Show and Tell post #3

Wonder of the World by David Lindsay-Abaire 

The play that I read for this extra play posting is called, “Wonder of the World” by David Lindsay-Abaire.  It was written in 2000 and it premiered at the Manhattan Theatre Club in 2000.  In the first production Sarah Jessica Parker played the leading female role, Cass.  This play can be found on Amazon for purchase, or for free from Sierra because honestly I got it from her via email. 

The story starts with Cass leaving her husband Kip in order to go discover herself and do all the things on her list that she has always wanted to do but was never able to do, including going to Niagara Falls.  But as she is packing Kip comes home early for lunch and catches her as she is leaving and lays it out for him that she just needs o get away, so he is heartbroken and she ends up leaving.  She basically wants to leave Kip so she can start living her life because she feels like she has been nothing but devote and honest with Kip and when she finds out about his fettish for consuming and “shitting Barbie heads.” After hearing news like that she is freaked out and feels lost.  So naturally she leaves and throughout the plot she crosses things off of her list as she encounters a suicidal alcoholic, Lois, that she basically makes her partner in crime, Captain Mike, her sex with a stranger partner, and other off the wall people all while her husband Kip is sending out two very bad private investigators to track her down and somehow convince her to come back to him. 

As for the dramaturgical choices in the show that I found noteworthy, I found that Lindsay-Abaire’s choice to express Kip’s Barbie pooping fettish, not by Kip but from Cass when talking to Lois to be very effective.  Cass reveals it in a very shocking and almost nonchalant kind of way and I think that it almost makes it less of a big deal and more ridiculous, which is desired since it is a comedy then if she would have had an actual scene when she found the Barbie heads or actually staged the first initial reaction Cass had about it and then confronting Kip. 

Another dramaturgical element that I thought was particularly effective was the constant tension/release.  This tension/release wasn’t just from scene to scene but it actually was often from line to line.  The play is hilarious so often someone will drop a huge bomb in one line and then the other character onstage would just receive their news in a very odd and accepting way, which automatically break the tension of the confession bomb the first person just dropped.  An example of this would be like in Scene 2, when Cass first meets Lois, she asks Lois if she wants to be her sidekick and Lois just simply responds, that she is going to kill herself so she can’t.  And Cass isn’t at all phased by anything that Lois just told her so Cass responds to Lois by saying something like “right, but until then” which breaks that tension and almost completely changes the subject.    

Overall it is a really funny play with a lot of “oh my goodness did that just really happen” kind of moments.  It is simple, entertaining and a fairly fast read that goes by quickly.  

The Drowsy Chaperone

If I were analyzing the show-within-the-show Drowsy Chaperone versus the as-is meta-show The Drowsy Chaperone the entire analysis would differ.  For example, in the show within the show an example of choice would be the rhythm of the play in that in the show with in the show there is a huge augmentation of tension being built up until it is reveled that Janet was disguised as the French girl and that they decide to get married anyway which was the release.  Another Hornby element in the show within the show is choice.  An example of choice is that the full extent and story of Janet and Robert’s events and drama are staged leading up to their decision to have their wedding, while Tottendle and Underling, Drowsy and Aldopho, and Feldzing and Kitty’s drama around heir weddings is not, yet in the end all four of their weddings are staged.  However, in the meta-show The Drowsy Chaperone an example of rhythm would be a consistent pattern of tension and release when ever the tension on stage gets really high, the man interrupts and comments, typically making fun of the shenanigans or giving background making the tragedies on stage be comical and there for having comedic release.  An example of choice in the meta show would be that the playwrights chose the man’s actions to actually reflect the play with in the play, like when he put on the wrong record, it completely changed the rest of the play and added in that ridiculous Asian song rather than just have him as a person with commentary on the show.  Also the playwrights chose tot have the man always break the 4^th wall, while in the show with in the show, the character never break the fourth wall. 

Three Viewings by Jeffery Hatcher

In Jeffery Hatcher’s play, Three Viewings, I noticed actually quite a few common points between all three of the monologues, but the one that I though was most interesting was that they all had a connection and went to the Green Mill.  I thought it was really clever of Hatcher to each of these characters go to this same luncheonette making it possibly for them to either all be there at the same time or happen to run into each other without them even knowing that they actual have connections through other people.  As for resonance or commonality between the three monologues I noticed that each of the characters seemed to mourn their dead only a little bit and that was never their actual focus.  The deaths are what brought on their dilemmas and issues but they all seemed to be more concerned with the new issues they ha to deal with, rather than the fact that someone they cared about just died.  They did not seem to have issues with moving on with their lives.  

Overmayer's On The Verge

In Overmayer’s play On The Verge, if I were a dramaturg in charge of coming up with a publicity poster I believe that the back ground of the poster would be covered in dense vegetation, like a tropical jungle, but the colors would not be limited to just green, there would be an excessive amount of florals involved but only using three other colors to represent the imaginations of each of the three women.  In addition to the jungle background, there would be messages discretely carved in the trees that read important dates like 1910, 1929, 1955 and on and they would all be placed sporadically to where they are not in chronological order to represent time travel and the prominent events that occur in the play.  Finally, in the center I would just place the title and playwright of the play, while being carefully to not obscure the flora and such so that the dates are hidden and that people coming to see the show will be reminded of the poster and know why those particular dates were chosen once they see the show and then be able to understand their significance. 

From what I have gathered, I believe that Mr. Coffee is a god-like figure or possibly Death? He is definitely an all knowing and sort of omnipresent character who has no historical references and isn’t limited by time.  Mr. Coffee also met with Grover at had times when he was being risky with his life and he mentions that the last time he saw Grover was 1929 which was the year that Grover killed himself, so I believe that Mr. Coffee has to be some kind of God presence or death since Mr. Coffee is only mentioned to have encountered characters at desperate or hard times.  

Once again where Yvette comments and divulges her feelings on theatrical things

http://ohyeahdramaa.blogspot.com/2013/04/fires-in-mirror-by-adsmith.html?showComment=1366089505167#c348294227232860280

http://shelly2130.blogspot.com/2013/04/on-verge.html?showComment=1366933420456#c7882800421422942957

http://ohyeahdramaa.blogspot.com/2013/04/three-viewings-by-j-hatcher.html?showComment=1367100714560#c3377658991864832449

http://dvibe2130.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-drowsy-chaperone.html#comment-form

http://dvibe2130.blogspot.com/2013/05/show-and-tell-post-3-jesus-hopped-a.html?showComment=1367649035356#c3495640590357586035

Fires in the Mirror by Smith

In Smith’s Fires in the Mirror, it is imperative to include the first section of the play in which those being interviewed are not directly related to the Crown Heights incident.  The first few interviews give the perspective of a range of people about their own personal identity and their feelings about it and how others perceive them.  These interviews are very good at showing the humanity of both blacks and Jews at different stages of their life.  These interviews exemplify that both blacks and Jews struggle through the same things in regards to how others perceive them and how they feel about themselves, they both have a strong sense of community and are rather resilient in sticking together, they both also express that they just want to be accepted for who they are and that they don’t loo down on others, but they just want to be looked at in the same way that others are looked at.  With this being said, with out those interviews, the next interviews could be perceived in the wrong way and it can appear that each side is too rash with the other and that they are both reacting in a very intense way, but really they just both feel discriminated and they feel like they need to defend themselves, even violently to maintain their identity so something unjust and disgusting like The Middle Passage or the Holocaust is not repeated.  Without the first set of interviews, the play would lack the essential part in which both Blacks and Jews lay out their similar struggles and where they came from and how they go tot be where they are in their way of thinking, which happens to be a very similar way of thinking.