The Meatlocker - Conceptual Design - Rudy the Rhino

These are some of the first conceptual designs for Rudy the Rhino, one of the Villains in our next big Performance/Production.

Rudy is described in the playscript as...

RHINO... an ex-fighter who quit the mitts cause there was more money to be made as hired muscle. He is a dangerous, competent man. Even as he jokes those around him have trouble forgetting this. He has a full head of grey hair and his face appears as if chiseled in stone. He wears a grey suit, grey slacks, no jewelry. He is always rubbing his hands together, Those knuckles of his are always itchy.

Design wise, the most audacious thing about The Rhino is the upturned nose. This is an effect that is achievable for the Graphic novel, but more difficult with the live stage play. The great thing about the upturned nose is that the script's villains owe a debt the grotesque antagonists from Dick Tracy. Hence, if we can pull off the upturned nozzle it would be a nice visual touch.

There is mention made of Rhino's nose in the playscript. Actually, his nose is the reason from his nickname. No one has been able to break it. His nose bone, nor any of bone. In all his time in the ring and performing as a heavy for various bookies and underground business associates, he has never sustained a broken bone. There is even a tale told how back in the day another boxer broken his knuckles against Rhino's nose in the ring.

Don Hall will be standing in as Rudy the Rhino for the Graphic Novelization of The Meatlocker. Don has also been a part of the developmental process since the play's conception, namely enacting the part of Rudy the Rhino at all our previous read thrus.

From the Production Notebook - Dreams of Dr Jekyll

Script Excerpt from CLAY CONTINENT

Excerpt from Clay Continent

JEKYLL
It is said that Cleopatra was fond of sticking gold pins into the breasts of her slave girls and enjoyed their cries and writhings. You will say that this was relatively speaking, in a barbarian age; that our age is also barbarian, because pins are also being stuck in people; that even today, though man has learned to see more clearly on occasion than he did in barbarian ages, he is still far from having habituated himself to behave according to the dictates of reason and science.

HYDE
Of course, who can tell what people may think up out of boredom! After all, gold pins are also stuck into bodies out of boredom. What’s rotten, and this is again myself speaking is that, for all we know, people might even welcome the gold pins.