Posts tagged play
Plays with a Purpose
0As college students, we are constantly looking for ways to entertain ourselves, and for those of you who don’t already know,StudentRush.org is a HUGE help. A few weeks ago, some friends and I received an email for free tickets to an off-Broadway performance called Standing on Ceremony in the Minetta Lane Theatre (although it inevitably cost us five dollars each with reservation fees). It would consist of a series of plays about gay marriage.
Upon taking our seats, we saw a cute wedding set at the back of the stage, and high in the air were two intertwined rings. In front of this set, however, were six seats side by side evenly spread across the stage. Stands were placed in front of the seats, and I was at first confused because surely they would not be reading lines from them… but that’s exactly what they did. We’ve experienced many different types of performances throughout the semester, but none like this one. The set behind the six seats and six stands had no purpose in the plays but to be something nice for the audience to look at. The first set of actors that came out seemed to be staring down at their lines for way too long. It was noticeably unprofessional and all I was thinking was what did I get myself into here? I realized, however, that the two characters were looking down at their “vows” which they were arguing over, and so I let the lack of eye contact slide. From then on, they did not look at their lines nearly as much.
Of nine mini-plays, the one entitled “On Facebook” was the most meaningful to me. It was the reenactment of a conversation that actually happened on Facebook. It basically consisted of a debate between different groups of people holding different opinions toward gay marriage. In the end, the woman against gay marriage shows very little understanding for the homosexual community and is more or less shut up because of her closed mind. Throughout this play, the actors and actresses were sitting down, and there was barely any movement. It was real, though. Their words were meaningful and intense–perhaps that was the point. Perhaps in this case, words mean a lot more than any action that can be performed on stage. Perhaps the purpose of these plays were to ask for everyone to stop what they are doing and just listen to each other rather than judge each others actions and make assumptions.
Voca People
0Thanks to studentrush.org my friends and I got to see “Voca People,” an off-Broadway show about a bunch of alien-like people all dressed up in white and covered completely in white body paint (so that their skin looked white). Each of the voca people sang in a different pitch and two of them even beat-boxed. Together they sang beautifully bringing back memories of old songs from the 90’s and it was even a bit comical. What I loved about the whole performance is that they really engaged the audience. One of the voca people had a man stand up and the voca person put his hand over the man pretending to suck langage out of him, and then music. At one point a voca person pulled me up and pretended to “play” my arm, like he was playing a trumpet! I definitely had a ton of fun and a ton of laughs. I would recommend anyone to see it!
The Bald Soprano
1“The Bald Soprano” (by Ionesco) as a script alone was the first piece of writing to make me laugh so much in a very long time. Reading it out loud in my Arts in NYC class especially enhanced the humor of it, as my classmates put on funny accents and simply sounded ridiculous. It is a play about two couples, but really about nothing; the title itself has no meaning, except the indirect message that language and communication is abstract and can always be skewed. As a result of this experience with the script in class, though, I was greatly looking forward to viewing it as a show at the New York City Center on October 11, 2011.
The set of the stage formed my first impression of the play. It was a simple, rather typical set for a living room, except for one major aspect—everything on the back wall of the set was upside down. It was ingenious! Because of the back wall, the set perfectly matched the idea of absurdity that the play is meant to exhibit. The play began and proceeded exactly as the script demanded, but the tone of the play seemed a bit different than we had performed in class. It was still very funny, but it was significantly more awkward. This is most likely a result of the fact that we didn’t have the sound effects. The loud, obnoxious, repetitive clock sounds in the beginning of the play successfully increased the absurdity of the it. The actors in the play were also much more intense and forceful than I had imagined. For example, I imagined Mr. Smith as a bit more shy with less shouting. He could have said his lines more calmly; I think that would have enhanced the humor. Mr. and Mrs. Martin, however, I loved. They were hilarious and entertainingly awkward with each other.
All in all, I am especially glad that we were instructed to read the script before viewing it, because it allowed us to know what to look for and to understand that the play is supposed to be absurd. Some of my other peers from other classes had not read it first and did not appreciate the play at all, because they didn’t understand it. I definitely appreciated it, and I love the idea that it brings up: language, words, and meanings are always skewed.
Read the script of “Bald Soprano” for a good laugh: Bald Soprano script
