Contemporary Drama

 Notions of freedom, and layers of freedom, is something that I found most interesting in Gem of the Ocean. Sandra L. Richards lays out how freedom looks different for 3 of the characters in this play.  " Not only is an emphasis on agency uttered repeatedly but also it is apparent that the constitution of freedom changes depending on the historical context. For the older generation, freedom at one point meant emancipation from slavery; for Solly's sister in the post-Reconstruction South, freedom would entail the absence of racial violence and exploitation; for the newly arrived Citizen, freedom means nondiscriminatory, well-paid employment and psychic equilibrium " (Richards, 159).  This plays onto the title, being a reference to a song that is basically one step removed from being used in an Army ad. And yet Wilson's work here seems to ride a tension between a refutation of an advertainment for a national identity, while also promoting an advertainment towards a pan...

 In terms of creating a new sense of self in academia in my current intersection (cultural studies, performance, and dramatic arts), after the conversation with Rachel Aker, it left me more confused about what direction I am supposed to do internally. "Enduring Skills and the Future of Work", by Chris Smith, for instance, relies on a premise of collaboration and PhD work leads to more opportunity than simply being a professor producing research. But that being said, the examples of that seem to still be forced to come from the student rather than the system that houses us. Producing the soft skills within us is fine, but the us of our time, to teach and to be taught, doesn't reflect how to engage in industry unless it involves report work or conducting research.   Or in "How to Optimize your Career preparation", the formatting and reformatting the self in Resumes, CVs, and interviews makes me personally exhausting, on top of the issues I am trying to solve from ...

 One of the most fascinating things during my reading and watching of the King and I again, was the both the more contemporary readings of aspects from the movie version and the striking similarities and how it was similar to much portrayals of Asian Americans in contemporary media. Many of the TikTok Clips notes the actor, Yul Brynner's charisma and attractiveness. A Russian actor playing a Thai King didn't seem to rob the fantasy for many. An episode of American Horror Story, for instance, comments on his physical appeal. One TikTok I found even noted the problematic ways that the material comments on women, but ultimately they can over look (as a joke) because of Yul Brynner. This strange phenomenon is something I found present in much consumption of Asian male performers in Kpop as of the late 2010s to the present. That these men exude a sexual and magnetic charm that is unrivaled in all of men, but with other Asian men as well. Instead of focusing on the artistry, industr...

In Childress' Wine in the Wilderness,  I was struck by how much focus was rooted around intersections. How ultimately the way we argue for certain avenues of being untimely gets entangled with others argument.  We  see in the play how much class distinctions is intentional made early on. According to Colbert (2009), "In teaching this play, I direct my students’ attention to how the characters’ language suggests their class positioning. I question how Bill’s class-inflected speech differs and aligns with Tommy’s categorization of her neighbors. I alert students to the fact that Tommy’s use of the pejorative separates her from the rioters and establishes her behavior as one of the several demarcations of class differences within the play. While most readings of Wine in the Wilderness, including La Vinia Delois Jennings’s account in Alice Childress, consider the ways Tommy forces Bill, Sonny-Man, and Cynthia to acknowledge their class privilege, critics do not consider Tommy...

This week, if found myself reading something to what I'm used to. Performance art. performance without an obvious narrative. Where the explanation seem less concerned with creating dimensions for a fictionally staged characters, and instead a fictional staged person. Based on our persona, aren't we all staged. Pretending to be people that makes awe and incite impacts in others live?  In-yur-face theatre seems less concerned with creating fictional characters and more of a fictional speaking situation. Things read more like a public speech, a persuasive one, filled with warrants, evidence and thesis argument.  Sarah Kane's Psychosis reads similar to Ellen Hopkins, where the words on the page are less of a character and more of an artistic argument for what needs to be said. Howard Baker's Judith reads like a long soliloquy after long soliloquy. As if Shakespeare had a lot of chips on his shoulders. Challenging people means to stop trying to entertain. Just like the Super...

 What is performance for? Who is it for? Why do we do this? These questions keep piercing around my brain like cracks giving way under ice on a lake bed. In my neck of the woods, in performance studies that is housed in Communication Studies, there is a acknowledgment of how life, especially the ways we can communicate, rivals the conventions of storytelling and staging is just as applicable. If that is the case, that what we see in front on stage mirrors the front of stages that we all perform in our personal and professional lives, why do we need to show an audience how "real" the real world is? From A Street Car Named Desire  to Belle Reprieve, or the violence in demonstrated in Blasted , the impulse on one hand to demonstrate a certain level of uncomfortable pain to harm also seems connected to the feelings on the other hand to be sat down and bare witness (or be an accomplice at times). There's a general feeling of wanting to reject something that is real in the worl...