Picnic Critique

A particularly effective element of the production was the use of costume. The costumes exposed the time period, transporting the audience back to 1981, immediately involving me in the story. Costume represented the social class the characters belonged to. Mr and Mrs Lyons were rich and had a high social status, their costume established their character; Mr. Lyons was wearing a suit and Mrs. Lyons wore tights and uniform. In contrast, the Johnson family were living in poverty, and this is also shown through the usage of costume. I as audience felt empathy for Mrs Johnson as through costume I could see her financial struggle.

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.

In Lorraine Hansberry’s 1959 play A Raisin in the Sun a number of social issues are both explicitly and subtly exemplified through out the characters experiences and relationships. Living in a cramped Chicago apartment, the Youngers’ display both influential goals and conflicting restraints. Beneatha Youngers is a controversial character; she complicates society’s typical gender roles, introduces the wrestle between assimilation and ancestry of African-Americans, but specifically serves as a paradigm for her generation in the play.

However, Susan Glaspell uses the kitchen in the plot as another theatrical metaphor for a domain of gender identification because it is a women’s domestic territory where women’s life is revealed through common kitchen items. Throughout the play, we can distinguish the roles given to women in that era. In this era, women’s roles were generally reproductive, so they have been relegated to the home with less interaction with the outside world. Because kitchens have often served as work spaces, women have found a sense of empowerment through domestic tasks such as cooking, food knowledge, and efficiency of the kitchen. These conditions reveal the state of mind of women in the play. Minnie Wright’s “gloomy kitchen” (Glaspell 443) is “left without having been put in order—unwashed pans under the sink, a loaf of bread outside the breadbox, a dish towel on the table—other signs of incompleted work” (Glaspell 443). She lost her motivation to do housework chores, which represents that her mind is battered and leads to Mr. Wright’s murder—he has distorted her life.

Our performance was effective because of how clear and straight forward it was, even though it was mime. The audience where aware of the setting and it being around a dinner table due to the two chairs being opposite each other with a ‘table’ in the middle, the audience where aware of which characters were which as we characterised the roles very well. For example, Anna was very giggly and hyper, contrasting Catherine’s formal demeanour and John and Maureen were a typical married couple. We used physical theatre for the oven and the stairs, which was stylistic and different for the audience to see, this fit in with the overall style of the lay as most of the stage directions involve physical theatre as in ‘The Brussels Sprouts Scene’ “the whole of this scene is performed stylistically with people frantically changing roles, playing scenery, properties and characters”. The use of thought tracking helped the audience to figure out which character is which. The use of gestures was also used, Maureen slapped Anna’s hand instantly giving away her very paternal and motherly role as Maureen. Our scene was effective also because the crackers being pulled apart in itself is representing the family being pulled apart for many reasons not just the economy, but the toll Catherine’s anorexia takes on the whole Dunbar family in different ways. Looking at Bleu’s group I could definitely see how they marked the moment: the tempo

For our critiquing assignment in our Introduction to Stagecraft 1, I ventured to downtown Toronto, to a small indie theatre called, The Unit 102 Theatre. There I saw the production of MISS; written by Dora Award-nominated playwright Michael Ross Albert who wrote such works as Tough Jews, The Spadina Avenue Gang with the Storefront Theatre. The set takes place in the aftermath of a shocking accident in a boarding school classroom, the story explores the tenuous connection between a high school teacher, her fiance, and a troubled student whose lives have been irrevocably changed by tragedy caused by a miscarriage, an affair, and the fear of the consequences that are not yet revealed, and finally, murder. This is a one act showdown between three

The Stage Manager, which is known to the narrator, also shows up in many different scenes as a character. For example, he comes into a scene as Mr. Morgan the drugstore owner who serves ice cream to Emily and George. The play had a lot of objects that were not presently there, the characters did their best trying to symbolize what it would be like using those objects. An example,

The Broadway play “Clybourne Park” is based off the movie and play “The Raisin in the Sun”. It is written by Bruce Norris and was honored with many awards including the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for drama and the Tony Award for best play. Bruce Norris wrote the play by having it pick up right where “The Raisin in the Sun” left off. By doing this, Bruce Norris picks up where the drama was and shows the racial tensions in the 1950’s and 1960’s up until present day. To create this, writer Bruce Norris created a play with only two acts. The first act is based in the late 1950’s and early 60’s right after the war. The second act is based in the same house fifty years apart in the year 2009. By doing this

The visual that a play presents is a dominating factor in the quest to invite an audience member into a world of which they feel a part. In a play such as Bus Stop by William Inge, this is especially important because Grace’s Diner plays a primary role in the storytelling. Inge’s use of the iconic American diner to tell his story is ingenious. Simply setting eyes on the set inevitably evokes pleasant feelings of familiarity and comfort in the minds of most audience members. A diner is a place where people gather; a place where individuals from different backgrounds share a similar experience. Inge crafted his characters meticulously in order to create contrast, conflict, and chemistry that would drive the plot through the forced

Costumes in the play are influential parts for describing to the reader or showing the audience on the different pieces of clothing they wear. In the scene where Jim and Tom are standing waiting for Amanda she comes out looking like she is eighteen again.

The play begins in Mrs. Wright’s kitchen. The Sheriff, county attorney, and a few neighbors are there because Mrs. Wright’s husband has been murdered. The question is, who murdered him and why? Could Mrs. Wright be a tragic hero? The men are in the process of investigating the murder, but the women are more worried about the appearance of the house. While the women are in kitchen discussing the appearance of the kitchen and the fact that Mrs. Wright was worried about her fruit preserves, the county attorney makes the comment, “I guess before we're through she may have something more serious than preserves to worry about.” (3) Mrs. Hale responds with, “Well, women are used to worrying over trifles.” (3)

Setting can also be used to develop the theme. The setting in the play was Mrs. Wright’s kitchen. The Wrights’ house was isolated, down in a hollow. The isolation, coupled with not going to town any more, might have felt terrible for Mrs. Wright. In the 1920’s, the woman’s place was traditionally in the kitchen, so any clues about Mrs. Wright would be in her kitchen. She had left a mess out in the kitchen: a half-wiped table, unwashed pots and pans, a dishtowel lying out, and a misplaced loaf of bread. Mrs. Wright would only have left a mess if she was in a hurry or was interrupted, such as by Mr. Wright coming in and killing the canary.

Betty is a clear example of costume change. In the beginning Betty wore the typical ladies dress wear,big poodle skirt etc but as betty starts gaining more knowledge and independence she starts dressing more elegantly and feminine .This shows the viewer that as the people of pleasantville gains more knowledge they start to demonstrate the idea of ‘The importance of change’  which is one of the ideas that gary ross shows us through setting.

The people who lived during the Elizabethan Era were not allowed to wear whatever they like or desired. Their Fashion choices had to be followed by a strict law! The English people chose to establish social classes by the colors they wore and this had an affect on costumes used in theatre. Queen Elizabeth I followed the sumptuary laws, which was only certain classes were consent to wear specific fabric and colors. Therefore in plays the actors could only wear certain colors for their costumes that displayed what role and class their character was in. The clothes worn during this era was a result of Queen Elizabeth’s sumptuary laws, which had an affect on costumes used in plays, and each color a person wore had a significant meaning.

How does ‘The Kitchen’ dramatise the world of the late 1950’s and what does the play mean to us today?’