Our Town

When reaading the play I was really interested and engaged. The idea of a stage manager talking to the audience was actually a really interesting choice and one that I wish was explored more a little bit in Theatre. It's not everyday you see a  character actually breaking the fourth wall. Not just in theatre but even in televison, and in a play its so much more personal as they are right there in front of you. I thought the play portrayed all the characteristics of life in a very general way and it was a smooth read for the most part. I just was really curious to see how The play would be performed with very minimal props and little to no set or scenery. I feel it would add to the play more if they had more physical objects there. On paper when I read it, there is no problem, but I feel it is hard to be invested in a play when I'm constantly realizing it is a play everytime I'm watching it due to the lack of props.

True West

I loved True West. It was one of my favorite play this semester. The idea of a modern day west is truly hard to dipict, but Sam Shepard definitely found a way in my opinion. The ideas of two brothers fighting is the most natural and modern dipiction of a mexican stand off in my opinion. Two brothers fighting over a toy. Who will get it? Neither will give up. It was the mentality of the old west. I loved the idea of the brothers personalities starting to switch and them turning into each other. In my mind it was still just a competition to see who the best was. You could sympathize with both characters at different points, but overall I don't think one brother would be able to exist without the other. And the mother abssolutely did not help at all. You would think she would have tried to do a better job at raising her children but she completely drops the ball which is a shame. I think both brothers had potential for great things as they could adapt to each others situation almost effortlessly. It was s hame they chose to fight most of the time.

Virginia Woolf

This play was somewhat of an anomoly to me. I personally can not understand people who would lie like that. George and Martha strike me as very educated and of course well spoken. But their craziness outweighs it all. It makes one wonder what exactly happened to make them decide to go on with such an elaborate ruse. Was it boredom in their marriage? Did they have a son that died as an infant? Was their some kind of rift and this is the only way to bring them back together? I don't know but George and Martha are seriously some head cases. Looking at the whole situation you can't help but feel sorry for the young couple there. But they do get sucked into the BS and it overcomes them. If they would have just taken a stand and left when it started to get crazy they could have a avoided all the nonsense. Then again, if that happened we wouldnt have been able to read about the experience, which, while leaving me scratching my head, made for a VERY interesting read.

M Butterfly

I thought it was a beautiful play in what it said and how it was written but I do feel it was a little flawed. I can completely understand how a man would want to get wrapped up in what he felt was his "butterfly," but I think there is no such thing as the perfect person. Male or Female. I don't think even a man could create the perfect woman, because every man is different. Even if the perfect person were to appear out of nowhere I think it would leave more questions than anything. A married man of all people should know that things don't always last, or else his marriage would be more sacred to him. I think Rene was completely blinded by his perfect woman he stopped asking very important questions. Life is not perfect no matter how much we want it to be, and to not realize that was a fatal mistake. If Rene would have just stopped to think about the situation, maybe it would have been enough to stop him and save his life.

Cyrano

Personally I loved Cyrano. He reminded me of myself when I read the play. Not so much in what he looks like but more so in what he is known for. I pride myself on being good with words, and Cyrano can speak like no other. Unfortunately I found this a bit of a difficult read at first but once I took my time to reread it a few times, I was finally able to get the play. I disagree with Cyrano's actions to not tell his love that it was him she fell in love with. Cyrano really dropped the ball there. But in grand Cyrano fashion he still managed to make the reveal as dramatic and breathetaking as possible. I'm afraid I couldn''t see the story ending any other way, for if Cyrano did tell her that he was the one who wrote her all the letters and spoke for the man she thought she loved it would take away from his character and the beauty of the whole situation.

Cyrano De Bergerac

Cyrano de Bergerac was most definitely hard to read at first. As the whole beginning of the play is showing off  the cross-section of Parisian society - most with long names and short character descriptions - all streaming into a theater, the action was confusing to follow in the text. Maybe it is a scene that would come together aesthetically well on stage, but is a pain to read and stage in my head. 
 At a point, Cyrano comes in and chases Montfleury off the stage, this is where the play begins to pick up. Cyrano initially reminded me a lot of the jester characters Shakespeare often uses like in othello with his character so melodramatic. His play seemed to be a like a Shakespearian comedy at first. 
Though I felt most of Cyrano's problems were caused by his own actions (which they were), it was hard not to feel sorry for him with his selfless acts to preserve the image of the man Roxane loved.
 Even after Christian advises Cyrano to drop the facade and tell her everything so that she may know which man she truly loves, Cyrano cannot bring himself to destroy her image of Christian once he is mortally wounded on the battlefield. 
For a whole fifteen years after, Cyrano still loves Roxane from afar. When she finally figures out that Cyrano has written all the letters, and he is still unable to confirm this even on his deathbed, I really felt bad for him.

The Cherry Orchard

The Cherry Orchard is a play By Chekov that I actually enjoy reading. It is one of my favorite Chekhov plays, as well as the last one he wrote. It makes sense that this particular story would be the last one Chekhov would tell. The characters often struggle with the memory of their past and how it effects their present and future.

 Perhaps as Chekhov was writing this play, probably knowing he would to soon, was struggling with the same thing. 

The character I have always known to love is Ranevsky. She is the character most constantly plagued with the memories good and bad, but mostly bad from her past. It is easy to run away from your problems and so for five years, that is exactly what she did. 

After the death of her husband and son she couldn’t just stay in Russia, so she fled to Paris. As the imminent sale of the orchard draws near, it seems brave as Ranevsky returns to Russia, but she will only leave once again at the end of the play. 

She is always running away from something, and the rest of the characters in the play don’t know how to handle her most of the time, but they still love her. The other characters are able to sympathize with her because of the obvious tragedy in her life, but they can’t understand the way she is going about her life. Ranevsky keeps spending money as if it is no object, even though the estate is going to be sold and the family has no money. Ranevsky is one of those characters who needs help but will never ask for it. 

our town

    Our town holds a special place in my theatre past, I performed this play in the 7th grade and I hated it. I was much more receptive to reading Our Town this time around, and I was able to pick up on so much more of the underlying themes. Grovers Corners reminds me of the town that my grand parents used to live in, and reading Our Town this time actually made me miss it a little bit. There is just something about small towns where the time seems to move more slowly, and the people are nicer and actually give a dang. This play has become sort of out of date, which is saddening. The American dream seems to be dying, or shifting at least, people don’t want the same things anymore. I really enjoyed reading this play, it finally resonated with me this time. 

cyrano de bergerac

     In my opinion, Cyrano De Bergerac is a man of great passion, wit, and zest. This play was interesting to read, as well as tiresome. The characters were hard for me to relate to, even though they were generally well developed. The love triangle between Roxanne, Christian and Cyrano is agonizing. Cyrano is such a great man and deserves so much, especially to be happy. Besides Cyrano’s nose, he seems to be the perfect man. But at times he also seems very cynical about life and everything that comes with it. He is tough and manly, and a good fighter, but a tortured artist as well. The object of Cyrano’s affections, Roxane, is so confused about everything until right at the very end, when it is too late to do anything about it. I enjoyed this play, it was depressing and uplifting all at the same time.

hedda gabler

Hedda Gabler is a tale about a small group of friends, rather a small group of people. The main character, Hedda, is unhappy in the most serious sense. She has every reason to be happy, but for some reason, she is never satisfied. Hedda claims to live a life devoid of passion, so she ends up acting in an extreme manner towards another character, Eilert Lovborg. Eilert has a known problem of drinking too much and becoming “passionate,” which Hedda admires of him. She likes to picture Eilert with “vines in his hair,”  a sort of unrealistic vision to have of what passion means. She craves passion in her life, but the way she chooses to be passionate is by destroying others. She burns Eilerts manuscript while muttering something about his child dying, and then claims that she burned it because she loves her husband so much. Throughout the play, it is insinuated that Hedda might be with child. At the end of the play, by taking her own life, she might as well have taken the life of her unborn child, which is an ultimate act of selfishness. For somebody to have craved passion so much, that they result to murder and suicide, is a sad thing.   

Hedda Gabler

Hedda Gabler is one of the most interesting characters in drama. She can be played in any number of different ways ranging from an idealistic heroine to a manipulative Machiavelle. The title of Ibsen's play uses her maiden name rather than her married name Hedda Tesman. This immediately makes us identify Hedda more closely with her father General Gabler, rather than her seemingly inept and clueless husband Tesman. Hedda is trapped inside her marriage as well as her own body as she is a woman in a very constricting and patriarchal social environment. She doesn't wish to be tethered to Tesman who she no longer respects as a husband. Instead she longs to lure his rival Lovborg back into his old ways of drunkenness and lethargy. What Hedda's motives are in any given situation, remain extremely ambiguous and often times up for interpretation. In fact, the reason this play is so powerful, in my mind, is because of the depth of Hedda's character and the complexity of her circumstances. Her suicide at the plays conclusion remains one of the most haunting scenes in any Ibsen play and perhaps any 19th century drama.

Six Characters in Search of an Author

Pirandello's play Six Characters is now regarded as a brilliant work which says a lot about the relationship between an author and their writing as well as theatre as an art/business in general. Interestingly, at it's premiere performance, the audience did not seem to appreciate its meta-theatrical absurdism and and declared Pirandello's theatre to be a "madhouse!".* Upon later publication of the play and further viewing, it began to get noticed as something special and and its critical reception gradually improved. The fact that the characters in this play are putting on their own play about the 6 characters in the title creates a fictional peak into the way theatre is made as well as the way characters exist within an authors mind. The shocking climax, followed by the director's final lines about not knowing what was real and what wasn't perfectly echoes the intentions of the creative process whether in regards to a director, actors, or especially writers. This is a very personal play for many artists and Pirandello shows just how personal it is for him by inserting his own name as the author of the fictional play inside of his. For me, this is one of favorite plays after having read it, precisely because Pirandello captures the essence and struggle of creativity so well.

*Wikipedia.org

M Butterfly

M Butterfly is David Henry Hwangs retelling, and in a lot of ways, revising of the famous Italian opera, Madam Butterfly. In Hwang's version, the most powerful element is the reversed ending in which it is the white man who must kill himself for honor instead of the abandoned Asian wife. Hwang takes the "classic" story of the pompous westerner dominating the fragile orient and changes the stakes by adding one key detail: Butterfly is a man. By deceiving Gallimard, the uninteresting French diplomat, and making Song Liling the true mastermind behind a deeper and ingenious espionage scheme, the supposedly superior person is made a fool of and reaps the true consequences of believing the fable of western masculinity and dominance.

Virginia Woolf

Edward Albee is arguably one of the most masterful American playwrights in history, and no where is this more apparent than in his script Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. Albee's ability to create complex and intellectual conflicts between both genders in no way detracts from his ability to captivate and entertain. He is one of those rare writers who does not sacrifice quality for appeal, but as the same time, his plays are never lacking in appeal. Virginia Woolf in particular demonstrates, with impeccable realism, the cruelty and bitterness that can exist in a marriage. It is the first glimpse behind the facade of the ideal American family and it revolutionized the way Americans perceive plays as well as their own culture. The fact that this play is so widely renowned outside of the US as well shows just how powerful and interesting Albee's characters are. To me, it is this struggle between a man and wife or a mother and father that fascinated Albee the most through out his career.

Blithe Spirit

Blithe Spirit was written in under a week by Noël Coward in under a week. It is said to be his contribution to the struggle and coping which England needed during the Second World War as more and more British towns were being bombed and more and more were dying. The play takes on death not as a tragic event but rather as a liberating opportunity. The main character Charles Condomine is a middle-aged writer who's life is more or less ruled by his wives in the most subtle, yet important ways. It is the author's own meddling in the occult which leads him to conjure up his deceased ex and spiral his entire household out of control. As a script, I was first slightly put off by the difficulty of the special effects almost as much as I was enthralled by the top-knotch language in the dialogue. Luckily, our production of the play, I believe, married the two the way it was intended to be played and put on a clinic for the performance of a Noël Coward piece. The farcical elements as well as the characters' personalities make for an absolutely delightful time in the theater which even the general masses would respect and enjoy.

True West

Sam Shepard is extremely clever in his construction of his script True West. The structure of the family and the background involving the estranged brothers, the mother, and the "old man" provide the perfect conditions for conflict and drama in the setting of Southern California and the shadow of Hollywood. Each brother has talents which the other envies. Austin uses his intelligence and work ethic to find a little success as a hollywood screenwriter while Lee utilizes street smarts and survival instincts to live in the desert and search for his father. Lee returns to town and immediately begins stealing like he's used to. The character Saul seems to be a clueless nitwit, but represents the administrative side of Hollywood. Shepard seems to be injecting his less-than-flattering opinion of the Hollywood system as part of the brothers' power struggle. Lee, simply by schmoozing with Saul, is able to get him to agree to a golf game as well as green lighting his own idea for a screenplay. Overall, I though True West was a genius piece of satire as well as a moving and slightly disturbing story of family struggling with the ties that bind them.