Q 5 Actor Audience Relationship example essay topic

Mamma Mia 1) PLOT The story was based on a young lady named Sophie who would be getting married in a few weeks. She lives with her mother on a small island where they run a small hostel. Before her wedding, Sophie finds one of her mother's old diaries that give her clues about her unknown father. There is a bit of difficulty however because there are three possible candidates that fit the role of her father so she invites them all to her wedding without her mother's knowledge in hope of finding out whom her father really is.

I believe that there were no subplots because it was a basic story with more of a musical theme than one about a story. Q 2) THEMES AND IDEAS I think that the main themes consisted of the different types of love between Sophie's family and friends, relationships as well as a bit of an identity crisis because Sophie doesn't know who her father is therefore she is missing a part of herself that makes her who she is. Q 3) CHARACTERS Sophie Sheridan 4) PRODUCTION VALUES I believe that the costumes were very effective because they portrayed the mood and they were the best when they were singing at the end because they were so bright and make you feel excited although I don't quite approve of men wearing six-inch heels. The lights and the quality of sound were fabulous and I believe that it made the play enjoyable since the play was based on all of ABBA's music. Besides all of the music, I think that the visual effects were very important because it had to have something more than just a basic plot that flowed around ABBA songs. During the performance, they had a rotating stage that could set the scene of the pier, outside as well as inside the hostel.

I found this to be very effective because it was set up well and it set the scene for the actors. Another interesting element was the pathway that was broken up into several sections that could elevate off the floor to represent stairs, a pier, or a pathway. The main background was a blue wall that constantly shimmered. It was as if it was always moving without actually doing so. I think that overall the production values were very effective for setting the time of day by using the lights as well as setting the place using hydraulics to move the walls and pathway of the set. Q 5) ACTOR / AUDIENCE RELATIONSHIP think that actor / audience relationship means how the actors display and interact with the audience.

I believe that it was very important in this play for actors to maintain contact with the audience because it kept the audience interested. Some other plays don't have to focus on actor / audience relationship that much if they are a drama or have an intriguing storyline because that alone should hold the audience's attention whereas in 'Mamma Mia', the best way to hold the audience's interests was by putting lots of effort into visual and audio displays like when a character is thinking, they would think out aloud to the audience as if they were asking for advice or sometimes a character would just crack a cheap joke to get a giggle out of the audience. I could tell that 'Mamma Mia' had a good actor / audience relationship because whenever they started singing the whole crowd was mouthing the words with them and at the very end, a lot of people from the older generation got up to dance Along and that made the whole crowd feel good. Even though the play lacked a lot in its storyline, it definitely made up for it with everything else and I enjoyed it thoroughly.