On Thursday October 20th, 2016, at 7:30 p.m., an audience sat eagerly awaiting the world premiere of Family Game Night to begin in Western Washington University Performing Arts Center DUG theatre. Family Game Night is written by Kendra Phillips, produced by Western Washington University’s College of Fine and Preforming arts. Kendra is known for her work with the Seattle Performing Arts company and the Seattle Shakespeare company, as well as the numerous plays she has written including Under the Blanket, Flip, and Pancakes and Eggs.[1]. This play brings the audience’s attention to mental illness and creates an environment in which the audience is left to put the puzzle together themselves. Throughout this play, a family allows Luke, …show more content…
Oceana Dunsire, who played Lily, had a childlike since of wonder and imagination, being an adult and portraying a child can be difficult but Dunsire showed her inner child to her fullest extent and the audience was able to get lost in her childlike reality. Eryn McVoy, who played Kayla, was able to portray a teenager with a mental illness with boundless success, from the nervous ticks that someone may portray to being able to show confusion as if she were experiencing the illness right then and there. McVoy made Kayla a character that the audience loved from the beginning and supported till the end. Dooley was able to show a loving and violent side to his character. From moment one of the show the audience was on the edge of their seat waiting to see the next actions of Luke. Although this play was overall exciting and from beginning to end a heart wrenching story, some of the songs within the play were sentences’ turned into songs and at times were difficult to understand and difficult for the actors to
shall firstly do a summery of the play and give a basic image of what
The tragicomic Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel, is generally considered one of the most important pieces of the modern LGBTQ canon of literature. The graphic novel tells the story of Alison Bechdel’s attempt to find the truth about her father’s sexuality and what lead him to possibly commit suicide. Along the way, Bechdel finds her own sexuality. Bechdel’s choice to write about her and her father’s simultaneous journey to finding their sexuality was revolutionary at the time. Very few authors were writing openly about their own sexuality, and something even more revolutionary that Bechdel addressed was mental illness.
The main theme of the play is trying to put across a strong view to
A predominant feature within this theatrical element is the incorporation of lyrical movement within the acting scenes. A group of lyrical dancers move in and out within the scenes and are used as a foreshadowing method to emphasize situations that hold a current or upcoming significance to the overall theme of the play. For example, in the beginning of the play, the dancers along with Onya are represented through an apparent dream that Elgeba, Onya’s young neighbor, has about Onya being swept away by the currents of the water. The dancers impressively portrayed this concept as the silent waves that were holding Onya up and taking her away. This foreshadowing dream shows Onya’s ultimate destiny and fall from her increasing hardships. Also, the humming and singing from the the actors and dancers throughout the play play a significant role in adding an emotional element to the overall overview of the play. The seemingly sad humming at the beginning of the play was a beautiful introduction that set an overall serious tone to the underlying issues that were at hand. Without the use of words, both of the elements of the lyrical dancers and the humming from the actors expressed meaningful emotions that continuously paved the way for the difficult situations that Onya had to
words so that the sound of the play complements its expression of emotions and ideas. This essay
Throughout the musical, the prowess of each individual performer was on display. Every performer, with the exception of Kristine, expressed a power and vibrato that was breathtaking; the highest notes lilting and the lowest notes thundering. I was in awe during a majority of the performances because of the commanding singing in each performer.
meanings along with what is going on in the plot of the play, it is
As I reflected more and more on Wilson's masterpiece, my anger turned to curiosity Instead of my curiosity waning, it grew. I felt like I was unraveling a huge ball of yarn. In a play about family, a million different issues lived. I was astounded at the number of issues that Wilson touched upon, issues ranging from family relationships, to problems in the workplace, racial tensions, and infidelity. And under each one of these was another, underlying issue, the reason, or the catalyst that enabled these to prevail. Part of the genius of this piece is that it is like an onion, with many layers, and can be interpreted on many different levels.
It was very nice to read something that had a lot of drama and suspense. This story has a mix of everything. It has a bit of suspense, drama, and comedy; therefore, it led it to be a very nice play. The people that would most like this play, has to be people who like suspense, drama, and thriller. These people would like it, because this story has a mix of everything, so the people who like to have a mix in their stories, they will love this story. It will suit them, and will give them a pleasure of reading a nice
reach into the ideas and themes of the play so we will have a good
story and lasting throughout the play with the constant themes of deception and doing evil in the
In the first chapter of Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, a graphic novel by Alison Bechdel, the author uses an intriguing combination of pictures and words to draw her readers through the story with many surprising twists and turns similar to the way a carnival fun house lures in curious adventurers . As the author first introduces her father to the story, one would believe him to be a loving and engaging father. However, once Bechdel begins comparing their playful exchange with the “Icarian Games” (pg. 379) and noting his distraction to the game because of his concern with
“‘Night Mother”, by Marsha Norman, is a play that dives into the struggles of a mother and daughter. First performed in 1983, the play became a major success both in Broadway, which won the Pulitzer Prize for drama, and was first performed as a play. (Spencer, pg. 1) Jessie is a middle aged woman, who is divorced, moved back in with her mother, and struggles with, what she believes, is a failed life. Thelma, Jessie’s mother, realizes that Jessie wants to commit suicide due to comments that Jessie makes. Thelma tries desperately to convince her daughter out of committing suicide; however, she is unable to convince Jessie. Jessie believes that has not reached the potential that her family wanted her to be; therefore, making her a failure in her marriage, her relationship with her son, and for her entire life. After Jessie and Thelma talk about funeral arrangements, Jessie leaves to commit suicide. The play finishes with Jessie saying, “’Night Mother.” and a shot fired, while Thelma realizes that there was nothing she could do. (Norman, pg. 18) The script of the play is very precise in how the actors are supposed to act, what the setting is supposed to look at, the tone that the actors must have when playing the role of Jessie and Thelma, the atmosphere, and the mood that the play is supposed to have.
The musical selections and songs that were sung told a story and narrated the almost the entire film, as is expected in...