Script During The Show example essay topic

Tommy Coleman Intro to Theater ProcessKimmika Williams-WhitherspoonGreek Comedy and The Process of Putting on a Show In The Poetics, comedy is defined as "a representation of an action that is laughable, lacking in magnitude, complete, [in embellished speech, ] with each of its parts used separately in the various elements of the play; represented by people acting and not by narration". (Aristotle, pg. 43) Therefore a play that does not adhere to this definition is not considered funny, nor does it produce laughter, which is highly essential to the genre. When Kimmika told me that I was going to be doing a Satyr piece, I was devastated. I was so confident that I would be doing a musical piece in some shape or form.

I would " ve even enjoyed opera, but not Satyr (of all genres) to do a project on. I was intimidated by the genre for my lack of knowledge about it. I was also fearful that my production would not add up to the caliber of the one I saw last spring semester, which followed all the rules, it seemed, of what a Greek comedy was supposed to be. With such anxiety eating at my psyche, it was difficult to move forward confidently with this project. On top of that, I was in the middle of rehearsals for Jitney, so I was not sure that I would pull my weight for the project.

What is funny is that for the most part, my fear should " ve been the same fear as my partners who did not do as much as I did for this project at all. Firstly, as far as meeting with my group members was concerned, that idea was cute in the beginning. Abbey, Phuong and I met during classes and discussed ideas for a possible Greek play. Then we suggested ways to come up with concepts and bring them back to each other.

However not too long into the duration of the project, communication became non-existent. The only time I talked to my group members was during class time in Theater 011. Outside of class, there were no meetings. There was an attempt at one, but we got our times scheduled wrong. For me, it was impossible to meet during the evenings due to rehearsal for "Jitney" by August Wilson, performances of "Jitney", and then rehearsals for a fashion show that I was a part of. But because there was no communication between any of my group members by e-mail or phone, it was quite a shocker when I realized that one of my group members (Abbey) had dropped the class and forgot to let Phuong and I know.

So adding to the fiasco was Abbey's absence, leaving the bulk of the work to either Phuong or myself. And since it did not seem as if Phuong was going to take initiative and write the script, I was designated / volunteered. I guess the reason I was so proactive about writing the script is because no one else decided to take action, so I stepped up to the plate. What a bad decision that was.

When I said that I would take on the task of writing the script for the Satyr piece, I had no idea how draining and challenging it would be. I tired to convince myself that I would enjoy this assignment regardless of what it demanded. So first, I tried to think of a concept. Considering all the things making headlines in the news at the time, I decided to draw my inspiration from recent events. So the only thing that seemed even worthy of comedic authorization was Michael Jackson's trial. Everything about it gave me material that I could possibly use.

Besides, I was always curious as to why this trial was so important when issue like racial profiling, teenage pregnancy, and drugs are still a problem in our country. I also wondered how zany Michael and his family must seem in person. So I decided to put my imagination to work and set this scenario in ancient Greek times. Without the help of my group members, I initially came up with a blueprint as to what was going to happen. Upon beginning, I knew that my setting would be a courtroom-like area. I also knew who the characters would be (this is where my group members put their two cents in) There would be Michael, his mother (since she is the most important person in his life), his sister, Janet, a Judge, and the family who was accusing him.

I didn't know who the Pan character would be, but I knew the chorus would be workers inside of the courtroom. At first, the chorus was supposed a bunch of reporters commenting on the trial, but later that idea was changed; as was the idea to delete Janet from the cast list. I began to write the script after Jitney was over. Trying to write the script during the show would " ve worn me out and my body shuts down when I over exert myself. What I soon realized is that writing the script was still a hassle even after the show.

On top of rehearsals for other shows, I had to get the script done, find actors available during class time, and have a rehearsal for the show. So I started working on a script during the second week of April. I typed five pages one evening at Tuttle man library starting at 1: 00 am and finishing at 5: 45 in the morning. A great deal of the first five pages was "flow". But before I could turn my flow into dialogue, I needed names for my characters. So I went online to find Greek names and what I found was a site that had Greek names and what they meant.

For example, every character has a last name in this piece. "Galatea" means pale like milk (or something similar to that). "K eres" meant mean-spirited. "Aegis" meant justice.

"Eusebius" meant pure while "Parthenos" meant virgin. Cassondra's name had a definition: a woman who was not believed. I thought that by using names that had a meaning, I could play the truth or irony behind the names, for one is named for a reason. After that, I was able to write the characters as they appeared to me in my mind. And at the moment I began writing, I realized that it was not as difficult as I thought it would be to write this show... or was it? As soon as I began writing the script, I began promising to Phuong that "it will be done soon".

That was laughable, because I only had five whole pages of the script done and I was nowhere near finished. I gave her the pages anyways and told her how it would end. But late night practices for my other shows were eating away at my time. And the script did not get fully completed until the day before we were supposed to go up. What gets me is the fact that my partner knew I had a lot of rehearsals and she did not try to volunteer to take some of the hassle upon herself.

Luckily, once I started the show, the rest wrote itself. The only character problem that I did have was my Pan-like character. I had no clue where I would put him in the shoe, but once I decided to make him Mikolas's errant, I had a plot, a conclusion and one very oversexed character. Now selecting actors to portray certain characters was stressful, especially since I had to find them all at the last minute. The week before the show went up, I had to call upon my best colleagues to see if they could do the show.

I asked them to read the existing five pages and they enjoyed it and signed on. Before randomly casting people into certain roles, I asked my colleagues to read for certain roles. I knew I wanted Lorene as Cassondra, no doubt. The role was written for her. Finding Charisma was going to be task, but K oya Frye gave such a good reading that I gave her the part immediately.

Finding children would be hard though since I needed them to be shorter than Lorene. At first I had Kalif and Anthony as the two children, however Kalif dropped out on me the day before, forcing me to cast one of my original chorus members, Adrianna Silver, as the youngest child. Ankit volunteered to be my Pan-character and I begged Gavin to be my Mikolas. I felt he was the only one who resembled Michael Jackson from his early years.

As far as King Aegis was concerned, I was playing him. I knew his character all too well, so I designated myself as Aegis. Phuong and Morunji played the chorus. Morunji stepped in the day before the show went up and Phuong, who seemed indecisive about how she could participate, almost had no choice as to what she could play. I definitely didn't see her as any of the other characters. So the casting was completed.

With the costumes, I knew for a fact that I didn't have money to make tunics and chitons. I also knew that It would be hard to find anyone else who possessed the items so I decided to play with a color scheme. Since, I would be dealing with politics, as far as the judicial branch was concerned, I wanted to use red, white and blue. I had Mikolas and his family in blue because it is a cool color. It is trustworthy and does not exhibit danger or tension the way red does. Red is a vicious color.

It shows anger, lust, love, and passion. Cassondra is an example of all of this, which is why she and her family are in red. Aegis is neutral therefore he is in black. The Chorus is also neutral, yet they speak to the audience as well; so they wear white. White is considered an honest color and an audience likes to have someone they can trust. Acis, the Pan-like character, wears brown not for any significant reason, but instead to simulate a flesh-tone so that I could spare the audience looking at Ankit's hairy torso.

The music in the show was just to milk more of the Michael Jackson parody. I know there was not such as song as Beat it or Thriller back in ancient Greek times, but I wanted to make the play relevant. That is why such contemporary music was present. I do not think that I'm leaving anything out, except Phuong's side of the story.

This experience has been entirely grueling and stressful. It has had it's fun moments, but as a whole, I would never ever want to do this again, unless I were taking no other class except this one. It was very time consuming and the genre was not fun to do at all. But thanks to God, and a great group of friends, I was able to deliver a funny performance to Kimmika on the day that it was due. Hallelujah!

Bibliography

1. Aristotle, Poetics, Hackett Publishing Company, Indianapolis / Cambridge, 19872.
Dover, K.J. Aristophanic Comedy, University of Cambridge Press, Berkley and Los Angeles, 19723.
Lever, Katharine. Art of Greek Comedy, Methuen & Co. Ltd., London, 19564.
Norwood, Gilbert. Greek Comedy, Hill and Wang, New York, 19635.