Length: approx. 300 words
This assignment is meant to help you develop tools to complete the final Performance Critique. It focuses on performance analysis/play on the stage.
The performance is clearly aiming at something different than a realistic representation of ‘the story’. Focus on one or two of these theatrical elements and analyse what they add to your audience experience? Your essay should also address how the theatrical element contributes to your understanding of the larger themes of the play.
Answer the following questions:
Chushingura
What are one or two things Kabuki’s stylised acting “does”. Consider, for example, how rhythm impacts emotional progression, or what the artistic exaggeration of vocal delivery does for your experience of the events being portrayed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__A6wEZ_plA (pine room from 4:45 – 6:14)
1. This assignment requires you to focus on a real or imagined performance of the script. Develop a thesis about how the theatrical elements contribute your experience and understanding of the play. What are the performers doing physically and vocally. How are the textures, colours, sounds, embodied emotions, contributing to your response?
2. Support your thesis through thoughtful discussion of 1 -2 examples from the video or close analysis of stage directions plus your imagining of the performance. Challenge yourself to articulate with precision what you are seeing and hearing/imagining. Consider how the precise choices contribute to your experience of the performance excerpt.
INSERT at the beginning of your final essay a note briefly describing:
ONE useful SUBSTANTIVE comment (relating to ideas and/or structure, not typos or grammar) made by your peer reviewer and how you responded to to make your final version better.