Thursday, October 27, 2011
Honors Writing #3 & 4
Hamlet DP Option
Hamlet is a very important play that has been around for more than 400 years now. It was written by William Shakespeare between 1599 and the early 1600s. William Shakespeare is known as the "most influential writer in all of English literature." He is worldwide famous for all of his work but critics say Hamlet "offers the greatest exhibition of Shakespeare's powers." Shakespeare uses a lot of literary devices and techniques in the writing of this play. He does a good job at making something that seems simple and ordinary have deeper meanings to something very complex, that is why some people don't understand Hamlet.
Hamlet starts of with a scene that captures the reader’s attention and makes them want to read more. It leaves the reader with questions and anxious to figure out why the ghost is there, what happened, what is going on and that makes them go on and keep reading and as soon as they find out the answers they see another conflict so then they want to keep reading to see how that problem gets solved and so on. While reading the play Hamlet, I noticed how William Shakespeare used many layers in his play. For example, how he has different layers of conflict. The main conflict in the play was Claudius killing Hamlet's dad, the king, and Hamlet wanting to get revenge but then we have other conflict in the play like Hamlet killing Polonius and then Laertes wanting to get revenge against Hamlet. Also, Ophelia going crazy and dying and then Claudius and Laertes planning how to kill Hamlet. Shakespeare does a good job of connecting all the minor conflicts to the major conflict so that they all make sense and so that the overall play makes sense and flows together. Shakespeare has a way of making something have a simple meaning when you just read over it, but once you analyze what you just read and really think about it and connect it to other parts of the story you really see that it is way deeper than you think and it all starts to make sense.
Shakespeare uses many characters in Hamlet to make the story more complex and realistic. There are about sixteen characters in Hamlet, Hamlet being the main character of the play and the one involved in most of the major and minor conflicts. In Hamlet all the characters make up a part of the play and they each are very different from each other. By reading Hamlet, we really see the personality of each character and the way they act. We can also see a character foil between Laertes and Hamlet. Laertes contrasts with Hamlet and that way highlights various features of Hamlet's personality.
Hamlet has a variety of themes that all tie up together to the final play. We can see revenge as one of the major themes because throughout the whole play we can see that Hamlet's only goal was to get revenge for his father's death by killing his uncle. We can also see this in Laertes when his father dies. We can see love between Hamlet and Ophelia, Gertrude and Claudius, and we can see love between Laertes and Ophelia. We can also see death. For example, Hamlet's dead father, and then everyone that dies at the end. We can see unnatural things like the ghost. In this play we can also see the theme of what is the significance of life and what it is to be part of this world like when Hamlet has conflicted feeling about suicide he says, "How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world!" Saying that he really didn't see a purpose in life.
Shakespeare is also able to write so many things with simple settings like the outside and inside of a castle. He is able to really use the setting well to make the play a lot more realistic. Shakespeare has a very interesting way of writing that keeps the audience reading. He put part of the things going on in the play outside of the play like when the play starts Hamlet's dad has already been killed and the reader finds this out when they keep reading.
The way Shakespeare writes makes the play a little more hard to understand. He doesn't just make the characters talk the way we talk now and goes right to the point, but he uses a lot of words and sort of analyzes what he is saying. He writes like a poet and makes his words flow. Like for example in the famous line Hamlet says, "To be, or not to be?" He knows the right words to use and how and when to use them. All these and many more elements and literary devices make Hamlet one of the best and most famous plays of all time.
Theater Reviews
There are many things and elements that are sometimes combined to make a great play. It is important for the people making the play to have these elements in mind in order for them to also make a great play. In “Mother Courage” Hilton Als, in an article in The New Yorker, analyzes acting and how for “Streep, acting seems to be less about stardust than about architecture. Each character is built precisely, according to its creator’s specifications. For her performance in Tony Kushner’s brilliant adaptation of ‘Mother Courage,’ Streep constructs a house that is gray and lopsided a thespian’s version of van Gogh’s sad bedroom. Her grandeur is merely a facade she seems to be telling us and she is as committed to the job at hand as any other conscientious working actress.” Characterization is very important for every play and story because characters are the ones that make up a story. In plays, it is important for the characters to be good actors and not just act their character but be their character and actually get in the role they have so that the play seems more realistic and not fake.
Another element that might be very important in some plays and stories are satires. Satires add more to the story and make the overall play interesting for the audience. In “The Book of Mormon,” we can see a good example of a satire that is also a musical, like our play. This play was written by Trey Parker, Robert Lopez, and Matt Stone, who are best known for creating the animated comedy “South Park.” Both the TV show and the play are examples of satires and this has helped them be around for a while now and has made them popular too. In The New Yorker article John Lahr says, “The show is smart enough to test the waters of outrage but not brazen enough to take a genuine plunge. The satire is more about the Mormons’ buttoned-down, bushy-tailed style than about the substance of the religion.” Satires are important to not only add humor to plays and to make the audience laugh but also to give the audience new perspectives on a topic. It helps them see the different opinions people have and different ways they see a topic. Not all people agree with one thing and that’s why it is important to give the audience different perspectives. In using satires, the playwrights have to make sure that the satire is clear and that people will get it because if they don’t it won’t make sense to them and they won’t even laugh so there would be no point in using a satire.
The setting is a very important part of every play or story. The setting is so important that it could affect the story if its not the right setting. For example, if you are talking about chicken and animals and trees and open space then the best setting would be a farm and not a factory in the future, it could be but you have to have a good explanation of why that makes sense. For example in “Lucky You” we can see how the setting influences the movie. “The picture takes place before and during the World Series of Poker in 2003, the year the Internet players—the non-pros—marched in on the Las Vegas tough guys sitting in the heavily draped Bellagio casino, taking money from one another as they waited for the competition to start,” David Denby said in The New Yorker article “Games of chance.” Another example would be in Hamlet, in the beginning of the play the setting was at a castle in the middle of the night close to the sea, foggy and hard to see and with that setting the vision of seeing Hamlet’s dead father’s ghost becomes more real and makes it more likely that it happened.
I think in our own play we can use all of these elements but just make sure we use them right. I feel like we already have characterization in our play but maybe we could fix a few things like give certain characters a little more lines so that we get to meet them more and see who they really are and how they act in certain situations. We can use satire if we really wanted to and I think we already kind of have it in there because we are kind of making fun of musicals and show it from a perspective of a character that doesn’t know he’s in a musical. We could probably develop a little more on that satire. I think for setting we are good because we know most of it is going to happen at a school but maybe we can also develop more on that.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Blog #17
What are the absolute best parts of your class' play?
There a few parts of our play that I really liked. One that I really liked was how some of the characters in the second scene rhymed when saying who they were, I thought that was really good. Also, how every character differed from each other. They all had their own personality and it was pretty easy to notice who was who. I also liked how the playwrights added the characters from different stories, like Doris is the offspring of Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. I liked how the songs that are there so far go with what the characters are saying and talking about before the song and its not just like a random song. I also liked that our play is funny like when the counselor is talking to Tyler and also the coach and just everything in general.
Check out your class' script. Cite the specific scenes, lines, and literary devices used.
Some of the literary devices I've seen in our script are characterization, rhyme, and conflict. I was able to see characterization through out the whole play like when everyone introduces each other and then how everyone has their own special character. I was able to see rhyme in scene 2 when the characters in the classroom introduce themselves. Like when Oliver says who he is he says, "The names Oliver, the tenth to be exact, when I get hungry you best get back. I'm quite shy and I can be quite sweet, but I'll shank you for a piece of meat." Then also Donny says, "I'm the head honcho, the guy to know, the emperor of cool, the star of the show, make me mad, and you'll be sorry, got a trunk full of knives in my red Ferrari." I was able to see conflict through most of the play. First because Tyler does not want to move, then because he doesn't fit in the new school and then when they steal his wallet and then also when his parents don't listen to Tyler. For example, in scene 1 in the very beginning of the play Tyler tells his mom, "Baked goods don't exactly compensate for the four years of hell that I am about to endure."
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Blog #16
In some respects, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead is a play about nothing—I mean, we all already read Hamlet and we all know what happens to Rosencrantz & Guildenstern, so really what could this play be about?
I think Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead is a play making fun of how really in Hamlet Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are unnecessary and don't really do anything. They just go deliver a letter and then die, they don't change the plot or anything that happens and also this play is not necessary. If you read Hamlet then you know what happens and you don't have to read this play because this play doesn't give you any new or important information it is just there like Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are there in Hamlet. This play is kind of like of what happens backstage it just tells what Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are doing when they are not in Hamlet also doing nothing. This play can be funny because Rosencrantz & Guildenstern don't even know what they are doing or what their purpose is so they just say whatever comes to their heads and sometimes over think about stuff because they have so much time to spend. They really have nothing to do so they just walk around everywhere with no clue.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Blog #15
What are the most important concepts that you took away from reading Hamlet?
While reading the play "Hamlet," I noticed how William Shakespeare used many layers in his play. For example, how he has a play within a play. Also, how he has different layers of conflict. The main conflict in the play was Claudius killing Hamlet's dad, the king, and Hamlet wanting to get revenge but then we have other conflict in the play like Hamlet killing Polonius and then Laertes wanting to get revenge against Hamlet. Also, Ophelia going crazy and dying and then Claudius and Laertes planning how to kill Hamlet. Shakespeare does a good job of connecting all the little conflicts to the major conflict so that they all make sense and so that the overall play makes sense and flows together.
Another thing I noticed was how every character was very different from each other. Each character had their own way of being and they all had at least a little significance in the play. For example, if we compare Ophelia to Hamlet we can say they are very different and while Ophelia is not so important in the play, Hamlet is the main character but Ophelia still connects to Hamlet and she is somewhat important to Hamlet. All the characters somewhat relate to each other and form a part of the play. In "Hamlet" we can see a lot about the difficulties of being part of this world and how not everything is perfect, not even for a prince. There are a lot of problems out there in the world and we will all at some time pay for the bad things we did like how Claudius dies at the end for killing the king and how Hamlet dies for killing Polonius and how Laertes dies for trying to kill Hamlet. By reading Hamlet I learned a lot about what a good play is and how it is not just suppose to be one problem through out the entire story but many things and conflicts going on and even things going on outside of the play to make it even more interesting.
What are the most significant concepts that you learned from creating your digital essay?
I really learned about time management during the creation of my digital essay and how important it is to have a back-up plan. In the digital essay, it was really important for my group and I to manage our time and have back-up plans because sometimes we would plan to record during a certain period but then we would see that someone was using what we needed and that we couldn't record so then we had to work on something else so that we weren't wasting time and so that we were being productive. Also a problem we had was that we had reserved the "nice" mic for a period but then we didn't get time to work on the digital essays because we had a class discussion and then we weren't able to use it any other days because it was already reserved so then we had to use garageband. If we hadn't decided to use garageband and would have decided to wait for the "nice" mic we would have lost a lot of time and probably wouldn't have finished. I felt like I learned a little about how to use garageband by creating my digital essay because, before, I didn't really know about it and the things you can do in garageband. In the creation of my digital essay I also learned that it is really important to communicate with your group members and split up the work so that not just one person is doing all the work. I felt like my group and I did a really good job doing this because we always communicated with each other and we all worked together to get the digital essay done.
Monday, October 17, 2011
Blog #14
These are the questions my group and I answered in our digital essay:
8. Explain Hamlet's conflicted feelings about suicide.
12. Explain the treatment of women in Hamlet and it's effect on the play.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Blog #13
My group and I were thinking of answering the three questions by either using parts of the Hamlet movie where he says the quotes we are using as evidence and having a narrator in the back explaining our answers to the questions or using pictures instead of parts of the movie. So far what I've done is find the quotes for each of the questions and kind of explained what they mean and how they answer the questions. Also, my group and I already have a few pictures that maybe we can use in our digital essay.
This is what I've done so far and some of the images we have:
6. What significance is Ophelia to Hamlet... and to Hamlet?
“Doubt thou the stars are fire,
Doubt that the sun doth move,
Doubt truth to be a liar,
But never doubt I love.
O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers. I have not art to reckon my groans, but that I love thee best, oh, most best, believe it. Adieu.
Thine evermore, most dear lady,
Hamlet.” Letter Hamlet writes to Ophelia Act 2 Scene 2whilst this machine is to him,
"OPHELIA
But could beauty be related to anything better than goodness?
HAMLET
Ay, truly, for the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than the force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness. This was sometime a paradox, but now the time gives it proof. I did love you once.
OPHELIA
Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.
HAMLET
You should not have believed me, for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it. I loved you not."
After Ophelia dies..
"I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers
Could not with all their quantity of love
Make up my sum. What wilt thou do for her.....?
'Swounds, show me what thou'lt do.
Woo’t weep? Woo’t fight? Woo’t fast? Woo’t tear thyself?
Woo’t drink up eisel, eat a crocodile?
I’ll do ’t. Dost thou come here to whine,
To outface me with leaping in her grave?
Be buried quick with her?—and so will I.
And if thou prate of mountains let them throw
Millions of acres on us, till our ground,
Singeing his pate against the burning zone,
Make Ossa like a wart! Nay, an thou'lt mouth,
I’ll rant as well as thou." Hamlet Act 5 Scene 1
It seems as if Hamlet loves Ophelia but treats her like nothing when he is pretending to be mad. Ophelia is somewhat important to Hamlet but not really because he never really mentions her or talks about her to her friends or anyone. She doesn't have a big impact in Hamlet's life, while Ophelia is definitely in love with Hamlet and it seems as though that's all she talks about in the play.
He uses her to cover up his craziness, he's mad with love supposedly. She ends up committing suicide after having to deal with all of Hamlet's nonsense and her father's death. She is also one of the only female characters, without her it would only be Gertrude who isn't a very strong character. She doesn't say much throughout the play, and is rather dense. Without Ophelia, Polonius probably wouldn't have been as interested in Hamlet's affairs, and his death wouldn't have been as big of a deal, besides the fact that Hamlet is a weirdo and has gone crazy. It seems like everyone is really losing their mind in this play. Ophelia ends up dead because of Hamlet, and her life is kind of sad.
8. Explain Hamlet's conflicted feelings about suicide.
"Oh, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt,
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew,
Or that the Everlasting had not fixed
His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God, God!
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
Fie on ’t, ah fie! 'Tis an unweeded garden
That grows to seed. Things rank and gross in nature
Possess it merely. That it should come to this.
But two months dead—nay, not so much, not two.
So excellent a king, that was to this
Hyperion to a satyr. So loving to my mother
That he might not beteem the winds of heaven
Visit her face too roughly.—Heaven and earth,
Must I remember? Why, she would hang on him
As if increase of appetite had grown
By what it fed on, and yet, within a month—
Let me not think on ’t. Frailty, thy name is woman!—
A little month, or ere those shoes were old
With which she followed my poor father’s body,
Like Niobe, all tears. Why she, even she—
O God, a beast that wants discourse of reason
Would have mourned longer!—married with my uncle,
My father’s brother, but no more like my father
Than I to Hercules. Within a month,
Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
Had left the flushing in her gallèd eyes,
She married. O most wicked speed, to post
With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!
It is not nor it cannot come to good,
But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue." Act 1 scene 2
"Hamlet speaks these lines after enduring the unpleasant scene at Claudius and Gertrude’s court, then being asked by his mother and stepfather not to return to his studies at Wittenberg but to remain in Denmark, presumably against his wishes. Here, Hamlet thinks for the first time about suicide (desiring his flesh to “melt,” and wishing that God had not made “self-slaughter” a sin), saying that the world is “weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable.” In other words, suicide seems like a desirable alternative to life in a painful world, but Hamlet feels that the option of suicide is closed to him because it is forbidden by religion."
"To be, or not to be? That is the question—
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And, by opposing, end them? To die, to sleep—
No more—and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to—’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished! To die, to sleep.
To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there’s the rub,
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
Th' oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of th' unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country from whose bourn
No traveler returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action" Hamlet Act 3 scene 1
12. Explain the treatment of women in Hamlet and it's effect on the play.
"POLONIUS
Marry, I’ll teach you. Think yourself a baby
That you have ta'en these tenders for true pay,
Which are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly,
Or—not to crack the wind of the poor phrase,
Running it thus—you’ll tender me a fool. " Act 1 scene 3
Women in Hamlet are expected to do whatever men tell them like if they were servants. Polonius lets Laertes go off to another country by himself to do as he pleases, but Ophelia has to do exactly what they both say.
GERTRUDE
"Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted color off,
And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark.
Do not forever with thy vailèd lids
Seek for thy noble father in the dust.
Thou know’st ’tis common. All that lives must die,
Passing through nature to eternity." Act 1 Scene 2
Gertrude is usually seen as stupid. She doesn't really think for herself she basically just does what Claudius tells her to do and is always following him everywhere, and a month after her husband's death she marries his brother.
"Let me not think on ’t. Frailty, thy name is woman!—
A little month, or ere those shoes were old
With which she followed my poor father’s body,
Like Niobe, all tears. Why she, even she—
O God, a beast that wants discourse of reason
Would have mourned longer!—married with my uncle,
My father’s brother, but no more like my father
Than I to Hercules. Within a month,
Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
Had left the flushing in her gallèd eyes,
She married. O most wicked speed, to post
With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!
It is not nor it cannot come to good,
But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue." Hamlet
HAMLET
"Get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest, but yet I could accuse me of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me......If thou dost marry, I’ll give thee this plague for thy dowry. Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunnery, go. Farewell. Or, if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool, for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go, and quickly too. Farewell." Act 3 scene 1
I think the work I've done so far can probably help my group and I answer the questions and then from there make a good digital essay that answers the questions correctly and uses evidence from the book.
I think some challenges we might face in the next few days are probably with technology because with the idea about using parts of the Hamlet movie, none of us knew how to do that so we might have to figure that out and try to do it the best that we can. Also for the narration we will need the "nice" microphone but some groups are going to use it too so we will have to figure out a way to share it so that everyone gets a chance to use it. Also, maybe having enough time to finish it without rushing through it.
I think some back up plans we could have in case we don't get a chance of using the "nice" mic would be to maybe go into a very quiet place or office and record it with a computer or just stay after school or during lunch one day to use the "nice" mic. Also maybe try to each one in our group work on the digital essay during the 3 day weekend so that on Monday we are done and just have to edit a few things and be done and not rushing through it last minute.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Honors Writing #1 (English & History)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (English Essay)
In the story, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Joel and Clementine decide to erase each other from their memories because of all the problems they face as a couple. As they go through all the memories they spent together, at the end they find that they love each other and that no matter all the problems, they want to be together. The major theme that I was able to see throughout the movie, and screenplay was that love is not just living happily ever after, it involves problems and fights but no matter how difficult and hard it is if two imperfect people really love each other, they will always be together and face those problems together. This theme was shown throughout the story with many different literary devices like characterization, conflict, and foreshadowing.
In the story, we can see characterization as we learn the differences between Clementine and Joel. Clementine and Joel are very opposite from each other, almost entirely opposites. Joel is quiet and shy and doesn't really have an interesting life, he goes to work and then home. For example, he told Clementine at the beginning of the movie and screenplay, "Sorry. My life isn't that interesting. I go to work. I go home. I don't know what to say." On the other hand, Clementine is wild and likes to be unique, as we can see with the many different hair colors she had and she is loud and outgoing. In the scene where Clementine invited Joel to her apartment she said, "God bless alcohol, is what I say. Where would I be without it." She describes herself as "a vindictive little bitch." Joel describes Clementine in his journal saying,"I met someone tonight. Oh, Christ. I don't know what to do. Her name is Clementine and she's amazing. So alive and spontaneous and passionate and sensitive." As you may see they are very different from each other and they are both not perfect, they are far way from perfect, and what this story tells you is that love is not perfect. Love is not about finding the perfect person and then you'll become perfect too, love is about being able to collaborate with another imperfect person in a relationship and being able to face each other's differences and go through problems together.
We can see a lot of conflict between Clementine and Joel's relationship as a result of their different personalities and characters. They have good and bad times but we can mostly see fights between them in the story. For example, when she came home at three in the morning and he was in the couch waiting for her. Then she tells him that she made a dent in his car so Joel tells her, "I can't believe you wrecked my car. Your car...You're driving drunk, it's pathetic...Well it is pathetic. And fucking irresponsible. You could've killed somebody." Right here we can see one of their fights because Clementine is usually irresponsible while Joel tries to do everything right. Clementine is also usually wild and drunk while Joel is always keeping control, trying to tell her to behave. The major conflict in this story was for Clementine and Joel to decide whether or not they wanted to keep up with this relationship even with all the different problems and fights they had. They had to decide whether they're relationship was worth trying for and fighting for. Both had to be able to understand each other and go through their flaws and see what they could do to improve on whatever they did wrong in the past. For example, on that memory when Clementine and Joel go into the house at the beach at night, and Joel decides to leave and she tells him," If only you had stayed." They talk about what they could've done to make this a good and unforgettable memory. This connects to the overall theme because if there would have been no conflict at all between them then we would get the theme that love is living happily ever after but right here we see that love is not perfect, it has problems and fights and its between two imperfect people.
In this story we can also see foreshadowing. The story basically starts with what happens at the end of the story. They were meeting again after they had erased their memories from each other. That is why the car had a dent and that's why when they go to her apartment she tells him about Patrick, who is a character that comes up after Clementine's memories of Joel have been erased. This is kind of foreshadowing but backwards, it is letting you have an idea of what will happen and also tells you what happens at the end. For example, in the beginning of the story when she tells him about getting married to him, that would be foreshadowing to what will happen after the movie ends and also what happens through out the movie and their relationship. This lets you know that they will be together and that they will decide to face their problems together because they are both imperfect and they are both in love. Also, when they are in her apartment and she talks about Patrick that is foreshadowing to later when we are introduced to him. The dent in the car also helps you understand that this happened at the end. All this connects to the theme because this shows that they were really meant for each other and they were really in love because even now that they forgot about each other they meet again and know that they will end together no matter what.
Musicals in Theater (History Essay)
A musical is defined as "A play or movie in which singing and dancing play an essential part." Musicals have been an essential part in theater for quite a long time now. They are so important that we can see them all around us, like in movies, plays and theater in general. An example of a very known musical that is a movie is Hairspray. In this movie we can see how the characters tell their stories by dancing and singing. The art of telling stories through music dates back to time immemorial. The ancient Greeks used music and dance in their stage comedies and tragedies as early as the 5th Century B.C. After that there were others that expanded on the idea and used it in their own theater.
Not everyone likes musicals and many people are totally against them but there are also people who love them. Some people might not like musicals because they think that they are just so loud and noisy and could get annoying but the reason why a playwright might want to turn his or her play into a musical would be to add a different perspective to their story. There might be audiences who would want to see the actual play but there might be many more that would enjoy watching the musical. There are different things people like and that is what the playwright has to keep in mind when writing a play or musical.
In musicals, the actors don't just say their lines with dialogue but also with song. This is why musicals are better than traditional plays sometimes because often words can't express everything the actor is trying to show like all the emotions. "Musicals combine the full spectrum of all the arts: words, singing, dancing, stage spectacle, providing audiences with something for just about every taste. The addition of music to a standard play heightens emotion, reinforces dramatic action, evokes atmosphere and mood in ways that words alone cannot. Musical theater encompasses a wide range, from revues to Broadway musicals to grand opera, depending on how music functions dramatically in the work.," said Dr. Larry A. Brown. Like what the writer and novelist Victor Hugo said, “Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent." Also like Hans Christian Andersen said, "Where words fail, music speaks." In these quotes we can see that music can express more than just words which makes musicals very important and famous in modern theater. They go a step further in plays. They go beyond the usual acting. "If music possesses an element that raises thought or emotion above words, then it logically follows that musicals are certainly not all flash and smoke. Musicals transform society through their show tunes and spectacular effects and as a result have become an extremely popular form of theatre," said Leigh Mackintosh.
There are a variety of different types of musicals. Such as classical, tragedy, comedy and many others. A famous musical that we have probably all heard of is Chicago, the musical. “A true New York City institution, CHICAGO has everything that makes Broadway great: a universal tale of fame, fortune and all that jazz; one show-stopping-song after another; and the most astonishing dancing you've ever seen. No wonder CHICAGO has been honored with 6 Tony Awards®, 2 Olivier Awards®, a Grammy® and thousands of standing ovations. It's also no surprise that CHICAGO has wowed audiences all around the world, from Mexico City to Moscow, from Sao Paulo to South Africa.” said the Chicago’s official website. As we can see, this is a worldwide known musical that is very famous, popular and great.
Musicals are not just another form of theater but a very important one and without them theater would probably not be what it is today. Musicals have added so many things to theater in general and not just the dancing and the singing but also the music and life and that new perspective of telling a story. They are widely famous because now in our generation dancing and singing is very popular and also music. Music is very important in our world and now there are so many more different genres of music, which make musicals even more diverse and now more people can enjoy them because they love music. Also in musicals you can see a lot of special effects and costumes and props and all this draws the audience to want to see it because of the many different things you can see. All this new technology that we have in our generation makes the especial effects even better and improves the overall musical grabbing more people's attention to musicals. Everyday new things and ideas are added to musicals and every day more and more people start to get interested in musicals. Musicals keep getting more famous and important in theater.
Blog #12
As we progress in the Theater Project, the playwrights think that doing the play about the musical with Tyler in it might be the best choice. I do like this idea but it might take more work to get it done. I also think that even though it is a musical, we shouldn't put a lot dancing and singing in it. What I mean by this is that we should avoid having people dancing and singing through out the entire play. It is okay to have people dancing and singing and music but also have other things going on. I think we should also watch examples of plays that are musicals like Chicago or The Producers.
The Below Link is a website that has a variety of links of websites of how to write musicals:
The Below Links are websites on how to write a musical:
The Below Link is about a group of kids that were part of a musical and it talks about their hard work in making the musical possible:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/how-to-make-a-musical/2011/07/13/gIQAXHn0TI_story.html
The Below Link is a website that talks about musicals, their history and what they are and examples of them:
The Below Link is an article of easy steps for making a musical:
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Blog #11
This week the project manager, the production manager and I have been working on the master calendar for at least the first month as we start this project. For now we have the basic plan of what we will be doing for October.
PowerPoint
Calendar
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