Relate Theater to Your Passions/Hobbies

Dance

     I have talked about dancing in quite a few discussion posts explaining how much i absolutely love it. I feel as if dance and theater go hand in hand. Both are putting on a performance in front of an audience. And according to Peter Brook:

"All that is needed for theater to take place is an actor who walks across an empty space while someone is watching"

     While dancing, a person must completely change their thought process and just move to the music without thinking about it. If you think about it, you mess up. It comes naturally, just like im sure it comes naturally to a lot of actors and actresses. Its putting on a persona, or a mask, because you become a character in a story and the story is not over until the dance piece is over.
     The different types of dance relate to different moods an actor or actress would express on stage during different scenes. For example, Ballet might be related to a peaceful mood while Hip Hop might be happy and Krumping might be angry. We took notes in class on the impulse to perform and we learned that the way we survive, we adapt to changes in our circumstances by making adjustments in out behavior. Just like dance, by adjusting the type of dance style, you create a different vibe that the audience feels.
     Dancing is just like telling a story, or acting in a play, just instead of using words we use body movements. Just by looking at interpretive dancing, it may be weird to watch but those people are dancing to tell a story in a creative way.
     The different styles of dancing would basically be considered the different genres of theater. From drama, to comedy, to tragedy. All of those genres have a correlating dance style. If anybody has seen different performances of dance than they would be able to understand the feelings that you get just by watching.

 

This is a video if a crew called Street Kingdom, they are a Krumping crew and i hope that by watching this you can see how their body movements and facial expressions make you feel as if they are expressing anger. I apologize for the length of the video (you can skip to 1:22 if you don't feel like watching the beginning!)

This is an example of how Ballet is more of a peaceful dance style. It is easy to see how much of a difference Ballet makes you feel than how Krumping makes you feel.

     And finally my last example....

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This is a crew called Jabbawokeez, they are a b-boy Hip Hop dancing crew. By watching them perform it gives you a happiness vibe that radiates off of them. This is the reason i love dance.

Relate Theater to Your Major

Busniess Major

     We learned in class that as kids, we role play the things that we expect to assume later on in life. Well, when i was little i always role played. And i specifically remember having a kitchen set in the den of my house where i would pretend to make my friends baked goods and sell the imaginary product to them for imaginary cash. I would also make lemonade and fruit punch stands every chance i would get when it was nice out so that i could go and buy myself a candy bar at the local gas station. I always loved to act as if i owned my own business, which is ironic now because i am a business major.
     What i am planning to do with my life is ultimately open up my own cupcake shop. It may sound a little weird, but its what i see myself doing and i know i would absolutely love every second of it. Making things for other people and then selling them in my own store would be my dream job because i am making others happy while they are making me happy at the same time. I would be the producer of my own company in a way.
     A producer is the person who is ultimately the one responsible for overseeing all aspects of a theater production. The producer is the organizer and the finder of the script and starts the whole process. This is what i would be doing, I would be the person overseeing all aspects of my company, and i would organize it and put it all together so that it would become a successful business.
     Not only does the producer of a play relate to my major, but also the set designer and the costume designer. The set designer is the one who develops the appearance of a set design. In my case, i would be completely modeling my business from the inside out. I would pick out the colors of the walls, what kind of tiles go on the floor, etc. All of the things that a set designer would do to create a scene of a play, i would do to create the image of my store. Also, the costume designer who is the person that designs the physical appearance of the characters in a theater performance. This would involve picking out the clothing for the actors and actresses to wear. In my case, i get to choose what uniform the employees must wear to work everyday. There would be a dress code as to how their hair must be worn, if they had any piercings, and  how their makeup would look (if they wore makeup). Everything would look professional and clean, and that would be the image of my store.
    

Broadway

     Right now a bunch of shows are playing on Broadway. There is Chicago, Wicked, Jersey Boys, Memphis, Addams Family, and much more. In order to buy a ticket to attend one of these shows you can simply just go to Broadway.com and look at the prices and even buy one on the spot. Not only can you buy a ticket, but you can also arrange to buy a hotel package as well. There is also a stand in New York City where they sell discounted Broadway tickets called TKTS. The theaters release tickets for sale by TKTS throughout the day, but one problem is that you can only buy tickets the day of the show. Getting tickets for a show should never be too hard if it is planned well in advance, but it can sometimes get a little pricey. A Broadway ticket without a discount is usually from $100 to $500 without a discount.
     Right now the hottest show seems to be Wicked. This show is about the Wizard of Oz's wicked witch of the west and Glinda the good before Dorothy ever showed up. The story follows the Wicked witch of the west through her life and all through college and tells us how she got the name "wicked". The show reveals how there is always two sides to every story.
      The director of this Broadway show is a man named Joe Mantello who has gotten nothing but positive reviews about his play. Wicked has recently gone double platinum as well, meaning that the Broadway cast recording has sold over two million copies. 
     I have not seen any Broadway shows ever before, but that does not mean that i would not go. I would love to see a Broadway show, especially Chicago. Wicked sounds very interesting as well, i think it would be neat to see the other side of the story according to the wicked witch of the west's point of view.

Show Report

Chicago

   
I have never seen the Broadway show Chicago, but i would absolutely love to go watch it. I have always liked the movie Chicago because it has such an interesting story line. It is all about murder, greed, violence, and adultery, which is always entertaining. On Broadway.com, it states that the show has minimal scenery and simple black costumes, which suits this play because if i went to go see it i would focus on the musical aspect of it and not the visual aspect. I have always enjoyed listening to the soundtrack of Chicago.

     Chicago is about a woman named Roxie Hart who is trying to make it big in the music industry, but when her boyfriend (who she is cheating on her husband with) refuses to help her out she kills him. Roxie ends up on death row with a bunch of other women who murdered people as well, but most importantly Velma Kelly. Velma was already a big star, and she killed her sister and her husband after finding them in bed together. Roxie ends up getting a lawyer named Billy Flynn, who ends up making Roxie a huge hit to the public by making everyone believe that she is a sweet innocent woman. Roxie’s story becomes huge, and Velma is forgotten about. Soon enough, another woman gets caught for multiple murder charges and both Roxie and Velma are left in the dust. This is when they join forces to try one last time to get in the spotlight.

     This play is directed by a man named Walter Bobbie, who is not only a director but also a choreographer and an occasional actor himself. Walter Bobbie began directing Chicago in 1996, and also directed Footloose in 1998.

     Chicago strikes an interest in me because it is a very dramatic movie, and drama has always been exciting to watch. I remember when Chicago first came out as a movie, i went to go see it in theaters at least five times with one of my good friends. We were both obsessed with the movie for months and would listen to the soundtrack on repeat everyday. Anybody can relate to this show because everybody wants to be in the spotlight, and if at one point you had everything you could ever dream of and then all of a sudden it was taken away from you, most would do anything to get it back.

Design a Costume

Peter Pan

      I chose to read and create a costume for the play Peter Pan, written by Doug Rand, because it was my favorite movie growing up as a child. I did not choose Peter Pan or even Wendy as the character that I make my costumes for, I chose the Lost Boys.

      The Lost Boys are a bunch of kids that basically run around the woods and create chaos. In the Disney movie, the lost boys all wear clothes that look like they would be footsie pajamas and every one is animal themed. If I got to create the costumes, they would not wear animal pajamas, I would rather they all have a torn up, ratty look to them. As if they had lived in the woods all their lives. 

i like how the boys in this picture, their clothes look dirty and old, as if they found these clothes lying on the floor of the woods somewhere and kept them. This is a perfect example of what i had in mind for their clothing.

   

     Not only wound the lost boys have old ratty clothes, but they would also all have weapons as apart of their costumes. The weapons would vary from bows and arrows, to dart guns, to daggers. They wouldn't have anything too modern, like a hand gun.

The bow and arrows would be made of wood, so that it looked as if the Lost Boys had made them themselves. Even the holder for the arrows is made out of wood.

This is a great example of the kind of dagger i would want the Lost Boys to carry. Instead of a metal blade, this dagger is made of wood. It is clearly not as sharp as a metal blade would be, but i like that. I like it because it gives the weapons a worn out look, which is what i am going for.

      On top of all of the clothes and weapons, the Lost boys would also wear colorful face paint on their faces. They would have war markings all over their bodies and faces. Also, some of them would wear colorful feathers in their hair. 

This war paint is colorful and just the way i imagined it. All of the Lost Boys face paint would vary in markings and locations on their faces though.

Although this is a picture that somebody drew, it was really the only picture that i could find that matched my vision. The feathers a bright and simply just hang in their hair.