Prompt 14:The Drowsy Chaperone

The Drowsy Chaperone and its meta-show Drowsy Chaperone include important differences when being analyzed. First, the sequence of Drowsy Chaperone is different when it stands alone from when is played in The Drowsy Chaperone. In the actual play, the man plays it out of its normal sequence as the record skips around. This is a specific choice made by the playwright. They could have made the meta-show play in order, but it would completely change the plot.

Another difference is in the play’s duration. The meta-show seems to move much faster than The Drowsy Chaperone because there is so much more going on. Drowsy Chaperone has many different characters doing all these different things while The Drowsy Chaperone is just a man listening to his records and commenting on them.

Prompt 13: Three Viewings

After I read the prompt, I delved into the play for a second time, trying to create a chart of how the three stories overlapped. The most noticeable connection between them was that they all took place in the same town. Some of the funeral services mentioned in the first story are what the other two stories are based around. Also, certain people in the town like Bob O’Klock and Art Wise are mentioned in multiple stories. The three characters telling the story also all go to a restaurant called the Green Mill. I’m not sure if these are things that no one else would notice, however. The connections found in this play are quite plain to see, if someone reads the play thoroughly.  

Beneath the surface, there is an underlying theme that connects all three stories. Each character that speaks is never focused on the funerals themselves. Each person is trying to obtain something that they can’t possibly have. Emil is in love with a woman, but he is too afraid to tell her. He decides to say something by the end of the year, but she dies before he gets the chance. Mac wants to get over the guilt of her family’s death. At first we think all she really wants is the ring, but she then realizes that the ring isn’t what she really wanted after all. Virginia is in desperate need of cash, after receiving her late husband’s debt. She begins to lose faith in the man she married, questioning their relationship back to the point when they met. She realizes later that he had her back after all, and she learns that even when things are out of reach, there is always a solution.

Prompt 12: On the Verge

If I were to make a poster or a series of posters it would have a jungle on a black background. I chose this to signify a mysterious journey. I chose black behind the trees because it’s blankness best describes the things that the women have yet to discover. The leaves and trees would be different shades of black and brown, and there will be strands of silver words winding through the trees. I wanted to incorporate language, because it is constantly used in the plot. The silver would give a nice contrast, making the words stand out as much in the poster as they do in the story. Finally, I want various objects littering the ground at the base of the trees. The play mentions many objects from many different decades, and putting some of these in the poster could show the importance of passing time in the plot. For my tag line, I want to put Grover’s line, “Don’t speculate on the future.” The future is an important motif in the story, and this line shows that adventurous people don’t think about the future, they go out and discover it. I find that very fitting with the story.

Prompt 11: Fires in the Mirror

By excluding the first section of the play, out company would be disregarding the intentions of the playwright, Anna Deavere Smith. She made a specific choice when she included monologue that did not necessarily speak about the Crown Heights Riots. Smith wanted to provide a general understanding of the types of people involved in the incident. Specifically when a play is telling the story of an event that occurred in the real world and not just the world of the play, an audience automatically views the story with a cultural bias that can hinder an overall understanding of the occurrence. Smith created a sequence of monologues that presented a more intimate view of people from both sides of the conflict before the story of the Riots is told. She chooses to do this so that the audience can keep an open mind and have a more objective view of the accounts told.

 If we were to take away the first section no one would really understand the passion that these people have about their own respective cultures or why they refuse to listen to the other side. The first section brings perspective so that the story of the Riots can begin in a place where the two sides are on a relatively level playing field in the minds of the audience members. Without the first section of monologues, they would forget that even in one side of a conflict, everyone has their own beliefs and thoughts about it.

I'll be nice and leave a comments post :)

http://korn2130.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-glass-of-water.html

http://dorapereli2130.blogspot.com/2013/03/buried-child-response.html?showComment=1365890317114#c8959477551979270614

http://yvettebourgeoisthtr2130.blogspot.com/2013/03/frayns-noises-off.html?showComment=1365890643309#c4928896375708962443

http://garrettstheater.blogspot.com/2013/03/noises-off.html

http://qgayle1.blogspot.com/2013/04/prompt-10-on-damour-detroit.html?showComment=1365893734135#c1700560952360836070

http://korn2130.blogspot.com/2013/04/water-by-spoonful.html?showComment=1365894505701#c4157277205319607839