Museum Installation
Metropolitan Museum,NY
Installation
Mdm. ETA HENTz GREEK REVIVAL ROOM
Greek Parlor
Designer
Julie Dash
Producer
Rachel Watanabe-Batton
Production Artist
Elizabeth Colomba
Headpieces:
Stephen Jones
Props
Michael Jortner, Alex Karasz, Natalie Loveland
Production Consultant
Quinn Corte
Floral
Ariel Dearie, Serena Abraham
Lighting Design
Bradford Young
Lighting Technicians
Christian Epps, Sammy Ross
Lighting Programmers
Charlie Winter, Jessica Stevens
A/V Consultant
Moey Inc.
Mannequin Customization
Flladi Kulla, Frank Glover, Studio EIS
Special thanks
Eartha Kitt Family
Orson Welles, "Time Runs," An Evening with Orson Welles (and Eartha Kitt), August 1950
Greek Revival Parlor
Orson Wells was an American director, actor, writer, and producer who rocked the airwaves in 1938 with his radio broadcast War of The Worlds. He was also widely considered one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time. In the 1950s, Orson Wells staged a production of Helen of Troy, and Eartha Kitt, an African American chanteuse, a star of stage and screen, took on the lead as the mythological daughter of Zeus. Orson Wells was bold, a risk-taker, a filmmaker, and an American iconoclast. In that same connection, we will follow his lead…
For the Greek Revival parlor, I intend to stage Helen of Troy with Mdm. Eta Hentz’s original formal gowns, and the square-jawed face of the sultry Eartha Kit are prominent on the Helen mannequin.
Mannequin poses will reflect the early Helen of Sparta (holding a golden apple) in conversation with her conversion to Helen of Troy (in the shadow of a Trojan Horse).
LOCATION AND PERIOD
Bronze Age (1300 BC)
Myrcene Warrior Society
COSTUMES
Mdm. Etna Hentz’s diaphanous robes and dresses
MANNEQUINS
Hera (presenting the golden apple to Helen)
Athena
Aphrodite
Helen (in flight, running, looking over her shoulder)
HAND PROPS FOR MANNEQUINS
Golden Apple
Tray of green olives
Pandora’s box
B&W FILM PROJECTION
(through windows, as if it’s playing outside)
Helen of Troy (1924)
German silent drama directed by Manfred Noa
One of the most ambitious epics made during the silent era, all prints of this motion picture have disappeared, but there is a digital version on YouTube. Most motion pictures produced in the 1920s are now public domain (see attached Mp4).
FLOATING DOWN FROM CEILING
Notions of a warrior culture
Mythological Greek creatures
Cherubs with bows & arrow