Josephine Bloodhound: Play Analysis

During the first half of the play, I did not really notice the lights except during the scene transitions. The main reason I did not notice them is because their job during the early parts of the play were to establish the location. We were in a standard basement that had one window above the stairs, so most of the light in the room had to be coming from an artificial source, most likely a lightbulb.

The set was designed in a way that was very versatile and yet, still convey a serious message. By versatile, I am implying that the open-stage with two ramps crossing each other in the background was plain and simple but served a purpose of several scenes -- such as a bar, church, and even a funeral. A set prop that were a key pieces in the play were the wooden benches, these made it possible for the actors to switch scenes. Some examples on the usage of the benches were when they stacked two benches one on top of another and turned it into a bar, they turned the bench in a vertical position and created a podiums to express different religions, or setting the benches in a close and aligned design to create a church. Other props that influenced the scenes were snow, umbrellas, then using the umbrellas as angel wings, and of course lighting. Instead of building entire sets, or making the audience use their imagination with no props included in the play, the set designers and directors created visuals that were ordinary objects and interacted the audience to use their imagination and "build" the appropriate set for the scene in their minds. I believe by keeping a low budget, the designers of The Laramie Project accomplished a bigger impact on the audience with a simple-low-budget set rather than an expensive-big-fancy set.

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.

And the picture of you that was out front with all the casting actors, wow you looked gorgeous! Once again I was extremely impressed by the stage design. The back Catholic Church wall was such an amazing structure. The paint and texture that was used to build the wall, gave off the appearance of a real stone wall. The wall design was flawless, and the size and scale it in which it was done in is astounding! Ms. Livingstone office was also well placed; it kept a focus point to the center of the room. The decision to go with a see through glass desk and small offices chairs allow the stage space to seem larger and didn’t block or hide when the actors sat down or walked around the desk. The area with the steps that lead to Mother Ruth desk was also well crafted, but I felt it was not utilized enough. It was barley used and wasn’t sure if it was Mother Ruth office or apart of the church altar. The church pew was a nice addition as well. I was also really impressed with the lighting effects, especially from the church windows. I first thought the stained glassed windows were fixed lights that couldn’t be changed, but once Livingstone took center stage and began to speak the colors changed to a red color (I think). When that happened it felt like the world froze in place while she spoke, and resuming when the light turned back to a bright morning light. I also liked how the lights would change throughout the play to set a different mood. For example, when Ms. Livingstone was hypnotizing Agnes, she told Agnes to imagine herself being in water all of the sudden the room color was

The lighting changes during and between scenes were done extremely well. The shifts in colors and brightness of the lights helped set the mood without overwhelming the audience or being too direct. It became clear when Jackson was angry, sad, or happy. I did find myself picking up on a lot more negative aspects of the production than positive ones. As I said previously, the overuse of profanity distracted from the storyline of the show and led to a decreased enjoyment for me personally. It was also strange how only about

The director did a wonderful job with breaking through the lines of the audience and stage. I love to see the actors using the entire theatre and not just the stage, but if the play followed Aristotle’s rule of unity of space it would not have been possible to make this happen. I see the use of areas other than the stage helped organized the changes of scenes and the different stories that were going on within the play. The unity of plot defined by Aristotle was not followed either. This did not make the play less desirable, because I loved the complexity of the play.

It established the transition from reality to fairytale and set the mood of many of the fairytales. It supported many of the choices that were made on stage but didn't overshadow anything that was happening. The lighting design also did an excellent job of being a support to the show, not a distraction. It also helped establish transitions and mood, but did nothing to distract from the telling of the story.

The set and props where very compact and were built and moved on and off by the cast because they are designed to be transferred by one person. The props where all cleverly done, for instance they made a bridge out of three ladders, a train out of four boxes and a house from just one door. The door I thought was one of the best props used because the cast managed to make a fairly small stage appear huge just by moving the door and pretending each time that it was a new room every time they passed through it. At one point in the play Richard and Pamela ask the scottish landlords for a sandwich and they come back with a loaf of bread cut in two with one slice of lettuce in the middle, this was such a simple idea but made a big deal and a laugh out of it

To start of the lighting of the set was great and really added to the tone of the play. Although they did good adding to the tone the sound crew really helped too. For instance when the huge giant fell from the sky the sound effects made it feel a lot more real. One of the more important parts of the play was the costume design. Considering the play was taking place in medieval times they did a great job making their clothes. Some of the best clothing choices were for the ball. After researching a few old times dresses they hit it spot on with the dresses. They also did a great job on the bakers clothing as it showed the average man's clothing back then. Finally we get to the most important technical work of it all the set design. Based on what we've learned about back then it was more than a believable set. The crew did a great job of the background and other points in the play. One of the more unique idea I saw in the play is when they were at grandma's house and the made the wall transparent so we could see what was happening. I've never seen a play do that before so I was impressed. My last point for them is how they did the houses in the beginning of part one and two. For it showed a house and then a wall went up so we could see the

I feel that the fourteen members of chamber orchestra and the two vocalists did an outstanding job. This piece was well put together. I loved the harmony that was brought forth between the orchestra and the vocalists. The two vocalists a tenor known as Paul Groves and a soprano known as Anna Larson, did a beautiful job staying in tune. The way that their voices went back and forth in harmony was just beautiful.

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.

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 set design I thought looked great. I always thought that all the plays and musicals put on by my high school, the set always looked great. The set for this musical was very interesting. It was an allusion, there was 4 openings almost looking like windows with stage curtains painted on them looking like they covered these windows. Then, in the middle there was a “door” with fake stairs going up towards the door. This set was something I had never seen before, so I thought it looked good.

I loved that when there was an explosion everything looked so realistic and broke in pieces. Then when they were singing everything came back together like magic. It was a cute and interesting setting. Also, the fact that the main setting was the downstairs of the house, but then when the construction was highered, the downstairs and the bedrooms upstairs were part of the stage.

As the play is a memory play the lighting is usually quite dim to give