Staging Proposal

If I were to stage My Love, My Love, I would begin by calling it “The Peasant Girl.” This is because I absolutely hate the title My Love My Love. I think it is cliche and overdone. From there, I would consider the message I want to get across with this adaptation. There are a few things about each character that really stayed with me throughout this story: How much I hate Desiree, and how horrible of a person I find Daniel to be. However, marketing a show that has no likable characters is a very difficult feat. In my refusal to make Desiree anything less than naive, I would focus on the gods. I find them to be incredibly important members of this “cast.” The storyline would be as such: Kind, yet stern Agwe rescues a young peasant girl, and the gods watch her grow up. Now that she is full grown, she is beginning to drift away from the gods. Erzulie sends the boy in the car to give Desiree something to hold on to, so she doesn’t drift away completely. Papa Ge tries to scare her into following the trend of the group. Asaka and Erzulie, the two women, support Desiree in her search for happiness. Papa Ge and Agwe do not. So, instead of a story of a girl in love, it becomes a story of fighting for a girl who cannot be saved. It becomes about the relationships between god and god, as well as god and man.

Therefore, I would have the gods practically always onstage. There would be two levels in my set: The stage, and then a surrounding balcony. (Think Hamilton with less ladders.) The gods usually occupy the top level - unless they are directly interacting with the humans. These humans reside on the lower level. There is a stark difference between the set for the humans and the gods, and the set for the rich and the poor. The humans, no matter what, are not at all modern. The peasants live in huts while the rich live in grand estates. The gods, however, reside in the top. Acting as a barrier so actor’s don’t fall off is glass paneling. If possible, I would even have the gods stand on a glass floor, supported by metal rods. The poor would live very close to the ground, in lots of color. Their homes would be in shambles. The rich, however, live on an incline. This is because the rich consider themselves similar to a higher power.

However, costuming would tell another story. While the rich tend to be physically closer to the gods, the gods would dress much more like the peasants. They would be in flowy costumes. The only difference is that the gods wear white, with accent colors corresponding to each god, and the peasants wear muted versions of the same colors. Except for Desiree. Desiree wears purple, because no god has that color. The rich people wear gold and silver, and their clothes tend to be much more form fitting. This is directly opposing the rich belief that they are closer to gods because they are physically higher, because in character they are nothing like each other.

Lighting is very important in this adaptation. If I could, I would have the god’s platform lit in bright white light from the bottom and top. There is no real difference in lighting in rich vs poor, however, when the rich are indoors and alone, they only have candlelight - so on stage, that lighting has to be fairly dim.