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The PCA Drama Program presentation of In The Red and Brown Water by Tarell Alvin McCraney was phenomenal. I was surprised by just how good the actors were. The way they fluently spoke their lines and with such flare was laudable. It also made me reminisce of how I screwed up my lines during the final play presentation. The ability to recall, retrieve and orate at the same time is a very nice skill to have.

My favorite part of the play was the ending, when the actor playing Oya, the main character, expresses a passionate, but naked pot of emotion. The actor playing her really chilled my spine with how she stressed her voice like she was in despair. It was a similar feeling that the prima donna had on me when we went to see La Bohème.

Everyone on stage, including: the Director: Prof. Maurya Wickstrok, the helpers backstage, and the people controlling the lights, they really put on a great show. It made me realize that a play is as great as the sum of its parts, and everyone contributed in a significant way that made this experience perfect. Sure you can have one actor thats really just phenomenal and steals the show, but if you have several bold actors that exhibit a natural raw talent for this sort of stuff, you’ve really got something nice.

This was a very interesting and intimate event. When I first walked in I was met with different stands either selling or displaying different cultural items. Each table has a unique sense to them and it was interesting to speak to the people at these tables.

I was late to the event, however, I knew I was walking into something very intimate from the beginning. There were multiple types of instruments on stage. Multiple from different African cultures, one of which I recognized as the talking drums. It was amazing how well these instruments could be transformed into multiple sounds and have multiple purposes in the totality of the performance.

I felt as if the show could’ve been more successful with more coverage of it. It was obvious not many people knew about it, considering I had only found out that night. It was breathtaking to watch the performers play their instruments and have beautiful sounds come out of it.

I myself play some instruments and I remember the feeling I would experience on stage while playing. It was an amazing feeling being able to hear everything but still feel serene. It was like a room that is so silent you could hear your own heart beating. It’s an out of body experience and I definitely felt that through the experience this night.

I didn’t go on the original class trip to Avenue Q so I bought a ticket on my own and went today. I love the city, so I’m glad I got to go, and since it wasn’t for a school trip I enjoyed just hanging out around the city without having to worry about meeting up with anyone. I really like hanging out by myself, and I think it’s beneficial for everyone to do cool stuff on their own every so often.

The theater was so cool. I noticed that A Clockwork Orange just closed yesterday, which was in the stage down the hall. I would have liked to see that.

The show was so amazing! The mezzanine where I was had like 5 people in it so they let us move to the front row. The theater was small and intimate and the show was just hysterical. I love dark, raunchy comedy and I found this show to be perfect for me. The songs were hilarious and ridiculously catchy! I thought the cast did a wonderful job. In a world where people get offended by EVERYTHING these days, I found this show to be refreshing. I’m so glad I ended up going and, aside from the horrific Times Square sidewalk traffic, I had an amazing time! I didn’t think I would enjoy the show this much.

Before seeing Avenue Q, i imagined it would be like Sesame Street: tacky singing, dancing, and cringeworthy puppets. After seeing Avenue Q last week, I can admit that it was a VERY mature, sometimes offensive, take on Sesame Street. I didn’t think an Off-Broadway show could be so hilarious, or so dirty, and I loved it.

Right from the beginning, I admired how the human actors were standing onstage beside their puppets instead of hiding. It made me appreciate the show a lot more, because I could see the actors’ effort and emotion in making the characters come to life. I also appreciated how stripped down the production was. The theater was small, and there was little scenery- this allowed me to focus on the actors and music in a casual setting. I can say that I definitely prefer smaller theaters as opposed to bigger theaters; the MET at Lincoln Center was extravagant and huge, but the actors looked like ants from high up.

The show was totally unapologetic, hilarious, and relatable. As a college grad, Princeton is trying to find himself, make ends meet, and survive in New York City. His neighborhood is made up of other puppets that are lost, if not even more troubled, than Princeton. As a college student, I think about my future constantly. I want to make the right decisions and follow a successful career, but stay true to myself at the same time. Avenue Q put a unique twist on a personal conflict that anyone in the audience could relate to at some point in their life.

Out of all the trips I went to during the semester, Avenue Q was by far the funniest and most memorable. The play was raw, realistic, and had me crying tears of laughter. Avenue Q was the first mature show I visited; the jokes and issues dealt with sexuality, racism, success, and romance. My main takeaway from the play was that no one has this whole life thing figured out. Life is not perfect or predictable, so the best thing to do is enjoy the ride.

– Olivia Frasca

I actually enjoyed the play reading, especially observing the emotion and actions the actors were undertaking to perform what the script says.

The timing of the play reading was what most threw me off. I was just getting out of Chemistry before we had to rush to the ferry. We managed to make it just in time for the reading to start.

I will admit that I didn’t thoroughly read the plot of the story beforehand. However, I ended up becoming interested in the story because it felt relatable and different from the what we were going to beforehand. We’ve gone to Operas, Dances, and Musicals, but a playreading is something I’ve never done or bothered with. Despite being late at night, I tried with as much effort as possible to listen and understand the plot. I didn’t even try to nitpick all the small mishaps the actors and actresses exhibited. I was more interested in how he story would play out and how the readers would emulate the emotions and nuance in the speech. I would listen to another play reading, but only if I was genuinely interested.

Dances, to me, are exhibitions of coordination, grace, beauty, and acquired skill. I’m not saying that all dancers must meet this abstract expectation, but That’s what I go to dances to see, and what is common in my small perception of the performing arts.

That’s why I found this dance to be so strange, but not completely appalling. There was definitely an air of practice, skill, and powerful messages, all of which is traditional in dance art, but I did notice that there was also an effort to stray away from ortholithic presentations of body movements.

In each section, the dancers seemed to “do their own thing” more than following the music. Each dancer had a specific role, but it wasn’t that perceptible. I had a difficult time ascertaining the purpose of each movement, the message the performance was supposed to convey, and what I was supposed to feel. That differentiated the dance for me.

As someone who likes organization, predictability, and closure, this dance did not satisfy any of those. The music would end, while the dancers would continue to make movements. The dancers would not coordinate their movements with the rhythm. It’s not a bad performance, by any means, but I was extremely confused.

Overall, I felt confused by the performance. I did not understand what was happening, and if I don’t understand, it is much more difficult for me to follow what is going on. I do appreciate the tremendous effort that the dancers put into their performance, regardless of the audience’s perception of them.

The journey to the play was chaotic. Chemistry ended at 6:20 and my classmates and I tried to rush to the 7:00 ferry to the city. Unfortunately, we did not make it until for the 7:30 ferry. I was also rushing to the event so that it would end quickly because I had a test the next morning. However, I really liked this event as well. When we finally reached the Macaulay building, the play reading began. The performance was a very novel experience. I have never seen a live performance that was very unconventional with no setting/technical production. There were no costumes or props; it was solely focused on the actors. This type of performance was very fascinating because I was not distracted by anything on the stage; all the focus was on the actors which made it more remarkable. I also learned another remarkable thing about the play in which the actress who played Leonora, had improvised during her song scenes by actually singing out the lyrics rather than just telling them. I find it extremely hard to find a rhythm to sing with the lyrics.

The play itself was funny and appropriate for audience of my age. It was not childish nor too mature or sophisticated, The comedy was understandable and actually humorous. The context of the play was so comfortable because of the language such as the cussing, and the background of the situation such as the gay couple. The accents of the actors was performed excellently and the personas of the actors were executed very well. However, there were certain moments in the performance where I was confused whether the pauses were too long or if the actors forgot their lines. I was so focused on the story that I was waiting for it to keep going. I was also confused by the script fro  beforehand about the gender of Whitney. The acting was very helpful in clarifying it and showing it from the beginning of the play.

Overall, the play was very refreshing like Avenue Q and again reminded me of my discussions of existentialism in the my senior year of high-school English class.

 

During my middle school years, I was in the dance talent class so I learned about different types of dances including modern dance. From my previous dance education, I was able to analyze Garth Fagan choreography. I saw influences from Martha Graham and similar dance moves from Alvin Ailey’s famous production, Revelations. However, I saw that this production tried to refrain from having an overall religious tone and made it more engaging. It was not so mature in the end when the dancers were wearing modern clothing and using contemporary music. It was also a very buoyant dance where every dancer was smiling and seemed to enjoy the dance.

Even though the production was not as mature and sophisticated which I liked, modern dance is still not my taste. My life predominately focused on ballet so I always saw dance as a feminine movement and portraying a story. However, I was constantly nitpicking the dancers’ forms especially in their hands and feet. In ballet, the hands are always in a certain form that exuded femininity. In this production, their hands were either flat or fisted which really stand out to me. Also, the feet were flexed in my moments of the production which is completely different from ballet in that feet are almost always pointed. In addition, most ballet productions easily conveyed a story based on the technical production of the setting on the stage and the dancers’ movements and costumes. In this performance, the costumes were somewhat plain and not very additive to the story of the dance. This is why it was difficult for me to decipher the story it tried to convey if there was any.

What I did appreciate in the performance was the strength and effort these dancers put in. As they were dancing, there were some movements that required a lot of agility and strength. You can see all of their muscles and the sweat it took to keep a certain pose such as balancing on one leg. Even some of the veteran dancers were able to do certain things that I can’t even do anymore!

This was one of my favorite events to go to because of my dance hobbies. Even though modern dance is still not preference, I was grateful for the first live modern dance performance I got to see.

The play reading was very insightful and awesome to watch. However, I feel that if the circumstances were different I would’ve enjoyed it more. I was exhausted from a long day and commute after the play so I wasn’t really up to watching it. I was already dreading my journey home so it was hard to focus during the play.

However, there are some parts that really stuck out to me. I found it extremely interesting how the play played out. The character development was something that showed to be really important throughout the play. The way the characters opinions and views changed truly shows how experiences change you.

I find that just going through the motions doesn’t necessarily always work out for people and that the only was to truly grow is to feel everything as you go through it. Making mistakes and not always clear path for how life is supposed to work. The characters in the play were at times not sure what they were doing or how they were supposed to do things. When they were on their journey originally there were concepts that were not agreed with, however overtime those ideals changed. He came to realize that certain things weren’t always so  black and white and how everything affects everyone differently. I think this is a powerful story and lesson about something that comes very hard to people.

To be truly accepting of everything regardless of your own personal beliefs is a powerful trait someone can have. It helps them form better connections with people because it breaks the former prejudices someone may have before they begin to manifest. I think the messages the play was trying to get across were extremely powerful in which they were relatable in everyday  human life.

When the performance began, I felt the whole show was going to be an interpretive version of the 80’s aerobics and exercise videos. The performers’ costumes only supported my believes. As their motion began to get more complex, I began to pay more attention to the beat and their movement. Each dancer had great coordination with other dancers and time.

What amused me was that the background music in each performance played an important in eliciting an emotion in the audience, or at least in me. Their different steps and timing of movement also gave away different messages. Sometimes the motion (in terms of timing) conflicted with the beat of background music. In other words, the music had faster beat than the dancer motion indicated. I also liked that each performance had different meanings even though the dancers did not show any expressions. This was also the part that irritated me, because we are used to having a clear idea about almost everything. Not knowing was annoying but it also allows us to attach our own meaning to things.

In the end, it was a great experience. Although, I wish we had a little bit more information on what inspired the dance’s creator to invent the art form.