Waitress #DramaBlog3

Choose a theme that has some resonance with American life or culture and comment on the way this is explored in the musical version of Waitress. For example, you might write a blog post that critiques the musical in terms of its exploration of American middle-class apathy OR its critique of American capitalism. You are encouraged to explore a theme that has not been discussed in class.

The film along with the musical critiques the American lifestyle by challenging traditional beliefs and ways of life through the comical portrayals of the characters. The musical explored Jenna’s oppressive situation as she is stuck in a loveless, abusive marriage with Earl, falls pregnant and goes on the ultimate quest to find happiness. Her finding fulfilment does not adhere to the typical “happy-ending” fairytale that we are used to, in fact it completely overthrows as she rejects Earl and her prince-charming Jim.

The musical endorses financial security as the most important aspect in life as the title of the film is Waitress and her whole life is surrounded by pies. For instance, Jenna uses her pies to win the heart of the doctor and her general interactions with others in her daily life is through her pies. The musical begins with Jenna living in struggle, fighting to reach the top of the period as she journeys on a quest to win that pie contest in order to survive as a single mother.

One big difference in the musical compared to the film was that their was the mix with race. I found this to have improved and strengthened the overall interpretation of the film. For example, in the musical one of Jenna’s waitress friends is of African descent as well as Jim’s secretary. Both of these characters are stereotyped through their postures, actions and tones to fit the supposed African American portrayal. For example, Jim’s secretary walks around with a hunched back with her butt sticking out.

The musical did show the harsh realities of America despite the fictional storyline and over dramatised characters. Dorn and Oddy go against social norms and decide to commit to one another in a interracial relationship. Even though it is humorous watching these two characters, it is an important attack on traditional ideologies as both Dorn and Oddy are the only characters in the musical who find true love without being hurt or hurting others.

The musical endorses feminist culture, however it also subverts this at times as Jenna is living the American dream as she struggles financially and wishes to win the pie contest to escape her situation. She has an affair with another man, lies to her husband and her actions lead to hurting another woman. However, Jenna inherits money from Joe at the end, despite her efforts to be independent and strong as a woman, she is still saved by a man. Ultimately, the musical does not end with her falling in deep romance but instead she reachers financial success.

The Book of Mormon #DramaBlog2

This blog post asks you to employ your knowledge of the elements of drama in relation to the stage play The Book of Mormon. Choose three to four elements of drama (discussed in the first drama lecture) and consider how these are employed to symbolically represent pertinent American issues in the performance of the musical. In other words, you need to consider how the theatre techniques employed by the director and company critique, endorse, criticise or expose particular American themes. For example, you might focus on a character that is a caricature of a particular American type OR you might focus on a piece of set or a prop that symbolises some aspect of American life.

The Mormon religion was satirised in the “All American Prophet” as a way to shape and build the audiences understanding behind the history of this American religion. Both Lopez and Stone are criticising the cultural egocentrism through the song. The purpose of the satire is not to ridicule the Mormon religion; in fact, it is used to allow the audience to question the nature of American ignorance. At the beginning of the musical, we had Jesus present himself to the audience on a high pedestal, dressed in a white cloth with shiny, golden jewellery showcasing the typical, stereotyped depiction of Jesus. The tone of his voice adds more humour as he speaks “Hey guys, it’s Jesus Christ!” along with the founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith who is also heavily satirised. The tones, movements and the dialogue of these two characters adds to the humour and mock of Mormonism in order to show the ignorance of American attitudes towards other issues and belief systems.

The portrayal of Ugandan characters in the musical was a representation of American ignorance rather than Africans and their culture. For example, the character of General Butt Naked who is a ruthless killer who rapes women and sacrifices young children. In reality, Joshya Blahyi is now involved in a ministry, creating programs and services that help traumatised child soldiers. His name stemmed from his former position as “General Butt Naked” where he operated bare in order to create fear amongst his civilians. He killed young children and drank their blood, feasted on their hearts taking away more than 20 000 lives. Mormon religion began with Joseph Smith who found the book (that he was only allowed to see) and re-wrote it down for others to see. In this sense, Joshya Blahyi, was supposedly told in a dream by the “devil” that if he commits all these acts, that he would become the most powerful man if he continued to practice cannibalism and sacrifice lives. However, the belief of God and Christianity he argues, has saved his life and made him a better person. Similarly to the musical which represents the idea of revolutionising a person or a community and leading them to the “right path” in the quest to find happiness and fulfilment.

The theme of the American Dream is present in the musical as it explores the need for financial success, fame and fortune through certain characters such as Elder Price. While he sings, he exposes his strong desires for fame in “you and me, but mostly me…I’ll do something incredible that blows god’s name” suggesting that he wants to be even greater than God. Economically successful companies such as Sea World and Disney World located in Orlando are his favourite places as they are a false representation of “happy places” and pure fantasies of reality. Just like the Mormon religion creates suspicion amongst the audience and the Uganda community, Elder Price is saddened to see that “Africa is nothing like the lion king!” Elder Cunningham uses these false words as tools to link the Mormon faith with popular culture to increase his number of baptisms showing the world that American ignorance and single sides stories can make anything seem real and logical.

“The American Dream” #DramaBlog1

Choose one of the performances that you have seen and detail what you think it suggests about the American Dream. In your post, make sure that you compare the musical with the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller.

I have finally returned from my trip and I am back in Australia…phew! It feels good to be sleeping in my bed, eating home cooked meals and being with all my friends and family. It is about 4am at the moment and ever since I landed in America my wake up time has been during these early hours. Nevertheless, it is actually really beneficial as I can wake up with a fresh mind and get to writing my blogs as I have a-lot-to-say.

The play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, in comparison to the Bronx Tale directed by Robert De Niro, are vital critiques for the working class due to the constant struggle to achieve “The American Dream”. The characters of both Lorenzo and Willy are strong representations of how this portrayal of America to be welcoming everyone who has being socially excluded, marginalised and attempting to find fulfilment, is a complete false portrayal of the reality that America supposedly promises. The Bronx Tale on stage was a fantastic translation from the movie itself, as it explored the morality code behind the play. This was shown through C who was stuck between right (working class) and wrong (Sonny’s gang and “easy money”) by addressing religious beliefs in the musical. in addition to this, the “morality” messaged that De Niro endorses in the film was well represented in musical adaptation. The movie itself is simplistic in the messages that it attempts to deliver of good and bad, similarly with Willy Loman who is quite obvious in what he wants in his life which is the typical American dream, filled with luxury, title and the ultimate success.

The characters in the Bronx Tale do not contain much psychological complexity and the narrative itself is straight forward, therefore, the musical was showing this even less. This meant that unless you have watched the movie, the characters and the overall musical would have seemed dull and empty. Along with this, the simple language and characterisation created for the film it would need to be adapted for a musical which would lose the realism that the film tries to portray when exploring the everyday lives of the characters. For example, this “dream” that majority of American’s have built their lives on is only a capitalist ideology that creates people like Willy to feel the need to compete in society rather than live in their own pace which results in “wasted talent”. This is further supported by Willy’s quote “That’s what’s ruining this country! Population is getting out of control. The competition is mad- dening!” This conversation with Linda, is significant as it proves that he is conscious of his situation and America, but still continues to allow himself to be vulnerable to being treated as a failure and controlled by these false promises. Unlike Willy, Lorenzo who stands up for the working-class man, is more content with his income, his wife and job and finds happiness in his situation. Willy attempts to be more than his class, he wants to be at the top of the pyramid while knowing that he will never reach it and eventually dies trying.