Riley Valentine Play

602 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Strengths and limitations of resilience theory

The play, “Riley Valentine and the Occupation of Fort Svalbard”, by Julia- Rose Lewis is an exploration of the resilience of teenagers. The play is heavily symbolic and supports the dramatic meaning of the show. Throughout the Queensland Theatre Company’s interpretation of this play, the director, Travis Dowley, expresses forms of dramatic elements to articulate three types of manipulations. These manipulations include the manipulation of body and voice, space and the creation and manipulation of dramatic mood. Through these types of manipulations, it portrays the dramatic meaning towards the performance. Although, the use of space throughout Travis’s performance allows the audience to identify this dramatic meaning. In the play, Riley Valentine …show more content…

This is indicated a lot throughout the play. Riley in the performance supported the fact that he was a very unsure person and very rarely had any certainty in his voice. However, the certainty was there when Riley was talking about the end of the world. Riley during the storm emitted the feeling of uncertainty but comes out the storm a better person. This is indicated by the way he stood. At first, he never stood securely and in a solid stance. He always made sure that he balanced his weight on either foot. Riley after the storm stood facing the audience straight on, in front of Elliot, with self-assurance. His voice also indicated no wavering and afraid. Through the use of manipulation of body and voice, it showed Riley’s journey from being insecure and unsure to being resilient through the duration of the storm to coming out the other side with confidence and passion. Elliot though demonstrates the resilience of youth through the use of her body and voice. Although, she does project that nerdiness about her but she is still socially accepted and doesn’t feel isolated as Riley. However, the way Elliot moves suggest the confidence is a mask or cloak, symbolizing that teenagers can be confident under a mask or cloak so society can’t identify them. Throughout the performance, Elliot does suggest that communication is vulnerable towards teenagers. This is suggested when Elliot follows Riley to gather

Show More
Related

  • Divisions in Rayson's Inheritance

    1164 Words  | 3 Pages

    To an extent, the characters in the play represent aspects of the Australian identity and experience. However, Rayson's vivid grasp of speech patterns to evoke character, and her ability to manipulate the audience with humour and pathos move the text beyond mere polemic and stereotype. In an almost Brechtian way, she positions us to analyse as we are entertained and moved.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Spitfire Grill

    976 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is imperative to understand the significance of the profound effects these elements have on the audience’s response to the play. Without effective and accurate embodiments of the central themes, seeing a play becomes an aimless experience and the meaning of the message is lost. Forgiveness and redemption stand as the central themes of the message in The Spitfire Grill. Actors communicate character development through both nonverbal and verbal cues; their costumes serve as a visual representation of this development by reflecting the personal transformation of each character. In the case of The Spitfire Grill, set design is cut back to allow for the audience’s primary focus to be on the actors and their story. Different from set design, the use of sound and lights in The Spitfire Grill, establishes the mood for the play. In other words, every theatrical element in a play has a purpose; when befittingly manipulated, these elements become the director’s strongest means of expressing central themes, and therefore a means of achieving set objectives. Here again, The Spitfire Grill is no exception. With the support of these theatrical elements, the play’s themes of forgiveness and redemption shine as bright as the moon on

    Read More

  • Leff’s “Burn Your Maps”: Dripping With Realistic Human Characteristics

    1730 Words  | 4 Pages

    Literary theorist, Kenneth Burke, defined dramatistic explaination by the prescence of five key elements. This list of elements, now popularly known as Burke’s Pentad, can be used to asses human behavior as well as dicipher literary themes and motives. The five elements; agent, purpose, scene, act, and agency, have been found highly useful by performance study practitioners in translating texts into aesthetics. When systematically applying Burke’s Pentad to “Burn Your Maps,” a short story by Robyn Joy Leff published January 2002 of the Atlantic Monthly, the analyzer can realistically grasp the emotional and logical motivations and tones of the text. By doing so, the performer becomes an enlightened vessel for the message Leff wants to communicate. The Pentad can be described with simple questions like: Who? What? When? Where? How?, but asking the small questions should always lead to more in depth analysis of the element, and it should overall, explain the deeper question: Why?

    Read More

  • The Dysfunctional Family in Why I Live at the P.O.

    1327 Words  | 3 Pages

    Drama, and Writing. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 6th ed. New York: Pearson-Prentice, 2010. 40-49. Print.

    Read More

  • The Road to Escape: An Analysis of Acting and Role Playing

    932 Words  | 2 Pages

    Acting is the performing of a position or the role of a character for a temporary amount of time. Richard Yates’ Revolutionary Road, a tragic novel, challenges the preconceived notion that the 1950’s was a cheerful time where everyone had the perfect lifestyle in the Suburbs by introducing his readers to three distinct characters who are anything but pleased with their life. Yates proposes the idea of escape as a common thread in society of which everyone dreams, but no one can capture. Due to their desire to escape reality, April, Frank, and Helen turn to acting and role playing to change their personalities through hiding flaws, putting on a happy façade, and playing house.

    Read More

  • Communication In A Note On A Marriage

    891 Words  | 2 Pages

    Communication is a vital component of everyday relationships in all of mankind. In plays, there are many usual staging and dialogue techniques that directors use to achieve the attention of the audience. However, in the play, “Post-its (Notes on a Marriage)”, the authors Paul Dooley and Winnie Holzman use both staging and conversation in order to convey the struggles of modern relationships. The play is unconventional in how it attempts to have the audience react in a unique way. The authors use staging and conversation to portray to the audience that there are complex problems with communication in modern relationships.

    Read More

  • The Glass Menagerie Essay

    680 Words  | 2 Pages

    The pointedness of the play is created through a distinct plot path. The observer is lead through the story, seeing first how greatly Amanda Wingfield influences her children. Secondly, the play-goer notes how Tom Wingfield desperately struggles and writhes emotionally in his role of provider- he wants more than just to be at home, taking care of his all-too-reminiscent mother and emotionally stunted sister. Tom wants to get out from under his mother’s wing; his distinct ambitions prevent him from being comfortable with his station in life. Lastly, Laura struggles inside herself; doing battle against her shyness, Laura begins to unfurl a bit with Jim, but collapses once again after Jim announces his engagement and leaves her, again. Each character struggles and thrashes against their places in life, but none of them achieve true freedom. This plot attests to the fact that true change and freedom can only come through the saving power of God Almighty and Jesus Christ, and by letting go of the past.

    Read More

  • Dramatic Tension in The Crucible

    4276 Words  | 9 Pages

    Through the use of dialogue, stage directions which enable us to envisage the scene on stage and characterisation we can see how dramatic tension is created by Miller. These aspects are to be explored for each act.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Girl Time By Maisha T. Winn

    803 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Act 1, “ Voices can be heard,” Winn shows how these girls express themselves through theatre and can act out different kinds of stories about their lives and the lives they aspire to have. She also proposes that the youth need to be heard in order to find their way in life. Winn explains “ this act will explore theories of play in order to understand its critical role in the lives of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated girls” (P.17). With this in mind, it is clear from the play that each one of these women's performances reflects their deepest desires for life out of jail. Also, it demonstrates how aware they are of why they ended up there, including the social issues and cultural influences that led them to their

    Read More

  • Secrets in Conjugal Relationships

    2363 Words  | 5 Pages

    Goldman, Emma. The Social Significance of the Modern Drama. Berkeley. Edu, n.d. Web. 09 May 2012.

    Read More

  • Goffman’s account of modification of the “self” through performance

    1269 Words  | 3 Pages

    Through providing a micro-level analysis of the “self” through theatrical dramaturgy, Goffman supplies an adequate account of how modification of the “self” happens via performance. Taking parallel theories and ideas, each author builds upon the arguments of the other and Goffman provides enough detailed examples of social development through performance to satisfy the treatises of Berger and Luckmann’s account. Therefore, the arguments of Goffman and Berger and Luckmann work best when combined, giving us the most insight into the “self.”

    Read More

  • Essay on Action, Props, Costumes, and Visual Elements in Trifles

    1131 Words  | 3 Pages

    Susan Glaspell’s play, Trifles, shows the importance of staging, gestures, and props to create the proper atmosphere of a play. Without the development of the proper atmosphere through directions from the author, the whole point of the play may be missed. Words definitely do not tell the whole story in Trifles - the dialog only complements the unspoken.

    Read More

  • The Secret Garden Essay

    732 Words  | 2 Pages

    All dramatic productions feature the elements of drama. Following a viewing of the scene ‘Someone’s crying’ from the 1993 movie ‘The Secret Garden’ three of the elements of drama have been assessed. Role, character and relationships have been utilised in ‘The Secret Garden’ to create anxiety and suspense, enticing the viewer to solve the mysteries the Secret Garden presents. The protagonist in the scene is a young girl, around the age of ten who during the night leaves her room to explore her residence. The protagonist narrates the scene; she begins by stating that the ‘house seems dead like under a spell’. This makes the viewer anxious and fearful for the safety of our young protagonist. The protagonist is brave. She pushes open a door and

    Read More

  • Character Analysis Of Tennessee Williams Suddenly Last Summer

    1026 Words  | 3 Pages

    Tennessee Williams’ Suddenly Last Summer is a one-act play with a cast of colourful characters ranging from the eccentric Violet to the troubled Catherine. One individual, George Holly, is more minor than others, and as such might get overlooked. However, the Fictional World method of analysis uncovers new insight into his nature. By analysing George’s character in the Social World of the play specifically, we get a better understanding of how traumatic and powerful the climax really is.

    Read More

  • Peter Brook

    1450 Words  | 3 Pages

    On stage, these points were, looking at the opinions of a majority of both the audiences and the critics, presented successfully by Brook and the cast he worked with. From the prison guards who loomed in the background, clothed in butcher aprons and armed with clubs, to the half-naked Marat, slouched in a tub and covered in wet rags, forever scratching and writing, to the small group of singers, dressed and painted up as clowns, to the narcoleptic but murderous Charlotte Corday, Weiss and Brook offered a stage production that both engaged and amazed the audience, while at the same time forced them to question their role as the audience; no better exemplified than at the very end of the play, where the inmates, standing menacingly at the edge of the stage, actually begin to applaud the very people who applaud their performance, aggravating and confusing some, but forcing most t...

    Read More

More about Riley Valentine Play

Open Document