Late,
A Cowboy Song
Written by Sarah Ruhl
Directed by Lily Marcotte
Written by Sarah Ruhl
Directed by Lily Marcotte
Creative Team
Ball State University DOTD
Cave Series (Senior Directing Capstone)
November 19th - 24th, 2025
Director: Lily Marcotte
Asst. Director: Emily Newburn
Stage Manager: Jordan Case
Scenic Design/TD: Kaelyn North
Costume Design: Wilhelmina Opferman
Lighting Design: Jeff Stover
Sound & Video Design: Colby Anderson
Photos: Kat Hawthorne
AV Cue Sheet
This play is for all the lady cowboys of heart and mind who ride outside the city limits of convention. Mary, always late and always married, meets a lady cowboy outside the city limits of Pittsburgh who teaches her how to ride a horse. Mary’s husband, Crick, buys a painting with the last of their savings. Mary and Crick have a baby, but they can’t decide on the baby’s name, or the baby’s gender. A story of one woman’s education and her search to find true love outside the box.
Courtesy of Concord Theatricals
Red Motif
Red is a character seemingly diametrically opposite of Crick in many ways. She is a free spirit and very spontaneous, which Crick is certainly not. To emphasize her independence and to build upon the show's Western themes, I created a motif for her that plays at the very beginning and end of the show alongside her introduction and exit, respectfully. This motif includes an eagle cry, a sample of a common Western motif, and a sample of the environmental sounds that frequently follow her throughout the show.
Holiday Cacophony
Part 3 of the show speeds past a year's worth of holidays, all of which blend together to represent Mary's perception of time and life. At the end of the part, Crick and Mary are in their living room preparing to celebrate an ambiguous holiday. As Mary prepares to celebrate their anniversary, the TV shows a New Year's Eve countdown. Crick excitedly and quickly counts along. As the clock hits midnight, there is a cacophony of sounds pulled from each holiday they celebrated that year. They are overwhelming, and become increasingly distant and distorted to highlight Mary's mental state and deteriorating quality of life.
Television Noise
With the exception of a few very intentional moments, there isn't a single second of silence in this production. The scenes are constantly underscored by either a soundscape of the contents of the television. The contents of the TV are comprised of clips of old Westerns, local news, horse and nature imagery, and static. The sounds of dialog often peak through and live in the background of many scenes. This gives the TV a sense of omnipresence in their lives, as it is used not only to help set scene and mood, but to literally show the significance of TV in their lives and memories.