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Show & Tell

I chose to read "He Said and She Said." It was written by  Alice Gerstenberg in 1922. I did a search on Youtube to see if anyone produced it, & I found that it was very recently, by Send Amateur Dramatic Society. That was just six months ago. (CITE)

"He Said and She Said" was basically about the element of gossip. The characters consisted of 3 females and a male: Diana Chesbrough, a society girl, Enid Haldeman, her friend, Felix Haldeman, her husband, and Mrs. Cyrus Packard. their friend. It all began when Mrs. Packard went over to visit Enid. She immediately began to tell Enid about gossip that she has heard but before saying exactly what she meant, she was beating around the bush a whole lot and trying to let Enid finish Mrs. Packard's sentences so it is if Mrs. Packard never said the gossip on her own but rather allowed Enid to create the thoughts of Diana being in love with her husband on her own. Mrs. Packard said it was why she didn't get married to one of the boys before the boys had went to off war. Felix had said previously, to Enid, that Diana was a peach and Mrs. Packard led Enid to believe the foolish rumor. Diana then arrived as Enid exited and Mrs. Packard began to speak to Diana about the rumor, and that Enid believed it to be true. Diana then spoke to Felix about this making it clear that neither one of them had feelings were one another and that Diana would never do such a thing to Enid to ruin their lifelong friendship. To clear things up, Diana told Mrs. Packard that she was in love Aubrey Laurence, who had went off to war, and that were married. After Mrs. Packard left, Enid questioned Diana in excitement as to why she hadn't said anything, and Diana said it wasn't true...yet. Diana did in fact love Aubrey but they were planning on getting married soon via proxy. Enid worried that Mrs. Packard would spread news that wasn't true but Diana simply replied "What will people say? In any case, exactly what they choose!"

One dramaturgical choice I realized from Alice Gerstenberg is that she had all the women enter through the upstage center section of the stage and had Felix enter from downstage left. I think she wanted Felix to be set apart from the female cast to maybe men are not the center of this and it all occurred because of the women's gossip in the first place and even though he was slightly caught in the middle, he didn't let his self become part of the middle. He always remained on the outskirts and was trying to help out and be a good friend. Maybe he was simply an outlier of the situation; he started nor ended the rumor itself.

Another dramaturgical choice is that Mrs. Packard was a true definition of the phrase "Character is what you are when no one is watching." She always waited for the party to leave the room to discuss the rumor rather than just being upfront about the whole situation, so that way she builds tension between other and they should really be tense against Mrs. Packard, for she began the mess in the first place. As soon as she got around everyone, she immediately said she never ever said any of the rumors a day in her life when she led everyone to believe what she said.

Work Cited

Robin Horsley's YouTube Channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-8S6kMch_A

Judith

This was a very strange play for me. I can't even begin to imagine how a director could begin to stage this play. It would definitely take a very creative and crazy mind to figure that one out. But anywho, Judith, herself as a character is a reflection what could be the first striking image of a play, the center striking image and the final striking image of the play. It's a rather random thought but it makes sense to me. In addition, I think the major dramatic question could be that "As Judith changes, what are the influences on a scale rather influences to want to kill Holofernes?" That is very important, also the question switch to Holofernes point of view and you think of why in thay way, for example, switching the antagonist to the protagonist rather.

Comments

http://jenniferdownes.blogspot.com/2013/09/alice-gerstenberg-overtones.html?showComment=1380409998382#c4485234361909511372

http://crayonxasxsnail.blogspot.com/2013/09/trifles-by-susan-glaspell.html?showComment=1380410537127#c6988241890671043806

http://wellhithereyou.blogspot.com/2013/09/4000-miles.html?showComment=1380411241052#c8954864749398753226

http://wellhithereyou.blogspot.com/2013/09/night-mother.html?showComment=1380411677576#c9156170487289544398

4000 Miles

There were moments we all as student felt were unnecessary, like the part that they got high. But for some reason, it made sense & didn't at the same time. Everything they were saying was just coming out so smoothly, fortunately. Sometimes, the characters would lose their words throughout the script for some reason. Very Strange.

There was definitely a motif of 'passive-aggressiveness' from Vera towards Leo. For example, when he broke the knob on accident; In his mind, he thought it had always been that way. She said things like 'you could have admitted you did but it's fine. I'll just have to pay for it. Don't worry about.' I really loved the idea Dr. Fletcher compared passive-aggressiveness to: He said it is equivalent to punishment without confrontation. That is very interesting to me & Vera constantly did that to Leo, throughout the whole script.

Night, Mother

Though this was a funny kind of play, I had several moments where I literally wanted to stop & cry. I can't imagine being in her mother's position doing everything she can to stop her daughter from killing herself. & It was weird b/c it wasn't so much that she was depressed but she actually became so complacent with such things, she was prepared to leave. & for most people it's other way around but I also have to remind myself that this is not the world we live in, but it the actor's world. I love that they were able to bond in that way where she was able to ask all these questions about her dad, but I think the mom went wrong for herself saying all those extra things about her having fits as a 5 year old b/c not only did it not help her daughter stay, but the mom brought out emotions thinking it would help & that only made her feel worse that she didn't help.

Trifles

This is a very skeptical idea for me. As im personally a "visual" learner, i don't think my attention span would be as long for this direction of the play, though it would require the audience to really pay attention or they will lost for sure! That is what could be missing... Definitely, the audience will be able to discover new things about the play & maybe as an audience member, they can begin to create their own world inside their head to what would for them, instead of walking into a show, seeing a specific set and having to change their mind set to fit the world being shown and reallyyy trying their best to stay true the presented world and not the world that surrounds the individual. That is definitely a gain for this proposal. Overall, it is a great idea for me:)

Overtones

This was a very interesting script. I’m actually not used to reading scripts so I felt as if I had to reread a few things & really imagine the world surrounding this story and also the characteristics of each character. I began to have fun with it, imagining what I believe them to look like. Any who, I find it a little crazy to have such conversations with your inner self so much, well at least for it to be so strategic & known as in this play. We don’t always realize how much we are affected by our true thoughts and what that helps & what it doesn’t especially when being judged by society, which I find is the most observing of all, so for these women, all they could do was talk to that voice inside their heads, or they would be seen as weak or “non-cultured.” It was weird that both women were going after something & trying to still keep themselves concealed but their inner selves were very angry at the fact that they couldn’t get their ways.  I believe the inner selves began to have conversation somewhat when Margaret claimed to have visited Turkey. Hetty replied "I don't believe you were in Turkey." And Maggie says," I wasn't, but it is none of your business." I don't think it is so much that the inner selves can hear one another but they both knew they had motives & not everything they said was honest & they both knew that but because they're cultured women, they carried on in that manner. I guess it wouldn't be considered lady like to be blunt. That would then make them "primitive" just like the voice in their heads & they don't want that. It would ruin their reputation & lives as they live now. It is very ironic that Harriet is dying for true love but Margaret needs money, yet they both put on a show for each other, flattering each other & dissing at the same time. Interesting concepts. :)