Analysis of The hungry earth and we shall sing for the fatherland
According to Panday (2004:1) ‘‘South African theatre is renowned for its combination of protest and innovation. Thus South African protest theatre has always been a vehicle through which the voice of South Africans, irrespective of race, could be heard. The theatre was a tool for healing, for empowerment, to educate, to reinforce unity and identity, and a weapon to fight with against oppression. Theatre even continued to fulfil this responsibility once apartheid had been dismantled’’.
However, protest theatre is a type of drama which presents itself in various situations of political conflict and social oppression. In addition, Protest theatre can be used as an umbrella or broad word to refer to drama used to stand against apartheid. This paper aims at finding common themes expressed in the play written by Maishe Maponya ‘‘The hungry earth’’ and
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In addition, government or politicians took advantage of their power for their personal gain. Through the play there were two hoboes who have been denied to use the public park and were requested to pay bribery. In a lawful manner this is corruption and denying someone the right to land.
Looking at Maponya’s play things are little bit different as the play is concerned with social, economic and cultural effects of South African migrant labour system. The first incident is located in the hostel room whereby four labourers are talking to each other sharing their experiences such as humiliation and mistreatment from the hands of the employees or oppressors. ‘‘Scene two, the sugar plantation depicts the condition of labour on a plantation where wages are low, working condition is poor and children are made to do manual labour to earn poverty wages’’
In this essay Mura expresses his anger towards the Broadway production Miss Saigon. Mura “protest . . . [actor equality] against the producer’s casting . . . [Mura] felt disturbed that again a white actor, the British Jonathan Pryce, was playing
Race shouldn’t be the way how people are seen and treated. In the book “Dutchman and The slave” by LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka) demonstrates the racial problems of how people with different color see each other. The Dutchman and The slave misjudgement of race that all race with same color are the same. This judgement shows how the world see other people with different ethnicity, culture, and race different from them. This misunderstanding cause big wars and fights between people of different race. Dutchman and The Slave has a huge meaning surrounding the racial problems within the book which draws readers intention to refer with the world outside and how it 's the same and different. These two plays gives the diversity of the world and its inception.
It is difficult to imagine a play which is completely successful in portraying drama as Bertolt Brecht envisioned it to be. For many years before and since Brecht proposed his theory of “Epic Theatre”, writers, directors and actors have been focused on the vitality of entertaining the audience, and creating characters with which the spectator can empathize. ‘Epic Theatre’ believes that the actor-spectator relationship should be one of distinct separation, and that the spectator should learn from the actor rather than relate to him. Two contemporary plays that have been written in the last thirty years which examine and work with Brechtian ideals are ‘Fanshen’ by David Hare, and ‘The Laramie Project’ by Moises Kaufman. The question to be examined is whether either of these two plays are entirely successful in achieving what was later called, ‘The Alienation Effect”.
...o the performer, as a creative artist, but it also helps to bond the group of collaborators to create a more dynamic and personal relationship, which is reflected in performance. Every single devised theatre company is different from one another because the works created by the company are unique to the performers and collaborators for the company. “Devised theatre offers the performer the chance to explore and express personal politics or beliefs in the formation and shaping of the piece.” (Alison Oddey 11). Devised theatre holds importance today because it gives an outlet to the performer to be able to express their political views which is relevant to the climate of the time. This type of theatre is often about more than performing pieces that are created by the group, there are often elements of current culture, whether they are political, social, or economic.
My work proposes a broader view of the theatre-film interface, one that relies on intertextuality as its interpretive method. I believe it is valuable-both pedagogically and theoretically-to ask broad questions about the aesthetic, narrative, and ideological exchanges between the history of theatre and contemporary film and television. For example, this paper will study how the "Chinese Restaurant" episode of the sitcom, Seinfeld, intertextually reworks Samuel Beckett's modernist play, Waiting for Godot. In each text, characters encounter an existential plight as they are forced to wait interminably, and thus confront their powerlessness at the hands of larger social forces. As a pedagogical matter, this connection encourages the students to see academic culture in the guise of having to read Beckett's play for my course, not as foreign and alienating, but instead as continuous with their understanding of leisure activities like watching sitcoms. As a theoretical matter, this intertextual connection allows important ideological matters to come into bold relie...
Over the course of approximately one-hundred years there has been a discernible metamorphosis within the realm of African-American cinema. African-Americans have overcome the heavy weight of oppression in forms such as of politics, citizenship and most importantly equal human rights. One of the most evident forms that were withheld from African-Americans came in the structure of the performing arts; specifically film. The common population did not allow blacks to drink from the same water fountain let alone share the same television waves or stage. But over time the strength of the expectant black actors and actresses overwhelmed the majority force to stop blacks from appearing on film. For the longest time the performing arts were the only way for African-Americans to express the deep pain that the white population placed in front of them. Singing, dancing and acting took many African-Americans to a place that no oppressor could reach; considering the exploitation of their character during the 1930's-1960's acting' was an essential technique to African American survival.
Bertolt Brecht was a German playwright, theatre critic, and director. He created and developed epic theatre with the belief that theatre is not solely for entertainment but also tools for politics and social activism. Previous theatre performances offered a form of escapism. The audience would become emotionally invested in the performance. In contrast to the suspension of disbelief, Brecht never wanted the audience to fall into the performance. He wanted the audience to make judgments on the argument dealt in the play. The aim of epic theatre is to detach the audience from any emotional connection in order for them to critically review the story. The ultimate goal of this theatre is creating awareness of social surroundings and encouraging the audience to take initiative on changing the society.
This tragedy pointed out the negatives of sweatshop conditions of the industrialization era. It emphasized the worst part of its times the low wages, long hours, and unsanitary working conditions were what symbolized what sweatshops were all about. These conditions were appalling, and no person should ever be made to work in these conditions.
It is human nature to tell stories and to appreciate and participate in theatre traditions in every society. Every culture expresses theatre and may have their own traditions that have helped pave the way for how they are today. The involvement of African-Americans has increased tremendously in theatre since the nineteenth century and continues to increase as time goes on. African-Americans have overcome many obstacles with getting their rights and the participation and involvement of Theatre was something also worth fighting for. American history has played an important role with the participation of African-Americans in theatre. Slavery occurrence in America made it difficult for blacks in America to be taken seriously and to take on the characters of more serious roles. With many obstacles in the way African-Americans fought for their rights and also for the freedom that they deserved in America. As the participation of African-Americans involvement within the theatre increase so do the movements in which help make this possible. It is the determination of these leaders, groups, and Theaters that helped increase the participation and created the success that African-Americans received throughout history in American Theatre.
The play that we read for this unit is Too Much Punch For Judy, by Mark Wheeller. It is a form of Verbatim Theatre, meaning that it is based on the spoken words of real people. This play is about the story of a young woman who kills her sister in an alcohol related accident. When I first read the play I couldn’t empathize with the story as I haven’t experienced such a shocking event before. In this essay I will describe, analyse and evaluate both my work and the work of other actors in my group, focusing on the mediums, elements and explorative strategies of Drama.
The individuals in Omelas attempt to forget who they oppress in order to maintain their perfect environment. The child of Omelas is stripped of its rights as a human and forced to live in gruesome conditions. “The floor is dirt, a little damp to the touch, as cellar dirt usually is. The room is about three paces long and two wide: a mere broom closet or disused tool room” (LeGuin 4) This child is pushed away from society. The people of Omelas understand that this goes on, but intend to do nothing about it. This concept is involuntary followed by not only the people of Omelas but people in the real world. Just like the residence of Omelas, we oppress factory/garment workers who are forced to live in harsh conditions and fight to keep our needs happy. In his short article, “California’s Garment Workers Reveal…” Davis goes out into the field to explore the conditions and neglect that garment workers face. Davis then interviews a woman who is the head of a labor advocacy group. “ imagine what that heat might feel like with no ventilation,’… Rough conditions—working 10 or more hours a day…baking-hot room…part of the job ” (Davis, Chris. "California 's Garment Workers Reveal: Sweatshops Aren 't Just a Problem Overseas." TakePart. N.p., n.d. Web.) These garment workers work endlessly to meet the needs that the big businesses set. Just like the outside entity that controls the rules set for the
The name of the Bread and Puppet Theatre hails from the custom of sharing freshly baked bread with the theatre visitors to symbolise that art should be an everyday ritual for everyone just like eating bread.` We give you a piece of bread with the puppet show because our bread and theatre belong together. For a long time the theatre arts have been separated from the stomach. Theatre was entertainment.` (Peter Schumann, Bread & Puppet official website). The foremost goal of this theatre is to raise feelings of sensitivity in the viewer and to outline what the terms 'good' and 'evil' mean, especially in political spheres. This reflects the use of the audience as being used to create this form of emotion within the performanceset up, this is done through the raising the elements of sensitivity within their audience. Theatre also places a huge emphasis on the education and popularisation of art. Artists expressing their pacifistic views, strongly opposed to the war in Vietnam, and the enormous dolls created by Schumann have since become a permanent feature in many pacifistic demonstrations. Theatre critiques racial discrimination, deaf royal of natural habitats, compulsory military service and globalism. The theatre spectacles take the role of mentors who teach is lessons of morality - they are full of symbolism, archetypes and they refer to the bible, mythology and folklore.` ìWe believe in puppet theatre as a wholesome and powerful language that can touch men and women and children alike, and we hope that our plays are true and are saying what has to be said, and that they add to your enjoyment and enlightenment ` (Robert Schumann, Bread & Puppet Theatre official website). They focus on en...
Applied Theatre work includes Theatre-in-Education, Community and Team-building, Conflict Resolution, and Political theatre, to name just a few of its uses. However, Christopher Balme states that “Grotowski define acting as a communicative process with spectators and not just as a production problem of the actor” (Balme, 2008: 25). Applied Theatre practices may adopt the following “theatrical transactions that involve participants in different participative relationships” such as Theatre for a community, Theatre with a community and Theatre by a community Prentki & Preston (2009: 10). Whereas, applied theatre one of its most major powers is that it gives voice to the voiceless and it is a theatre for, by, and with the people. However, Applied Theatre practitioners are devising educational and entertaining performances bringing personal stories to life and build
Theatre will always survive in our changing society. It provides us with a mirror of the society within which we live, and where conflicts we experience are acted out on stage before us. It provides us with characters with which we identify with. The audience observes the emotions and actions as they happen and share the experience with the characters in real time.
For thousands of years, people have been arguing that theatre is a dying art form. Many people think theatre is all just cheesy singing and dancing or just boring old Shakespeare, but there is much more to theatre than those two extremes. Theatre is important to our society because it teaches us more about real life than recorded media. Theatre has been around for thousands of years and began as a religious ceremony that evolved into an art form that teaches about the true essence of life. Theatre can incorporate profound, and provocative, observations of the human condition that can transcend time; lessons found in Greek plays can still be relevant to the modern world. People argue that the very essence of theatre is being snuffed out by modern