A Classic Shakespearean Comedy Essay Example for Free

A Classic Shakespearean Comedy Essay The Chicago Shakespeare Theatre at Navy Pier manages to combine an extravagant and lavish, while at the same time still very intimate, theatre setting with professional acting performances in every production shown. However, the production of As You Like on March 5, 2011 perhaps best exemplifies these significant qualities crucial to Shakespeare plays. Directed by, Gary Griffin, the production is able to captivate the entire audience for the complete duration of the play through its brilliant illustration of spectacle as well as strong narration. However, the most significant factor of the production would undeniably be its inclusion of an alliance of narrative, dramatic, and spectacle elements all intertwined in the overall production. Griffin depicts a traditional Shakespearean comedy with the use of vivid set design and perfect actor selection in the production of As You Like It in a way that separates the comedic production from any other previous Shakespeare play I have seen. The production does so by being able to masterfully combine Shakespearean comedic elements with deeper connotations about self-identity and the power of love crucial to all productions of As You Like It. The thematic elements prevalent throughout the production are contemporary in regards to all Shakespearean comedies in that the play revolves around mistaken identity, the many forms of love, and the resolutions of all misunderstandings in the end of the play. However, the way in which Griffin’s overall production is able to enthrall the audience through brilliant acting, audience inclusion, and beautiful theatre design in such a way that the audience isn’t forced to exert much personal imagination makes As You Like It a classic example of an ideal Shakespearean production. The Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, the producing theatre for director Gary Griffin’s adaptation of As You Like It, is a professional theatre venue and company located on 800 East Grand Avenue in Navy Pier. The theatre is ornately designed with the intent to transform the audience’s connotation of setting and to make them believe/ give the appearance that they are in an actual Shakespearean Theatre without the use of their imagination. The theatre space used for the production of As You Like It is called Jentes Family Auditorium and features a total of 510 seats on three levels surrounding the courtyard theatre’s â€Å"thrust stage†. This specific theatre was modeled/ designed with inspiration coming directly from the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Swan Theatre, evident at first glance, and thus creates an immediate intimate relationship between the actors, stage/ set design, and the entire audience seated around the three sides of the stage. While part of the set is elevated as a â€Å"stage†, the entire area/ space of the theatre is used by the actors throughout the production; when this is incorporated with the fact that no seat is more than thirty feet from the stage, a feeling of intimacy between actors and audience is ever-present. For instance, the audience is engaged into the action of the play immediately by the way in which the stage extends through the middle of the first-floor seating allowing the appearance/ feeling of the actors walking directly out into the middle of the audience members. In an analysis of the overall production of As You Like It it is evident that even though the set, stage, and use of props and vivid images are riveting, the inclusion of an â€Å"all-star ensemble† of some of Chicago’s finest actors is truly the underlying nature in exemplifying the statement that the production is indeed Shakespeare’s â€Å"glorious romantic comedy†. The actors play courtiers, clowns, philosophers, and locals all who are under the classic comedic spell of the trials and conquests of love as the main character, Rosalind, must disguise herself as a boy in order to escape the royal court. The characters, following Rosalind’s lead, venture into the timeless Forest of Arden where Rosalind finds herself trapped by love and mistaken identity in her attempt to teach the man she loves how to win the women of his dreams. A traditional element present in the production of Shakespearean comedies such as As You Like It, is undeniably the inclusion of both a dominant and a secondary major female characters. The significance of the secondary female lead is often determined by the skill of the actress portraying that role. The actress can make the character seem somewhat mysterious and forgettable, as seen by the DePaul student’s portrayal of Hero in Much Ado About Nothing, or she can appear as significant and mesmerizing as the lead female. In Griffin’s production of As You Like It this notion of the importance of ctor/ character portrayals is illuminated. For instance, one of the most memorable characters in the entire play is Cecilia, the secondary female character played by Chaon Cross. Cross is able to depict the comedic character almost perfectly through well-rounded acting and clear knowledge of Shakespearean language. In Cecilia’s character, Cross symbolizes a playful, charming, immensely loyal, witty and charismatic supporting female role. This is apparent in her juxtaposition of speech and comedic body language. Crucial plot and thematic elements of As You Like It are depicted by the actors as well. For instance, the review on human life illustrated by the character Jaques, played by Ross Lehman in this production, is witnessed in  Lehman’s acting skills in his performance as Jaques. He emphasizes the faults and ambitions of life in a funny and touching manner by offering both comedic and emotional moments for the audience throughout the play. There are many other characters in the production that portrayed memorable performances illuminating the underlying themes and comedic elements present in the correct use/ knowledge of Shakespearean language and acting. These actors included:   Kate Fry as Rosalind, Matt Schwader as Orlando, Dennis Kelly as Adam, Phillip James Brannon as Touchstone, Matt DeCaro as Duke Frederick, Kevin Gudahl as Duke Senior, and Elizabeth Ledo as Phoebe. Each character possesses unique and intricately detailed costumes and character traits crucial to the understanding of the overall production. The costumes are vivid with detail and evoke the use of imagination and feeling that the audience is witnessing the action of the play within actual setting of certain scenes (whether the orchard, royal court, or forest). The differences in characters’ personality, social class, and hierarchy alongside other characteristic elements are illuminated through the costumes intricate glamour and detail juxtaposed with a more simplistic but still vibrant use of props and set. In addition to individual actor performances, the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre’s production of As You Like It signifies the epitome of Shakespeare’s ’â€Å"glorious romantic comedy† through the use of a unique/ one of a kind setting. The set designs present are an attractive and ubstantial visual supplement to the action taking place on stage at every point throughout the progress of the play. This can be perceived in almost every scene of the production but is most notably present in the opening scene, depicting a lush/ vivid apple orchard with minimalistic use of props, as well as the more luxurious forest setting that accompanies it. The scenery presented by lighting, sound, props hanging from the ceiling, and the perception of depth in the stage prominently adds to the attraction and understanding of the production. The lighting and music of the production present in set/ scene changes enhances the plot developments as well as the overall journey and adventure portrayed in the play’s narrative nature. The set design of various different scenes is thus completely believable and enchanting; employing the audience’s complete inclusion into the imaginative world of the production. Alongside the appearance of setting in the various scenes, the intricately detailed costumes are exquisite and add a visually appealing aspect to the performances of the actors. At the same time, the creativity and uniqueness of each character’s costume mandates the audience’s teleportation from the feeling of watching a traditional play to the feeling that they are in fact present in this magical/ timeless world of As You Like It. Overall, As You Like It, a production shown by the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, is a professional and glamorous portrayal of traditional/ contemporary Shakespearean comedy. Every aspect of the theatre and production is employed into the narrative element of the play which makes this adaptation of As You Like It unlike any other theatre experience. For instance, the elaborate theatre space is perfect for setting the mood of seeing a professional Shakespearean production and the way in which the stage is the center of vision no matter where you sit in the audience allows sound to travel in a surreal, surround sound manner only enhances this feeling. The actors’ use/ knowledge of Shakespearean language in conjunction with their use of space (entire theatre used as stage while most of the action is mere inches away from the first row of audience members) makes the production flow well while at the same time enhancing the professional feel of the production as well. In this professional nature of the production nearly every aspect and element of Shakespearean comedy is exemplified. Through Gary Griffin’s production of As You Like It, the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre is able to directly exemplify the notion of ideal Shakespearean plays and why these plays still remain so popular and relevant in our society today even four hundred years later.

Directing A New Production Of An Inspector Calls by J. B. Priestly :: English Literature

Directing A New Production Of An Inspector Calls by J. B. Priestly, With Special Reference To Act Two, Page 33 (in Heinemann Plays An Inspector Calls), And The Characters Of The Inspector And Mrs. Birling The two characters that I have chosen - the in The two characters that I have chosen from the play, 'An Inspector Calls', are the Inspector and Mrs. Birling. I chose these characters because they have very contrasting personalities. The Inspector is called 'Goole', which symbolises a ghoul and reflects on his personality. He is very probing when he asks the family questions and obviously has experience with 'interrogating' people. He is very direct and quite blunt when he is questioning the Birling family. In the BBC video version of the play, it was quite obvious that the Inspector was not a normal man as soon as he entered the room. This may have been helped by dramatic music, but it was also evident in the play. "The Inspector enters, and Edna goes, closing the door after her. The Inspector need not be a big man but he creates at once an impression of massiveness, solidity and purposefullyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ He speaks carefully, weightily, and has a disconcerting habit of looking hard at the person he addresses before actually speaking." As soon as the Inspector enters the room, the other characters are immediately aware of this "impression of massiveness". In the BBC video the Inspector was quite an old man and he looked feeble in a way, but he still created this effect when he spoke to the other characters. He seems to have a gift to be able to make people feel uncomfortable and guilty when he wants. "INSPECTOR: 'That's more or less what I was thinking earlier tonight, when I was in the infirmary looking at what was left of Eva Smith. A nice little promising life there, I thought, and a nasty mess somebody's made of it.' BIRLING looks as if he is about to make some retort, then thinks better of it, and goes out, closing the door sharply behind him. GERALD and ERIC exchange uneasy glances. The INSPECTOR ignores them." This is a particularly good quote because it shows the Inspector's way of speaking and the character's reactions to him. It seems that Mr Birling cannot even confront the Inspector and has to leave the room, even though Mr Birling was Lord Mayor which gives him authority over a Police Inspector, and is of a higher class than the Inspector, which should give him confidence. Mrs Birling is the quiet wife of the successful owner of Birling and Co. She is a very high-class lady who could be described as 'posh'.

Blood Brothers Essay

   Her gestures towards Eddy were quite fidgety, she was always fretting over him- making sure his clothes and hair was neat so he looked respectful. This constant need to make Eddy look neat would be so the Lyons family kept up their reputation and Mrs. Lyons may have also been trying to cover up any likeness between Mickey and Eddy, so she was constantly fidgeting over him. This attitude was also reflected in the atmosphere she generated, as she was always quite nervous and twitchy, because she was always worried that the public or her husband would find out that Eddy wasn’t her child and that he was the offspring of a working class family. You can see this nervous attitude from her facial expression as she always carried a worried look, and also from her body language as her hands always flustered nervously. Mrs. Lyons’ relationship with Mrs. Johnstone got more impersonal as the play went on. They stood further apart from one another and they spoke in raised voices. Mrs. Lyons was very protective of Eddy so she walked and sat very close to him all the time and didn’t like feeling that she has no control over him. Narrator – Phillip Stewart: I think that the narrator was the character that had the highest status on stage. He didn’t emotionally relate to any of the characters. You could see this reflection of impersonality towards the characters when he was face to face with a distraught Mrs. Johnstone or an excited Mickey his facial expression didn’t alter, showing he had no understanding of the characters emotions. The fact that the narrator didn’t relate to any of the characters, means that they fear the narrator and are intimidated by him. Further more, the fact that the characters were actually aware of the narrator is unusual as most narrators are kept separate from the characters. This may be because the narrator acted as something more spiritual, like he was a figure of destiny or life who is moving the actors around like chess pieces. He would creep up on people, or pull them away as he had the power to do this. He stood tall, had a domineering presence and was the person with the most authority. His accent, like his costume, was neutral, his tone was quite deep and the volume of his voice was load throughout the whole of the play. Mickey Johnstone – Stephen Palfreman: Mickey was brought up in the Johnstone family so he had the same accent as his mother- Liverpudlian. 7-8yrs: He was amazingly energetic and he completely took over the stage when he came on. He shouted, ran around madly, spoke in a high-pitched voice, muddled up his word and so reflected a seven year old boy in a physical and intellectual state. When he first came on stage he was banging on his door and sat down like this: He started picking his nose e. t. c. He fidgeted constantly, scratching himself, and typically stretching his jumper over his legs. To reflect his age he spent a lot of time on the floor, as it was an adult playing a seven year old this made him look shorter. He was very over powering, so when he was talking to the other characters there was about an inch between them-nearly nose to nose, so obviously like any seven year old he had no sense of personal boundaries. 12-14yrs: At this age he was desperately trying to impress Linda so he was doing typical ‘guy poses’ and walking with a skip in his step to try and look ‘cool’. He also talked to her in a deep, what he thought to be, manly voice. He really wanted to impress Linda but he was also very nervous especially in Act two, Scene 1 when Linda asks Mickey to help him over the gate and as he approaches her she screams ‘be gentle, be gentle†¦ ‘ Which puts him off completely! 18+: Now he seemed a lot more serious because as he’s on his own. When he’s in prison you could see him slowly going mad. The carefree attitude he used to have had now disappeared. He was always very edgy, and he barely moved. In prison he was edgy but he felt safe, once he was out of prison he got even worse. He got angry with Linda when he didn’t get his tablets and he was constantly sweating. His relationship towards Linda was reflected in his body language, as he seemed to stop showing affection towards her and never liked standing to close to any one. This distance was in contrast to the seven year old Mickey. Eddy Lyons -Mark Hutchinson: Eddy took after his mother in his accent as his was also quite posh. The tone of his voice was quite feminine and it was like this through all ages. 7-8yrs: Unlike Mickey, Eddy’s voice was quieter and his movements were timid but once he was with Mickey and wasn’t being over shadowed by his mother he could ‘let go’. A typical example of this would be when Eddy, Mickey and Linda get caught by the police throwing stones through windows, and the policeman asks him: â€Å"What’s your name? † And Eddy replies: â€Å"Adolph Hitler†! So you can see that Eddy could be brave, even more so than Mickey and Linda, he just needed to be let out of his shell. Eddy’s lexis was a lot different to Mickey’s as he used words like ‘smashing’ and ‘goodness’; whereas most of Mickey’s lexis consisted of swear words. Eddy didn’t seem to change that much from the age of 7-18 years old. He still has quite a feminine voice he just sounded matured. As he grew up Eddy spent less time on the floor so he was taller, Mickey also used this tactic. Also, Mickey didn’t influence him quite as much. Eddy’s relationship with the characters was reflected in his distance between them and his body language. When Mrs. Lyons was fidgeting over him he tried to stop her. At first the distance between him and Mrs. Johnstone was far but as the play went on they got closer showing that their relationship was growing closer. Linda – Louise Clayton: Linda 7-8yrs: She had come from the same class as Mickey so she had a Liverpudlian accent too. Her voice was quite high pitched she was also very energetic. Her gestures and the distance between her and the other characters reflected her affectionate personality and like Mickey she had no sense of personal boundaries but she was a little more gentile than Mickey was! 12-14yrs: Now she was very confident especially towards Mickey. She was constantly telling Mickey that she loved him in public even though he didn’t really like it that much. Her gestures were quite sexy towards Mickey as was her movement-swaying her hips as she walked was one example. 18+: Her tone was now a lot more mature and so were her clothes. When she went to go and visit Mickey in prison she always put on a happy face. As she was older she had more responsibilities so she wasn’t as energetic and happy as she used to be. Marriage seemed to have trapped Linda and all she wanted to do was to go back to her old carefree life. This was probably why she kissed Eddy because it was like starting again but you could always see that she still really cared for Mickey. Once Mickey was out of jail Linda tried to get close to him and to understand him but he just turned her away. The fact that she stayed with him showed just how much she cared for him. Her body language and gestures towards him weren’t as confident as they were when she was fourteen. It was Mickey who had the most comical value out of all the characters. When he first made his appearance in Act 1, Scene 2 as a seven year old, fidgeting madly and pulling his jumper over his knees it was really funny. When he was a teenager and he was trying to impress Linda he spoke in a deep voice, which made the whole audience laugh out load! When sadder moments in the play came the lights were usually blue. The final scene of the play was a mixture of passion, fear, tension and sadness. When you were sitting on the edge of your seat wondering who was going to shoot whom, you could sense the tension in the auditorium. You could see the passion between Mickey and Eddy as they found out they were brothers from just looking at their faces and the fear from Mrs. Johnstone and Mrs. , Lyons as they feared that Mickey was going to kill Eddy. I thought that the play was very thought provoking as it made you think about the social injustice of our society today. This social injustice was the plays main theme along with superstition as the narrator frequently quoted superstitions like-‘new shoes on the table’. Social Injustice is the basis of many other plays like ‘Teechers’ by John Godber. This play sends the message through the ideal of school, and the social injustice at the school. I really enjoyed the play and I would definitely go and see it again. I thought that all of the actors performed their characters brilliantly and showed absolute commitment to their role throughout the whole of the play. They seemed to have got into their characters and know them of by heart.

Halloween Night vs. Prom Night - 1324 Words

Halloween Night vs. Prom Night Ghosts, princesses, superheroes, and so many other strange characters are seen walking around during the night of October 31st, the night known as Halloween. Halloween is the night most famously known for haunted houses, candy, black cats, witches and ghosts. For one magical night a year, known as prom, teenagers get to feel and dress like princes and princesses and to attend their first formal event before becoming an adult. For that night, tiaras, limos, corsages, tuxedos and evening gowns are all the rage. Both nights are important nights when growing up, and even though they are so different, they actually have some things in common. Halloween night and prom are nights that have a similar, yet†¦show more content†¦Halloween is the one night a year children or teenagers can dress up and act differently. They wear costumes and get to be a different person or thing for the night. Even though prom is not celebrated on the same date every year, it is still one night of dressing up. Teenagers get to dress up formally and also act differently for the night. The attire is usually formal unless the prom has a certain theme that calls for them to dress up in costumes. The purpose of both nights is about dressing up, but, the attire is different for both events. The second point of comparison is that both are a night of social events. Depending on how each family celebrates Halloween it can be a night for families to go out together and trick-or-treat together, or the children can go out with a group of friends to go trick-or-treating. Many costume parties are thrown to celebrate the night and there are many haunted houses to go through with friends or family. Prom night is an important social dance event where teenagers in high school get together with their friends before and after prom. Both boys and girls might get together before prom to get ready together and then take pictures with friends and family. Before attending th e dance they go out to dinner with their friends and take a limo to the prom venue. Many parties are held after the prom to continue the night’s celebrations.Show MoreRelatedEssay on Buffy the Vampire Slayer5067 Words   |  21 Pagesthrough a costume: Who you are? The Watcher, snivelling, tweed-clad guardian of the Slayer and her kin? I think not. I know who you are, Rupert, and I know what youre capable of. But they dont, do they? They have no idea where you come from. (Halloween 2:6). The Dark Age (2:8), in the same series, provides the audience with some hints at a rebellious past, but raises more questions than it answers. The spectator shares Xanders view that: Nobody can be wound as straight and narrow as Giles