The Arts in NYC Fall 2012

After the amazing experience we all had at the Joyce theatre, I had set pretty high hopes for the piano lesson. The play, however, was even better than I expected. Even though this time we were not that up-close to actually feel the presence of the actors, it still was quite stimulating to watch the remarkable performances of the actors.

The whole play was quite interesting to watch, and the story was executed in a way that kept the audience captivated throughout the play. However for me it was the performance of the actors, especially Brandon Dirden, who played Boy Willie, the most memorable part of the play. Although, from reading the book, it was quite clear that Boy Willie was one of the most central characters of the play, bubbling with energy and with unrealistic high hopes to do something extraordinary in life, I still was quite surprised to see how perfectly Dirden portrayed that image. Also, I think he was the one that kept the audience captivated throughout the show, because of how he occasionally just randomly jumped in conversations, joked around, and especially I loved the part when Lymon and him danced while Wining Boy played the piano. Towards the end of the play as well, when Avery was trying to bless Doaker’s house, Dirden performed extraordinarily in giving the effects of putting up a fight against the ghost of Sutter. Even though, the lighting and sound effects were truly remarkable in the ending scenes it was the acting of Dirden too that played a major role in making that scene look so real and grave.

Usually when I see movies based on books, they are often very loosely built on the actual depictions, hence it was quite fascinating to see how religiously the play abided by the book, paying attention to even the smallest of the details. Therefore, watching the play made me reflect back on the issues that were raised in the book but I more explicitly understood them through the play, maybe because viewing something has a more profound effect than simply reading the same thing. For example, one of the aspects that was present in the book but I did not pay much attention to until I saw the play was how, even though while being siblings and going through the same experiences, Boy Willie and Berniece had completely different perspectives on what the value of the piano was for them. While Berniece viewed it as a reminiscent of the family’s legacy, Boy Willie took on a more worldly approach and strongly believed that the rational way was to simply sell the piano.

Overall, it was a really wonderful experience to watch the play and it helped me to even better understand the book. I am so glad that we, as Macaulay students, have the opportunities to become more culturally aware and are able to take advantage of these amazing chances that we are provided with.