Great American Melodramatic Theatre Analysis

Stage directions are used during the play to reveal even more of the personality of each of the characters. The extremely-confident personality of Nick is made clear in the first scene, when Nick, Lucy and Lewis first enter the darkened theatre, and Nick starts to toy with Lucy in the dark, pretending to be a ghost. Stage directions can also be used to reveal the feelings of characters. When Lucy and Nick leave, and Lewis is left with Roy, you can tell just by watching the way Lewis holds his body, and moves about the stage, he feels betrayed by Lucy, and by Nick.

The technical aspects of the production such as scenery, properties and costumes also played a keynote in the productions success. The scenery was fabulous it truly made the play. It was very realistic and extremely vibrant. Almost the entire play was performed in one setting, except for the railcar and dance scenes. The house, the main setting, was magnificent with painstakingly placed detail in every corner. All elements in the house matched wonderfully, for example the furniture, the photos on the wall, the telephone and even the trash can. Little bits of detail were everywhere adding to the beautification of the set, for example the lace decorations on the chairs, the etched glass above the front door and even the Christmas tree.

He makes the audience feel like they are apart of the play. There are a few instances where the characters are talking to members of the audience. The narrator even portrays characters in the play. Emily and George were married by the narrator. The narrator does not use order when discussing important moments in the play.

the play draws its readers to identify with Richard and thereby to participate in a

They would be eager to understand what is going on. There were no special effects so listening carefully to the characters was the only way you would understand what was happening. This made it a good idea to open the play during the night. So you in the audience would get the feel of whispers, people sneaking around etc. They did not have good costumes

The scenes and props complimented the attire of the performers, blending together create a magnificent display. The scenery was realistic enough to afford the viewer an escape into depths of the show. The setting was beautiful and the structures almost lifelike, excepting the absence of a front screen door. It seems that almost all plays and television shows I have viewed neglect this detail. The stage lighting played a key role in the show by setting the mood of the performance during soulful, pensive songs. In contrast, the lighting proved to be a detriment by overbearing the performance of the artists, in that one’s attention was drawn to the glare of extreme quantities of makeup rather than the actions of the characters. This was most notable during the final portions of the production.

The play is staged so those watching feel as if they are in the middle of the film studio that the main character, Little Fellow, inhabits.

Nearly every character in the play at some point has to make inferences from what he or she sees, has been told or overhears. Likewise, nearly every character in the play at some point plays a part of consciously pretending to be what they are not. The idea of acting and the illusion it creates is rarely far from the surface -

Small chatter and laughter came rolling down the stairs as the audience walk themselves up the 39 steps of theatre on Bunker in Adamstown to be a part of one of the last dinner theatres left in Newcastle. Cast and production team members of the play 39 steps await to greet you at the entrance, welcoming you with a cheerful smile and a warm meal. When first arriving and observing the inside the building you wonder how this small old church will pull off a play as complex as 39 steps. The stage is tiny and the secrets of a professional production were either missing or completely visible to the eyes of the talkative audience. As the old-fashioned meal wrapped up and the lights abruptly dimmed over the elderly audience everyone was impatient

At the Nottingham Festival on November 12, I attended an Act called “Passado Action Theatre” which consisted of four amazing actors. They performed three scenes from three different Shakespeare plays. Each scene was filled with action and laughter. What I liked about this group was that before they started a scene the leader would give a brief summary of the play which they were going to perform from. This was very helpful since I’ve only read two Shakespeare plays. The setting was outside with a huge stage, they had benches at the back of the stage for the actors that weren’t in the scene to sit and enjoy the scene. I liked how they kept their facial expressions as they watched and didn’t act bored. They

This I thought was a very different, but clever way of expressing large scenes. Occasionally a follow spot was used to highlight some parts of the of the play for comical effect. At the beginning Richard is asked to look out the window by Annabella and when he does two actors run on stage with a lamp post and as soon as they are on the spot light is on and when they leave it's off again, they did this to give a sense of perspective from the window to the street and also to take the mick out of classic thrillers.

In the nineteenth century, many movements arose in the field of theatre both in the United States and in Europe. Some of the movements that took place in the west together with the melodrama includes the plays o naturalism, Romanticism, well-made plays of scribes and Sardou, Wilde’s drawing-room comedies, symbolism and the farces of Feydeau as depicted in the late works of Henrik Ibsen. Melodrama is a collective name to refer to open group of films that the majority of reviewers refers to as romance, thrillers, and drama. The melodrama as a source of entertainment is believed to have spread rapidly in the nineteenth century due to the growth of industrial revolution and urban development (McHugh 41). It is important to note that this genre is multi-disciplinary in its nature as it accepts elements from another category of films, hence the open name category. Therefore, melodrama is one of the widely most appreciated and has attracted the interest of many reviewers since the nineteenth century, hence the rapid rise.

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.

The setting of the play helped to develop the mood. First of all, the abundance of props brought the story to live successfully. For example, the bed and door created the forgotten, quiet feeling in the old man's room. Next, the floorboards were lifted up so it actually looked like the

Confusing, weird, and nonsense dialogue that exemplifies the idea of the meaninglessness of life is a simple definition for a complex genre called Theatre of the Absurd, which emerged after World War II. This genre has no goals or purpose other than to focus on what people usually do not focus on, for example, secondary characters, slightest decisions that make big differences, and events that do not have light shed on them much throughout stories. One of the key elements that make up Theatre of the Absurd is existentialism which means that life is meaningless and man can choose his own fate in life. Two stories that fall perfectly under this genre of Theatre of the Absurd are Rhinoceros written by Eugene Ionesco and Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, a story written by Tom Stoppard. Theatre of the Absurd is a difficult genre to define; however, after analyzing both plays based on the established definition and criteria, one can determine that Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead is a better representation of the genre.