Cuckoo's Nest
ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST
I was inspired by a production of Romeo and Juliet I did in college, where there were separate male and female casts that would perform on alternating nights. But on Saturdays a mixed cast, that had never rehearsed together, would perform the show. Based on that experience I decided to split my Advanced Drama class into three casts, the Hospital Staff, Acute Patients, and Chronic Patients. However, I found the one drawback of the process was that actors sat idle if it wasn’t their night to perform. So I took the script One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and created two casts of patients that would switch nightly, but the hospital staff and Nurse Ratchet would stay the same. The ACUTES were the speaking characters like, McMurphy, Chief, Billy and the CHRONICS were extreme mental patients found at the hospital. This created the ultimate ensemble, and there was never an actor who was not engaged.
Design Concept: I cut slits into the walls of the unit set to create a symbolic illusion of the cracks in one’s mind. In the scenes where the characters are of heighten emotional states, the back lighting and colors comes through, especially in the electrocution scene, or the scenes with Chief.
FEMALE CAST PHOTOS
MALE CAST PHOTOS
