I attended a play of East Los Angeles College Theatre Department’s production of The Last days of Judas Iscariot. Written by professional playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis and directed by East Los Angeles College’s Rodney Lloyd Scott. This was my first time seeing any production done by the play wright Stephen Adly Guirgis. The Last days of Judas Iscariot capture the battle between the mercy of God and personal freewill as a individual. The play was a good balance between the two genres those being comedy and drama to make an enjoyable production that had me captured thought the entire time. The general plot of the Last Days of Judas Iscariot is the trial of the well-known traitor Judas Iscariot showing two sides and depicting the true intentions of his actions and determining if it was for his selfish needs or for the salvation of mankind. …show more content…
Upon first glance the background looks run down, the broken windows, stairs that look very unstable, trash everywhere, tag on the wall that say “There is no God’, and somewhat foggy. This aided to the overall aura of the production giving a gloomy aspect and seeming to represent the purgatory. After seeing the set I began to think this was a tragedy but once the play began it changed entirely. This was very different which was why it enticed me and caught my interest from the very start. Another aspect that helped with overall production was the costumes of each individual, the trail in the purgatory had a more modern style than compared to those who they called on to the stand. This differentiated the time era of one another and contributed to the reality aspect of
Burns’ costumes were executed in way I had never seen in a play before. Instead of sticking with one style for costumes, it evolved through out the play. In Act 1, the characters were in the first stages of an apocalypse. The clothes they wore were average and looked like something that would be in a Sear’s catalog. Actually, I did not even think they were in a high stress situation until later in the act. I thought they were just some young adults out having a good time in the woods or some abandon lot. Their clothes helped me connect them to our current time. However, in Act 2, the characters’ costumes took a turn for the worse. It was obvious with the state of the clothing that a considerable amount of time passed in the play. The clothes they wore were in horrible condition. They were dusty, had holes littered through out, and ill fitted. Yet, this was perfect costuming for the chapters. It showed how the world became destitute and the people in it scavengers. A lot of the pieces looked like they came from dumps or maybe places that were once on fire. A remarkable thing about their distressed clothing was that it stilled looked colorful and cheery. It perfectly captured the essence of the scene. Lastly, Act 3 had the most ostentatious and gaudy costuming out of all the acts. In thus act, the characters’ lives were not shown, instead it showed the play that they participated in. The costumes were flamboyant and paid homage to theater from the past. Gold and heavy fabrics were used for the Simpsons, to make them stand out and show their importance. On the other hand, the chorus wore simple white togas that made them look
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
This reflects the despondent mood and foreshadows Haemon’s suicide. The set of the play is successful in generating a suitable atmosphere and is reflective of the chaos that will occur. A significant aspect of the play is the acting and wardrobe, because it helps demonstrate the personalities of the characters.
The use of lights throughout the play did not vary often. Throughout most of the play, bright overhead lights portrayed the play’s main set room: a small town beauty salon. The lights created an atmosphere that was not only cheerful, but also warm and inviting. On each side of the stage, warm, more natural lighting was used to make the small outdoor areas more realistic. Lights were also used to convey
“Maybe it was / because the only time / I hit a baseball / it smashed the neon cross / on the church across / the street” (1-6). The readers are clearly presented with a scene of a boy playing baseball and accidentally breaking a church cross. The boy then explores and toys with the possible divine consequences for accidentally breaking a cross with a baseball. “Maybe it was the demon-stoked / rotisseries of purgatory / where we would roast / hundreds of years / for the smallest of sins” (11-15). Here the poet effectively uses imagery to show the reader how a child’s imagination may perceive hell. This may also show the impressionability of the Church on a freethinking child and how the combination can be profound on a young boy with internal conflicts. This can also apply to children’s fantasies and their carefree attitudes which allows them to blend what mindsets they were forced into with that of their
The setting is a theater but it is not just a site for plays. Poe describes it to be that way to trick the reader, but the theater is actually the setting for mankind. We play our lives in this stage for everyone else to see. Lines three through six describe the crowd and how they are there to see "a play of hopes and fears." If people would look beyond the point of reading the line just to understand the words, they would see that the play is actually the lives of everybody in society. I say this because everyone has their own hopes like getting a good job, succeeding, having a family and ultimately dieing happily. Along with their hopes, everyone also has their personal fears.
Mr. Kenneth Muir, in his introduction to the play - which does not, by the way, interpret it simply from this point of view - aptly describes the cumulative effect of the imagery: "The contrast between light and darkness [suggested by the imagery] is part of a general antithesis between good and evil, devils and angels, evil and grace, hell and heaven . . . (67-68)
...ude the controversial issues about Jesus. Andreas seemed to have been on the border line with following Jesus and believing he was some guy that was telling lies around the cities. It’s not until Jesus is up for execution when he becomes a follower of Christ. Once Andreas returns, he learns that Barabbas and two zealots were arrested. Barabbas is Andreas’ friend, so he decides to propose ways of rebellion to the Romans. Pilate decides to have a meeting with Andreas about his proposal leads. Pilate manipulates Andreas’s proposal by giving the people of Jerusalem the decision which criminal to keep from execution: Barabbas or Jesus. In the end the people chose Barabbas which meant Jesus, including two other criminals, was sent to be crucified. The story concludes with Andreas recognizing Jesus’ power after so many of the people in his life have been changed by Jesus.
The play “Everyman” is about a complacent Everyman who is informed by Death of his approaching end. The play shows the hero’s progression from despair and fear of death to a “Christian resignation that is the prelude to redemption.” Throughout the play Everyman is deserted by things that he thought were of great importance portrayed by characters that take the names of the things they represent.
The cinematography enforced the mood, drama, and plot. The use of color in the film was telltale of the mood. The colors were drab, lifeless, mellow colors. These colors were telltale signs of the setting and mood of the play. The setting was in a sorrowful, dirty, suffering country; the mood was sorrowful and suffering as well.
One of the themes that was made very clear was poverty. They all had very little money and could barely support their selves. They lived in very unsanitary places, the church was full of people and it didn’t even look like a church. Apartments stairways would be covered in people and dead bodies. When someone died, they didn’t have enough time or money for a proper barial, the would just be thrown in a garbage truck.
When you first enter the theater, you are immediately in awe of the strongest aspect of this production: the set. The stage features a life-sized enchanted forest with “tress” as tall as the ceiling and a lit-up backdrop of a twilight sky. The tress would move around throughout the performance to make way for different scenes. In front of your very eyes, an enchanted forest would turn into the outside of a charming house with a lit porch and a well. The twilight sky would turn to a starlit sky and a soft spotlight simulating moonlight would compliment the faint sound of crickets. Suddenly the house and tress move around and you’re in a town with a little cart selling baguettes, or a lush dining room with Victorian wallpaper, a chandelier, and china displayed on the walls. The world shakes once again and now you’re in, inevitably, a ballroom. A white Victorian gate opens up to become the walls of the ballroom, and a white marble bridge and staircase appear for the outside of the castle. Adults and children alike were in awe of the craftsmanship and technology.
Firstly I would set this play in the 21st century so that a modern audience could relate to it. Algernon, one of the main characters in the play, would live in a luxury apartment in the centre of London, over looking the River Thames. His apartment would have a minimalist theme to it and would be influenced by aesthetic; for example he would have a piece of abstract art on the wall for no reason other than that he thinks it looks nice.
The play is so well written and the unknown author is given a unique name to its main lead Everyman to symbolize the simple human being. In this play the death is personified in a way which grabs the attention of the audiences and it attracts them to think it’s real instead of being fiction and the superb writing of the unknown author. The author talks about God’s (Jesus) death and g...
Ultimately, I feel that this play is putting to perspective the Christian religious practices; by at the end of the play [the reader] should be able to understand that through forgiveness, a reward is possible. I feel that this play teaches those who follow the Christian faith that they’re people in the world who carry out and do the most outlandish of ideas which may get them caught. Instead of the person being punished for their deed of infraction or as part of punishment, forgive them and you shall be rewarded based on your ability to forgive those who trespass against you (reference to Moses’ Ten Commandments).