I will be honest and admit that coming into this class, I wasn’t all that enthusiastic since I never really was a fan of opera, theatre, or pretty much any type of aesthetic art of performance. This might be because I have had little to almost zero amount of exposure to this type of art but that is beside the point. Although I did not absolutely love anything in particular that we watched in this course, the experience and cultural awareness that this course has brought me is very valuable to me. I had the opportunity to experience the high side of New York, which I had never experienced by going on the rooftop of “The Met”(which I have newly incorporated into my vocabulary) while seeing all of these fancy people with their drinks. I had the opportunity to go to the Metropolitan Opera House and view my first Opera, and the opportunity to explore one of the many cultural epicenters of New York, Chinatown. Having said this, I think it is finally time to reflect on the works we have experience in the class, individually and collectively.
In our first unit, we went through the “Haves and the have nots” of New York City and my favorite piece from all the works we discussed in that unit would have to be In Arabia We’d All be Kings Stephen Adley Gurgis. This piece appealed to me more than the other’s because I thought that it was one of the more truthful depictions of New York, and one that I could relate to more than the others (definitely not to that extreme but you get what I mean). To me, the characters were very realistic, and you couldn’t help but feel bad for them, because they were trapped in their world of poverty which is very hard to break free from if everybody around you is the same way. Do The Right Thing by Spike Lee also had a parallel affect on me. Reflecting back on the film now, I realize that in the movie there were many racial subtleties that I had not noticed before. I adore Spike Lee (other than the fact that he is a die-hard Knicks fan) because I think he accurately depicts the racial tensions in a specific part New York during a specific time (sorry but I can’t leave this out since the season is finally starting, GO KNICKS!!!).
Although I did some-what like the first unit, I liked the immigration unit more than any of the others because after all, New York is the city of immigrants. Immigrants make up a large population of New York and I think that they are the one’s who give New York a lot of its unique culture. The heartfelt stories of the characters in Maria Full of Grace and In America, are what New York is made up of. New York can be both, a “City of Dreams or Urban Nightmare,” it depends all on what you make of it. In both of these movies, the main characters have to make the decision to move to New York in order to provide for a better life for themselves and their sons/daughters. On their journey’s to create a better life, they must endeavor through a myriad of obstacles, which is the reality for many New Yorkers.
My favorite piece of work this semester would have to be Asuncion, but I don’t really want to count that because I don’t think that it was really truthful to New York, all it did was make me laugh as there wasn’t too much meaning to the play. Discounting I would say that my favorite works for the semester would be those that I have already mentioned above. They are the views of New York which I find the most truthful.
All in all, I would again like to repeat myself saying that I really did appreciate this class for all of the art that it has exposed me to, and the opportunities that it has provided me with. Now I most definitely won’t say that I will be ritually attending the Opera, going to the museum, or attending a performance just for fun, I might actually think twice next time if an auspicious opportunity does present itself, which I believe is a big step for me.
