A few weeks ago I went to the showing of a piece titled Braided Sorrow at the University of San Francisco Lone Mountain Theater. Braided Sorrow is a performance written by Marisela Orta, was directed by Roberto Varea and was presented by the USF Performing Arts Department. When I arrived to the performance the first thing that I noticed was the set up of the stage. It looked very different from usual. This past spring semester I was in a class taught by Professor Varea (The director of the play) and throughout the semester we were required to go to a number of performances.
I believe that the location and year in which the play is set, 1927 Chicago, should remain unchanged to protect the historical integrity because “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” actually was recorded in 1927. I would ensure that the play takes place on a small proscenium stage with a curtain, as I feel that this size allows the audience to feel more intimately involved in the action while still maintaining the traditional elements of a theatre production. The backdrops and color scheme of the play would be fairly simple, as I envision the recording studio to look slightly rundown, but with subtle glimpses into the studio’s past grandeur. In order to achieve this effect, the studio’s decor should be mostly neutral, but there could be a few pops of color on the posters of the famous artists who previously recorded there which adorn the walls. In order to account for the two different rooms which are included in the stage directions, the stage could be divided in half, so when the lighting is focused on one side the action is in the studio, and when the other side is lighted the action is in the bandroom.
Throughout most written plays, they normally have films or stage performances. Usually the two are very different from each other. Many of the times the scenes are not exactly the same in films. In Our Town the stage performance is very similar to the written play. There are more comparisons than differences between the performance and written play.
The scenic designer, Terry Martin, truly captured the elements of this production. The way E. Turner Stump Theatre was set up made you feel like you were in the side show yourself. There were lights hanging from the ceiling, and cages set up for the “freaks” on the stage. It was creepy, uncomfortable, and mesmerizing. Examples where the set design was most adequate was during the love tunnel scene, during the beginning of the production, and at the ending of the production.
The scenery of the play performed in the Globe varied greatly from the scenery showcased in the Hollywood version of the play. The scenery for the play performed at the Globe was bare bones, and there was not very much that the director could do scenery wise because the play was confined to a single stage. During the wedding scene of the play the stage was decorated in flowers to make the wedding feel elegant, causing the wedding scene to stand out compared to the other scenes. In the movie version of the play their wasn't a limit to where it could be performed unlike the play, and it was able to be performed in an actual forest instead of just in a stage. Background sounds such as the chirping of birds and the growling of animals added to
The characters in the play are described in stage directions or in the dialogues. Sometimes reading long stage directions may become tedious and boring. But you can imagine how they would look or their tone of voice. In the film, you watch the scenario, characters’ body language and how they look (like their costumes), and you can imagine how the character
The stage design gives the impression of the characters being in two separate rooms, the positioning of blocks and pillars helps again to demonstrate this. This intricate attention to detail enables the performance to be compared so similarly to the movie adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic, although the ‘big screen’ enables more room for a fast change in setting and shots, Rourke does a phenomenal job trying to create this illusion which works so brilliantly. The night before the wedding or you could refer to it as the ‘stag and hen do’ was an unexpected twist that the audience definitely did not see coming. Again, the revolving stage was used to represent the divide between the women and the men and to compensate for the lack of space that the stage could carry.
An example of use of stage directions “Fade in on a shot of the night sky. The various heavenly bodies stand out in sharp, sparkling relief. The camera moves slowly across the heavens until it passes the horizon and stops on a sign that reads “Maple Street.” It is daytime.” If the stage directions were not used in play then the reader would not have known the slight details that make up the play, and it would have simply been made up of
The productions of this play were successful through stage design, lighting crewing, and acting. Those three aspects made the quality of the play stand out to me, as an audience member. The production of the set design of the play was a good effort. The set design for the play staging aims for the sweet spot between feeding adult nostalgia and satisfying a new generation of children.
Some people feel that it`s quite challenging locating differences between a written story and its film, though, however, some people find it considerably simple to detect differences between the pair. A Midsummer Nights Dream was undoubtedly great cinematic film made in 1999. However, the written play of A Midsummer Nights Dream was much more detailed and more informational. The differences I noticed were the following: The Indian boy and his role, the setting, characters and examples of similarities. First of all, the primary anomaly I noticed implies the Indian boy and his role during the piece.
While both stage and screen portrayals were highly acclaimed there are some similarities as well as some marked differences in each interpretation. On the surface, the first difference noted between the stage and screen versions are the sets. The stage version describes the setting of the play, the Younger family living room, as a
The stage and audience seating were set up in the “thrust stage” so that the audience would be able to see the play from three sides and the performers used the entire theatre as a prop. This was delightful setting the props included dungeon walls, trap doors, and a lighted window ports in the auditorium, the actors were able to use this to provide the audience with a full expression of atmosphere and ambience giving the audience feelings of dread, sorrow, fear and prosperity. With any Shakespeare play the performers were able to say their lines with little to no problems with the occasional pause or reattempt to get the lines corrected with the Latin dialect. While the light effects were simple, there were no music, the ambience was still and conveyed a dark mood throughout most scenes of the play. Whether it was red lights diming on a specific dark scene or the fog of war as the scenes suggested.
Before attending the rendition of Mozart’s Magic Flute presented by the University of Toledo’s Opera Ensemble, I had envisioned what I expected the opera to be like in a real life performance. What I had envisioned was definitely not what was portrayed on stage. In my mind, there would be slightly lavish costumes for each performer to better reflect Mozart’s original characterization of each role. There would also be dramatic lighting to accent the comical tale being told. I envisioned actors rushing on and off stage in a well rehearsed opera.
Love is Difficult “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” by William Shakespeare is filled with many mixed emotions and lots of different themes. Although there are many different themes that readers can interpret, one that really stands out is that love is difficult. This theme is supported when Hermia 's father tries to tear Hermia and Lysander apart and they decide the best decision is to run away together. Also Oberon and Titania can 't stand each other and always get into arguments. The love potion throughout the play messed up Titania and Oberon’s true love.
The stage directions are not so descriptive. The setting is described in two lines and the characters are little described. They are limited to describe the actions of the characters. There are sound effects such as the bell that sounds at the end of the play and lightning effects such as the fade out that occurs at the end of each
