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.

Comments!

http://anfthtr2130.blogspot.com/2013/04/show-and-tell-2-proof.html#comment-form

http://thtr2130sh.blogspot.com/2013/04/glass-of-water.html?showComment=1365978963814#c5768065838272252608

http://scriptanalysisspring2k13.blogspot.com/2013/04/show-and-tell-checkpoint-2.html?showComment=1365978543832#c5042813417231455385

http://gracietheatre2130.blogspot.com/2013/04/detroit.html?showComment=1365979404315#c6116607997698981387

http://chassitycurlean.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-glass-of-water.html?showComment=1365979539859#c2470853090800855555

http://mpret7.blogspot.com/2013/03/glass-of-water.html?showComment=1365979755697#c4918390768336164576

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.