Hope's Choice Overview

Presents....

Hope's Choice

Overview

Over the 35 minutes of viewing Hope’s Choice the audience is exposed to under-examined perspectives about the tobacco industry. Through mask and movement, vivid costumes and artwork, an original sound score and a fully researched and annotated script, the audience is invited to think critically while enjoying a novel street theatre performance. Hope’s Choice was collaboratively created by a group of professional artists with diverse talents and backgrounds.

This performance is in a diptych form, which in dramatic art means two stories with different locales, characters and plot lines, the story lines begin separately, alternating scenes. There are two main story lines: "Big Tobacco" and "Ecos." As the piece comes towards conclusion the two stories weave together through a crossover of character, images, theme and plot.

The set is a giant puppet. When its head is raised it reaches 17 feet in height and when it’s arms are extended they are 25 feet wide, providing a visual metaphor for the extensive reach of the tobacco industry.

The "Big Tobacco" scenes are defined by a heightened pace, quick banter, information delivery and clear status relationships between characters. There are three characters in this story line, two men - J.D. Status, the CEO, Jack Carcinoma, the Operations Man, and a woman – June Upstart, the Marketing Gal. Our Operations Man character becomes ill from smoking. As we watch these scenes there is a constant faint hum of machinery, and the dominant sound scape is language. The scenery and costuming is all in neutral shades. The tobacco executives begin this story confidently, posing questions whose answers reveal the strategies of target marketing and infiltration of those countries with less regulations. Our end goal for this story line is an increased audience awareness of, and questioning of, these tactics.

The "Ecos" story is defined by a slower pace, stilt walking, mask and movement work, vivid colors, fantastic images, a musical and largely nonverbal sound scape. The trials of the family in this story are shared with the audience as we see their village taken over by tobacco production. Bird characters are stewards of the culture, realized by actors in vividly colored silk costumes performing physical and vocal mimicry of birds. Their calls mark the state of affairs in Ecos. This narrative links vignettes of movement sequences, mask and stilt work to contrast with the standard narrative structure of the other story. The story begins with a depiction of the village prior to contact with the tobacco industry, and ends by showing the multiple impacts of the tobacco industry in this community, revealing new information and inciting questioning of these practices.

As the two stories weave together, the importance of the role of Hope emerges. Hope is a teenage girl and the niece of Jack Carcinoma. Through this character we see some of the ways that the industry targets teens, and we witness a successful dealing with peer pressure.

The play can be followed by a question and answer period with the audience.