Comments (Checkpoint III)

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Comment 6 (my computer wouldn't let me comment under her posting for some strange reason, but here is my comment for Sue's post on Topdog/Underdog)
I really like your emphasis on honesty. Booth leads the crowd to believe that they are play an honest game of chance when it is really rigged. Link seeks out and "honest" job portraying the character of "honest" Abe. One that I personally did not pick up on was the dishonesty in his job in the aspect of Link's race. He is an African American man deceiving the players to believe him to be white.
-Shequila Hamilton

Next to Normal by Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt

Yay!!!!! A musical!!!!!!!!!
(clears throat)
Anyway, Next to Normal was indeed....next to normal. What I like most about this musical, and most musicals in that case, is that the music helps to provoke and enhance those emotions and aspects of Hornby's elements portrayed throughout the script. Tom Kitt did an amazing job composing this work. I think he particularly portrayed the element of progression well throughout the score. In both his songs "A Promise" and "I'm Alive" there is a clear motif and pattern not only in lyrics, but in the notes as well.

I also think that the most important element in a musical is choice. The playwright and composer carefully choose which scenes, moments, emotions, and ideas they would like performed in song and which ones they prefer as plain dialogue. The choice of song selection and placement in a musical is very important in the script. The characters are not randomly bursting into meaningless song every few moments of the plot. Instead, each song holds significance to it's specific moment in which it is sung and helps to progress the story line and enhance the meaning and message of the text. These choices of music placement separate a play, a musical, and a two hour concert.

Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks

This was my first time reading a piece by Susan-Lori Parks and I overall thoroughly enjoyed it. Referring to the prompt, Topdog/Underdog was laced with very obvious theatrical mirrors and foreshadowing. These two mirrors (the assassination of Lincoln and three-card Monte) though extremely different, still manage to tie the story together. When presented in the script together, these mirrors support each other and the idea that it is impossible to "win" in life unless allowed. While working as a performer, Link tricks the audience into believing that they hold a position of power as they take on the role of John Wilkes Booth. He leads them to believe that they are the top dog, when in actuality he is by choosing to allow them to shoot him. Booth as the card dealer deceives the audience into believing that such a simple game is merely a shot of change and luck. The reality of the game is that Booth controls the placement of the card and if the mark will win or lose.

These mirrors also portray a misjudgment of the placement of power. Just like the card dealer, Lincoln makes the gunman believe that they have control and hold a chance at winning. The mirrors reflect deception. This then raises the question out of Abraham Lincoln and the gunman, the card dealer and the mark, and Lincoln and Booth: "who is the 'topdog' and who is the 'underdog'?"

'Tis Pity She's a Whore by John Ford

With a plot as complex (for lack of better words) as 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, coming up with interesting poster ideas is fairly easy. With the given restrictions on obvious visual images such as a heart or dagger, my poster would be on backdrop of inverted fading colors. The top of the poster would be pink, as pink symbolizes love and romance. It would then blend from pink to light red, which represents sexuality and passion. From there the color would blend into a deep red, which stands for fiery heat. This color can also mean danger. From red the poster, at the bottom, would become black to represent not only the death of relationships, but also the death of those lovers. In the black area of the poster my image would consist of an already bitten apple. From this apple will fall drops of blood and around the apple would be spider webs. The apple would represent forbidden fruit just as the characters partake in forbidden love. The drops of blood would represent death and I would place one drop falling from the apple for each life lost in the play. Finally the spider web would represent the tangled web of lies and deceit as well as a hectic web of lovers.


The quote at the bottom of the poster would be one of the following three:


"...'tis my fate that leads me on" -Giovanni (Act 1 scene 2)


"Revenge shall sweeten what my griefs have tasted." -Hippolita (Act 2 scene 2)


"Thou hast told a tale whose every word threatens eternal slaughter to the soul." -Friar (Act 2 scene 5)

House of Trials by Sor Juana

Besides the example stated in the prompt, another convention in House of Trials that could be concluded as a part of the comedias guide would be the actual format in which the play is written. Much that of Shakespeare, Sor Juana writes the script in what can be considered poetic stanzas. Once you get into the rhythm of reading the play you will find yourself almost reading verses rather than monologues. I could definitely see this poetic writing scheme transferred over into other works that may fall into the comedias category.

My second comedias convention would be the constant breech of the "fourth wall". As long as this wall remains in place the audience is watching the lives of others. When Sor Juana removes this wall in House of Trials it allows the audience not only to view the character's lives, but it allows them to be a part of their lives and includes them into their world. This takes away the formality of viewing a play and lightens the atmosphere.By having moments in the script where the fourth wall no longer applies removes the convention of modern realistic theater and enhances the idea of a comedy or comedias.