Discuss How Semiotics/Semiology Informs Our Reading of a Performance

The set used for Vernon God Little was highly symbolic and simplistic; when we walked into the theatre we could visually see that there were flowers, cards and memorable items attached on the audiences seats above our heads, which already created a sombre atmosphere around the theatre.

During a musical performance many elements to be looked are not easily recognized by the average critic. A musical performance has multiple interactions taking place between the music, text, performers, audience, and space that all can contribute to a great performance. Overwhelming majority of the audience does not realize so much can be looked at during a single performance. At a performance by the University of Maryland Marching Band I was able to analyze the Musical Sound, Contexts of the Performance, and Interpretation of the Performance.

Symbolism is commonly used in many books, movies, etc. To put it simply, symbolism is when some sort of object or idea is used to symbolize feelings or emotions. For instance, bad weather can be used to symbolize a character’s feelings of sadness. In the novel “Tangerine”, symbolism is used many different times, but a prominent example in the novel is when Mr. Donnelly, a side character in the story, uses an imaginary porcelain plate to symbolize a local record he broke. As seen on Pages 274 and 275 in “Tangerine”, “So whenever I thought about the record, which was often, I imagined a fine porcelain plate…

The center I chose to observe was the dramatic play center which is a kitchen. I chose this center because because it's a great way to observe children. The purpose of the dramatic play center is to help develop social, emotional and oral language skills. It gives children a chance to assign roles, self regulate when having to take turns and during all of this children are developing language skills.

“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” William Shakespeare may have written these words in As You Like It in 1600, but Erving Goffman truly defined the phrase with his dramaturgical theory. Dramaturgical analysis is the study of social interaction in terms of theatrical performance. Unlike actors though, who use a script telling them how to behave in every scene, real life human interactions change depending upon the social situation they are in. We may have an idea of how we want to be perceived, and may have the foundation to make that happen. But we cannot be sure of every interaction we will have throughout the day, having to ebb and flow with the conversations and situations as they happen.

“Audiences today want a real experience in their live performance, because they can get great script based entertainment at home, through various new media sources. Traditional theatre, which appeals on a mental, and hopefully also emotional level, has not been enough to compete with other media, and audiences have been declining. Physical theatre, by contrast appeals to the audience on a physical and emotional level, providing a much more immediate experience than traditional theatre” ~ (Artmedia Publishing in Zen Zen Zo’s “The Tempest” Teacher’s Notes)

To start off, the readers can easily detect the contrast of imagery throughout the two separate passages. In the men’s meal, she states: “Meanwhile the wine

Symbolism approach to interpretation has so many possibilities—so many paths to consider! An exciting approach to interpretation and criticism, comparable to hunting, finding the symbols, an object or image that, although interesting in its own right, stands for or suggests something larger and more complex—often an idea or a range of interrelated ideas, attitudes, and practices (Murfin & Ray 391), practiced by finding the repetition of colors throughout Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome became the adventure. Within the pages of the novel, repetition of colors reveal themselves and critic’s interpretations discussed. Symbolism

Firstly, an example a symbol is the turkey project. Around Thanksgiving, Melinda wasn’t having the best holiday with her parents arguing and rambling over a turkey. She saw the turkey as a key part in her family’s relationship, which was destroyed. From there, Melinda then decided to do a project on it which resulted in Mr. Freeman commenting,“I see a girl caught the remains of a holiday gone bad with the flesh picked off day after day as the carcass dries out. The knife and fork are obviously middle class responsibilities. The palm tree is a nice touch. A broken dream, perhaps” (65). Given this piece of evidence, it is strong because Mr. Freeman

Erving Goffman was a sociologist known for developing the symbolic interaction and dramaturgical theory perspective. The dramaturgical theory is a social psychological perspective that studies human behavior and social interaction in terms of the analogy of the theater. This perspective is also related to symbolic interactionism. Symbolic interactionism is a theory based on interaction and communication, facilitated by many different words, gestures, and other symbols that have acquired various meanings. Dramaturgical theorist focus on how people manipulate various aspects of themselves and their settings to influence how others define and respond to them. In this perspective, “the self” is constructed of the various roles that one acquires, in order to present their various selves in ways that sustain particular impressions to their audiences. “The self” is a private possession established in and reflective of an individual’s personality, which includes ones values, beliefs, motives, traits, and dispositions. In addition, a person’s “self” is acquired through social relationships and is a structurally fundamental process that may change due to various situations. As humans interact with one another they are placed in social categories based on their attributes and actions. These assessments are primarily based on ones knowledge of roles.

In the words of Gay McAuley, “for an activity to be regarded as a performance, it must involve the live presence of the performers and those witnessing it…” (McAuley, 2009, cited in Schechner, 2013, pp.38). This statement recognises the importance of both the actor and the audience for something to truly function as a performance. In addition, Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones highlights the significance of the theatrical space and how it can influence an audience stating that “on entering a theatre of any kind, a spectator walks into a specific space, one that is designed to produce a certain reaction or series of responses” (Llewellyn-Jones, 2002, pp.3). The relationship between actor, audience and theatrical space is no less important today than it was at the time of theatre during the Spanish Golden Age and the creation of Commedia dell’arte in Italy. Despite being very close geographically with theatre thriving for both in the same era, sources that explore the social, cultural and historical context of these countries and the theatre styles will bring to light the similarities and differences. This essay will analyse the staging, the behaviour of the audience as well as the challenges the actors faced, and how this directly influenced the relationship between actor, audience and theatrical space.

THE ROLE OF THE CHORUS AND ITS IMPACT ON THE AUDIENCE IN OEDIPUS THE KING

This semester I have experience many live musical performances. Some of these performances have let me down but for the most part, these performances have been everything I ever expected. My two favorite performances this semester were Festival Vallenato and Ultra Music Festival. Although these two types of music are different in every way possible, the people and the performers are exactly where I feel I am in the right place.

ostmodernism was a movement that began in the 1960s that affected all forms of art and literature of that time period. Postmodernism followed modernism and it sought to challenge the ideas and values of modernistic theatre, modernism was formed to shake up theatre, introducing new theories of science and technology to explain the world, whereas postmodern theatre raises more questions than supplying the answers for the audience. Modernism created a ‘grand-narrative’ whereby there was only one meaning which would be told to the audience. Postmodernism broke down the ‘grand-narrative’ when Jean-François Lyotard wrote La Condition postmoderne: Rapport sur le savoir (The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge) (1979), he came up with

Rituals and theater, which are both cultural performances, have similarities such as serving the purpose of entertaining teaching the audience, belief from audiencce, use of props, use of space, and repesentaion. Since during this time period many commoners did not know how to read, the church had to present these rituals in order to teach them about events in the bible like the Crucification of Jesus Christ. Similaritly, a play will serve the purpose to teach the audience a certain idea that the playwright believes is necessary for the audience members, the audience vary depending on the time this play was written, to learn or understand. Unlike a play, which has no certain time frame to be perform, a ritual is perform during certain time of the liturgical year; for example, the passion of the cross