobbles into the house which lights up at her entry and stokes the stove. The night horseman rights through, dragging with him a tattered and terrified Vasilissa, deposits her and stops to stare at the horses before carrying on. B.Y. comes to the door and stares down at her. 

V: Baba...Baba Roga, I have come her to ask you for your help. I-

Baba: Yes. I know why you thought to come here. You ought to know that this forest is dangerous. 

V: (nods) I had-

Baba: -nowhere else to go. Isn't that always the case. NOthing for baba until something goes wrong.

V: (ashamed) I am sorry. Do you want much for company..out here?

B.Y.: (cackles) (horses stamp) maybe I do. Get inside, girl. I must think.

Some things to figure out: What's going on with the horses? I feel like maybe they have a power over BY that she doesn't want anyone to know about? Man? Does he want vass or is he there for baba? Etc. Where does this go basically?

I was reading in the New Yorker about a stage version of Coraline and it mentioned this stuff, about her going into the other world and how she's really just going into her imagination and I think its like that for most hero-into-other-world deals (pan's labrinth, narnia) but what do we use from it now that we've switch that story type around.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Id,_ego,_and_super-ego

in other news I'm going to stay in a little house on an island in Maine for week with no internet. but I'll be back.

you know when your watching a movie or reading a book or entering a new world and just before you encounter anything really important, while your still trying to figure out where you are some sort of freaky surreal thing floatsfliesruns by and your sucked in?
I would like to have that for the audience.
and also I would like to make pelvis butterflies.

Homework etc.

GIRL: "Baba Yaga, may I ask you a question?"
BY: "If you must, but remember with too much wisdom, you will grow old too soon."
GIRL: "Baba Yaga, where do you go to each day?"
BY: "I go to the forest."
GIRL: "Why do you go to the forest?"
BY: "To search."
GIRL: "Baba Yaga, what are you searching for?"
BY: "If I knew, then I wouldn't have to look for it."
GIRL: "Do you think you will ever find what you're looking for?"
BY: (getting angered) "Fetch me my supper before I eat you instead!"
GIRL: (fetching BY's supper from the great oven) "Baba Yaga, do you eat all your visitors?"
BY: "No. Just the ones that ask too many questions."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBp88UJHfZE
The house in this is inspired by Baba's chicken hut...and i just love the way it moves.

About Structure

I have been thinking about this process partly in terms of the idea that we would, after gathering all this stuff we're producing here, take elements that fit together and combining them into a few loosely tied sections. Looking at the last things Audrey and I wrote, I was thinking it's a shame the audience couldn't see these parallel stories, driven by two different Baba Yagas. So THEN I thought it could be cool if the first part and the last part had this kind of relationship. A story that would maybe have better results with a different BY in the driver's seat. 

Homework half

Vasilissa is stumbling in the forest, carrying an unlit torch. The black rider of night passes and she falls and drops the torch. We hear the hoof beats the way she does with her ear to the ground. The night follows behind the rider like a curtain being pulled. The darkness reveals Baba Yaga’s house as it lights up in response. It stretches and yawns. At the same time, Vasilissa picks herself up and sees that her hand is bleeding. She tears the hem from her skirt and wraps it around her hand. The house quivers, shakes, creaks. Vasilissa sees the house, sobs, runs toward it. When she reaches the door she composes herself completely.

 

Baba Yaga: Is there anything to say?

 

Vasilissa: I- my family please. I’ve taken too much time and- (remembers herself.) Baba (BY snorts) Baba Yaga- (BY shows dissinterest) Baba Cloantza*(see note @ bottom). (She has BY’s attention). Please. I need fire. My step sisters and mother are waiting. Our hearth is cold. The wind blew the open the shutters and- (BY raises her hand)

 

BY: The wind.

 

V: (Unsure) Yes.

 

BY: He and I have spoken.

 

V: (looks away) Please.

 

BY: He was invited.

 

V: The fire. We’ll starve.

 

BY gestures to a pot on the table, inviting V to stay.

 

V: The fire.

 

BY looks disgusted. With a gesture, flame bursts from the pot. V realizes she no longer has her torch. She looks dismayed. BY sneers grotesquely and V whirls toward the door.

 

BY: Wait. (the house creaks violently. BY touches the wall gently, calming it. She leans in very close to V.) Wind? (V nods) Fire?

 

V: Yes.

 

BY produces wood for a torch from some unlikely place. She unwinds the bloody bandage from V’s hand and around the wood to make the torch. As she does:

BY: The wind and the fire may quarrel but they will also make their bed in the thatch.

The fire leaps. She lights the torch. V reaches for it but BY holds it back.

Tell your step mother to mind who she invites in to her house.

 

BY gives her the torch and V flees the house. BY watches her go, waves her hand at the fire pot and all goes dark.

 

 

*Baba Cloantza is another name for BY meaning something like “old hag with broken teeth.” The other option I was thinking of here was “Baba Jadwiga.” Jadwiga is the name that I’ve read “Yaga” is derived from. This choice raises an interesting question for me. Would BY be made more likely to listen if someone appealed to her as more fearsome (BC) or if they appealed to some obscure and perhaps long forgotten humanity? or maybe it depends…?

and ps: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0b9FksBItg&feature=PlayList&p=BE2D7AEC9C71BEA0&index=49 (halfway through)

and...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlrhxgKIOrA

homework

Vasilissa meets Baba Yaga and they Dance

There is a house in the woods. Its not quite nighttime but the lights inside glow out onto the path and fence surrounding it. Leaves rustle, the house sighs a little. The rustling gets louder and a girl appears from the woods. Just as she is noticing the house, and the light and the fence and the sighing a horseman in black gallops by in a whoosh. The force of him passing spins her around in a full circle and it is dark like a light switch has been flipped. The lights from the house lights the girl’s face with a warm glow and we can see nothing behind her. Then, a face looms over her shoulder; Baba Yaga is standing just behind her, completely unnoticed. The girl glides forward into the house, Baba behind her copying every movement. They both reach for a lantern on the wall and take it down, both stoop to pick up a button from the floor and both lean over to place it on the table. The girl lifts the lantern over her head and Baba Yaga gently grabs hold of her wrists and spins her until they face each other. A horse screams, there is fear and panic in the girl’s eyes as she looks into the face of Baba Yaga and then she flees the house taking the light with her. As she runs past, Baba Yaga grabs hold of the ribbon around her waist and is left holding it in the dark.

Baba Yaga, where are your daughters?
You know, house, you know. (weary)
Do I? Tell me, mother Baba, where are they?
You were there weren’t you? Why does it matter whether I say it aloud or not. (holding it in)
Oh it doesn’t really, I was just wondering
(silence, it is scary)
Are they out for a walk?
(pressure)
Are they fetching water from the well?
(wait, wait)
Are they playing a game? Hiding in the closet again…
I ATE THEM! THEY ARE IN MY STOMACH! THEY ARE GONE BECAUSE I ATE THEM!!!!
(ringing after the explosion)
Thank you.

girl: Baba Yaga, you never eat from your garden, why do you plant it?
Baba: Bait. (bites the head off a rabbit)

If we didn't want to have the house actually talking which might seem a little forced the house lines could just be implied with noise or music, the building tension, the silences and the breaking point are what important about that.
and I was thinking how little moments showing some crazy time might be fun. and I read a story where she bites the heads off of cats.