Category Archives: Week 7

“Six Characters in Search of an Author”: Reality or Fiction

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This play has most definitely sparked the question of what is real and what is fiction.  Even out of the context of the play reality is always something that is relative to the viewer.  Everyone has their own interpretation of what they see this interpretation cultivates their own reality.  This individualized reality explains why there is such a large variance in the comments made about the play.  There are those who believe that the characters were never real and therefore the daughter and son never died, and there are those that believe everything that occurred on stage was real (at least in the sense of the play).  It all depends on perception.

I personally believe that within the realm of the play, the characters that appeared on stage were real people.  The events that transpired on the stage were real in the play.  These characters were not simply fictional but real living people. This point can be made when the father talks to the director about the nature of his work, after the director claims the father is a madman.  The father rebuts, stating that the director himself is the true madman, making the stories of fiction into reality when there are already real stories going on in reality that do not need to be dramatized.  The father’s family, the characters, were symbolic of this.  Their entire lives had turned out to be one giant tragic plot and in the end they wanted their story to be told, and an ending of their story to come.

These characters provide a dynamic view of reality.  As I mentioned before there is no single reality, as every person has their own perception of it.  Every single character has their own perception, they all provide a piece of the overall picture and interpreted different events in different ways.  They all made the story a more realistic one, and was also a source of great confusion from many onlookers.  Nevertheless all the pounding emotions led to the intrigue of the director and with each passing minute of the director he had become more and more enamored by the stunning story.  As the family members were going on about their miserable and bleak lives, the director would make some remark such as “Brilliant” or “Perfect” indicating his isolation from the family’s tale, for he was just one of the audience right now, taking everything in and looking at what riches this play can bring him once performed on stage.  Once the play comes to the close, the girl drowning and the boy shooting himself, the director’s mind is changed on the subject.  He was no longer just the spectator, no longer just the listener, he was in the midst of the action.  The horrible cruelties and drama that the family had was no longer “fiction” to him as he was in the presence of it.

The overall play was bleak and morbid and very much unlike other tragedies.  Generally tragedies were produced and created to allow onlookers to feel a sense of relief that their own lives were not as damaged as the lives of the characters.  However after this play I could not leave feeling any more thankful for my own life with the lack of as significant hardships, but leaving upset with the unfolding of all the events in such an unexpected and horrible climax.

Concert at Carnegie Hall

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I found it hard to sit still when I was watching this concert. In fact, I usually feel impulsive when I listen to fast paced music. That’s why I like to do something else while I listen to it. Commonly, I walk or run when I listen to energetic music, but I also like to listen to music that goes along with with something I watch, like a movie or music video. Since there was little for me to do, I decide to take a few notes during the performance.

I felt a shortage of space in my seat, but I notice a huge space in front of me in Carnegie hall. So even though it is a large building, the audience cannot access a lot of the extra space. I believe it was unfair that people who pay so much money for the performances have so little room, while the people working get to stand in the wide aisles. I think it would be better if all the chairs were removed to allow people to stand and watch the concert. In general, the building seemed poorly adapted to people’s comfort, but offered good acoustics because I could hear the music loud and clear.

The music in Carnegie hall varied from quiet and slow to loud and fast. The slow music made me feel bored because there was little energy in the music and nothing interesting in the performance to watch. However, I really enjoyed the fast paced and energetic music because I like to feel energized by music. Also, the prominent thing to watch was the conductor’s movements and orchestra’s playing, so when they played an energetic song, everyone looked like they were really focused and active. The conductor would give such grand motions that it seemed he would fly away. He would stand on his toes and hold his arms as high as possible. He seemed to possess enough energy to play all the instruments on his own to make that awesome music. What’s an orchestra without a conductor?

Most of you have not posted anything about this concert yet. Unlike the other performances where full attention was necessary, I could listen to this while taking look at how the audience is feeling. It seems some of my peers were focused on the concert, while several felt a little bored. (I was doing this at the intervals I felt bored so I guess that is what I should expect.) I noticed one delighted face, however, and that was the professor. No surprise she chose to come to this performance. It is good to share with others experiences you like.

The Charging Bull

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The Charging Bull, positioned at Broadway and Morris Street, by Bowling Green has a very strange and interesting history.  The sculpture created by Arturo Di Modica is only one of many of this man’s great works.  An immigrant from Sicily, Di Modica, has always been fascinated with the art of sculpture.  Even from a young age his work has been well known locally.   He had attended the Academia Del Nudo Libero for only two years before he opened up his own studio in Florence, Italy.  In Florence he mainly did work with bronze and other metals however he sometimes also used marble in his works.  After 12 years of living and working in Italy he moved to NYC and opened up a new studio in SoHo.  Di Modica was just as acclaimed in NYC as he was back in Italy, thanks largely to his marble sculptures at Rockefeller Center.  It was not until 1989 did he complete one of his most recognizable pieces though, the Charging Bull.

The Charging Bull weighted 7000 pounds and took Di Modica two years to complete.  In order to place it where he had wanted it, which violated city permits, Di Modica and colleagues staked out the area in front of the NYSE on the night of December 14th to find the interval of time between different police patrols.  He and his colleagues returned the next night with the bull to place it however found that a Christmas tree was set up in the exact location he had wanted to leave the bull.  With his path obstructed, Di Modica had left the massive 2.5 ton bull under the Christmas tree for all of the world to see and instantly overnight the bull had reached great acclaim.  Although the bull was quickly removed under the authority of the NYSE the bull had found a new home where it is now by the Parks Commissioner Henry Stern.Charging Bull, New York City

Like many of Di Modica’s works the Charging Bull had been made with a great attention to detail.  Although many pieces of art are usually used to show a static image, Di Modica’s works are created in very dynamic states.  In his “Charging Bull” the bull is in a stance ready to charge forward.  Also like many of Di Modica’s other works, the “Charging Bull” is thought to bring good luck, prosperity and success.  Due to its initial location, the Charging Bull could have been very symbolic of the coming prosperity of the economy since the bull in itself is symbolic of an upward trending progression (bull market).

When visiting the “Charging Bull” there were always tourists swarming around it, taking pictures with it and posing in many different ways.  Many do it to find this good luck that the “Charging Bull” is supposed to bring while others do it because they find it fun to pose cupping the massive scrotum of the bull.  Either way the Charging Bull is very iconic of the city and attracts the attention of millions of tourists.  In fact the sculpture is so popular, the NYPD always keeps officers near it because of the sheer number of people that surround the bull.  If you want to see the bull but do not want to make it into a tedious commute you can watch it livestream through this link, but nothing compares to seeing it in person!

http://chargingbull.com/video.html

-Kevin Call, Adrian Horczak

Carnegie and Me

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I don’t know if it is just me, but I am really looking forward to the upcoming performance at Carnegie Hall.

Carnegie Hall is known for its prestigious nature in the classical music and performance world. I’ve never actually been there before, but as a pianist, I know that it is a place where all musicians strive to be and play one day.

Carnegie Hall was named after Andrew Carnegie, the steel guy who’s worth billions in the turn of the 20th century. He was a philanthropist who in turned gave money to build buildings like Carnegie Hall, raise money for universities like Carnegie Mellon University, and much more.

Fingers cross for this Thursday! Looking forward to it!

 

~Christopher Chong

BAM BAM Six Characters in Chaos

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Professor Drabik asked us if we hated her.

The play itself was, in all honesty, very confusing, but thanks to a brief explanation by the awesome Nabila on the 4 train afterwards, everything seemed to fit itself perfectly.

I didn’t pick up the story until the actors started to mimic the characters. The French itself was probably the biggest barrier for most of us in understanding the story, but I liked it in French. I was able to understand the basics and even predict what they were going to say. Haha, Angelika and I were speaking french before we entered the theatre.

On the performance itself: The performance was on the idea of reality vs fiction. When the boy killed himself and the little girl drowned herself, was that all real? All the “characters” disappeared at the end, was this whole thing all just fictional? The show ended kind of abruptly, and I really wasn’t expecting that. I guess the cliff-hanger was the best part of the show- it is left to the viewers discretion to decide whether it was real or not, just like how the director doesn’t know, and had to call of the rehearsal.

To answer Professor Drabik’s question, we definitely don’t hate you. The performance may have gather some negative critiques from the class, but we are not entitled to like everything. If anything, we still appreciate you taking us to these performances that we probably had never heard of, and chances are, might not get the chance to go again! 🙂

 

~Christopher Chong

 

P.S. I wished the subtitles were like the ones at the Lincoln Center Met Opera House, because it was kind of hard to follow both the performance and the subtitles.

I was a dancer on the A train today

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When I was riding the A train from 125th Street to 59th Street leaving City College, a person was dancing, while another man was playing music, singing, and commenting on the man’s dancing. At first I was listening to my iPod, and the dancer looked like he was doing really weird movements. I decided to turn off my music because I noticed that the rest passengers were really enjoying the performance. I thought that his dance moves were still peculiar while listening to his music, however the audience was probably impressed by his enjoyment of dancing. He even tried to get one of the female passengers to dance with him, but none of the ladies were willing. Then he tried to get anyone to dance with him and asked me to dance. Since I am not good at saying “no” to people and since I love to dance, I agreed to dance. I did not mind dancing in front of people, but I was not comfortable dancing and holding hands with another man. Nonetheless, I believe that I had a unique commute, and the dancer and singer/commentator did collect a lot of money in the subway car. It’s not bad to have a job dancing on the subway, especially if you can get a person of the opposite sex to dance with you (if you can’t you have to improvise). I wonder why no women perform in the subway.