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