...Impact. After our first tour of the small theater, I didn’t know what to expect of a play there. My first impression of the small theater was that it was very bare, dark and small, so it was interesting to see the stage with sets and actors illuminated by the lights. Since the theater was small, the actors were easy to see. I also want to comment on the sound. I thought the acoustics in this theater were just mediocre. Although the theater is small and about the same size as the Ashby Stage, the actors were a bit more difficult to hear, although the microphones did help quite a bit. I thought most of the performances were great; however I enjoyed some of them better than others. My favorites were The Boogeyman, Rhythms in the Veins, and Playwriting 101: The Rooftop Lesson. I really enjoyed the way Boogeyman began. First off, the play opened with the heavy sounds of hard rock/metal band Godsmack, and then followed by a scary story by from the older brother to his little brother Timmy. During his scary story, I really liked the effect that the flashlight gave along with the strobe flashes that simulated lightning. I also liked the sound effects that were used in the play. For example I thought the creaky door was a good effect. I thought the set was great. I not only liked the fact that you can see Timmy’s bedroom and the living room at the same time, I also liked that the set was very functional. For example I liked that the Boogeyman was able to disappear in and out of the closet...
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...Ancient Greek Religion Final “What is Ancient Greek religion?” Main focus on the element of festivals, sanctuaries, and cults and how these all incorporate their own unique aspects when defining Ancient Greek religion. The Greek religious system depended not on a single deity, but on many. It did not depend on a sacred text and was served by both female and male priests. Greek gods did not assert rules for human conduct. The Ancient Greeks imagined human shapes and personalities for the immortal deities and then honored them in rituals that both comforted individuals and supported existing social systems. Religion in Ancient Greece was about community. While an individual does not have to believe the same thing as the community, they do have to participate equally in the religious actions. Belief was not the important thing. But if you don’t participate with the community, that will anger everyone and it offends the gods and endangers the community. It is treason to not participate. Greek religion is about action, not belief. It’s about give and take. The practice of religion cannot be separated from social and political life. Many concepts of Greek religion could be seen to benefit more than just the religious aspects. * Sanctuaries * Two most necessary features (directly related to ritual): * A place of sacrifice * A boundary line marking the space within which sacred rituals could be performed * Most sanctuaries were...
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...Lindsey Sibille Ms. Gonzales AP English III, 1 16 October 2015 The Crucible Book Card Assignment Authorial Background Arthur Miller is the award-winning playwright of The Crucible along with many other famous plays such as Death Of a Salesman and All My Sons. Born in Manhattan in 1915, Miller experienced the pressing and devastating times of the Great Depression and both World Wars. His first two plays were The Man Who Had All the Luck and All My Sons, with the latter being performed on Broadway in 1949. His next play, Death of A Salesman, received a Tony award, the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, and the Pulitzer prize. These awards allowed him to rise to fame and helped his career skyrocket. Despite his successful playwriting...
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...PLAYWRITING A MONOLOGUE Name Institution of Affiliation Option #2 I was in the cold room still wondering if truly that was myself or a ghost of me. My mind kept running, my memory was shut. I am asking myself what happened. Is it true I am incarcerated for thirty years? No way, it can never be me. This is a transgression, someone has to do something, and the situation was gloomy. Today marks the beginning of my end. Then I ask myself, why am I here? Since I was born, I have never set foot in a jail. My family knows I am an obedient child. I have been a diligent student. You want the proof. Okay look at my transcripts, the results are excellent I was going to be a lead business consultant. I would deliver best services to my clients. Yes, I will have money to live a great life. I love the society too, helping the needy is my priority. Moreover, because the poor would like me, I bet they will. I am famous, and then why not try to vie for an elective position? Yes, I would be an enigmatic politician. Here I am again with shattered dreams and aspirations, the mention of my name sends a chill into people’s spine. I am going to spend thirty years in prison. .I have been jailed for possession and distribution of the illegal drug, cocaine. I am the talk of my neighborhood, every parent uses me as an example. Youths are warned of what will befall them if they choose to tread the path, I have trod. And what has remained of my family? My heart is paining, what an embarrassment and shame...
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...traveling theater company, “El Teatro Campesino”, after graduating. He soon got established with Centro Campesino Cultural in 1967 and settle into a full-time life of activism through both writing plays and hosting cultural events. Since then, he has written and produced many plays and films, becoming the "godfather of Chicano theater" along the way. (biography.com) Valdez was born in Delano, California, in June 1940. He had 10 brothers and sisters, and his parents were farm workers. He was raised in worker camps across California. He began to work in the fields at age six. Although his early schooling was interrupted constantly, Valdez was awarded with a scholarship to San Jose State College in 1960. On in his college career, he won a playwriting contest for his one-act play, The Theft. (encyclopedia.com)...
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...Arthur Miller was born in Harlem, New York on October 17th, 1915. He was raised in a moderate household, but lost everything during the Wall Street Crash in 1929. After the crash, he and his family moved to Brooklyn. Arthur worked through his troubles so that he could attend college at the University of Michigan. In college he wrote for the student paper and was in the play called, No Villain. Miller was inspired by one of his professors named, Kenneth Rowe. He was inspired by his approach of playwriting, and wanted to begin his career. He wrote the play, The Man Who Had All The Luck. This play closed after only four performances into the season because of terrible reviews, but six years later, he wrote the play All My Sons, which was a tremendous achievement for him, and achieved the tony award for it. He had many other achievements as well. He wrote the story “Death of A Salesmen,” in less than one day, and was loved by so many people in the theatre. This play won many different awards. Miller married Marilyn Monroe, who starred in the screenplay called “The Misfits,” After leaving his first wife, Mary Slattery. However, in 1961 miller and Monroe were divorced. Lastly he married another woman who was a photographer from Austria. Her name was Inges Morath. They had two children together named Rebecca and Daniel. Daniel had Down syndrome. Miller wanted nothing to do with his son, and asked that he be excluded from the family’s personal life. One of the main stories that...
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...societal views once were in the past. Mocking common themes in theater such as religion and gender roles. As societal norms changed so did the how and what authors wrote about. Gender roles in literature started to transform into the normal man and woman roles, to women having more power, and a voice. The idea of being gay or straight also became a new topic in western culture. Writers became inspired by how Brecht changed playwriting for western culture, creating new norms in the theater. Gender roles in theater were now a common theme; always-questioning gender roles and the idea of homosexuality and dressing in drag. You can see this transition in theater with Brecht’s A Good Person of Szechuan, how Brecht was the influential change in Western Society Theater, having the idea of creating a role for a woman in the business world. Brecht gives the example of the normal gender roles. He mocks the idea that a woman can make it in the business world; so long she is dressed in the appearance of a man. Having the influence of Brecht in the future of playwriting, plays took on the theme of a change in gender roles. Rather than having gender roles as the typical social norm, writers would write in Brechtian styles, creating characters and themes that questioned societies normal gender roles. Brecht influenced and impacted gender roles in Western writing, making a shift in the way that society saw traditional gender roles. Brecht shocked audiences with his theme of gender roles and...
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...was very involved in the acting scene in his time. In 1613 it was accidentally burned down by a canon in a show there. The next year it was reconstructed only to be destroyed by puritans, who believed plays were evil, 30 years later in 1647. In 1997 a working replica was opened. The Globe Theatre’s structure was unlike any other of its day. Its wood was taken from another theater because Cuthbert Burbage owned that but not the land. “He therefore had the theatre, a timber building, taken down and reassembled at a new site (Boyce 218). It was roughly cylindrical and three stories high. Each floor had seats that looked into open galleries. It held 2,000-3,000 people at a time. Shakespeare was a paramount figure not only in playwriting, but in the Globe Theatre as well. It was built specifically for the great acting troupe, Chamberlain’s Men, which Shakespeare was a part of. Some of Shakespeare’s most magnificent works of art were performed originally at the Globe Theatre. Shakespeare himself was also a part owner of the Globe Theatre. The Globe Theatre was a place where many different types of social classes went. Unlike most theaters, the Globe Theatre was not exclusive to one social class or another. People would come off the street and watch the play along with high ranking government officials. It was once described as a, “small world,” because many types of people would go there and were mixed in at once. The Globe Theatre has a very storied history...
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...artists. Others start off on more traditional paths - in my case, journalism and then law - and realize we were closet creatives all along, needing to step in to the light. In my case, my careers didn't really go away as much as I distilled them into doing work that could be both a lifestyle, a living and of service to the world. Approximately 12 years ago, I left the practice of law, began writing books and columns on workplace diversity and inclusion and then began a business doing diversity training for businesses, institutions and schools. But the true discovery for me - that folded in my lives as a journalist, attorney and diversity "expert" - was discovering theater and becoming a playwright. In just a little over five years, playwriting has taken my love of words and passion for social justice on to stages in nine states, with readings of four different plays of mine already scheduled in California and New York for 2017. I don't say this to show off, but to provide context. I was born the year Jim Crow ended, to a single, working class black mother, and was raised by her and my grandparents. So, as the first in my family to go to college, my life has been paved with love and support but no signage or guiding lights. Therefore, the opportunity to have two years to work on theater and tie it to the immediate history being created through journalism would be the highest use of my time, passion and skills. I would like to do the following for each of the two years of...
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...LITERARY PEN DOWN YOUR IMAGINATION Creative writing is considered to be any writing, fiction, poetry, or non-fiction that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, and technical forms of literature. Works which fall into this category include novels, epics, short stories, and poems. Writing for the screen and stage, screenwriting and playwriting respectively, typically have their own programs of study, but fit under the creative writing category as well. Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities, in addition to, or in lieu of its apparent meaning. Elements of poetry: • Imagery-“word pictures” • Form o Meter o Stanza o Rhyme o Rhythm o Pattern/Style • Tone-mood • Persona-speaker • Figurative Language o Simile o Metaphor o Personification o Hyperbole o Irony o Apostrophe • Musical Devices o Onomatopoeia o Alliteration o Consonance o Assonance o Repetition • Theme o Symbolism Fiction is any form of narrative which deals, in part or in whole, with events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary and invented by its author(s). In contrast to this isnon-fiction, which deals exclusively in factual events. Elements of Fiction • Plot o Exposition o Rising action o Conflict Man vs Man Man vs Society Man vs Himself Man vs Nature Man vs Fate, Supernatural, Technology o Climax o Falling Action o Resolution • Setting o Social...
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...opportunities. Yet, despite being faced with poverty, Miller made the best of his childhood. He was a very active young man, in love with such sports as football and baseball. College Bound: In 1934, Miller left the east coast to attend the University of Michigan. He was accepted into their school of journalism. His experiences during the depression made him skeptical towards religion. Politically, he began leaning towards the "Left." And since the theater was the cutting edge way for socio-economic liberals to express their views, he decided to enter the Hopwood Drama competition. His first play, No Villain, received an award from the University. It was an impressive beginning for the young playwright: he had never studied plays or playwriting, and he had written his script in just five days! Broadway Bound: After graduation, he continued writing plays. During World War II, his writing career gradually became more successful. In 1940 he crafted The Man Who Had All the Luck. It arrived on Broadway in 1944, but unfortunately it departed from Broadway four days later! In 1947, his first Broadway success, a powerful drama titled All My Sons, earned him critical and popular acclaim. From that point on, his work was in high demand. Death of a Salesman, his most famous work, debuted in 1949. It earned him international recognition. Major Works: - All My Sons (1947) - Death of a Salesman (1949) -...
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...The title of the play itself sets this tone from the outset, that subconsciously, even before any obvious metatheatricality has occurred, the piece will be alternating between a fictional and a tangible reality – a fictional fantasy within a fictional piece. This unconventional playwriting is maintained throughout, and is particularly notable in the last act. When Peter Quince and his cohort are performing their play, other characters make artistic criticisms about their performance, noting how Quince ‘does not stand upon his points’, a reference to persistent malapropism -‘points’ being a euphemism for punctuation- and sloppy syntax within his delivery. This serves as another example of how Shakespeare breaks conventional boundaries, players criticising players on their delivery of a fictional play within a fictional play, ensures the tone is self aware and full of very sharp wit. Shakespeare finds a divide between the world of the play, a metatheatrical existence full of frivolous paradox, and the concrete world of reality...
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...The Avalanche: An Analysis of the Function of Speed in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Juliet is an avalanche. As a loose pebble in the snowcapped mountain wobbles in the wind, Romeo yodels to Juliet in the cliffs just to send it tumbling, lightly, down a vertical abyss. It does not end there, of course, for this pebble held back the rocks and boulders constituting the height of the peak, and the reaction now begins as each individual stone rolls with momentum. They pick up speed and snow, growing in velocity and size until the inevitable occurs and Romeo and Juliet are engulfed in the upheaval and finished forever. William Shakespeare’s version of the play Romeo and Juliet, taken from Arthur Brooke’s play similarly titled Romeus and Juliet, is a fast paced tragedy in which a boy and girl from two feuding families meet, fall in love, bond in matrimony, and commit suicide in a matter of four days. Compared to the nine-month romance that takes place in Brooke’s play, Shakespeare’s version is a consciously hastened piece of work during which the most significant parts of a young couple’s lives begin and end in less than one week. Speed, a well-utilized literary tool in Shakespeare’s play, serves to emphasize emotion, as opposed to reason, in the characters’ decisions. Through this device, Shakespeare demonstrates his skills as a playwright by showing control of time in the play. Perhaps the most well known episode in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the balcony scene...
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... These theaters have many different purposes and the plays performed are altered in ways they may reach different people. Plays make money by corralling people in a theater and appealing to their senses in different ways. But, these plays and theaters must attract as many different people as possible in order to make a good profit. Plays like Twelve Angry Men have been altered in some theaters to incorporate women roles in order to appeal to a specific gender. Seeing as though fifty percent of the world is composed of women, a play with all male roles seems a bit outdated. Twelve Angry Men has had it’s name altered to Twelve Angry Jurors in order to add women roles to the jury and even the main character. Gender is a big factor in playwriting. Women enjoy plays as much as men do and diversifying roles is a good way to bring more women into the theater thus increasing profit. Profit is not the only reason for reaching out to specific genders. The Weird Sisters Women’s Theater Collective is based in Austin, Texas and is dedicated to promoting women in Theater and other arts. They promote feminist idealealeals and produce all-women plays in an effort to showcase female talent in both female and male roles. They also have productions that are focused on education. Educating other people in the trials and tribulations of women and condemning misogyny are two popular subject matters in Weird Sister plays. Weird Sister plays, being a cast comprised only of women...
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...What is a relationship? A relationship is a connection between two or more people. In our lives, we have many different kinds of relationships with our family, our friends and our neighbors. A romantic or sexual relationship is a bit different from other relationships and it can be wonderful, fulfilling and fun, but it can also be stressful or complicated. A healthy relationship could be influence with many different things but the five most important things that a good relationship must have is trust, communication, respect, equity and love. I want to talk about a play that involves a relationship that brings to the forefront the ineffectiveness of a make- believe world. The play defines the "anxieties" and "fears" of two couples "who are born in conflict between private needs and public values. The play is called Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf? The play Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf? is a 1962 play that was written by Edward Franklin Albee. Albee was born on March 12th 1928 in Washington D.C. He was adopted by Reed A. and Frances Cotta Albee. While Albee attends Lawrenceville School in New Jersey, he wrote his first play Aliqueen in 1940s. He published one of his poems “Eighteen” in 1954. A year later his play “Schism” appeared in Choate Literary Magazine. After his graduation he moved to Greenwich Village and tried odd jobs as an office boy, a salesperson, and a barman. He continue writing plays that were staged much later while being supported by a trust fund established...
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