Mariano Moore
November 20, 2014
Theater 2
2nd Period
'The Night Thoreau Spent In Jail'
Reflection Questions
1. In my opinion, it seemed as though the theater artists were trying to perceive simplicity in the way the stage was set so that was the complexity of the play could be fathomable. The play 'The Night Thoreau Spent In Jail' is really a complicated piece as it is because it has so many different time jumps in Thoreau's life and such a complex type of character development.
By using some pieces such as the chair and "canoe" as many different props other than what they clearly were, it also perceived simplicity by leaving the audience's imagination do the special effects instead of giving them more to try and comprehend.
Another way the theater artists simplified this play was but making it almost obvious when the time shifts were happening by having the main or starring portion of the plot in the center of the stage and having any story developing portions of the play happen around it. 2. I think that the theater artists did succeed in making the play simple because the story made plenty of sense and the complexity of it have a noncomplicated face that way a plot could be developed in the audiences mind.
I have read the play in class was completely lost on what was actually happening. There wasn't much of a face that the play had because all of the imagination was left to me to piece together. After the show, I felt like I understood the motives that each of the characters had and the point to the story. The complexity was also diminished by the clear beats in each scene. The characters clearly worked very hard at making sure that each scene affected their character in the time that they were supposed to (not showing all of the emotion on their face before it actually happened in the story. 3. In this day in age, yes it is very good that a play like this was put on at a high school and in our community.
High schoolers nowadays, lack a bit in the ability to know their history as more than a hell torture class that happens to have text books to go along with it. This helps for our community that is so quick motion, get what we want and go attitude, to stop and indulge in the rich body that is our history. This also helps for people in BHS to realize
that there is more to life that conformity. It helps to show the way and outcome of standing against the norm and standing for what you believe in. 4. The element of theme in this play, though could be so easily lost due to the different messages being present, was well contained through the whole play.
The message of "anticonformity and doing what is the good for the greater good" was constant by the actors ability to look deep within lines to not just see the base level of them and performing them as just something their characters say, but as something that builds up to the ultimate outcome of the whole play. The actor's ability to flow with the time line though it not a steady stream all its own helped to keep the theme one message instead of a few messages that the audience has to decipher. 5. In a play like 'The Night Thoreau Spent In Jail', a plot could be as easy as taking a shot at a target in the dark, though was made easier though the production put on here.
The plot of the play was made easier to follow with the help of the beats in place after each scene. The plot with each beat helped to lay out the puzzle of the time line that was followed in the play. The upbringing to the climax was clearly layout by the combination of the beats and flow that the characters had with each other; though chronologically, the play is out of place, the way the playwrights and theater artists projected their view and visions of the play onto the audience perceive it in a way that the plot was clearer that it could be just simply reading it. 6. If I had to choose, three actors, I feel, that stood
