Miss Firecracker Contest Play Analysis

Sydney Batson

DRA-111-01W

07/30/15

Performance Review

“The Miss Firecracker Contest”

Yesterday night I reviewed the play “The Miss Firecracker Contest” In Wilmington, North Carolina at Big Dawg Productions. The play started out as Carnell Scott, 24-year-old orphaned southern girl who lives in Brookhaven, Mississippi. She is tap dancing in her room with a purple leotard and some kitchen utensils used as creative batons practicing her routine for The Miss Firecracker Contest.

Carnell’s father dropped her off at her aunt’s Ronelle’s house with her two cousins, Delmount Williams and Elain Rutledge. Delmount was put into a mental institution after a fight gone wrong, while Elain married well with a rich man. Aunt Ronelle had recently died

of cancer. She had a pituitary gland transplant from a monkey. After receiving the transplant it had caused her body to react in growing many long black hairs covering her whole body. This didn’t stop her though, she had taken pride in her reaction and even allowed people to come and photograph her interesting body.
Carnell Scott had the dream of recreating her image known as “Miss Hot Tamale” She started taking a orphan to dinner once a week and even volunteering for a cancer society. Previously she had been with many men from Brookhaven and blamed it on her childhood, but her act resulted in a serious disease called syphilis that she had passed around to Mac Sam, an old boyfriend before she recovered. Mac Sam still has strong feelings for his last love, Carnell. Carnell is adamant to win The Miss Firecracker Contest to recreate her image and let the town citizens know she’s going out with a bang because she is a new individual with better intentions.
Carnell Scott and her newly found friend, Popeye Jackson are preparing for the soon contest. Popeye is new to town and is she great at sewing. She receives her name from a mishap when she was a young child. She accidentally put eardrops into her eyes, which resulted in her eyes bulging out of her face, hence the nickname “Popeye”, which stuck around. Popeye knows there is something about Carnell’s cousin Delemount that she can’t resist from a photo she finds in the living room. When Delemount comes back from the institution they didn’t hit it off very well. Delemount seemed very hatred towards everyone.
During the day of the contest, Carnell is extremely nervous and some things happen that are unfortunate during this time.

Her red dress does not end up fitting her perfectly and adds a different shade of red strip to the waist and it is very noticeable. On one of the acts, she trips and falls. The crowd laughs and throws random items at her while calling her “Miss Hot Tamale”. In Carnell’s last patriotic act, she aces it and thinks it’ll give her a second chance in winning. When the results for the contest roll around, she sees that she didn’t win first place in the The Miss Firecracker Contest, she came in very last at 5th place. She is

devastated.
Later she learns the pageant was never as important as she believed it to be and is finally content with her relationship with the town. Delmount ends up confessing his love for Popeye. They both end up watching the fireworks on the roof of a small building while discussing their future. They see Carnell and invite her to watch fireworks with them and she denies at first, but then comes along. The play ends with Delmount, Popeye, and Carnell, admiring the fireworks together.
Overall, the play was fantastic. This is my first play that I’ve ever encountered. I will say, I didn’t love the surroundings. The play was not in the best area but everyone inside made it better. They all seemed very nice and passionate about his or her job. The actors really got into their character role; they never once stepped out of character. One of the issues that kind of aggravated me throughout the play was that Cousin Elaine was trying too hard on her southern accent. I’m not sure if this was the intended reaction the director wanted me to get, but her accent didn’t even sound real in my opinion. Other than that, the speech and actors themselves had everything together perfectly.
The scenery of the play really fit in well with the surroundings. On the handout they gave me it said the setting was placed in Brookhaven, Mississippi; a small southern town. The inside of the house was all older furniture and some of the tables and accessories they had for decoration looked antique. It flowed really well with what they wanted it to come across of.
The story itself only seemed dated to me because of the setting it was supposed to be in.

I don’t think that is bad either, because that is what they wanted and they achieved their goal. The Miss Firecracker show is entertaining and hilarious all in one. Popeye is witty and awkward, Carnell strives attention, Elaine is a southern bell, and Delemount acts crazy the entire time. I loved it. I wasn’t sure what the play was about when I bought the tickets but it is definitely something that I would do again. I didn’t see any problems with the play either. The scenery was representational, the actors understood their role, it was entertaining, the lighting was on schedule and accurately completed, and their costumes fit perfectly in the

play.