Show and Tell Post Three

Basic Information 

He Said And She Said is a one act play by Alice Gerstenberg published in 1922.  It now is in the public domain and can be performed without royalties.You can find the play at the following website: http://www.one-act-plays.com/dramas/ever_young.html. This play was recently performed by Hanover High School of Massachutus this past November. I found a newspaper article about the production that can be found here:http://www.wickedlocal.com/hanover/news/x1197768616/Stage-is-set-for-Hanover-Highs-one-act-plays. I found it really interesting the reasons why the drama advisor had picked the play. She said, “I like this play because it speaks to both younger and older audiences alike. The main characters are older, yet they handle gossip much in the same way the high school-aged performers might handle rumors. This is a play about gossip, and how gossip can go awry and turn into a great big trouble.” I think that this is a good lesson to learn when around this age, and that this play is a good age appropriate selection. 

Outline of Plot

It is set in the living room of the Haldermans, just before dinner. The play starts with Mr and Mrs Halderman discussing how he is the only man for dinner and how he wants to find their friend, Diana, a man. Mrs. Packard arrives and starts to gossip with Enid about Diana. Soon Diana arrives and the subject changing into small talk. One Enid leaves the room, Mrs. Packard begins to gossip what she was talking about with Enid before Diana came in. Mrs. Packard tells Diana that people are talking about her and Enid’s husband, Felix, are secretly in love. Diana is outraged by this news and they get into a tiff. Soon Felix comes in and Diana tells him of the rumors. Enid comes back into the room and they all discuss the gossip that has stirred up. In the end we don’t know what to believe because Diana says she was married to Aubrey and so Mrs. Packard leaves saying sorry for the commotion but then Diana turns around and says she lied. Ending the play with saying, “What will people say? In any case, exactly what they choose!” 

Dramaturgical Choice 1 

          Looking at this play one of the first dramaturgical choices we notice is Gerstenburg’s decision to only have Diana not show up in the play until almost half way through. I find this choice notable because she is mentioned early on in the play but we are left wondering if we will meet her soon. It is also interesting because as the play goes on we see what a key character she becomes and how she pushes the play forward. I believe she makes this choice to have the tension level rise due to waiting for her arrival since she is being talked about so much. 

Dramaturgical Choice 2

       Another significant dramaturgical choice is Gerstenburg’s decision to have the first thing we see is Felix kissing Enid. The script says,”He kisses Enid affectionately as if it were a daily habit.” I believe that those are very powerful stage directions and give great insight into the play. I believe this choice is notable because it acts as a foreshadowing to make the audience double think who they really believe when questions arise about his faithfulness to her later. 

My Comments: Take Three

http://purplesummer2130.blogspot.com/2013/12/topdogunderdog.html?showComment=1386357505500#c340581018785395887

http://crayonxasxsnail.blogspot.com/2013/11/house-of-trials.html?showComment=1386444288867#c8259726998103629707

http://morgansthtr2130blog.blogspot.com/2013/12/next-to-normal-response.html?showComment=1386444637858#c2519350192802442335

http://paulina2130.blogspot.com/2013/12/topdog-underdog.html?showComment=1386445243540#c8904027006326549842

http://icesk8prosue2130.blogspot.com/2013/11/water-by-spoonful.html?showComment=1386445564139#c8788343854087814513

http://janessaharris.blogspot.com/2013/12/tis-pity-shes-whore.html?showComment=1386446108063#c4471469960088197632

Next to Normal

When analyzing Next to Normal, i will discuss Hornby's elements of rhythm and duration through looking at the song lyrics and composition.

In the song, "Make Up Your Mind/Catch Me I'm Falling, " there is a dark and ominous heartbeat that makes the rhythm of this song increase intensely.  This happens towards the end of the song after Dr. Madden has asked her to make up her mind about treatment. Her heartbeat is consistent at first when she is saying "Catch me i'm falling, catch me before it's too late,"(Kitt 50) but then after she keeps singing the heartbeat keeps increasing until it final flattens out into its last beat. When this is happening the tension is rising with the beats of the music getting faster until the end when the audience is left with a heavy feeling of tension released. 

The song that has the longest duration is "Who's Crazy/ My Psychopharmacologist and I."  I believe that this song gets the most stage time because it is such a key song/ part of the play. This is the first time that she has realized her problem and has asked for help to get "better".  However as the song goes on, the audience realizes that maybe she's not crazy and that having someone take many pills isn't going to help them as much as one would think. In this song she says, "Without a little lift, the ballerina falls," (Yorkey 16) I believe she is trying to convince herself that the medicine and the side effects are worth the "lift" that she receives from them. At the end of the song, she says she doesn't feel anything anymore, which triggers the doctor to conclude she is finally "stable". The really makes you think about how the medicine is making her feel and how bad it may be for her. 

TopDog/ UnderDog

In the play TopDog/ UnderDog by Suzan-Lori Parks, there are two prominant theatrical mirrors throughout the play. One being the mirror of Abe Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth compared to Lincoln and Booth the brothers. Another mirror is the game of Three Card Monte  parallels the game of life. 

The Three Card Monte is a game all about trickery, scamming, and lying. There is no way for a player to actually win the game, unless the dealer lets you have a win. Lincoln says, “It may look like you got a chance but the only time you pick right is when thuh man lets you” (Parks 1297). Similar to this card game, there is no real “win” in the game of life just when you think your ahead of the game, you fail. This was nothing new to Booth and Lincoln who live in a run down apartment together on very low income. The game of life hasn’t been particularly fair to them except when they are playing the game. Because for a moment, they are in charge of their lives. 

The Lincoln assassination performance is similar to the card game in that he lets the marks win by letting them shoot him and let them “win” in the game of Abe Lincoln’s life. Lincoln says, “ its pretty dark. To keep thuh illusion of thuh whole thing... they all get so into it. I do my best for them” (Parks 1284).  Lincoln lets the people think they have done the assassination in order to keep the game alive. 

Water by the Spoonful

In scene Eight when Elliot and Yaz log onto Odessa’s computer impersonating Haikumom. This is the biggest clashing of two worlds in my opinion because its when we first really see the worlds interacting. After Orangutan figures out it is an impersonater, Elliot reveals his true self as her son. After conversing Orangutan brings up Elliot’s drug using, which is a shock to Yaz to hear this news. In a rage Elliot abruptly unplugs the computer and throws the keyboard on the ground. I picked this scene because it has both intersecting story lines and intersecting realities. Here we see Elliot and Yazmin inserting themselves into the cyber reality and that cyber reality in turn affect the real world.

This scene can be used the describe the central motif of dissonance.  This scene is the first time that Hudes discusses Elliot’s addiction which brings a lack of harmony with Yaz. Even more dissonance occurs with the stage directions on page 59, “He throws the keyboard on the ground. He starts unplugging cables violently.” These actions themselves are the dissonance in Elliot’s life. Furthermore when elliot tries to leave the ghost appears to him and blocks him. The ghostly world of his conscience interrupts here making more of a dissonant sound.  Elliot’s interaction with the cyber reality makes more collisions between worlds come more often afterwards. This one moment takes the interactions of the cyber world, the ghostly world, and the real world and makes the dissonance really be heard. 

Tis Pity She's A Whore

If I was in charge of creating some poster ideas for 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, the first idea I came up with would be the image of a dark colored red Mardi Gras like mask on top of a lightly colored grey backdrop with a quote written in the design of the mask. I have thought about three different quotes that show characters wearing masks to hide their true identity in the play. The first one is in Act I, Scene 2: 83-84, Giovanni is talking to the friar and saying he will hide his true feeling for his sister because he knows it’s wrong.  He says, " All this I’ll do, to free me from the rod of vengence; else I’ll swear my fate’s my god.”

My second quote is Vasques hiding himself to get information out of Hippolita. He says, “And that’s villainous fault in him” (Act III, Scene 8: 13), Here we see him hiding under a mask of hate towards Soranzo when in reality he is loyal to his master and is using Hippolita to turn against her. 

My third quote would be in Act V, Scene 6:149-150. This is the last scene of the play when Richardetto says, “Your grace’s pardon! Thus long I lived disguised,” here it is revealed that richardetto was not dead but hidden under a mask. He finally reveals himself after seeing the effects of lust and pride resulting in a blood bath. 

House of Trials

After reading House of Trials many things stood out to me that could be looked at as conventions of Spanish Golden Age comedia’s. For example the character’s asides, the poetic verse, long monologues, characters driven by honor and knowledge that the characters are in a play. Not reading any other Spanish Golden Age plays I would assume that these are convention that these plays would have in common. Though these are all important, I will go into further detail of the two I believe are more cructial. 

One convention would be the characters’ asides to the audience. This concept is different than the well-made plays we have read in class. In The Glass of Water, for example, the characters stay within the world of the play and only speak to each other.  However in House of Trials, the characters often break the fourth wall to tell the audience what they are thinking. The characters’ asides are done in order for the playwright is able to let the audience know the characters’ true thoughts since there is such deceit in this play. 

Another important convention of the comedia would be the poetic dialogue written in verse. In The Glass of Water, the characters speak in a normal way that dialogue would take place if it was being lived. However in The House of Trials, the characters speak in poetry. The words flow and are often wordy in order to fit the context of a verse. This heightened language creates a different feeling for the audience than natural speaking patterns, like Shakespearian verse does.