As a minister, worship leader, and actor, I’ve constantly had to balance these roles. Either in a church environment or in a theatrical environment. Christian theology and theatre have never intersected for me. I’ve always kept each role separate in its own category. I felt each role was different enough that they would never cross over into each other’s world. Or maybe, they have crossed over and I just did not realize the connection. I never thought that the roles had any similarities. After taking this class, I’ve learned differently. According to Johnson & Savidge, there is a “symbiotic connection between theatre and Christianity; they are not just similar; rather they share major commonalities at the core of their existence. …show more content…
As the psychiatrist encounter the boy’s imaginary world, his own life is exposed as passionless and frozen. The play then tells the story of a boy, who because of his repressed sexuality, his religious mother and his hypocrite father, makes his own religion based on horses, the bible, and sex. The psychiatrist, who is not able to imagine anything like that, who has lost his passion for his wife and who walks around carrying an unfulfilled dream about passion, ends up envying the boy the ability to create and believe in a religion.” The beginning state of Equus opens with the two main characters. First, there’s Alan, a mentally disturbed 17-year-old young man who has had done a horrible crime. Second, Dr. Dysart, Alan’s psychiatrist, a complacent man who questions his profession and his relationship with his wife. The end state of these characters closes the scene; Alan getting the professional help he needs and Dr. Dysart was willing to take a look at pursuing his dreams. There are several themes we can consider that the play depicts; such as freedom, growth and development, God and religion. One of those themes I like to consider from the play is God and religion. Although, this play does speak to the audience from the perspective of a theological context. The audience may not initially see the play from that perspective. The story strongly points to Alan, his relationship to Jesus Christ, to his
Religion was a very important theme in the novel because when the plague hit Eyam, many of the townspeople believed that God was testing their faith. Families were not able to feel safe even in their own homes. Anys and Mem Gowdie got their lives taken away because they believed that they were
Wells Fargo was founded on March 18, 1852. The organization name is synonymous with the image of a six-horse stagecoach loaded with gold crossing the American West. Its mission statement embodies the organization’s ideals and standards. Its commitment to providing a valued service promising accountability and transparency community.
Peter Shaffer’s play “Equus” attempts to find the balance between social responsibility and individual desire by taking two opposing characters on either side of the social spectrum. Allan’s upbringing leads him to place individual desire before social responsibility, while Dysart ignores his own desires to uphold his social duty. Using contrasting characters and symbolism the playwright explores the clash between these two concepts.
‘Peter Shaffer’ uses ‘Equus’ as a device to standardize and make the abnormal acceptable. In reality many of the themes and actions dealt with challenge our sense of normality so by introducing an element of innocence into Strang’s character, we as an audience, are suddenly forced to connect and sympathise for him. The innocence is ultimately illustrated by Strang’s worship and love for Equus. Without the element of innocence it would be difficult to forgive his defiance of the ‘comfortable view’ of what is normal. Yet without the defiance we would be unable to forgive him for fitting the societies view of what is normal. Essentially this innocence is the element, which balances the personality of Alan Strang beautifully. Interestingly these are the very elements that Dysart is lacking. ‘That's what his stare has been
- Religion is one of the theme that has been featured in the play,it is crucial to realize that the play intends to expose a
Ministry illustrates God’s message to His people, His message of Jesus’s unconditional love. I believe God can use theater to minister to the Christian community by making the bible come to life and help people see the truth about Jesus. When I performed with Enopion’s Eli’s Bethlehem Inn (a Christian theater production), we made the story of the newborn Jesus come to life by portraying the characters in the bible. The audience was able to experience God’s message for themselves and relate to the characters in real time. The show added value to the community by providing wholesome, family friendly entertainment. After the show was over several people approached me and told me how beautiful the show was and how much they enjoyed it. Their response
To be the only character in a comedy (not actually in a comedic situation) is a tough role to play. Egeon sets the tone for the play in the opening scene, by explaining his perilous journey to the Duke of Ephesus. Knowing this sad tale Egeon tells, the audience must be taken off guard—“Isn’t this a comedy?” Egeon’s
central to the play. I am going to look at only the first act of the
Equus was written by Peter Shaffer in the 1970s, a time for great change in both culture and the field of psychiatry. In his play, Shaffer explores the conflict between social responsibility and individual desire, and the difficulty of finding a balance between the two. The playwright contrasts the characters Martin Dysart, an unsatisfied child psychiatrist, and Alan Strang, his seventeen year old patient, to explore the two extremes of the spectrum of duty and desire. Likewise, Alan’s parents, Frank and Dora Strang, are contrasted to demonstrate that individual desires can impact on the social responsibility of raising a child. Shaffer uses Christian symbolism in relation to Alan’s worship of
First, religion is the dominant theme in the play. Milcha portrays Religion in various ways in the script. Margarita and her family are staunch Christians who believe in God and Hail Mary. Whenever something terrible occurs, they always pray for example when Mel calls them peasants, simple people, and amateurs, they all go to pray. Margarita seeks for God's intervention when she sinks into the ocean, and no one was near to help her. After margarita disappearing, Simon asks god why everything had to be hard. Eduardo, on the other hand, asks God to take him instead of her children. He says they are his dreams and he loves them very much.
In my opinion I think that the Romans did what was right for the common good in all the 5 aspects. Those aspects were providing a public service, preparing for the common defense, promoting rule of law, and protecting rights. Purpose of Government: provide public service Grade: A- Explanation of how it meet the common good: The the Roman Empire provided multiple public services for example the Roman Empire had created reservoirs or redirected mountain streams into aqueducts. Then the water eventually makes it to public bath houses, fountains, and a few wealthy homes throughout the city.
Tom Shaffer’s play “Equus” tells the story of a psychiatrist, Martin Dysart, who treats a young adolescent who committed a savage act of blinding six horses with a metal spike. The young adolescent is a stable boy named Alan Strang who is the only child of an opinionated father and a genteel, religious mother. As Dysart uncovers the reasons behind the boys’ attack, he to faces his own issues. Shaffer uses a broad range of the English language to show the differences between his two main characters, Dysart and Strang.
Jeffrey, I agree with you in a way that film is a great means of communication and is a great way of getting a message across. I recently watch a movie called Leon: The professional and I felt in love with the movie. This movie inspired me to even try the fashion inside of it! haha. However, I do not think it is healthy for a christian to find a christian theme in secular movie, or get mad when there is a Biblical movie that are not exactly Biblical. We do need to acknowledge the connection between theology and cinema, but I don't think we should neccessarily put a same criteria on secular movies that have different purpose and message to send. For example, Noah, recent hollywood production based on the Bible was somewhat disturbing for me
Egeon's woeful tale provides the audience with the appropriate background to the play, which begins in medias res, thus satisfying the requirements of narratio which constitute the first element of Evanthian and Donatian comic structure. That said, Shakespeare's prologue differs remarkably from its Plautine counterparts much more integrated with the play as a whole, it is framed by the revelation of Egeon's imprisonment in Ephesus, and the Duke's decree that:
Companies operate differently but in most cases employees choose to enter into the best agreement depending on exactly what is needed. Most employees understand the implications for not having the at-will rights, which will enable them to fire with little or no legalities and at the same time they know that it’s not easy firing a contracted employee, so it all comes down to the nature of the job and selecting the right person for the position.