Ruined

 My director’s “unifying vision” of the play Ruined would be set in a small mining town in Democratic Republic of Congo run by a shrewd businesswoman who runs a canteen in a time of civil war, when citizens are caught between rebel and government forces. In her shabby joint, which features live music, she sells cold beers, a game of pool, whiskey, a hot meal, orange soda, and the company of women. The play will bringing the awareness to people what happen to women in other world during war time. It also will show how they are treated by men and the family that loves them. The used of the colors of red and yellow will play important part in this play showing the effect of war around this canteen.

I would like my play to be either showed in Washington, DC or New York, NY. If I were to perform the play in Washington, DC, I would use the stage at Ford’s Theatre. The reason here is that a great man named Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865. One of Abraham Lincoln’s greatest accomplishments’ was the abolishment of slavery. If I were to perform the play in New York, NY, I would use the stage at the United Nations Building. By bringing this play to these two powerful cities; the audience will be in a position to bring about some kind of change in the Congo. My target audience would be human rights organizations, leaders of nations, powerful men and women, and any other person interesting in seeing what goes on in other parts of the world.

The use of colors in this play can have a profound on how we fell both mentally and physically. There are some emotional associations that humans tend to have with certain colors. These are important to keep in mind in order to create the mood you are seeking in the play. (For example the use of red: can evoke a fight-or-flight response, raise blood pressure and make the heart beat faster.)

The canteen in the play would be made out of wood, on the walls, floor, and ceiling. Also there would be bullet holes, blood stains, and cut marks on them. The ceiling would leak when it rain from the bullet holes, and below on the floor you can see where the rain stain the floor. You can also see old buckets on the floor that is used to catch the rain. The furniture in the place would like old and worn and look like it has been in someone trash. The tables are going to be paint red to hide the blood stains. The bar where Mama Nadi serves the drinks would be painted like the colors of the Africa flag. The girls would sleep, on old army cots, with thin mattress with holes and the feather coming out.  

This what the cots look like where the girls sleep.

The costume that Mama Nadi wears in the play is clothing made of fabrics that is wrap around the body with bright colors, and a bright handkerchief to cover the hair. The men also wear brightly colored shirts and pants. The soldiers are dress in the olive green. Mama Nadi girls would be dress in spaghetti strap sun dress that is also bright colors.   

Shows the wrap around colthes that Mama Nadi wears.

The girls clothes

 As I stated in my unifying vision there will be lots of red and yellow color lights. The red lights would be behind the canteen in the back ground to depict the war around; it would look like things are burning in the back ground. The use of the yellow lights in the canteen would show that the generator that Mama Nadi is using is not strong enough to power the lights to full strength.  When the girls are in their room together the red glow from the back lights will shine through the walls and window to light up the room. There also would be candles around the canteen and also in the rooms.

There would be a lot of different sound going on throughout the play. There will be music play at the time that Sophie is singing her songs. When the actors are walking around the canteen the sounds of the floor squeaking will be heard. At different times in the play the audience members might hear a bullet sound behind them it might be very low, or very loud. This would make it sound like the war is either far or close to the canteen.

 During the play the generator motor would sound like it running out of gas, and this also will affect the lighting in the canteen to either go out or just flicker.  

In the play of Ruined I would also try the have the audience members used the sense of smell. I would burn some bushes and wood so the audience can get the sense of the war around them. 

Dearly Departed

Dearly Departed Scene 4 - Phyllis Munro - Click here for more amazing videos

My family and I went to see Dearly Departed on its opening night. We arrived about forty five minutes before the show started, and we were let into the auditorium about thirty minutes to find our seat.  The auditorium seating was set up in a semicircle, and my family and I sat in the front row of the middle section. After observing the audiences I notice that it different range of ages. The age range was from eighteen to about seventy five. I also notice that some of the audiences’ members were the actor’s family and friends. When you first came into the auditorium you were treated to music. Before the play started the audience member were all taking among
themselves, about many difference things. Some of the audience member were also telling other audience member that they son, daughter, grandchild, etc was in the play and what part they play. The play opens with the audiences listening to a lengthy but humorous letter read by his wife Raynelle, Bud suddenly keels over face first on to the kitchen table. I believe this set the audiences’ mood to be entertained throughout the play. The audience's energy helped fuel the cast's performance during opening night and the audiences really helped the actors get into character. The audience laughed at many of the ridiculous antics and reactions of the characters, also the audience throughout the play had to use their imagination; For example the
scene where Junior and Suzanne are driving a car, we did not see a car but movement and express of the actors made you believed they were in actual car. This idea of imagination was a main theme throughout the play. The only problem that I noticed and heard from some of the audience is at some scene you could not heard some of the things the actors were saying, or
hard to hear. Most of the audience were laughing all the way through the play, and had a smile on their face when they were leaving the auditorium. My wife, daughter and I were taking about the actors’ facial express and the way they acted on stage. As we were talking about the play on the drive home we were still laughing. My Daughter real like Delightful, she told us that she nearly wet her pants laughing so much. My family and I could not stop talking about the play this entire weekend.

From all the plays that we went to, and the two plays we had read, and the one play we are reading now, had all topics that deal with real life experiences. This play took a hard topic such as death and made in fun, enjoyable, and entertaining.

Anna in the Tropics

My family and I went to see Anna in the Tropics was on a Sunday matinee. We arrived about forty five minutes before the show started, and we were let into the auditorium about thirty minutes to find our seat.  The auditorium seating was set up in a semicircle, and my family and I sat in the front row of the middle section. After observing the audiences I notice that most of the patrons were over sixty five years of age. The patrons were all talking among themselves about either personal issues or medical problems. The energy was high and filled with anticipation. When the show was over most of the audiences was talking about some of the risqué scenes in the show. For example there was a scene that the lights were out, and when they came on one of the male actor had his shirt off and the female actress have her blouse unbutton and he was lying on top of her kissing her. This and some of the other sexual references made myself and others in attendance uncomfortable. I was surprised about all the sexual content in the play and did not feel it added value to the story. Most of the audiences found the show entertaining. Some of the audiences felt that the actor and actress needed to use more facial expression. The audiences that usually go to a matinee performance are the elder and family with children. Therefore the actors might have to be more reserved. For example some of the language use might need to be tone down for a matinee. You can see and feel a difference how the audiences should behavior from a movie to a play. When you are at a movie the audiences is making noise, texting, talking to each other, and walking in and out of the movie, but during the live performance you first hear the rules on how you should behavior. For example no flash cameras, no cell phones, etc. These rules make make the theatre experience more enjoyable for everyone that attends. Since this theatre was small you might have came into the theatre strangers, but after the performance you all became friends. My wife, daughter, and I talk about the play on the drive home and we all agree it was entertaining, but we did talk about the scenes that were a bit risqué. Even though my daughter is almost eighteen, my wife and I felt uncomfortable.

 This is a picture of the play where the lector who is reading the story of Anna Karenina to the wroker in the cigar factory. 

Burlesque

Most people think that "burlesque" means female strippers walking a runway to a bump and grind beat. But that only fits the form in its declining years. At its best, burlesque was a rich source of music and comedy that kept America, audiences laughing from 1840 through the 1960s.

 Without question, however, burlesque's principal legacy as a cultural form was its establishment of patterns of gender representation that forever changed the role of the woman on the American stage and later influenced her role on the screen. . . The very sight of a female body not covered by the accepted costume of bourgeois respectability forcefully if playfully called attention to the entire question of the "place" of woman in American society (Allen-1991).

In the 19th Century, the term "burlesque" was applied to a wide range of comic plays, including non-musicals.

 Beginning in the 1840s, these works entertained the lower and middle classes in Great Britain and the United States by making fun of  operas, plays and social habits of the upper classes. These shows used comedy and music to challenge the established way of looking at things.

By the 1860s, British burlesque relied on the display of shapely, underdressed women to keep audiences interested.

   This picture is from U.S. Gilbert burlesque comedy,"Engaged" poster  in the Library of Congress year 1879. 

From the 1880s onwards, burlesque comedy was built around settings and situations familiar to lower and working class audiences. Courtrooms, street corners and inner city schoolrooms were favorites.

By 1905, burlesque theatre owners formed vaudeville-style circuits of small, medium and big time theatres. Because big time burlesque companies played these theatres in regular rotations, the circuits came to be known as wheels. Unlike vaudeville performers who sought weekly bookings as individual acts, burlesquers spent an entire forty week season touring as part of one complete troupe.  

In the 1920s, the old burlesque circuits closed down, leaving individual theater owners to get by as best they could on their own. The strip tease was introduced as a desperate bid to offer something that vaudeville, film and radio could not. 

Some sources praise the burlesque comics of the 1920s and 30s, but by this point, men went to burlesque shows to watch women strip. The more the gals took off, the more the audiences liked it.

By the 1960s, hard core pornography became readily available. Men no longer needed strippers to feed their fantasies.

In the early 2000s, new burlesque shows were cropping up on both sides of the Atlantic, featuring comics, strippers and specialty acts that offer a new spin on the old buresque mix.

 This book chronicles the history of burlesque

Back in the days  burlesque performers developed a unique backstage language of their own.

Jerk – audience member
Yock – a belly laugh
Skull – make a funny face
Talking woman – delivers lines in comedy skits
Cover – perform someone's scenes for them
The asbestos is down – the audience is ignoring the jokes
From hunger – a lousy performer
Mountaineer – a new comic, fresh from the Catskill resort circuit
Boston version – a cleaned-up routine
Blisters – a stripper's breasts
Cheeks – a stripper's backside
Gadget – a G-string
Trailer – the strut taken before a strip
Quiver – shake the bust
Shimmy – Shake the posterior
Bump – swing the hips forward
Grind – full circle swing of the pelvis
Milk it – get an audience to demand encores
Brush your teeth! - comedian's response to a Bronx cheer

                                                                    

Allen. Robert G. Horrible Prrettines:Burlesque and American Culture (Univ.of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1991), pp. 258-259

El-Droubie, Yak, and Parliament, Ian C. The Art of Tease. 1st ed. New York: Korero, 2009 176-178. Print.

"A Brief History of Burlesque." The Indepent. Theatre and Dance. web 25 March 2006

 

Puppet Traditions around the Globe

The world of puppetry in the United States is primarily used for children enjoyment only. Around the world puppetry we find it more sophisticated that entertain adults and children alike. There are some many countries that use the puppetry that I decided on Japanese Bunraku Puppet Theatre. Bunraku is the traditional puppet theatre of Japan, a high-level stage art. Bunraku was originally the name of the theatre in which this puppet drama was performed, but gradually it came to be used as the name of the art itself. The art only came to be known as "Bunraku" around the end of the Meiji era (1868-1912). Bunraku's world renown stems not only from its high-quality artistic technique, but also from the high level of its joruri music and the unique nature of manipulating the puppets―each puppet requires three puppeteers to bring it to life. Bunraku, the manipulators appear openly, in full view of the audience. These two characteristics, which make it completely different from the other puppet theatre traditions around the world, can be said to be the reason that Bunraku is called the most highly developed puppet theatre art in the world. The puppets of Bunraku are different from all other puppets around the world in that it requires 3 puppeteers to manipulate each doll. The three puppeteers are: the omo-zukai, or head puppeteer, who operates the doll's head and face by holding a stick with levers in his left hand, and with his own right hand also operates the doll's right hand; the hidari-zukai, or left-hand puppeteer, who uses his right hand to operate the doll's left hand; and the ashi-zukai, or foot puppeteer, who uses both hands to suggest the movements of the doll's legs and feet. The puppeteers are cloaked in black, with black head coverings over their faces, but are still visible manipulating the puppets.

Only the master puppeteers show their faces. They perform wearing formal kimonos.

This picture show the 3 puppeteers to manipulate a doll  

Next to the puppeteers comes the joruri performer. He is the great story teller and singer. The joruri narrator recites the story in a mixture of chanting and emotional telling. Narrators must have a strong voice and be able to get emotions across to the audience. Good narrators can create dozens of teary eyes or a big laugh in the audience in no time. Next to the joruri narrator sits the shamisen player - another indispensable element of bunraku. The shamisen is an old traditional Japanese string instrument. It looks like a fancy three-string guitar and is pretty long. The shamisen music is more than just some background entertainment. It has a similar function like the orchestra in an European opera. The music supports the action and the mood required by a special play or scene. The narrator and the shamisen player must be a good team. The harmony of their performance is important.

The Structure of the Stage

  

This is the stage upon which the Bunraku is performed. It thrusts out into the audience area at the front right portion of the seats.

Bunraku plays develop through the chanting of gidayu-bushi.  The chanter not only recites the dialogue for all the characters, but also relates the spectacle of the scene and explains the background behind the event taking place.

With the Japanese welcoming Western forms of theatrical art and developing their own "modern" theater, Bunraku fared poorly in the competition to attract audiences. After Japan's defeat in World War II,  and in the early 1960s it tottered on the verge of commercial extinction. Bunraku survived largely with government support and the establishment of the National Theater in Tokyo and the National Bunraku Theater in Osaka. In later years few youngsters are willing to endure the many years of training needed to acquire the skills of a professional. Traditionally, a puppeteer must spend 10 years operating the legs and 10 years the left arm before he may become a principal operator. Bunraku may enjoy a mild revival because of a new appreciation of tradition among younger Japanese, but its future is uncertain.

Felner, Mira, and CLAUDIA Orenstein. The World of Theatre:tradition and innovation. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc, 2006. Print.

      web-japan.org/museum/bunraku/about_bu.html

      www.sagecraft.com/puppetry/definitions/Bunraku.hist.html