Performance Critique Assignment

· Performance Critique Assignment


· During the first month of class, you are required to attend a theatrical production and to respond to it in the form of a performance critique (due February 29). A performance critique is a short essay in which you describe and offer your perspective on the specific choices that were made in a production.  For this particular assignment, you are asked to develop an argument about how the production choices reflected (or failed to clearly reflect) the play’s central message.  


· This piece of writing is uniquely tied to your own experience as a spectator in the theatre. Your critique should engage with the production as performance.  This is different from doing a simple literary analysis of the main themes in the play.  You should explore how these ideas are communicated through specific scenic choices – acting, directing, design, use of space, etc. – and make an argument about how these choices contributed to the production as a whole.  Did they further the audience’s understanding of the message it was trying to convey?  Did they make sense within the world they were trying to create? Was the text more alive because of them?  


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· *If there is a director’s note in the program, this will be particularly useful in ascertaining what the director’s intentions were or why he/she chose to stage this play in particular. 


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· A Performance Critique Looks Like:


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· Format: 4 pages, 12-point font, double-spaced, 1” margins. Consulting other sources is not recommended (and you should definitely NOT consult other reviews of the performance), but if there is a secondary source that you feel provides important supporting information for your argument, you may use it if you include proper MLA citation. 


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· Ticket: Staple your ticket stub to the back page of your paper. 


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· Description: Give the audience a sense of the play.  Include information about the name of the production, location, notable cast members, etc.  Also include a very brief description of the main action, and/or the driving character relationships, and/or the genre (period piece, musical, etc.).  When describing the action of the play, use the present tense. 


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· Argument: You should move far beyond saying simply whether you liked or disliked the play.  Be sure to develop a clear thesis about what you think the production company was attempting to accomplish and whether they were successful.


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· Specific Examples: Remember to provide specific examples to back up your argument.  Your critique should help readers "visualize" the play. Provide relevant and evocative details. You will likely want to address several of the following elements: Acting (were the characters believable?  Were they supposed to be?), Directing (Did there seem to be a unifying concept behind the production?  How was that concept realized? Did the different elements of the production fit together?), Costume/Set/Lighting/Sound Design (How did the space contribute to the overall effect of the production?  What mood was produced by the design?  Did any color in particular dominate the stage?  If so, to what effect? Were there symbolic aspects to the design?  Were lighting changes rapid or slow?  Did sound choices help to punctuate the action, or did they get in the way? Etc.)


· Current Area Productions:


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Production Theatre Location Dates
Stupid Fucking Bird Wilbury Theater Group Providence Now-Feb. 6
Grizzly Mama Gamm Theater Pawtucket Now-Feb. 7
Hysteria 2nd Story Theater Warren Now-Feb. 14
The Hunchback of Seville Trinity Repertory Providence Feb. 4-Mar. 6
Love, Loss, and What I Wore 2nd Story Theater Warren Feb. 18-Mar.6
Frost/Nixon AS220 Providence Feb. 20-28
A Skull in Connemara Gamm Theater Pawtucket Feb. 25-Mar

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· **Most theaters offer a discount with student ID.  Many will also let you see the show for free if you usher (which means arriving early to hand out programs as people are coming in), though you have to set this up ahead of time.  The Trinity also has discounted seating on benches at the back of the theater.  


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· Stupid Fucking Bird by Aaron Posner


· In this irreverent remix of Chekhov's The Seagull, an aspiring young director rails against art created by his mother's generation, a nubile young actress wrestles with an aging Hollywood star for the affections of a renowned novelist, and everyone discovers just how disappointing life, art, and growing up can be. Chekhov's characters still ruminate on love, revolution and the pursuit of happiness, but this time with a lot more snark as the subtext bubbles to the surface. With music, meta-theatricality, and mad humor, playwright Aaron Posner beats The Seagull to a bloody pulp.  Review Excerpt: “It’s irreverent, it’s dark, it’s funny, it’s deep, it’s punk as fuck. You don’t wanna miss this one.”


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· Grizzly Mama by George Brandt


· Deb is a divorced suburban mom who reimagines herself as a righteous, liberal avenger following the death of her activist mother. Her daughter, Hannah, is a typical texting teenager - at least until she discovers the real reason Mom moved them next door to a certain Alaskan presidential candidate.


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· Hysteria by Terry Johnson 


· Egos run amok when Freud and Salvador Dali meet at the psychoanalyst’s home. Throw in a scantily clad, rain-soaked girl, and comedy morphs into brilliant farce: one that sparkles, shines and lights up the mind.


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· The Hunchback of Seville, by Charise Castro Smith


· At the turn of the 16th century, Christopher Columbus has just returned from the new world with gold in his pockets and blood on his hands. Maxima Terriblé Segunda, the brilliant adopted sister of dying HRH Queen Isabella, is living out her life locked away in a tower... until it is decided that the future of the country is in her nerdy, reclusive hands. In a bitingly funny and madcap take on Spanish history and colonialism, Maxima weaves her way through mountains of prejudice, politics, religion and the horrors of history.


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· Love, Loss & What I Wore, by Delia & Nora Ephron


· An ensemble piece about ensemble pieces, covering all the important subjects: mothers, prom dresses, mothers, buying bras, mothers, purses and, yes, mothers. It sheds some light on women’s passion for wearing black and for buying shoes. It’s funny and powerful; serious and sweet, rueful and ruthless. A unique and universal chronicle of women’s wiles, worries, insecurities and loves.


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· A Skull in Connemera by Martin McDonagh


· The Gamm stages the last of its wildly popular productions of McDonagh's multi-award-winning "Leenane Trilogy" - including The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Season 29) and The Lonesome West (Season 21) - with another macabre mini-masterpiece! For one week each autumn, Mick Dowd is hired to disinter bones in sections of his local cemetery to make way for the new arrivals. But as the time approaches for him to dig up the bones of his own late wife, rumors about his possible involvement in her sudden death seven years ago resurface. Populated by misfits and miscreants all digging for the truth, A Skull in Connemara is a blasphemously funny whodunit complete with flying skulls and bloody hatchets.


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