Tracing Nora
by Peter Handy Rutgers Theater Company, 2011 Director: Vincent Murphy Set Designer: Sun Young Park Costume Designer: Elisa DeVincenzi Sound Designer: Latiana Gourzong Prod. Stage Manager: Meghan Fisher Photography by Larry Levanti This new work by Peter Handy asks what happens to Nora Helmer and her children after Ibsen's classic A Doll's House. Set in the modern day, the play is split between Troy (Torvald) Helmer's apartment on the east coast and Nora's new house and life on the west coast. The story follows Kimberly, Troy and Nora's daughter, as she searches to find out what happened to her mother and whether Nora still loves and remembers her.
The lighting for the production aimed to separate the playing area into the many locations featured in the script. Each room of the dollhouse in the background lit up in correlation with the locations in the foreground to help demarcate the space. As the play progressed, the physical structure of the doll house smashed and broke apart in reflection of Kimberly's fracturing mental health. The idea of Kimberly being boxed in and trapped by her past was the inspiration behind the rectilinear room delineations on the deck. |
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