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.

Eugene Scribe - "The Glass of Water"

The two moments that have been superimposed onto this play by the translator of Eugene Scribe's The Glass of Water are the bit of slapping and kissing between Bolingbroke and the Duchess, and the final bit of the play when the Queen looks out her window wistfully only to suddenly discover another potential beau.

I found it interesting that both of these moments have been added by the translator have a relatively short duration on the stage. Both serve almost as slapstick or bawdy humor moments, at otherwise pivotal and captivating parts of the plot. These additions add little to the story, other than help the Duchess and the Queen to seem a bit more silly than they already did. Both ladies were clearly at the whims of their sexual fancy, but it is in these moments that we see a fickleness and blatant disregard for custom and propriety. The ending moment, though, is a much more intriguing end than a restatement of the title of the play, and I find it quite perfect that the Queen should remain hopeful and happy even at the end of the play. She is much worked upon and manipulated by the other characters throughout the play so that this moment of an active desire in her is something new for the audience to digest. She does not attain her desires with Masham, but it almost a relief to know that the kindly Queen is not too damaged by the unrest of those immediately around her.

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Show And Tell (Checkpoint 2) --- Lillian Hellman - "The Little Foxes"

The Little Foxes by Lillian Hellman

c.1939

Premiered at the National Theatre in 1939. It was highly successful both there and on tour around the United States. Tallulah Bankhead starred as Regina Giddens. There have been revivals at the Lincoln Center, the Parker Playhouse in Fort Lauderdale, and the Martin Beck Theatre. Elizabeth Taylor also played Regina, earning her two Tony nominations. In 1941, Lillian Hellman wrote the film adaptation which starred Bette Davis.

The plot centers around a family in a small Southern town in 1900, the Hubbards. Oscar, Ben, and Regina (married-name Giddens) are in the midst of making a highly profitable deal with a Northern cotton mill firm to bring the process to their town. They have made this deal relying on Regina's husband to provide a third of the investment, which Regina has promised to her brothers. The brothers wish to keep the deal in the family in order to avoid unequal partnership with an outside party, which Regina uses as leverage to ensure a larger share in the profit (taking a cut from Oscar's). 

In the second act, Horace, Regina's husband, returns home from a hospital where he was being treated for heart disease. Regina sent their daughter, Alexandra, to fetch him in order to complete the deal, but he promptly denies to put up the money. Oscar's son, Leo, reveals to his father that he has access to Horace's safety deposit box at the bank where they both work, and the two brothers resolve to have him steal the bonds kept inside to make up the deficit (without telling Regina). 

In the third act Horace has discovered the missing bonds and has come up with a plan to remove the guilt from the brothers and deny Regina any claim to the profits from the cotton mill. However, before his plan can be seen through, he suffers from an "attack" and collapses trying to call for help. Regina is with him while he struggles and does nothing until he has collapsed on the stairs. It is unclear if she has poisoned him, or if he was already having an attack and she simply let it play out. In the end, Regina forces her brothers to give her a 75% share in the profits, lest she oust their deception to the police.

The structure of The Little Foxes fits into the structure of the well-made play, but at the end of the play there are several 'a-ha!' moments when it seems to be all wrapped up, only to be changed again by the subversions of these manipulative characters. Even at the last moment of the play, when Regina appears to have won it all, she is dismissed by her own daughter and left all alone to enjoy her riches. I found this choice interesting because it sets the audience up almost for a disappointment at the end of the play. At the top of the third act, it seems that Horace, the good guy, has finally found a way to control the nefarious Hubbards at long last, but it is snatched away from him. Even among the dishonorable clan there are winners and losers, Regina as the former. Her own brothers are shocked at her behavior and slyness, Ben even says of his sister that he "never really knew her at all." They all hold tricks up their sleeve until only Regina, the truly ruthless, remains standing.

Another dramaturgical choice that I found peculiar to this play was the inclusion of Marshall at the top of the show. He is never seen except for the first scene in which they all drink together. The plot has already begun when the deal was in place, it struck me as odd that a character who is talked about throughout the rest of the show is only included for the first ten minutes or so of actual stage-time. I believe he is included to display the business style of the Hubbards, as well as to demonstrate the open contempt that Oscar holds for his wife. The tactics Ben uses to solidify the deal are strong-armed, with Regina occasionally jumping in to add sugar to his abrasive manner. Straight off the bat in this play we are introduced to Oscar, Ben, and Regina as scheming persons who will do whatever it takes to get what they want.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Foxes

http://www.gaston.k12.nc.us/schools/ashbrook/faculty/hjbreeden/Course%20Outline%20and%20Syllabus/The%20Little%20Foxes.pdf

Sarah Ruhl - "Eurydice"

One way to analyze this play is to look at the tragedy of the lovers, Orpheus and Eurydice, and the tragedy of Eurydice and her father. Orpheus and Eurydice are very much in love, perhaps "a little too in love", so Eurydice's untimely death is tragic in that it has taken her from her love. The tragic end to their tale, though, is self-inflicted because Eurydice calls out to Orpheus rather than following faithfully behind him back into the world of the living. Eurydice and her father are reunited and his dedication to her reeducation is incredibly touching. Therefore, when he dips himself in the river to forget just before she returns from her failed rebirth, she loses him all over again. Eurydice is then left to her decision to let go of Orpheus with her letter and to dip herself in the river to forget the loss of her father. For this view of the play I would choose the tagline:
"Love is a big, funny word."

Another view of this play is the absurdity of mortal dramatics in juxtaposition with the endlessness of the afterlife. In the Underworld, the Stones provide the only guidance and their advice is simple: forget. The memories of life bring bitterness and sadness into their realm and they much prefer peace and quiet. Even Eurydice's father cautions against her request to hear the names of her family members since it will be "a long time to be sad." In this view, Orpheus's quest to reclaim his bride seems more like a waste of time than much else since she would only be returning a comparatively short time later. Even Eurydice seems to understand the futility of her return when she tells her father "I'll come back to you. I seem to keep dying." For this take on Eurydice, the tagline I would choose is:
"Some things should be left well enough alone."

Terrance McNally - "Love! Valour! Compassion!"

An assumption about drama that McNally seems to purport in this play is that it needn't be played realistically in time or space. As opposed to the well-made plays of Scribe and Herman, McNally does not even provide the possibility for illusionism of setting since one would be hard pressed to find a theatre space with a lake included. The progression of the play also violates the linear structure of illusionistic theatre, since the plot not only includes simultaneous action, but also jumps backwards and forwards in time in acts one and three.
I believe the capital-T Truth of the play's culture would be viewed as death as the only certainty in life. Throughout the play, there are several motifs that the characters return to, in fact the entire play is almost a repetition of action since each Act is a holiday weekend in the same summer, and each is filled with similar activities (and weather). However, the true constant in the narrative is death.
The timer begins for Buzz in Act One when it is revealed that he has AIDS. James is in the same sinking boat as Buzz, and the sudden death of Bobby's sister seems to firmly deny death as a purposeful tool in the story. Rather, death takes on a life of its own within the play and it must be faced by each of the characters in the end in the final scene. Even Bobby, though he refuses to hear the method of his death, must accept its inevitability. In Act Three, when Arthur and Perry discuss death, I believe is the moment McNally's capital-T Truth is put on full display: someday "none of us will be."

Lillian Hellman - "The Children's Hour"

In The Children's Hour a significant moment when Hellman breaks the Well-Made Play structure is at the very end of the play when they disconnect the phone. In order to continue in the WMP structure, they should have answered the phone just in time to have the revelation of their innocence before Martha could confess her love to Karen and certainly before she could kill herself. However, I think that the abandonment of the WMP framework in this moment is incredibly important to define this play's true nature.
The idea of a "tragic lesbian" play seemed an overly-simplistic classification to me at first, but after seeing the trope throughout other works it seems very much the best lens through which to examine this play. The reaction I felt when I first read this text was anger at the injustice of the women's situation because it was all caused by the lie of a child! However, looking at it a little differently, Hellman gives maybe one too many good reasons to feel pity for these women when none of those reasons is that what they're being persecuted for is rumored lesbianism. Even Hellman's denying the just-in-time revelation in the plot plays a part in stating a very clear message about the "affliction" that Martha recognizes in herself. The pity is inspired by the fact that they were innocent, and when Martha is revealed to be truly guilty of the accusations, she kills herself. I don't think that theatres should produce this play anymore.

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Amy Herzog - "4000 Miles"

A motif I found in this play is avoidance. I believe this is especially interesting since this play is a slice-of-life style play, and I can see how in the world of the play it is much easier for the course of the characters lives to avoid issues rather than confront them. Leo is avoiding a lot of things when he arrives at Vera's house, and so is she. They are both avoiding his mother, which continues throughout the play when Leo's mother calls Vera and she avoids telling her that Leo is staying at her place. Leo is also avoiding several other women in his life (his girlfriend, his sister). His avoidance of his sister and his mother seem to be his refusing to deal with the repercussions of his actions and to move forward with his family, rather than separated from them. He also has avoided talking to his girlfriend, perhaps because he feels in some place that she is going to break up with him, but also in a way because he is avoiding the reality of a relationship, believing that he will be there waiting for him no matter what. In this way he is avoiding reality of his relation to everyone in his life, including himself.

Leo is also avoiding the reason that he is so distraught, Micah's death. I believe the scene where Micah's death is finally revealed is a fulcrum point to this play, where he is finally confronting at least some part of himself, of his emotions. It also changes how Vera and Leo relate to one another, they are finally not avoiding each other in any sense, they are open to listen to one another.

Howard Barker - "Judith"

For Judith, I believe that the most pertinent MDQ is "Does Judith want to sleep with Holofernes?" At first she seems certainly willing enough to sleep with Holofernes, but it is still unclear as to why she has come to him. As the play progresses, it is easy to think that perhaps Holofernes knew of her intention to kill him, considering his relaxed reaction to the women discussing their plan. However, I believe that he allowed her to remain with him because he felt a connection between them and thought that her attraction to him would overcome her. Indeed, it nearly does overcome her, after the "evil" (his head) has been removed.

I believe that Judith is genuinely attracted to Holofernes, and does want to sleep with him. She is unable to complete her assassination without being reminded of her duty to her nation. She was not expecting Holofernes to be the type of man he is when she came to murder him, and is clearly knocked off balance by her attraction to him. I believe that she is incapable of coming to terms with her attraction to him and her sense of duty, hence her idea to fornicate with his body after he is dead. When she is "punished" by her inability to move, she accepts this explanation for her immobility and asks to be prayed for, indicating that she feels guilty for her actions and for her lust for the evil man that she was sent to assassinate.

Marsha Norman - "'Night, Mother"

Though the merit of using “Will Jesse kill herself?” as the MDQ is evident, I do not believe it to be the most interesting question of this text. Jesse’s struggle is not whether or not to kill herself, nor does she ever waver from her task to Mama. Therefore, I do not think that the text necessarily supports that as the MDQ, though it is of course the question on the audience’s minds throughout the play. Dramaturgically speaking, I believe the MDQ supported fully by the text is “Will Mama understand?”

Jesse’s goal throughout the play is not only to get Mama to understand that she absolutely is going to follow through with her plan, but also why she absolutely cannot do anything else for herself at this point. Though Mama tries her hardest to relate to Jesse and to get her to see another option, Jesse remains tired; already through with life. Jesse’s only purpose in telling her mother of her plan was to get her to understand, and to then proceed with the evening she had planned for herself before her self-service silencing. Mama cannot come to Jesse’s view, however, and continues to alternate between berating Jesse and begging her to stay. For Jesse, I believe the only question that remains for her is whether or not Mama will eventually find a way to understand the inevitability of her plan, though I do not think she is looking for Mama to understand why she is doing it. Though she does eventually come to a climactic moment of tension when she lists for Mama the factors in her discontent, I do not believe Jesse’s goal to be a self-explanation. Rather, I think that her purpose is to have Mama understand that there was nothing, and remains to be nothing she can do about it. The most interesting MDQ for Jesse (who I believe to be the protagonist) is “Will Mama understand that I (Jesse) am already gone, and that it isn’t her fault?”

Susan Glaspell - "Trifles"

I think that the proposed production choices for Trifles would be extremely interesting as far as going towards a more symbolic representation of the text. The very idea of specific stage detail could be argued to be a 'trifle' itself. Since none of the dialogue would be changed, it could be argued that there would be no distractions for the audience to detract from the extremely specific and plot-motivated wording, especially in the interactions of the two women. Much of the story is built on suspicion and tone of the actors, so I can absolutely see the merit in removing detail as a means of keeping the audience's attention firmly on the descriptions of the life the audience must build for the alleged murderess. I can especially appreciate the simplicity of this production in relation to the box containing the dead bird. To make the "pretty little box" a plain, black box would force the audience to consider the care she must have felt for the bird in order to feel the need to bury it in the first place, and to feel the need to shroud it and place it in a type of coffin.

However, speaking as someone who had already read this play and was already a fan of the script itself, I cannot say that I don't think these production choices would detract from the overall level of connection to the audience. Though the story is one of understandable relation throughout history, I believe that the era and specifically the regional location of this story is incredibly important in relating to how the women behave towards the men, especially since in that era and region the idea of the Sheriff being "the Law" was incredibly accurate and for the two ladies to knowingly obstruct their process was incredibly bold. The idea of Trifles, I believe, is that the little things matter. Without the setting and props to provide the audience with a true sense of this woman's life, and how dreary her home really was, and how beautiful the box really was that she was going to give up to the earth for the sake of reverence for her bird, I believe that many audience members would find it hard or even impossible to connect fully to the desperation that lead up to her act of violence. Though the text is rich with descriptions, to rely solely on the dialogue to construct the nightmarish world of a woman in solitude even when in the company of her husband, would be a disservice to this play as well as to the actors attempting to work in such an unforgiving environment. In order to fully grasp this play, I believe that the only ambiguity should come from the moral 'grey'.

Alice Gerstenberg -- "Overtones"

The structure of Overtones and the very idea of calling the 'educated' version of each woman their 'overtones' speaks largely to how women relate to each other even to this day. Nice-on-the-outside is still a well-honed skill in many women's repertoire. The first scene sets up the relationship of Harriet and Hattie as two sides of the same coin, or perhaps the wrapper and the sweet. However, as the play progresses Hattie and Maggie take on larger and more complex roles towards their 'overtones', and even break from previous patterns to speak directly to each other after the mention of Turkey. In that exchange, the 'undertones' understand and respond to one another, but do not respond to each other even when their veils are dropped and they are yelling at each other directly. I believe this choice by Alice Gerstenberg was not to confuse the audience, but rather to make the most sense to the intended audience for this play: women. 

Though all the social niceties are present throughout the play, women communicate amongst each other (based on my own experience) largely with what remains unspoken, with carefully chosen words, and especially with tone. Therefore, what makes the most sense to me is that the 'undertones' are able to communicate to each other through the women's unspoken signals when in the context of a relatively inconsequential bit of information, but cannot understand each others' deeper, ulterior motives. Margaret's tone, word choice, or even body language could have given away her lie about Turkey, which Hattie of course jumped on, and which Maggie would suspect she would; given the tense nature of their relationship and a person's natural self-doubt when trying to pass off a lie as truth. However, the 'undertones' remain deaf to the final expressions of each woman's true intentions towards each other because, sadly, even a woman's intuition has a limit.