All in the Timing - David Ives

During Mr. Rosenberg’s leave we learned different dramatic elements such as script analysis, stasis and intrusion, dramatic conflict, etc. This helps us to understand the different elements so one day when we have to apply the elements we will already be mindful of them. Additionally, we also learned about the beginning of theater dating back to ancient Greece and their different ways of displaying theater.

This phenomenon was replicated at the University of Michigan’s SMTD performance of The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, written by Bertolt Brecht. This play told the story of the rise of gangster Arturo Ui and the corruption of the cauliflower business in order to satirize the rise of Hitler. Despite this being a play, rather than a musical, the use of Copland’s “planes of listening” still apply. Theater-goers can still view the work with different approaches- either purely surface level, meaning-driven, or technical, like the “planes of listening Copland describes.

For the Loman family, there is no light at the end of the tunnel. In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, the titular man and his family fail to redeem themselves or even learn any valuable lessons. After presenting two acts full of pure human misery and dysfunction, Miller leaves us with little to no hope for the characters or the world they live in. The play is supposed to be a stunning takedown of the “American Dream”– a work made for the common man. Yet it just left me feeling completely bereft of joy or hope. As a person who considers herself a tentative optimist, works like Death of a Salesman upset me immensely– I usually end up throwing the book aside, frustrated at the hopeless situations and dilemmas. While Death of a Salesman is undoubtedly an important work, I failed to make a connection with it because of its bleak pessimism and unrelatable characters.

In the novel Eight Seconds written by Jean Ferris, John is an 18 year old boy that lives on a ranch near the Rocky Mountains. John lives on the ranch with his mom, dad, three sisters, and dog Howdy. At the beginning of summer john receives the gift of a week at rodeo school from his father. When he escapes reality he begins to learn something about himself he never knew.

During the play Cyrano de Bergerac there are often very deep and depressing moments and to pick the audience up Edmund Rostand used humor. This is seen in all of the acts throughout the play and is one of the main uses of humor in the play. This is not the only use of humor in this play it is also used by Cyrano to hide his insecurities. Throughout the play, Cyrano makes fun of his own nose to make it seem like he is comfortable with it and so others can not make fun of it. Humor definitely plays an important role in Cyrano de Bergerac and through this essay, I will be examining the role of Humor in the play in depth.

The play, "An Inspector Calls", uses moralistic irony to reflect on achievements made today. He reveals the weaknesses and wickedness not only in society, but in the individual characters; which I explain

One of the key factors that makes the History Boys such an iconic play is its witty comedic effect throughout the entire book. Using various techniques, such as parody, contrasting characters and clever juxtapositions within the plot, intelligent metaphors, bathos and many more. But at first glance the history boys could seem a typical dramatic themed book with a group of characters restricted almost entirely to a single location and a short period of time however looking deeper into the play you begin to notice the comedy reveal before your eyes.

The play is set in the times of 2000 and 2008, Lynn Nottage utilizes direct encounters to cut out a play that investigates the impacts generally neoliberal private enterprise on the human condition. The play is set in Reading, Pennsylvania; a city with one of the lowest incomes in the united states. It has an interesting plot due to the fact that it takes the aspect of laborer’s; Cynthia, Tracey and Jessie, and their friendships and relationships. They demonstrate the power of relationships and how they impact people’s lives and surroundings. For example, two ex-convicts, Chris and John, had a strong relationship in the beginning of the play but later grew apart separating that bond and the example of strength in friendship letting their diversity

Linda Riley's "Up Against the Clock" does illustrate the difficulties one can face with time management in college.  Riley thinks that college is just as easy or even easier than high school.  Many people who have a full-time job and have extracurricular activities in college do make scheduling more difficult.  However, Riley does not mention in her essay that she has a full time job aside from taking college classes.  She does, however, tell the reader how one can manage his or her time better with a side job because the essay mentions that her friend has a side job.  She does try to change her schedule after a month of college, but it does not work out for her.  Therefore,  she receives guidance from her friend, Jennifer, in order to correct

"Nowadays the plays' meaning is usually blurred by the fact that the actor plays to the audiences hearts. The figures portrayed are foisted on the audience and are falsified in the process. Contrary to present custom they ought to be presented quite coldly, classically and objectively. For they are not matter for empathy; they are there to be understood and politely added

The setting of this play is simple, a coffee shop. The setting is perfect for what Ives’ is trying to portray. Most people have had a conversation in a coffee shop with a stranger that they walk away from and wish they had said something different. Coffee shops are small, quite and conversation inviting. This is a

Susan Glaspell’s play, Trifles, shows the importance of staging, gestures, and props to create the proper atmosphere of a play. Without the development of the proper atmosphere through directions from the author, the whole point of the play may be missed. Words definitely do not tell the whole story in Trifles - the dialog only complements the unspoken.

In today’s society, sociopaths frequently play a big role in the business/political world. Sociopaths are people with personality disorders, who are usually charming, and have poor judgment (M. E. Thomas). Sociopaths usually are not able to tell right from wrong (LoveToKnow Corp). The film Window Of Opportunity, written and directed by Samuel Joseph, had a great example of what a sociopath would be like. The character Roger Sizemore in this film is a sociopath who believes he is the greatest due to the amount of money he has. This paper will describe the film and why the character Roger has sociopathic behaviors, and compare him to Bernie Madoff and Fred Goodwin.

Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett's existential masterpiece, for some odd reason has captured the minds of millions of readers, artists, and critics worldwide, joining them all in an attempt to interpret the play. Beckett has told them not to read anything into his work, yet he does not stop them. Perhaps he recognizes the human quality of bringing personal experiences and such to the piece of art, and interpreting it through such colored lenses. Hundreds of theories are expounded, all of them right and none of them wrong. A play is only what you bring to it, in a subconscious connection between you and the playwright.

Few writers have managed to enter the world-wide public consciousness as well as Shakespeare; everyone knows his name and can terribly misquote his plays. Yet, for all his popularity, many of his critics have called him unlearned, saying his plays are entertaining but shallow. These same critics often point at the many inconsistencies of his writing, claiming that Shakespeare was not trying to convey anything but witticisms and beautiful sounds. Of course, even his harshest detractors acknowledge his plays and sonnets have influenced the world's literature on a scale that is intimidating; every writer of his era stood in his shadow, and modern literature stands on his