Response Paper The Tempest
After capturing the entire play it revealed that Prospers was actual stranded on an island with his daughter Miranda for years. It took a while to notice that feature only because of the title of the play being The Tempest, which was the title of the storm in the play that landed them on the island. The most outstanding moment in the play was when Clinical rose up on his feet and began his affection with Miranda. He rose up with demon horns in pitch blue light shunned onto him and the obscure music started to play. The feeling of distress shadowed the stage as this scene took place.
Without the visual effects of the lighting, the horrific music playing and the demonic horns on the character the setting would have never been interpreted as Clinical being a sinister character. II. Production Quality The design elements of the play fitted pretty well with each other. There were props in the play that forced confusion upon reading the setting of the play. For instance the story is set on an island and on the stage nothing made any resemblance to the island. The props used to contribute to the setting of the island were crates, dull tanned brown tarp, and a small wooden boat.
At the beginning of the play it was seen how they were on a boat by using the wooden boat and waiving it in the air and with the dull tarp they would use it as a sail, but once the boat set on an island it was a bit hard to depict how the crates played any part of the play. Also another thing that was a bit hard to assume was the costumes of the used to describe the so called spirits. They more resembled statutes as they were covered in grey body paint from head to toe while standing on top of the crates on stage not even budging until it became cue to move and speak.
The actors were very impressive while performing. They felt very comfortable with the props, lighting, and costumes. Another strong suite that brought the characters to life was the relationship between the case Though interpreted from a different angle from the viewer it was shown by the actors that they knew who they were and used every bit of the elements provided to them to bring their character to life. For instance Prospers and his relationship with Ariel was brought to life by Riel’s loving nature of the actor herself.
Her soft voice brought almost t seemed a romance at point when speaking to Prospers and showing him that she was a loyal spirit. Like said before overall the design elements fitted pretty well with the entire play. The grey body paint making the characters look more like statues or gargoyles was not in taste, but once into the play more was seen and noticed on how they formed into the their characters. Improvements could be made by making more effort into making the spirits look like actual spirits of today’s modern view instead of the past’s modern view of how spirits looked.
Also the crates still remain a question of what hey actual stood for as to being an object on an island. The tarp being used as a ships sail and island sad was a pretty magnificent idea to me by utilizing one article to set the scenery. Ill. The Impact on the Audience Watching the play with friends and observing the audience engagement it would seem they did overall enjoy it. There were parts in the play that were comedic and gained the amusement of audience whom shared laughter throughout the entire theatre. During the intermission, my past professor who was in attendance got to share his thoughts on the play.
His thoughts ere the actors in the play remained incredible with portraying their characters and using the environment to craft a mood of an appealing nature to the actual story of Shakespearean, The Tempest. IV. Final Thoughts When walking into the play there was utter confusion on what the story focus was. Though the actors were amazing and enjoyable to watch, grasping the characters from the first 15 minutes of the play was not easily comprehensible because of the lack of knowledge. The only way it actually started to make sense was when focusing on the dialogue on the play rather Han the actors motion.
Once the dialogue was comprehended it was a bit easier to follow the story and figure out who the characters were. So it is safe to say when watching a staged play there is so much more that you have to look into and read to figure out the story than watching a movie on television with subtitles and a clearly plotted and produced film. You have to read so much more into a play because there are no cut scenes or fast forwarding/ rewinding, it is only you and your imagination trying to read into the characters, dialogue, props, lighting and so much more on a single stage.
