Michael Hoffman Play

This is a must watch Broadway show that makes your fine, terrible, or even boring day, an absolute blast. The Play That Goes Wrong has finally made its way to America and right at the heart of New York City near Times Square at the Lyceum Theatre. Therefore, the experience is a win-win situation for the audience. The Lyceum Theatre’s architecture is astonishing as it is filled with ornaments, I also realized the letter ‘L’ around the theater, but the most interesting fact is that it is a landmark. It has a proscenium stage while the audience is in the orchestra, balcony, or the mezzanine seats, like where I sat, and there is barely any space if you are a tall person. My seat was near the far end of mezzanine, I couldn’t see a part of the left side of the stage, so I found myself bending sideways to see what was going on, but I saw nothing. I found the side stage lights and a side balcony blocking my view and yet I had a great time.

The elements the filmmakers choose to use in the film, i.e. the music, location, editing techniques and special effects, help tell the story. Zeffirelli uses his elements to ease the viewer from scene to scene, he is employing the Classical Hollywood Filmmaking technique. A smooth flowing pace, where the viewer does not notice the cuts, plus the music assists in the movements within the cuts. Nothing daring is done in his film, he stays true to the historical appearance of the film, uses ideas that have already been exhibited, such as period piece music and historical costumes. The world famous balcony scene (Act II, scene II) is an example, Zeffirelli employs the same blocking that Shakespeare probably intended. This is one of the few times, Zeffirelli interacts with the locations, and his locations is a town within walls, perceived to be a small town, the location is bare and not crowded.

Luhrmann’s variation of the film is more suited to a teenage audience than Zeffirelli’s due to the vibrant settings and modern sets utilised throughout the film. Several of these sets include the beach, high rise buildings and petrol stations. These factors are used to tempt a younger audience. Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet, however takes place in a medieval Italian city. Although the original play was based and performed in this location, teenage viewers cannot relate to the surroundings, hence making it difficult to understand or appreciate the plot.

In order to compare and contrast the play to the movie,first I will discuss the play .In the play there is a character named Romeo.Lovely Romeo wanted to marry Juliet and stay with her in Verona,Italy.But

Luhrmann used settings in both studios and on location to create a sense of place, mood and emotional state of mind. One example of this is in the opening scene when they are fighting in the gas station. The title of the gas station being ‘Phoenix Gas Station’ is ironic as the gas station goes up in flames and Phoenixes go up in flames to rebirth. Luhrmann uses the setting of the gas station to attract a young audience and to make the setting modern as young people can relate to gas stations far more than they can relate to the original setting of a marketplace as gas stations are a common thing found in a modern city environment. Another example of how Luhrmann has used setting to create a sense of mood and setting is in the opening sequence where fast camera shots are used to zoom in on a figure of Jesus between two skyscrapers. These skyscrapers are labelled ‘Capulet’ and ‘Montague’ to show how the original concept of two rivalling families has been modernised by Luhrmann and these two families are rivalling businesses instead. The figure of Jesus between them symbolises how their hatred for each other is stronger than the power of God and nothing will stop them from fighting until the death. Setting is one of the many visual aspects Luhrmann used to modernise his interpretation of Romeo and

Our seats were located in the middle of the theatre on the edge of the balcony in front of the stage. Botti created an intimate atmosphere as he related the show to a Valentine's Day theme. The velvety sound of Botti's trumpet flowed into the air when

Luhrman has based his version at Verona Beach; America and instead of basing it in the 16th century like Zeffirelli, he had his film based in the 20th century, with mansions, shiny cars and bright lights. While Zeffirelli paced his film in an Iambic pentameter – a traditional Shakespeare pace; Luhrman never kept his film at a solid pace. “By modernizing these aspects of the play, and reconstructing the prologue, Luhrmann creates a movie that is more interesting to the modern viewers.” ("Franco Zeffirelli and Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet." 123HelpMe.com). As Zeffirelli may have believed famous actors would steal his show he instead hired fresh new faces to give the movie a more fresh, innocence value, But Luhrman used well known actors to play the lead roles. This worked because more people were attracted to the film by the actors.

The play is set in ‘Fair Verona’ which is in the North of Italy, which

Throughout A Midsummer Night’s Dream, while the story involving Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia, Helena, Oberon and Titania is developing, the rustic gentlemen (Bottom and his friends) are shown rehearsing for a play that they will perform in honor of the upcoming wedding of Theseus (the Duke of Athens) and Hippolyta. The play, “Pyramus and Thisby,” is based on a story that was told by the ancient Roman writer Ovid and retold by Chaucer. The “Pyramus and Thisby” play is not performed until the fifth and final act of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. By then, as Barton points out, the major problems of Lysander, Demetrius and the rest have all been neatly resolved. As such, the “Pyramus and Thisby” play-within-a-play “seems, in effect, to take place beyond the normal, plot-defined boundaries of comedy” (Barton 110).

Broward College, Central Campus Theater in building 6, on Sunday, the 1st of November. The play was performed by Broward College students. The type of stage was Proscenium stage with extended apron. I thought it was a little bit small, but it did not show as a problem. The pre-show was dark and a feel of suspense. I felt excited to see how everything would play out. The play takes place down south of Chicago in the 1950’s.

While the original performance context of Greek Theatre called for the actors to use grand and hyperbolic gestures so that the entire audience (which could reach up to fourteen thousand) could see and hear the story, my piece will similarly use exaggerated movements. This will be through the use of the style of ‘In Yer Face’ Theatre, which is defined

Its where they go to be comfortable to be men and to freely discuss topics in a comfortable environment. As you step in the theatre, you are immersed in the world of the barber shop. The actors interact with the audience. They dance with them, take photos with them, and even give them “haircuts”. The audience seated in the round allowing us to see the characters in a multi-dimensional way. Though I have a seat with a restricted view, I mostly saw everything. With the theatre being in the round, I felt that it added to the multi-dimensional aspect because you get to see the character in many different angles as opposed to a typical proscenium view. During this ensemble piece, where all expect for three of the actors played multiple characters throughout the play, I had a hard time separating the characters and remembering the pervious encounter they had when we are re-introduced to them. It always took me a couple of seconds to figure if this was a new character or an previously introduced character. The costume design did help distinguish each character even when the actor fall short. Because all the action happens on the same day, all the recurring characters wear the same costume throughout the play and each new character was dressed is a new costume as well. For example, when actor Sule Rimi, who played three different character, came on stage as Elnathan he was wearing a mustard leather jacket. Each design department’s choice

Setting is an element which can be looked over by the viewer. Sometimes what makes a scene work can be fully tied to its setting and props. With a setting that is realistic and well thought, you can truly tie a scene together. In the Franco Zeffirelli version of the play, we can see that the setting is around the Capulet mansion, by Juliet’s balcony. Romeo is below hiding in the bushes. The leaves of the bushes and how Romeo is below them show us how he is hiding and can’t be seen by anyone, the night sky and how dark it is in this scene also hide Romeo. Juliet is sitting on the ledge of her balcony. In this production, the balcony is made very wide, so in the scene, Juliet can walk along the entire balcony before Romeo speaks. This also gives her enough space to run away when she is scared by Romeo’s voice. The plot is not affected too much by these choices other than being able to have Juliet almost run away from Romeo. Through these setting options that Franco Zeffirelli took during his production, we have a medieval time period look and a more original looking production. However, the

as we know it. He became a legend in his own lifetime and achieved many

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