Virtual Reality Production Design

Harlem Renaissance Musical Synopsis

April 2021

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A NIGHT AT GATSBY’S

Adapted by Richard Vigilante

from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s

The Great Gatsby

The honor would be entirely mine

if you would attend my little party tonight.

Jay Gatsby

A Night at Gatsby’s is an invitation to attend one of Jay Gatsby’s fabulous Jazz Age parties and

learn some of his story by listening to the characters’ conversations over five scenes. All dialogue

is taken directly from the novel—no first-person or other narrative content from the novel is used.

This one-act play follows the novel’s chronology from the initial rumors and lies about Gatsby,

through his reunion with Daisy and confrontation with Tom, and ends with Gatsby’s lonely

farewell. All action unfolds over one night from early evening to the following dawn.

A Night at Gatsby’s is a dramatic experiment, a play of constraints. It is constrained by Place,

Time, Cast, and Language. Readers and viewers of this play are guests at one of Gatsby’s parties.

As such, they are present at his mansion (Place) for just one night (Time) and as nonspeaking

participants they hear or overhear the talk of other guests. All guests portrayed in the play are those

likely to be at a Gatsby party (Cast.) And all of the play’s guests only speak the novel’s colloquial

dialogue, not its lyrical narration (Language.)

This document provides summaries of two planned variants of the A Night at Gatsby’s play. A

Night at Gatsby’s VR (pages 2-6) is a virtual reality production that will provide viewers with a

360° immersion into the complete play and into Gatsby’s world. The musical version of A Night

at Gatsby’s—The Harlem Renaissance Musical (pages 7-10) will transport the American Dream

of Jay Gatsby of West Egg through song, dance and drama to the alternate dreams of J Gatsby and

five historical Black Americans in 1922 Harlem.

Copyright © 2021 by Richard Vigilante

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A Night at Gatsby’s VR Virtual Reality Production Design

A Night at Gatsby’s VR is a streaming virtual reality production that will immerse viewers as

guests at one of Jay Gatsby’s fabulous Jazz Age parties to learn some of his story by listening to

the characters’ conversations over five scenes. Viewers access the production wearing a

consumer VR headset such as the Oculus Quest 2 but may also see a 2-D version on a computer

or mobile device. The 2-D viewing experience would be similar to that for the WGBH-

Commonwealth Shakespeare Company production Hamlet 360: Thy Father’s Spirit

(wgbh.org/hamlet360). All stage, bar, orchestra, and dance floor action will be videorecorded

with live actors and musicians on a VR production set instead of a stage. Using the production’s

VR software and hardware platforms, backgrounds for dynamic recordings and for all static

scenery will be created and combined digitally. The viewer’s immersive 360° perspective from

the downstage patio will reveal Gatsby’s mansion, bar, orchestra, dance floor, and sky without

the empty auditorium seats in Hamlet 360.

The production will present 4-minute musical preludes for each of the five dramatic scenes.

During the preludes, video actors of the Paul Whiteman Orchestra and blues singer Alberta

Hunter will perform the following songs as originally recorded in the early 1920s:

• Scene 1: “The Japanese Sandman” by Paul Whiteman's Orchestra.

• Scene 2: "Whispering" by Paul Whiteman's Orchestra.

• Scene 3: "Three O'Clock in the Morning" by Paul Whiteman's Orchestra.

• Scene 4: “Jimmy (I love but you)” by Paul Whiteman's Orchestra.

• Scene 5: “Downhearted Blues" by Alberta Hunter.

As each scene 1 to 4 song plays, digital videos of bartenders and drinkers at the patio bar space

and guests dancing on the floor space to the specific music being played will run. The viewer is

free to scan this 180° of action and linger on the bar-musician-dance spaces at will. As the party

has ended by scene 5, the bar and dance floor spaces are empty when Alberta Hunter sings.

Viewers may also look up at the sky and note the changes in light as time progresses from 7pm

in scene 1 to twilight in scene 3 and to 4am in scene 5. These time changes will be reflected in

the entire virtual set as summer daylight in scenes 1 and 2 shifts to artificial lighting in scenes 3

and 4, and finally to lunar and dawn-sky lighting in scene 5.

When each scene’s prelude music ends, the bar-musician-dance spaces become still and the

actors’ stage performances for the scene will begin. During the five stage performances, viewers

are free to look around the 360° virtual set at will and still hear the actors’ voices.

Exhibit 1 provides a floor diagram of the basic VR set design, and illustrative digital space

displays are shown on pages 4-6. The space displays are not traditional video screen panels but

rather full floor-to-ceiling visualizations that exist only in the virtual set space. There are five

dynamic spaces—Gatsby’s car, patio bar, orchestra, dance floor, and Daisy’s mansion (with the

always-lit green dock light.) There are four static spaces of buildings, hedges, trees, walls, and

Gatsby’s pool to complete the full 360° virtual immersion coverage.

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The viewer will be digitally located in the middle of the patio (comprising the center stage and

downstage). From that perspective viewers have a 90° view of the stage and a 270° view of the

remaining dynamic and static displays that, together with a dynamic sky, will provide a total

immersion in Gatsby’s party and its dramatic conversations and activities.

While the A Night at Gatsby’s VR viewer is primarily an observer, there are some possibilities

for viewer interaction within the play. At the start of the scene 2 prelude, for example, the

orchestra leader could point his baton directly at the viewer and say “This song is for you” before

the orchestra begins playing. During the scene 3 prelude, a waiter could walk out from the bar

area holding a tray of cocktails, bend towards the viewer and ask: “Care for a drink?” And during

the scene 4 prelude, a dancer could walk up to the viewer from the dance floor and with an

extended hand request: “May I have this dance?” With the controller-free hand tracking feature

of the VR headset, viewers would see their digital hands in the headset giving the conductor a

thumbs-up and reaching out for the cocktail glass and the dancer’s hand.

Exhibit 1. Basic Virtual Reality Set Design

Fig. 7 Daisy’s Mansion Fig. 1 Gatsby’s Car

Window Cabinet

Bedroom

Piano Bookcases

Phone Table

Doorway

Drawing-Room

Upstage (Mansion)

Static Digital Scenery

Steps to

6-Seat 4-Seat Table

Upstage Platform

Table 4-Seat Table

Static Digital Scenery

Center Stage (Patio)

Fig. 6 Dance Floor

Static Digital Scenery with Pool

VR

Viewer

Fig. 2 Patio

Bar

Downstage (Patio)

Static Digital

Scenery

Figs. 3-4 Paul Whiteman Orchestra (Scenes 1-4)

Fig. 5 Alberta Hunter (Scene 5)

Dynamic Digital Space

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Figure 1. Gatsby’s Cream-Colored Car (1922 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost)

Figure 2. Gatsby’s Patio Bar

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Figure 3. Paul Whiteman Orchestra: Scenes 1-4

Figure 4. Paul Whiteman: Scenes 1-4 Figure 5. Alberta Hunter: Scene 5

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Figure 6. Gatsby’s Dance Floor

Figure 7. Daisy’s Mansion with Green Dock Light

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A Night at Gatsby’s: The Musical American Dreams in the Harlem Renaissance

Six dreamers, six dreams.

One night in Harlem.

A Night at Gatsby’s.

SYNOPSIS

The musical version of A Night at Gatsby’s is an invitation for audience members to attend one

of Harlem bootlegger J Gatsby’s fabulous Jazz Age parties and learn his and others’ stories by

listening to the characters’ conversations, singing and dancing over five scenes. The musical

follows the play’s chronology from the initial rumors and lies about J Gatsby, through his

reunion with A'Lelia and confrontation with her husband Wiley, and ends with Gatsby’s lonely

farewell. All action unfolds over one night from early evening to the following dawn.

The musical dramatizes J Gatsby and his American Dream of becoming rich to “repeat the past”

and win back his former lover A'Lelia Walker. In many respects, J’s dream is the conventional

WASP American Dream immortalized by Jay Gatsby in Fitzgerald’s novel. J’s dream in the

musical follows the basic storyline and dialogue of the play A Night at Gatsby’s.

But there were other American Dreams—and Dreamers—in New York City’s growing Black

Harlem community of the 1920s. In addition to the fictional J Gatsby, the musical presents

through dialogue and song the stories and dreams of five historical Harlem residents-- A'Lelia

Walker, Dr. Wiley Wilson, W. E. B. Du Bois, Alberta Hunter, and Paul Robeson.

All five of the historical characters in the musical lived in 1922 Harlem and their lives often

intersected. A'Lelia Walker’s live-music parties helped launch the singing careers of Alberta

Hunter and Paul Robeson. Robeson’s many talents were recognized by editor W. E. B. Du Bois

in the NAACP’s The Crisis magazine. Du Bois was a regular at A’Lelia’s salon of Harlem

writers, artists and intellectuals.

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THE DREAMERS

Fictional Characters

in the Play

Historical Characters

in the Musical

Jay Gatsby J Gatsby (Fictional)

Nick Carraway W. E. B. Du Bois

Daisy Buchanan A'Lelia Walker

Tom Buchanan Dr. Wiley Wilson

Jordan Baker Alberta Hunter

Owl Eyes Paul Robeson

J Gatsby

J Gatsby was born in 1890 to sharecroppers and as a youth joined the Great Migration to New

York to escape the poverty and terror of the Jim Crow South. When the United States entered

World War I in 1917, J joined the all-Black 369th Infantry Regiment known as the Harlem

Hellfighters. In the months before his regiment shipped out to France, J attended A'Lelia

Walker’s Harlem townhouse parties where he met and fell in love with A’Lelia. J’s army

uniform disguised his poverty from A’Lelia, but while he was fighting in Europe she resumed

entertaining wealthy suitors and married Dr. Wiley Wilson in 1919. Returning to New York, J

worked for mobster Meyer Wolfsheim and became a wealthy uptown Prohibition-era bootlegger.

Knowing the popularity of A’Lelia’s parties, J bought a townhouse on Harlem’s commercial

125th Street to be close to A’Lelia’s Sugar Hill townhouse and launched his own lavish parties in

hopes of attracting A’Lelia and resuming their pre-war romance.

J Gatsby’s Dream: To use his newfound but ill-gotten wealth to “repeat the past” and win back

his former lover A'Lelia Walker.

A’Lelia Walker was born in 1885 to Madam C.J. Walker, founder of a Black cosmetics and hair

care company and considered the first self-made American female millionaire. A'Lelia became

president of the company in 1919 upon her mother's death and remained in that position until her

own death in 1931. During the 1920s she hosted dinner parties, dances and soirees in her large

136th Street townhouse that featured live music—from classical and ragtime to jazz and blues—

and welcomed prominent Harlemites at a time when there were few other social options

available. Poet Langston Hughes called her the “joy goddess of Harlem’s 1920s” and her parties

were places where anyone could openly express their sensibilities.

A'Lelia Walker’s Dream: To have her townhouse and her parties be a safe, welcoming

environment for Harlem Renaissance musicians, actors, writers, artists, political figures, and

socialites.

Dr. Wiley Wilson was born in 1882 in Pine Bluff, Arkansas and received his MD degree from

Howard University in 1918. He was one of two handsome medical doctor suitors of A’Lelia.

A’Lelia’s mother died in 1919 believing A’Lelia was going to marry Dr. James Kennedy (whom

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she did marry in 1926), but after her mother's funeral, she changed her mind and married Wiley.

Wiley became jealous of A’Lelia’s wealth and focus on running the Walker cosmetics empire

and saw both impeding his growing Harlem medical practice. Wiley was one of the first Black

physicians to establish a surgical practice in Harlem for Black residents.

Wiley Wilson’s Dream: To provide Black patients and medical professionals with a hospital

equal to the white institutions that excluded Blacks, a dream he fulfills with A’Lelia’s 1925

divorce settlement that funded the Wiley Wilson Sanitarium in Harlem.

W. E. B. Du Bois was born in1868 in integrated Great Barrington, Massachusetts and became a

Harvard-trained Ph.D. sociologist, socialist, historian, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, author,

writer, and editor. He was a founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored

People (NAACP) that sought equal rights for Blacks. Du Bois opposed Booker T. Washington’s

policy that Blacks should work and submit to white political rule in return for basic educational

and economic opportunities. He frequently promoted African American artistic creativity in his

writings, but his enthusiasm for the Harlem Renaissance waned as he came to believe that many

whites visited Harlem for voyeurism, not for genuine appreciation of Black art.

W. E. B. Du Bois’s Dream: To achieve full civil rights and racial uplift for Black Americans by

supporting the Black intellectual and artistic elite he called the Talented Tenth.

Paul Robeson was born in 1898 in Princeton, New Jersey to a Presbyterian minister father and a

Quaker mother. He won an academic scholarship to Rutgers College, where he was an All-

American football star and class valedictorian, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1919. While a

student at Columbia University Law School, he sang and acted in many Harlem and Off-

Broadway productions. After receiving his law degree in 1923, he worked briefly as a lawyer but

left the law due to widespread racism.

Paul Robeson’s Dream: To become a world-famous concert artist and stage and film actor

known both for his cultural accomplishments and for his later political activism.

Alberta Hunter was born in 1895 in Memphis Tennessee to a single mother who worked as a

maid in a brothel. Alberta was a jazz and blues singer and songwriter from the early 1920s to her

death at age 89. She was a lesbian who often attended and sang the blues at A'Lelia Walker’s

parties, but she kept her sexuality private. She co-wrote "Downhearted Blues" in 1922 and

recorded the track for Black producer Ink Williams at Paramount Records. Williams had secretly

sold the recording rights to Columbia Records in a deal in which all her royalties were paid to

him. The song became a big hit for Columbia—but with Bessie Smith as the vocalist—and sold

almost one million copies.

Alberta’s Dream: To create a successful career singing the Blues in the best clubs and theatres.

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THE DREAMERS IN THE EARLY 1920s

Dr. Wiley Wilson and A’Lelia Walker A’Lelia Walker’s Harlem Townhouse

W. E. B. Du Bois Paul Robeson Alberta Hunter

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