Production Problems Posed By Our Context

The first issue that we as a department would face would be the content of the play, as an academic institution we are aware that “Quills” is not about pornography but about censorship, however the social climate of Huntsville may be too caught up in the racy subject matter to appreciate the deeper issues of the play. From a production standpoint one of the most difficult issues would be how to handle the nudity since the university may be against it. The scene where Madeline is murdered and her body is shown to the audience hoisted up on ropes would be a safety issue as well as a financial one, since a flying team would have to be hired. Another difficult scene to stage is when the resurrection scene with Madeline and the Abbe, the sacrilegious use of the Christ like imagery with the Marquis as well as the Abbes’s sexual fantasy might be a little too heavy for the average Huntsville audience. This show would make for an interesting Summer Rep experience since our audiences tend to be smaller and comprised mainly of theatre students and other members of academia, who could appreciate the show and understand the message on censorship without being distracted by the otherwise graphic content.