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. 

Show and Tell Post Two

Basic Information 

The People by Susan Glaspell is a one act play published in 1918. It now is in the public domain and can be performed without royalties. I found it from the following website: http://www.one-act-plays.com/dramas/people.html. This play was most likely first performed at the Provincetown Playhouse, in its first season of the theatre after moving to New York City around 1916-1917. Many plays have been produced here since its opening, it is still running today producing plays mostly for New York University’s educational theatre department. More about the production done here can be found at this website: http://www.provincetownplayhouse.com/thepeople.html

Outline of Plot

The play starts as staff members of The People: A Journal of the Social Revolution wait for their editor Ed to get back from a trip that will determine the fate of the newspaper. The characters discuss what is wrong with the paper and each person proclaims what should be done in order to “fix” the paper. As the staff is losing hope a women, a boy, and a man walk into the office and explain how the paper has changed their lives for the better. The women talks to the editor and gets him to believe in his words again like she believes in them. In the end, Ed decided to keep the paper running and let the truth be open for the public. 

Dramaturgical Choice 1 

          Looking at this play one of the first dramaturgical choices we notice is Glaspell’s decision to only have four of the twelve characters have proper names. The other names given tell us either where they are from like the Boy from Georgia, or give their status of how they work with the paper like the Artist or the Earnest Approach. I find this choice notable because these characters are more than a single person but more of representatives of smaller communities of thinking. I believe because each of their titles represent a larger scale, they themselves are The People that the paper was first established for. 

Dramaturgical Choice 2

       Another significant dramaturgical choice is Glaspell’s decision to have the point of attack and the inciting incident all be in the first few lines of the script. Within three short lines the plot begins and we find out the major conflict in the play. I think this choice kicks off the play quickly and lets the readers know exactly what the play is about and what major conflicts the characters are facing in just a short moment. I like plays that take this approach because then more time is spent on the rising action when tension is growing and keeping the readers interested. I believe it works for especially well for this play because we get a taste of what is going on and then in the rising action everything becomes more intriguing as more conflicts arise. 

Eurydice

If I were to design posters after just two quotes of this play, the following quotes would have to be my basis for the best possible designs in my eyes. 

The first quote have chosen is found on page 215 when Orpheus asks Eurydice “How will you remember?” I chose this quote because I believe the questioning of Eurydice by Orpheus is prominent and does foreshadow that she will forget him in some aspect in the play.  If I were creating a design based on this quote it would take a the production on a road more focused on the issues of rememberance throughout the play. This choice would make the senses in the beginning more meaningful and would have to be stressed in order to understand later memory problems that the characters go through more fully. I think the poster design would be cool if it were an image that was repeated behind itself slowly fading into nothing like when you forget a memory and it fades away gradually. 

The second quote I would chose, is found on page 234 when the stones say, “DEAD PEOPLE CANT SING!” I chose this quote because singing was an important part of the play, considering that Orpheus was able to travel to the underworld by singing. In this quote we see how urgent the stones want them to stop singing; we get a sense that singing has powers and high stakes attached to it. A concept based off of this would makes the choice between Orpheus and her father a much tougher one. A cool poster based on this quote would be Eurydice with her mouth open as if she was singing but nothing coming out, and then in the reflection of her eyeball an image of the stones yelling at her. 

Comments: Part Two

Comment 1:   http://jstaff6.blogspot.com/2013/10/glass-of-water.html?showComment=1383686230100#c9017125262060135580

Comment 2:  http://purplesummer2130.blogspot.com/2013/10/love-valour-compassion.html?showComment=1383686507227#c4956423091161099315

Comment 3:  http://purplesummer2130.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-childrens-hour.html?showComment=1383686819200#c5934405818360058634

Comment 4:  http://icesk8prosue2130.blogspot.com/2013/10/love-valour-compassion.html?showComment=1383687151967#c4161866139717244057

Comment 5:  http://2130michaelguillot.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-childrens-hour.html?showComment=1383687536186#c724619716152584515