"Joe Turner's Come and Gone"

The play "Joe Turner's Come and Gone", by August Wilson was one of my favorite plays we've read thus far. Wilson truly portrays society and the difficulties faced by many blacks during this time period. Being a history junkie I really enjoy reading plays and novels that are all about the culture of the time period. Wilson wrote his cycle of plays to do just that, depict the African American culture at different points throughout the nineteenth century. Without the deep infusion of the culture of this time period "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" would not have been as powerful as it was. It would have been a story about some people and a guy who has a magic spell that binds people. But, with the richness of culture the story is about this group of African Americans all at different points in their post-slavery life. You have Seth, a second generation freeman, Bynum, a former slave, Loomis, never in slavery but one of Joe Turner's men. The interaction between each of these people creates a wonderful dynamic on stage. Also a lot of the play is about how African Americans did a lot of coming and going during this time period. It's this coming and going that really pushes the plot to it's climax. So, I really enjoyed how much culture Wilson put into "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" and now want to read some of the other books from his cycle.

"Everyone's A Little Bit Racist"

While rereading Sarah's monologues all I could think of this the song "Every one's A Little Bit Racist" from the Broadway Musical "Avenue Q". So posted is a link to a video of the London cast performing this live. The sound is off but I think that everyone should take the time to listen to the lyrics (which are slightly different from the ones in the US version since they have inserted British humor) they really are insightful and relate to the theme of "Spinning into Butter" and the idea of always being PC. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9CSnlb-ymA&feature=related



The last verse of the song goes as follows:

"Every one's a little bit racist, it's true. But everyone is just about as racist as you! If we all could just admit that we are racist a little bit, and everyone stop being so PC, maybe we could live in harmony."



I think this relates to the play in that one of the driving forces of the play is the need to be PC. But, when you think about it being PC sometimes can be a bigger problem then just stating your mind, as exemplified in "Spinning into Butter." So, if everyone stopped being PC would we live in harmony or would racism be worse?

"Spinning Into Butter"

The other day in class we discussed the idea of why Simon was not written into the play. As a class we came up with many theatrical and artistic reasons as to why Simon had no "stage time." We thought that the author did this to keep the focus on Sarah, make him more then a character, allow you to draw your own conclusions, or to give us the factor of hearing what is said when Simon's not there.

Then Professor Newby asked the class, "What if I told you Simon wasn't written into the play because Gilman didn't want to write in a black character?", and some of us just stared. So then we talked about how that's kind of a cope out answer to the question of "Where's Simon". But, I think that maybe it's not a cope out answer but the truth and maybe Sarah's monologue is from Gilman. Maybe Gilman's the racist and she wrote the play, just like Sarah wrote the list, to get all out. Mo'e said how the feelings in the play had to come from someone with that experience, but Mo'e was talking about how Gilman could have talked to some black people to be able to write them. Taking that to heart, could the source of Sarah's monologue be Gilman?

"Art"

I feel that "Art" was a in depth portrayal of human nature done in a way that was insightful and entertaining at the same time. The whole time I was reading this I kept comparing it back to the playground scene in elementary school. Now, where I went to school we didn't have a playground so we held recess in a parking lot thus a lot of "he said, she said" and kid like arguments took place. I mean what else are kids to do when we can't even play with balls since they could roll into the road. In order to have fun at recess kids would sometimes bring in their "cool" toy to show everyone. It is the antics that always followed when a toy was brought in that I related to Serge showing Marc his new painting. What ensued was Marc made fun of Serge then ran and told Ivan about it. Ivan then ran to Serge and was nice about the painting. Then Serge told Marc what Ivan said and Marc told Serge what Ivan said. Then, both got mad a Ivan for saying different things. To me that seems like some playground antics to me. But, the genius behind it was that Yasmina Reza took a simple scenario you could watch any given day at your local playground and applied it to a group of adults. Adults who are supposed to be more mature and grown-up then Elementary students...I guess there's a little kid left in us all now isn't there?

Here's a link to a clip of two little kids fighting over toys...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRxLm4afZXw

... Think about how the baby further from the camera has Elmo first (Serge buys a painting), so the Baby that appears closest to the camera feels the need to demean the others toy (Marc making fun of Serge for buying the painting). I know this is a weak link between the two, all the videos on YouTube were of course violent ones, but the link is still there for analysis.

Why? (DL)

The question I will be addressing in this blog is "Why, in a world where we value new technology, in a world where we can watch TV and movies on handheld devices, would someone go to the theatre? Why keep doing it?" Simply put I think that people still go to the theatre and watch shows because it is a completely different experience then watching the TV or a movie.

These three things are all very different concepts that have different aspects and purposes in society. On TV you can watch shows that range from a half an hour to an hour, and now even five minute shows in between the longer ones. When you watch movies they range from a little over an hour to six hours spread over three disks. The similar thing between these two mediums of entertainment is that they're not "live", you, the viewer, are staring at a screen as people you don't know act out a story for you. This is not "candid" (with the exception of the rising popularity of reality television shows) the director can stop and re shoot a scene as many times as he/she wants to until he/she thinks it is perfect.

One the other hand Theatre is a whole other form of entertainment in and of it-self. When watching a show being performed on stage it is a one-hundred percent different experience. You see the actors, you are part of the show, it's more "real". When watching a play it is as if you really are glimpsing into a different time and place and spying on those who live there. When an actor cries on stage you can physically see their tears fall, for me theatre is much more believable and entrancing then TV or movies are.

Also there's something special about theatre that TV and movies don't have and that is the audience. Yes, some TV shows are "filmed in front of a live audience" but that doesn't mean when they mess up they have to improv their way through it, they still get to stop shooting and re shoot the scene. I my-self am an actress and have been since I was a little kid, and nothing is more exhilarating then going on stage and seeing all the faces in the audience looking at you and your fellow actors and actresses just waiting to be let into the World you're about to show them. When someone messes up on stage there's no stopping and restarting you just have to keep going. Sometimes its these little slip ups that makes each show unique and an experience unlike any other.

TV and movies have their pros; you can watch them over and over, you can pause, rewind, even stop and take a break. You can't do these things in Theatre. Although TV, movies, and theatre all serve the some purpose, to entertain, they are almost so different they're incomparable. But, it's these differences that makes each one of then special in their own right and makes it so that all three can exist without one becoming a "lost" art form.