The event I attended was one of the many plays that takes place on campus in the arts building. The play I specifically attended was called Appropriate, which was originally written by playwright, Branden Jacobs Jenkins. The play was approximately 3 hours in length with an intermission included into that time. Overall, the play specifically deals with family conflict and the whole idea of race itself. All of the main characters in the play are all interconnected family members that originally are from the south. The main characters included: Toni (eldest sister who recently lost her job and is divorced, Frank (youngest brother who was a past drug used and alcoholic), and Bo (eldest brother who is a wealthy businessman). The more secondary characters in the play included: Rachel (Bo's Jewish wife), Ainsley (Bo and Rachel's youngest daughter), Cassidy (Bo and Rachel's eldest daughter, River (Frank's Fiancée), and Rhys (Toni's son) Ugly family secrets are uncovered in this play, while a family sorts through the estate of their deceased father. A grueling photo album is found during the whole cleanup process and it arises a variety of conflict. The photo album contained pictures of African Americans being lynched, abused, and dehumanized. This lead to the belief that the deceased father/grandfather of the family was a racist and possibly a part of the Klu Klux Klan at some point in time in the past. All of the siblings couldn’t grasp the fact that the album actually belonged to their father and tried…
Through precise staging and performance styles, contemporary Australian theatre combines the elements of drama as well as the conventions and traditions of many theatre movements to illustrate the struggles of the characters in an agreeable and interesting way for both the audience and performers.…
I saw the Addams Family Play in the Lunt Fontanne Theater in New York City. I came in very excited to see this play because I had seen a few other Broadways before and they were all excellent. I was also excited because Brooke Shields, who I just found out was famous for something although I wasn’t sure what, was playing Morticia. The play was the best one that I had ever seen without a doubt. I hope I get a chance to see it again.…
at the John Anthony Theatre at the Spring Creek Collin College campus on March 9, 2014.…
A Streetcar Named Desire and Running were two of the plays I attended this semester, saying both plays did a fantastic job is an understatement. Each play had interesting storylines that kept me intrigued throughout the duration of the entire showing. All the characters and respective directors did an awesome job as well. Although I had not been to many plays before coming to Washington College, had the plays not been mandatory I feel I still would have enjoyed attending them regardless. Both plays had clear objectives, obvious character identities, identifiable locations, consistent voice and movement, active listening and focus, and kept me interested as well as being believable. Attending the plays were the best decisions I could have made.…
Of the many live performances I have been able to see, by far my favorite is Wicked. I have always been drawn to plays that are fantasy-based versus those that focus on realism. Wicked is a complete fun-ride of fantasy from beginning to end. From it's variety of outrageous characters to it's musical score, each aspect of drama is clear and defined in this play. Theme, music, and spectacle will be the focus in this essay, but that is not to say each aspect does not have a role in the show. Wicked presents the aspects of drama in a way that an audience remembers.…
Godspell, by Stephen Schwartz, is a musical that depicts counterculturalists from all walks of life coming together to learn from a Jesus figure. The play directly quotes the stories and parables found in the book of Matthew. While the play’s parables can be explored to find their overall message of love and redemption, the play can also be observed as an artifact of the countercultural movement.…
On the evening of March 23, 2006 my boyfriend and I made a visit to Brenham, Texas to see a play entitled "The Heiress." Playing the role of an audience member for the night, we dressed nicely (even though we were traveling to one of the smallest towns in Texas), went to a nice dinner at On the Border, and went to the show. We participated as an audience member in that we had to travel to the performance and were able to take part in the play from a visually entertaining side versus an actual performing side.…
In seventh grade, I was first introduced into the theatre world by a group of my eighth grade friends singing a song I had never heard before. I did not have the time to ask them what it was called, but they told me it was from a musical called Wicked; the song in question was called “What is This Feeling?”, though at the time, all I knew was that it was about some people hating each other; back then, I’d believed it to be a love song between the Wicked Witch of the West and some unnamed male lead. I did not know anything about the musical other than it was about the Wicked Witch of the West and how she was supposedly good. This, being a novel concept to me, seemed idiotic, and I rejected the notion of such a silly musical. Since then, I had heard from numerous people that this was a great musical, and by the time I came to Parkview in 2009, I’d grown to be fed up with all of this talk of witches and scarecrows and something about gravity. I gave in, decided to try and find the soundtrack on iTunes, but, as these things go, I forgot about it almost immediately.…
Willy Loman, a character in the play, Death of a Salesman, is a man who desperately wants to be successful, but has to deal with many setbacks in his life. He, like most others, has both positive and negative personality traits. The way Willy sees himself, as well as the way others see him changes between the beginning and the end of the play. At the beginning of the play, Willy sees himself as being successful and well-liked. This is partly because he is trying to maintain a successful image for the sake of his friends and family. Willy puts great emphasis on his theory that one is more successful if they are attractive and well-liked. According to him, he is well known throughout New England and can sell things to many people there, even going as far as to stay that he is vital there. Willy is also very proud of the fact that he averages one hundred and seventy dollars in sales in 1928. When he looks at these accomplishments, he feels successful and well-liked.…
A Broadway director criticised Tennessee Williams’ original Act Three on three counts. He claimed that Big Daddy should not be absent from the Act; that there should be perceptible change in Brick’s character after his interview with Big Daddy; and that the character of Maggie should be more sympathetic.…
“Sweet Charity,” directed by Miriam Mills, had its first showing. “Sweet Charity” is a play that is conceived, staged, and choreographed by Bob Fosse. The play is about a woman named Charity who works as a hostess at a dance hall called The Fandango Ballroom. Charity is first seen as she is pushed into a lake by her boyfriend. She talks to her friends, Helene and Nickie, at her work about her boy troubles. We see Charity next meet a famous actor, Vittorio Vidal, who after getting into a fight with his girlfriend takes Charity out to dinner and dancing and then later back to his apartment after she faints. She tells her friends about she had been with Vittorio the night before which prompts the girls to have a discussion about wanting to do more with their lives. Charity then attends (or tries to) a seminar at the local YMCA where she meets her love interest, Oscar. We see them as good for one another until at the end of the play where she ends up in the lake again, but then she is okay with wanting to still make a better life for herself. Through all of this the playwright’s point is to show that no matter what your situation in life is, if you have a good outlook on life you can make a better life for yourself, and that you do not always need to rely on a man to make you happy.…
For my play critique I went to Sunnyslope High School to see their production of The Snow Queen. All in all the theme of this play can be seen as love. Gerda expresses about every single scene how she loves Kai and will do anything to get him back. This play sounded extremely well put on, and then I saw it and wasn’t impressed even slightly.…
The play being discussed in this critique will be Metamorphoses written and originally directed by Mary Zimmerman. The URI Theatre department produced its own version directed by Steven Raider-Ginsburg. It was performed between the dates of February 21-March 3, 2013. Costume design was by David T Howard, Scene design by Patrick Lynch. Lighting design was handled by Christian Wittwer and Sound design was by Michael Hyde. This production shows students continuing their development as actors thru the form of Theatre.…
A form of drama that emphasizes the absurdity of human existence by employing disjointed, repetitious, and meaningless dialogue, purposeless and confusing situations, and plots that lack realistic or logical development.…