THE PORTRAIT OF THE VIRGIN MARY FEEDING THE DINOSAURS BY JEFF GOODE IS COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL, AND MAY NOT BE PERFORMED, DOWNLOADED, OR RE-TRANSMITTED WITHOUT THE AUTHOR'S CONSENT.
(spot slowly up on the Virgin Mary in all her heavenly glory. Her heavenly glory is much more extravagant than it was in the "Lisa's Prayer" scene.)
(spot up on Leveaux standing at an emcee's podium. He is wearing something like his usual costume, but more formal.)
Fashion Show1

LEVEAUX
The Virgin Mary in all her heavenly glory.
(Mary begins to work the runway.)
Mary is wearing a fabulous silk gown with Spanish lace and hand-beaded with pearl and mother of pearl. Her seven-inch tiara has its own independent power supply to operate the one hundred and fifty L.E.D.s and light filaments which create the glowing halo effect. About this costume, designer Susan Crichton says, "We wanted Mary to be an angel coming down to earth, just like you would imagine. It's important that she be the archetypal Mother of God, so that there is, like, this shock when she throws it all on the floor. We had to go to a less complicated costume, though, because this one would have been too difficult to get into and out of quickly." Virgin Mary.
(exit Mary, enter Rex in his rock and roll outfit.)
Rex models his gold lamé suit for us. Seven thousand sequins are sewn to this costume. Ms. Crichton says, "This one hasn't changed much from day one. Rex's costume just needed to say "Elvis" because that scene is sort of an explosion of the idea of fame. We cut the sideburns eventually, because no matter what they tried they made him look less like Elvis, and that's not effect we wanted." Tyrannosaurus Rex.
(exit Rex, enter Rafael)
Rafael is dressed in a simple painters gown modelled after Rembrandt van Rijn's self-portrait of 1648. "We thought the Rembrandt just said, 'Artist', but Rafael is also about sex. He is a man- controlled-by-his-penis type, and we wanted to show that in his costume, so we altered it a little bit, just to make him a little more racy, more sexy." Raffaello Santi.
(exit Rafael, enter Lisa)
Mona, or Lisa is also wearing a painters gown, but with puffed sleeves, a lace bodice and sandals. "For Lisa I also wanted to start with the Rembrandt idea, because she is an artist too, but Jemal pointed out that her qualities as a woman are more important than her painting, so we went with something totally different for the first modelling scene so it's more about innocence and lust, but I did keep some of this costume for the scene where she is trying to paint." Mona/Lisa.
(exit Lisa.)
(Leveaux fumbles with his note cards)
Um, I'm next. Uh... Leveaux is wearing an off-white coat and tails, with white Oxfords. "Leveaux was pretty easy, because he has to just look nice. When I revised this design, I made it a little less formal, because he talks to the audience a lot, and we needed him to be comfortable and approachable, so we went with loafers instead, and selected a jacket with a different cut." And that's me.
(Leveaux returns to his podium, enter Mephistopheles)
Mephistopheles cavorts about in his usual crimson tux with scaly green gauntlets and booties. "For the scene where Meph impersonates Jack, I thought the gloves were a simple way to make him look like Jack when he is sitting in the chair, facing upstage. Because we wanted to emphasize that he is Mephistopheles speaking through Jack the art dealer, we added more green to his body, and the little headpiece, so we don't forget that Rafael thinks he's a dinosaur. And we cut the boots." Mephistopheles.
(Mephistopheles exits)
(Phil and Jack enter, they pose comically together)
And finally, Phil and Jack are ready for the town in two versions of their green vests. "The green vests were harder than you would think. These are two of the early vests. It was difficult, because you don't want them to be too visible, because Phil and Jack have to be these cartoony dinosaurs, and not just people in dinosaur suits. So you can't dress them up like people, or they look like they're supposed to be people, but if you make the vests match their skin, too much, then we don't notice them. I actually liked the one with the black trim best." Phil and Jack Dinosaur.
(Phil and Jack exit)
(Jesus enters, strikes contemplative poses)
I'm sorry, I'm out of order here.
Mary's son, Jesus is wearing a 15th century tunic and frock coat with hair extensions for his beard, and John Lennon spectacles. "This design is based on the painting by Raphael, but Jemal suggested that Donatello's Christ might be more recognizable. The glasses were a little anachronistic bit, but we cut them because it seemed like it was distracting from the anachronisms that are built into the script if the audience is too busy thinking about the glasses." Jesus Christ.
(Leveaux turns off the reading lamp on his podium.)


1This is a temporary scene which I have extrapolated from a hypothetical design process. The actual scene to be used in the play will have to be created after the costumes have been finalized.
The idea of this scene, though, is that it be a fashion show of some of the costume designer's "first draft" costumes, with Leveaux reading some of the costumer's actual comments on how these became the final designs. The purpose of the scene will be three fold: 1) Give "behind the scenes" insight into the process of creating theatre in general, and the costumes in particular. 2) Highlight some of the director's concepts. 3) Highlight some of the playwrights intentions.

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