Peter Tarsi's Tracks Analysis

As well as lighting, sound was used very effectively to stage the story. For example “echoes” were created in the alleyways, to make us think that Eddie’s house was a long way away. These echoes were also used to symbolise Eddie’s loneliness. This could show that there is emptiness in Eddie’s heart that can only be filled by a close friend or a brother. There was a bold use of sound especially in scary, dramatic or important scenes. This added to the drama of the overall performance, it made the audience feel a variety of emotions. In the scene when Mrs. Lyons tries to murder Mrs. Johnston, the sound affects really emphasised how Mrs. Lyons was feeling and her sheer madness. The use of surround sound made me feel like I was in the scene and it made the whole performance much more realistic.

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.

This play is about the experiences of a dying school boy, it is a celebration of life and the power to heal through gaining insight.

I don’t know a lot about theater, and I can’t name many plays. But, it is easily recognizable that The Laramie Project is a particularly important piece of theatre. It entertains its audience, as any other play can do, but it simultaneously sheds light on a terrifying reality many easily ignore. It is a profoundly moving play that has a vital message, a brilliantly distinct style and in most aspects an exceptional production.

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.

During the reading of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, the similarities of the Long Christmas Dinner and the characters within the play were blatant. This is a story about the values, traditions, and changes made during the time that African-American people were moving and becoming part of a society that wasn’t the same as those before them. There also was a similarity with the Crucible when talking about Bynum's rituals or “witchcraft”. Due to the similarities within the stories one can say that certain storylines have a long lasting and universal reach.

Sam Shepard has undoubtedly established himself as one of the greatest living American playwrights of this time, if not for the duration of American history. His upbringing and experiences, both before and since his stardom erupted, have shaped his work and how he is perceived and there is a litany of examples of this that can be easily culled and analyzed. This report has several sections. The first section looks at what has shaped Mr. Shepard and what he has become as it pertains to theater and the American lexicon. Second, Mr. Shepard's work known as Buried Child will be compared to another one of Mr. Shepard's works. Third, a look at the script of Buried Child will be under taken. Fourth, the production of Buried Child will be assessed. The report will conclude with a character analysis of a character from Buried Child and this will include some visual research of the same character assessed on the rest of this section.

This past week, I had the opportunity to experience a magnificent play called Born Yesterday by Garson Kanin. This performance was the third of three plays I saw at the Arizona Repertory Theatre. The other two plays were Epic Proportions by Larry Coen and David Crane and Hands on a Hardbody by Doug Wright. These were the first plays I have been to, not only while attending the University of Arizona, but in my generation as a teenager. All together, these performances were amazing and have brought a newly improved insight to my perception of theatre. The hard work and dedication by the actors, directors, producers, cast members, and sound developers were absolutely incredible and I have tremendous respect for their efforts during the overall sequence of producing the plays. The most recent performance I saw, Born Yesterday, can be described and reflected on through various topics such as lighting, sound, directing and producing.

production, the town seems to focus on the works of God versus the Devil. The play is about

Set in Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire in 1901, an empty stage invites the viewer to use his or her imagination to understand the actions. During the first moments, the paperboy makes his deliveries just as the milkman. Meanwhile, at the two family houses, the women, Mrs. Gibbs who is African-American, prepares the breakfast for her two children, Rebecca and George. Simultaneously, her neighbor, Mrs. Webb is doing the same for her children and at the ring of a bell the children are sent to school. These activities are repeated almost every day in both of the houses. Following, the two neighbors gossip while sitting on Mrs. Webb’s yard and peeling beans. Because the stage is empty, the sound effects play a major part in creating a scene that can be easily understood. The noise of glass bottles when the milkman approaches or the whistles of the train are indispensable additions to the scenes. Every now and then, the stage manager interrupts the action to provide some fact either about the town itself, or about its inhabitants; therefore, she is outside of everything that happens. Still, the stage manager had a few of rolls as a member of the town that helped to support the play. Apparently a small town where everyone knows each other, Mrs. Webb’s daughter and Mrs. Gibbs son begin to show some interest in each other, and end up getting married three years later. The marriage ends with Mrs. Webb’s daughter Emily dying while giving birth to a child, at which point she still figures in the play, but as a spirit. Alongside, there are several other spirits that are shown, like that of he own mother-in-law, for instance. At this point, Emily goes on a self-reflection journey about the meaning of life, and as she goes back to her twelfth birthday, the sight of her family, specially her young mother both hurts her and helps her realize the beauty

To begin with, in this play the author unfolds family conflicts that involve its characters into a series of events that affected their lives and pushed them to unexpected ways.

The play had an interesting concept of combining two popular pop-culture pastimes; a post-apocalyptic future and the obsession of artifacts in an increasingly fragmented pop culture. A stumbling block about the play was that it lacked a solid plot, which traditionally, would be the backbone of the story. However, by splitting the play into three very separate parts, the message or the story board became detached and caused even more bewilderment. During its running period, it felt as if there were three separate plays built on randomness. The first scene lacked material, for the basis of it was recalling a Simpson’s episode in the midst of an apocalypse. Having told to watch the particular episode beforehand, I attempted watching it but only prevailed halfway. It was definitely a regretful decision as the humor was embedded in recalling what went on or

Other than the heavier props that stayed on all through the play, only small hand held props were used. The use of sound was very impressive, sudden loud noises worked brilliantly at creating even more tension and frightening the audience. One of the props used well was a large wicker basket; it was used to store financial documents in the house, as a table on the train journey, and most comically as a seat on a horse and cart, with the two passengers bouncing up and down to show the movement. Sound effects were also used to create more realistic scenes by adding background sound, for example in the scene between Kipps and his senior, sounds from the street could be heard,

Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett's existential masterpiece, for some odd reason has captured the minds of millions of readers, artists, and critics worldwide, joining them all in an attempt to interpret the play. Beckett has told them not to read anything into his work, yet he does not stop them. Perhaps he recognizes the human quality of bringing personal experiences and such to the piece of art, and interpreting it through such colored lenses. Hundreds of theories are expounded, all of them right and none of them wrong. A play is only what you bring to it, in a subconscious connection between you and the playwright.

The lighting of any production is the most important part in my thought. the lighting puts you in the mood that you have to be in, in order to fully understand that part of the show and to actually live it like they do. For example, when they were in the park and it was raining, they had their umbrellas, and the background effects of rain made it really seem as if it was raining in the theatre. The lighting was always focused on every part of the stage, especially on those who were the main parts in that scene.