The Broadway; Advice for the young at heart.
Friday 31st January, 2014 7.30pm
 When viewing this play I decided to focus on the costume design since that was my chosen art challenge for my award though I still took into account the acting set design, lighting and so on.
This play was about a girl who’s grandfather recently died but she kept imagining him in her mind days before his funeral once she’d recently found it he used to protest against blacks during the fifty’s alongside his brother, despite the fact her grandmother was black. In her mind he’s try to reason with her, but it seemed a lost cause especially as she viewed all the events that took place between him and his brother which opened her eyes for the worst meaning she no longer thought so good of him. Aside from that she also managed to get herself into trouble by dating the wrong guy who obviously didn’t care about her after allowing his mates to rape her. With all these problems she’s lost, not to mention the fact that her boyfriend now wants to kill her best friend because he insulted his favourite football team. With this entire goings on it’s a wonder she can trust anyone except for the fact that now all faith has been lost in her granddad. Nevertheless she has her best friend, right? Or maybe he’ll turn away once he finds out what’s really going to happen when he see’s her.
Overall I felt this play was rather enjoyable and in fact relatable especially to the age group/ ethnicity of the audience. This is because it touched on some big issues in society such as rape, racism and crime. Not only did the play represent topics on today’s society but it showed the severity of such issues in the 50’s with use of the ever so great technique of flashbacks. A complete juxtaposition was shown which furthered our understanding.
The set was simple; two cardboard walls, a makeshift brick fence and a path. Each transition was smooth and a distinct sound for each scene making it easier to differentiate between the scenes of 2014 and those of 1950. Not to mention the difference in costume was a big help. Except for the fact that the granddad wore pretty much the same thing even though there were slight changes in what he was wearing for the 2014 scenes in the lead’s mind.
            With four actors 2 played the brother and granddad whilst the other two were the lead female and the best friend. In the 50’s scenes the male actors wore long suits, braces, smart shoes and a waistcoat/ blazer with gelled hair.
This is the ultimate male 50’s look so it made it easy for us the audience to depict what year the scene was set. It was great to see there 50’s scenes as the play we as a group had decided on had a 50’s influence in the costume which gave me a good idea as to what I could design.
Furthermore the little mannerisms the characters of the 50’s scenes had were very helpful and useful for me when I were to act as I was able to observe every little behavior then proceed to not to the same but produce something similar to keep within the 50’s scene.
Unfortunately with this play there was only one female and she at no point wore a 50’s outfit so it meant I had a little more research to do within that aspect in order to create female outfits since our group has more female actors.
This play was rather useful and even more so was being able to question the actors at the end. This gave us a further insight into the concept of the actors, how they prepare themselves and the set design as well as any other budding questions we had such as how to get into the industry. I was able to ask about the set and whether or not some parts were meant only for the 50’s scenes and others for those set in 2014. It seems not necessarily although it did help when navigating across the stage and setting the scene thus creating more imagery for the audience other than just sound effects.
Above all this play was truly believable and I know that some members of the audience were even in tears or getting involved with chants even though they didn’t require audience participation. The play had us all enthralled and questioning our daily lives as well as the other goings on in the world. This play was exciting, fun and definitely a great night out!
germansingergirl
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
ellievsbear
gummygunk
origamiaround
