Fuddy Meers
by David Lindsay-AbaireClarence Brown Theatre, The University of Tennessee 2012
Directed by: John Sipes
Set Design: Anita Fuchs
Costume Design: Miwa Ishii
Lighting Design: Timothy Hart
Sound Design: Joe Payne
Projection Design: Joe Payne
A comedy based on memory loss, misunderstandings, and the myth of the "perfect family." The play contains a contrast of traditional farce characters and touching serious moments, while the structure follows a murder mystery, without the murder. The sound design centered around 1960s TV themes of intrigue and suspense. The projection design introduced the idea of family memory by treating the audience to Super 8 family home movies, and then growing into a collage of family movies and imagery showing the cluttered and fragmented partial memory of our leading lady, Claire, who suffers from amnesia.
Director John Sipes and his artistic team create the perfect palate for this play. A positively stunning set by Anita Fuchs includes multimedia elements that complement the underlying themes of the show. Home movie clips play in the backdrop of the set before and after the play and during scene changes. It's visually appealing, but also drives home the idea that memories can be like film clips or snapshots; not everything we remember is perfect or exact. Those projections are the work of Joe Payne, who also did the sound design for the show. It's perfect. He incorporates classic TV themes into the soundtrack of the play. I'm pretty sure I even heard a snippet of the theme from "This is Your Life" at one point. Again, the sound design reinforces the notion that memory, even institutional memory, can be flawed and distorted.
-Timothy Hankins, The Daily Times
Fuddy Meers Projection and Sound Design examples
Fuddy Meers initial presentation, created by superimposing content ideas onto photos of the white model.
Photos by Kenton Yeager. Actors include: Magan Wiles, David Brian Alley, Conrad Ricamora, Jefferson Slinkard, Carol Mayo Jenkins, Neil Friedman, and Suzanne Ankrum.
