Hegarty,+Jenna

JHPlay **JHRealism** **Life Is a Dream Critique** **39 Steps Critique**
 * Musical Theatre**
 * All My Sons Critique**

**Assignment 3** Directors' Interpretations of a Scene from Shakespeare's Henry V

Olivier released his film in 1944, in the midst of WWII. In these scenes, he keeps much more of the scene taking place in the French camp than Branagh, who released his film in 1989. Olivier maintains the French dialogue and cuts out most of what is spoken in English, including most of the Constable's and all of Grandpre's lines. Olivier makes the French seem more foreign and strange to audience members. Branagh eliminates many lines including all of the French dialogue, keeping only the bare bones and choosing instead to focus on the next scene that takes place in the English camp. However, Branagh still deletes a substantial portion of the dialogue. Olivier keeps almost all of the dialogue taking place in the English camp. As Englishmen, they both seem to place a greater emphasis on the English camp. It is interesting to note that the two made almost identical choices regarding the text for Henry V's speech to the troops. The costuming for each film is on an opposite side of the spectrum. Olivier opted for bright, ornamental costumes, particularly for the French, who he portrays as fops in feathered hats, waited on by doting attendants, who lift them onto their horses. Olivier portrays war as something glorious, no doubt to boost morale for the British WWII troops. The costumes for the English are a bit more toned down, but just as brightly colored. The set is just as bright as the costumes; both sides are camped on grassy meadows. Branagh chooses to go with a much bleaker setting: war is not a free-for-all, fun-for-all game, but instead a dark necessity. The costumes for Branagh's films are mainly done in a neutral color palate, utilizing greys, blacks, browns, and tans, though of course, his costume is a bit festive. The somber mood is set by the camp's location in the woods and cloudy weather. Branagh's film emphasizes the gruesomeness and grisliness of war. The acting and elements of Olivier's version are much more stylized and theatrical than the "natural," considerably intimate acting style Branagh chose to employ that contemporary theater-goers expect to see.

**Assignment 2** 1. Discuss how racial discrimination is presented in the play, using examples as they occur throughout the work. How does it effect the characters and how do they respond to it? Please be specific.

//Joe Turner's Come and Gone// is set in Pittsburgh in 1911, at the time of the Great Migration of former slaves and their descendants to the North. All characters in the play, with the exception or Rutherford Selig, are black. Racial discrimination, though not overt, is present on the play and has an impact on all of the characters in some way. Seth Holly, the owner of the boarding house, was born the son of a freeman. He has no idea what it is like to be in captivity or oppressed as badly as his boarders from the South. He has not truly experienced discrimination and cannot empathize with or understand the troubles of his boarders, especially the mysterious Herald Loomis. Seth works for Mr. Olowski, presumably a white man. He wants to move up and open his own shop but is having trouble securing a loan. One man he approaches asks Seth to sign his house, really his only valuable possession, inherited from his father, over in order to get the loan. Seth is clearly discriminated against very mildly in this manner, but it would appear that he is so focused on his monetary pursuits that he either does not notice or does not care. Seth does business with the peddler Rutherford Selig, a white man who helps people find other people, ostensibly those descendants of the African slaves his ancestors imported and traded and captured from freedom. Selig does not appear to be very discriminatory. In fact, without the black clientele he sells to, he would probably be without a job. He is aware however, that society places him in a higher class than blacks. This is evident in his business negotiations with Seth, but then again, most peddlers drive a hard bargain and try to increase their profit at the expense of anyone. Seth and his wife, Bertha, run a boarding house that essentially serves as a haven for blacks in Pittsburgh escaping the South and searching for a new life. All of their boarders are black and the majority are touched by the hand of racial discrimination in some way. Bynum, the Holly's longest running boarder, seems to have only indirect dealings with racial discrimination. It is his singing of "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" that reveals the ultimate discrimination felt by Loomis. Loomis was imprisoned and put to work on Joe Turner's chain gang for seven years, separated from his wife Martha and their baby Zonia. Loomis interrupts the dance of the Juba and has a vision of bones walking across water, that sink and then are washed ashore as blacks, heaped and helpless. They then stand up and part ways. Loomis is unable to stand up himself and collapses to the floor. Loomis's illegal enslavement caused him to loose himself. His captivity took a heavy toll on him. He looked forward to his freedom, when he would be able to reunite with his wife and daughter, but alas, his wife had jumped ship, relocating with the church to Pittsburgh due to "all the trouble the colored folks was having down there." Martha escaped the racial discrimination of the South but was always looking back at what she left behind, trying to restore it. Discrimination was rampant in the South, but it was also present in the North. The young boarders, in particular Jeremy and Molly, have experienced this. Jeremy is mistreated by the police, and later discriminated against at work, where a white man goes around collecting fifty cents from all the black workers who want to keep their jobs. Jeremy will not put up with this and quits his job, hoping to travel the country and work as a musician. Seth cannot understand why Jeremy would give up his job because Seth again, is money driven and does not understand the plight of his borders. Molly, who treasures her independence, reluctantly agrees to travel the country with Jeremy on one condition: that they do not go back down South. Molly is unwilling to return to a place where she will be oppressed and discriminated against. She does not want to experience those horrors. In short, Wilson presents racial discrimination as the blacks living in 1911 see it. The characters are never discriminated against on stage; they only speak of what has happened to them, as though they are haunted by the racial discrimination they have received.

**Assignment 1** 1. The lecture in class today involved the making of holy water by a dalang puppeteer. Yet comedy may be introduced by the puppets during the most serious of events. Describe how comedy seems to be communicated by the clown servants in the two videos.

The clown servant puppets communicate comedy through both their verbal and nonverbal behaviors. The clown puppets' dialogue is clearly humorous to the audience, which frequently bursts out in laughter. Their verbals are accompanied and enhanced by the puppets' vocal characteristics: the clowns deliver their lines with a funny tone and pitch changes. Sometimes the clowns include sound effects such as laughter. In addition to their vocals, the clown puppets offer physical comedy. Their motions are sharp and odd. Their gestures are exaggerated. They often act using their bodies, and probably the majority of the comedy comes from this. Last, the puppets' appearances are silly and grotesque. They are brightly and boldly colored.They are rounded and fat with small limbs and protruding facial features, a sharp contrast to the relative stateliness of their superiors. In the first video, the bigger clown appears to reprimand and make fun of the smaller one, who reacts with physical comedy. This banter between the two provides the audience with humor. The larger clown often turns his back on the smaller one and seems to be the superior one. When, it seems, the larger one reports to his master, he is treated and reprimanded in the same way that he scolded the smaller clown. The audience finds this funny, as the clown who was in charge is now submissive to his master. In the second video, the clown appears to be conversing with himself and making fun of his uppers by physically and vocally imitating them. The second clown laughs hysterically and goofs around when reporting to his master.

2. Why do you think the puppeteer elects to use such tactics during these serious events.

The Bali are a deeply religious people. Many different occasions call for a wayang ceremony and the Bali seem to have numerous rites of passage, all of which call for holy water. The making of holy water is usually preceded by the telling of tales from one of the Indian epics, such as the Ramayana or the Mahabharata. The ceremonies are quite lengthy, lasting into the wee hours of the morning. The puppeteer uses comedy to engage the audience and keep them interested. The comedy can also lighten the mood of these serious events.

I am a first-year majoring in journalism and political science.