Stage Model Assessment

I pick the scene Court of The Miracle from the play Notre Dame De Paris. The scene is basically bunches of homeless people dancing and having a chaotic celebration. The main theme should be dark since the place is like a secret hideout. There should not be any bright colors involved except for the main character’s clothing, any other actors on the stage should only be dressing in grey. The color grey is an important color, when people sees grey, people would think about dust or dusty and dirty clothes, hence the audience can make the connection of “if they are wearing grey, then they are poor people.” Important characters should have clothing that has different color with each other since they are all people that came from different social status and the only person should be wearing a bright color is Esmeralda.
The lighting of the scene is also easy. During the whole scene, the light should be dim because the place itself is like a cave where no sunlight can be seen or reach to the place. Dim light does not mean to black out every dancers on stage. Although dancers’ characters are beggars, homeless men and women or prostitutes, they are still dancers and the point of the scene is to let the audience see how wild these men and women can be in the Court of The Miracle. The visual impact is needed, so that is why there should be dim light on the stage instead of just make everything black.
The setting of the play is interesting. I have watched many productions of the scene, and they all took the same action when it comes to present this character who is the head of all these pagans. The whole play should be set in an normal proscenium stage. In the scene, something special is required. There should be a huge metal construction working beam that hangs from the roof of the theatre. This is where the head of the thugs, Clopin Trouillefou, would be sitting and staying on the beam for the whole scene. Although this is dangerous, but it creates an absolutely brilliant stage layer. There should also be another rope that is tied to the roof. This is for when Clopin is trying to hang Pierre Gringoire, the troubadour. Instead of actually putting rope on his neck, it is also okay to just use a cloth made sac that ties to that rope to just the audience imagine that this is a gallow.

What is also important in this scene, is the flow of dancers. Personally, I would think that this whole scene is about how lawless and wild this group of riot people can be. This scene is special to me, because even if the plot is progressing (Esmeralda married Gringoire in order to save his life), the movement of the dancers should be weighted equally because that shows, the spirit of these refugees. It is hard to express this in a static stage model, but the consistency of these dancers really stood out in the play.

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