Edges of Time
by Jacqueline E. Lawton
Directed by Jules Odendahl-James
PlayMakers Repertory Company
Paul Green Theatre / Recorded Video
March 22nd - April 4th, 2021
Production Team:
Scenic Design: McKay Coble
Costume Design: Bobbie Owen
Lighting Design: Kathy Perkins
Sound Design: Brandon Reed
Media Design: Alex Maness
About The Play
This one-woman show takes us into the life of investigative journalist, editor, and activist, the marvelous Marvel Cooke, the first Black woman writer to have her own byline in a major US newspaper. We meet Marvel in 1963 in the wake of the Birmingham church bombing as she threads the story of mid-century Civil Rights with her own trailblazing journey from the suburbs of Minnesota to the newsrooms, labor unions, and arts societies of New York with a fateful detour into the witness chair under interrogation by Senator Joseph McCarthy.
We have our first interaction with Joseph McCarthy as Marvel begins to explain to the audience about her trial and association with Communism. The design team wanted McCarthy to have a big brother type of quality, therefore I took the voiceover recordings and added some haunting quality reverb as layers of TV static and droning textures add a sense of unease. From here on out, McCarthy interrupts Marvel and brings her back into the trial whenever she recalls a childhood memory.
Photos taken courtesy of Alex Maness
As a design team, our goal was to help the audience become more pulled into the different decades that span Marvel's life, while also enhancing the meta theatrical moments. Scenic, costumes and projections helped make the physical world full of connections to Marvel's past. Ranging from news headlines, to footage of various riots, protests, and her outfit being reminiscent of her childhood. Lighting and sound design helped make emotional connections as well as provide context for a lot of the moments of history that were referenced.
For the sound design, I used music of the many different eras of Marvel's life to underscore specific moments she references (an emphasis on artists of color was established by myself and the director). For the meta moments, I embraced theatricality and took a "big brother" styled design with all the moments involving Joseph McCarthy. Marvel would describe a historical event or moment in her life with music of her decade, only to have McCarthy pull her back into the world of the play and interrupt her joy until she is able to finish the trial that she is a part of.
Top Of Show
We open the show with Marvel Cooke watching the television in her New York City apartment as we hear and see footage of various civil rights broadcasts from the 1940s projected on the stage and moving around the space. Straight out of the gate we want the audience to feel the weight of pressure that Marvel feels as she ponders the true meaning of journalism in America. To help the audience connect with this weight, I processed and filtered the broadcasts to gradually become more haunting as the atmosphere builds in layers of TV static, drones, and low frequency shifting.
The Sound Design
Duck and Cover
Marvel recalls a tale from her childhood of how her uncle manipulated and scarred her, as we hear the old narration of the Duck and Cover safety video. To help the audience understand and feel the weight of this memory, the narration becomes more haunting as processing is applied to the video further into her story. Static audio textures layered with drones help make it feel more atmospheric and longing.
The Voice of Joseph McCarthy
Dancing For The Children
As Marvel finishes recollects on the fear that America felt from Communism, she begins to remember the stories of the little girls in the Birmingham Bombing. With them as her motivation, she decides that she must continue to dance and pursue truth in journalism for their sake. McCarthy returns to interrupt her moment of joy and relief
End Of Show
Having finished her trial with McCarthy, Marvel begins to discuss that journalists have an obligation to tell the truth in their works, nothing can be in their way. As she explains this, we can hear her New York City apartment come alive with sounds of traffic as the radio spurs to life. As she types away, lights dim and the radio fades to full fidelity and volume.