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Show and Tell Post - Our Town

I chose to do my Show and Tell post on a play called Our Town. I read this when I was younger and fell in love with it! It has three acts and was written in 1938 by Thornton Wilder, an American playwright. Our Town was first performed in Princeton, New Jersey at the McCarter Theater on January 22, 1938. It later was produced on Broadway and won a Pulitzer Prize for drama. In 1989, it received the award of Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival and also a Tony Award for Best Revival. Obivously, this is a very well-known play and many people like it, as do I.
Our Town set in the thirties in a fictional town, Grover's Corners. The Stage Manager introduces the audience to this town. In Act 1, many people are introduced and tell about the history of this town. Then Emily and George are introduced as young students at school. Emily proceeds to ask her mom if she's pretty right after she had just finished talking to George. The Stage Manager then tells the audience about how a time capsule is being placed in the cornerstone of a bank. He says that a copy of this play will be placed in it. Towards the end of this Act, Emily exchanges answers to a test with George; Doc Gibbs teaches George a lesson about responsibility; some ladies talk about the drunkard choir teacher; and Rebecca talks about how she's scared the moon will hit the earth and cause a big explosion.
Act 2 rolls along and three years have passed. George and Emily are now getting ready to be married. The whole day is filled with complete stress: Howie is delivering milk in the rain, Si Crowell is telling George that his baseball talent will go to waste if he marries, and George visits his future in-laws and it's a bit awkward. The Stage Manager then interrupts and takes the audience back a year. It's so confusing when you keep going back and forth through years while reading a play. It's hard to keep up and that's one thing I don't really like about this play. Other than that, it's amazing! Anyways, it's George and Emily's junior year. They have an ice cream coke together and discuss their future with each other. Emily talks about George's pride. George tells her that he did want to go to college, but now he wants to take over his uncle's farm instead. The wedding follows and we see George telling his mom about how he's not so sure he's ready to marry anymore. After this, I keep reading so fast wanting to know what's going to happen next. This Act definitely kept me on my toes. So exhilarating!
In Act 3, it's been nine years since Act 2 and the Stage Manager begins with a long monologue about eternity and then we proceed to be in a cemetery. Many characters have died since: Mrs. Gibbs got pneumonia in her travels, Wally Webb, Emily's brother, had a burst appendix while camping and Emily wishes he wouldn't have gone, Mrs. Soames and Simon committed suicide by hanging themselves, and Emily died while giving birth to her second child. Emily doesn't want to be forgotten or forget her home town. She wants to live among everyone else. Emily decides to return and relive one day even though she was told not to. She realizes they were right because it's too painful to see everyone not appreciating life truly for what it is. She then returns to her grave and watches George cry at it. The Stage Manager then ends the play with talking about how life isn't really lived on earth and then tells the audience "good night".
The end is sort of depressing, but this play truly makes one think about life. It makes you think about whether you're living it while you can and telling everyone you love, that you do love them. I performed a monologue of this for an acting class last year and it completely moved me. Our Town is a must read!

Drowsy Chaperone

If I were talking about the as-is meta-show The Drowsy Chaperone, with duration I would say that the author gave the Man the most time on stage. The Man spoke quite a bit, but it's not that he talked so much. It's the fact that he was on stage for the entire show. He never left and was always there to comment and help us along with the show or question things we didn't think about before. Then, at the end of the play he joins the characters in the show-within-the-show The Drowsy Chaperone in their dialogue and songs. In the show-within-the-show, the duration of the man being on stage is incredibly short and only at the end. Also, the character, Trix, appears only at the beginning and end of the play. Her duration of stage time is very short.
Another Hornby element I looked at is irony. There was dramatic irony when Kitty and the gangsters knew about Feldzieg's attempting to ruin the wedding but no one else had a clue. There's also some irony in the fact that Tottingale and her slave, Underling, get married at the end. A slave and his "master" getting married is completely ironic.

On The Verge

If I were asked to design a poster or series of posters, I'd make about ten huge posters with every single confusing word that is crossed in this play. I see them each a different font and color just to be sort of distracting as they are in the play to have to go look the meanings up. I wouldn't necessarily define the words because I feel this is a play you should definitely read before and define the words yourself, every single word you don't know. I mean, that's what I did and it helped so much. Or maybe I would have the people pick a word they really want to know off the posters and then we'd somehow define it for them. Also on about the fifth/sixth poster, I'd put the tag line: A Jumbled Mess. First of all, the words are incredibly tangled up and confuse the reader from the beginning. It makes reading the play a big mess because looking up the word takes time, then applying it to the text and reading it over and figuring out what it's saying is just a "mess". Also, there are a bunch of weird interactions between characters and I think that makes it a jumbles mess in itself.

Three Viewings

In two of the monologues, there is a character who is mentioned in some way: Ed Carpolotti. He was first mentioned in Emil's by being at Ed's funeral. Virginia meets Ed, her dead husband now, at a place called Green Mill which is also introduced in Emil's monologue. The second monologue, Margaret Mary-Walsh is associated with Mac's grandmother's funeral. Margaret Walsh also attended a funeral Emil went to.
A motif that occurs in all three monologues is the sense of closure. Emil loses his love, Tessie, but is left with a pacemaker that was in her heart. Mac's grandmother dies and she immediately wants the ring she so longed for since a young girl. Once she finds the ring, she realizes that all she wanted was closure with her beloved grandmother and throws the ring on her casket. Virginia's husband, Ed, died and he has many debts that must be paid off. She is left with closure from his death and his loans is a list from her husband. They all are similar in the sense that they lose someone they love, but also that they find closure after they die and can move on with their lives without burden over them.

Fires in the Mirror

The first couple of monologues may not directly be related to the Crown Heights' events, but it helps lead up to it. It shows us how Jews and Blacks interacted in that day. These monologues also help remind us that even though Jews and Blacks have huge differences, such as ethnicity and religion, but that they are human and this is a big similarity. No matter what, we're all human. I also really liked having the first monologues before "Lousy Language" because it helped ease the reader in to such dramatic and disturbing events. Smith showing us through real people how alike they are helped us be less quick to judge or point fingers at who was the "bad guy" and who was the "good guy". The monologues made us take a step back and truly think.

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Show and Tell #2

I chose to read the play, Proof, for the second show and tell. In the class, theatre 2025, I performed a scene from this play, but didn't know much about it. I decided to read it to see why my character, Catherine, was so strange. Catherine's father, Robert, is recently deceased. Catherine is pretty devastated seeing that she dropped out of school to take care of her father. Her struggle with mental illness and mathematical genius sends her in a crazy spiral. Hal, one of Robert's previous students, finds a proof in Robert's office. Through the play, Catherine tries to prove that she is the one who wrote it and not her father, but no one has yet seen her write any "proofs". All anyone knows is that Roberts is the genius and he writes the proofs. Also, by proving her authorship, she begins a relationship with Hal. Catherine constantly tries to stay in control of every situation and is desperate not to follow in her father's mental and math footsteps. She just wants a normal life. Her sister, Claire, visits for her father's funeral and begs and tries to convince Catherine to move to New York with her. I sense in this particular scene, that Claire is tired of paying for her no-good sister, Catherine, and wants to just lock her up in an institute just like she wanted for her father. Catherine tries proving her worth and shows Claire how much better off she is by herself and living in the same house that they've lived in for years. Also, a big conflict in the play is that Catherine has just turned twenty-seven: the exact age Robert, her father, became mentally ill and stopped teaching his students. This is very scary for Catherine and she realizes that she does not want to be like him, but she is more like him than she realizes or wishes.

Noises Off

A good motif for Noises Off would be "experiences". Everyone in the play has experiences with each other on and off stage and it influences how each other interact. Backstage and onstage, the character's vibes with each other are seen very clearly throughout. Towards the end of the play, they start to not even care what everyone thinks and it gets incredibly hectic. They say whatever they want even though they are supposed to be acting in a play. It's quite humorous. You see how their experiences influence the characters in Nothing On. For instance, Dotty and Gary's down-spiraling relationship has Dotty in tears in Act 2 on and off stage. This influences her acting because she can't exactly play Mrs. Clackett perfectly because she really does have a relationship in real life with Gary. It's sort of uncomfortable and awkward, if you ask me. "Behind jammed doors" is a perfect tag line! We literally go behind the closed doors in Act 2 by being back stage and seeing what really goes on between the characters in Noises Off and why Noises On changes in Act 3 because of their real life experiences with each other. It helps us get a feel for the play more and we see why they choose to do what they do and act the way they do. As their relationship progress, so do their characters in Noises On. Also, everytime they get into a "jam", they create Noises On to be even more in a jam than before. It stressed me out A LOT!

Detroit: Well, kind of

I believe D'Amour chose to call the play Detroit for many reasons. The main reason is because Detroit is a city that is very famous and we've all heard of the city. It used to be very well-known and looked at in a high perspective. For a while, it was one of the greatest cities in America. Today, it is known for being incredibly run-down and one of the lower-looked-at cities in America. This play is about four average people in an average town. It being called Detroit shows that these people obviously are not as good off as others. It also shows that these people DID once have good lives and could have made something of themselves, but sort of went down hill. Mary is the only one who shows any sort of work ethic or initiative. Ben talks about making something of himself throughout the play, but at the end we learn that he has been bull shitting the entire process and is just on the internet "acting" British. Roger, "Kenny", and Sharon are doing nothing but living in a house they broke in to and pretending to be some other people that they're not.

Glass of Water

In The Glass of Water, I feel as if the protagonist is the Queen. There are many people the Scribe used as characters in the play that could be portrayed as a protagonist, but the Queen is the absolute most important throughout. She also is mostly ALWAYS in every scene. Throughout the play, every character tries to please the queen. The duchess may not have the queen's best interest, but she definitely tries to please her queen. Bolingbroke, Masham, and Abigail want the queen to be constantly pleased. For instance, Abigail realizes the queen is in love with Masham, whom Abigail loves as well. But she doesn't tell the queen and she lets Queen Anne pursue her love without a fight. That is true loyalty. Obviously, Scribe wants us to "root for" Queen Anne the most because no one ever betrays her. And the duchess, who does betray her, is looked upon as a bad lady and the readers have a sort of hate for her. At least, I do. Also, the reader gets frustrated with the queen, but it doesn't mean we necessarily disagree with her actions and decisions.

Looks Get in the Way (Show and Tell Post #1)

Looks Get in the Way is a play written by D. M. Larson. There wasn't much background information on the play, but I did find a few things about the author. He started writing when he was thirteen because there was no cable in the house. He then wrote many plays from there. His first play, "Nicolas Brooks", won a youth award in 1988 when he was nineteen. You can read any of his plays on freedrama.net. 

Looks Get in the Way is about a young, beautiful girl who believes that looks aren't everything. Sidney wants to find the perfect guy and not a "loser". She goes on blind dates like it's going out of style, literally. Sidney has a routine, she's so used to it. She wears an old lady's mask and talks in an old lady's voice as she introduces herself. Usually, every man leaves. She's used to it by now and expects them all to leave. She knows it all by heart how it'll play out. Well, one guy comes and is so nervous, he doesn't even look at Sidney once. He hands her flowers and starts gabbing on without even seeing her face. Finally, when Phil looks up, he sees her and finds it humorous. He doesn't run off, but just stays and asks questions. He passes every one of Sidney's "tests" and she finally reveals her true identity. He thinks she's really pretty. They both really like each other and even did without looks being involved, as Phil wasn't that attractive to begin with. Sidney does these tests to see if a guy can really like her for her and not for her looks. Finally, someone passed the test. 

I think one really good choice made by Larson was to show us one of Sidney's normal dates before the actual good one happened. It showed us how often she goes on these "test" dates and how every guy runs away. She definitely was taken by surprise when Phil stayed and talked to her. I also think another choice made by Larson was not that great. He made Sidney's mask be an old woman. Why couldn't it have been like just a scary mask ? If the guy walks up and sees this old woman's mask, he might actually think it's an old lady behind it. Sidney doesn't use her real voice at first either. Maybe this was the reason all the guys left. They didn't want some old lady. Maybe if Sidney wore a young person's mask that wasn't her face or something, they would've reacted differently. 

How I Learned To Drive Blog

In Paula Vogel's play, How I Learned To Drive, the Greek Chorus is every person except Peck and Lil' Bit. I believe that she chose this dramaturgical choice because she wanted Peck and Lil' Bit to stand out more than any other character. Obviously in Peck and Lil' Bit's lives there are going to be more than just them in the sequence. Vogel makes sure that our focus is mainly on Peck and Lil' Bit, but she also wanted to throw in some other characters, too, without as much focus. By doing this she created a Greek Chorus for every other character. I think this was incredibly smart of her! It was a bit confusing at times and I would have to keep reading who it was in parentheses, but her idea worked wonders for the play!

The next very confusing, but perfectly made choice Vogel presents to us is putting the scene where Peck actually does something to Lil' Bit when she's unwilling towards the end of the play. At first, I was very confused. Peck seems like this disturbed man the entire time, but never really forces himself on Lil' Bit. You feel sorry for the guy and then BAM! He does something horrible to Lil' Bit AND even though it was at the end of the play, it was the earliest thing that happened (if you put the dates in order). She was only eleven when he did this to her. I think Vogel made this decision because she wanted to show us that people do grow and learn from mistakes or things that happen throughout their life. The whole play, Peck keeps insisting to Lil' Bit by telling her she doesn't have to do anything she doesn't want to. At the end, we realize why he always says this. He must have had a really low point in his life and did this horrible thing. He felt bad, but he liked it, which is so disturbing. Lil' Bit hated it at that time, but as she grew, she still in some ways wanted him. Vogel probably put this at the end because she wanted us to sort of feel for Peck, but then show us that truly he was a bad guy. No matter how much he has grown or changed, he was a disturbed man who did something horrid that even he can't take back by convincing Lil' Bit he's better now..

The Conduct of Life

Maria Irene Fornes made a huge choice by deciding to end each scene so randomly and leaving us with questions. But for her to end the entire play with unending questions was a huge choice on her part. It was so confusing! The entire play is about Orlando cheating on his wife, but then towards the end he blames Leticia of her scandals. We didn't see nor hear about Leticia doing anything wrong so for Fornes to spark up something new like this at the end was incredibly confusing to me. I feel like Fornes is trying to show her audience that yes, Orlando has a lot wrong with him, but maybe so does Leticia. The whole time we are accusing Orlando and pointing fingers at him, but maybe he has problems because of his wife.. Maybe he's handling things in a way he feels is best because his wife is just the exact same person as he is. Who knows.

I feel like the Conduct of Life is about how people go about life. Nena, for example, is very young and dealing with a lot more than most people. But she doesn't see it that way at all. She looks at it as though she has a better life than most and that she could be a better person and let her feelings and emotions out better than how other people let out their's on her. For instance, Nena's grandfather and Orlando bother let their problems out on Nena in a sort of rant and rage. They don't know how else to let it out. At one point in the play, Nena says how she wants to conduct her life in the best possible way. She's trying to venture off from the bad around her and this is a life lesson for Fornes' readers as well.

Trifles Blog

I really like the proposal of making the play completely abstract with no focus on the physical world, but instead more on the people. This means that every word is vital and the audience would completely understand everything without any distraction. This play is definitely mysterious and grabs attention to figure out who did what. Glaspell shows the reader in detail what the house looks like so that we as readers could try and figure out who the murderer is with the detectives. In a way, I feel by making the physical world with not much detail and color would be helping Glaspell get her point across. It's the people that matter in this case and it's the people they are trying to convict and learn more about.

Overtones Blog

In Overtones, Gerstenberg specifies very quickly that only the "trained" self can hear and see the inner self. From the beginning descriptions of their dresses, it shows that both Harriet and Margaret have deeper, conflicting beings within them. Harriet is wearing is wearing a green, but Hetty is wearing a darker shade of that green. The same goes for Margaret. She is wearing a purple while Maggie wears a darker purple with her face covered in a purple cloth. This shows that both Harriet and Margaret have very hidden people inside of them just waiting to burst out. Only can they hear their inner thoughts though. Hetty and Maggie obviously cannot hear or see each other, but towards the end they try so badly to be heard. They usually keep themselves together and their thoughts inside, but they can't stand it towards the end of the play. They even rip their veils off hoping to be seen.

Harriet can hear Hetty and Margaret can hear Maggie, but they never speak to their inner selves. They try to keep them hidden so deeply. On the outside, they are very proper, welcoming ladies. On the inside, they are heartless, rude women gripping at every word the other woman says because they despise one another. Harriet seems to be in more communication with Hetty than Margaret is with Maggie. Hetty, in the beginning of the play, is unveiled and is spoken to by Harriet a couple times. But not much. Margaret never speaks aloud to Maggie and this in a way shows the Margaret keeps her thoughts way more to herself than Harriet. A rule of the play is that the inner selves of these women must always be veiled and hidden if another woman is in the room. Gerstenberg shows that Hetty and Maggie can't actually be heard or seen when Maggie and Hetty begin to try and interact with the physical world, yet nothing can be touched or held by them. For instance, Maggie tries to grab a piece of cake but fails to do so.

Hetty and Maggie constantly bicker and say exactly what they're feeling throughout the play. They don't care what's going on or who's speaking or how rude they may sound; they just speak without thought or care. Margaret and Harriet try to make their lives seem beautiful, full with happiness and bliss, while their insides know deeply how troubled they are and jealous they are of one another. Hetty and Maggie show us and tell us readers their disappointments and hate towards people and things.

This play showed me that people truly do have inner thoughts. Most people keep things bottled up and hidden inside because they know that it would be hurtful and cause a lot of conflict if they ever said what they were really thinking or feeling.