Comments for Drama and Acting http://www.dramaandacting.com Activities and Resources for Students and Teachers Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:44:36 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7.1 hourly 1 Comment on The Pantomime Book: The Only Known Collection of Pantomime Jokes and Sketches in Captivity by Anonymous http://www.dramaandacting.com/book-reviews-and-shop/the-pantomime-book-the-only-known-collection-of-pantomime-jokes-and-sketches-in-captivity/comment-page-1#comment-838 Anonymous Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:43:39 +0000 http://www.dramaandacting.com/book-reviews-and-shop/the-pantomime-book-the-only-known-collection-of-pantomime-jokes-and-sketches-in-captivity#comment-838 Paul Harris's 140 page book is a serious tease. It is exactly what the archivists and enthusiasts want, although, as both, I would have wanted something ten times the size. How could we ever capture the ether of pantomime set pieces? Harris has done a fine job of putting these sketches both into print and into context. Without his work, we would certainly have lost the jokes at which 1,000,000 people per annum laugh. For your information, we are talking about some seriously old jokes here, including one from the 1670s. That's pantomime for you! His modest aim has been to take the unwritten humour of Dan Leno and Jack Tripp and capture it for those of us who have been brought up in and around pantomimes. The result is a series of sketches and comedy routines which look good on paper but, I promise you, look fantastic on stage. If ever you want to find a routine for a piece of slapstick, traditional pantomime or children's theatre, look no further. Paul, howzabout a second edition with lots more? Finally, I'd like to use the WWW to apologise publicly to my commuting companions who must have thought me two sandwiches short of a picnic whilst reading this book on the train each morning. I know, for sure, that it got me to work a happier and jollier person. Oh yes, it did! Rating: 4 / 5 Paul Harris’s 140 page book is a serious tease. It is exactly what the archivists and enthusiasts want, although, as both, I would have wanted something ten times the size. How could we ever capture the ether of pantomime set pieces?
Harris has done a fine job of putting these sketches both into print and into context. Without his work, we would certainly have lost the jokes at which 1,000,000 people per annum laugh. For your information, we are talking about some seriously old jokes here, including one from the 1670s. That’s pantomime for you!

His modest aim has been to take the unwritten humour of Dan Leno and Jack Tripp and capture it for those of us who have been brought up in and around pantomimes. The result is a series of sketches and comedy routines which look good on paper but, I promise you, look fantastic on stage.

If ever you want to find a routine for a piece of slapstick, traditional pantomime or children’s theatre, look no further. Paul, howzabout a second edition with lots more?

Finally, I’d like to use the WWW to apologise publicly to my commuting companions who must have thought me two sandwiches short of a picnic whilst reading this book on the train each morning. I know, for sure, that it got me to work a happier and jollier person. Oh yes, it did!
Rating: 4 / 5

]]> Comment on The Pantomime Book: The Only Known Collection of Pantomime Jokes and Sketches in Captivity by Anonymous http://www.dramaandacting.com/book-reviews-and-shop/the-pantomime-book-the-only-known-collection-of-pantomime-jokes-and-sketches-in-captivity/comment-page-1#comment-837 Anonymous Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:10:15 +0000 http://www.dramaandacting.com/book-reviews-and-shop/the-pantomime-book-the-only-known-collection-of-pantomime-jokes-and-sketches-in-captivity#comment-837 The only known collection of Pantomime Jokes and sketches in captivity?<p>Oh, no it isn't! Rating: 3 / 5 The only known collection of Pantomime Jokes and sketches in captivity?

Oh, no it isn’t!
Rating: 3 / 5

]]> Comment on Choreographed First Dance - Fabulous or Tacky? by Wedding Dance Lessons http://www.dramaandacting.com/drama-articles/choreographed-first-dance-fabulous-or-tacky/comment-page-1#comment-778 Wedding Dance Lessons Fri, 01 Jan 2010 21:04:48 +0000 http://www.dramaandacting.com/drama-articles/choreographed-first-dance-fabulous-or-tacky#comment-778 How about a hybrid of fun and dignified? :-) Instead of over-the-top hip-hop moves, a playful swing dance is a great alternative. Swing can be danced to everything from classy jazz standards to upbeat rock 'n' roll. It even works with modern music. And it looks great on the floor with its twirls and spins. Swing dance is no harder to learn than a hip-hop choreography and there are all kinds of ways to learn to suit any budget. A couple can take private lessons of course, but there are also group dance classes, lessons on DVD, and free videos on YouTube. Thanks for thought-provoking post and happy dancing! Liz at Wedding Dance San Diego How about a hybrid of fun and dignified? :-)
Instead of over-the-top hip-hop moves, a playful swing dance is a great alternative. Swing can be danced to everything from classy jazz standards to upbeat rock ‘n’ roll. It even works with modern music. And it looks great on the floor with its twirls and spins. Swing dance is no harder to learn than a hip-hop choreography and there are all kinds of ways to learn to suit any budget. A couple can take private lessons of course, but there are also group dance classes, lessons on DVD, and free videos on YouTube.
Thanks for thought-provoking post and happy dancing!
Liz at Wedding Dance San Diego

]]> Comment on Theatre Games and Beyond: A Creative Approach for Performers by Amiel Schotz by Amiel Schotz http://www.dramaandacting.com/book-reviews-and-shop/theatre-games-and-beyond-a-creative-approach-for-performers-by-amiel-schotz/comment-page-1#comment-777 Amiel Schotz Fri, 01 Jan 2010 09:44:46 +0000 http://www.dramaandacting.com/?p=71#comment-777 I'm happy to report that my book "Theatre Games and Beyond" has now sold over 14,000 copies and is available world wide from USA to Australia to China. I’m happy to report that my book “Theatre Games and Beyond” has now sold over 14,000 copies and is available world wide from USA to Australia to China.

]]> Comment on The Cherry Orchard by Patricia Horton http://www.dramaandacting.com/book-reviews-and-shop/the-cherry-orchard/comment-page-1#comment-726 Patricia Horton Sun, 20 Dec 2009 01:23:03 +0000 http://www.dramaandacting.com/book-reviews-and-shop/the-cherry-orchard#comment-726 This rendition of The Cherry Orchard stars Marsha Mason, Charles Durning, and Hector Alizondro. While the play is somewhat dated, the ideas of separation and change are not. As always, this play has its humorous moments. If you enjoy radio plays, I highly recommend this cassette. Rating: 5 / 5 This rendition of The Cherry Orchard stars Marsha Mason, Charles Durning, and Hector Alizondro. While the play is somewhat dated, the ideas of separation and change are not. As always, this play has its humorous moments. If you enjoy radio plays, I highly recommend this cassette.
Rating: 5 / 5

]]> Comment on The Cherry Orchard by Anonymous http://www.dramaandacting.com/book-reviews-and-shop/the-cherry-orchard/comment-page-1#comment-725 Anonymous Sun, 20 Dec 2009 00:39:21 +0000 http://www.dramaandacting.com/book-reviews-and-shop/the-cherry-orchard#comment-725 Although Chekov's play accurately reflects the decline of Aristocratic power in 19th century Russia, it is unfulfilling. Mdm. Ranevskaya's Orchard is bought under her feet by a "friend" whose hunger for profit motivated his friendship with her. So this is the transformative moment: Mdm. Ranevskaya loses her most cherished possession, and then what? Her friend, Lopahin, feins innocense, Mdm. Ranevskaya runs off to Paris to whom or what? We never find out. It's sort of like biting into a pretty good apple only to have it fall on the ground. Rating: 1 / 5 Although Chekov’s play accurately reflects the decline of Aristocratic power in 19th century Russia, it is unfulfilling. Mdm. Ranevskaya’s Orchard is bought under her feet by a “friend” whose hunger for profit motivated his friendship with her. So this is the transformative moment: Mdm. Ranevskaya loses her most cherished possession, and then what? Her friend, Lopahin, feins innocense, Mdm. Ranevskaya runs off to Paris to whom or what? We never find out. It’s sort of like biting into a pretty good apple only to have it fall on the ground.
Rating: 1 / 5

]]> Comment on The Cherry Orchard by A. King http://www.dramaandacting.com/book-reviews-and-shop/the-cherry-orchard/comment-page-1#comment-724 A. King Sat, 19 Dec 2009 22:07:32 +0000 http://www.dramaandacting.com/book-reviews-and-shop/the-cherry-orchard#comment-724 The item itself was in great condition. However, the package got lost in the mail so they shipped me another copy, which I received. I was grateful for this, but I really needed the book early on and had to wait almost a month to receive a copy. Rating: 3 / 5 The item itself was in great condition. However, the package got lost in the mail so they shipped me another copy, which I received. I was grateful for this, but I really needed the book early on and had to wait almost a month to receive a copy.
Rating: 3 / 5

]]> Comment on The Cherry Orchard by Anonymous http://www.dramaandacting.com/book-reviews-and-shop/the-cherry-orchard/comment-page-1#comment-723 Anonymous Sat, 19 Dec 2009 20:41:49 +0000 http://www.dramaandacting.com/book-reviews-and-shop/the-cherry-orchard#comment-723 Reading this book, though it was very short, was an incredibly large waste of time! It was confusing, badly written and pointless. Reading a book where the plot is hidden in choppy sentences and weird Russian words contributed to my dislike of this book. Take my advice, if you are going to read this book dont read it before bed or you will most definatly fall asleep! Rating: 1 / 5 Reading this book, though it was very short, was an incredibly large waste of time! It was confusing, badly written and pointless. Reading a book where the plot is hidden in choppy sentences and weird Russian words contributed to my dislike of this book. Take my advice, if you are going to read this book dont read it before bed or you will most definatly fall asleep!
Rating: 1 / 5

]]> Comment on The Cherry Orchard by MAB http://www.dramaandacting.com/book-reviews-and-shop/the-cherry-orchard/comment-page-1#comment-722 MAB Sat, 19 Dec 2009 20:07:39 +0000 http://www.dramaandacting.com/book-reviews-and-shop/the-cherry-orchard#comment-722 "The Cherry Orchard" is an atrocious play. If we hold this play in high regard, then we dramatist's need to reevaluate our standards. Chekhov wrote a play that will make you not care an inch about the character's or their situation(s). For him to think that this is a comedy makes you wonder if he understood the point he himself was trying to make. The characters are pathetic and they'll make you pity them - not because of their predicaments, but because of whom they are. I do not recommend. Rating: 1 / 5 “The Cherry Orchard” is an atrocious play. If we hold this play in high regard, then we dramatist’s need to reevaluate our standards. Chekhov wrote a play that will make you not care an inch about the character’s or their situation(s). For him to think that this is a comedy makes you wonder if he understood the point he himself was trying to make. The characters are pathetic and they’ll make you pity them - not because of their predicaments, but because of whom they are. I do not recommend.
Rating: 1 / 5

]]> Comment on Twelfth Night by Matthew M. Yau http://www.dramaandacting.com/book-reviews-and-shop/twelfth-night/comment-page-1#comment-719 Matthew M. Yau Sat, 19 Dec 2009 03:03:56 +0000 http://www.dramaandacting.com/book-reviews-and-shop/twelfth-night#comment-719 TWELFTH NIGHT is probably one of the most unthreatening and reader/audience-friendly Shakespearean plays in its accessibility. The plot of intrigue in the play, which amazingly affords a marked absence of powerful authority figures, draws on the conventions of popular inveighing comedy. In this whimsical plot, the calculating Sir Toby, who assumes a father figure to his cousin Lady Olivia, aims to dupe the foolish Sir Andrew out of his money. When the lady's steward Malvolio rebukes Sir Toby's rowdy drinking debauchery, his accomplice and eventual wife, Maria, takes over and makes the steward object of her gulling ingenuity. This neatly, dazzling interlocking of plot also contributes to the relaxing atmosphere on top of the usual Elizabethan theatrical embodiment of gender misconception and identity. <br /> <br />TWELFTH NIGHT on top of the festive spirit and dramatic forgery and facetious gulling is a search of human identity in all its strangeness and paradoxicality. It has gone beyond mistaken identity as traditionally understood in comedy to include disguise and gender misrecognition, a definitive phenomenon in which boy actors play women's parts. It addresses a subtler and yet precarious issue in the situation of identical twins teetering on the risk of being mistaken. Identical twins are automatically ripped off their uniqueness, the unmistakable self. The broad appeal of TWELFTH NIGHT as a good-humored play is sharpened by its comedy of mistaken identity between the long-lost twins Sabestian and Viola. Although they are of different sexes, other characters in the play cannot distinguish them from one another when Viola disguises as a young man. This is a significant message from the play: in addition to the concomitant non-recognition and loss of identity, a conditional identity exists only under particular conditions of place, time, and context. The peculiarity of such a disguise and the duration of which is an interesting paradox that concerns what Viola has to lose rather than to gain by ceasing to be the young man. <br /> <br />Folly permeates the language of TWELFTH NIGHT. The device used against Malvolio is nothing but one aspect of the play's satirical character. Folly reigns in the seat of wisdom (and maybe even the truth) in order to expose the foolishness of those who count themselves wise. And when the confusions of the masquerade bring home to all the truth, in sober daily life, we know neither our own identities nor the identities of our peers. The play sustains the idea that if the fool will become wise at the expense of persistent folly. The salient outcome is a play that is richly composed of deceptions: self-deception, delusion of love, alienation. And yet through all these confusions and carnival-like disguise clarification and self-knowledge are reached, just as a masquerade releases people from their everyday inhibitions and enable them to discover themselves. <br /> <br />TWELFTH NIGHT is not faultless despite its immediate accessibility and broad appeal. The unresolved tension that concerns the steward and numerous loose ends in the play constitute to the slight imperfections that are difficult to overlook. <br /> Rating: 5 / 5 TWELFTH NIGHT is probably one of the most unthreatening and reader/audience-friendly Shakespearean plays in its accessibility. The plot of intrigue in the play, which amazingly affords a marked absence of powerful authority figures, draws on the conventions of popular inveighing comedy. In this whimsical plot, the calculating Sir Toby, who assumes a father figure to his cousin Lady Olivia, aims to dupe the foolish Sir Andrew out of his money. When the lady’s steward Malvolio rebukes Sir Toby’s rowdy drinking debauchery, his accomplice and eventual wife, Maria, takes over and makes the steward object of her gulling ingenuity. This neatly, dazzling interlocking of plot also contributes to the relaxing atmosphere on top of the usual Elizabethan theatrical embodiment of gender misconception and identity.

TWELFTH NIGHT on top of the festive spirit and dramatic forgery and facetious gulling is a search of human identity in all its strangeness and paradoxicality. It has gone beyond mistaken identity as traditionally understood in comedy to include disguise and gender misrecognition, a definitive phenomenon in which boy actors play women’s parts. It addresses a subtler and yet precarious issue in the situation of identical twins teetering on the risk of being mistaken. Identical twins are automatically ripped off their uniqueness, the unmistakable self. The broad appeal of TWELFTH NIGHT as a good-humored play is sharpened by its comedy of mistaken identity between the long-lost twins Sabestian and Viola. Although they are of different sexes, other characters in the play cannot distinguish them from one another when Viola disguises as a young man. This is a significant message from the play: in addition to the concomitant non-recognition and loss of identity, a conditional identity exists only under particular conditions of place, time, and context. The peculiarity of such a disguise and the duration of which is an interesting paradox that concerns what Viola has to lose rather than to gain by ceasing to be the young man.

Folly permeates the language of TWELFTH NIGHT. The device used against Malvolio is nothing but one aspect of the play’s satirical character. Folly reigns in the seat of wisdom (and maybe even the truth) in order to expose the foolishness of those who count themselves wise. And when the confusions of the masquerade bring home to all the truth, in sober daily life, we know neither our own identities nor the identities of our peers. The play sustains the idea that if the fool will become wise at the expense of persistent folly. The salient outcome is a play that is richly composed of deceptions: self-deception, delusion of love, alienation. And yet through all these confusions and carnival-like disguise clarification and self-knowledge are reached, just as a masquerade releases people from their everyday inhibitions and enable them to discover themselves.

TWELFTH NIGHT is not faultless despite its immediate accessibility and broad appeal. The unresolved tension that concerns the steward and numerous loose ends in the play constitute to the slight imperfections that are difficult to overlook.

Rating: 5 / 5

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