Sunday, May 6, 2012

Mock Production of Clybourne Park


                For my production of Bruce Norris’s Clybourne Park the directors unifying vision would be focusing on the world, how the times and people haven’t changed. People are not ready and able to fully accept change, different types of people, backgrounds, and culture. The many aspects of racism are still around just as they were 50 years ago. It may be kept hidden now days and stuffed under the rug but, it is still very much present in our lives.  My vision will be presented through the actors of stage they will have costumes to represent their cultures and economic statuses. I will also play up the actor’s communication with each other; the constant speaking over one another, not listening  or letting the other get a word in to show how set everyone is in their own ways, not accepting others ideas and opinions.  I would also use lighting to help contribute to my vision making it darker on the person trying to speak but, not getting heard until the eventual “snapping” of the character making the others listen and at that point it would be brighter focused light on the speaker.
                I would place my performance in the Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London, England.  I chose this theatre because the circular shape is representative to the world, with the actors on stage and then the audience on all sides surrounding them.  Also, this location, how the theatre is set up, and the history of the theatre contribute to the image of class and economic statuses (the groundlings and the high level seats for the rich) in the play. The audience I would chose for the play would be an older crowd of 40 years old+ consisting of mostly black and white people. I want people with these demographics because they bring with them past experiences of racism over time and can see how many things have indeed stayed the same.

                For the scenic design the play would take place for both acts in the living room of the Clydbourne Park home.  Act 1 would be set in the 1950’s. It would have very minimal props, a single dining room chair, end table, a record player, and the many boxes scattered about the room.  On the end table there would lay a newspaper with the current status on the war in Vietnam.  For providing an environment that embodies the character’s lives I want it to look empty, messy but the few things that are left unpacked are very nice expensive looking items. There will also be lavish wood carvings into the architecture of the home. The architecture will be especially noticed in the staircase railing descending across the back of the stage.

 The audience can tell a richer family owned the home. I want the empty and messy feeling to compliment the character’s lives and how they really feel inside over the things that happened in their life.  The audience would laugh at times and be sorrowful in others. I want the audience to be relatively passive. For Act 2 scenic design, it is set in 2009; it would also have very minimal props. There would be nothing to sit on, a tiny radio laying by the back door, tools laying around, saw dust everywhere, and a couple of boxes here and there. The staircase railing would now be broken and there are chips and scuffs all over the wood in the house, everything looks old and dated.  On one box has a newspaper on it with the current status on the war in Afghanistan on the front cover. The newspaper’s war status represents the violence and how things haven’t changed over 50 years. The destruction and deterioration of the home shows how time and economics took a hold of it. The environment would be awkward with the lack of seating with correlates to the awkwardness amongst the characters and script in Act 2.


                The costume design for Act 1 would be to really show the different class and cultures among the characters. The white women would have on 1950’s A-line dresses with beautiful earrings and necklaces.  The white men would be in gray flannel business suits with the exception of Russ for the beginning of the play because he was wearing PJs but, he changes into a business suit.  Francine would be wearing a typical 1950’s maid outfit with a rag over her hair. Albert would wear an old style fedora hat with blue jeans and a casual button up shirt. For Act 2 Lindsey would be dressed in a maternity gown while the other two women are in casual business suit skirt outfit. Tom the lawyer is also in suit pants and a nice button down shirt while the other men are in casual shorts, t-shirt and sneakers. The switch from the 1950’s men wearing suits to the women in 2009 is my own way of showing how women are not just the housewives anymore. There’s isn’t much economic differences between the characters in Act 2, race doesn’t define that any longer and that is portrayed through the clothing. To show the relationships and further emphasize how the same actors play the different characters in each act their costumes would be the same color for example Lindsey and Betsy are the same actress so I would put them in yellow. 
1950's A-line dress
Maid's outfit and white women's outfits

                The lighting for the play would be bright sunlight coming in from the windows and a couple of overhead lights on the ceiling. But when the character is trying to speak to the group but, is not getting respect or being heard there will be dim lighting over them until finally they break through the disrespect and are finally acknowledged.  In Act 2 the lighting will be a little dimmer the lights that were in the house for Act 1 are now broken so, the only source of light is from the windows.
                The sound design for Act 1 would be lots of noise, there would be lots of noise coming from outside of the house with the cars driving/honking horns, people yelling outside the house, the church bells ringing. None of the sounds are very pleasant. The record player at the end of the Act 1 will play “There Goes My Baby” by The Drifters, it’s a jazz song and its lyrics go well with the end of the act. The lyrics are asking “where did my baby go….why did she leave me so alone” which could be Russ and Bev’s song to Kenneth wondering why he left them. For Act 2, the noisiness of the house is just the same, with the church bells, loud streets and now construction of the home. The noisiness in both acts shows how the world outside the house hasn’t changed its still not a peaceful place. At the end of Act 2 I would have Dan before he opens the trunk turn of the little stereo and have the same song playing again as a “throwback” on the radio station as he reads the letter and the last moments of Kenneth’s life play.

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Urinetown Audience Response


Brooke Rollins
Mr. Kershner
THE 1000
4/8/2012
Penny for a Pee
            On the way to the theatre to see Urinetown: The Musical I picked up my cousin Kevin to tag along. Kevin is blind so, I told him he’d be the perfect person to help me get a unique perspective on the play and how the audience responds to it.  From the moment we entered the play, we had no idea what it was going to be about. Obviously, we realized it had something to do with urine but, the old timey costumes that were tattered and torn made us skeptical and very uncertain. I went in half expecting it to be like Underwear: The Musical, with the raunchy futuristic setting and content but when I stepped inside the theatre it was completely opposite.  Underwear was in the bigger theatre and the crowd was for the most part all younger college students so, it was exciting just to be in the presences of all that energy. Urinetown had a mixed audience, in a much smaller theatre; our seats were on the left side of the center stage. From our seats I could get a good view of the audience, to the left was mostly filled seats, a lot of college probably Daytona State students with a few older people in the front rows. The right side of the stage was sparsely seated and all older people and the center seating was a mixed group but mainly filled up. So, their turnout was good for a Sunday Matinee.
            When we took our seats we noticed the actors banging tin can shouting “penny for a pee”, Kevin and myself were a little bewildered, about what was going on and when one actor came up to us I just sort of stared at her dumb founded and then she moved on. When the show started the plot was quickly told and the “penny for a pee” finally made sense. Since, my cousin is blind I had to be the commentary for him explaining the stage and what the actors were doing.  At one point, the love struck couple, were listening to each other’s hearts and while they listened to one another’s they shook their butts and audience burst with laughter.  There were many other parts that had the audience rolling but, I could also see a lot of members who weren’t so amused. An elderly lady in the front row was a sleep for most of the play, it was funny because the man next to her kept trying to wake her up but, a second later she was out again.
            Some people you could tell really loved it, the lady that ran the snack bar ranted and raved about how good it was while others like my cousin and the lady in the front kept passing out.  The audience as a whole was very passive, no one called anything out and they were very respectful to those performing.  I could tell one of the audience’s favorite parts of the performance was when Ms. Pennywise the bathroom monitor had her solo singing part, her voice was amazing and the audience cheered enthusiastically.
            On our way home we did talk about the play, I had to explain some more things to Kevin. He didn’t really get the whole plot and who did what so, that’s probably why he ended up dozing off.  I enjoyed the play and thought it was very funny. The part both of us liked was when the police officer would “break the fourth wall” and talk about the play revealing the plot or saying things like “that’s not until Act 2”, the audience seemed to also get a kick out of it.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Improvisation


                Improvisation theatre is when a group of people/actors make up scenes as they go. They usually pick a topic for the skit and then they make up scenarios, dialogue, and props right then. The key to improvisations making things up as you go along. The actors feed off what the others say and do to make a skit.  Improvisation is usually short sketches that last anywhere from a couple seconds to 10+ minutes and they can cover any variety of topics. But, improvisation is not limited to acting it also is used in music, dance, and pretty much any type of the theatre arts. Improvisation dates all the way back to the 16th century from the Commedia dell'Arte form theatre in Italy. But, it is a timeless art form that is used very frequently today.
                Going to a smaller comedy improvisation show would include the audience sitting around a stage most likely at individual tables. Then actors come out make their introductions and they pick a topic or a scenario to start with. One show in particular, they had a speaker and she made up a story, and as she told the story the other actors had to act out what she was saying. An improvisation performance could be presented in a wide variety of ways; it could have the actors picking topics out of a hat or sometimes they will even ask the audience for topics and use the audience members in the skit. At the end the actors come out and take their bows just like any art performance.
                This shows a class in the middle of acting out the scene.  You can see some of the students jumping in the air acting out the topic while others are sitting around watching. The girl in the grey sweater seems to be midway between thinking of her next move in reaction to theirs. I love this picture of improvisation because it shows them practicing in the classroom with a lot of smiling and laughter making it out to be a fun lively experience.

                This picture is of the actors in the middle of a skit on the comedy television series Whose Line is it Anyways. It was an improvisation show that had 4 actors and they would get a topic and have to act it out and be judged based on their performance and winner was chosen at the end of each show.

                The video is a clip of the television show Whose Line is it anyway. the host is picking names out of a hat and the actors are performing the topics in front of a live studio audience. It is all comedy skits and very hilarious. 

FACTS
Up until 1968 Britain required all theater scripts to be approved by the Lord chamber's office, so improvisation shows couldn't be done on the spot.

There was a Comedy League of America National Tournament in 1988, which features competitions of improv between different states.

Work Cited

Felner, Mira, and Claudia Orenstein. The World of Theatre: Tradition and Innovation. Boston: Pearson/Allyn & Bacon, 2006. Print.

"Improvisational Theatre." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 03 June 2012. Web. 06 Mar. 2012.     <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Improvisational_theatre>.

 Roehl, Bernie. "General Information about Improvisation." ImprovComedy.Org. Improv Comedy. Web. 06 Mar. 2012. <http://www.improvcomedy.org/general.html>.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Carnival tradition


          A carnival is a big elaborate party. Carnivals are a cross between a block party, a circus, and a parade.  People spend all year making floats, rehearsing music, making props and beautiful costumes to march around the streets and perform what they worked so hard on for the town. Carnivals began because the people needed a way to have fun and release some tension from their everyday lives. The first and most recognized carnival celebration was Saturnalia which came from the Roman’s to celebrate winter solace.  There idea of celebration was eventually taken over by the Christians and they adapted carnivals into their religious celebrations before lent.  Carnival means “farewell to meat”; the Christians gave up meat for lent. Carnivals have been adapted in all parts of the world and every culture has added a piece to the puzzle. Large influences in carnivals today come from Latin America, Asia, Africa, and many more.
            If you went to a carnival, you would be a spectator standing on the sidelines of the street or sitting in the bleachers waiting for the performances to start. The performances would include many people singing and dancing. Each group of performers would be dressed in elaborate costumes and they most times will have a big float following behind them while they sing, act, and dance. Some people will be performing on the floats as well.
           
This is a perfect image for describing the elaborate costume designs and the marching they do. As you can see they are all similarly dressed for the performance and are walking down the street with their group, the float is probably behind them.

This is a picture of the parade you can see the extraordinary lion float and all the people on and surrounding it. The spectators are hanging out of the nearby buildings to get a good view. 

This video shows Karneval der Kulturen in Berlin, Germany 2010. I picked this video because it doesn’t show the traditional carnival performance you would expect. It shows these people in the crazy costumes walking on stilts they aren’t singing or dancing but, they are performing while walking down the streets with their group. It shows that you don’t have to be singing and dancing to be in a carnival, there are other elements to the tradition.
Facts:
The African tradition of circling was meant to bring good luck to the village.
African’s used feathers in their costumes to represent humans rising above their problems and pains.



Sources
Felner, Mira, and Claudia Orenstein. "Carnival Tradition." The World of Theatre: Tradition and Innovation. Boston: Pearson/Allyn & Bacon, 2006.

"History of Carnival." The History of Carnival. Www.allahwe.org. Web. 27 Feb. 2012.   <http://www.carnivalpower.com/history_of_carnival.htm>.

"Carnival." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 26 Feb. 2012. Web. 27 Feb. 2012.
           <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnival>.