Ah, Wilderness! Collage Concept

For my collage, I chose to revise my design concept and depict the revised concept. Instead of grouping the characters by age, I chose to group them by gender. In Victorian society, the men were expected to be stolid and sedate, while the women fluttered around them like gilded butterflies. The men are the solemn heads of the household and make all the decisions, while the women are innocent and “fluffy”, like pieces of chiffon.

To reflect this contrast between gender roles, I chose to use the split complementary color system of blue, yellow, and red-violet. The older men are calm and stoic in their dark navy suits, with the younger men, especially Richard, in lighter ocean blues. Richard’s costume stands out from the rest of the men’s by incorporating touches of rich chestnut brown. Tommy, the youngest, is in white with touches of light baby blue. The older women are painted in darker yellows, with the younger women in white frilly dresses with pops of bright yellow. In the second act, Belle is dressed in black and red-violet, making her completely separate from the “innocent” ideals held by the rest of the women.

My collage depicts the idea of women versus men, with “women pictures” on the left and the men on the right. The men are solid, like rocks, tall trees, and still water. Their suits have sharp tailored details, like cuffed sleeves, buttoned tweed vests, and polished shoes. The white shirts are ironed, except for Richard’s, as he is too preoccupied with reading and philosophizing to care about tailored clothing. The men’s costumes have a sharp, tailored and structured line to give them the appearance of solidity.

The women are fluttering and light, like balloons and chiffon, and are filled with sunshine. When undesirable things like alcoholism and prostitution interrupt their idyllic lifestyles, they choose to ignore it and live on in innocence. The chiffon and lightweight cotton dresses float with their movement and give them an airy quality. The line for the women is flowing and curved, like the waves in loose hair.

Ah, Wilderness! Color Palettes

Each color palette represents a possible color system for the costumes. The colors are placed beside each other to give the designer a feel for the overall color scheme.

Chart A

The adults of the play are more part of the house, so their dark muted colors blend with the coloring of the set. The younger people are in lighter colors, to give them an air of innocence. Arthur is halfway between adult and child, so his colors reflect this "in-between" state. Richard has a pop of green to make him stand out from the rest of his family.



Chart B

This chart is just a Xeroxed copy of Chart A, which shows the values of each color swatch.



Chart C

In Victorian times, the men are sedate and calm, while the women flutter around them like painted butterflies. In this color palette, the men are dressed in sedate blues, while the women are in bright yellows to provide a sharp contrast. Richard stands out further as he has hints of chestnut brown added to his ocean blue.

Ah, Wilderness! Clip

This video clip shows a scene from the 1935 film Ah, Wilderness!. It shows some of the innocence of the age in the relationship between Richard and Muriel and the idyllic lifestyle enjoyed by the middle classes. However, the fashion is more in the style of the 1930's, not so much the turn-of-the-century style that is historically accurate.




Ah, Wilderness!. Dir. Clarence Brown. Perf. Mickey Rooney, Lionel Barrymore, Wallace Beery. Warner Bros., 1935. VHS.

Informal Production Plan

This is an informal plan for my fictional production of Ah, Wilderness! I can have whoever I want to direct, design, and act in my production. This is just a proposed production.

Cast:

Hugh Laurie as Sid Davis



Saoirse Ronan as Mildred Miller



Cameron Monaghan as Richard Miller



Meghan Martin as Muriel McComber



Director and Other Designers:

I want my friend Colleen Toole from NYU to direct my show, UNCG Theatre Department's scene designer Randy McMullen to design the set, and the Theatre Department's lighting designer to design the lighting.



I want to stick to historical period of Victorian America. I want the women in the structured s-curve silhouette and tailored suits for the older men. However, for the younger women, I want to loosen the silhouette to make it more free-flowing.

Characters will not be eliminated or added because I want the production to be relatively faithful and exact to the script as Eugene O'Neill envisioned it. If more actors are needed for roles beyond the principal characters, actors will be cast so there won't be doubling up of roles.

Actors won't necessarily be called upon to engage in unusual physical activity beyond some brief dancing. The costumes will need to be able to be moved in easily and comfortably.

According to the script, Mildred's first costume is a "shirt and shirtwaist in the fashion of the period." Arthur is dressed in the collegiate fashion of turn-of-the-century. Lily wears a shirt and shirtwaist, as does Essie MIller. Lily has glasses. Sid's suit is faded and nondescript. Richard wears the prep-school version of Arthur's college suit.

There aren't any props I specifically want to use beyond Lily's glasses and a fan for Belle.

The set designer is working with neutral darks like brown and rust, so the younger women's light colored garments will stand out. The older women are such a part of the house that their costumes will almost blend into and become one with the set.

Furniture will need to be wide enough to accommodate the women's skirts. The stage is flat and the set is reminiscent of a Victorian Era living room, so the costumes need to be functional for walking around and living in a Victorian house.

Design Concept

Ah, Wilderness! by playwright Eugene O’Neill explores the naïveté of middle-class society in turn-of-the-century America by placing a series of relationships between family members and lovers in an idyllic Victorian world of propriety. Instead of dealing with and talking about the issues of drunkenness, gambling and rebellion, the family chooses to ignore their problems and believe in the best in everybody. When the young lovers experience their first major altercation, the young man turns to alcohol and loose women to deal with his rejection, leading to his temporary fall from grace.

The costumes reflect turn-of-the-century Victorian ideals of innocence and propriety. The men, stoic and impassive in their somber black suits, rest on the fixed society of Victorian culture while the older women reflect their bond with the household by wearing browns and rust colors that blend with the colors of the set. The younger women flutter around their respective loves in white linen dresses with light blue and pink accents. The young protagonist Richard, dressed in lighter colored collegiate fashion, experiences a transformation as he comes of age in the play, going from light colors to the darker, more sedate dark suit of the older men. The costumes should mirror the characters’ emotional ties to each other and their surroundings, as well as the transformations they experience throughout the duration of the play.

Ah, Wilderness! Play Analysis

Ah, Wilderness! takes place in a small Connecticut town on the Fourth of July 1906. The script specifically states that the action takes place on July 4th, as the family intends to attend a celebratory picnic and the youngest son Tommy sets off firecrackers in the front yard. The specificity of the year requires the costumes to adhere fairly strictly to the style of the period.

The family is part of the American middle-class of Connecticut. Nat Miller, the owner of the local newspaper and husband to Essie Miller, tries to keep his family from arguing all the time. Essie is very motherly and very good at nagging her children about propriety. Her eldest son Arthur returns from Yale for the holiday and starts dating Elsie Rand. Richard, the second son, reads radical books and poetry and experiences first love with Muriel McComber, a girl with a very strict father. Richard loves reading and quoting literature, and tries very hard to seem older and more learned than he really is. Muriel is very young and innocent. She seems to be in awe of Richard, especially since he acts so worldly and experienced. Her father David, who advertises in Nat’s newspaper, disapproves of Richard and Muriel’s relationship and tries to sabotage their relationship. He threatens to remove his ad from Nat’s paper if Nat doesn’t stop the two young people from seeing each other. The youngest Miller children, Mildred and Tommy, tease their elder brothers mercilessly, especially Mildred. Sid Davis, Essie’s younger brother, and Lily Miller, Nat’s younger sister, love each other, but Lily refuses to marry Sid unless he quits gambling and his biggest vice, drinking. Sid can’t hold a steady job and has a large drinking problem, while Lily is very uptight and unforgiving about Sid’s problems. Later in the play, Richard and Muriel quibble, and to spite her, Richard goes out drinking and meets the charming prostitute Belle. Belle is young but seems resigned to her fate as a loose woman.

Nat Miller makes enough money with his newspaper to allow his family access to the upper middle-class society of the small town. The family adheres to a conservative point of view, and believes in the innocence of the age. Muriel waits a very long time before she even allows Richard to kiss her. Proper behavior rules at the turn of the century and the Millers believe whole-heartedly that impropriety amounts to the worst of sins.

Before the play begins, the family has sat down to breakfast. Richard, the protagonist, struggles against the dual antagonists of Muriel’s father and society’s extreme properness. He reads all these revolutionary books and rebels against the structure and monotony of society. Essie and Nat support Richard as his caring parents. Essie scolds Richard for reading improper material but only wants what is best for him. Nat understands Richard a little more and tends to allow Richard to read his favorite books, even reading one of Richard’s books himself. Sid Davis and Lily Miller provide a subplot and support for Richard and Muriel’s story line.

The dialogue could be described as naturalistic, as the characters’ speech could be spoken during the time period of the play. Ah, Wilderness! explores the innocence and naïveté of high-class society in turn-of-the-century America. Instead of dealing with the problems of drunkenness, change, and gambling, the family chooses to ignore their problems and believe in the best in everybody.