Free Rain Theatre Company

Once seated, we saw that the stage was mainly bare with a chair on the left hand side of the stage. This suggested to the audience that the play would be non-naturalistic unlike, a west end theatre production.

Boo Radley is a ‘malevolent phantom’ and a character that has been shaped by gossips and sustained by children’s imaginations. “Stephanie Crawford, a neighbourhood scold… said she woke up in the middle of the night and saw him looking straight through the window at her.” This dialogue is an example of the gossips and how the legend of Boo Radley developed, lies that persecute his innocence. Setting is used to develop Boo’s surroundings and to summon an eerie atmosphere giving Maycomb reason enough to reject and victimise him for being different. “…rain rotten shingles drooped… oak trees kept the sun away and the remains of a picket fence drunkenly guarded the front yard.” The Radley house has been established as a neglected, out of place and isolated home through Harper Lee’s use of connotative words. This evokes within the reader the same view of Boo as the rest of the town and allows us to understand where the misunderstanding comes from before we

Our world is full of mysterious things. There are different places around us filled with mysterious history. “Keith Albee Theater”, was the popular theater of Huntington, West Virginia in 1940s and now as a performing arts center for Marshall University. Though it was popular for its beauty, it was one of the haunted theater during 1940s (Keith Albee Theater). It is said that “Do not judge book by its cover”,

At 12:30 PM, on October 18, 2016 I attended a Brown Bag Event that took place at the Jackson-Graeter Backstage Theatre of the Mary Alice Marshall Performing Arts Center. The event was a recital by singer / songwriter Ms. Amy Engelhardt, performing original works from her 2008 album, Not Going to be Pretty. She played the piano as she sang; and two Temple College staff members (Tarik Hassan on double bass and Norm Bergeron on the drums) also accompanied her.

It takes a lot of courage to kill someone who is intending to kill someone with a knife. Boo Radley is just another character to show courage in the

Here, it shows that since the kids never saw Boo, he must be locked up and is not able to come outside. Another reason the kids think he is locked up is because the doors of the Radley place are always closed. The text says, “The doors of the Radley house were closed on weekdays as well as Sundays, and Mr. Radley’s boy was not seen again for fifteen years” (Lee 13). This shows, Boo is locked up because their doors were closed so no one would see that Boo was locked up, and he was not seen again. The third reason the kids think he is locked up is because he never came out of the house when Mr. Radley died. Instead, his older brother returned most likely to keep Boo locked up in the house. Boo’s older brother would not have come home if it were not for having to keep an eye on him. Next, the kids are scared. The first reason they are scared is because they say the Radley pecans that fall in the schoolyard will kill you if you eat them. The book says, “...but the nuts lay untouched by the children: Radley pecans would kill you” (Lee 11). Here, it shows that they did not even touch the nuts, because they were so scared of anything that had to do with the Radley’s. One other reason they are scared is because

One was the figure of a boy, the other wore a crude dress” (Lee 45, 46, 79-80). Boo Radley has watched them take interest in him and slowly grow less and less scared of him. Finally, he has the courage to start leaving the safety of his house- even if he leaves when nobody sees him. This takes courage, because it would be insufferably difficult to leave a safe place when it is known that the outside world has ridiculed them and is scared of them. But, Boo Radley still finds the courage to do this and think about the happiness of someone else.

Courage is "the ability and willingness to confront fear, pain, danger, uncertainty or intimidation," (Wikipedia). Many people associate courage with conquering someone's fear by fighting, but that is not what real courage is. "Real courage is when you fight for what is right regardless of whether you win or lose," (Atticus Finch). In TKAM, Book Atticus, and Miss Maudie display courage not by fighting, but instead living their lives by their moral codes. Throughout this essay you will discover what makes Boo, Atticus, and Miss Maudie some of the most courageous characters in TKAM.

Australian Contemporary Theatre is a form of Theatre which addresses the concerns and aspirations of Australian audiences; with the use of diverse and complex characters Australian Contemporary Theatre is able to connect with the audience making them reflect and challenge identities. This is shown clearly in the texts Ruby Moon written by Matt Cameron and A Beautiful Life written by Michael Futcher and Helen Howard which we have studied throughout topics.

Broadway is no longer for the hearing after introducing deaf actors in the revival of “Spring Awakening.” The show is now looked at from a new angle since both hearing and deaf actors share the stage. Usually, the roles are divided with one person signing and another singing. NYT Critics describe the show as “thrilling” and “inventive” and in “Review: ‘Spring Awakening’ by Deaf West Theater Brings a New Sensation to Broadway” they agree that deaf actors in a musical may sound bizarre; however, the viewer will become “immersed...in a first-rate production of a transporting musical.”

“[W]hen the sheriff arrived…old Mr. Radley said no Radley was going to any asylum, when it was suggested that a season in Tuscaloosa might be helpful to Boo. Boo wasn’t crazy, he was high-strung at times. It was right to shut him up, Mr. Radley conceded, but insisted that Boo not be charged with anything: he was not a criminal. The Sheriff hadn’t the heart to put him in jail alongside Negroes, so Boo was locked in the courthouse basement” (Lee 14).

The townspeople are confused by the Radleys because they did not socialize like the rest of the town. Scout explains, “The Radleys, welcome anywhere in town, kept to themselves, a predilection unforgivable in Maycomb” (Lee 11). Just because they want some privacy and do not do things like everyone else, the people of Maycomb create this theory that the Radley family is strange and different and that can explain all of their behavior. After Boo and some of his friends lock a man in the courthouse closet during a petty juvenile crime spree, his father completely isolates him from the outside world and he is never seen again. The people of Maycomb, rather than question the extremely suspicious situation, assume that it is just another strange thing the Radley’s do. The prejudice towards the Radley family prevents them from realizing that something horrible is happening to Boo. Instead they dehumanize Boo and make him seem like a monster who deserves what has happened to him. The townspeople’s believe Boo is another strange Radley who does what he does because of his last name instead of using reasoning to realize he is trapped in his

When I entered into the theatre to take a seat, I noticed the stage was set up with showers, lockers, and small baseball field. The showers were placed in the back of the stage, the baseball players' lockers were placed on the sides, and there was painted baseball field in the middle of the

Realism provides only amoral observation, while absurdism rejects even the possibility of debate. (Frances Babbage, Augusto Boal). The cynicism of this remark reflects the aberrant attitude towards absurdism, yet there is truth to it. Theatre of the absurd is an esoteric avant-garde style of theatre based on the principles of existentialism that looks at the world without any assumption of purpose. Existentialism and Theatre of the Absurd became identified with a cultural movement that flourished in Europe in the 1940s and 1950s, after the Second World War. The idea that man starts with nothing and ends with nothing is a common theme amongst most absurd plays. Despite this strange philosophy, Theatre of the

One of the most vital parts of putting on a play is a director who will provide an understandable, and watchable performance. This play was a much easier play to put on as it is based on a classic novel by Harper Lee. From the audiences point of view, the director clearly understood the novel. He gave a very well adapted stage version of the book, however he didn't rely on the audience having read the book, he also created a whole new story through different techniques and fresh ways of telling a story. As a person who has read the book and was a fan of it, and Harper Lee I personally thought that he did it justice and filled some large boots. The director employed very subtle and yet effective staging techniques during certain scenes that required a different atmosphere. Some examples of these techniques were during the scene between Scout and Atticus near the beginning of the play. Here the staging was very central, this provided a sense of a close relationship between the characters. Also, a small inclusion of a chair, or a light immediately makes the scene seem more like a home, and the audience immediately have a different expectation of the scene, for example if an armchair is introduced to the stage then the audience expect a scene at home, however if a desk and computer is introduced then the audience expects a scene at work or in a study and therefore the scene will have a completely different atmosphere.