The play Our Town is by Thornton Wilder and was released to the public in 1938. At the time Wilder wrote the play theatre was in decline and loss of budget and audiences became common. Due to this, Wilder use as little props and set pieces as possible. The play is set between 1901 and 1913 and focuses on a small town in New Hampshire named Grover’s Corners. It surrounds the daily life of living people in the town but it especially focuses on the characters Emily Webb, played by Kashmera Stawarz, and George Gibbs, played by Mason Patterson. Both characters have been friends since childhood and eventually end up getting married. Our Town reveals the story of Emily and George and how they fell in love. Nonetheless, the play takes a dark twist …show more content…
The school has almost four hundred students of which twenty seven participated in the play. However, Quest was not putting up the play alone. Atascocita High School, also in Humble, provided set pieces, crew, and a theatre, located inside the school, in which the play was performed in. The director of the play was Jamie Knox, a professor of AVID, Theatre I, and Theatre II. The time period of the play was changed from early nineteen hundreds to the late fifties and sixties. This made the play more relevant to the audience as it gave a time period that they were more familiar with. In addition, live people wore all black clothing and the dead wore white. Each character also had an accent piece which told something about their age, morals, or role. However, there were two exceptions, the Stage Manager and Samantha Craig, initially a male in the original version, did not follow the color or accent piece rule because both did not live in the town. As a whole, the play was excellent. It had a light and happy mood in the first act which set the audience perfectly to the shocker that was the second act. Our Town kept me and the audience hooked through the longevity of the play. I especially loved that the play left a massive space for personal interpretation of the costumes, characters, and the setting …show more content…
I decided that playing her as an ingénue was the best choice due to the lack of dialogue that she has. I reasoned that the ingénue character type would be easier to portray with only a limited amount of lines. Although Samantha is a business woman, she is also a hippie. She gets tasks done but she is not in a hurry Samantha is a hippie; she is very calm and not anxious. She is the type of girl to do things as they occur. In addition, I thought that ingénue would fit her best because of her looks. Samantha seems young, innocent, and has long brunette hair. Due to her being an ingénue, I decided to make her pace slow. Her place of lead is both head and hips. She is a business woman so she has a mission, thus she responds and leads with her head. However, I also thought making Samantha a bit of a flirt would be interesting thus I also made the hips her place of lead. Nevertheless, the hips are not only for a flirty hint but also for a slow bounce when she walks. When I think of an ingénue I always imagine a slight bounce in their walk which is why the hips was one of my top choices. Furthermore, I decided to make her stand on the tip of her feet when standing, almost as she was rocking back and forth on her feet. I felt that it added innocence to her character, expanding the look of an ingénue even more. She also readjusted her clothes and body quiet often. I incorporated this
The characters address the audience; the fast movement from scene to scene juxtaposing past and present and prevents us from identifying with particular characters, forcing us to assess their points of view; there are few characters who fail to repel us, as they display truly human complexity and fallibility. That fallibility is usually associated with greed and a ruthless disregard for the needs of others. Emotional needs are rarely acknowledged by those most concerned with taking what they maintain is theirs, and this confusion of feeling and finance contributes to the play's ultimate bleak mood.
People has times that they are looking forward to. The times such as childhood, schooling help lead us through our life. While this way of thinking has many positive side, we forget the appreciation of all details of the moments. We see the moments in Thornton Wilder's play “Our Town”. This play takes us to a small town in New England and we see how simple it is, to the point where we may get bored to our lives. After looking through the events in the play we might have see as big and important described as relatively simple and straightforward, we begin to question how important that these events are in our life. Not like Emily realize how much of life was ignored until death. But after death, she can see how much everyone goes through life without noticing the events that are occurring all the time.
A significant aspect of the play is the acting and wardrobe, because it helps demonstrate the personalities of the characters.
The play spike heels was written by Theresa Rebeck and directed by Deborah Mello. I viewed the play spike heels at the Miami Dade Community College Kendall campus auditorium. The play consisted of four characters; there were two males Andrew and Edward and two females Lydia and Georgie. The role of Andrew was performed by Arnaldo Carmouze and the role of Edward was played by Sheaun Mckinney. The part of Georgie was beautifully played by Natalie Morales and Lydia witch was performed by Karina Hernandez. This play took place in a Boston apartment during present time. The play opened up in a much undefined manner doing a poor job in explaining the characters that were being spoken about. For instance when the play began the characters of Lydia and Andrew were being spoken about but the audience had no idea who they were, even though the character of Lydia was a bit better explained than Andrew they still left some gaps. Another issue that was exaggerated in an un realistic way were the curse words, I can understand that the character Georgie was supposed to be bad mouthed but not even the worst mouthed person wouldn’t have repeated the “F” word so many times.
Big hair, bright colors, and denim helped to establish the time period the play was set in. Each actress’ outfit gave the audience an idea of her character’s personality. For instance, Clairee wore pant suits and looked the part of a sophisticated, classy former mayor’s wife. On the other hand, Ouiser wore comfortable clothes; often sporting a pair of jeans and a flannel shirt over a t-shirt showing her practical and simple lifestyle. The use of jackets and scarves portrayed the change in season and helped establish the different time frames from scene to scene. The costumes reflected each character well and were fitting for the time in which the play was portrayed.
The play consisted of five characters: Marty, James, Schultz, Theresa, and Lauren. Marty and James are a couple; they knew each other through a wedding, Theresa is a former actress who ran away from the competitive New York, Schultz is an awkward carpenter who just got divorced, and Lauren is a sixteen year old girl who dreamed of becoming an actress. Marty who is the teacher started the class, but the students participated in the class’s activities
“The real meaning of enlightenment is to gaze with undimmed eyes on all darkness.”- (Kazantzakis). The play Our Town, written by Thornton Wilder, takes place in the small town of Grover’s Corners. The residents of Grover’s Corners are content with their lives and do not mind the small town they are living in. Emily Webb, a girl living in Grover’s Corners does not think secondly about her life… until it is over. This play can be compared to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, where men are kept prisoner until one man is able to escape. Only after escaping the cave, does the man realize how much better the life outside is, and truly understands that his previous life was a prison. Emily's crossing from life to death is a parallel to the the
Galens, David, and Lynn M. Spampinato, eds. Drama for Students. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Print.
When deciding what element a play should contain, one must look at a large variety of options. These options can alter how the audience depicts the play and change their overall opinions. Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest” is a play set around 1895 where the protagonist, Jack Worthing, takes on two identities in order to avoid social obligations. This play’s era affects how the characters are dressed and how their households appear.
Consequently, there are lots of reasons on why Thornton Wilder wrote his play Our Town and there are a lot of different answers to the quotation. It just how you look at it and how you take from reading the script and seeing it on stage and answer the quotation, Why do you think Thornton Wilder wrote him produces play without any props in scenery and how it effects the audience View it? Whatever the reason is that, it is a really amazing play that Thornton wrote
The scenery shows realistic sets in the play. The text is very episodic that show the parts of the events in a story. The conflict shows a rough experience of growing up with adults, who are treating the orphaned boys very abusive and having some troubles on where they belonged. Peter, other boys, and Molly have some kinds of conflicts about being a leader and succeeding the mission where the Lord Astar (Molly’s father) have to send to Molly. The conflict has already resolved when they have completed their mission and kept their group safe. It also affects my overall experience that the conflict between different characters did show different perspectives on how they lead and express their experience of leadership in their mission. The space of the theater was small, but it’s large enough for the actors to perform and for the audience to see. The scenery designer Andrew Breithaupt of this play did show a specific place and time. For example, the beginning shows the ship and what era is it. The scenery is also very real locale in the play, and it’s very appropriate views toward the audience for non-professional and school play. The scenery of this play did show more realistic-moving type, but it did move some parts of the scene that I see in the play. Also, it showed the surprising element of changing the sets than the scene. Costume Designer Amy Zsadanyi-Yale did give the clues about the timeline, personalities of every character in the play. But I believe that the costumes should get focused on connecting the situations in the play. For example, an orphanage that the nameless boy (Peter) and other boys lived should have ragged-looking or something damage into the costumes so it can create an effect on costumes from the scene. The costumes show the conflicts and interpersonal relationships, but I should consider that the social groups in this play should look something different from the orphanage and upper class. Lightning and
The theater that the play was preformed in proscenium theater. The audience was only able to sit on one side of the stage make it look like the production had a frame. The scene design was very complex for such a small local production this allowed the audience to feel as if the show was being preformed at a more lavish venue. The lighting provided select visibility at times when the audience was to be focused on a specific individual. The lighting also provided rhythm and structure allowing the light to make changes so the scenes flowed smoothly. The mood was also set by lighting when the characters were in a calm state the lights were low and focused only on the person who's emotions the audience was suppose to connect with. Most importantly the illusion and motivation was set my the lighting this is what allowed the audience to feel as if time was really passing. The lighting allowed for the audience to feel connected to daylight conversations, moonlight walks, and indoor functions. The costumes reflected the time period of the early 1900's that the play was set in. This allowed the audience feel as if they are able to be part of the past. The women had simple long skirts and blouse with floral patterns. Hairstyles were neat and tidy like the time period they were portraying. The men wore three piece suits and hats that appeared to be fitting of the 1900's. The costumes
Thornton Wilder’s Our Town is a work of “sentimental fiction” because it connects all the people living in the small town of Grover’s Corners. In a small town like Grover’s Corners everybody knows each other within the town, so there is a deeper connection of companionship, friendship, and love within the town. The residents of Grover’s Corners constantly take time out of their days to connect with each other, whether through idle chat with the milkman or small talk with a neighbor. So when love and marriage or death happens in the town, it will affect the majority Grover’s Corners residents. The most prominent interpersonal relationship in the play is a romance—the courtship and marriage of George Gibbs and Emily Webb. Wilder suggests that
When you read this play, take special care to remember the difference between the work of a playwright and that of a novelist. Novelists may imagine their audience as an individual with book in band, but a playwright writes with a theater full of people in mind. Playwrights know that the script is just the blueprint from which actors, producers, stagehands, musicians, scenic designers, make-up artists, and costumers begin. You will need to use an extra measure of imagination to evaluate this play before you see the Goodman production.
Main characters are Frank who is a university lecturer and Rita who is a hair dresser. Rita wants to be educated she decides to take an Open University course. The main theme of the play is to be educated.