Water By The Spoonful

        Within the play, two major worlds are created: the online world and interactive world. The online world consists of anonymous screen names associated with former/ struggling crack heads. The interactive world consists of two cousins dealing with the death of their aunt. Not until we realize that the leader of the crack heads anonymous chat room is the sister of the cousins' aunt, do the two worlds collide. This revelation occurs halfway down page forty three. They begin to mix when the ghost that haunts Elliot repeats the phrase, "Momken men-fadluck ted-dini gawaz safari" (which to us is just gibberish), in between the 'online-ers'' dialogue. The two worlds are able to mix here because they share a common theme: being unable to escape something that haunts them. As the online-ers' dialogue seems to naturally speed up and become more playful, the ghost's repeated line becomes increasingly ominous and menacing. The two scenes begin not to morph together, but to mirror one another. In this scene, "Haikumom"/Odessa realizes that her sister is deceased after reading her obituary in the newspaper. Simultaneously, Elliot is boxing a punching bag and trying to ignore his hurt leg. Both characters experience defeat. When Odessa realizes that her sister has passed away, she is overwhelmed and drops the newspaper. At the same time, Elliot can not ignore the pain any longer and collapses. Both present the visual of something falling. This intersection of worlds occurs at this moment because it is extremely common ground.

Buried Child

      This play was extremely confusing. It is filled with ambiguity and complexity. It seemed as if answers are expected to be created in the minds of the audience rather than found in the context of the play. Throughout the play I had no idea who the ‘buried child’ was or even if there was one at all. There were a few times that I had an idea of who it was but I was never sure. Everything with in the play seems to be a little off. Nothing seems for sure. The family doesn’t even seem to know one another. It is hard for me to understand and know characters that don’t know and understand themselves. The two characters that were even close to being credible are Shelly and Preacher Dewis. These two characters are already singled out because they do not live in the crazy house. Even though it is naturalistic in that there is a house, they are ‘real’ people and nothing is extremely exaggerated or theatricalized, the whole piece feels really abstract. It is different from the worlds of other plays we’ve read because it is drastically more ambiguous. Not much is apparent and even less is spelled out for you. This play is far from black-and-white. Everyone can interpret this play differently and for different reasons. 

Noises Off

        One motif in Noises Off is doors. Like in most farces, the characters are constantly making quick and perfectly timed entrances and exits. Because of the multiple doors, characters are getting 'shut off' from other characters, hiding, getting invited in or intruding. However, these actions are not only occurring in the play within the play. The strange part about the play is that we get to see whats happening behind 'the scenes' of the play they are performing. We get to see all of the drama; what happens behind closed doors. All of the actual relationships, the gossip, the addictions, and the infidelity of the 'actors'.
       I think a good tag line would be "can't even get the door open". This has a lot of meaning for the play. Doors are terribly important to the play the characters are performing. It expresses how they can not perform the play correctly and smoothly. It also comments on the drama going on between the 'actors'. Opening a door seems like a fairly easy task, just like putting a play together with an experienced team. However, just as the doors frequently get stuck so do the performers. Overall, Noises Off is filled with failures and ridiculousness. Thats why " can't even get the door open" would make a good tag line.

The Glass Of Water

      Usually, identifying the protagonist of a story isn't difficult. The story is about them. They are often the first character we meet and the character that we follow throughout the plot. however in The Glass of Water, we follow the lives of five characters. They each have their struggles and triumphs. however, the character whose struggles are most central to the plot would have to be Abigail's. To determine this, I thought about the goal of each character. Then I asked three questions: "which 'want' is the most important to the plot?", "which 'want' is the most difficult to satisfy?", and "which 'want' is satisfied?". Abigail's was the answer to all three. Abigail's want is centered around Masham. Therefore anything in the play that sets him back or separates the two of them counts as an Abigail struggle. Almost every conflict in the show does or both of those things. The feelings of the queen for Masham, the feelings of the Duchess for Masham and even Masham's mistake of killing Bolingbroke's cousin all stand in the way of Abigail and Masham's happiness. Scribe makes it easy to lean towards Abigail as the protagonist because he gives her a lot of stage time and made her a likeable character. She is the most innocent character that we follow and her wants are the most pure.
      There are times that we root for everyone in the play. I would say that the next most frequent would be Masham. He is the second most innocent character with the second purest motives. After him would be Bolingbroke because he is an advocate for peace and is constantly aiding Masham and abigail. The Queen and the Duchess would probably be tied for last because they are what intentionally stands in the way of Masham and Abigail. There are times that we feel pity for the Queen and times that we like the Duchess. For example the first time that the Duchess and Bolingbroke, she keeps up with him while they banter. It presents her as a sort of badass female character. That said, if I had to chose a protagonist for The Glass of Water it would definitely be Abigail.

Show and Tell number 1

The Effect Of Gamma Rays On Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds

     Basic Information About the Play: I chose to talk about The Effect Of Gamma Rays on Man-In-the-Moon Marigolds. I figure it will be easy to talk about it in detail and if anyone reads my post, it may be interesting to then go see the show this week.  The show was written by Paul Zindel more than thirty six years ago. It was first Produced in Houston, Texas at the Alley Theatre in 1964. It went on to be performed on Broadway in 1971. It had a very successful run of 819 performances in New York.. It then won several awards. It won an Obie Award, The New York Drama Critics Circle Award, and the Pulitzer Prize. It ended up being so popular that a film version was created.

    Basic Plot: The show is set in the fifties right after sputnik. Tillie, the intelligent and hopeful twelve year old endures abuse from her drunken mother and psychotic sister. The play is centered around two major and contrasting themes. The first being the death of dreams and the other being hope. Tillie decides to join the science fair in order to channel her intelligence. She is inspired by her favorite teacher Mr. Goodman. Her project has to do with radioactivity, atoms, and of course , marigolds. It could be argued the flowers are representations of the three main characters. The decrepit, poisoned flowers being Beatrice (the mother), the “normal” flowers portraying Ruth (the sister) and the mutated, outstanding flowers representing Tillie.

    Two Dramaturgical Choices:

        - The first dramaturgical choice I chose to address was the use of multiple spot lit monologues performed by Tillie. Paul Zindel decided to add these extremely personal and insightful speeches delivered by Tillie out to the audience.  They seem to have been written to establish a connection with the audience. It lets them into the beautiful mind of the strong and hopeful twelve year old. She also introduces and closes the show. Therefore the show is mostly told/ about her perspective. These speeches help establish her as the protagonist. They are what keeps the audience rooting for her.

         -The second dramaturgical choice I chose to address was the number of characters Zindel decided to give voices and faces to. The only characters the audience sees are Tillie, Beatrice, Ruth, Nanny, and Janice. Janice is only on stage for a short monologue and Nanny never speaks. This makes it clear who the main characters are. Through the use of multiple phone calls, Zindel introduces and includes other necessary characters. Another reason for the phone calls is that in order to have those discussions in person, Beatrice would have to leave the house. Zindel makes the clear choice to never show Beatrice outside of the house or leaving. Also, no outside characters come into the home. Other than nanny who lives with them, outsiders remain outside. 

Hornby

   One rather obvious motif in How I Learned to Drive is the application of periodic headings. Each title describes/parallels the events to come. That said, I think they’re utilized for foreshadowing. Honestly the titles mislead me a couple times. Whenever the titles described an acceleration or shift in gears, my mind automatically expected the worst. They ended up making me really nervous rather than explaining when the event occurred. However, once I realized that I was interpreting them incorrectly they began to make more sense. While they do hint at what is going to happen in the following scene, they are there more to tell the when something happened rather than the why.

   One reoccurring theme or motif in Ian McEwan’s Atonement is light. The amount of  light is directly proportional to how well a scene is understood by the main character Briony.  Light, in this case symbolizes knowledge and enlightenment.

   My personal opinion is that motifs in a script are more powerful than in a fully realized production. As someone who enjoys writing and playing music, I recognize written motifs and appreciate them more. However, repeated motifs in a fully realized production can also be extremely effective and often more easily detected. Lighting and sound or even the use of certain music cues can be very effective in showing connections and establishing a certain mood.