Fires in the Mirror

Well first of all I say if we are choosing to make a production of Anna Deavere Smith’s Fires in the Mirror the we do not have the right to question why she put these monologues in the play because she is the playwright and that was her decision and she has a reason for every word she put in the play. We as analysts have been taught that everything in the plays we read was made as a dramaturgical choice by the playwright and if are to make this production we have to include the monologues. They to me are critical to the script and because they preface us to what we are about to experience and what we are about to read. The monologues give us a little insight of what the riots are about and how people are as humans and how religion is so important to us. For example in monologue titled Static about the Anonymous Lubavitcher Woman who’s Jewish religion was so important to her she couldn’t turn on the radio so she tricked the little black boy to come in her home and turn on her radio. Another example of importance these monologues is in Aaron M. Bernstein’s Mirrors and Distortion his monologue to me show the difference of how someone could look beautiful on the outside and how ugly and evil a person could be on the inside. The mirrors are just the instrument used to trick us into believing that this person is beautiful when in all actuality people can be monsters.

Drowsy Chaperson

Just like when we read Noises off! The Drowsy Chaperone has thrown me for a loop again it was really tough for me to discern real from fictional Drowsy Chaperone and again maybe if I were able to watch this play rather than reading it then it would make more sense and I would have enjoyed it more. Also it would be much easier to understand what the hell is going on and who is who and what they mean to they play but enough of my rant. The two Hornby elements that I would use to analyze this play would duration and choice. When I say duration I would focus on the large amount of stage time that the man gets. He doesn’t even say that much and he isn’t part of the fictional play just rather he listens to the play and analyzes it which leads to my second element choice. My selection of choice is why did the Bob Martin and Don McKellar even choose to include the man in the play what did he bring to the play that made enough of a difference that the play would have been worse off without him. Why couldn’t the play just be the fictional Drowsy Chaperone. That to me was the biggest question. I don’t know maybe it is just me but I don’t like these story within a story type plays.

On the Verge

Ok so to me in this play you have to focus on the essence of time travel and moving forward through time and space like Alex, Fanny and Mary do. Secondly I say to myself who are these ladies and where on earth do people talk like this. So I think for my posters it is just as important to look at not only the crazy unrealistic adventure that the three woman are on but the way they talk and the diction that the play incorporates. So my posters would resemble those of the Back to the Future Series show the ladies dressed as they are in Victorian garb and umbrella in hand standing in front of the 1955s’ esque Vegas strip style casinos with the tagline “Willing to Wager life on a Single Throw of the Dice.” I think it would be a very entertaining poster and portrays them being from the past living in the modern day world but I think it would be cool to change the words to something more complex which resembles the way the ladies speak using larger less often used words.

Comment check point 3

http://sstev31.blogspot.com/2013/05/post-12-on-verge.html?showComment=1367648586938#c8147737971568808958

http://analysistrata.blogspot.com/2013/05/prompt-13-three-viewings.html?showComment=1367649154862#c2073415434172408298

http://chassitycurlean.blogspot.com/2013/05/final-show-and-tell-post.html?showComment=1367649820877#c6151826652903430381

http://dorapereli2130.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-drowsy-chaperone-response.html?showComment=1367652539354#c1174216551596312200

http://garrettstheater.blogspot.com/2013/05/fires-in-mirror.html?showComment=1367702687023#c7570397612222014811

Three Viewings

Obviously the one that connects each monologue is the funerals but to me the one thing that connects the monologues that my classmates may not notice is that the funerals are the one place of peace for each character, the one place they feel comfortable and have no worries. For Emil it is what he does, he works there, he does it every day and it affords him a reason to see Tessie. Virginia are also her place of business as she steals jewels from the deceased and Virginia doesn’t mind the funerals because to her someone dies everyday and there is no one at the funeral asking her for money that she owes.

I think one motif that easily stood out to me was the main characters attachment or love for something Emil’s love for Tessie, Mac’s love for jewelry and money and then Virginia’s love for Ed but not just their love but the struggles they go through and the pain that is caused by these items or people. Whether its Emil’s inability to express his love for Tessie, Mac’s inability to find and retrieve the tear shaped dinner ring from her dead grandmother or the pain that Virginia goes through learning all the nasty details about her late husband. Each character in the end has a very different resolution with their problem with Emil never being able to tell Tessie how he felt since she passed away before he got the chance to tell her he loved her. Mac was able to retrieve the tear shaped ring but only after her dead grandmother opened her eyes and forced Mac to have some painful cathartic experience when she confessed to inadvertently killing her husband and children when she failed a suicide attempt. Then finally Virginia’s resolution was the best of them all after all the pain and confusion she went through after doubting everything that she had known about her husband she found the envelope that held the letter that answered all her questions and erased all her problems when she found out her husband did love her more than anything.

Trifles

I think if you were to strip the play down in Trifles using only blank blocks and abstract colors it would lose the appeal of the play. The woman would have to over dramatize everything because it isn’t often for woman today to preserve fruit and sew quilts or simply stay at home all day long with no children. The world today is too modernized and the scene that we read from Trifles is far too different from the world we know. I just don’t think the dialogue and plot would translate well with a modern day audience. I think the characters would have to be so theatrical in their dialogues it would become almost comical and people wouldn’t take the actors serious in what is a rather serious scene that is trying to determine whether a woman’s depression and loss drove her to kill her very own husband. This scene is too elaborate and the costumes and colors and props are too valuable to the scene to be erased and replaced with blank abstract props and colors. It would become very confusing, wondering why these two woman are speaking this way and Mr. Hale would need a team to go to Mr. Wright to install a phone when you are never able to see what type of background they are set in. The men are fairly normal and seem like modern day men which might throw you off since the woman’s characters are the exact opposite they are fixated on the historical things about the play and since the woman are sort of the focal point of the play it is too critical for the audience to be able to understand what is going on and when and where this is taking place and to me the proposal to blank and black out the colors and props is just too much of a risk.