Comedy of Errors

1.Drayton Hall is a 400 seat proscenium theater. It’s a fairly small theater but I liked it. The stage has a removable orchestra pit as well. The surface is Masonite painted with flat black latex. There are also two trap doors located on the stage. The set of Comedy of Errors was very colorful. The story takes place in an ancient Greek city called Ephesus. The entire set is of the town. At the beginning of the play there is a large puppet booth set up in the middle of the stage, but after the main introduction, the puppet booth is taken away. The set also consists of a café on the left side, a gypsy house, the house of Antipholus and his wife, and the doctor’s house. Also, in the very middle back of the stage is the church. The set was very believable and colorful. The costumes were amazing. They really contributed to the story. I really liked how everyone had their own hair color. The two sets of twins had the same costume, yet they were different in very small ways. Dromio of Ephesus’s costume was a bit disheveled, while Dromio of Syracuse’s costume was very put together. The gypsy’s costumes were also very believable. They were again, colorful. The main gypsy’s costume consisted of a funny swinging tassel bra. The doctor’s hair was crazy and out there and his dirty look was authentic.

2.This play takes place any time in between 1589 to 1595. Wars in France are referenced, but the exact date is never mentioned. The author was William Shakespeare. It was one of his earliest plays. William Shakespeare lived in both the Golden Age and Jacobean Age. This age is also known as the Renaissance. William Shakespeare lived from 1564-1616, meaning all but the last 13 years of his life were lived during the Elizabethan period of English history.

3.The plot of Comedy of Errors was very interesting. The pre-cursor to the play shows a young family with twins. They acquire another set of twins but are separated at sea. The husband (Egeon) ends up with 2 sons, one from each set of twins, while the wife (Emilia) gets abducted by pirates. The 2 sons who grow up with Egeon are determined to find their long lost brothers and set out on a journey. Their father follows them to Ephesus and is captured by the Duke. He is required to pay a fine and tells the Duke his sad story. Moved by the story, the Duke grants him one more day to pay the fine. Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse arrive in Ephesus looking for their brothers. Antipholus sends Dromio to deposit money into the bank. He then sees Dromio of Ephesus and beats him because this Dromio has no knowledge of this money. He also tells Antipholus that his wife is waiting for him at home. Adriana, Antipholus of Ephesus’s wife gets this news and is worried that her husband is cheating. She confronts the Antipholus who is not her husband along with the Dromio of Syracuse. They both play along and decide to eat dinner with Adriana and her sister. Antipholus of Ephesus returns home for dinner and is enraged to find that he is rudely refused entry to his own house by Dromio of Syracuse, who is keeping the gate. He is ready to break down the door, but his friends persuade him not to make a scene. He decides, instead, to dine with a Courtesan. Inside the house, Antipholus of Syracuse discovers that he is very attracted to his "wife"'s sister, Luciana. She is flattered but leaves. Dromio then tells Antipholus that he has discovered his wife, the ugly, fat housemaid. The Syracusans decide to leave as soon as possible, and Dromio runs off to make travel plans. Antipholus is apprehended by Angelo, a goldsmith, who claims that he ordered a chain from him. Antipholus is forced to accept the chain, and Angelo says that he will return for payment. Antipholus of Ephesus dispatches Dromio of Ephesus to purchase a rope so that he can beat his wife Adriana for locking him out, then is accosted by Angelo who asks for his payment for the chain. He denies ever seeing it, and is promptly arrested. As he is being led away, Dromio of Syracuse arrives, whereupon Antipholus dispatches him back to Adriana's house to get money for his bail. After completing this errand, Dromio of Syracuse mistakenly delivers the money to Antipholus of Syracuse. The Courtesan spies Antipholus wearing the gold chain, and says he promised it to her. The Syracusans deny this, and flee. The Courtesan resolves to tell Adriana that her husband is insane. Dromio of Ephesus returns to the arrested Antipholus of Ephesus, with the rope. Antipholus is infuriated. Adriana, Luciana and the Courtesan enter with a conjurer named Pinch, who tries to exorcise the Ephesians, who are bound and taken to Adriana's house. The Syracusans enter, carrying swords, and everybody runs off for fear: believing that they are the Ephesians, out for vengeance after somehow escaping their bonds. Adriana reappears with henchmen, who attempt to bind the Syracusans. They take sanctuary in a nearby priory, where the Abbess resolutely protects them. The Duke and Egeon enter, on their way to Egeon's execution. Adriana begs the Duke to force the Abbess to release her husband. Then, a messenger from Adriana's house runs in and announces that the Ephesians have broken loose from their bonds and tortured Doctor Pinch. The Ephesians enter and ask the Duke for justice against Adriana. Egeon believes he has found his own son, Antipholus, who will be able to bail him, but both Ephesians deny having ever seen him before. Suddenly, the Abbess enters with the Syracusan twins, and everyone begins to understand the confused events of the day. Not only are the two sets of twins reunited, but the Abbess reveals that she is Egeon's wife, Emilia. The Duke pardons Egeon. All exit into the abbey to celebrate the reunification of the family.

Phantom of the Opera

Describe- The Phantom of the Opera is a musical by Andree Lloyd Webber, based on the French novel Le Fantome de l’Opera by Gaston Leroux. The movie that we watched was a remake of both of these directed by Joel Schumacher. The film was also produced and co-written by Lloyd Webber. The movie is 143 minutes long and classified as a drama, musical, and romance. The Phantom of the Opera grossed approximately $154 million worldwide, and received mixed to negative reviews, praising the visuals but criticizing the writing and directing. In short, the movie is about a disfigured musical genius who lives under an opera house. He coaches a young singer and becomes obsessed with her. Throughout the movie, he terrorizes the members of the singing company.

Analyze- A longer summary: The beginning of the movie begins with an auction being held in the Opera House. An older man buys a monkey who clangs cymbals and sees a broken chandelier. Then the film goes back in time. You see a rehearsal taking place. The opera manager announces that he’s leaving for Australia and a prop falls on the head of the main female performer. She storms off stage and one of the dancers stuns the crowd with her beautiful voice. Christine, the dancer, then takes the place of Carlotta, the previous main female opera performer. After her performance, Christine hears singing in her dressing room. She sees the Phantom and follows him to his lair. He is angry because Raoul, a childhood friend of Christine’s has stolen her heart. Once in his lair, the Phantom tries to convince Christine to stay with him and Christine takes his mask off. This angers the Phantom and he returns Christine to the surface. The Phantom sends notes to the head powers of the opera instructing them to put Christine in the lead role. They don’t listen and put Carlotta in the lead role instead. The Phantom gets mad and changes Carlotta’s voice, forcing Christine to take the lead. While Christine is getting ready the Phantom hangs a man from the rafters, scaring her. She runs to the roof while Raoul follows. When they get to the roof, they proclaim their love for one another and the Phantom overhears. 3 months later, during a Masquerade, the Phantom reappears and presents everyone with a play he has written. He tells them to perform the play or he will wreak havoc on everyone again. During rehearsals, Christine becomes overwhelmed and visits her father’s grave. While there, the Phantom tries to lure her into a tomb but Raoul comes and fights the Phantom. During the performance of the Phantom’s opera, he takes the place of one of the main characters and sings to Christine. Once realizing it is him, she takes his mask off and he whisks her away to his lair once again. Raoul shows up to save Christine but the Phantom traps him and tells Christine that the only way she can save Raoul is to be with him (the Phantom). She kisses the Phantom and tells him that he’s not alone. This startles the Phantom and he lets Christine and Raoul go. Before Christine leaves, she gives the Phantom back an engagement ring he had given her. As an angry mob surfaces, the Phantom smashes all the mirrors and disappears through a secret passage way. The movie goes back to the present as the old man who won the monkey at an auction (Raoul) is at Christine’s grave. When he puts the monkey on her grave he sees a rose with an engagement ring attached to it.

Interpret- The Phantom of the Opera has many underlying messages. The main character, Christine, is one example. The name Christine means “Christ-like”. Christ teaches that everyone is valuable and can be loved. Christine shows this love towards the Phantom. Also, Christine was willing to die to save her true love, just as Christ died to save his love; the world. Another message from this film is that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The Phantom was physically deformed, but he had the gift of beautiful music. He was able to share with Christine this gift of beauty. Just because his physical appearance wasn’t appealing, doesn’t mean he wasn’t beautiful in some way. The movie gives off great feelings because it shows that love comes in all different forms. Christine loved the Phantom before she even saw him, for his music.

Evaluate- I loved the movie. It was really powerful and it was interesting to watch an opera type movie. I’ve never seen one like it before so it was a new experience for me. I thought the actors and actresses did a fantastic job. The music was really pretty and very moving. The movie was very passionate and romantic, as well as horrifying and a little frightening at times. It kept my attention throughout, even though the majority was sung. I really enjoyed watching it and I hope to see it in play form one day.

Assignment #8- Opera

1.An opera generally has no speaking parts. In an opera, everything is sung, including any dialogue between characters. Light opera, on the other hand, has small speaking parts. The majority of it is still sung, but there are significantly more speaking parts. Basically, musical theater is a story with songs thrown in. The majority is spoken and there are some songs. You have to be trained in acting to do well in musical theater and trained in singing to do well in opera.

2.An opera singer is never “fully trained”. Some may claim that they’re fully trained, but it is a continual learning process. Throughout time, singers’ voices can change and they may be able to sing in a different tone. Some altos may change to tenors. It could take 30 years for someone to have their perfect opera voice. It could also take only a few years. Even though more experienced person has more practice, there is no such thing as a fully trained opera singer.

3.Describe- Madame Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini. Puccini based his opera in part on the short story "Madame Butterfly" by John Luther Long. Puccini also based it on the novel Madame Chrysanthème by Pierre Loti. According to one scholar, the opera was based on events that actually occurred in Nagasaki in the 1890s. The original version of the opera, in two acts, was very poorly received despite the presence of notable singers such as Giovanni Zenatello.

Interpret- The plot of the opera is simple: Callous American Pinkerton in Japan has fun with local girl, goes through a marriage charade, and gets her pregnant, then takes off back home again. But this isn't enough. He returns to Japan with his new American wife & wants to take Butterfly's son back with them to America. Butterfly realizes she's been betrayed & dishonored, but also has to admit that giving up her son could result in great advantages to the boy. She makes the unselfish decision to give custody to Pinkerton & his wife, but she also decides to kill herself. It’s a great story and it’s very prevalent to today’s society. There is much symbolism is this story. The woman is like a butterfly; always out of reach and hard to catch.

Assignment #7- Theater

1.Thrust stages and proscenium stages are similar in some ways, but are also very different. In a theater with a Proscenium Stage, the audience sits in front of the stage and watches the performance from one side of the stage only. Thrust stages are similar to proscenium stages but part of the stage extends out into the auditorium so that the audiences sit all around it. While watching a performance around a thrust stage, the audience surrounds the stage by three sides.

2.A fly gallery is a raised platform at the side of a stage that contains ropes and equipment for moving props and scenery. The stagehand works the ropes controlling equipment in the flies.

3.The scrim blocks everything behind it when the light shines from the front. If the light is behind the scrim, you can see everything clearly. In general, anything that is lit will be seen on both sides of a scrim: scrims do not absorb light. Scrims both reflect and transmit light. This means that if a light from a front-of-house position is shone at a scrim, then both the scrim and everything behind it will be lit. This can lead to a variety of interesting effects. A scrim will appear entirely opaque if everything behind it is unlit and the scrim itself is grazed by light from the sides or from above.