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Function of theatre and drama
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Seeing a play is something every person should experience once in his or her life. Being able to see the actors and actresses preform in such an elegant way and witnessing all the props and lighting being used to bring the play to life is something simply not possible to experience from a screen. From on-Broadway, to off-off-Broadway, and even to small college plays, every play a person goes to brings unforgettable experiences that can be looked back upon for years to come. The play When the Rain Stops Falling is a play that gave me an unforgettable experience recently. With its unique theater and talented actors and actresses, it is certainly an experience I feel everyone should go through some time in their life. The playwright of this play, Andrew Bovell, first premiered When the Rain Stops Falling in 2008 at Australia’s Adelaide Festival and it was a hit from the start. The play then moved to Sydney, Melbourne, London, and finally, America where it won “The Best New Play of the Year” by Time Magazine, and won five 2010 Lucille Lortel Awards (“When the Rain Stops Falling” 1). This play was one that took the viewer’s minds to a new level, and gave them an …show more content…
Some actors also play multiple different characters in the play, which forces the viewers to take out their playbook and pay attention to the characters and time periods. It can get very confusing even though there may only be nine different characters if the viewer does not pay close attention. This play takes us back and forth between four generations of this family’s fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, wives, and lovers. Will all that is constantly going on and the constant foreshadows thrown at the audience, it is certainty a play of impressive proportions that leaves the audience completely satisfied when they finally understand all the
He also greets and dismisses the audience at the beginning and end of each act. The stage manager interrupts daily conversation on the street. The Stage Manager enters and leaves the dialog. He is also giving the foresight of death in the play. His informality in dress, manners, and speech, connects the theme, universality, of the production to the audience.
Henry Christ points out that the play is like a lock with many keys. Each key presents just a portion of the possibilities. Every new version opens up new vistas, without stopping new interpretations. Every generation studies the play, but never comes up with all relevant answers (Christ, 321).
...ly progressed from a way to tell stories about kings and gods to a way to tell stories about ordinary human beings. By moving our focus off of nobility, the language of plays became the language of every individual, and eventually, due to America’s “melting pot” culture, the language itself became individual. The unique language of American dramatic characters represents not only the diversity of the American people, but also the diversity of all human beings. These dramatically dissimilar differences were not typical of older plays when they were written, but now, they are what make American drama so valuable. Our acceptance and love for characters with different values than ours is representative of the love we can develop for those who are different from us. It represents the worldview that our current culture idealizes and strives to achieve: acceptance for all.
As I reflected more and more on Wilson's masterpiece, my anger turned to curiosity instead of my curiosity waning, it grew. I felt like I was unraveling a huge ball of yarn. In a play about family, a million different issues are lived. I was astounded at the number of issues that Wilson touched upon, issues ranging from family relationships, to problems in the workplace, racial tensions, and infidelity. And under each one of these was another, underlying issue, the reason, or the catalyst that enabled these to prevail.
Right after the line, “final uneasiness.” (16) the poem’s intended audience changes. The audience shifts from lovers and their experience with love to a more specific person/intended individual love to him. This is important to understand because it further demonstrates the emotions the speaker has. After the shift, the speaker says “Love, if you love me,/….Be for me, like rain,” (17-19). In this he is demanding that if someone wants to love him or be with him they need to be like rain. The image of rain falling outside is something simple and beautiful. Rain, to some people can be a calming sensation to feel on their cheeks. It is interesting how rain is used in a positive light to describe love because rain is not something one would typically assimilate to love. Rain is beautiful, like love, but to compare the two to illustrate a meaning is thought-provoking. Why would the speaker use rain to describe love? Possibly because it is beautiful like love and has characteristics one may desire in love? This may be true, but conversely it can be assumed that love is difficult to comprehend and that through the use of something out of the ordinary maybe some understanding of the abstract emotion can be facilitated. At the end of the poem the speaker leaves his intended audience with the final phrase of “Be wet/ with a decent happiness.” (23-24). This final phrase is significant because it tells the audience and those who desire
This play brings out the differences between the upper class to that of the middle class and lower class people. Moreover, the characters’ follies and foolishness lies at the core of this drama. Deceit and lies, love and marriage are also some major themes in this drama. There are three acts in this drama, all interlinked with each other. The first act of this drama introduces us to the main characters, their complications and sufferings. There are more complications in the second act. These complications lead the plot to its climax and finally the happy conclusion in the final act. The plot of this play is based on inconsistent actions, unbelievable characters and coincidences. The plot is compact and closely knit but the audiences appreciate the play not because of its unity of scenes but due to the art of characterization employed in the play by Wilde.
The movie begins with self-centered, materialistic Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise), learning the death of his father. To settle his dad’s estate, he and his business partner/girlfriend, Susanna (Valeria Golino) travel to his home town Cincinnati. While he was hoping to inherit all of his dad’s estate, all he got was a car and a collection of rosebushes that he simply has no use for. The remaining $3 million fortune was put into a trust for an unnamed beneficiary. Charlie demands to know the identity of the beneficiary and finds out that it is a mental hospital where his long-lost autistic brother, Raymond (Dustin Hoffman) resides with a caretaker, Dr. Bruner (Gerald R. Molen).
A draft is a form of a social obligations that is just not an ordinary obligation, but it is a legal one. The government is behind it which means that the government has the right to draft you into war whether you agree with it or not. In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien was trapped between the sword and the wall on the decision of going to war or escaping the draft by going to Canada. He had to choose whether or not to risk his life for the sake of his country and family. Throughout the chapter entitled “On the Rainy River” Tim O’Brien tells us the readers how hard was for him to make a decision of whether to go or not. Tim O’Brien puts us on his position by asking rhetorical questions such as “What would you do?” “Would
The role of relationship you have with other people often has direct influence on the individual choices and belief in the life. In the short story “on the rainy river”, the author Tim O’Brien inform us about his experiences and how his interacted with a single person had effected his life so could understand himself. It is hard for anyone to be dependent on just his believes and own personal experience, when there are so many people with different belief to influence you choices and have the right choices for you self. Occasionally taking experience and knowledge of other people to help you understand and build from them your own identity and choices in life.
I experienced Chicago, the Broadway musical, and because I had seen the movie many times before, I knew all the songs and dances by heart. I loved it, but it was actually the movie that influenced me to become a “Chicago fan.” The movie is based on the 1996 Chicago revival of the original musical version of 1975. It was thrilling knowing that the making of the musical into a mainstream production would increase its accessibility and widen its distribution into all the corners of the world; now there is no excuse for people not to experience Chicago, and though not everyone can go to Broadway to see it, just about anyone can indulge themselves in this dazzling movie in the comfort of their homes. In addition to a fantasy world of singing, dancing and Vaudeville, the film also provides a narrative that is explicitly presented through Roxie’s point of view, creating a counter-human side to Roxie’s fantasy world so that the audience can easily identify and engage.
The play’s major conflict is the loneliness experienced by the two elderly sisters, after outliving most of their relatives. The minor conflict is the sisters setting up a tea party for the newspaper boy who is supposed to collect his pay, but instead skips over their house. The sisters also have another minor conflict about the name of a ship from their father’s voyage. Because both sisters are elderly, they cannot exactly remember the ships name or exact details, and both sisters believe their version of the story is the right one. Although it is a short drama narration, Betty Keller depicts the two sisters in great detail, introduces a few conflicts, and with the use of dialogue,
As complex, troubled characters Blanche and Viola established a relationship with the audience, which leaves the audience feeling sympathetic toward them both. The nature of the sympathy felt by the audience varies between characters. Viola loses her brother, and is wash...
William Shakespeare has provided some of the most brilliant plays to ever be performed on the stage. He is also the author of numerous sonnets and poems, but he is best known for his plays such as Hamlet, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Romeo and Juliet. In this essay I would like to discuss the play and movie, "Romeo and Juliet", and also the movie, Shakespeare in Love. The play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare is set in the fictional city of Verona. Within the city lives two families, the Capulets and the Montegues, who have been feuding for generations.
In the play it can be seen that there are various ways in which the
Over the years, the essence of theatre has not only been to entertain, but to also allow the build up of a culture in a quickly growing uncultured generation. Regardless of the existence of so many other forms of entertainment, theatre has always established a commanding niche in most people’s hearts, and is undoubtedly the most realistic form of entertainment (Bruce 12). The acting bit of theatre performances makes things real and in their immediate contexts, allowing the audience to draw conclusions based on what they see. In a majority of cases, also, the play’s setting is such that there is description of definite subjects without which the play cannot make meaning. The above research takes into account A Number by Caryl Churchill. A great deal of issues and aspects can be learnt from the above play with diverse moral lessons, as well. It has long been proved that expression via acting is more direct than when the audience accesses literature in other means. This direct approach gives a broader meaning to a variety of issues in the play, which were not understood, say in videos. Additionally, the play A Number is full of theatrical ideologies with clear depiction and expression of every event. Theatricality and empowerment set this play different from other plays because of clarity in events’ sequence. The author also strives to express the idea of cloning in society as one main means of families’ downfall. This further comes with what literature calls the ‘fate of tragic heroes’, an indication of what is at stake when a person does things out of the ordinary to please him or herself.