blogblogblog

Describe a performance that you have seen in which you were moved by a vivid scenic image. What elements of the image make it memorable for you? How did they enhance the meaning of the play (or film) for you? Do you think the image fit the director's interpretation of the play (or film)? How did it help convey the mood? When describing the image, incorporate terminology from the text and ideas discussed in lab.

So the show that has a scene in it that really touched me was Ragtime. I didn't really know anything about this show when I went to see it - I had gotten the tickets from a family friend as a graduation present and I love theater (obviously...) and went obliviously (note to self...words like obviously and obliviously shouldn't be used so close together bc they confuse me). Anyway musical theater is definitely the kind of theater that affects me most...the music is what really gets inside me and sticks in me and is the part of theater I remember most. Music sets the tone of the scene and can change the audience's feelings towards a character depending on the voice, etc. The music in the show doesn't even have to be a song that is sung, but background music in a show also really sets the scene and the mood...of course this is along with lighting, staging, etc. that make the mood but for MYSELF the music is really the key to what I am feeling. I am a musically oriented person and music controls a lot of my emotions when I hear it.

Alright so I don't even really remember what was going on in the show at the point that really touched me. But I'm pretty sure that there were three clusters of the different groups in the show, the different clusters being separate and showing the conflict between them and the inability for them to interact amiably. There is the fatehr and daughter immigrants on upstage left with the father's arm around the little girl's shoudlers. In the center of the stage is the white upperclass family standing together but not actually touching. and over at stage right is the group of African Americans also close but not touching. And the stage is dark except for lights on these three groups making it even more distinct that they are separate. And they are all looking forward at the audience and not at each other. Hold on I am going to look up what song it is that they are singing..................................I'm pretty sure the song is "Till We Reach That Day"...anyways so there is this definite tension in the air onstage and it is silent...then an African American woman appears from a side door and walks up the aisle through the audience... she starts the song with a huge huge gospel churchy voice that just makes you hold your breath. Then eventually the song picks up and the whole cast is singing, screaming, angry, upset about their situation in life at the moment...and when the song reaches its peak THAT is my moment that I will never forget...on top of the whole cast singing out angry and passionate...the black woman starts her gospel belting again and it is just Heart Wrenching and her voice gave me chills and the mood was so angry and intense and her voice was a wailing, crying, asking, pleading, grasping...and everyone else is angry, mad, sad, upset...and the moment was so FULL and big and the music was overwhelming and the lights were soft and the staging was dramatically separate. I started bawling it was so intense I couldn't handle all the emotions it was amazingly beautiful and painful and bittersweet all at once. One of those moments you want to hold on to and sort out all of the opposing emotions you are feeling all at once but you can't because it's gone so suddenly.

So...out of the components of theater that really made the moment, I would say that the least important were the costumes and set design...although the costumes were truly necessary to help distinguish the differences between those three groups of actors. I guess they didn't seem important in the moment because the costumes hadn't changed since the beginning of the play, but to initially create the distinctions between characters the costumes were needed. The set in the background was not important for this moment because most of the stage was in darkness and so it couldn't be seen anyways...the three groups of people were also all supposed to be in different places, so the scenery would have detracted from that. It was ultimately the staging, together with the lighting that made the mood, and most importantly the music, the song, the type of voice and the instruments used that made the scene what it was.