Show And Tell (Checkpoint 3) --- Zora Neale Hurston - "Spears"

Spears by Zora Neale Hurston
c. 1926
The play was never produced. It won an honorable mention in the first Opportunity literary contest.

This play centers around the Lualaba tribe in a fictitious area of Africa. There has been a drought, and the tribe is slowly starving to death. At the top of the first act, the Lualaba warriors are complaining that there is no game to be hunted, nor is there enough water in the river to harbor fish. Monanga Wa, the King of the Chiefs, calls a council meeting. The women of the tribe break into the meeting to beg the King for sustenance. When the King denies Zaidi, his own daughter, the warrior Uledi produces food for the women while the men look on jealously. The King's elderly councilman, Bombay, suggests that the tribe sell their surplus of women to the Wahehe tribe in order to survive. The women and the men of the tribe all reject this idea and Bombay declares that he is going to the river to drown himself, since his wisdom will not be heeded. Vent Vogel, servant to the Wahehe chief, comes to Monanga Wa to demand their surrender and to be given 50 women, including Zaidi in repayment for the food, which it is revealed was stolen from the Wahehe by Uledi. Uledi intercepts Vogel and cuts off his top-bun, and stuffs it into the servant's mouth to silence him. Vogel leaves, but not before warning of the war that is sure to ensue if they refuse his master's demands. After Zaidi pleads for Uledi's life, the King forgives his act of thievery (which has brought upon this war) and is inspired by Uledi's powerful speech to fight the Wahehe rather than accept their demands. The chief of the Wahehe, Monoko, comes to speak to Monanga Wa, but Uledi rebuffs him, saying that a king will only speak to another king. Monoko leaves, heavily insulted and promising a fight. When a bloody spear is thrown into the clearing where the Lualaba tribe stands, war is declared. All the men leave to go battle the Wahehe warriors, leaving the women alone on stage. The women become terrified by the sounds of the battle and flee, fearing the worst. Zaidi alone remains by the totem pole, and cowers on the ground awaiting her fate. Monoko and Uledi battle, and it is the Lualaba warrior who triumphs. He brings the foreign chief's leopard skin to Zaidi and stands her upon it as it begins to rain.

The elements I found interesting in this play was the duration of the non-speaking action and the lack of ambiguity in the plot. There are several times in the play when the witch-doctor is called to perform some act of magic, and a ritual of dance follows every time. The action is described in detail in the script, but it is only in imagining a performance that you get a sense of how long each of these rituals must take on stage. At the end of Act One, there is an extremely lengthy dance as the tribesmen and women attempt to bring rain back to their desolate land. There are several other rituals, and then the fight sequence at the end, which is only described in sounds and the women's reactions to the approaching noise of the battle. I found this interesting because it creates a more visceral world for this play compared to many plays in the Western cannon. It also creates a feeling of this play as a visual spectacle, which is especially interesting since it has never been produced. The plot itself is extremely straightforward, and there is no ambiguity about why any of the action occurs. Even the placement of women is stated in a point-of-fact fashion when Zaidi tells her father that she is his slave and he responds by affirming that women were made to serve men. The dialogue creates a fully-fleshed world with no room for misinterpretation. By centering the plot around the basic need for food to survive, Hurston creates a world of action and reaction, and not much else.

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Tom Kitt & Brian Yorkey - "Next To Normal"

What I found to be a very interesting choice was the individual progression in the music for each character. Some characters return back to melodies throughout the play, especially Dan when reprises "I Am the One" at the end of the play. I believe this choice indicates his lack of change throughout the play. Though his situation has vastly changed over the course of the show, he has been unable to change the way that he looks at his life and his wife; he cannot let go of his hope that perseverance is all that it takes. Natalie's progression, on the other hand, is characterized by huge changes in tone and tempo. Everything Else is a quick and complex song, but as the play progresses Natalie's songs become less structured and more in tune with the rest of the character's style. By the time Natalie sings Maybe with her mother, she is perfectly in tune with her mother's voice. This is reflective of her feelings that she may become just like her mother, a fear she expresses to Henry. Gabe's music is similar to his father's in that it does not progress or change throughout the play, but it is the tempo of his solos that distinguish his character from the others. After it is revealed that he is dead, Gabe develops an unearthly quality, complete with accompanying dissonant tones. The slow tempo of his music also creates the feeling of a lullaby or even a seduction of those who can hear him. This choice adds to the idea of Gabe's character as a creation of Diana's that sprung from her unimaginable grief, his entire being has been steeped in the heartache that collects around him like a cloud.

Suzan-Lori Parks - "Topdog/Underdog"

The theatrical mirrors of the Lincoln assassination and three-card Monte are both included in this play to highlight the vulnerability of man. Though Lincoln is described in the text as the topdog and Booth is described as the underdog, it is Booth who is still alive at the end of the play. Throughout the play, Parks plays with the power struggle between the brothers, especially their struggle to make money and the means with which they pursue the green. Though it seems that Lincoln is on his way up, having retired from the game and working for a legitimate business, it is revealed that he is about to be fired due to cost management. Booth, the underdog, is just learning the ways of street business, and he is finding this new way of life to be highly rewarding. Though both brothers think they have done what they need to do to come out on top, the odds suddenly fall out of their favor and their relationship reels from their instability. For the play to culminate the way that it does, it is necessary for Parks to set up the idea of fate controlling the men as much as they are controlling themselves. At the beginning of the text, there is a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson: "I am a God in nature; I am a weed by the wall." Parks's inclusion of this quote into the world of the play brings together the concept of perspective and how drastically it can change a man's fate.

Quiara Alegria Hudes - "Water By The Spoonful"

A moment that I find to be an interesting meshing of worlds is in Scene Eight when there is a split scene between Odessa's living room and the chat room. Just before this scene, it is revealed how Odessa is to blame for Elliot's sister's death. When the scene begins, we see Chutes&Ladders and Orangutan interacting in the chat room. Orangutan is trying to get Chutes&Ladders to call his son, but he is unable to muster the nerve to speak when he finally gets an answer and hangs up immediately. After this he quickly logs off and Elliot and Yaz come into the other scene. This scene quickly escalates once Elliot begins interacting with the chat room, and culminates in his own past with drug addiction being revealed to Yaz. Hudes links these worlds together through their relations to each other, particularly all of their relationships with Odessa. Though her daughter's death is on her hands, it is obvious through the relationships that have developed within the chat room that she has reached others whom she feels she could help, though she could not save her own children. When Elliot begins his misguided venture into his mother's chat room he is met with unwavering support of her from Orangutan, who reveals just how much they know about Elliot's mother and Elliot himself. The progression in this scene is done in a way that Elliot's history becomes a shocking revelation against the vicious rhetoric he has been saying about his mother throughout the play.

John Ford - "Tis Pity She's a Whore"

For this production, the first images that came to my mind were of shadows. In Tis Pity John Ford writes the young lovers as one would imagine in any other love story, the main difference being that they are related. With that in mind, I would like to create a poster with just Annabella and Giovanni fully fleshed out in the center with shadow versions of the other characters surrounding them, perhaps the shadows are larger-than-life. I want to create the idea that in the world of this play, only the love of the sibling is true, and all the others who surround them are at once merely shades, but together they form something much more formidable and oppressive. One quote I can imagine accompanying this poster is Giovanni's from Act 1 Scene 1, "Shall a peevish sound, a customary form, from man to man, of brother and of sister, be a bar 'twixt my perpetual happiness and me?" I think this quote demonstrates the desperation they feel to be together. Another possible quote is from Act 2 Scene 5, also Giovanni's, "If hers to me, then so is mine to her, since in like causes are effects alike." This quote I think displays more of their resolve to go through with their affair, especially since it comes later in the play when they have already pledged their love to one another. The last quote I could imagine for this poster is from Act 4 Scene 3, when Annabella has been found out by her husband Soranzo and he is demanding the name of her unborn child's father: "This noble creature was in every part so angel-like, so glorious, that a woman who had not been but human, as was I, would have kneeled to him, and have begged for love." I feel this quote captures Annabella's unquenchable desire for her brother and her deep love for him not as kin, but as a man.

Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz - "House of Trials"

A prevalent convention in House of Trials is mistaken identity. Sor Juana uses mistaken identity to create moments of tension such as when the lights go out and Don Pedro is unsure who he is even fighting. He even has a moment on stage when he recognizes Don _____ and tries to guess at what would bring him to his house. Don Carlos grabs Dona Leonor during the kerfuffle, thinking she is Dona Ana, and proceeds to bring her straight back to Leonor's own father, thinking that he is preserving Dona Ana's honor. The duration of the plot twists that rely on mistaken identity create the idea that subterfuge is incredibly important to this type of play.
Honor, itself, is heavily relied upon to provide a driving force for this play. Each character is willing to go to all lengths necessary to protect their own honor. In Don Carlos's case, he is also willing to do whatever he must to protect Dona Ana's honor since he believes that she has saved him from the police. Dona Ana is so concerned with her own honor that, in the end when it is revealed that the man she has stolen away from the fight is Don Juan, she agrees to marry the man she does not love in order to keep her honor in tact. The repetition of honor needing protection makes it seem like it would be a common trope in Spanish plays if Trials is any indication.