Irvine Valley College’s production of the play West Side Story is a well performed play that people should see. It possess qualities of a musical, thriller, crime, drama, and romance to create a captivating performance. The theater at times was filled with laughter and sadness to create an interesting emotional roller coaster. In this critique, I will be reviewing aspects of scenography, costumes, music, and many other pieces of the successful production. To begin with, the scenography mimics the aspects of Upper West Side New York during the 1950’s to allow the audience to understand the setting of the play. Most of the sets depict an urban setting in which the audience can clearly see that the story takes place in a well-developed …show more content…
Having Doc use a rag to wipe off the table or having the Jets sitting on the bar also reinforced that the shop the audience was viewing was a store or possible restaurant.. During the rumble, having the gang’s reveal their knives escalated tensions while clearly showing a brawl was brewing. In the end of the play, a loud sound created from a gun allows viewers to determine that the gun was fired. Costumes in this play were used to show two different cultural societies in West Side Story. The Jets gang dressed in khakis or jeans with bland tucked polos as a representative of the American lifestyle while the Sharks dressed in colorful open-buttoned shirts and dress pants as a representative of the Puerto Rican’s adapting to the American lifestyle. The woman associated with the Jets often time wore a single colored dress like white or light pink while the woman associated with the Shark’s often times wore bright multicolored dresses. The costumes used in the play seemed to distinguish that the gangs were in the middle class. It seemed that some men in the play wore slim-fit shirts and suspenders to represent masculinity. In comparison, the woman wore more revealing dresses express the sexuality of and portrayal of a woman during the 1950’s. Moving on, I thought the overall acting of the play was fairly good.. At times I felt the play underperformed during certain scenes like how Tony first fell in love. In contrast, the scene where Anita tries to warn
There were a lot of great acting moments during this production I enjoyed. I loved Detective Sergeant Trotter performance the most. He brought the most passion to his character throughout the whole entire of play. Even though when we thought he was the most innocent person during the play. Another character I liked was Mollie Ralston because her role was questionable at times. Sometimes you wonder if she was innocent, guilty, or should be the next victim to die. The funniest actor was Christopher Wren because of his hilarious moments. People in the audience would laugh with he had a goofy line to say. The things I couldn't enjoy is a couple of actors who weren't understandable. These characters were Giles Ralston and Mr. Paravicini because of their accents they had to betray. If they could of spoke louder, the performances would of been better. One thing the actors should of not done was turn their backs to audience. We couldn't see there face half of the
In 1961, West Side Story, a filmed version of the hit Broadway musical that was inspired by William Shakespeare’s "Romeo and Juliet," was released to viewers, who just could not resist the energy and excitement of the movie. Thirty-eight years later, viewers, like myself, still cannot resist it. I had never seen the film, which was directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, before, but I had always wondered why people loved this multi award-winning movie so much. After viewing the film, I think that it deserved the ten Academy Awards that it won because it has withstood the test of time and it truly is a remarkable film. It still has the same flair and ability to lure the viewer into the plot as it did when it was first shown in
The scene involving the actress and the poet, they were in a country inn, by her request, while the count stopped by to her home in the next scene. The actors and actresses in the play help you imagine certain aspects of the set that could not be seen. For example, the window and paintings in the scene involving the actress and the poet. If the performers had not indulged that information in the dialogue and blocking and helped you imagine that the things were there, the audience would have lost some key information about the scene and would have been confused. Even though both scenes only really involved a bed and table for props and set design, you could tell the difference between the two sets from the placement of the props, the sound, and most importantly the
The play was original written by Wilder with very little set. In the beginning the stage manager describes the town of Grover’s Corners to the audience given them the opportunity to imagine the city for
There are many scenes which exemplify the unnatural settings that are prominent in the play. For example, the opening scene, where Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are on their way to Denmark portrays
The play West Side Story takes place in a suburb on the West Side of
eSTABLISH HOW “Our Town” BREAKS THEM: The stage manager constantly converses with the audience, Numerous invisible props, and plants people to ask questions
The acting in the play was great although some mistakes were noted. I definitely enjoyed the masked ball scene as it was very energetic and fun to watch. It was funny to watch as the women in the play could no longer tell who the men were which led to humorous dialogue. When Beatrice and Benedick begin to dance she is completely oblivious to the fact that she is indeed dancing with Benedick. It is at this time
The actors in the play performed extremely well, aside from the forced accents, which I assume was written into the play, the actors were believable. A prime example of this was during the arguing scenes they talked over one another, something that often happens in real life, but is hard to plan. Meg, one of the sisters, was the most
The play illustrated the ugly side of the world by acting them into small little scenes in the play that happens all around the room. What I personally feel about the play was the scenes are all so true! The same incident is happening around us every
From the beginning of the play, I did not like the characters acting, it seemed like it was not rehearsed enough, and the characters were monotone. Specifically the character who played Pete and Sunny’s father. I loathed his acting, it seemed that he would try to speak as loud as he could, while neglecting the use of his body, which
The actors or characters that were involved in the play were depicted with different personalities and way of life such as Inez, a business
When I read this play I had a whole different picture in my head. Since I started reading I imagined a whole different setting and different characters. I never imagined this setting to be so abstract or “imaginary”. I was expecting a more realistic setting. In my head I had the picture that this play took place in an old village with tiny house and lots of agriculture. However, their costumes where what I had in mind ever since I started reading the play.
William Kraft, a musical composer and conductor, once said, “When you go to the theater, if you’re really involved in the play, you don’t think about it – you’re in it.” This quote from William Kraft is especially true for the One Act plays I attended. The smaller theater space and closer proximity to the stage allowed you to more involved in the play than if you were seated farther away. In the following response, a synopsis and critique of three of the plays I saw will be given.
I watched the play Our Town and I have to say that my views on plays and any kind of art have been changed forever. It was directed by James Naughton. In this paper I will describe my experience as a first time play watcher and what I thought about the play and set in general.