What questions do these chapters ask of you? What questions do they encourage you to pose? What argument would you make in response to "why this play now" for any of the shows we are producing at ART this season?
Monday, January 23, 2012
Play Analysis from the inside...and the out.
What questions do these chapters ask of you? What questions do they encourage you to pose? What argument would you make in response to "why this play now" for any of the shows we are producing at ART this season?
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After reading these two chapters, all I could think about was Fuch’s claim that nothing in a play is a mistake. Everything is considered and placed with care, and Chemers’ 12-step program leads you to the questions you need to ask the play about its meticulous construction. These chapters pushed me to think about the formation of a concept, and how every individual mind looks at a play differently. Yet, regardless of opposing viewpoints, you can still create marvelous art. Chemers’ described it perfectly when he said “the right answer is the one that produces the most interesting things on stage.” There is not one right answer; many different takes on the same piece can be interesting when put on stage, as can be seen with the myriad of different concepts developed by directors for the same exact piece.
I know I talk about our production of Julius Caesar a lot, but it’s the piece I’m most immersed in, so it’s natural for me to be inclined to discuss the question “why this play now” in regards to this play. Our society is in an era of civil unrest due to the action of the government. Time Magazine nailed it perfectly when they named “the Protestor” the Person of the Year. Between the riots in London, Egypt, and Occupy Wallstreet, citizens are making it very clear they are not pleased with the current state of affairs. In Julius Caesar, a small group of conspirators are discontent with the tyrant Caesar has become: “Th’ abuse of greatness is when it disjoins remorse from power.” In order to honor Rome, in the name of Rome, these men have decided to take action and murder Caesar in order to have a free Rome once more. They are the Protestor that took action. From my perspective, I find the correlation to have perfect timing.
In chapter four, Chemers describes the 12 step program for analyzing a play from a dramaturgical point of view. I remember discussing and following this process for several plays we read during principles of dramatic structure. The point of reading these two chapters early on is because it is the backbone of being a dramaturg. The chapters carefully outline the course of action a dramaturg must go through in order to completely understand a dramatic work. Chemers is very much in favor of this process being an individual experience; one in which each person has to develop to fit their needs and their own way of thinking.
This year ART is producing Necessary Targets by Eve Ensler. This play is set during the Bosnian war in a refugee camp. The cast is entirely female and focuses on the experiences of the women after being torn from their homes and their families. But why this play now? Since the Afghan was starting in 2001 and the Iraq war beginning in 2003, the United States has had an impact on hundreds of thousands of lives including military member and their families and Iraqi and Afghan citizens. I think that the majority of Americans are so concerned with our own citizens overseas we often overlook the number of citizens in the Middle East being forced out of their homes due to the conflict. This play calls attention not only the displaced citizens of Bosnia but also to refugees in general and puts the spotlight back on them.
Chapter 4 was quite a struggle for me; almost during the entire duration of reading it, I kept having Dead Poets Society flashbacks. The tipping point was that diagram of the “climatic plot”, and an imaginary Robin Williams kept encouraging me to rip the paper out of the book! It seemed to be such a dishonor to have the unstructured spontaneity that is the theatre to be characterized on an X and Y axis in a hideous, formulaic fashion. I felt Michael Chemers suffocating the individualistic charm that is being an artist, but thankfully he redeemed himself with Chapter 6 of Ghost Light.
I came to be reassured that dramaturgy is an individual process depending on whoever is doing it, and that 12-step process (which by the way, this obvious parallel made reading chapter 4 even more like reading a “Dramaturgy for Dummies” handbook) is a harmless outline to help you for when the socio-economic climate of 1870’s England are plaguing all of your sensibilities. As I was trudging along through chapter 4 I grew quite annoyed at Chemers’ constant habit of using Oedipus for EVERY example! By the end I no longer cared for his predictable “unseen shark” metaphors with the eye-gouging scene, and it wasn’t until I was into chapter 6 that began wander back and ask why was is to so necessary for Chemers’ to repetitively refer back to this play? It almost seemed like Chemers’ did it intentionally to disturb easily-agitated people like me, but there may have been the ambition to highlight the never-ending journey that is being a dramaturg. There is a truth to every play, but you have to go through many doors before you arrive at the center….or maybe the guy just really like Oedipus…
In regards to the WTPN process discussed in chapter 6, I instantly thought back to the review I wrote on Hay Fever for PODS last semester. Thanks to Heidi’s marvelous program note, I discovered that Noel Coward was a strong advocate for harmless entertainment with no philosophical meanings. I couldn’t help but make the connection of the Blisses strategy to victimize their guests as a means of enjoyable pleasure for their viewing entertainment with that of our YouTube generation’s habit to use the human specimen as a mode of entertainment with the invention of the webcam. Like the Blisses, showered in their luxury and sea of useless props (which I had set every night!), we use technology to distance ourselves from the fools who willingly expose their idiocies. Society’s detachment with each other hauntingly parallels the false illusion of happiness that encompassed the 1920’s.
I think that the reason that we read these chapters together is because they go perfectly together. In chapter 4 Chemers discusses his way of analyzing scripts with his 12 step program. i found his steps and explanation very helpful and a way that I might use in the future. Reading this process and figuring out how to dissect a script i think is an excellent segue into chapter 6, Why this play now? This is because we can we even try to explain why this play now without analyzing and understanding the script itself. When knowing the scripts intents we can start to apply its effects.
As for the ART production and 'Why this play now?' personally i cant understand to many connections. One of the connections I make is for our upcoming production of 'Julius Ceaser'. I can see this having an impact due to the political tension it oozes and its connection to the position we are in as an election year.
In total, these two chapters were long, but rewarding at the same time. Only because I did not realize that dramaturgs also took part in the 12-step process. But any creative field that looks for organization finds it in the structured and detailed process. Not only did these chapters remind me about how I should work as a designer but how dramaturgy is to design the accuracy of a show and more. Everything is important when doing a script analysis. Personally, my favorite step was the first, "Admit that you don't know everything". Practitioners tend to forget that aspect because we want to be the best at what we do. However, the techniques we figure in this program are learnt through experience and self-motivation.
'Why this play now?' is a good question. Frequently, plays will come at a time when the general public is feeling down economically, spiritually or personally. It can also be in the opposite effect when all is good in the world. However, in a realistic mindset, there is never a country or region that is NOT in despair. The human population will never live in stable peace at the same time, and this is usually when theatre has a hand in bringing awareness to places that need it the most. 'Necessary Targets' is a good example of a play that deals with the ongoing struggle of authority in patriarchal societies, the brutal Bosnian war and it's many painful experiences. Since 1995, every time it has been produced, the question became, "why this play now?".
It's not a fun play. It has it's comic reliefs but only because the women it revolves around cracked a joke now and again. Plays that offer controversial thought or almost force the audience to try and understand a foreign view on politics or standards is a play to produce. Plays are all about perspectives, whether it's positive or negative, and these perspective need to be heard as well.
I found these chapters to be very enlightening in terms of the question "Why this play now?" Chapter 4 was a bit hard to get through, but in the end I got a few very important thoughts from it.
I really analyzed the statement that we as theatre artists must ask questions of ourselves and our preconceived notions. Do I question my preconceived notions? I decided that I do, but not nearly as much as I should. There are so many things that could be fine tuned in a production if every team made themselves question their first ideas about something and used those answers to better themselves as artists.
When I ask, “Why this play now?” of this ART season, my mind automatically jumps to Necessary Targets and Julius Caesar. I think that the idea behind doing Necessary Targets is a good one: to show our audiences that we can do plays that are not only light and entertaining, but have some substance and depth. I think it will take some time for our audiences to warm up to the idea of new plays that ask them to take a look at the world around them, so the first step is to revive the plays that can have some meaning in the here and now. For example, Julius Caesar is a Shakespeare written way before our time, but the political unrest and rebellion still relates to us today. To help our audiences along, it is up to us as dramaturges, designers, actors, etc. to produce our plays with a high level of research and conviction in order for the play to have an impact and, in the case of Necessary Targets, not come off as a one dimensional “sad story”. Overall, because of so much unrest recently in the world politically and socially, it is falling on theatre companies to produce plays that are relevant and help people to analyze where they are and why the world is the way it is. While I feel this is not something ART has aimed to do a lot of in the past, I am pleased to see that we are heading in that direction.
After reviewing the twelve-step program talked about in Chapter Four, I was pleasantly surprised that I already naturally followed some of these steps within my own previous analyses. Throughout the entire book thus far, I have loved how Chemers brings such entertaining and enlightening ways to introduce new ideas to his audience. Reading facts and relevant information can get boring at times, but so far, Chemers has found a way to make everything less tedious. His efficient and personalized views on the subjects within Chapter Four make learning the topics a lot easier. The analysis process can be long and gut-wrenching at times, but it is also an important part of understanding why something is the way it is.
I honestly cannot speak with much authority based on why certain plays were picked for this season. That being said, I believe I am fairly knowledgeable about the Shakespeare play this semester, Julius Caeser, and can speak intelligently and dramaturgically about reasons why it could have been picked this semester.
Julius Caeser deals with a lot of issues, some of which can still be applicable to today. It’s crazy how connections between a script written around 400 years ago and events occurring in the present can still be found. The play has political unrest. It starts out with a class conflict of tribunes versus plebians. The plebians celebrate Caesar’s (the current leader of Rome) victories over the sons of Pompey, one of Rome’s former Triumvirate rulers. The tribunes verbally attack the plebians in their sheep-mindset, as they cheer over the defeat of a man who once led them.
This can easily be connected to the rise and fall of political candidates in the United States. A politician can be elected and loved by the people one moment, but be voted out of office the next. Beyond that, the warring of the classes of Julius Caesar also can apply today as well. You can see it everywhere: The outrage over Bernie Madoff, the Occupy Wallstreet movement, even the hacker group Anonymous. It is important as dramaturgs to be able to draw connections—not only from information to other information within a play, but also into the real world as well.
I believe the reason why we are reading these chapters together is because they go so well together. Chemers’ twelve-step program to analyzing a play gives us the tools that we need. As Frank Zappa stated though, “Information is not knowledge. Knowledge is not wisdom.” Meaning that it is not enough to just have these tools but we also need to know how to use them and when.
These chapters seem to ask us to dig and explore deeper to see what we find in plays. It is not enough to just watch a play, we have to understand why were watching or reading it. Even before I read Fuch’s claim that nothing in a play is a mistake, I have had that philosophy drilled in my head for years. I believe that these chapters encourage us to constantly question what is going on in a play. The biggest question is, why this play now? Questioning everything that happens will help lead us to this answer. We need to do this for every little decision that is mentioned or else we will never be able to understand a production to it’s full potential. Just as Bell mentions to track a play by beats going backwards and forwards, we can not answer some of the plays larger questions without questioning and evaluating all of it’s little questions along the way.
After much internal debate, I found answering the question “why this play now” for the production of Bat Boy to be difficult to answer. My answer is that it has idea that has always existed in any era, and that idea is trying to be accepted. As humans, we are social being and require ourselves to be social in order to survive. In order to be social, we have to be accepted first. Bat Boy is not accepted by society and it torments him. Dr. Parker finds his wife no longer romantically accepts him and it drives him to the point of lunacy. Shelly desires for her and Bat Boy’s relationship to be socially acceptable. Everyone holds that value of wanting to be accepted. Also, the wars now days have triggered irrational fear and suspicion for other people. Just like how Bat Boy has done nothing wrong, he is still feared and being blamed for crimes he has not committed just because he is different. I believe these two ideas help us to better understand why we should do this play now.
The part of Chemers' 12 step program that stood out the most to me was the issue of theatricality. For example, he brings up Woody Allen's question of "Why is a play about a lovable old character named Gramps often not as interesting in the theatre as staring at the back of someone's head and trying to make them turn around?" Theatricality is a collaborative effort. It begins with the playwright and his writing, it is then up to the actors, and creative and design team to pick up on the theatricality in the writing and bring it to life. However, in order for theatricality to be completely successful the audience must play a pivotal role. The audience must become actively engaged in the piece, after all "theatre is in the present" and if you the play looses to the back of someone's head, the play has lost its theatricality.
I think that by looking at this season's line up you can see the theatricality plays a huge role in the play that were selected. For example, Necessary Targets while although a small cast has a lot of theatricality in the lines. For most of the play the theatricality lines in the tension and the conflict that is created. However, at the end of the play the theatricality becomes takes on a deeper meaning when Seada's story is told. Necessary Targets provides an interesting challenge for everyone in the area of theatricality. If the actors, design and production team do justice to the theatricality in the script, the audience will be fighting back tears instead of staring at the back of someone's head.
While I don't necessarily feel that the critical analyses of a play can can be formed to fit neatly into a 12-step process, I don't think Mark Chemer's really does either, as he qualifies breaking this mold as often as necessary. However, I do think this framework of idea gives the non-dramaturgical reader a firm foundation in how to approach and wrap their mind around scripts and performance in new ways. To parallel this idea, it would be ludicrous of me to try and suggest that lighting design has a reliably repeatable and ascribed process, that if followed, will guide the user of that manual to success time and time again. Or ever even, for that matter. However, I could probably come up with a guide for brand new designers to follow to get there feet wet enough to start seeing the changes and evolutions around them.
With that, I found this guide fascinating, and insurmountably useful. While just a framework of critical analyses, it pushed me to reconsider how I read and think about plays, and frankly, made me really want to go back to a lot of the classics I found too dry or boring before, and re-approach them far more critically, and begin to glean from them what truly makes them classics.
Especially after reading this chapter, the question of "Why this play now?" becomes even more accesible and relevant, and I think is a very important question, especially as we analyze what it is that makes theatre efficacious and how we continue to propagate that quality. In terms of our own season this year, the play that really stands out in support of this idea is Julius Caesar. To me, it [has the potential] to really reflect the political turmoil and turbulence we see reflected in our own social and political spectrum right now, especially as we approach the 2012 elections. Even further along this idea, with the inherent "dirtiness" [read: unfair, dishonest, not smutty, or lascivious] and the way the American public once revered the idea of hope and change President Obama stood for, have now turned like jackals on his position in office, we have the opportunity to see further relationships between the play and the world around us. What stands to me as unique is this situation is that while the play is entirely topical to the very ad current political situation, it still relies somewhat on how this election plays out to bolster, or falter at that connection. Ultimately however, it should be rife for critical analyses as both life and Julius continue to evolve and develop in their own arenas.
As I read the Ghost Light chapters assigned for today, I realized that in order to effectively answer the question "Why This Play Now," you must first be able to have a thorough analysis of the play and be in a position to have a deep discussion of the many truths of the play.
these chapters really challenged me to take a better look at the plays that I attend, to not be afraid of "killing the spontaneity" of the performance experience. I must admit that I was highly skeptical of actually reading a play before attending the performance, and felt exposed when Chemers directly pointed out that this attitude was not only common (he notes especially among students), but it's also a misconception.
Now that I am aware of the benefits of doing your "investigations" before attending a show, and I am also equipped with the tools necessary to gather "evidence" for a healthy analysis, I am excited to try on this implied role of "detective" that is the work of a dramaturg.
The next show that I will most likely attend with this newfound attitude will be ARTs Necessary Targets. With what little I know now about this particular show, I would argue that one of the reasons for "This Play Now" would be to get our audience thinking about the effects of political policy and what role they play as americans in policy change.
In reading Ghost Light chapter 4 mainly talked about the tools needed to take a good hard look at a play. These tools are given to us by Chemers in steps. The steps start out where you admit you don’t know everything and work their way into being ready to really understand the play. Even the structure of the play is pushed to a later step so it can be carefully examined once knowing certain aspects like characters, given circumstances, action and conflict. Once the play is pulled apart you can really look at the bigger picture and ask questions. The chapters encourage everyone to ask why are we doing this play?
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