Comedy of Errors

Describe the Theater, sets, and costumes:

Drayton Hall is actually located in the same complex as Wardlaw College, which is where the college of education is located.  It was very easy to locate and when you walk into the building, it does not look like there would be a theater just a few steps into the entrance.  There was a lot of cool art to look at while you were waiting in line to get tickets which gave me an artsy feeling and got me excited to watch the play.  There was an usher outside of the door handing out brochures.  When you walk in, you see an auditorium that is a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be.  Drayton Hall is a proscenium theater with stepped seating that can house up to 440 people.  All of the scenes were set in the center of town.  The set was composed of 3 houses, each 2 stories tall.  The houses on stage right and stage left have balconies.  The middle house has a large window instead of a balcony.  There was also a church that was in between the middle house and the house on stage left.  There were 3 tables set up with chairs surrounding them on stage left.  Throughout the play different props were carried in and out.  The costumes were very bright.  All of the characters in the play had bright colored hair, each a different color of the rainbow.  The color of the character’s outfits matched the color of their hair with a bright color to complement it.  The belly dancers wore the same belly dancer type outfit with beads and sparkles but each was a different color.   There was also a maid whose costume was made to make her look overweight, and it looked like under the dress was a tutu that made the dress and character look oversized.  The policemen’s costumes looked like the outfits that nutcrackers would wear.  The 4 main characters dressed the same and 2 of them were both orange dressed in a suit that looks almost like the suit that the “Mask” wore.  The other 2 main characters had yellow hair and dressed in a purple nerd-like outfit.  I thought all of the outfits were very bright and fun, which made the play fun.  

In what period does this play take place? Who is the author? What period did the play write live?

“The Comedy of Errors” was written by William Shakespeare and is one of his earliest plays as well as his shortest.  When Shakespeare originally wrote the play, the time period took place during the wars of succession in France which could be any time from 1589 to 1595.  It is also believed that Shakespeare based his play off the Roman playwright Plautus (254 BC – 184 BC).  The director of “The Comedy of Errors”, Robert Richmond, which I watched in Drayton Hall, used Shakespeare’s play but added on a modern twist as well as added on songs sung by a “Greek chorus” of belly dancers.  The songs have Shakespeare’s lyrics, but used tunes that are based off of modern pop songs.

Discuss the plot:

The play performs the story of two sets of identical twins that were mistakenly separated at birth. They live their whole lives not knowing about the separation until one day they both show up in the same place.  One day Antipholus of Syracuse and his servant, Dromio of Syracuse, decide to venture off to Ephesus.  Once they arrived to Ephesus they come to find that they are mistaken for Antipholus of Ephesus and his servant Dromio of Ephesus who have the same names and exact same features.  This causes a series of mix-ups in identity by the town people, the twin’s family, and friends.  The mistaken identities cause major chaos and commotion in the town as the two sets of brothers do not realize that they are long lost identical twins.  The family and friends then spend the whole day figuring out why all of the madness is occurring.  Egeon, the father of the Antipholus twins, also travels to the city of Ephesus to look for one of his son’s, Antipholus of Ephesus.  As soon as he arrives, he is accused for entering enemy territory and is sentenced to death.  When it is time for Egeon’s execution, he sees his son Antipholus of Esphesus and calls out to him only to find that Antipholus does not recognize him.  At the same time Antipholus of Syracuse and Dormio of Syracuse enter the scene which causes great confusion but then leads to the discovery that they are long lost twins.  Egeon is then pardoned for entering Ephesus and a huge feast is prepared to celebrate the family’s reunion.

Phantom of the Opera

Describe:The stage musical “The Phantom of the Opera” was written by Andrew Lloyd Webber in 1986.  In 2004, the stage musical became a movie directed by Joel Schumacher and produced and written by Andrew Lloyd Webber.  The movie is rated PG-13 and is 143 minutes long.  It was filmed at Pinewood studios in Buckinghamshire, England as well as in London, England and was nominated for 3 Oscars.  The roles of each character are played by Gerard Butler as the Phantom of the Opera, Emmy Rossum as Christine, and Patrick Wilson as Raoul.  This movie is a musical thriller based on drama and romance. 

Analyze: “The Phantom of the Opera” is about a disfigured musical genius, the phantom, who falls in love with a young woman, Christine, whom he has been training to become an amazing opera singer.  Christine always believed the she was the “angel of music” and never knew who her opera teacher was. Little did Christine know that the Phantom was sabotaging the Paris Opera House just so that she could be the star.  After the Phantom finally gets rid of the lead opera singer, Christine comes in and becomes the star of the show.  During the show, one of her childhood romances remembers the times they shared and immediately fell back in love with her.  This turns the Phantom’s love, Raoul’s love, and Christine’s love into a love triangle.  When the Phantom sees the love connection between Raoul and Christine, he kidnaps Christine to marry her.  While she is with the Phantom she realizes that he is her musical tutor and falls under his trance.  She then removes his mask to see his disfigured face which angers the Phantom and he brings her back to her room.  After that experience Christine tells Raoul about the Phantom and Raoul promises to protect her and gives her a kiss. This angers the Phantom and he kidnaps her again and says that if she does not marry him then he will hurt Raoul. Christine accepts his offer and kisses the Phantom. There was no feeling from Christine in the kiss which made the Phantom realize that she will never love him and he lets both Christine and Raoul go. Christine realizes that she has the Phantom;s ring and goes to return it.  The phantom begs for her to stay with him but she refuses.  The Phantom then masks himself with his cape and when his cape is removed all that’s left is his face mask.

Interpret: The Phantom of the Opera was a love triangle with a lot of lust. In a love triangle there is always someone that gets the short end of the stick, and in this Opera’s case it was the Phantom.  The Phantom put all of his time and effort into making Christine fall in love with him, but Christine already had her heart set on Raoul who was in love with her too.  In the end the Phantom realizes that there is nothing else he can do to make Christine love him and that he has to let her go with Raoul and move on himself.  This movie is all about how actions affect where love goes.  The Phantom did bad things to try and make Christine love him, which in the end led to his downfall and Christine said that it was his scars that turned her away but it was his bad actions.  Christine gave her heart to Raoul because she knew he was a good guy and had a good heart.  

Evaluate: After watching this movie, I put it on my list of favorites because it was so good.  It kept me on my toes the whole time, making me guess what was going to happen next.  I loved how the movie unfolded in the beginning with the present day auction of the opera house chandelier and then the chandelier lit up signaling a flashback to where the whole movie was to be taken place.  I also loved the grandeur costumes and the amazing music.  The movie had an awesome flow to it and the plot was such a twist, you never knew who Christine was going to love.  One downfall of the movie was that it was a little lengthy in time which gave you parts that were more boring than others.  Despite the length of the movie, it was amazingly written, directed, and played out.  All of the actors and actresses did a great job performing their roles.  I would definitely recommend this movie to someone who is in the mood for a musical thriller.

Assignment #8 Opera

1. Describe the difference between opera, light opera, and musical theater
Opera is a western musical art form that is a blend of music, dance, and drama. The dialogue of an opera performance consists solely of singing and no spoken dialogue and is typically performed in an opera house.  Light opera is a short amusing musical production that usually has a happy ending and mixes in spoken dialogue along with song.  Musical theater is a combination of of songs, spoken dialogue, and dance.  It is often referred to as a "musical". The major difference between musicals and the operas is that it gives equal importance to the music as well as the dialogue and movement. In operas, the main character is usually a singer and only a singer with a secondary singer. In musicals the main character is usually an actor first and then becomes a singer and a dancer.

2. How long does it take for someone to have a fully trained operatic voice?
To be able to sing opera takes a lot of time and practice.  It takes a major toll on your voice as well as your body because of all the effort you put into becoming a trained opera singer.  You can start training your operatic voice at a young age and then work until you have succeeded in getting a musical education.  Most opera singers have a musical education.  An opera singer must also learned the proper vocal techniques to prevent themselves from getting any damage to their vocal chords.  You can learn how to sing opera at any age and  and it takes many years in actually succeeding in becoming a fully trained opera singer with a lot of devotion.


3. Choose an Opera by Puccini? Describe and interpret.
Puccini started learning opera at a young age and for his first opera he chose the subject of Manon Lescaut, which ended up making him famous in Italy as an operatic composer.  After that, he continued working to compose La Boheme, which is considered his masterpiece.  Today, La boheme is one of the most popular operas internationally, and is the second most frequent opera performed in the United States.  The opera's plot is based off of a novel, "Scenes de la vie de Boheme" written by Henri Muger. The story of the opera is set in Italy, where two young people meet, one a seamstress named Mimi and another a poet named Rodolfo.  When they first meet, they immediately fall in love.  But later on Rodolfo wants to end it because Mimi had such flirtacious behavior.  But Rodolfo comes to find that Mimi is deathly ill and feels guilt towards her because she became increasingly ill from their lives together.  At the end of the play, Mimi and Rodolfo reunite with each other right before her death.  Puccini had composed this opera with characters that live realistic lives based on love, envy, and loss.

Assignment #7 Theater

The difference between a thrust stage and proscenium stage:


A thrust stage is an open stage that extends (thrusts) into the audience and the audience surrounds the stage on 3 different sides. The globe theater was a thrust stage, which is also where many of Shakespeare's plays were first performed.  A proscenium stage is usually noted by its large open frame at the front of the stage.  The audience sits in the auditorium which is called "the house" and directly faces the front of the stage which is raised a few feet above them. The major difference between the two stages is that the thrust stage is surrounded by the audience and the proscenium stage has the audience face directly to it with no audience on wither side of the stage.

Proscenium Stage

Thrust Stage

The fly gallery:


The fly gallery is where the stagehands for the theater work during a play.  The stagehands work the ropes and control the equipment to help put on the show.  The fly gallery is a narrow raised platform that is located at either one side or both sides of the stage and provides a good view of the stage and the fly loft.  If there is a fly gallery on both sides of the stage, then it is often connected by a catwalk.

Stage Hands on Fly Gallery

Scrim:


A scrim is a finely woven lightweight fabric that reflects and transmits light.  It is used as a panel or backdrop in theatrical performances provides a variety of special effects. If you shine a light onto the front of the scrim, then both the scrim and everything behind it will be lit and opaque.  If you shine a light behind the scrim then the scrim becomes translucent and the audience can see the action taking place and the props being used.

Scrim use in Theater

Big Apple - Art Event

Dancer count for the shag:
When dancing the shag, the dancer counts in their head "1 & 2" "3 & 4" "5" "6".  It can also be counted as "quick" "quick" "slow" "quick" "quick" "slow" "slow" "slow" where each syllable represents a step.

The Big Apple:
The Big Apple is anything but big, it looks like an old little house on the outside and on the inside it is one big room with a balcony overlooking the big room. It was not always the Big Apple, it used to be known as the House of Peace Synagogue as a house of worship.  In 1915 the House of Peace synagogue was destroyed by a fire and then 21 years later the congregation decided to sell the building in 1936 to move to a bigger building. In 1937 the building became the Big Apple Night Club. The club was in business for a year and then was closed and sold in 1938.  We learned that the Big Apple building was not originally built on the spot it is currently located on.  In 1979 the building became abandoned and in 1982 the building was moved from 1138 Park street to its location now on the corner of Hampton and Park streets. 
The steps walking up into the house were very narrow and hard to walk up, you tend to see narrow steps in old houses because that was the architectural design back then.  The windows of the building are two-stories tall and reflect natural light into the building. As soon as you walk in you notice a large domed ceiling above your head that is stained glass and has the star of David in the center from the synagogue days.  There is also a neon moon and stars that remind you of when the building was a night club.  The floor is all hardwood miking it perfect for dancing on. 

The Shag:
The shag was originated in the late 1930s in Myrtle Beach South Carolina where the dance was created involving roots from the Jitterbug and was danced to fast paced swing music.  Billy Jeffers is accredited with being the early originator of the dance, and he is from Florence South Carolina.  About 10 years later the term "shag" came about and was danced to the tempo of rhythm and blues music.  The shag is danced with smoothness and only uses the lower half of your body, requiring tight footwork and turns while making it look smooth at the same time.  What is great about the shag, is that it can be danced to fast "beach music" or it can be danced to slow rhythm and blues music. Now-a-days the shag is typically danced to the blues music.  I am from Virginia and I have never really heard of the shag until I came down to South Carolina.  I now shag at all my sorority functions as well as major events.

Billy Jeffers

Columbia Museum of Art

"Who Shot Rock & Roll" Exhibit:

The photograph: "Walter's Bar-B-Que"

This photograph is of the band R.E.M. eating at one of their favorite places, Walter's Bar-B-Que, in Athens Georgia in 1984.  Laura Levine is a good friend of the band and she was the one who shot this photo.  The band did not have enough money to pay a photographer so they asked Laura to shoot photos of them after the release of their second album. She would take photos of them everywhere and any chance their was to take a photo, she would.  The photograph is black and white, it is also a mid-sized photograph (about two standard pieces of paper put together).  The photograph is a gelatin silver print.  The gelatin silver process that was done to develop this photo.  The process was used more in the 1850's-1880's and uses black-and-white films and printing papers.  Silver salts are extracted from gelatin to make a coating that is used on a support like glass, plastic, and special printing paper.  Once the photo is developed, the excess silver salts are wiped off and then the print is washed off with clean water.  The final print looks metallic silver from the gelatin coating and must be properly taken care of to reduce the chances of deterioration. 

The photo is about the band R.E.M. enjoying a meal at one of their favorite restaurants in Atlanta, Georgia, Walter's Bar-B-Que. The band loved this restaurant so much that they wrote a song about it, "Walter's Theme". Laura Levine was traveling with the band taking photos of them and one day they decided to eat at their regular spot, Walter's BBQ, and while they were eating Laura saw a photo their and just took it without any staging.  Even though the photograph was not staged, i noticed little things like how all of the coke cups were turned the same way and that the picture was taken from behind the counter.  My favorite part about the photo is that all of the band members are eating except for one who is smiling at the camera.  The photograph reveals that not all of the members of the band were meat eaters.  The lead singer of the band, Michael Stipe,  (the only member smiling at the camera) is a vegetarian eating at a BBQ restaurant.  You do not typically see vegetarians eating at a meat restaurant, which makes part of this photo so funny.  The excerpt of the photograph did say that the lead singer does like the restaurant's cole slaw.  

All of the band members have long hair which is the style that most popular back in the day.  You do not normally see hair that long on guys their age now-a-days. Their clothing looks very casual but one of the members is wearing a jacket/blazer to a bar-b-que restaurant.  Another interesting accessory to their outfits is their glasses.  Their glass are so much bigger than the modern day glasses now.  It seems like the glasses are almost a fashion statement.  I wear glasses and I know I would never wear the glasses that they are wearing in this picture.

Assignment #6 Dance

The baroque period of dance:


The baroque period of dance was from 1600-1750.  The baroque dance was performed by the upper European classes as a social event, ballroom dancing, and was performed theatrically, ballet dance.  This period of dance derives from classical music mixed with dynamic movement.  This period did not last very long and to this day it is being reconstructed in Broadway shows, plays, and operas.   The roman catholic church was mainly responsible for the encouragement of the baroque style because they thought that the arts should promote religious themes through movement.  

Why people dance?


People dance for different reasons.  Some people dance to express themselves, others dances to have fun.  Dancing makes someone become loose, and they use it as a form of exercise.  Like Zumba, an exercise dance routine, many people use this method as a way to get their weekly fitness in.  People also dance at big events/celebrations like weddings and parties.  At weddings it is a tradition for the bride and groom to share a dance before everyone else starts dancing and it is symbolizes their love for each other.  There are also many different forms of dance and some people dance because it is a part of their ethnicity or religion.  I am Irish, and I used to Irish dance up until I was a sophomore in high school.  The types of dances vary throughout the different cultures.  People can dance whenever they feel like, it is a way to let their intellectual side out and a way to just have fun.

Non western dance art form: The Cha Cha


The cha cha is a type of ballroom dance that derives from Latin America and was laid down by Pierre and Lavelle and then became developed later on by Walter Laird.  The cha cha that is danced in the ballroom uses energetic music with a steady beat. The authentic style cha cha is danced to cuban music or latin rock. The basic foot step count in one's head is "one, two, cha, cha, cha" "three, four, cha, cha, cha".  Along with the footwork, the dancers have to include the swaying of the hips to make the dance more exciting, and it also makes it fun too.  The cha cha is a basic dance that is taught to many beginner ballroom dancers.