AGE OF SEPIA (The Exoticism of Blondes and Brunettes) by
Synopsis of AGE OF SEPIA (The Exoticism of Blondes and Brunettes)
Two women, a blonde and brunette, meet again after many years in a small vacation town far away from modern life. Jogged by the unearthing of an old sepia-toned photo, they remember the relationship they once shared with “cousin Hank”, a budding photographer, when all three were young and naive about love. 25 years ago they...
Two women, a blonde and brunette, meet again after many years in a small vacation town far away from modern life. Jogged by the unearthing of an old sepia-toned photo, they remember the relationship they once shared with “cousin Hank”, a budding photographer, when all three were young and naive about love. 25 years ago they...
Synopsis of AGE OF SEPIA (The Exoticism of Blondes and Brunettes)
Two women, a blonde and brunette, meet again after many years in a small vacation town far away from modern life. Jogged by the unearthing of an old sepia-toned photo, they remember the relationship they once shared with “cousin Hank”, a budding photographer, when all three were young and naive about love. 25 years ago they spent a summer together at “Granny’s” cabin in the woods. Their love and memories of Granny permeate the reality of their relationship which was documented with hank’s old camera using black and white film. Scenes flash forward and backward in time, accompanied by projections of photos in black & white and sepia.
The play deals with archetypal roles of women and men of the 50’s and the stereotypes of blondes, brunettes and skin color. The beige tone sepia photos exoticized the subjects in the portraits in the same way black and white movies exotized blondes and brunettes. As the women progress from sepia-toned characters of the 50’s to full color complex characters of the 2000’s, their ideas of gender roles change.
This play first began during an playwriting workshop with Maria Irene Fornes at Theatre For the New City in 1995. The genesis came from the writing exercise using black & white/sepia-toned photos from an anonymous family album that was found at a flea market. The photo of a blonde and a brunette reminded me of the sepia-toned photo albums of my young parents in Peru in the 50’s. I noticed that the absence of full color reduced the obvious racial differences and tended to exoticize the people in the portraits. Every day folks looked like they were in a Hollywood movie of the 40’s and 50’s. This notion of color versus black & white is explored literally and figuratively in this play about obsessive relationships and family .
Two women, a blonde and brunette, meet again after many years in a small vacation town far away from modern life. Jogged by the unearthing of an old sepia-toned photo, they remember the relationship they once shared with “cousin Hank”, a budding photographer, when all three were young and naive about love. 25 years ago they spent a summer together at “Granny’s” cabin in the woods. Their love and memories of Granny permeate the reality of their relationship which was documented with hank’s old camera using black and white film. Scenes flash forward and backward in time, accompanied by projections of photos in black & white and sepia.
The play deals with archetypal roles of women and men of the 50’s and the stereotypes of blondes, brunettes and skin color. The beige tone sepia photos exoticized the subjects in the portraits in the same way black and white movies exotized blondes and brunettes. As the women progress from sepia-toned characters of the 50’s to full color complex characters of the 2000’s, their ideas of gender roles change.
This play first began during an playwriting workshop with Maria Irene Fornes at Theatre For the New City in 1995. The genesis came from the writing exercise using black & white/sepia-toned photos from an anonymous family album that was found at a flea market. The photo of a blonde and a brunette reminded me of the sepia-toned photo albums of my young parents in Peru in the 50’s. I noticed that the absence of full color reduced the obvious racial differences and tended to exoticize the people in the portraits. Every day folks looked like they were in a Hollywood movie of the 40’s and 50’s. This notion of color versus black & white is explored literally and figuratively in this play about obsessive relationships and family .