Much like the greek tragedies, the hero of Bella: An American Tall Tale has a major tragic flaw, but this flaw might be a bit too big to handle. Bella, the main character, faces many problems caused by her large posterior. Bella: An American Tall Tale at the Dallas Theater Center captivates audiences with its hysterical script, talented actors, and spectacular technical elements. The musical begins with Bella (Ashley D. Kelley), a kind yet naive young girl whose large derriere both causes and solves her many problems, getting onto a train. She plans to meet her boyfriend Aloysius (Clifton Oliver) and marry him. However, she faces many obstacles hindering her journey. For example, a Mexican cowboy jumps through her window and whisks away a woman on the train and a traveling circus makes her the star of their freakshow. This show touches on the many different …show more content…
The stage starts off mostly bare except for a few rows of chairs set to look like the seats of a train. The simple set allows for more movement for the actors and also prevents any distractions that large sets often cause. Throughout the show, the set changes to show the different locations that Bella visits. During one scene that takes place in Bella’s dreams, a projector casts lights that look like stars across the bare stage to reveal Tommie Haw (Paolo Montalban), an Asian cowboy that tells Bella about the Californian railways. The bare stage provides a dramatic and dreamlike scene. The costumes provide additional humor to an already hilarious play. Bella’s costumes help show the development of her character throughout the show. They all have a large padding on the behind to show her large backside. The most interesting costumes, however, are worn by the freaks in the circus. The freaks’ costumes range from a beard on a lady to a hunchbacked man. The odd costumes that the freaks wear add to the peculiarity of the scenes that take place in the
Authors like Carson McCullers and Flannery O’Connor have written a lot of different pieces that all have included different elements of the Grotesque, which make their writings standout. The definition from Webster’s Dictionary of a Grotesque is a style of decorative art characterized by fanciful or fantastic human and animal forms often interwoven with foliage or similar figures that may distort the natural into absurdity, ugliness or caricature. This type of writing to some people could be otherwise known as “freaks.” But, even though these two writers both have used this style of writing, do they possibly agree on the same things when actually writing about a “freak?” O’Connor stated that the reason she writes about “freaks” is because
The costumes that fascinated me the most were the ones used in War of the Nerds and In and Out. I found the costumes in War of the Nerds to be innovative and comical especially the lightsabers, wookiee, dwarf, and hobbit costumes, they added a lighthearted touch to the play. The costumes and lighting in the play, In and Out appended to the overall theme of the play, the schoolgirl costume made the audience acquire knowledge of who the actress was trying to be and the red lighting gave the audience a chilling feel. Mr. Onorato, Mr. Murphy, and anyone else that helped develop these plays did an extraordinary
In Becky’s childhood, she was not such a cherry girl before. Her parents have been separated in that time, and she fell into the darkest period of her life. Fortunately, she got her grandma’s help and after a long-term journey with her grandma, she could face to the pain from her family. Becky became optimistic and honest to life and also for herself, and she wanted to see more views from nature and people in the path of her life. Now she finds her true lover named Gilbert in a small town nearby highway,
“The Hero’s Journey”, Grimm’s Fairy Tales he talked about a little story name:Snow-White and Rose-Red. Well in the story all they showed about was that if they had some things to do all around them, but as in the story what on Snow-White would always do to Rose-Red and to show that there is a point where they would had some issues, “He held on to all the reeds and rushes, but it was of a little good,and he was forced to movements of the fish,and was in urgent danger to being dragged into the water.” So in Snow-White and Rose-Red, Grimm’s Fairy Tales,uses one aspect,to define, strengthen, and to illustrate the elements of work...
A 10-year-old girl, Lila, narrates this story. But narration through the perspective of a 10-year-old child slightly lowlights the heaviness of the topic and its effects. The characters are witnessing the Indo-Pak war from a distance both geographically and emotionally. Lilia’s parents were worried about the conflict and War but this conflict left Lila struggling with her own life. Mr. Pirzada gave a candy to Lila as a sign of affection.
To begin the setting was amazingly seamless and convincing; although, I didn’t have very high expectation for the sets I was amazed to say the least when I saw the first scene set. In scenes where Santa was telling Buddy’s story the set was the most simplistic while other scenes for instance when Buddy first gets to New York I was amazed by the set and how realistic it was to the actual setting. The flow of sets was almost seamless making the entire play feel dreamlike. The stage props used throughout the play were handled as though they weren’t props and that the character holding or using them used them every day adding to the dreamlike feeling of this play. The lighting perfectly depicted the mood of each scene I noticed that while in the North Pole the lights tended to be more of a bright white light which to me symbolizes joy and happiness, while in other scenes in New York I noticed gloomier colors such as dark blue that most likely to symbolize Buddy’s struggle and conflict with his father, Walter.
Women have found themselves at the bottom of society’s hierarchal pyramid for eons. Even though females make contributions that prove vital to the world’s function, they are still regarded as the weaker link. The female plight of constantly facing debasement is a pawn used to ensure compliance. It is a common notion that if one is demeaned enough, he or she will conform to the suggested persona. Society tests this notion through its treatment of women.
The musical opens with the song “No-one Mourns the Wicked” which announces the death of the Wicked Witch of the West, and the population’s joy at her
Vampires have been seen throughout history as bloodsucking, evil monsters who come out at night to prey upon the innocent by piercing their flesh with their fangs. While this is true, there are more than just this type of literal vampires in literature. In Thomas C. Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor, he describes vampires as any older figure that represents corrupt values who violates young women and leaves them helpless followers in his sin. Although characters in Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Harriet Jacob’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl did not suck anyone’s blood or run away at a glimpse of sunlight, they are still vampires. Slave owners in these novels are vampires as they exploit young women and strip them of their
Question 1-Shakespeare in Love Shakespeare in love as a comedy Shakespeare in love is comedy that provides a clear juxtaposition of Shakespeare’s live in Elizabethan time and creates allusions to his works and modern times with allusion to famous Hollywood films. Aspects of the Elizabethan times are evidently displayed throughout the play. The clothing worn by the actors and actresses was characterised by doublets, breeches, gowns, corsets, collars, ruffs and hats. It was evident that there was a clear class division.
The costume choices must be recognized during the first scene. Scarlett is dressed very lady-like in an outfit that fits the time period of the pre civil war south perfectly. The white ruffled dress that Scarlett is wearing completely covers her shoulders, legs and even her collarbones. The dress is completed with a red belt which adds a little flare to an otherwise innocent looking dress.
Her voluminous costume also makes the Wicked Witch seem larger and more frightening than she is. Seeing these two characters in two very different costumes before they even speak a word helps the viewers to already get a feel for who they are and what is maybe to
I’m sure we all have read or have been told the story of Cinderella. It is a classic story-telling story that every child has heard. Over the years there have been many different versions of the story, but the basic structure plot is still in place. There's a conflict between good and evil in each story. “Cinderella” written by two brothers, Jacob, and Wilhelm Grimm as the reader we notice a much detailed version of the original story.
Fairytale Comparative Analysis: Little Red Riding Hood The classic story of Little Red Riding Hood that everyone knows is not the only storyline. In “Little Red Riding Hood” by Charles Perrault, he tells the classic fairytale of the little girl going to her grandma’s house and gets stopped by a wolf. In “The Company of Wolves” by Angela Carter is a twisted, dark fairytale about a pack of wolves who capture a little girl in the woods. According to Kimberley J. Lau, Carter actually translated Perrault’s fairytales, which today are the base line for most Disney movies.