Principles of Acting: Criteria 1
Machinal by Sophie Treadwell
Machinal was first performed on September 7th, 1928 at the
Plymouth theatre on Broadway. The play is set in various places such as: an
office, a flat, a hotel, a speakeasy, a furnished room, a drawing room, a
courtroom and in the dark. Furthermore, the play is based on a real life court
case where Ruth Snyder is executed for being a murderer.
The stage was a proscenium arch stage which allowed the
audience to get a full preview of the set as well as anything additional in the
background. The original set design implements self-made human sculptures of
people which showcase the repetitiveness of life, in keeping with the intended
Expressionistic style. Moreover, the stage was mainly in grey to make the place
look bland and the side walls were completely dull, perhaps reflecting the
industrial 'Machine-like' metaphor that holds the play together.
Ruth Synder was an American who was executed by the electric
chair due to murdering her husband. Ruth Synder was the first woman to be
executed at Sing Sing since 1899. Before this happened, Ruth Synder was a
housewife from Queens Village in New York and was married to Henry Judd Gray
who was a corset salesmen. Eventually, she decided to come up with a plan to
kill her husband. Ruth Synder has also
been accused of trying to kill her husband many times. This made her story
about what happened untruthful as she has been claimed of trying to kill him
before. For example, during 1927 she filled his nose with chloroform-soaked
rages and tried to make it seem as if it was a burglary. This is not exactly in
keeping with the narrative from the play.
Sophie Treadwell was a noteworthy playwright and a
journalist. In addition, she was born on
the 3rd October 1885 in Stockton California and died 20th February 1970. Her education took place in University
California, Berkeley. During her
studies, she studied acting and was mentored by a successful polish actress
named Helena Modjeska. Apart from
Machinal, Sophie wrote Broadway’s Bravest Women and Intimations for Saxophone.
The play was received in different ways. According to David Cote, he claimed that the
play was received as being pretty “weird” and that people are “sick” of these
repetitive types of plays. However, he
did seem to get a gist of the story as he states that the young women was being
“oppressed by social structures” and
that the play was inspired by the Ruth Snyner case.
Relevant sources
Fallout by Roy Williams
Fallout was first performed on the 5th June 2003 at Royal
Court Theatre. The play was set in the
modern era and is based in South London.
The original set design looked like a basketball court at the start.
This made it resemble teenager’s environment at school and set the scene of the
play. As the play progresses, the stage is changed into an investigated area by
the police due to the killing of Kwame.
Damilola Taylor was a Nigerian 10 year old who came to
Britain to improve his life. Unfortunately, he was killed November 27th by
Daniel Preddie and Richard Preddie around Peckham. There have been many
theories on how he died however the policemen in charge believed that he fell
on broken glass when he was confronted by these two boys. These two boys were eventually given
manslaughter as the verdict came to the conclusion that they were guilty. Similarly, Steven Lawrence was murdered 1993.
Steven Lawrence was a black man from Britain who lived in Pulmstead in
London. In his case, he was killed
because he was Black. After a while, 5 people were arrested but not convicted
for the crime. These people were: Neil, Jamie, David, Gary and Luke. Both of these cases were highly recognised
due to the social critique of racism and how society is socially
structured. In my opinion, this
influenced Roy William to write Fallout as he wanted to display how
dysfunctional society is and the issues teenagers faced due to their race and
social group.
Roy Williams was born on the 5th January 1968 in Fulham
London. Roy Williams was a English playwright who received many rewards such
as: George Devine Award and the Evening Standard Award. When he was growing up,
Roy Williams was failing in school and was raised in a single-parent household,
in a family where he was one out of four children. Eventually, he graduated at
Rose Bruford College at 25 years old with a degree for writing in theatre.
The Play had positive views. According to Michael
Billington, the playwright for Fallout was impressive as it dealt with
“multicultural societies" and scrutinised racial stereotypes. Furthermore, my initial response to fallout
is that it's a phenomenal play as it deals with how society is structured and
makes the viewer acknowledge that society needs to be changed and adapted to
present disasters like the Stephen Lawrence and Damilola Taylor case from
happening again.
Relevant sources
Expressionism in Theatre (Machinal)
Expressionism in theatre have many characteristics and
elements which include: settings and characters. The setting in Expressionistic
theatre normally goes against the normal, it incorporates strange shapes and
vivid colours to make the set stand out.
In Machinal, instead of making a shape, they make a machine out of their
body which demonstrates the expressionist style of theatre which has been used.
Moreover, the characters foreshadow the expressionistic be being nameless. For
example, in Machinal the main character is called Young Woman. The audience expects to witness something
abstract and mysterious due to the style it is being performed. This is shown
in Machinal in the review I mentioned earlier, David cote does think of
Machinal as being “weird”.
As a result of the expressionistic style, the actor is
expected to perform the character in a way that makes them look oppressed. For
example, their facial expressions should be clear and you should be able to
notice which facial expression they are portraying this is due to the fact that
the characters have lost their individuality so their facial expressions are
essential.
Considering where the play is set, actors performing this play should be either
dominant like the husband as women are being oppressed by men or timid like the
women as she is being oppressed by society. For example, “twelve bucks a day!”
the man playing that role should be superior and dominant and talk in a very
profound tone.
Naturalism incorporates many characteristics. For example,
the character should be realistic and be performed the way the character is
actually supposed to be performed.
Furthermore, the costumes are associated to the character and the stage
design and the props used are realised.
The audience expects to witness a believable story just like in Fallout
and it should have an excellent narrative.
Relevant Sources
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