After our group (Lindsey, Stephanie, Rushali and myself) spent a few hours listening and going over the songs from Hedwig and the Angry inch, we decided we wanted to work with the song Wig in a Box for our design assignment for our midterm. Here are the lyrics:
On nights like this
When the world's a bit amiss
And the lights go down
Across the trailer park
I get down
I feel had
I feel on the verge of going mad
And then it's time to punch the clock
I put on some make-up
Turn on the tape deck
And put the wig back on my head
Suddenly i'm miss midwest
Midnight checkout queen
Until i head home
And i put myself to bed
I look back on where i'm from
Look at the woman i've become
And the strangest things
Seem suddenly routine
I look up from my vermouth on the rocks
A gift-wrapped wig still in the box
Of towering velveteen.
I put on some make-up
And some lavern baker
And pull the wig down from the shelf
Suddenly i'm miss beehive 1963
Until i wake up
And turn back to myself
Some girls they got natural ease
They wear it any way they please
With their french flip curls
And perfumed magazines
Wear it up
Let it down
This is the best way that i've found
To be the best you've ever seen
I put on some make-up
And turn up the eight-track
I'm pulling the wig down from the shelf
Suddenly i'm miss farrah fawcett
From tv
Until i wake up
And turn back to myself
Shag, bi-level, bob
Dorothy hammil do,
Sausage curls, chicken wings
It's all because of you
With your blow dried, feather back,
Toni home wave, too
Flip, fro, frizz, flop,
It's all because of you
It's all because of you
It's all because of you
I put on some make-up
Turn up the eight-track
I'm pulling the wig down from the shelf
Suddenly i'm this punk rock star
Of stage and screen
And i ain't never
I'm never turning back
Our collective summary of the show
One Simple Sentence.
Hedwig & The Angry Inch is about the conflicts of self-identification.
- a search for stardom and love but finding out who she really is along the way
- Redemption
- Love and recognition
- love, sex and rock n’ roll
- figuring out who we are
- the changes one goes through in life
- The falsehood of physicality imposed on our identities
- The physical artifice of ones identity
One Complex Sentence.
Hedwig & The Angry Inch is about how we find independence and self-acceptance within ourselves despite the expectations of others and identities imposed on our bodies.
- the redemption one can experience by letting go and lifting others
- a woman who puts her faith and love in everyone else in her life only to get hurt
- figuring out who we are, who we want to be, and how our friends, family and partners help us become that.
Three-Five Sentence concepts. (yourself-context-content)
Theatre is out, debauchery is in. While previously a [flourishing doll-factory or famed theatre featuring the 10-year run of ‘Barbie: The Musical TBD’], the Belasco has since fallen into disrepair. In an abandoned state, it’s been co-opted by the local “weirdos”: a home for squatters, a dance hall for clubbers, a thunderdome for exiles. Within this space that’s at odds with itself, Hedwig and her partner Yitzhak also reconcile their own corporeal-vs-self identities and the expectations thrust upon them by others. The physical space and complimentary projections exacerbate this question of fragmented, unstable and changing identity through distortion, reflectivity, and juxtaposition. Ultimately, our heroes find and define themselves not to satisfy social norms, but their own best desires.
Who we once were or currently are, isn’t who we always have to be.
Context:
- abandoned space, disrepair - not currently being used
- reclaiming, fixing up of the theatre
- (whether it was a sex factory, or a theatre who’s last performance was barbie the musical years years years ago)
Content:
- Wig in a box
- Hiding oneself under a wig
- Becoming someone else
- Feelings of inferiority
- Feelings of pleasing someone else
- Physical identity vs. internal identity
- Disguise
Visual Research
Research Themes
