1. http://markell2130.blogspot.com/2013/05/drowsy-chaperone.html?showComment=1367696718309#c1765943838867434504
2. http://ohyeahdramaa.blogspot.com/2013/04/fires-in-mirror-by-adsmith.html?showComment=1367697026773#c5313317722700650320
3. http://cstromain.blogspot.com/2013/04/fires-in-mirror.html?showComment=1367697365434#c2743668199852012490
4. lysdexic2130.blogspot.com/2013/05/fires-in-mirror-respones.html?showComment=1367697546542#c7110079468716702179
5. http://mpret7.blogspot.com/2013/05/on-verge.html?showComment=1367697790170#c5012885838254503654
Saturday, May 4, 2013
Show and Tell #3
Carnival! is a
musical that was produced in 1961. The book was written by Michael Stewart and
music and lyrics by Bod Merrill. The musical
is based on the 1953 film Lili. Carnival first premiered at the National
Theatre in Washington D.C. in March 1961. It finally premiered on Broadway on
April 12, 1961 at the Imperial Theater and it closed January 5, 1963. The show had 719 performances. The original
cast starred Anna Maria Alberghetti as Lili, James Mitchell as Marco, Kaye
Ballard as Rosalie, Pierre Olaf as Jacquot, Henry Lascoe and Jerry Orbach. The musical
was noted for its innovation staging with the introduction to puppets to musical
theater. The musical has won many awards
such as the 1962 Tony Award for best Actress in a musical and the Tony Award
for best scenic design. The show had several nation and international tours around
the world. Also there have been several revivals. The play does not tour as
much but it is still put on by several regional and community theaters.
The musical is about this optimistic orphan girl named Lili.
She is look for a job and find herself at a circus. At the circus, she meets a
man named Marco the Magnificent who asks her to be his act but the job doesn’t work
out well. She tries to find a job with the puppeteers but Paul, who is secretly
in love with her, scares her away with his bitterness but she comes back when
Carrot Top (the puppet played by Paul) starts talking and joins the show. The show goes good for a while until Paul
realizes he is paying too much attention to Lili and curses her. Then later on,
Paul kisses Lili and confuses and scares her. Lili then tell him that he is the
first person she has ever hated in her life. Later on, Paul confesses his love
to Lili which stresses her out and prepares her to leave the carnival. But as
she is leaving, Carrot Top appears asks her to stay and starts to trembling. Lili
lift the puppet off revealing Paul hand. Paul begins to understand the kindness
in him and they live happily end after.
One dramaturgical choice made in the play was the motif of ambiguity
things. One is at the end of the play, the play just ended. The play did not
end with a musical number or an oral conclusion. Paul realizes that he can be
kind and loving and the lights fade. The playwright probably wants the audience
to create their own conclusion. Another moment of ambiguity is with Gobert, the
souvenir salesman. He appears in the play with no goals or reasons. Half of the
time he is standing around wiping things or just saying the obvious. The second dramaturgical choice is create the
magnificent character as a con-artist. Throughout the musical, the magnificent is
always trying to trick someone or fool someone. For example, as the puppet job
is growing on Lili, Marco does everything in his power to have Lili running back
to him. I think the playwright did this as a parallel. He performs tricks for
the audience but he also tricks people too.
The Drowsy Chaperone
One of Hornby’s elements that distinguish the musical The Drowsy Chaperone for the fictional Drowsy Chaperone is ambiguity and
sequence. In the beginning of the play, The Man basically tells us about him.
He tells the audience all his views and opinions on theater, the actors and
characters. Throughout the play, we get a good sense of what The Man character
is all about. But like in all musicals, the musical story just ended, happily ended.
The musical The Drowsy Chaperone leaves
us with a happy ending and a handful of question unanswered. For example, the
character Trix is only in the very beginning and the very end. What was her purpose?
Also did the gangstas just give up on their goal? We do not know. Also sequence played in. The sequence of the
musical jump around because of musical numbers but the fictional story always
stayed constant. In musical, the songs jump for idea to idea and sometimes the songs
have nothing to do with the plot, like the showstopper. The playwright probably
did this to add some comedy. The idea of the story jumping from place makes it
confusing but funny.
Three Viewings
One thing all the characters’ monologues
had in common is the name Nettie James. The first time the name appears is in
Emil’s monologue. He saw the name as the headline of the obituary. Then in Mac’s
monologue that Nettie is his grandmother who just dies. Virginia is a mourner
for the Nettie’s funerals. One theme that I found in the monologues is unstable.
I believe all the characters are kind
unstable with it comes to their personal life. For example, Mac stealing jewelry
from his grandmother is out of this world. Also Emil’s constant “I love you” is
weird and not normal. I think it is a major theme is the plot that these
characters are not normal.
On The Verge
For my poster series for On
The Verge, I would like the focus on the large vocabulary and an item that represents
each character in the play. Each poster would be one of these colors: neon
green, blue and bred. I chose these colors because they are bold, eye catching
and annoying. If a person looks at these colors for too long, they will be on
the verge. Next, I would have an item that represented each character on the different
posters. For example, for the “ Mary” poster, I would have The Boston Geo because that book is her source of wisdom. For “Alex” poster, a young dress would be
display to show her innocence and inexperienced ways. For “ Fanny” poster, a wedding ring would be
display because she is well off in age in her life. She finds certain things inappropriate
and revealing such as shorts. Finally I would have the large vocabulary words
big and bold going side to side on the posters overlaying the images. Something
like this: CLAIRVOYANT SHERRY PROFORMACUPPA. The words would create confusion
and craziness on the posters because the words would be something that the audience
has never seen. The words also introduce
things that are coming up in the play. As the words go side to side on the poster,
the center line would be the tag line. The tag line would be “Are YOU on the
VERGE?”
Fires In The Mirror
The first monologue in Fires
In The Mirror is “The Desert” by Ntozake Shange. This beginning monologue
is essential to the play. As you begin the play, the monologue is a brief introduction
of the main theme of the play. It may cause some confusion at first because the
monologue is random but as the play progresses, “The Desert” comparison makes
sense. The play has this type of idea of
knowing your identity and knowing who you are. This introduction may also be a personal opinion
that the playwright agrees with enough to start that as the leading idea of her
story. Also I believe the playwright add
this as a neutral idea. Everyone that was interviewed directly about the Crown
Height incident had an opinion that favored their race or talked about their
race. As the two cultures are explaining as if they are two different worlds,
the beginning monologue brings the idea that we are not that different at all. Ntozake
Shange sets a level of guidance. For example, the two race believe one is
better than the others or is taking some from the other but as Ntozake Shange
says that the people are not the desert, they can be a part of the desert but
that is not who they are.
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