Monday, September 15, 2014

Blog #3

Now, many plays crossed my mind while considering this prompt. Back in my junior year of high school, I was in a production of 'To See the Stars', which is based off of the 1909 Triangle Shirtwaist factory woman's strike over woman's unfair wages and poor working environments. Being a fairly 'spoiled' teen living in about a time period 100 years after the show is actually set, I figured we would have a hard time, as a cast, relating to this story and giving a convincing performance. After reading the show, I still felt this way and was scared to approach it and begin work. A few weeks into rehearsal, we were becoming these characters, we were becoming these women and living through them onstage. They weren't necessarily 100% true people, names, and identities, but were based off of real people. We all become engrossed in such challenging characters and felt it all. After researching the strike and realizing what they all went through, I would say that being in that show was a real realization of 'true' theatre, not so much like the previous show my school put on.....Alice in Wonderland....which was till a great experience, just very different. 

In January, LSU's Musical Theatre club put on a production of 'Grease' and I was lucky enough to land the fun and crazy role of Frenchy. Now, this is a very fun and upbeat production that I had one of the best times participating in, but I'd have to say that I didn't get quite the feeling I got being in it than I got from being in 'To See the Stars', 'Les Mis', or 'Titanic the Musical'....all of those plays/musicals are based off of real situations/ and or real people that give you this feeling that not many other productions can provide. And I love shows such as Grease, Alice in Wonderland, and any of the other campy, upbeat productions that are circulating around, it's just interesting how being involved with a show or even in the audience that has the 'truth' or based on sense behind it leaves you with a different feel. 

As much as I loved 'Aftermath', I feel it was very biased and onesided and clarified, leaving you as an audience member almost forced to feel a certain way. Whereas verbatim shows give you facts, word for word, real names, real exact events, which give you the chance to think for yourself, and feel how you feel about it for yourself. 
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1 comment:

  1. UnknownSeptember 17, 2014 at 9:00 PM

    Genna,

    Your view on being involved in 'true' stories and testimonies effecting yourself beyond the performance is really neat to hear. I have never played off of a 'real' or 'true' character but knowing that what you're going through in the performance is what an actual person went through, heightened, puts 'true' theatre in a new perspective for me.

    As for your take on Aftermath, I saw it in a different light but am intrigued of your perspective. I do see how having all the speakers speak in one certain way does give the audience just one part of the story. It goes back to what Martin discuses of having not everything in the archive as part of the documentary. "This begs the crucial question: What is the basis for the selection, order, and manner of presentation of materials from the archive?" Someone had to select these people and edit what they said and organize it in a manner where we get the stories to all align with one another. It's possible that if it was organized in another way that we could see another side and be able to decide for ourselves.

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