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. 

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

Love!Valor!Compassion!

I would like to say that at first I did not like this play, but after reading is multiple times and getting a better grasp on understanding this play, I actually have come to really enjoy it.  Though it is quite different than a well-made play, that doesn’t mean that this type of play is any less entertaining or valuable to society. Structurally, this play is non-linear and the characters are consistantly talking at the same time to different people and even addressing the audience at some points. Dramaturgically, this play says a lot yet a little at the same time. By this I mean, they characters have a lot of dialogue but have far less action than speaking of what has happened or what will happen in the future. All of these factors make this play quite different than others we have read. I think if a historian was reading this play, they might get the sense that america in the 1990’s was disjointed and confused. The whole play has a sense of disjointed-ness just by looking at the title: Love!Valor!Compassion! It does not seem to roll of the tongue, but rather it is broken and not one complete sentence, instead it is three different sentences. Also adding to the disjointed-ness of this play, the characters  braking of the fourth wall from time to time makes the reader think of the disjointed view of what theatre is “suppose to be” at this time. We get that maybe a capital T- truth could be seen differently by whoever is viewing it. For example when the characters talk of how they die, they each say when they go or how they believe they go. Ramon says, “I don’t die. I’m fucking immortal. I live forever” (McNolly 138) Here we see that Ramon’s belief of death is that it didn’t happen, as opposed to Perry who has his death counted down to the second. They view is different as what the Truth of death is and who controls death (human or God) is based on a person’s point of view. 

Children's Hour

The biggest departure from a well-made play form is the choice to not have a resolution with a nice tied up ending, instead we are left we more of an unraveling of characters and left with more questions. This is significantly different than a well made play because a well made play would have had an ending that was tied with a nice bow on it and all unanswered questions being answered. However, in Children's Hour we are left with Martha dead, Karen leaving Joe, Mary finally confessing it was all a lie too late, and her grandma never being able to really punish her for the mess she has made. Essentially we are left with a bigger mess then at the beginning of Act III when we see that Karen and Martha have lost the court case and now have to live with a stigma over their heads. 

I think this play should be done today. I understand why most people would say that it shouldn't be done because we like to think that our society has advanced and are more accepting of the LGBTQ community. However after seeing Five Flights, I don't think the majority of our society has truly accepted this community. I could not believe the amount of people at the production who were grossed out when either Tom and Ed makeout and even when Olivia and Adele kiss. I heard gasps and even people say "eww." I was appaulled that people thought that those relationships were "unnatural" in some way to say or react in such a way. For this reason I believe this play should be done ,and then maybe these people who react like this to a modern play will realize how ridiculous they are acting in today's world when we like to think we have progressed so far from when Children's Hour was written. 

Glass of Water

It seems as though my spidey sense is at its finest for i couldn't find this mis-translation upon merely reading it. It took me multiple times before I could come with some moments that did not fit to me; however, I am unsure if I have found the correct moments or not. The first moment I noticed was on page 93-94, the beginning lines of Act III. Bolingbroke says, "you sent for me?" ,and then Abigail and him exchange a couple of confusing and non-essential lines before Abigail says, "Listen... I was here in the Queen's boudoir.. just about to speak to her Arthur..."(Scribe). I think if the middle lines were cut out or translated differently then this section would flow better. It seems choppy with so many pauses and miscommunication between the two characters. Another moment that most stands out is the moment between the Dutchess and Bolingbroke on page 102, where they kiss and slap each other. This stands out to me because they argue most of the play and then say that they are to be married and  just kiss each other. This seems to come from left field for me, for the Dutchess was in love with Masham before and seems to move on from that far too quickly for me to believe it was meant to be written like that.

Show and Tell Post

I really enjoyed reading Alice Gerstenberg’s Overtones, so for my first show and tell post I decided to read another play written by her called Fourteen. Fourteen is a one act play written in 1920. The play is in public domain so it can be easily found online just by googling Alice Gerstenberg’s name. I used this website to read the play: http://www.theatrehistory.com/plays/fourteen.html. I could not find when this play was first produced or how often it is either; however, I did find that the play is being produced at a local restaurants in Queensland, Australia with the Play With Your Food Theatre Company. This particular company has chosen to perform a set a plays while their audience eats dinner. I think that in the case of Fourteen, it is fitting for the audience to be eating dinner while the characters are running around trying to make their own dinner party successful. More information about the Play With Your Food Theatre Company can be found here:http://playwithyourfood.homestead.com/index.html. 

Fourteen tells the comedic story of the makings of a dinner party. Mrs. Pringle has invited many esteemed guests to join her for dinner, but her plans are cursed from the start when one by one the guest lists seems to be growing shorter by the minute because of a nasty blizzard. In a hasty fashion, Mrs. Pringle, along with her daughter Elaine and her butler Dunham, try to salvage the dinner party by inviting more guests as others cancel in order to avoid having  an unlucky thirteen guests or avoid a preposterous seating arrangement of not having Mr. Pringle sit at the head of the table. After loosing Mrs.Pringle looses her cool and swears to never throw a dinner party again, The Prince of Wales shows up to take the place of her most influential guest Mr. Farnsworth, who can no longer make it. The Prince brings his body guard to dinner with him which makes the final count of dinner guest fourteen and perfect.  Mrs. Pringle ends the play by walking off stage with her daughter telling her “I always manage somehow to be the most successful of hostesses! Thank God for the blizzard!” 

When analyzing the script I found many dramaturgical choices but one that stood out most to me was the choice of not showing the dinner party guests.  I believe this choice shows that the focus is not on the actual dinner party or what guests show up, but rather the extreme work it takes to make a successful dinner party happen. This is a significant choice because we, as readers, are shown the chaos and confusion that unfolds before our eyes and that is not shown to the guests. We see the behind the curtain scenes in order to reveal what it takes to put on a good show or in the case of Fourteen a good dinner party. This choice makes the reader understand that there is a clear difference in what the guests see and what actually is happening or how the hostess actually acts when there are not around. Having the readers never meet the guests also leaves us without knowing whether or not the actual dinner was a real success or not. 

Another dramatical choice I found noteworthy would be the choice to have the inciting incident be the first lines spoken in the play. This kicks off the play on what we read to be a downward spiral into one messy dinner party or so we think. The first few lines Mrs. Pringle says to us explain that one person is dropping out of the dinner party so close to dinner time. This causes an uproar because there cannot be thirteen people at the dinner table for this is a bad omen. This is a significant choice to instantly jump into conflict because as the reader is thrown this information, so are the characters hit with it as well. This choice makes the reader have more compassion for what the hostess is going through and makes us understand how off guard the news has thrown her. 

My Comments

http://purplesummer2130.blogspot.com/2013/09/4000-miles.html?showComment=1380070082250#c8549290925185182769

http://jstaff6.blogspot.com/2013/09/night-mother.html?showComment=1380070021805#c6344468058812378602

http://marge2130fall2013.blogspot.com/2013/09/overtones-by-alice-gerstenberg.html?showComment=1380070509571#c7639384357032036079

http://purplesummer2130.blogspot.com/2013/09/night-mother.html?showComment=1380070822505#c8343475337611784102

http://jstaff6.blogspot.com/2013/09/trifles.html?showComment=1380071117472#c7161364730514336595

http://wellhithereyou.blogspot.com/2013/09/trifles.html?showComment=1380331049653#c6309212665401412244

4000 Miles

I believe a powerful motif in 4000 Miles would be one of disconnect. I choose this word because I believe every character has their own way of being disconnected with something or someone or has a disconnection with themselves. For example, I believe Leo is all of the above. He is disconnected from the world when he goes on bike rides for long periods at a time, he is also disconnected from his parents, and disconnected from reality because he believes he is connecting to his girlfriend when she believes they are so disconnected that they need to break up. For vera, we can see a disconnection between her and ginny, they only ever call each other and never just go see each other face-to-face. This personal disconnect pulls them away from each other. Vera also has a disconnect with her memory. She seems to always be forgetting the words she wants to use and instead using the word “Whatamacallit” to trigger her memory. We see that the motif of disconnecting is seen throughout moments between characters and is clearly expressed in the dialogue of the play. 

Judith

I believe the major dramatic question for Judith is, "Will Judith become the type of person she wishes to kill?" And i believe the answer to this is yes. She wants to kill this man but we must wonder, will killing him make her the killing machine she hates most. I believe the reason she begins speaking indignatly and crude towards the servant is because the power of killing Holofrenes made her into a monster like him. We can derive this from the script by looking at the language that Judith uses. Throughout the play we can see Judith's language shifting from more propper to cursing, but we see it greatest and more foul through the difference before and after she kills him.  Towards the end of the script Judith says ,"Well, it has to end at some time, love! But it's smell, in the after hours... Magnificence. (She laughs, with a shudder.)" (Barker 67).  I think this shows the audience how twisted she is after killing a man she could love. She at first regretted it but then is consumed by the power she feels and leaves a different women.  

Night, Mother

I think another Major dramatic question for Night, Mother could be Will Jessie get Mama to understand her decision and let her go peacefully? I believe this serves as a better choice for the major dramatic question (rather than the obvious will jessie commit suicide?)because Jessie has already made up her mind and answered that question before the play begins. She has planned for this day and has been wanting it for a long time now. We see that before she goes she wants her mom to be able to function after she leaves. She wants her to not blame herself and to have one last moment shared between only them to say goodbye. We see this when Jessie tells her mom “I only told you so I could explain it, so you wouldn't blame yourself, so you wouldn't feel bad. There wasn't anything you could say to change my mind. I didn't want you to save me. I just wanted you to know”(Norman 48). To back up why I believe Jessie wants for her mom to let her go peacefully is when she tells her “(Very calm.) Let me go, Mama”(Norman 56). These simple words are begging for her mom to understand and support her decision. We know that this major dramatic question is answered with no. When her mom just can’t let her child take her life and leave her there to pick up the pieces. 

Trifles

I think to propose this play in a minimalistic world with abstract/blank setting will take away how we feel when we see the items in question or when we first see the kitchen untidy and abandoned. I feel as though this version of the play can happen however in my opinion it would lose a piece of why the play hits you as it does. In the script the author tells you in details how things are suppose to look and what the objects look like that are handled. If we change those things we are changing what the playwright originally had wanted for a production and therefore change the mood of how it is interpreted. For example, the box that the bird is kept in should be an elaborate and beautiful box. The script says, " I expect this has got sewing things in it.(brings out a fancy box) What a pretty box" (Glaspell 4). You could argue that the box does not necessarily be pretty if the director were focusing on just the words, however if we are focusing on words AND emotion than that would change the fact that we need a pretty box. I say this because later in the script Mrs. Hale convinces herself that Mrs. Wright could not have killed the bird because of how she put it wrapped in this pretty box. She says, "She liked the bird. She was going to bury it in that pretty box"(Glaspell 5).  This statement means more to the viewers if they can see the box was beautiful and taken care of, rather than it being just a plain ole white box. Seeing the care of how the bird would be buried gives more emotion that having the audience imagining if the box were prettier. Though i would not like a production done in the minimal style for this play, that does not mean that it couldn't be done and still effect other people. I just believe that in doing so, the director is taking away something from what the playwright had intended. 

Overtones

When examining Overtones by Alice Gerstenburg, I believe the inner selves do see each other as seen on page 211 of the script Maggie speaks directly to Hetty and Hetty addresses Maggie as well as seen on page 213. Whether or not the inner selves can hear each other is up for interpretation. When the inner selves talk to each other they often do not answer what is being told by the other inner self, this only changes towards the near end of the play. You can defend the fact that they see each other by looking at the script and noticing the directional notes that are in parenthesis telling the actor who to address when speaking. You cannot however defend them actually hearing what the other is saying by the script alone because we are not specifically told so by the reacting of characters or the responses of what they say. 

To fully immerse yourself in the play you have to accept the rules of their world, in order to know some rules of the world one could look to director’s notes, character descriptions, setting descriptions, and stage directions. Directional notes would give hints as to whether a character is seen/heard in the world of the particular play. We know this because stage directions are instructions for the actor to follow that are written into the script so we know when that character moves or who he/she is addresses specifically. A person in the audience would know if a character is not seen because you would have to have Harriet never look directly at Hetty or notice her when she moves about and the same with Margaret and Maggie. The rules are quite consistent throughout the play that the inner selves are not seen by the other women ;however, again as to if they hear each other is unclear. The effect of consistency throughout the play makes it clearer for us to understand what is occuring in this particular world. I believe that the inner selves reveal what our true mind is thinking, we can hear our true mind and we listen to it ,but we cannot see this voice in our head as an actual being. We know that everyone has an unconsious (id) that is constantly thinking and taking in the world around us, telling us to do  something and not to do something, controlling our actions or at least swaying them in some way. However, no one can read your mind, people cannot communicate with the voice within our head which is why I believe that the inner selves cannot hear each other. I think they talk to each other as if we talk inside our head but still directed at a person. For example, If I am looking at someone and saying “you look nice” but in my head I am thinking “thats an awful top your wearing,” then I would still be looking at this person without saying it aloud so they could not hear me.