Last Show and Tell Post

            For my last show and tell post, I am analyzing the play called Big Mistake by Theresa Rebeck. Theresa Rebeck is most commonly known as the creator of Smash, the TV show. Three of her plays were on Broadway, and many showed Off-Broadway. Big Mistake is a one-act play written and published in 1999. The only account found of Rebeck's show being performed is when Ron Piretti directed it at Marymount Manhattan College.

            Big Mistake revolves around four characters. The whole play takes place in a bar. The show starts off with two male characters, Brian and Paul, two friends in their early thirties, who are in the bar. They are drinking and talking about past hook-ups in not a very respectful manner. Soon after Lorna and Annie, two friends in their early thirties walk in. They are chatting about past hook-ups when Lorna notices Brian, a guy she previously dated. They debate whether to escape the situation, but it is already too late as they notice Brian making his way over. Brian offers to buy the ladies a drink, and though they resist multiple times, he does it anyway. As Brian and Lorna start to chat, Paul comes over and starts to hit on Annie. Each "couple" is having conversing at the same time, but separate from each other. Brian and Lorna start to talk about their lives since the break-up and Paul tries to get to know Annie even though she is not interested. As the couples becomes extremely feisty with each other, Brian and Paul give a monologue about how confusing women are and it is followed with monologues from Annie and Lorna about how confusing men are. The play ends with Paul and Annie leaving to go on a dinner date and Lorna and Brian leave to go sleep together.

            One dramaturgical choice made by Rebeck is at the very beginning of the play when she notes, "Because there is so much hostility between the men and women for most of the piece, it is important that the actors play against that hostility with a veneer of politeness and social agility. This veneer is, of course, worn through rather quickly." It is not often that authors make a detailed note about how the actors should play their character. I think this is a smart dramaturgical choice on Rebeck's part because the dialogue in the script naturally gives the vibe of aggression, harshness, and argumentative. So, it is natural that the actors are going to automatically play it like that. Though since there is a note that they should play the opposite of the hostility, it will make for a much more compelling and complex show. It will make the characters three dimensional instead of just labeling all of them as "mean" or "bitchy". Another dramaturgical choice made by Rebeck is at the end of the play when Lorna and Annie are instructed to say their monologues at the same time, even though they say different words. The same situation happens with Brian and Paul's monologues. I think this is a very interesting dramaturgical choice because their monologues are of the same subject, but with completely different words. Also, it is important because it shows how it is not about the individual characters, but just about the men and then just about the women. It is grouping them together to get the message across about woman and men in general relationships. Big Mistake was a really entertaining play and I am definitely going to read more of Theresa Rebeck's work.   

Comments for LAST Blog Checkpoint

http://yvettebourgeoisthtr2130.blogspot.com/2013/04/fires-in-mirror-by-smith_13.html?showComment=1366677056749#c7781891074357220485

http://yvettebourgeoisthtr2130.blogspot.com/2013/04/three-viewings-by-jeffery-hatcher.html?showComment=1367694650875#c8087442699316648829

http://yvettebourgeoisthtr2130.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-drowsy-chaperone.html?showComment=1367695039832#c4155757783487396552

http://samcosby2130.blogspot.com/2013/05/show-and-tell-3.html?showComment=1367720497854#c5527023845924495508

http://blakesilviotrifles.blogspot.com/2013/05/on-verge.html?showComment=1367720740703#c5014259150520999307

Three Viewings Response

Three Viewings is not like any play I have encountered before because it only deals with three characters who do no interact at all. Each spends a very long time on stage and their stories all revolve around the dead, but they never actually see one another. One hidden common point of reference in each of the three monologues is in the coffin. In the first monologue, Tell- Tale, Emil shares his experience reaching into the coffin of Terri. He describes, " I smooth the crow's feet around her eyes. I do...what we do...to her yes, her lips. What we do is...we seal them". The second monologue, The Thief of Tears, also shares this point of reference, in the coffin. Mac describes in detail about how she goes to console the deceased person just to steal their jewelry. She describes, " I close my eyes, bite my lips, and the tears well up. I bend over to kiss Miriam good-bye...two pecks on the corpse on either side of the face." She takes the audience right into the coffin with her, just like Emil did. The last monologue, Thirteen Things about Ed Carpolotti, Virginia takes us into the same location, into her husband's, Ed's, coffin. She expresses while observing her deceased husband, " He's dead wearing bifocals and a hairpiece....the cufflinks shaped like bulldozers...All of his hair on these little white heads." All three characters share this common point of reference in the location of a coffin. It is not something one would easily pick up on in the script, but if you really look into it, you can see this location a commonality in all three monologues. 

The Drowsy Chaperone Response

The Drowsy Chaperone is a unique show because there is a show within a show! This also makes it different to analyze. Hornby's element duration would differ if I were analyzing the show-within-the-show Drowsy Chaperone verses the as-is meta-show The Drowsy Chaperone. If I were talking about duration in the as-is meta-show The Drowsy Chaperone, I would say that the writer devoted the majority of stage time to the Man. The Man was not speaking that much, but he remained on stage the entire time. So I would describe the duration as extremely long in The Drowsy Chaperone. Now, if I were to talk about duration in the show-within-the-show Drowsy Chaperone, I would say that duration is very short. Each plot and character gets a short and equal amount of stage time. So suddenly, the analysis of the same Hornby element completely differs depending on what aspect of The Drowsy Chaperone you choose to analyze.  Another one of Hornby's elements that will differ in this fashion is progression. Speaking on the progression of the as-is-meta-show, I would say that it is non-linear, because when the record skips, the play goes back a bit and repeats over and over again. For example, when Tottendale repeats spitting in Underling's face about five times! But speaking on the progression of the show-within-the-show, the progression happens in chronological order. For example, Tottendale would only spit in Underling's face once, and the show would go on! As you can see, depending on what part of the show you analyze, either Drowsy Chaperone or The Drowsy Chaperone, Hornby's elements will differ. If I were a dramaturg, I would analyze the show as a whole because that is how the authors intended for it to be shown, so the point is not to analyze the show-within-a-show.

Fires in the Mirror Response

As the dramaturg of this theater company, I am here to persuade you to rethink your decision about cutting the opening monologues of Smith's play out. There is a reason for everything in a script and the play would not be whole without every word. Smith chooses to include these couple of monologues in the beginning to preface the heavy subject of the Crown Heights riots. What I mean by this is that Smith did not want to start the play by jumping directly into the terrifying and grave deaths; she wanted to ease into it. Though it might be hard to see when you first read they play, these opening monologues do relate to the subject matter at hand. For example, in Static, the second monologue of the play, a Jewish woman tells a story about her religion. Though she says nothing directly about the Crown Heights riots, it is just as important and relevant. I say this because the racial divide between Jews and Blacks in the neighborhood is what caused the riots. So Smith chooses to include these kinds of monologues to show what it was like living as a Jew in the neighborhood at the time, which is extremely important and influential to grasp before hearing stories about the riots. Remember that in this play and every other play, nothing is a mistake; everything written was for a reason. The monologues in the beginning of the script, though you could not see their relation to the Crown Heights riots, share the circumstances and the environment that the riots occurred in. They paint the world of racial divide in Crown Heights, which is just as important as the story of the incidents themselves. So please, I beg you, do not start the play with "Lousy Language" because you will loose half of the message and purpose.

Links to my comments

Hey Dr. Fletcher! Here are the links to my 6 comments for Blog Checkpoint #2!

http://analysistrata.blogspot.com/2013/03/prompt-6-glass-of-water.html?showComment=1363650956610#c7948619548988634165

http://frequentingplays.blogspot.com/2013/03/noising-off.html?showComment=1363651514794    

http://yvettebourgeoisthtr2130.blogspot.com/2013/03/buried-child-by-sam-shepard.html?showComment=1363652117293#c1050249460992094088

http://yvettebourgeoisthtr2130.blogspot.com/2013/04/a-spoonful-of-water-of-by-hudes.html?showComment=1365705319700#c1448520711434507689

http://yvettebourgeoisthtr2130.blogspot.com/2013/04/detroit-by-damour.html?showComment=1365794904100#c3882102949624576520

http://yvettebourgeoisthtr2130.blogspot.com/2013/04/show-and-tell-post-2.html?showComment=1365888597542#c6357473323439137923

Show and Tell Post #2

            For my second show and tell post I am focusing on the play Grace written by Craig Wright. It was written in 2003 and has been produced a couple of times. In October 2004 the play premiered in Washington D.C. by the Wolly Mammoth Theatre Company at the Warehouse Theater. In 2006 The Furious Theatre Company produced Grace at the Pasadena Playhouse Carrie Hamilton Theatre. Most recently, Grace premiered on Broadway at the Cort Theatre in October 2012. The Broadway show closed only a couple moths later, but it starred Paul Rudd and Michael Shannon! You can buy a copy of this play on Amazon if you click on the following link: http://www.amazon.com/Grace-Play-Craig-Wright/dp/0810128993/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1365884602&sr=1-1&keywords=grace+craig+wright

            Grace is a play revolving around a married couple in their 30's, Steve and Sara, who have just recently moved from Minnesota to Florida to start building and opening Steve's line of hotels. Steve and Sara are extremely religious, looking to God and believing in God for everything. Mr. Himmelman is an investor from Zurich, who promised to sponsor Steve's project.  Steve and Sara have a next-door neighbor named Sam. He is a wealthy man who lost his fiancé six months prior in a horrible car accident. Being neighbors, Sam, Steve and Sara get to know each other very well, and Sam and Sara begin to have an affair. As the affair goes on, so does the building of the hotels. Steve is now just waiting on Mr. Himmelman to wire the large sum of money to the bank so Steve can launch his business. After many months of waiting, Steve is informed the bank is selling the hotels because no money has or will be wired. Steve, overcome with emotion and confusion, wants to move back with Sara to Minnesota and start their life over. However, Sara expresses to him that he wants a divorce. Steve, catching on to what is going on between his wife and Sam, goes over to Sam's apartment, and shoots and kills Sara and Steve.

            One extreme dramaturgical choice in Grace revolves around sequence. Wright puts the very last moment of the story and makes it the first scene of the play. So the play opens with a gunshot and two dead bodies lying on the floor. From there, time moves backwards. The dead bodies, Sara and Sam, get up and the conversation had right before Steve shot Sam and Sara continues, still moving backwards in time. After this first scene, the sequence begins chronologically all the way till the end of the play. The last scene of the play ends with the same conversation that was going backwards in the first scene, and the last moment is Steve just about to shoot Sam and Sara. I think Wright chose to play with sequencing so foreshadowing and dramatic irony is created. Wright wants to give a taste of what happens to the characters in the play before the story begins because it lets the audience know what to look out for and what is of upmost importance. Another dramaturgical choice in Grace is that both Sara and Steve's apartment and Sam's apartment are seen on stage at all times. So, when a scene takes place in Sam's apartment, you see Sara and Steve working, interacting, and responding in their own apartment. I think Wright chose to do this to show two completely opposite worlds interacting.  Also, he does this to emphasize the transition of Sara and Steve together and Sam alone, to Sara and Sam together and Steve alone. This creates a lot of visual and emotional tension, which also represents the tension all of the characters are going through. Grace has now become on of my favorite plays, based on the brilliant dramaturgical choices and fascinating subject matter.