What type of performance space would you choose to stage the extract you were given from the extract you were given from ‘Yerma’? How would you use set and lighting in this space to communicate the play’s themes to an audience. Yerma is a play written by Frederico Garcia Lorca, and is set in the 1930s in rural Spain. Yerma has been married for three years and has a desperate need to have children, an idea which her husband, Juan, is against and Yerma becomes the talk of the village. There are a few main themes which Lorca has tried to portray throughout the play which sets the mood throughout the play. One of the main themes that are present throughout the play is the theme of isolation because Yerma feels isolated from the other women in …show more content…
It will be very minimalistic and a harsh environment in dry earth tones to mirror Yerma’s barrenness which is shown in the following quote, “MARIA: Yes, but why? You’re the only one of us left now who...”. On the stage floor should be steeply raked with multiple levels. Yerma would be on the lower levels and other women would be standing above in some areas looming above her in other scenes to show that she is isolated from the rest and how they gossip about her,”YERMA: Every woman has enough for four or five sons. But if you don’t have them your blood turns to poison. That’s what’s happening to me.” Also when Victor is singing, “VICTOR is heard singing...”, he could be sitting up higher as he is who Yerma wants to be with, “PAGAN WOMAN: Listen, do you like it with your husband? YERMA: What do you mean? PAGAN WOMAN: Do you love him? Do you long for him? YERMA: I don’t know. PAGAN WOMAN: Don’t you tremble when he comes near you? When he touches you with his lips don’t you go weak all over? Well, come on! Don’t you? YERMA: No, I have never felt like that, never. PAGAN WOMAN: Never? Not even dancing? YERMA: Well yes once-with Victor.” Since everything that everything Yerma yearns for is on a higher level I decided to make a level
Our play uses variety of styles, mainly Brecht’s epic theatre as our play depicts political message. Our play is structured as montage as it shows different stages of George’s life in a non-chronological order, we effectively did this
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.
Theatre is a collaboration of various forms of fine art which utilizes live performances presenting before the audience on a stage at a specific place within a scheduled time (Dugdale 10). The message is communicated through a combination of various channels like songs, speech gestures or dances. Stagecraft skills are combined with elements of art to make the performance more physical and near to real life experience. Theatre is categorized broadly into drama, musical theatre, comedy, tragedy and improvisation. Any form of these accepts integration of various production modes and collective reception to influence the artwork being presented. As a result of this cooperation of items in the theatre
4) How did the work of established and recognised theatre practitioners, and/or the work of live theatre, influence the way in which your devised response developed?
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.
An essential piece to making our story understanding and entertaining was that we needed to include the proper elements of setting: place, time, and environment. The play’s setting takes place aboard the Octagon alien spacecraft. As for the time period of our play, we used exposition in the
Dividing the stage was effective because it emphasised the actor’s use of proxemics and showed the different rooms. There was also a staircase that contributed to the actor’s use of levels. They also used the apron of the stage by placing planks across it; there was a particular scene where this was effective when Kipps suddenly fell down a hole in the planks. At the beginning they used the space effectively when the actor came out of the audience, it made the audience feel they were part of the performance.
A Guatemalan native, a male graduate student that I work with in my research group at the University told this story. He came from the countryside, living in a small village back home. According to him, the story of La Llorona, involving a weeping woman, arose sometime in the 1700s and became well known both at school and home. Some claimed to have actually seen the weeping woman. Some disregard it as unscientific and implausible. No one is sure of the exact origin of this urban legend. This story was told to me and another graduate student in our research group while sitting in lab waiting for the experiment results. The story began as we started sharing our own background and the culture of our own countries when the storyteller
Judith Butler argues in Performative Acts and Gender Constitution that gender is created by the act of performance and is constructed through the body. She states “gender identity is a performative accomplishment compelled by social sanction and taboo” (Butler 416).The concept of the display of gender through the act of performance is perpetuated within the play Latins in La-La Land by Migdalia Cruz specifically through the characters Sid/Rita and Lorenzo. Both of these characters put on gender and take it off throughout the play, through persona and through representative dress. Gender is a historical space and construction which argues that bodies become gendered through a “legacy of sedimented acts” (Butler 523). The legacy of sedimented acts consists of the habitual performative acts of a person and the build-up of gender norms that produce the outcome of a natural sex. Through this legacy of sedimented acts, gender is reworked within Latins of La-La Land through subversive performing acts by the characters Sid/Rita and Lorenzo.
The space was a well-constructed thrust stage however, the stage was not raised off the ground and the seats appeared to be mobile which lead to the belief that this is an Environmental Theater. As for the layout of the stage, there was a couch and a table in center stage for the first two acts, a door to the unseen outside front of the house upstage right, there were two large double doors upstage center leading to the backyard garden, and a raised floor upstage left containing a piano, a bookcase and a door
The scenic design in this play was extraordinary, and I could tell there was a lot of effort put into it. In this play there was a stairway towards the back of the stage. It brought in a new way for the actors to enter/exit the stage. I thought this was very creative idea that was easy to move on, and off stage if needed. There were many scenes that had the moon and the stars in the background. I loved this because it showed the audience when it was night time. I also love looking at the moon and the stars, I feel it creates a very romantic atmosphere. There were times the setting was inside a house or a pub, and then there were times that the setting was outside like the war scene, and the balcony scene. I
"A Philosophy of Theater « " East of Mina. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Jan. 2011.
For decades people found theatre one of the most enjoyable form of entertainment all across the world. With every play comes a cost. A value which somebody's story is told. Obviously it can be comic drama or despairing,. Each second of these plays are genuinely delightful and exceptional. Where the performing artists show a totally distinctive side of characters to the group of onlookers where they demonstrate to them something new and pleasurable. And behind the theatre and its plays is one person who keeps it all in check and that is the director. The director is like the heart of a person. You don’t see the heart but you know if it’s doing its job correctly
The narrator states that “it was [Maria] who did away with my generation’s virginity” (65). Garcia Marquez uses a hyperbole to portray how crucial Maria Cervantes’s contradictory role is in the men’s lives. She embraces her sexuality and is very open. In addition she also “taught [the men] much more than [they] should have learned, but she taught us above all that there’s no place in life sadder than an empty bed” (65). She reinforces the idea that sexuality should not be repressed because that would only bring on loneliness and despair. She recognizes the “disorder of love” that the townspeople live with because of repressed sexuality. The narrator describes Santiago Nasar’s passionate relationship with Maria Cervantes. He describes their relationship like “a falcon who chases a warlike crane” and that the falcon can only “hope for a life of pain” (65). The author uses a metaphor to compare Maria to a warlike crane in order to show her power and grace. The crane is a bird that stands tall and may look elegant and enticing but because Maria is “a warlike crane” she is able to stand up and fight for herself while still maintaining her grace. Another aspect of her independence would be that she stands alone in her battle against society. Garcia Marquez gives her these headstrong qualities to show how she follows her own path and goes against the town’s beliefs without showing any signs of stopping and to show that
In the words of Gay McAuley, “for an activity to be regarded as a performance, it must involve the live presence of the performers and those witnessing it…” (McAuley, 2009, cited in Schechner, 2013, pp.38). This statement recognises the importance of both the actor and the audience for something to truly function as a performance. In addition, Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones highlights the significance of the theatrical space and how it can influence an audience stating that “on entering a theatre of any kind, a spectator walks into a specific space, one that is designed to produce a certain reaction or series of responses” (Llewellyn-Jones, 2002, pp.3). The relationship between actor, audience and theatrical space is no less important today than it was at the time of theatre during the Spanish Golden Age and the creation of Commedia dell’arte in Italy. Despite being very close geographically with theatre thriving for both in the same era, sources that explore the social, cultural and historical context of these countries and the theatre styles will bring to light the similarities and differences. This essay will analyse the staging, the behaviour of the audience as well as the challenges the actors faced, and how this directly influenced the relationship between actor, audience and theatrical space.