Cultural Event: Performance art—theater, classic film, or dance performance
(due within 1 week after viewing the event)
You may earn up to 33 points for your report; to receive the maximum score you must demonstrate effort, comprehension, and thought.
1. (5 points) Identify the title and author/director of the play or film or the dance group and the location and date of the performance.
Mary Stuart, written by Friedrich Schiller, directed by Justin Bates
Location: Snow Box Theatre, Thursday October 29, 2015
2. (20 points) Analyze the play according to Aristotle’s Poetics. In other words, discuss the play in terms of Plot (beginning, middle, end; recognitions/reversals; pity and fear), Character (choose one of the play’s major characters and analyze their goodness, propriety, “realness,” and consistency), Thought/Theme, Diction, Song, and use of Spectacle. In doing so, consider how the technical aspects of the performance (such as directing, lighting, set design, costumes, sound track, choreography, etc.) are associated with the above 6 elements of Poetics.
The plot was intriguing to me. At first, it seemed like it would be a very blan play, with not much deviation from where it started at. Then in the middle, you gain hope for Mary’s release, believing that she is innocent. At the end though, all help for Mary either kills themselves or abandons her and we find out she really wasn’t ever innocent. You pity Mary during the beginning and middle, but then it just comes back to punch you in the stomach and say ‘just kidding, she really DID do all those bad things’.
Mortimer was probably my favorite character in the play. At the beginning he was very convincing of the fact that he wanted to get Mary killed, but then we found out that he actually was on Mary’s side! He seemed to take on the part of his character best. He seemed very real to me and was consistently trying to help Mary the whole time.
The soundtrack and lighting that was used was very cool! I commented to my friend that it was almost like being in the Great Hall at Hogwarts because the lightning and rain sounded very real. For how little props they had, they did very well at getting across the things they needed to to make it a very enjoyable play.
3. (8 points) Identify and discuss aspects of the performance which detracted from its effectiveness or your enjoyment of it?
The actors were very loud. It seemed as though they didn’t realize they were just in a box theatre. At some instances, the actors and actresses seemed stiff, like they hadn’t truly taken on their character. That being said, some of the acting was really good and pulled me right in. There was a lot of yelling trying to get emotion out and that was somewhat distracting at times, like the only two ways to portray emotion were yelling and whispering.
