Verified Document

Theatre Art Term Paper

¶ … Shape of Things: Theatrical Convention from Class: Suspension of Disbelief -- the audience is made to believe that a man or any person for that matter could become so obsessed with a single person that they are willing to completely change themselves, including having plastic surgery and destroying their interpersonal relationships for a person whose only appeal to them is a sexual one.

Potential Convention: Given the subject matter of the play and the heightened emotions the ending portrays at least on the part of one character that I would try to have the actors deliver their dialogue and their attitudes as realistically as possible.

In the Blood:

Theatrical Convention from Class: Pathos -- the audience is meant to feel sympathy for the main character of this play and to understand her sense of desperation and her inability to find a way to preserve herself and her sense of dignity and also support her children.

Potential Convention: Due to the highly tense nature of the play, it might benefit best by containing the setting as much as possible to a single setting, such as directly inside our outside the home of the impoverished family.

Wit:

Theatrical Convention from Class: The play relies heavily on singular perspective of the dying woman, namely the soliloquy and her direct discussion of her situation with the audience.

Potential Convention: Because of the isolated nature of the character and her disease, the theme of the play would be helped by having her physically isolated on the stage, such as by creating a large space between the main character and everyone else, including her doctors.

The Goat:

Theatrical Convention from Class: Satire -- the play deals with a man's relationships with a goat but this taboo could be any sexual feeling which the...

Throughout history, plays have been written on a multitude of subjects and with a wide array of tones and themes, but one thing that appears repeatedly regardless of subject matter is a commentary on the nature of existence. Human beings have lived on the planet Earth for millennia but it is as yet unknown exactly why people are here and exactly what it means to be human. Regardless of why a play was written or the subject matter of that play, one thing that echoes throughout all plays is an attempt to understand humanity or to comment upon it. To make a comment on humanity that the audience and see, understand, and internalize is the ultimate goal of a play and the greatest potential a play has which can be seen in the works The Shape of Things, In the Blood, Wit, and The Goat.
The theater can show a very dark side of humanity which people do not want to think about but which nonetheless exists. In The Shape of Things (2001), a young man named Adam has his entire world destroyed by Evelyn for a graduate studies project. She cajoles him into severing friendships, into severe body modification, and into a sexual relationship which he believes is based on emotional intimacy. Films tend to show the brighter side of humanity and exhibit happy endings where boy meets girl and real-world traumas seldom reach them. This is not reality. There are harsh people in the world just like Evelyn and foolish people in the world like Adam. Theater's potential is to hold up a mirror to society and show some of the things that people do not want to admit exists.

Suzan-Lori Parks' In the Blood is about a woman named Hester who has five children out of wedlock and is living…

Sources used in this document:
Works Cited

Albee, E. (2000). The Goat or Who is Sylvia? Overlook TP.

Edson, M. (1995). Wit. Faber & Faber.

LaBute, N. (2001). The Shape of Things.

Parks, S. (1999). In the Blood.
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Theatre Art
Words: 1066 Length: 3 Document Type: Creative Writing

Dee: The Shape of Things, a play by Neil LaBute, (A) expands on the central themes of society's distortional emphasis on appearances, and art as a potentially limitless and human-sculpting instrument. Linearly structured in three acts, the plot closely follows the problematic evolution of a student couple from a Midwest university. Starting as a discrepant match, Evelyn and Adam develop an oddly unequal relationship, as the former increasingly impacts major changes

Theatre Art
Words: 1594 Length: 5 Document Type: Creative Writing

Blood by Suzan-Lori Sparks expands on the main theme of society's unfair disregard for its people of low condition in general, for women, and for adulterers. Hester La Negrita, the protagonist, is an African-American woman who struggles to survive in poverty along with her five base-born children. The family's outcast status is portrayed as a direct inducer and accelerator of emotional suffering, poverty, lack of education, and sexual exploitation. (A)

Art Interview With an Artist Describe Your
Words: 1286 Length: 4 Document Type: Essay

Art Interview with an Artist Describe your artwork and creation processes, how you became an artist, and what training you had. My name is Evan Z. I began working on art in high school, back in the 1990s. I used to love to draw and I would copy the cartoon drawings of Bill Watterson, who was my favorite artist back then -- the creator of Calvin and Hobbes, for anyone who does not

Art Movement Dada the Phenomenon Dada Is
Words: 1724 Length: 5 Document Type: Research Paper

Art movement DADA The phenomenon Dada is notoriously difficult to describe; some critics hesitate even to use the term "movement." Focusing on Dadaists' reflections about the phenomenon itself, we will try to delineate a general image of the Dada in the context of the European avant-gardes of the 20-th century. We will also try to analyze the historical and political context inside which the dada phenomenon occurred. Our main focus will

Art the Renaissance Heralded in
Words: 2995 Length: 9 Document Type: Term Paper

French Romantic painter, Eugene Delacroix, is well-known from this period. Delacroix often took his subjects from literature but added much more by using color to create an effect of pure energy and emotion that he compared to music. He also showed that paintings can be done about present-day historical events, not just those in the past (Wood, 217). He was at home with styles such as pen, watercolor, pastel, and

Art Nick Cave's Exhibition at
Words: 636 Length: 2 Document Type: Term Paper

The medium with which the artist works is also unique in that they are outfits that can and should be worn. The sound suits are designed to be wearable, imparting a grounded character to the exhibit. Instead of taking the suits too seriously, the viewer can imagine them as costumes in which the serious self is left behind in favor of the inner child. Like a mascot at a

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now