The Bourbon Play Summary

This paper is a critique of a production of The Last Night of Ballyhoo, a play written by Alfred Uhry, which was performed and produced by the Ball State University Theatre. Gilbert L. Bloom directed the production and was very successful with producing a truly entertaining, comedic play with an important message about the personal dilemmas that we as individuals with different beliefs and values must encounter in our daily lives.

What I like about this play is how the characters made the audience feel involve, especially john Barrymore. For instance , there was a time when he was talking to Andrew and he turn to the audience and blow a kiss or point at them . It made feel as if I was part of the play. Also I like how the characters took on the role. The characters truly portrayed their role.

One feature of the play that really amazed me was the perfection of the acting. The actors and actresses seemed as if they actually were the characters in which they were playing. I was particularly impressed by the way that the characters seemed to actually emotionally feel and exist in their own unique roles. The

The play was well interpreted by all whom were involved. Steven Wrentmore, the Director, kept the 1920’s feel by dressing in all 1920’s costumes and everyone spoke as if they were living at

Costumes and make-up weren’t used a whole lot during this play. One main example that a costume was used effectively un was during Spider. The costume allowed Emily Kroll to look more like a spider and helped clarify the character she was playing to the audience. Lighting played an important roles of showing importance on the set. Lighting was used very strongly when seeds were dropped from the rafters down onto the set. In the act Donny the Leaf Blower, light was used to help focus the audience on a prop falling from the rafters. I felt that the lighting helped make that portion really cool. Sound also played a strong part in this play. Sound could always be heard and didn’t overpower the actors. During the act Uh Oh, the noise made by the barrels could be heard but still allows the actors to be clearly understood. The sound helped make that song interesting. The visual and aural elements easily made the play a whole leg

The acting in the play was phenomenal. They used amazing facial expressions and great movements. The actors and actress were picked perfectly for their roles.They made it very believable and you could tell perfectly who was who. King George was very good and you could tell he loved his character and that made him very believable.

Setting wise I thought the design for the play was very beautiful. I’ve been to other plays set in a similar time period and sometimes the rococo fashion and scenery can easily make everything look tacky and gaudy but thankfully this wasn’t the case. One thing that stood out to me the most was the square pattern on the floor that looked like a chessboard. It didn’t click with me at first but after I had time to reflect after the play I thought about how that may have been a clever symbol about how this is all just part of a game between Merteuil and

Throughout the play, I enjoyed the role of music used to set a comic atmosphere and replace the dialogs during comic scenes (e.g. when they chase each other around). I also thought that they made a good use of light to indicate the moment of the day the scene was happening or to set the atmosphere of the scene (e.g. pink colour during the romantic moments). Lastly, I liked the way the play ended. Even though it was a little messy with everyone running after each other off and on stage, and this policeman coming out of nowhere, which really surprised me; I couldn’t think of a better way to end the play.

From just reading the play, I believed that she had some form of Alzheimer’s but seeing on stage with such a focus on the fire, it became clear to me that her unstableness was some form of PTSD. I would have never caught that if it hadn’t been for being able to see it live. I also did not catch a lot that went on with John and Alma in terms of how the dialogue was told from the text to the play. I believed that for the most part, John was insensitive and uncaring for Alma, but multiple times it was emphasized on stage of how he wanted Alma to see that not being like the rest wasn’t a bad thing, such as at the hotel room or defending her when speaking to his mother in his bedroom. Another thing that I did not catch as well was one of the people in their meeting to have a strong liking towards Alma. I think seeing it portrayed the way it was on stage lead to a slight comic relief as well as an emphasis on how not everyone in the town thinks she is an outcast or a freak. I really liked the lighting choices that were made, I think it really highlighted the mood of what was happening on stage that might not have been as easy to capture without it. Given the space of the theatre, the way some of the blocking was done in terms of opening a window or turning on a fireplace didn’t seem weird or odd that it didn’t exist, it just seemed natural. Often times though I found myself getting slightly

As I watched the play, I recognized that since there was no curtain for the actors to hide behind before their scenes, many of the scenes flowed together with the narrator stopping to explain things sometimes, and he would let the audience know when time had elapsed, since one whole day was packed into a 45 minute act. In the first act, we were introduced to both the Gibbs family and the Webb family and their children. Also, we were introduced to many other characters of the play and they each had a unique and distinctive costume so that it would be easy for the audience to remember who each of the characters are. The actors and actresses all seemed very confident in their roles and they handled the stage well allowing for comfortable flow, considering they had to face four different areas, since the performance took place in a Black Box theatre. All of the conversations the characters had with one another truly mimicked real life conversations with the comfortable flow and they right length of pause between lines.

How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying has many musical number that have have the theme with the lyrics, so I have decided to do Music for my element of Drama.For example when the cast starts singing “where the company put me, there I stay” is show that people get comfortable in the workforce, and never try to get it higher position unless they are told to. The music in the play also help set the mood of the scene. J.B Bigly and Finch sing the Old Ivy song and set the mood for excitement. The song her say Rip over and over again show how in the business world people are willing to do anything in their power to destroy their rival. “Happy to Keep his Dinner Warm” to was very fitting for era, because women were expected to keep their

Going into this play I had no idea what it was going to be about, but I kept an open mind. Sitting there before the play got started looking at all the windows there was, and the “river” at the front of the stage I still wasn't sure what this play was going to be about. I thought the “river” was super cool and something I had never seen before, also I thought the windows were cool as well, how they were hanging everywhere. Once the play started, I was very confused and will explain why further into my review. I think if I would have noticed the benches around campus earlier, it would have made a little more sense to me, but I didn't notice them until after the fact so now I kind of understand what it was getting at.

The acting of the play was amazing it seemed liked every single person knew their lines perfectly. They wore the clothes responding to their part in the play such as the soldiers looked like soldiers and Evita looked like Evita from 70 years ago. The acting for Evita stood out more because she spoke louder and more clearly making her more noticeable making the acting better. The actors also portrayed

When viewing the stage the audience can obviously tell that, while seemingly simplistic, there was a great effort put forth into the design of the production. At the play’s start we see Algernon Moncrieff (Andrew Fish) awaiting his aunt Lady Bracknell (Calin Nichols) and his cousin Gwendolyn (Roselynn Corrado) but is visited

The design looked short and simple you had 3 rooms, a kitchen and a bathroom, but the way it was set up and put together was marvelous. It looked better than any other set based on The Diary of Anne Frank. Also, the costuming of the play it portrayed what they wore during that era and it too brought the characters and play together.