Detroit Theatre Collective: Play Analysis

Social pressures change as time passes, therefore it is interesting to see how these three texts whom differ by almost four hundred years perceive society and the effect this has on the protagonists; Shakespeare’s King Lear which was first performed in 1606 during the Jacobean era, presents a patriarchal society. Whilst, Arthur Miller uses the characters in ‘Death of a salesman’ to show the failure of the ‘American dream’ during the “golden era” of America in the late 40’s. The ‘American Dream’ was a set of ideals which suggested that anyone in the US could be successful through hard work, and had the potential to live a happy life. The sense of the deterioration in the equality of opportunities links to the fall in power and hierarchy in

For our critiquing assignment in our Introduction to Stagecraft 1, I ventured to downtown Toronto, to a small indie theatre called, The Unit 102 Theatre. There I saw the production of MISS; written by Dora Award-nominated playwright Michael Ross Albert who wrote such works as Tough Jews, The Spadina Avenue Gang with the Storefront Theatre. The set takes place in the aftermath of a shocking accident in a boarding school classroom, the story explores the tenuous connection between a high school teacher, her fiance, and a troubled student whose lives have been irrevocably changed by tragedy caused by a miscarriage, an affair, and the fear of the consequences that are not yet revealed, and finally, murder. This is a one act showdown between three

The origin of this novel stems from a time with great attitude changes within the African-American way of life. Tensions between gender specifically had begun to emerge, women, who were thought of as subservient, belonging to the house as well as to their husbands. During the timeframe of this story, women had been beginning to emerge with dignity, grace, and authority. The play takes place in Pittsburgh, during the 1950’s when the gap between genders had been shrinking, as women had been introduced further into society as more than just mothers. To most, this diminishing gap, to most would be a seamless concept, however, to the characters of this play would be a deciding factor for many conflicting scenes. The main characters of this play

Fences, by August Wilson, is a drama that focuses on the characteristics of black life in the mid to late twentieth century and the strains of society on African Americans. Set in a small neighborhood of a big city, this play holds much conflict between a father, Troy

Economic and societal poverty are the key forms of poverty highlighted in the three-act play, A Raisin in the Sun. Lorraine Hansberry, the playwright, discusses the hardships of African-Americans attempting to emerge in society in the 1950’s. The play is staged in ways where the audience can grasp the trifles of an African-American family continuously experiencing setbacks whilst attempting to achieve their notion of the “American Dream”. To Walter Lee Younger, his idea of the “American Dream” is that anything is possible for those who have money. Unfortunately, there is a minor problem: Walter Lee Younger is a working-class African-American man who struggles to make ends meet in the Southside of Chicago, Illinois. The family undergoes

Being blinded by the mirage of wealth is a common theme across periods of time, literature, and American society; those who are plagued by this illusion become disconnected from what’s most important - their family and their own beliefs. Ellen Goodman’s “The Company Man” uses rhetorical devices to satirize her negative attitude towards the death of a typical workaholic and makes an invective attack on the corporate industry that sees its workers as disposable cogs in their machine.

. This play takes place in 1963, the year in which the Civil Rights movement was being fought for. The main topic of this play is to understand how race and stereotype can affect justice being served, and the only way around this would be to view facts and override race and stereotype with evidence.

On November 4th, 2016, my best friend and I went to see the play at the Charles Winter Wood Theatre. This play is set during the 1950s, and the scene takes place in a night club in Chicago. This play was sponsored by FAMU’s Essential Theatre, and it was

The audience then became lost and frightened as there were no signs leading them to their next destination, once again forcing them to partake in the performance. This physicalisation not only successfully involved the contemporary audience, but demonstrated the necessity of physical composition to give audiences that real experience. This use of physical composition provided immediate reaction and emotional expression through action and contrast. These elements ultimately enhanced the mood and symbolism of the performance, allowing audiences to not only partake in the production on an intimate level but also on an emotional level. Another way in which mood and symbol can be created is through the use of complicité.

As Walter says in Act 1, “I’m thirty-five years old; I been married eleven years and I got a boy who sleeps in the living room—and all I got to give him is stories about how rich white people live” (34). This disconnect between black families in mid-century America and financial security reminds us of the play’s historical context-- “the good old days” before the civil war when the black people were passive and “happy”. After the civil war blacks were seen as aggressive, unkempt, even animal-like. It was the beginning of warping the American fabric to show that there were clear rules for how blacks would live and be perceived, and how whites were entitled to live. The stereotype was reinforced by blacks allegedly taking jobs from whites, and upsetting the status quo. The fears of many whites worked to keep blacks in the same subservient place they had always been, perpetuating an overt and casual

Recently I went to the CU Boulder’s Department of Theatre and Dance and saw their play production of 44 Plays for 44 Presidents. This paper is about my critical and analytical response to this play. This historical tragi-comedy was written by Andy Bayiates, Sean Benjamin, Genevra Gallo-Bayiates, Chloë Johnston, and Karen Weinberg. The production was directed by Emily K. Harrison, and was performed in the University Theatre. Harrison 's use of comedy juxtaposed with serious moments caused me to understand the importance of the presidential office, and the important role we play in the election.

Research for The Laramie Project, Moises Kaufman's nationally successful play, began one month after a horrific crime occurred in Laramie, Wyoming. Members of Kaufman's theatrical group, Tectonic Theater Project, travelled to the open ranges of the West in order to gather in-person interviews from Laramie's populace. The purpose was to capture the emotions, reflections, and reactions of the people who were most closely and personally associated to the crime—the brutal beating and subsequent death of a young gay college student named Matthew Shepard. This incidence had become a national symbol of the struggle against intolerance and brought attention to the lack of hate crime laws in the U.S. One of the most powerful “moments” in the play was “Dennis Shepard’s Statement” in which Matthew’s father delivered a moving and very

1. It makes me tragic to realize that Lorraine Hansberry kicked the bucket so youthful and wonder what different plays were in her future. The tale of this play is both epic and straightforward. A family living on the south side of Chicago battles with destitution, battles to look after nobility, and longs for a superior life.

The setting of this play is on the South side of the city of Chicago back in the late 1950 early 1960. This period of time is what we call today as the pre-civil rights movement. The main characters are Walter, Mama, Beneatha, Ruth, and Travis. The plot of this play can be summarized as a family that is trying to achieve their dreams together. However, each one of its members has a different way to achieve it. The family is waiting for an insurance check of an amount of ten thousand dollars. Not everybody’s dreams will be accomplished from this check. Eventually this turns into a clash of dreams. Walter is the man of the house. He is a father, a husband, a son, and a brother. This implies that he has an enormous amount of pressure on his shoulders. His dream is to become an investor in a liquor store which will eventually help his family financially. Mama is the oldest person in the house. Her main dream is to buy a house of her own so she can live a better life with her family. Beneatha is a college girl whose dream is to attend the medical school and become a doctor. Ruth is Walter’s wife and her dream is to live in a house, which her family can be happy in. And finally, Travis is the son of Walter, he is around ten years old, and he wants to live in a house so he can play in its

Arthur Miller’s ‘Death of a Salesman’ is a modern tragedy; one that incorporates both the tragic genre presented in theatres for centuries as well as essences of the modern world we live in. Materialism is a modern phenomenon, something which possibly began due to the American Dream – an idea which is heavily criticised through implications in this play. The play is set in 50’s capitalist America, where the idea of the American Dream had only just begun gaining momentum; Miller’s criticism of the Dream very much