Our Play At The End Of Act example essay topic

TASK 4: The ESSAY For the last two terms (semester 1) we have been studying the play "The Crucible" written by Arthur Miller in 1952. Then the following year 1953, Arthur Miller's play "The Crucible" ran on Broadway at the Martin Beck. Despite being a box office success and acclaimed by critics and audiences alike, it was considered second-best to his prior "Death of a Salesman."The Crucible" the play was based and set on actual events that took place in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Our class performed the whole play, which took a total of two hours and ten minutes made up of four acts with a ten minute interval in between act 2 and 4. We studied so long on this performance as the actors needed a great understanding of the play itself and their selected character. We needed a thorough knowledge of "The Crucible" as it is hard to act a character or a scene when it was set along time ago and we as actors never actually experienced it, so we had to study the part to minor detailing to make the play as realistic as possible, because after all the play is a 'Realistic".

The style of the play was Realistic, as it is based upon actual events that took place in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. To keep the style of the play intact we used many different issues to give the audience a sense that they could come to terms with. By using Empowerment as a major theme in our play, aloud the older aged audience to relate to as Empowerment was a common issue back in the days. Empowerment was so bad back then that women occupied the lowest rung of a male-dominated society and had very few options in life. They use to work as servants for townsmen until they were old enough to be married off and have children of their own.

We showed this in our performance as Abigail was a slave to John Proctor's sexual whims-he strips away her innocence when he commits adultery with her, and he arouses her spiteful jealousy when he terminates their affair. Another issue used, which is still very much around today Blame. Tituba, whose status was lower than that of anyone else in the play by virtue of the fact that she is black, manages similarly to deflect blame from her by accusing others. The purpose of the play was to educate the public on the events that had taken place in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Miller also wrote the play on an "important theme" The "important theme" that Miller was writing about was clear the public in 1953 at the original play's opening.

It was written in response to Senator McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee's crusade against supposed communist sympathizers. Despite the obvious political criticisms contained within the play, most critics felt that "The Crucible" was "a self contained play about a terrible period in American history". Having this as the main reason why Miller wrote the play, he educated the people on how the real accused witches in Salem back in 1690's used to flip the tables on the upper class citizens and blame them, they use to (name names). This is shown in our play at the end of act one where Abigail starts naming names knowing she was a huge suspect she turns the tables and becomes a powerful girl amongst the village. Throughout all of history, there has always been discord between the forces of "good" and "evil"; it is the most basic of conflicts. In The Crucible, Miller has submerged the characters in an atmosphere of "evil", such that their true personalities are revealed to the audience, and thus are subconsciously divided into "good" and "evil".

Another issue explored in the play was Reputation. Reputation was tremendously important in Salem, where public and private moralities are one and the same. In an environment where reputation plays such an important role, the fear of guilt by association becomes particularly pernicious. Focused on maintaining public reputation, the townsfolk of Salem feared that the sins of their friends and associates would taint their names. As I stared as Thomas Putnam, who is a very rich, upper class, respected member of the village, I had to act verbal and non-verbal communication skills that showed his total wealth and importance. My reputation was of a high distinction as members from Beverly (a town outside of Salem) had heard of me as "distinguished company".

My appearance had to be of, a some what smart and rich looking gentlemen, so my costume was straight black pants with a long black overcoat and a black top hat. This was very effective as on the night I was the richest looking member of the whole cast of characters. Even down the lower end of the class chain like Tituba and Francis showed their reputation by having shabby clothes on and dirty faces with no shoes, which straight away effectively brought out their position in the village. While on stage in verbal my strengths were definitely in delivering the lines themselves rather than remembering them. My pitch may have been a little loud, but I felt that my pace was reasonably steady and, I speed up and projected louder when I had to say the angry line "The Marshall ill call the Marshall" at the very end of act one.

My tone could have been a little better, but with it I was trying to get the tone of a rich man. I felt this hard to do as the rich tone I know would be snobby as that is what we see and hear everyday through characters on television. My articulation was very good as I felt I ran the words on very smoothly and did not stutter or miss pronounce my lines. Non verbally my posture was like a rich mans, it felt really good to get into my character and walk around the stage in him. I physically got into the body of a rich man and it helped to bring together my verbal communication. In the middle of act one where Proctor try's to walk of with my fire wood I walked up to him with a straight back, my hands together in the middle of my stomach and my head up high, in doing so it helped to say my lines as I felt It was actually me talking not my character.

Ezekiel Cheever (Matt Harvey), Matt was a very good Cheever, on the Tuesday night performance Matt's character shone through brilliantly, his tone and pitch of voice was great, and you could say the same with his posture and physical appearance. Then on the Thursday night performance, he let himself down a little by leaving his character half through an act and he turned back into Matt. This made thee play greatly funny but as The Crucible was a realistic not a commedia dollar " te it upstaged some main characters and the audience laughed so loudly they missed out some crucial lines spoken by Proctor. Over the last two terms we prepared long and hard for the rehearsal last week and it went all to plan and much better. The whole class can walk away saying that they have learnt something about the effort and preparation it takes into devising up a play rehearsing it the performing. This play was only our first as a class and we have a lot to improve on, the noise backstage while the play is on, working together right from the word go and not to criticize people.