Bushnell Play Review

The one woman show, Warriors Don't Cry, we saw at the Bushnell on November 16 was a reenactment of a memoir written about a 16-year-old African-American girl named Melba going to an "all white" high school along with 8 other teens in 1957, when racism was alive in Arkansas as well as most of the South at this time. During her time at the high school, she was taunted by her classmates, threatened, called horrendous names and had acid sprayed in her eyes. All of this was taking place while a bodyguard was watching over her. One of the things that really bothered me was the fact that the bodyguard would never help her unless her life was at risk; which was technically all the time. The only time she actually received any physical help she received from him, not verbal suggestions, was when the acid was sprayed in her eyes and he took her to the hospital. I was totally not expecting Link, the white boy who becomes friends with Melba, to act the way he did. At the beginning of the play when Melba first went to the school, I was shocked to see how the students reacted to her and the other African-American kids being there. I was extremely appalled when I realized that people actually used to harm African-Americans like the way she portrayed and described. I got used to the torment she described throughout the play that I was shocked to see Link actually show any sort of affection for Melba, let alone let her in his car! I think that the way I reacted just shows how much times have changed in the past 50 years and how much the world will change in the next 50. I thought that the play was very informative and made me appreciate more not only the world that we live in today but also the history that has been recorded in ways such as this so that we can learn from our mistakes and make sure history doesn't repeat itself in ways such as this.

Fall Play Review

I saw the fall play on Thursday night which was opening night. I thought that all of the actors were cast in good roles and they all did a good job portraying their character with the correct age and personality. John Jaing's lead role I thought was a perfect fit for him. He portrayed the character very well and was great at giving little hints to the audience as to how he felt about his family and other characters in the play. His role as the father/husband seemed like a complex one in a way. I think that he did a very good job of showing the audience how he felt without overdoing it or forcing emotions into the words. Sam Weed also did a very good job showing her concern for her husband and her sadness during her song and after her and John Jaing fought. I think that John Jaing could have slowed down a bit while he was doing his monologues. I think that they were great and he showed some great emotions, it was just hard to tell when they started and ended sometimes. I think that Magie's role was a little hard to understand. I was confused as to whether she was supposed to be really young, like a teenager or younger or if she was supposed to be in her twenties. I thought she was supposed to be about thirteen or so, but then someone told me that she was supposed to be in her early twenties. I think that I was confused because she was so loud when she spoke and her tone sounded like that of a child being sassy. I definitely think that she should have toned her voice down by either lowering her voice or lowering the tone of her voice and not letting it get so high pitched. She could have easily have given off an older persona by slowing the speed of her dialogue and lowering her voice to make it sound more like teasing instead of starting an argument. Overall the play was really good, there were just a few minor adjustments I would make. I also think that the blocking was great and the set was perfect. The one thing I didn't like was the way the seating was set up; it was hard for me to see some peoples' expressions sometimes and that was a little frustrating. Other than that the play was very well organized and had a clear plot and meaning.

Weekly Synopsis (Romeo and Juliet Scene)

This week we worked mostly on blocking. We drew out a map to make sure that we are on the same page with where we are going to go and what our cues are. It's really great working with Dilyara because we usually have the same ideas about things and we don't really disagree much, and if we do disagree it's very easy for us to make a decision. We also worked a lot on learning our lines and figuring out how to pronounce them and what tone we wanted to use. We worked on our reactions too, like what facial expressions we wanted to express when reacting to a rude or funny comment or sentence. I think that we are ready for tomorrow for the most part. We could work on running our lines a little bit more but I think if we read them over a few times before we perform either in the morning or by ourselves tonight we will be good.

School Play Picture