I’m finally up to the present with these notes, except that it’s past midnight so the dating is still off. So: Golda’s notes from Tuesday, 9.11.07.

We begin with our second design conference. Aaron shares our 3 modes of existence with the team:
1978 – reflecting
1973 – reporting
other time periods – enacting
He also mentions that we are reinforcing certain motifs in certain areas.

On the subject of projection, we reinforce, again, that the play is in Golda’s head. We are using two types of shots, so far: actual memory images in her head (boys with stones in hands) and visual backgrounds for all the characters (Cyprus camp) Steve asks if Golda needs to have seen something, or to prove that Golda could have seen something, to make it a memory image projection. Chad thinks not. Aaron reminds all of us that memory is imagination.

We resume going through cues loosely on p. 14. A question comes up about having other actors record the voices of Golda’s family as a VO. It’s too expensive, but Aaron plays, here and in rehearsal, with the idea of Camille doing some more recording for the purpose.

Big discussion of whether or not to have an Israeli flag / Star of David for “Where nothing was, Israel is.”

After lunch, we run through what we’ve staged so far and then begin staging anew, from mid the Lampshade sequence with Morris. I take some notes in the run.

Discussion of repetition – of progressive vs. digressive storytelling.

Camille: Do you have an idea? A point of view?
Aaron: I don’t have any ideas or points of view, you know that by now.

Camille wonders what Golda was like when angry. If she was a leftie or a rightie. How long ago it was since she got any. I don’t know if we’ll be able to answer these questions historically – we’re entering the realm of Golda as character, not just Golda as historical person – and she’ll have to make up answers, just like you have to when working on Madame Ranevskaya. But I do send them all to the dramaturgs anyway, just in case.

The dramaturgs find me tons of YouTube footage of various missing diplomats. It’s extraordinary. Aaron was right that we didn’t need to order the stuff from Vanderbilt. Again, grateful for the existence of dramaturgs in the world. I could have sworn I had done these searches myself, but they found everything so well and completely. I’m going to look through the clips tomorrow and figure out which will be most useful for Camille.

I drive to SF and pick up Meredith, and we eat at WeBe Sushi before collapsing into her friend’s glorious Guerrero St. Apartment. I talk to Michelle about LA restaurants. And then…notes…