... who could sleep at 4 in the am, rather than THINKING ABOUT HER DIV3 AGAIN.
Let me reiterate this. It won't be for another 3 yrs. Why am I planning it all now? I dunno.. wtf.
I was watching the BET Awards show and there was a performance with T-Pain. He was wearing a tophat and a suit and looked JUST LIKE Zip Coon. It was frightening, really. I mentioned it to my mother, and I thought she would be like, "race and minstrelsy stuff, here we go again..." but instead she got enraged, too. In fact, she was angrier than I was. I loved it. I feel like I'm rubbing off on my mother, or maybe she originally rubbed off on me. I have, literally, four or five stacks of HER books in my room, all about race and gender (and even a little about sexuality!) and more specifically women of color and literature and theory. It's a beautiful thing.. Just be warned, there are a LOT of notes.
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ZIP COON, you motherfucker, you are the ring leader of this whole damned show.
You are the master. I hate you.
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I want this play to be conscious of itself, the same way that the Hamlet play was aware of itself. The characters, for the most part, are aware of themselves as characters. For the first act, I want a laugh track. I want things about the characters to be overly exagerrated. I want a lot of slapstick comedy.
I want everything to be upside down in this world. The same way that Hamlet drove himself by faking sanity.
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Zip Coon, more of a ringleader, sets the stage of the show. Cracks some jokes, very joker-like. He is aware of the 4th wall and himself as a character, is constantly breaking it. He is he one that talks to the audience the most. He cracks the master jokes, introduces the characters, etc, etc, blah blah. I want to think about using puppetry with him, too. Maybe to introduce the first act, you see his shadow getting chased by dogs. You hear a voice yelling, "Get him," and the sound of dogs barking, clown music playing. You see the shadows of him being chased through the scrim/ sheet/ whatever. You finally see him enter the stage, looking tired, but a big shit-eating grin on his face, and of course his first statement is an "Oooooohhh-wee! You see massa anywhere? No? Cuz he done sent dem ole hounds on me again! Caught me inner wawdy-melon patch down yonder." Continues with something or other similar to this, cracks a coupla jokes. "Now we can start de show. Dis here's (Title) and its my show." Maybe he talks in rhyme, like a jester?
We later find out that there is no master, it really was HIS show. When everything goes to disarray, he re-enters in Act 2 and tries to fix everything. Maybe he pulls out a gun or something, tries to force them to go back to the way things were. I don't know WHY he's in charge, or what that says yet. But I'll figure it out.
(Zip Coon most likely wants to restore the world order. I'm thinking about "The Elizabethan World Picture here- who turns the world upside down? Is it Mammy? Is it Uncle Tom? How is "nature" restored? What IS "natural" in this world? This whole world is upside down to begin with. What am I trying to say with this piece, with a black person controlling these images, with them "switching roles?"
I think that's why Bamboozled ended the way it did. How do you "go back" after something like that happens in this world? Maybe I can take a page out of Spike Lee's book. I feel like in the end, Uncle-Tom-turned-"thug" is the only one who is brave enough to go against Zip Coon. And he has his own gun. They have a face-off and then there is a tense moment and the screen goes down. And you hear two gunshots ring out, and then on the scrim you see the last scenes of Bamboozled? Something crazy happens?
End in darkness with the clip from Bamboozled: " I don't want anything to do with anything black for at least a week."
I also want an old man who don 't do NOTHIN but sit in a rocking chair sippin on iced tea during select scenes. Maybe he's the "hype man" for Zip Coon during the breaks, "Heh, heh, heh. I think I hear them dogs comin this way."
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The show begins with the theme song for Good Times playing.
You see Mammy in her usual housedress and slippers, hair in a scarf, ironing something, and humming/singing along. All you see is her overexagerrated butt waving in beat with the music.
(Example of a possible script here?
Song ends, she's still singing aloud, mostly to herself.
Door busts open, in sitcom-y style. Two very silly looking boys walk in.
Aww, no, Mammy, you ain't watchin that rubbish again?
She spins around, you finally see her face.
Oh boy, now dontchu start wit me! This is mah house, and I see fit to do as I please!)
Characters goes as follows (for now):
- Zip Coon: joker of this world, turns out to be controlling it, wants things to stay the same, breaks the 4th wall, talks to the audience. suit and tophat, cane?
- Mammy: begins the play, my character, has Mammy monologues. house dress at first, scarf. She is matronly, but doesn't really have children. Everyone just walks in her house. No husband. No age, although seems old, because of motherly role. Then.. maybe runs around in a slip? Seduced by Uncle Tom. Big breasts, large (fake) bottom. Goes from mammy to sexual being when she is "liberated" (through seduction.)
- Uncle Tom: I want him to read Ted Joan's "Nice Colored Man" as his main monologue. I wanted Uncle Tom to be young at first, now I don't know... He is really polite at first, really cares about what the "white man" thinks. Mammy and Tom are NOT together to begin with. Becomes the "monstrous black man" after poem. Seduces mammy in a "hungry" way. Begins to hate white man, causes mischief, almost "thuggish", full of hate. Has face-off with Zip Coon by the end of the play. (Eeny, meeny, miney, moe/ Catch a whitey by the toe/ If he hollars, cut his throat: These are the last lines of Ted Joans' poem "Nice Colored Man", my inspiration for Uncle Tom's character, and the inspiration for my blog name, too!!)
- Yella Gal: Seen as total slut/bimbo, but actually very innocent. Only one not in Blackface, constantly told how she could almost pass for white if she wasn't always running around with them "good-for-nothing nigger boys." Raped/sexually abused when younger? Especially by white men, maybe mother was raped by a white man. Tragic character. Falls in love with The Intellectual, he begins to educate her a bit. He impregnates her. She plans on escaping, starting new life for her and her baby, but ends up committing suicide/going a bit crazy Ophelia-style because of the pressure of motherhood (The Black Woman) or I dunno, I don't want her to be the weak victim all the time. (Maybe the only character left alive or sane or going back to the way thing were in the end of the play is Mammy,who takes the Yella Gal's child to rear it up as her own. She might put her scarf back on to symbolize this..?)
- The Radical Intellectual: New in town, very radical. Hates white man of course, but everything feels like he is intellectualizing their oppression and make fun of him, don't understand what he's talking about, black separatism, fighting the man, blah blah blah. Brings only books with him, totally broke. Starts fling with yella gal because she's the closest thing to white in the town (ironic moment? "downfall" of black man, loves white women). Helps inspire Uncle Tom, gives him a book, maybe? Says monologue "Dear Whitey, Please Give Me Back My Watermelon" that's where you really see the first change in characters, his is the most blatant, begins changing in the monologue, talking about how he had to give up things for the white man, his vocabulary, fried chicken, etc, but can't give up watermelon- the melon is what turns him into your average lazy coon. Forgets about everything, just wants to be lazy. Although everyone in this world is going through a rebellion, his can be seem as a recession. But as seen in the Dear Whitey poem, his life is still controlled by the white man's stereotypes. He thinks he is escaping them by doing the exact opposite but he is still playing their game. Reverting to his coonish ways, by being lazy and eating his watermelon and using ebonics, and enjoying them, he is reclaiming them in a way - this is his personal rebellion, his own revolution!
Pickaninnies: Children of all different ages that run in and out of the scenes. They could be Mammy's children but no one knows exactly who they belong to. They are wild, playing dice and gambling, reprsenting the more cartoon-y stereotypes of black people. They change by being quieter, neater dressed, carrying books, holding doors, small changes for comedic effect.
Old Man: Kind of like Zip Coon's hype man. Sits ina rocking chair encouraging Zip's interactions with the audience, says little, does little. Even his change is for comedic effect. Maybe seen knitting? Maybe reading book, tells ZC to "shh! Im reading!" Maybe rocking chair just left empty on stage when ZC wants to talk to him...? I dunno yet.
Of course, during intermission, I'll be serving watermelon, fried chicken and kool-aid, but fancy, have servers giving them out like au doirves (sp??)
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If you were able to read all of that, you are amazing and thank you.
Here's a clip to the video that started it all:
http://www.prefixmag.com/media/t-pain/ringleader-performance-bet-awards-2008-video/19560/
![[militant?]quack(&)bleer](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SJmxsu3Ghi0/SzFvVdLqP6I/AAAAAAAAAH4/F-iYIVwxf58/S660/100_4526.JPG)
