Collaboration project: Dollhouse John Egging Theater 1331 Group 84

1. Brittany Premer
ChienVu
Marsha Christ
Heidi Ramos

2. Dollhouse summary
Nora lives in Chicago with her husbandTerry and three kids,
Skyler, Macey, and Max. She borrowed a large amount of money
from Raj Patel to save her husbands life from an addiction to
Vicodin. She borrowed the money withoutTerry knowing and is re
paying it back secretly.Terry is on the verge of getting a
promotion at his job at the bank.When Raj returns to askTerry for
a loan from the bank and he refuses, he turns to Nora and
blackmails her into helping him, if she refuses he willTerry the
truth. Nora tries to changeTerry‘s mind but is unsuccessful.On
new yearsTerry discovers the truth and becomes very angry. He
and Nora argue and she threatens to leave. He convinces her to
stay and they toast to new beginnings.

3. Nora Helmer
Terry Helmer
Pete
Kristine Linde
Raj Patel
Marta
Iris
Skyler
Max
Macey

5.  Proscenium Stage
 Condo inWest Lincoln Park in December
2004
 Contemporary Suburban American family
 While sounds can be heard off-stage,
indicating other rooms in the home and in the
upstairs condo, all scenes take place in the
open floor plan of Nora andTerry Helmer’s
living room/dining area
 Realistic scenery

7. Condo
•Flats are
used to
create walls

8.  Pregnancy portrait
 Working fireplace
 Christmas tree

9.  Pile of clothes
 Cigars
 Books
 Telephone
 Computer
 Groceries
 Candles
 CD case
 Box of truffles
 Tea bags
 Champagne

10.  Lines- straight lines are used for a clean look
 Mass and composition- mass is used to fill up the
house and give it a “lived in” look
 Texture-The design is a slim look with the lines
and colors chosen
 Color- bright colors are used to reflect Nora’s
sense of materialism
 Movement-There is not much need for
movement between scenes as all acts take place
in the same room. Movement within scenes is
mainly when an actor enters or exits the stage

11. COSTUME DESIGNER: A
DOLL’S HOUSE
Chien vu

12. SETTING
• Time: December 2004
• Location: A condo in West Lincoln Park, Chicago

13. SEASONAL CLOTHING (OUTSIDE)
• The play took place in Chicago
during the middle of Winter. As a
result, most characters have to put
on winter clothing before exiting the
house. Winter clothing in this play
includes:
• Mittens
• Scarfs
• Hats
• Coats
• Turtle necks/ sweaters
• Boots

14. SEASONAL CLOTHING (INSIDE)
• With the advance in central
heating, characters were allow to
put on normal clothing inside the
house with an addition of a sweater.
• Christmas sweaters
• Pajamas
• Slippers

15. ACT 1: SATURDAY BEFORE
CHRISTMAS
• Nora (32): Wears a fancy long coat, boots, a
hat, scarfs, and a purse as she enters. As the
act proceeds, she’ll be wearing a pair of
khakis, slippers, sweatshirt, cream color
hoodie, along with a fancy necklace.
• Iris (30): wears house maid uniform and a pair
of slippers.
• Terry (33) : wears a turtle neck, a pair of jeans,
glasses, and white socks.

16. • Pete (33): Enters wearing long coat, scarf,
suit, pair of gray slacks, and some fancy
dress shoes. Inside, he wears long sleeves
shirt and a fancy watch.
• Kristine (34): wears an old jacket, some
poor boots, and a scarf as she enters.
Inside, she wears a sweat shirt, gray
hoodie, jeans and glasses.
• Raj (34): wears an old leather jacket,
gloves, torn tennis shoes, hat, and a scarf.

17. • Marta (30): Enters wearing a thick
coat, slacks, boots, mittens, and
scarf.
• Kids ( Max, Macey, and Skyler): Enters
wearing layers of winter clothes,
jackets, mittens, boots, beanies, and
earmuffs.

18. ACT 2: DECEMBER 30 AFTER
CHRISTMAS
• Nora: Wears a pair of long pants a long with
some short sleeves shirt in her cream hoodie.
She later tried on a new uniform she bought
for the news year party.
• Marta: wears jeans and a sweater.
• Kristine: enters wearing a brown long coat,
cream slacks, and some old boots.
• Terry: Enters after work wearing his long coat,
suit, black tie, white long sleeve under a
cream sweater. He also have on gray slacks
with brown dress shoes. He later shows up in
some jeans and his gamer Tee-shirts.

19. • Pete: Enters wearing long coat,
sweater, and a pair of brown khakis
with some tennis shoes.
• Raj: enters wearing a black pull-over
hoodie, black gloves, black leather
jacket, sunglasses, and a pair of old
tennis shoes.

20. ACT 3: NEW YEARS EVE
• Kristine: Wearing a brown coat, scarf,
and a pair of khakis.
• Raj: Wearing a pair of slacks, long
coat, black hat, and a blue scarf.
• Nora: Dressed up as Jennifer Beals in
flashdance wearing tight leggings, a
wig, and off-the-shoulder sweatshirt.

21. • Terry: Dressed as Ronald Reagan
wearing a Tuxedo and his Ronald
Reagan mask.
• Pete: Dressed like pee-wee Hermann,
with a scarf, and his long coat.

22. Dollhouse
By Rebecca Gilman

23. Soft yellow light illuminates
the entire scene, coming
from the Christmas tree,
fire place, lamps, hallway,
windows, lights overhead
and in front of actors.
Lights reflects off of plains
of walls as well as the
ground and ceiling to show
the actors faces and
expressions and create an
indirect light.

24. The light is a soft and mellow
color to tone down the
happy mood of the scene.
It is clear to the audience
that there is something
wrong with the family and
everything is not
completely joyous. No
single beams of lights are
used to isolate any one
character or detail. The
setting and characters can
be fully observed.

25. It is Christmas Eve, so there is
a semi-bright white light
coming in from the
windows to show the
snow and time of day.
However, the prominence
of the light is still in the
center of the stage where
the stage props are located
and characters are acting;
center stage is holding
main focus for the
performance. Scene ends
promptly with sudden
blackening of lights.

26. Lights fade in and light the stage in a grey color. A small spotlight is
angled to show the worry in Nora’s face over the previous and
yet to come events. There is a light coming out of a doorway
down the hall where the kids are playing, but the living area is
lit mainly from the lights intended to be coming from outdoors
(windows); it is daytime and there is bright white light from the
fallen snow outside coming in again.

27. Bright light streams in through the door whenever a character
enters or exits the house. The bright white light indicates the
happiness that’s suppose to be filling the house, but the more
present grey shows the true emotion of Nora. Spotlights follow
Nora’s movements to keep the attention slightly more on her.
Lights fade back to black at end of scene.

28. It is quite dark on stage to show that it is midnight, but as the
characters enter and exit throughout the scene there are
spotlights on them. There are headlights from a cab as Kristine
enters it when she exits the house. Additionally, there is a light
from a laptop illuminating Terry’s face when checking an email.

29. When Nora and Terry enter the house the entire house is lit by a
dark blue-grey light to emote the gloominess of the scene. It
becomes brighter when Pete enters the house and has his rage
episode, but dulls back when he exits. The characters continue
to be lit by their own spotlights.

30. The end of the play has one single spotlight on Nora that slowly
fades. This is to show that Nora should be the lasting visual
image for the audience to perceive the theme.

32. • Spine- Having that desire to be free
• Nora wants to be out of her debt with
Raj so she could stop having so many
secrets
• She realizes she has never been free
from Terry. She has made herself a
doll to his disposal. She does
everything to keep him happy.

33. THEME
• Theme- The role of a woman trying to keep her life
together and maintaining everything in order. She is
trapped in a “dollhouse”, she is being played to be the
perfect wife, mother, friend.

34. DIRECTORIAL CONCEPTS
• Read play and create a script that fits the vision in your head
• Cast roles
• Setting the play in present time, no changes to character roles.
• Give script to actors.
• Go over a reading of script, let the actors get familiar with
their roles
• Work with the other roles, set designer, light designer, costume
designer, etc.
• Have vision come to life as they create the stages, make sure
that was is being created is what you envisioned.

35. DIRECTIONAL CONCEPTS
• There is a sense of nervousness within the characters,
especially Nora. Plenty of secrecy throughout the first two acts.
• The setting will be a condo is Chicago, very modern day like.
• The audience has to leave with the message that secrets keep
you from completely being free. Also they must understand
and relate to the characters.
• This play is very modern, so create the idea that this could
happen to me.

36. CHARACTERS
• Nora- Natalie Portman
• Terry- Ioan Gruffudd
• Kristine- Cobie Smulders
• Pete- Bradley Cooper
• Raj- Kunal Nayyar

37. CHARACTERS CONT…
• Iris- Eva Méndez
• Marta-Torrey Devitto
• Skyler- Child Actor
• Max-Child Actor
• Macey-Child Actor