Dream Girls, Chicago, And Rent, By Jerome Kern

because they were not only a getaway, but they are immensely entertaining to watch. Rodgers

“Merry-Go-Round” is a poem about a little colored child that goes to the carnival. The child wants to ride the merry-go-round, but has a problem finding the back. From where the child comes from, Jim Crow laws segregate the blacks from the whites. This poem has a lot of depth and meaning, although it sounds very simple. It also tells us the mindset of most blacks in the South in the days of segregation. I chose this poem because the boy’s innocence was touching and its deep meaning was very powerful.

For this assignment. I will be talking about the original musical performance of 42nd street. I will present the conditions of the stage and setting for the original stage performance. In this, I will talk about the plot and the characters of 42nd street, how the plot progresses and how each character has their own purpose in the story in comparison to each other. I will talk about the underlying themes of 42nd street; how these themes are important

I Knew a Woman is about a woman who has more than just beauty. Theodore Roethke explains what he sees in this woman and the joy and pain about loving her. Roethke uses a

Musicals were meant to bring exoticism to people so that people could enjoy and feel like they are somewhere for a couple of hours. What people didn’t see was the deeper meaning that some musicals brought to the surface like segregation, racism, body issues and LGBT. Hairspray and West Side Story are two musicals that bring deep meaning to their musicals if you look hard enough you will find them. Even though there is race faced in both Hairspray and West Side Story that build issues, yet the both come together as a group at the end.

In the novel Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison depicts the many aspects of self-actualization, and the difficulties of growing up in a maltreated life. The story revolves around generations of black family in the south during the segregation of whites and blacks. The character of Macon Dead jr., suffers from a sheltered life. Macon jr., is unaware of his family’s history, and the cruel reality of mistreatment during segregation. In the sheltered and confusing environment Macon jr., lives pushes him to find the authentic individual within himself. Macon jr., evolves through the descriptions, events, and experiences of others. But, who is responsible for making Macon jr.,’s journey of self-actualization to be so slow and difficult. His parents, Macon Dead sr., and Ruth Foster Dead, represent the obstacle hindering Macon jr., from his true authentic identity. Many of Macon jr.,’s major problems are a direct result of his parents suffocating mistakes.

“I too” by Langston Hughes and “Dreams” by Nikki Giovanni are poems concerning conformity and rebellion. I too was published in the 1926 volume of poetry by Langston Hughes. It is about an African American man, who is “either a slave, a free man in the Jim Crow South, or even a domestic servant”, that conforms to the ideas and traditions between black and white people. He does this, while quietly waiting for the day that he will not have to conform or “stay in the kitchen” anymore. Dreams is about a black girl who dreams to be famous singer when she is a child. However, as she grows older, and starts to understand the labels and roles black girls are put in in society at the time, she conforms to the idea of settling down and letting her

“Listen to the mustn’ts, the shouldn’ts, the impossibles, the won’ts, and the never haves. Then, listen to me. Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.” This is a poem the famous children’s poet Shel Silverstein. Now, if he was best known for being a children’s author, how could he even be considered to be controversial? Now, Shel Silverstein, while having no earlier inspiration for his career to draw and write for children, wrote many famous poem books, such as Falling Up and Where the Sidewalk Ends: however, with him writing these books came some controversy with it, such as claims that he promoted cannibalism and suicide.

In If Beale Street Could Talk and “Sonny’s Blues,” author James Baldwin shows that embracing suffering, rather than being trapped by it, leads to growth and enlightenment.

Our Town by Thornton Wilder focuses on the lives of the residents of small town Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire in the early 1900s, more specifically, the lives of young George Gibbs and Emily Webb. Throughout Act I, Thornton describes the daily lives of the people of Grover’s Corners. The milkman delivers the day’s milk, the paperboy brings the morning paper, mothers prepare breakfast, and children get ready for school. The day winds down, everyone has had their supper, homework is finished, and adults arrive home from choir practice. Life in Grover’s Corners is traditional, ordinary, and unremarkable, not much goes on out of the ordinary. Act II focuses on love and marriage in the town. The narrator says “Almost everybody in the world gets married, - you know what I mean? In our town there aren’t hardly any exceptions. Most everybody in the world climbs into their graves married.” and Mrs. Gibbs articulates that “People are meant to go through life two by two. Tain’t natural to be lonesome.”(54) George and Emily get married, much like the other young couples of Grover’s Corners, and proceed to live blithely and contentedly on George’s uncle’s farm. Act III looks into the last act in a person’s life, death. Emily passes away during childbirth, and at the cemetery, she meets the spirits of her mother-in-law and many other deceased townspeople.

The story “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin centers on the conflicting relationship between two brothers that is explored throughout various stages of their lives. Through the structured, melodic style used by Baldwin there are reoccurring themes of suffering, family, and home that are used to further convey the idea of two brothers who love each other, but don’t understand each other. Ultimately, the relationship between the two brothers is greatly strained due them being polar opposites, their lack of effective communication, and failure to truly hear one another rather than seeing. The characters do not have much in common beyond the blood that they share, thus making it difficult for a bond to form until the walls of judgement are torn

Stereotypes are part of everyday life. Stereotyping is part of our society; it wouldn’t be our society with typical stereotyping. Stereotypes have an enormous impact on how we feel and see things. In Gilb’s point of view he is stereotyping the life of the typical Mexican American lifestyle. In all four stories he has a stereotype or he is stereotyping the life style of a family, man or woman. I believe that Gilb wants to make his point through, “there is more to life” than just the regular stereotyping the Mexican American life style. I believe he wants to get his point across through stereotyping and using it as an example that there are many ways of life and that there are many ways of living.

Abuse is a difficult and sensitive subject that can have long lasting effects. These traumatic emotional effects are often intensified if the abuse happens at a young age because children do not understand why the abuse is happening or how to deal with it. There are many abuse programs set up to counter the severe effects which abuse can have. Even more, poets and writers all over the world contribute works that express the saddening events and force the public to realize it is much more real than the informative articles we read about. One such poem is Theodore Roethke’s My Papa’s Waltz which looks carefully through the eyes of a young boy into the household of an abusive father. Robert Hayden’s Those Winter Sundays is a similar poem from

In every individual, a host of socio-historical forces converge and influence the subject’s ideas. Consciously and unconsciously, the individual reflects the confluence of his or her history and culture. In “Sonny’s Blues”, a short story by James Baldwin, the dominant culture constricts the black individual. Subject to the explicit and latent biases of a racist society, the black population of “Sonny’s Blues” attempt to endure oppression and suffering and survive in an unforgiving land. However, they can thrive here with the hope and salvation provided by the communal center of African American culture: religion.

I think it’s because music brings more depth to any play. There’s something about music that harmonizes with every being as it amplifies feelings or emotions that mere words alone cannot. Music is infectious, be it celebratory or sentimental, it always has that strange way of connecting people together to share the actors’ passion and excitement, such as in Ragtime, when Colehouse and Sarah shared their hopes and dreams for their son’s future in a song called “Wheels of A Dream.”