Adlerz,+Alicia

My name is Alicia Adlerz and I am a sophomore English and Public Relations major!

Assignment 1: 1) The two videos highlighted the importance of comedy in this serious event. The puppeteer introduced comedic elements through the use of different types of puppets. It was clear which puppets were happy and which ones were serious and even somewhat angry. Since the performance involved puppets and not real people, the difference between the characters had to be conveyed through their appearance. This was made clear by the way the comedic puppets had soft features that conveyed joy. They had red faces and surprised, happy eyes which allowed the audience to distinguish them from the sharp, unhappy looking puppets that were serious or angry. By letting the appearance of the puppets have meaning, it allows them to play a more distinct role in the making of the holy water, and the message is more obvious to the audience.

2) Although the performance of making the holy water is a sacred and serious tradition, it is important to keep in mind that there is actually an audience watching the process. For this reason, the puppeteer must remember that this is an experience for the audience and it is his job to make it entertaining. Using tactics such as adding comedy will not only keep the audience interested, but it will also help them understand. If the audience is interested in the performance, they will better understand the process of making the holy water. If the audience is able to understand what is going on, there is a better chance they will want to carry on the tradition of the performance. Although the comedy interrupts the seriousness of the performance, it is just as important to the tradition of the making of the holy water.

Assignment 2: 1. Most of the challenges that the characters face are rooted in discrimination against their race. They have gathered at the boarding house from all areas of the south, and it serves not only as a place of refuge for weary travelers but also as a comforting pavilion filled with people who share the same struggles. The boarding house is a transition between their old lives of enslavement and their new lives of freedom. They are figuring out how to survive on their own. One extreme example of this from the play is Herald. He lost everything due to slavery and racial discrimination: his wife, dignity, and self-worth. The play examines how he gets all of this back and the way he returns to being an independent, self-sufficient man. Racial discrimination has affected all the characters, not just Herald. Bynum feels the need to bring people together, because so many loved ones have been separated due to slavery. Seth struggles to make a living, working three jobs including the boarding house. All of these characters are searching to find a new way of living while redefining their cultural identity. These challenges all stem from the racial discrimination they and their ancestors experienced as slaves in the south.

__ Beckett's Play __ Question 2. Consider the instructions that Beckett has given the performers in his script. In what ways have the performers in the film version modified the characters to suit this filmed version. After viewing the film version of this play, I had a much better understanding of the effect and experience Beckett was trying to convey. Through the use of lighting, set design, makeup, and videography, the film conveyed an eerie and unsettling message that I did not fully comprehend in the reading we did in class. Although I understand that a production would have included many more effects to help accomplish this, I feel that the film did a better job. Even though it ignored some of Beckett's instructions such as having all three urns together, touching eachother, I felt the film allowed for some flexibility, and it was beneficial to the overall outcome. By zooming in and out on each character's face as they read their lines, the film allowed the audience to get a closer look at the stoic, expressionless faces as they rapidly said their lines, conveying the fact that these stories have been on the character's lips for far too long. Something about the way the skin looks decrepit and decayed emphasizes that the words they are saying are not fresh but rather decrepit and decayed as well. The way the camera focused in and out on the character's faces is something that was certainly not in the script and would have been lost in a live production. While somewhat unnecessary, it helped to take the emphasis away from the lines and onto the set. While the characters are talking, the focus shifts from their faces to the background scenery, allowing the audience to move their focus towards the meaning of the play itself, which lies not in the lines or characters but in the set design of three characters repeating lines out of urns.

__Theatricalism__ __expressionism:__ western painting, sculputre, architecture, dance, film, and theatre that were concerned with the abstraction of form. Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Igor Stravinksy, and Martha Graham are all included in a list of expressionist artists. Playwriting followed the expressionist movement

__epic theatre:__ Brecht, danger in audience becoming too engrossed or lost in the story of a play, find ways to make audience step back from drama in order to encourage analysis, provoke questioning, did not want experience of the play to be completed within the time and space of performance, alienation effect

__theatre of the absurd:__ wrote about the meaninglessness of human existence and the inability of language to communicate in an effective way, //Waiting for Godot//

__total theatre:__ a form that stretches back to the mid-nineteenth century, involves music, dance, language, scenic image, light. //Einstein on the Beach//

__overly theatrical:__ most had very stylized movement, language, design, theatricalism was about recognizing that this is a play and the characters are actors and presenting that to the audience

__abstract:__ not realistic, stylized, deeper meaning revealed in a strange way, focus on expression rather than detail

l__ength__: both Einstein on the Beach and Play are so long that some members of the audience might leave before they are finished

__music:__ Einstein on the Beach and the sonnet interpretation with the huge gas tanks both used music as the sound of the play