Theater

I loved talking about theater this week in class.  To me, theater is such an amazing way to tell stories about human emotions and life!  I personally have been raised on theater, specifically musicals.  I have probably seen over 30 different musicals in my lifetime, and I've probably been to live performances of plays and musicals around 40 times.  I love love love theater! 

I specifically enjoyed talking about how important the scenery is to the overall performance and atmosphere.  I especially enjoy it when the staging is representative of the purpose of the performance.   We talked about his in class with how just the scenery alone can add psycological meaning to the performance.  My favorite example of this is from the musical Wicked.  Wicked is the story of the Wizard of Oz f

rom the viewpoint of the Wicked Witch, Elphaba.  Elphaba grows up her whole life thinking she is a failure and she just wants to prove herself to her father, sister, and peers.  She dreams her whole life of meeting and teeming up with the magical wizard of Oz so she can help make Oz a better place to live.  She eventually gets her chance to meet the Wizard, and when she does she realizes that he isn't magical at all!  He is a fraud who uses mechanics to create his magic.  Her whole world is crushed and crumbles around her.  But the thing i love is that scene is all mechanic looking and it symbolizes how nothing in Oz is magical, it is all a mechanical lie!  

Here is a picture of the stage of Wicked! 

There are so many other examples of amazing plays or musicals that have symbolic meanings in the props and sets.  And I love how theater can take you away from your everyday life.  You can go back to Oklahoma in the eighteen-hundreds, or to France during a revolution.  It is amazing that directors and writers can come up with so many stories, songs, and characters.  I love theater and I feel like I have learned many important lessons through the morals and messages they focus on.