Comedy of Errors

1. In "The Comedy of Errors", the Shakespearean play was performed, but had a modern twist on it when it came to the costumes, music, and set. When looking at the stage from the traditonal theater, you could see the layout of a small town or villege on the stage, which didn't necessarily look Elizabethean, and the costumes were very bright and colorful. Both sets of twins wore bright orange and purple suits, while the sisters wore bright blue and green dresses. Even the characters wigs were brightly colored and matched their costumes! I really liked this twist on the traditional Shakespearean play, because it made the play a lot more interesting to me. I also loved the modern music that was played throughout the play, because it modernized the play even more, which is sometimes difficult to do with a work by Shakespeare.

2. This play takes place in the mid 1500's, and the author is William Shakespeare. The paly write lived in the 16th century in England.

3. In "The Comedy of Errors", the play opens by setting the tone for the rest of the play. Two sets of twins become seperated from their respective twin during a storm in which one set goes with the father, and one with the mother. The actual action of the play begins with one set of twins, Antipholous and Dromio, in the town. Both twin in each set is dressed identically, and the mayhem ensues. Throughout the play, both Dromio's and Antipholous's confuse each other and everyone else in the town, including the sisters Adriana and Luciana, who both repeatedly speak to the different twins. The action finally resolves when mother and father are reunited in the town, and the two sets of twins are brought together, which is when everyone begins to realize what had been happening throughout the day.

Phantom of the Opera

Describe

The Phantom of the Opera is a powerful story that is centered around the Paris Opera House in 1870, with occasional flash-forwards to the characters in the current year of 1919. The main character, Christine Daae, is a young dancer for the opera house, who has the opportunity to sing for the new owners once the Opera House is sold. She astounds them, and quickly becomes the star of the opera, much to the dismay of the current star, La Carlotta. When she performs on opening night, her former childhood love Raoul notices her, and comes to find her after the show. Little does he know, but when he leaves her dressing room, the "phantom" comes to her room and takes her away to the underground layers of the opera. He has been watching her and coaching her since she was a little girl, since he lives and basically rules the opera house, and is very obviously in love with her. The story continues in a rapid fire way, with many different obstacles occuring for the Phantom, including Christine falling back into love with Raoul and leaving him behind. Between deaths at the phantoms hand, and threatening letters and other omens sent to members of the opera, the Phantom makes no mistake in informing the patrons that he means buisness, and things will be carried out in his ideal method. In the end, the Phantom allows Christine to leave for her life with Raoul after a brief struggle between the two suitors in the dungeons of the Opera House.
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Analyze

I think that there was a lot of symbolism in the Phantom of the Opera, which added to the mystery that the opera constantly alluded. The camera angle and camera shots were very dramatic, because they jumped from item to item and and created the allure of a mystery. The music was the most important aspect of the movie most noteably, since it was an Opera. Throughout the entire film, you could always detect the tone, and anticipate what was coming next, simply by listening to the score. The Phantom's desire to hide himself, both with the mask and with covering all of the mirrors in his chamber, show that he was ashamed of his appearance, since it had been the cause of his grief and agony for so long.

Interpret

Although the story of the Phantom of the Opera may come across and being a love story, it is so much more than that. The struggle between the Phantom and Raoul depicts a classic battle between dominant male characters, while La Carlotta losing her role to Christine Daae shows the struggle for an older performer to keep up with newer and younger talent. Although the opera was set in the late 19th century, the themes it portrayed can still radiate with younger and newer viewers.

Evaluate
I think that the Phantom of the Opera is a great work, and was as great in the movie and it was everytime that I have seen it performed on Broadway. The singing was superb, the musical score was phenomenal, the special effects fit perfectly with everything that was taking place in the film, and the actors portrayed the characters in a great manner.

Opera Assignment

 1. Opera is a classical western tradition where performers combine dramatic scenes with a musical score. Opera includes all the aspects of a spoken play, such as costume, speaking lines, and even dancing, but the addition of the musical score makes it much more dramatic and sets is differences from other types of theater. Light opera, or comic opera, has a much less dramatic nature than a regular opera, and typically has a happier ending as well. Musical theater is very similar to opera, because it contains dialogue along with musical numbers, but it differs because equal importance is given to both the music and the dialogue and other workings of the play.

2.Fully training someone to have an operatic voice takes many years, and requires an education similar to that of a college education. Singers have to spend years with a teacher learning how to to use the resonance space in your pharynx to give a fuller sound, and also how to amplify their voice so it reaches the back of a crowded opera house, since microphones are not used in opera. Someone with a fully trained operatic voice is less likely to end up in a doctors office with vocal problems, because they are trained the correct way to sing without overworking themselves.

3. La Boheme is one of the most popular operas by Puccini, and has since become a standard in the Italian opera circuit. The opera is about a seamstress and a poet that fall in love, but the poet wishes to eventually leave the seamstress because of her overly flirtatious ways. Unfortunately for the poet, the seamstress is also gravely ill, so he feels too guilty to leave her in her time of need. The poet actually feels guilty because he thinks their time together worsened her condition, since the turmoil that their relationship went through.

Theater Assignment #7

1. A proscenium stage is the most common in theater, and is a very traditional stage. In this type of setting, the audience sits on one side of the stage and looks directly at it, while the other three sides remain hidden by the performers and stage crews. Thrust stages are pretty similar, except they have an additional platform or area of the stage that continues and allows the audience to sit on three sides of the stage. Thrust stages allow there to be more intamacy between the actors and audience members, but still allows the convience of the backstage area that the proscenium also has.

2. The fly gallery of a theater is the system of lines, rigging, pulleys, and counterweights that allow the stage crew to quickly and efficently raise curtains and other props out of the audience's view into the fly loft above the stage. Fly gallery's are most common in proscenium theater's because they are designed to house the additional area needed hold the rigging and props. These fly gallery's contain fly systems that are either manual or automated, depending on the theater.

3. A scrim is thin piece of material that can be used in a couple different ways in the theater. One way is in lighting, because when placed over different lights in different fashions, scrims can create many different and interesting lighting effects. It is also used on stage to create a thin but transparent veil between the actors in front of it, and the scene behind them. For example, in The Nutcracker, the audience can see the christmas scene in the living room through the scrim, while the young girl is standing in front of it pretending that she is peeking through a crack in the door. It can also be painted to simply allow a silhouete to take place behind it.