End of Theater Labs

Although I really enjoyed the labs and thought they were fun and let us get in touch with another part of our creative sides, I don't think I really benefitted from them. I didn't ultimately learn anything new or anything that I used in my midterm production. I don't know if this is maybe because I have taken previous art classes ?? (the classes really weren't Bad, I just didn't really learn anything...). But overall I enjoyed the classes and think that they touched on the basic skills that are necessary for the artistic design behind theater productions, but I knew most everything without the labs...they were kind of a waste...but a great idea - I think it is hard to create a design lab for the most basic level there is, and in this sense the labs were great.

On another note, I saw the school's production of "Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love" and thought it was amazing. I don't know if it's the first Brechtian play I've seen performed, I don't really think it was, but it is the first time that I have been able to identify what type of play it is because we are reading Tony Kushner's "Angels in America" in my American Lit class and talking about Brechtian theater. The play simply blew me away. The actors were all extremely passionate about their roles and their characters (despite it being an over half-empty theater in the middle of the day with a second performance later in the evening...). They had to keep up intense energy and remain always completely in character because there was no backstage. The theater in the round set up forced them to be always onstage, even for costume changes, and the director had to use a lot of staging and lighting techniques to make sure that the audience's attention was always directed at the area of important action. I think that this worked successfully - I always found myself watching the show and then suddenly another side would be illuminated and the set or costumes of a character would have changed without my noticing. With such a simple set and a few props, the story was still truly brought to life by the intensity of the actors and the small blackbox theater really drew the audience in. We were close to the actors not only literally, but close to the action of the play as well.