Walking into the Bank Street Theater, I am absolutely tortured when I see this gorgeous stage that A Sucker Emcee was set on because I couldn’t capture it in a photograph.  A microphone stand was perfectly placed for a picture: not in the center, but just off to the side. The DJ stand to the other side of the stage wasn’t that appealing to my tastes, but it helped create balance within the stage. The lights above and below the back wall changed colors, leaving me mesmerized with how beautifully the concrete bricks reflected the different hues.  The scene was picture perfect and made you feel like a comedian was just going to make a grand entrance at any moment.

The captivating feel of the stage stuck with me throughout the entire play. I think I was so mesmerized by how simple and symbolic the stage was that some of the actual content of the play was lost on me. The figure standing before me recounted his life story, but all I could think about was how much emphasis the color of the lighting that was reflecting on the concrete bricks placed on the emotions of what the figure was saying. The red was used in an obvious way, representing death and violence and the traumatic pain muMs felt from these events in his life. As muMs describes watching someone with their guts outside of their body, the day his brother got kicked out of his house and the events leading up to his fathers death, the concrete reflects a deep red. The red was also used as a representation of his father’s red hot romantic life. When muMs describes his feelings toward something the United States government has done, although I didn’t quite catch what exactly he meant, the top of the concrete bricks reflected red while the bottom reflected blue as a symbol of the United States itself. Purple and Green reflections were often used when muMs talked about hip-hop and some more enjoyable times that he has had in his life. When muMs spoke about the transition he had to make from being semi-famous due to his part as Poet on the HBO hit show “Oz” to losing his fame and money, green was also used in combination with blue (blue on the top of the concrete brick, green on the bottom). The transitional feel of the colors worked as a representation for the transition within his life. Blue was reflected on the bricks during the times when muMs spoke about fear, giving a chilling feel to his words.

Despite how much the lights emphasized what muMs was saying, it was the times when the lights were turned off that I really felt the power of muMs’ words. It was then that muMs uttered the sadder events of his life. The lights were all turned off except for the two white lights that shined on muMs, allowing me to see the powerful shirt he wore. It was a simple white t-shirt that said “The Truth Is” and some scribbled words underneath that I couldn’t make out from where I was seated. I felt that that t-shirt choice was the most powerful non-verbal touch to the whole play. That shirt resonated with the fact that this was muMs’ real life story and that everything said felt so real because it was all the truth.

Sitting in the Intar Theater, I anxiously keep changing sitting positions waiting trying to decide which position could possibly keep my dress from getting ruined. I knew they were going to smash a watermelon on stage at some point during the performance. What else could that ad on the back of the playbill, offering a 10% discount on a dry cleaning bill to clean out watermelon stains, possibly mean? Why would they even smash a watermelon in a play called “Teach, Teacher, Teachest”? I did not sign up to get painted pink with watermelon juice.

The play begins. My anticipation and anxiety is soon forgotten as I see the actors swinging around their small jungle gym of a stage. I was absolutely mesmerized by the skill of the actors, moving their bodies so gracefully while preventing their wigs from succumbing to gravity. The costumes set a perfect look and vibe for the characters. Maybe these people are just being artsy? Or maybe they’re crazy? Regardless, all three of the characters (the maid, the student and the teacher) were all oddballs in their own distinguishable way, and I understood now that any of these people were capable and willing to smash a watermelon to bits. I couldn’t stop analyzing the bright red on the professor’s green clothes, emphasizing what was soon to come.

Despite how nervous I was, I was able to laugh until my stomach hurt. The comedy was not empty absurd statements; everything had an underlying meaning. Everybody in the room was laughing at the geography lesson that ended up just being some odd combination shouting of sexual terms and pointing randomly, except of course for the two children in the crowd who were a bit too young to understand. Every lesson after that was lined to the brim with conservative theories as taught by the crazy green haired teacher, oblivious to his own hypocrisy. Unfortunately for the student, she did not follow her teacher’s conservative theories and was called a “stupid idiot” throughout the entirety of the show.

At the play’s climax was the watermelon scene. The teacher had decided to kill his student, just as he has all of his other past students. The actors came around with some clear plastic shield to cover our clothes from the watermelon. The teacher then brutally smashed the watermelon with his ruler, representing the brutal way in which he stabbed his student to death. This proved him and his theories to be crazy, revealing an obvious liberal siding of the play.

Despite how uncomfortable I am with politics in general, I really loved this play. I came to the play excepting to be entertained and I was. How much more could I really ask for?

Art reflects the situation of the people. People often become the muse of artists and serve as their vessels to express their feelings about society. Artists are also often paid to depict the views of the rich, leaving the views of the poor often unrepresented (unless, of course, the artist is part of a lower class and expresses his or her own views in their work). In ancient times, the views of the leaders of the people made up a majority of the perspectives recorded through artwork.

The Uruk people (Uruk is an ancient city of Sumer) have been known to emphasize the importance of figures in their statues by means of height, size of eyes and length of beards. Perfect examples of this lie within the statues found at the Abu Temple (as seen below) The statues include both idols and votive statues. The two tallest statues are thought to be idols of the Uruk god Abu, whereas, the shorter statues are thought to be votives of richer Uruk people so that they can be seen as constantly praying to Abu. Only the rich people of Uruk (the priests and the rulers) could afford to have their own votive and, therefore, are the only people who could afford to “constantly” be praying to the gods. The larger eyes on the statues are a representation of the Uruk belief that “the eyes are the windows to the soul.” The large eyes are thought to ward off evil and show how much power a person or god has. The beards were also viewed as a symbol of power. This shows a distinct divide between the classes of the Uruk people, not only in the art itself, but in its symbolism. The votive statues allowed the richer people of Uruk to be more holy than the poorer people.

Statues from the Abu Temple

Some art of the ancient world meshed the roles of society as one. The frieze in the Parthenon (as seen below) created by the Ancient Greek people is a perfect example of this. In the city of Athens all people were represented in government because it was a democracy. The frieze in the Parthenon showed the rich and poor worshiping Athena in the Panathenaic procession (which was held to honor Athena) without distinction of power and wealth displayed. Neither rich nor poor was shown as more holy than the other. Unlike past works of art, this frieze did not use any hierarchical scale which is what most previous artworks used to clearly show who was deemed as “important” and “powerful”, and who was not.

East frieze of the Parthenon

These examples lead me to believe that artwork both reinforces and breaks down class divisions. It all depends on the artist, the benefactor, and the situation of the time and place. This is clearly seen in my examples, and in various artworks of the past and present.