Ganadie, a one-act play by Ernest E. Ellis.

Ganadie is one of three one-act plays by Ernest E. Ellis, a student in a playwriting class in the English Department.   Ellis had won a Hopwood award for Drama in 1960 for the three plays in a contest judged by University of Michigan faculty members Marston Balch and Ward Morehouse.   [Citation].

The Hopwood Awards are a major scholarship program at the University of Michigan, founded by Avery Hopwood.   [Wikipedia].

The play takes place in the apartment of a young woman named Ganadie.   From her apartment window the audience can see a church across the street.   Above the front door of the church we see a reproduction of The Pietà, a sculpture by Renaissance sculptor Michelangelo.   The Pietà hovers symbolically over the action of the play.   [Wikipedia]

Vatican Pietà  Sculpture by Michelangelo, 1498-99.

In my set design I represented the church with a large black cutout of the tracery of a gothic window suspended in front of the cyclorama at the rear of the stage. It stood out prominently when the cyc was bathed in blue light.   I rigged a slide projector to project an image of the Pietà into the oculus of the tracery.   It worked well except that Christ's head was partially blocked by the tracery.

When I went looking for flats to assemble the walls of the apartment I found nothing but 6- and 14-foot flats.  All the 8-, 10, and 12-foot flats were in use for a production of Look Homeward Angel taking place the same week at Lydia Mendelssohn.  So I built the set with sixes and fourteens. 

Ganadie lives alone but a friend and neighbor named Gretchen visits her frequently.   During the course of the play, while Gretchen is visiting, John arrives with a gift for Ganadie.   Gretchen departs, leaving Ganadie alone with John.   John rapes Ganadie.   Gretchen returns to comfort Ganadie in a tableau reminiscent of the Pieta.

Full set in full light

Full set in subdued light used in the stage production

Full set with no light except for the cyc and a spot on Ganadie.

Detail of the tracery cutout with image of the Pieta projected in the oculus.

The living room area within the apartment.

The bedroom area within the apartment

Ganadie

Ganadie and Gretchen

Ganadie looks across the street to the church.

John's arrival.  From left: Ganadie, Gretchen, John

Ganadie accepts John's gift

Ganadie and John

The rape

Gretchen returns to the apartment to comfort Ganadie in tableau reminiscent of the Pieta.