Theatre

Drama and all other art forms revived during the Renaissance between 1500 and 1600 across Europe, which set the ball rolling and this renewal of the performing arts lasted for another three decades. This paper elucidates on the drama and performances between the 15th and 17th century and its effect on the society as a whole. Romans introduced drama across Europe including England and this led to the construction auditoriums across the continent. During the medieval period, an early street theatre associated with the Morris dance called mummers plays developed whose themes included Saint George, Robin Hood and Dragon. The medieval age also witnessed the mystery and morality plays which dealt with Christian themes and were performed at religious festivals. Roman plays were staged at the courts of Italian princes during festive occasions, a mark of Renaissance. It became a practice to include lavish musical instruments in between the scenes in order to obtain the stage view, charming and beautiful costume and above all, the singing and dancing of the actors.

The first intermezzi were performed in 1689, in order to celebrate a wedding at the Medici Court in France. Later the scenes depicted in the above play became popular among the elite audience of the city with the mark of the new century. Italy is the pioneer in launching the opera, which laid the foundation for the popular theatre. The Italian comedies became extremely popular with the audience and each country in Europe had its own popular culture. Monody, the solo singing of a dramatically conceived melody expressed the emotional content of the book through the simple sequence of chords.  The different versions of Monody such as madrigal, frottola and villanelle were often staged during stately functions such as military victories and weddings.

In the last quarter of the 16th century, the theatres in London were built. The structure of the theatre depicted the social hierarchy which was extremely evident in the structure of these theatres. The ordinary Londoners called groundlings were made to stand in the open pit in order to watch the play, paying 1 penny. With the increase in the fee, the seating facilities were better with the maximum luxury of cushion seating which costed twelve pennies. About 21,000 audiences witnessed a play in a week, making it comparable with the modern day cinema.

Renaissance in England augmented the popularity of drama and playwrights like Marlowe, Shakespeare and Webster and they produced different genres of drama such as tragedy, comedy and history. On the other hand, Ben Jonson was busily engaged in writing courtly masques and ornate plays which made the actors wear a mask. Thus this period marked the prolific growth of modern consciousness in England.

Masked actors performed short dramatic entertainment called masque initially originated as a folk ceremony called mummery or mumming play. Initially during the performance of the mummery or masque, disguised guests holding presents would break into a festival and later joins with their hosts in a ceremonial dance. Later when it was performed on stage, the crucial aspects of masque such as wearing masks and mingling of actors and spectators were retained. Masques usually were performed with an allegorical theme which uses speeches, dance and songs and it is further accompanied by rich costumes and spectacular scenery. During the 16th and 17th century, masques evolved as the courtly form of dramatic spectacle and became extremely popular in England.

Masques had their origins in the 15th century in Italy and were introduced in the court of Henry VIII. It evolved to a large extent and the court masque reached its zenith between 1600 and 1630 and later it revived once again during Restoration. The masques in the Royal court combined songs, speech and formal dances with revels and the masquers involved in dancing, intrigue and gallantry and kept the court audience captivated with their performance.

Court masques were performed in the Great Hall at WhiteHall, in the Banqueting House and at the Inns of Court. Graham states that As the most developed courtly pastime and formal social occasion of the English Renaissance, the masque was thus significant, even if some of its spectators may have been uncomprehending of, or indifferent to, its deeper poetic and scenic meanings. (113) The exceptional quality of the Jacobean masques is attributed to the profound and versatile poetry of Ben Jonson and the stage designs of Inigo Jones. Both Jonson and Jones have together worked for more than 30 works. The courtly masques usually included four songs with the dance performances in between along with the introductory and concluding numbers. The main composers whose works still survive are Alfonso Ferrabosco, Robert Johnson, Thomas Campion and Nicholas Lanier who were influenced by Italian recitation.

Caroline masques were considered to be superior to Jacobean masque with their dramatic presentations. Triumph of Peace by Shirley is one of the most popular dramatic compositions of the time. Miltons Comus with the music by Henry Lawes was performed for the lesser nobility. Shirleys Cupid and Death with the music composition by Locke and Christopher Gibbons is the only surviving masque of the Commonwealth period. Masque survived in the theatres after Restoration sharing a few features with the courtly masque such as the entries at the end of acts. These masques also included dance, songs, recitals and dialogues like the courtly masque. The traditional features of Masque continued to survive as a spectacular indoor performance which combined poetry, dance, songs, music, expensive stage settings and rich costumes. During the 17th and 17th century such indoor performances were greatly admired by the European Royalty.

Members of the court enter with masks and perform an allegorical plot and conclude their presentation by removing their mask and engaging in a dance along with the spectators. Shakespeare has included a short masque scene in The Tempest too. The courts of James I and Charles I has the fortune to witness exceptional masques. The narrative elements of masque gained significance in the Court of James I. Most of the themes were either allegorical or classical which aims at glorifying the sponsor and towards the end of the masque, the spectators will also take part in the final dance. The theatrical presentations of masques by the English Royal community were on par with the ballets de cour of France. The allegorical and mythological themes were presented in the most colorful way as possible with the singing, dancing and mime. But the literary element is the most significant component and writers such Jonson and Milton have come out with exceptional masques of high standard that they are still surviving. For instance Jonsons Masque of Blackness and Masque of Beauty stand testament to the high standard of writing.

Masque reached the greatest heights in the history and was performed both at the public theaters and the royal courts. But the Parliamentary Revolution in 1640s brought about an abrupt end to this theatre extravaganza brought to your doorstep. The parliamentary Revolution of the 1640s brought this form of extravagance to an abrupt end. Later the masques were called the opera which modified the original masque to a certain extent.

Bevington and Holbrook in their Introduction states that, This proposition is arguably even more true of the masque than of other literary forms in the period, if only because many of the most powerful individuals in the land participated in its elegant rituals.(5) Masque was a courtly entertainment during the festive occasions during the sixteenth and seventeenth century across Europe which involved dancing, singing, acting, elaborate stage designing and costume designing. Professional singers and actors were hired and on most occasions the masquers who did not speak or sing turned out to be courtiers. James Is Queen consort, Anne of Denmark often danced with the ladies in the masques and we also have the historical evidence of Henry VIII and Charles I performing in the masques at their courts. In fact Henry VIIIs performance has brought a political revolution across Europe during the signing of peace treaty with France. Further Louis XIV has danced in ballets at Versailles.

While Opera was becoming popular in Italy in the late 16th and 17th centuries, French ballet de cour and English masque much similar to the Italian version in several respects were becoming widely popular. All the three forms of visual art involved the spectacular staging and the audiences were mainly nobles and courtiers. Slowly Opera got infused into England and France and thus the English masque slowly imbibed the characteristics of Italian Opera and the emergence of ballet in opera. Thus the 15th and 16th century saw the rise of courtly performance arts across the European continent.
Another court entertainment which was extremely popular during the 16th century was madrigal comedy or the madrigal opera. In this piece of court entertainment, a number of madrigals are strung together in order to suggest a dramatic narrative but it is not staged. Emilio d Cavalieri produced and wrote two music pastorals called Il Satiro and La Disperazione di Fileno.

Between 1649 and 1660, the English theatres remained closed due to the establishment of Puritan ideology. Once the monarchy was restored, under the personal interest of Charles II, theatres in London were revived and new genres of drama developed during Restoration. They are heroic drama, pathetic drama and Restoration Comedy. The popular heroic tragedies of the Restoration Age are John Drydens All for Love and Thomas Otways Venice Preserved.

The Restoration Comedies reflected the way of life of the people and the true spirit of the Age. The notable Comedies include William Wycherleys The Country Wife, William Congreves The Way of the World, John Vanbrughs The Relapse and George Ethereges The Man of Mode. The Restoration comedies were known for their sexual explicitness which was personally encouraged by Charles II and the raffish aristocratic ethos of the English Court

The Courtly performances between the 15th and 17th century moved the performance arts to the next higher plane and the demarcation between the performer and the spectator was not kept intact throughout the performance, especially the masques. Further these courtly performances apart from entertaining the courtiers and providing patronage to the artistes, they also played a major role in influencing the political developments in the Western Europe in general and England and France in particular. Thus the courtly performances have been influenced and evolved through the different ages which both entertains and educates the spectators.

As a Korean American living in Ohio, Im constantly find myself in cultural situations where I am the minority. After all, we are only about 0.4 of the population. In a way, this made the task of immersing myself in another culture quite easy for me, as it is something I have to do every day of my life.  However, most of the opportunities I have to co-mingle with other races and ethnicities primarily involve Anglo-Americans, so when I heard about an event called the Women of The World Poetry Slam which was involving a significant number of the African-American population, both as audience members and performers, I thought this would be a great opportunity to immerse myself in some new cultural experiences.

    The Women of the World Poetry Slam was actually a 3-day function, running from March 10-13.  I only attended the events on the evening of Friday, March 12, 2010, since that was best for my schedule.  Even so, I was able to get a rich and diverse experience in just those few hours.  The poetry readings occurred in multiple locations.  Three separate coffee shops - Urban Spirit, Zanzibar and Kickstart.  I spent a short time at each, but most of my time was concentrated at the Urban Spirit coffee shop.  Urban Spirit has a kind of old jazz bar feel, with many old, black and white photographs of African-American entertainers on the walls. Not surprisingly, this was the location that drew the most African-Americans, and I felt it was better suited to give me an experience that was out of my everyday norms. As a Korean, I know how disabling and frustrating dealing with cultural stereotypes and myths can be, so I wanted to be sensitive and aware of how this also impacts other ethnicities.  Asians often get tagged with the stereotyped of being more studious and bookish, but African-Americans have had  to contend with stereotypes of them not being as interested in learning. I know that is a fallacy, but I also know how deeply rooted erroneous beliefs can become in society. 

    As I entered the coffee shop, I have to admit, that I felt a little concerned about feeling out of place, upon going into Urban Spirit, but although there were many Black people, there were also quite a few people of other ethnicities in the crowd, and I felt much more welcomed and at home than Id expected.  People were friendly and smiled.  I got a few curious looks, but nothing hostile.  I think the looks were more a reflection of the fact that people were pleasantly surprised to see a Korean woman in that space. 

    The performances were really great. A lot of high energy and artistry.  Plus, I liked that the great skill inherent in doing spoken word poetry helps to challenge the stereotypes of African Americans not being as interested in intellectual pursuits.  The Black artists I saw were really thoughtful, educated, creative, deep thinkers.  And, much of the poetry touched on personal experiences of the artists as Black women.  Although I didnt get any great new ephiphanies about Black people or race, in general, during the performances, it was more interesting to see how these womens experiences were so similar to my own and many of my Korean family and friends.  I think oftentimes we focus so much on differences that we forget how much we are alike.  But, as our society becomes more global and technology allows us access to much of the same information, music, videos, fashion, etc., I think that young people are finding they have more in common than not, regardless of race. 

    Overall, I had a great experience at The Women of the World Poetry Slam. The performances were fun and I met some lovely people who I probably wouldnt normally have the opportunity to share with.  I even had a casual conversation with a sweet lady at a table near me.  I mentioned that I was Korean and she told me about   a slam poet named Ishle Yi Park, the first Korean American woman to compete in the National Poetry Slam.  The evening was worth it just to find out about this artist and I intend on looking into more of her work in the future.  I love the idea of Korean women taking advantage of this medium to express our creativity too.

    When Wendy Wasserstein died in 2006, the American theatre industry did not only lose one of its greatest playwrights, but also a colleague for many and great friend as well. She was not only famous for her very humorous productions but was also a woman writer who had deep political conviction and activism. Throughout her theatre life, Wendy Wassersteins plays depicted a class of women heroines who were intelligent and successful but whose personal lives were also full of personal doubt. Her characters also appear to have been unlucky with finding love no matter how hard they tried to find it and their self-worth was also severely undermined by the frustrating reality that the lives of successful American women was still measured by their success in capturing the right male partners. Wassersteins personal life and her lack of success at romance was a running theme in her plays. For this great playwright and for her funs, humor was a successful antidote against lifes disappointment and also an avenue of releasing the anger that social and cultural inequalities often bring into peoples lives. From the time that Wendy Wassersteins theatre career commenced in 1977 and throughout her career, her plays struck an intense harmony with very many women whose lives involved a continuous struggle as they attempted to reconcile their desires for romance as well as companionship. According to Isherwood, the Lincoln Centre Theater artistic director Andre Bishop described Wassersteins work as follows, In Wendys plays, women saw themselves portrayed in a way they hadnt been onstage before  wittingly, intelligently and seriously at the same time. We take that for granted now, but it was not the case 25 years ago. She was a real pioneer. Wendy Wasserstein was hardworking and cared very much for the future of American theatre by personally investing her time and resources in the molding of young people for future theatre production. Her works included about a dozen plays, three nonfiction books and a novel and all played a very significant influence on how the American media depicted women in this society (Isherwood s 3-7).

Wendy Wassersteins Upbringing and Contribution to Theatre
   
    Wendy Wasserstein was born on October 18, 1950 in Brooklyn, New York, to Jewish immigrants. She was the fifth and last child of Morris Wasserstein, a textile manufacturer and his wife Lora who was a house wife and amateur dancer. Her siblings included two sisters, Sandra and Georgette as well as two brothers namely Bruce and Abner. Wasserstein grew up in an upper middle-class background on the Upper East Side of Manhattan where her family had relocated to when she was 12 years old. Wasserstein is said to have used her family background better than any other playwright for acquiring stage material. She inherited her love for theatre from her mother who was a dance fanatic and had been taking dancing classes for the better part of her life. Like her daughter Wendy, Lola Wasserstein was a very funny and peculiar woman. Lola was also a mother quite different from others and is said to have been very detached from home-keeping. Morris Wassersteins income appeared to have been sufficient to support the family because Lola never cooked or did laundry. The Wasserstein family ate in restaurants or Lola had meals delivered to their residence, even if it was a whole Christmas feast. The children also enjoyed the privilege of being taken to Radio City Shows and when the young Wasserstein girl was growing up, a typical Saturday was spent at June Taylors Studio where she took dancing classes and later attended a Broadway matinee. Her mother Lola felt that exposing the young girl to the arts would give her a wide range of abilities or experiences. Wendys family was the kind in which there would always be something to amuse a visitor and her parents provided the kind of environment where their children felt that they could venture with their dreams as far as they desired. According to Craig, Wendys longtime buddy Betsy Carter once stated that, Wendy grew up in a complicated, smart, verbal family. The way she dealt with it was by becoming a brilliant observer (184). Wendy even went on to become the class commentator in her school (Isherwood  16 Craig 184).

    In her early years, Wasserstein attended Calhoun School, an all-girls institution and then proceeded to the elite Mount Holyoke College where she enrolled for a history major. In school, all the Wasserstein children were high fliers and Wendy, Sandra and Bruce all skipped grades a factor that left a mark on the young Wendy. She graduated in 1971 and returned to New York where she enrolled for an M.A program in creative writing at the City University of New York where she studied with other famous playwrights like Israel Horvitz and Joseph Heller. Wendy Wasserstein graduated in 1973 the same year that her first play entitled Any Woman Cant got an off-Broadway reading through Playwrights Horizons, a relatively small off-Broadway company. Her theatre career was to become closely linked with this company as well as to its artistic director Andre Bishop who also made the first production of her Wendys very famous play, The Heidi Chronicles. Wasserstein rejected an offer to join Columbia School much to her mothers disappointment and opted to join the prestigious Yale School of Drama where she wrote Uncommon Women and Others for her thesis. The play was based upon her own college experiences and the realization that women did not have any representation in theatre history. It proceeded on to become her first professional play. Wendy Wassersteins sister Sandra became one of the first American women to break into the prestigious field of senior corporate management. Her brother Bruce became a name in Americas world of investment banking while the other sister, Georgette, joined the hospitality industry in Vermont. All siblings except Wendy married and had nine children to them but their mother never appeared to be satisfied and still waited for a grandchild from her youngest child. Lola Wasserstein was very good at reminding Wendy about this fact and quickly passed on the news when another lady in the family became pregnant signaling that Wendy should follow the same trend. But it was Lola who had influenced her daughter so much that Wendy took a completely different direction in life from that taken by her siblings and became a theatre monster. Yet, Mrs. Wasserstein became overly upset when her young daughter joined Yale School of Drama to study playwriting instead of studying business at Columbia University. However, Wendy Wassersteins parents finally gave her the blessing due to the prestige tag that Yale had and with the hope that their young daughter would meet a lawyer or doctor to marry her. The fears of the uncertainty of life after drama school were also speaking loudly to Wendy but she moved on with her dream believing that it was a worthy risk to try and do what one really desired to do. Her colleagues at Yale include such other famous people as Meryl Streep, Sigourney Weaver and Christopher Durang, the later becoming so close to Wendy Wasserstein that she admitted that he was like a brother to her(Herrington 21 Craig 184-188).

    At Yale, Wendy Wasserstein never became fully comfortable largely due to the messages that she heard concerning women and theatre. She felt that women had been sidelined very much in theatre production and decided that she would do things differently by producing the exclusively women for women play, Uncommon Woman and Others, which was a nine-woman play in which a group of female friends steered each other graduation and onwards, into a world that had been altered so much by feminism. None of these characters was prepared for the obstacles and options that life in the outside world would bring along and by the time five of them reunited again, reality had drastically altered their personal expectations that the timetable of their lives must undergo some changes too. Being the first all-woman curtain called to be staged at Yale Drama School, Wendy Wassersteins play provoked considerable male resistance. Uncommon Women and Others moved from being just a reading at Playwrights Horizons to becoming an off-Broadway production at Phoenix Theatre in 19977. With the input of such uncommon actresses like Glenn Close and Schoosie Kurtz, the play received better reviews than any other play that Wendy produced by running for all the two weeks that it was showing. Its premature termination was due to disagreements about theatre space and the simple fact that male producers still had enough room for doubt regarding a play about women. The play ushered Wendy into her first major success in theatre and also created the breakthrough in the theatre careers of many actresses such as Meryl Streep, Glen Close and Swoosie Kurtz. PBS filmed and telecast the play on its Great Performances series. Wendy received a lot of encouragement from her mother and sister Sandra and more so from the many friends who had become like family to her (Craig 189 Isherwood s 16-17).   

    Although Wendy Wasserstein considered herself a humanist, her works depict some considerable amount of political expression often shrouded under some humor and the imagination that her views were purely feminist. She also recognized that sexual discrimination was still evident in society and that power feminism needed some activism as well as protective legislation. Wasserstein produced her works based on real life issues. In The Heidi Chronicles for example, the main character started off alone but somewhere in the course of her pursuit as a career artist, she became involved in protests against the lack of museum facilities for women artists. In her well known plays, Wendy Wassersteins female characters share a common characteristic they are all struggling with some very difficult personal as well professional decisions which are made even more difficult by the environmental changes that come with every with every new decade. The characters are torn between fulfilling their personal happiness through family life and pursuing ambitions through career fulfillment. These characters are a clear reflection of Wendys own relationship with the womens movement during its thirty years of development. The plays are a beautiful exploration of the conflicts that take place between personal satisfactions and career ambition and clearly reflect the changing social and cultural positions that women have to put up with.  Feminism is not necessarily the major topic in the plays but the way they treat women makes them woman-conscious. For the main characters, Wendy intelligently chose strong, well educated, intelligent upper class and often Jewish women. Such women shared her convictions and frustrations with the social situations that women of her generation found themselves in and it was for this very reason that the playwright has often been referred as the voice of her generation. Many of the characters in Wendys plays can be traced back to her own upbringing, family, college life and friends. The author especially identified with such characters as Heidi Holland and Janie Blumberg who shared her conflicts and perceptions. These characters reflect Wendys questions, her thoughts and hesitations as well as the various opinions and observations that she observed from the political and cultural climate of her time. Through the character of Heidi, Wendy artistically examined the trials, sacrifices and dreams of single women struggling with careers and motherhood. As The Heidi Chronicles comes to a close, Heidi becomes a single parent. Ten years after producing Heidi, Wendy became a single mother to her daughter Lucy Jane who was born in 1999 when the author was at an advanced age of 49 and after trying fertility drugs for a long time. Like Wendy, these characters regard themselves as outsiders. In her most recent play, Third, Wendys characters were also advanced in age and the lead character was a professor whose age was close to the authors by the time the play was produced. Wendy Wassersteins plays can be read in the background of the 1960-1990 feminist movement (Herrington 2, 17-21 Gardner s 3-5). In Wendy Wassersteins The Sisters Rosenweig, Sara the oldest sister is a corporate bank executive like Sandra and the middle sister has the name gorgeous which is similar to Wendys sisters name, Georgette. The youngest of the sisters in the play takes Wendys character by being a playwright and being resistant when it comes to matters relating to marriage. In Shiksa Goddess or How I Spent My Forties, Wendy shares personal thoughts and experiences such as the art of aging, state of the arts, birth of her daughter and the death of her sister (Craig 196).

    Politics, Religion and ethnicity issues also formed another theme in Wendy Wassersteins plays. In The Sisters Rosenweig, three sisters find themselves differing over their different approaches to their Jewish roots. The play ran for 586 performances after opening on Broadway in 1993 and received a nomination for best play in the Tony Award a first time for the solo prize to be won by a woman. But her 1997 play titled, Am American Daughter which was inspired by the harsh criticism directed towards women in politics did not realize much success because it ran for only 89 performances. Wendy however later took it up for television show. She also produced other plays Off-Broadway such as Isnt It Romantic, Old Money and the more recent Third. The Heidi Chronicles remains Wendys most popular and celebrated play having ran for 622 performances after opening on Broadway in 1989. Besides the Pulitzer Prize, the play also collected best play awards from the New York Drama Critics Circle and Tony Award. It also won the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and a Drama Desk Award. The author admitted that the success associated to this play not only boosted her morale personally but also gave her a personal hard ct to emulate. Wendy Wassersteins other writings include Sloth, some self-help literature published by Oxford University Press in 2005 and two books on the essays Bachelor Girls and Shiksa Goddess published by Knopf Books in 1990 and 2001 respectively. She also contributed to children literature with her book Pamelas First Musical which became a stage performance through the combined efforts of David Zippel and Cy Coleman. Wendy also wrote the one act opera The Festival of Regrets and a novel entitled Elements of Style which was published by Knopf in 2006. This famous woman playwright is also hailed for writing the words for the Festival of Regrets at the New York City Opera and the San Francisco Operas new adaptation of the Merry Widow. She also made tremendous contributions to the production of The Nutcracker, a production which was staged at the American Ballet Theatre (Isherwood s 20-22 Craig 192-194 Gardner 12).

    Although Wendy Wasserstein made great contributions to writing, stage remained her deepest affection and all aspects of her life were spread through the theater. Wendy helped to shape the lives of several upcoming theatrics by teaching playwriting at several universities. In 1998, she also personally established a program that would reach out to the smart but less privileged students in New York and assist them to pursue a theater career. Currently, the program is run by the Theater Development Fund under the name Open Doors and caters for over 100 students chaperoned by different interested mentors. Yale Drama School graduates such as Meryl Streep, Joan Allen, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jennifer Aniston, Christine Lahti, Allison Janney, Jane Alexander, Madeline Khan, Dianne Wiest, Swoosie Kurtz and Kate Nelligen among others cannot deny that Wendy Wasserstein nurtured and helped bring to maturity, their successful theatre careers. James Bundy, the man who was dean of students at Yale Drama School when Wasserstein was student and one who also witnessed her production of Uncommon Woman and Others, is said to have described her as a marvelous playwright. He hailed her for writing vital and important female and male characters. Although her works were similar to those of many writers in that she drew on her personal experiences, Wasserstein was also a very gifted observer of human conditions. Her broad variety of interests saw her serve on various boards such as the Council of the Dramatists Guild (CDGE), Educational Foundation of America (EFA) and School of American Ballet (SAB) among others (Gardner s 6-11).

    Wendy Wasserstein also made great contributions to the film industry including The Object of my Affection which starred Jennifer Aniston. Theatre however remained her inbounding love and she wrote many drafts before making a final script to ensure that the work was excellent. She rarely made changes to a completed play except on few cases like the amendment of An American Daughter. Also included in her writings were comedic plays like Old Money. Wendy loved humor and applied it in the characters in her plays. As stated by Craig, Wendy is said to have expressed her love for humor thus, Because one, it makes one entertaining two it deflects.Also, it helps you deal with things which are overwhelmingly tragic. She tried to balance the darker and lighter issues of life and felt that comedy was one way of balancing this because of its ability to hide pain as well as reveal it. Regarding comedy, Craig quoted Wendy as follows, I believe in comedy, in its spirit, in its ability to lift people off the ground (197-201). In the plays and essays that Wendy wrote, she challenged the popular assumption that there can only be one right type of life or family. For Wendy, there were different kinds of lives to be lived at different time set-ups (Craig 197-205).

    Beginning from the 1970s to 2006 when Wendy Wasserstein succumbed to cancer, she actively participated in Americas regional theatre movement. Throughout her career, she was pre-occupied with the re-imagination and reconsideration of the lives of women whether real or imaginary. Even after the birth of her daughter, Wendy still continued with an active theatre career and spent time between caring for Lucy as well as for her aged parents besides producing the stage version of Pamelas First Musical. Whatever form her various writings took, Wendy Wassersteins literary work was so full of humor that she became a darling of many people. Her plays were so humorous and popular that it took some time for people to deduce the theme behind the acts. The plays also reflected Comic situations, a lot of dialogue and anxiety-ridden reflections and moments of what could be or may have been the outcome of particular situations. She had deep friendships within the theatrical community as well as out of it and she devoted her time and resources for the benefit of all. Her greatest contribution to theatre was through the tremendous writing she has done for the stage. Although her work was laced with a lot of comedy, it gave her the freedom to deeply explore into the lives of the American women that she was writing about. Theatre was a product of her childhood and it defined the rest of her life. She will be remembered for artistically and successfully and ushering in the role of the woman into the theatre industry (Herrington 45-46 Isherwood 16-24 Craig 192-194).

Fences is an award-winning play centered around a black man and his family in the 1950s. They are a low-income family consisting of Tony Maxson, the father and main character Rose Maxson, the mother Lyson Maxson, Tonys first-born from another marriage Cory, Tony and Roses son and Rynell, Tonys child with his mistress Alberta.

In the scenes where he had just come home from work (Scenes One and Four of Act One), Tony wears his garbage man uniform, a dark grayish green overall but like the first scene where hes seen relaxing, the top buttons are undone to reveal a T-shirt underneath. He is a stubborn, stagnant kind of man so his style of dress does not change much in the course of the play. In all other scenes, Tony wears a dark-colored button-down shirt tucked almost neatly into his slacks held up by suspenders. Adding the old pageboy hat he wears in his scenes outdoors, these clothes portray the middle-class stability and respectability he strives for, and the slight romanticism for (mostly imagined) grand bygone days he still harbors deep inside. His rougher nature shows through though, as the top few buttons of his shirt are undone showing his inner white T-shirt, his sleeves are rolled up to midway of his lower arm, and his shoes are old and a little scuffed. Though his shoes are obviously well-worn, they are clean, and his slacks pleated at least until Act Two Scene Three when Rose denounces her duties to him this reflects the efficiency and care of Rose.

Rose Maxson is a practical woman, more of a realist than her husband. While she wears a style of dress typical of housewives of the times, collared with slightly puffedflared sleeves the cut of her cotton dresses are simple, the frills are minimal, and the fit comfortable enough to be unflattering. Her skirt falls limply down to her knees, and her shoes are old and sensible. She wears neither makeup nor jewelry and her hair is cut short, not because it was fashionable at the time but because it is low-maintenance. Her loving, compassionate, and overall strong nature shows through subtly in the color of her clothes, old rose, light yellow, pale rust, slightly dull but warm colors. At the end of the play a few years had passed so grayness can be seen in her now longer hair, she needs to wear a wig for this, and she will also be wearing a small hat. The hat is simple but with the new longer hair its a touch of vanity where there was mostly none at all for most of the play, a small mark of the freedom she developed in that phase of her life.

Lyons Maxson only appears a few times, but hes a young man determined to make it on his own in music. His somewhat jaunty attitude when he asks for money in Act One Scene One is reflected in his clothes. Here he wears a vivid blue short-sleeved button-down shirt, haphazardly tucked in his slacks that are fashionably short enough that one can see part of his socks. He wears an old fedora on top his hair that is a little longer than his father and half-brothers close-cropped cuts. In his second appearance he wears the clothes he will be wearing to his jazz performance, an ever-so-slightly ill-fitting grey tweed dinner jacket over a white shirt, and dark pants he wears the same kind of clothes for his third appearance minus the suit. In the last scene, he is more disheveled overall he wears an old dark blue shirt and wrinkled pants, suggestive of the crooked direction his life has turned, but he still wears his battered fedora.

Cory Maxson is a responsible and caring young man, he is clean-cut with close-cropped hair and clean clothes. In most of the scenes he wears cotton polo shirts, faded jeans, and old sneakers. The shades of his shirts get darker though as the story progresses, initially neutral-colored (pale olive, mocha) they become dark brown and maroon in the scenes where he stands up to his father. In the scene (Act One Scene Three) where he comes home from football practice he is wearing a varsity jacket over a white shirt, with his jeans and sneakers and he wears the same clothes to help his father with the fence but minus his jacket. His plain white shirt gives him an air of innocence and vulnerability this is before his first verbal spat with his father. He is hopeful about getting a television and playing college football, but at the same time he is confused and asking for his fathers approval and affection. In the last scene he had just come home from the Marines so he wears his Marines uniform, everything about him is pristine and unwrinkled, from the hat on his shaved head to his shined shoes just like the coldness he attempted to present when initially refusing to go to the funeral.
Minor characters Jim Bono and Gabriel Maxsons wardrobes will not be too varied as their characters remain rather consistent through the play. Jim Bono, Troys close friend, wears the same kind of garbage man overalls Troy wears during the scenes of their Friday night drinking sessions. In all the other scenes, he is wearing a light brown jacket over a white shirt, tucked into his belted light slacks he is a good man, though initially submissive to Troy, and he needs gentle, neutral colors to reflect his character. Gabriel on the other hand wears a plain T-shirt and pants, but in his more insane moments it should be rather appropriate for him to wear an almost threadbare robe over his clothes when he thinks hes the angel Gabriel.

Raynell Maxson appears only twice in the whole play, and the first is as an infant, but she represents innocence and hope for the future for the rest of the family. The start of the final scene finds her in the garden, she wears a white house dress thats dirty at the edges from the soil and dirty shoes, which prompts Rose to call her into the house to change her clothes. At the funeral, though she wears black funeral clothes like the rest of the family, bright red ribbons are in her pigtailed hair a brightness in the dark, hope.

On August 28, 1955, a fourteen year old boy from Chicago named Emmett Till was brutally murdered, his bloated and disfigured body left unrecognizable to friends and family. Emmets crime He allegedly whistled at a White woman, although it should be noted that most historians believe that even this flimsy justification for this young boys murder was fabricated by his killers. (Wright 129).   The United States has a long and shameful history of lynching Black men, and the 1915 silent classic, The Birth of A Nation, directed by D.W. Griffith,  has done its part to contribute to the heinous legacy.  Although clearly, the entire blame for the lynching of the African American male cannot be attributed to one cinematic venture, there is significant evidence that the film did, in fact, encourage acts of violence and lynching, in addition to driving up the membership of the Klu Klux Klan considerably. Particularly incendiary, was the films depiction of the  lynching of a character named  Gus, a freedman and educated soldier of the Union Army, who had the audacity the ask for a young White womans hand in marriage.  The reasoning behind Guss fictional lynching is in accord with the actual historical motivators for the thousands of confirmed crimes of this nature - that is, Black men were lynched because they were perceived as a sexual predators and a threat to the sexual amiability of the White woman (Kinney 149).  Behind that notion, of course, is the fact that the idea of free Black men existing side by side with Whites as equals in society, was a actually a threat to White male definitions of masculinity.

    Historically, the justification for the lynching of Black males has often been the threat of supposed sexual violence towards White women.  Black men were killed because they supposedly raped or attempted to rape White women. This is true in the case of Guss lynching in The Birth of A Nation.   In the film, Gus asks young, virginal Flora Cameron for her hand in marriage. Terrified by even the suggestion , the young girl flees from him.  Gus pursues her through the woods until she has cornered herself on a precipice of a cliff.  When Gus catches up with her, Flora jumps to her death.  We are to believe, as the viewer, that the prospect of Gus even getting anywhere near her terrifies the young girl so much that she would rather take her own life.  Although, even in the film, there is little indication that she is in any real danger from Gus.  He is portrayed as slightly lecherous and grabby in his attempt to keep Flora from running away from his marriage proposal, but there is no indication that he means her any physical harm, sexual or otherwise.  After Floras suicide, however, her older brother, Ben, avenges her death with the castration and ultimately brutal lynching and murder of Gus.  In the film, Ben is assisted in his act of vengeance by the members of the local Klu Klux Klan, a group he has organized and led himself.  Bens motivation and justification for the killing of Gus, parallels that which was frequently used in documented cases of lynching. 

    Just using the evidence in the film itself, one can infer that part of what motivated Ben in his crime was the fact that he felt emasculated by the prospect of the Black male being his equal.  Ben, a former Confederate soldier, has returned home defeated by the North.  Clinging to vestiges of the glorious past, the virtue of the Southern White female became a symbol of Souths former glory.  The protection and defense of her very chastity and innocence, therefore, was one of the only remaining ways in which the emasculated White Southern male could still assert his manhood and dignity.   If White males, in a way, needed to commit these crimes in order to reassert their masculinity, they also needed to find circumstances which allowed them to do so.  When the circumstances werent there for the taking, White males like Ben often fabricated the situations. In other words, they often outright lied about Black males sexual advances towards white women or imagined much more than was actually there. Although the viewer sees that Gus doesnt actually intend to physically harm Flora, Ben assumes that she was the victim of an attempted rape in order to justify his own crime.  In his article, The Rhetoric of Racism, James Kinney blatantly argues the reasoning behind Guss murder. Kinney writes that the point seems clear Blacks, like animals, are incapable of controlling sexual impulses.  If the Black man is ignorant and brutal, he will rape unless physically prevented.  If educated and granted social equality, he will seek to marry a White woman.  In either case, coexistence of Blacks and Whites in this country leads to the same thing - miscegenationthe destruction of the precious Anglo-Saxon race (149).

    The reason and justifications for lynching in the United States has a long history that precedes the Civil War.  We get hints at the sexualized stereotypes of not only the Black male, but also the Black female in Griffiths film. Early in the movie, we see White males (i.e. Austin Stoneman and his associate) make sexual overtures to Stonemans mulatto maid.  The very idea that Blacks, both males and females, were somehow more sexual than Whites was based on a fallacy invented by Whites to justify Slavery (Holmes 50).  If a Black woman was seen as sexually loose, then it was okay to rape her.  If Black males were viewed as sexual animals, then it was okay to beat and kill him. The White establishment could continue to view itself as good Christian people and simultaneously commit heinous acts towards other human beings if they somehow belived in the notion that Blacks were less than full human beings.  In fact, the work of French Naturalist, George Cuvier, in the early 1800s was largely used to support these preposterous claims and justify the rape of Black women and lynching of Black men.  Cuvier was infamous for exhibiting the Hottentot Venus around Europe, and then dissecting her sexual anatomy after she died as so-called proof of the Africans more sexualized nature (Holmes 71).

    Looking at Griffiths The Birth of A Nation in an historical context, it becomes clear that he was simply in line with the commonly-held beliefs of his time.  Yet, in reflecting these incendiary images in what was probably one of the first blockbuster films in cinematic history, he also reinforced the stereotypes and encouraged White Americans to participate in the lynching of Black males in increasing numbers. Although this fact does not take away from the films obvious cinematic accomplishments, Griffith must be held accountable, in an historical context, for his profound  contribution to this unjust  and shameful legacy.

Law of man or law of nature This question faithfully relates to the story of Antigone, one of Sophocles finest tragedy. The plot, the scenes, the dialogues of this wonderful drama will engage all readers to their own production their own stage play or film in mind. Reading through the pages of the book is like taking part in the scenes and sorrows of Antigone.

    Antigone is the daughter of Oedipus the King, who ignorantly murdered his father, married his own mother and fathered four children Eteocles, Polyneices, Ismene, and Antigone. Antigone continues the story of the doom that befell the blood of Oedipus. The palace is surrounded with gloomy silence. The sympathy from those who have witnessed the ill fate of the family should better be left unexpressed. King Creon, a stern old man with a thunder voice, announces his tyrannical rule with certain pride and conviction. The people murmur about the king denying Polyneices a fine burial. The death of her brothers causes Antigone an unspeakable pain. In solitude, she weeps for her family, for her dead brother. As she weeps, she thinks about Polyneices cold body that lies on the ground, scorned and disregarded. She carefully organizes her schemes on her mind. The kings indifference to her brothers corpse is purely unjust. She knew the people share her sentiments in silence, but she cannot  compromise anybodys safety by asking his or her assistance on what she is about to do. Then it occurs to her that Ismene, her sister, is the best person to ask.

    In the sisters meeting, one can tell their characters just by looking at them. Ismene is reserved, shy, and feminine. She shudders as Antigone describes the fate of their brothers soul if he will not be granted any rites of burial. She feels like escaping the reality that Antigone states, so she attempts to dissuade Antigone in executing her plans. She wants to save the only family that she has now. On the other hand, the headstrong Antigone has an ashen face that shows her grief and her wide, watchful eyes reflect her unshaken will. Her indignation towards her sisters cowardice only justifies her courage. She calls on the gods to evaluate her plight and judge on her deeds. As she sprinkles the sand with love and pity for Polyneices, the chorus sings a mocking yet menacing tune that aims to cast a feeling of both suspense and satire to Creons authority. 

    The outburst of Creon echoes in the halls of palace. Antigones bold stance and calmness suggests she does not regret her deeds. Her punishment, meanwhile, urges her to finally yield to the dark end that awaits her. The following scenes the death of Antigone, the self-destruction of Haemon, the demise of Eurydice, and the repentance of Creon happen in a fast and rapid blow that will not give the audience a fine time to process them. The chorus in the Exodus (1154-1353) is a little slower to let the audience internalize and evaluate the conclusion of the drama, to feel the emotions and undergo purgation. Although Antigones character has been atoned in the end, Sophocles leaves an underlying question of whether to follow the law of man or the law of nature. Do the reasons of Antigone and Creon justify their deeds

Kele James Shut up Nick.
Ryan (smiles, while looking at the street lights and sign posts.)
Nick James, you might be the biggest star at school, but those damn chicks dont know the size of your brain
(Ryan laughs harder)
Kele James one more word from you and Im gonna shove my fist down your throat
Ryan chill my friend. Knuckle head over there got detention for hitting the vending machine.
Nick I wouldnt if it gave me what I paid for (kicks.)
Ryan yeah, how I wish you checked the note that said that your soda was not available. How stupid can you get
Nick Wise ass.
Kele James Stupid.
(Kele James reaches to his pocket for something.)
Nick Did you forget your brain in your pocket
(Kele James throws a jab at Nicks arm)
Nick Aww Geez man
(After a few minutes, the gang reaches the last corner before Nicks apartment.)
Ryan (Checks out the windows upstairs to see if anyone has gotten in) Lets see
(Nick went straight for the door and turned the knob to see a bunch of people from school)
Ryan Hey, Julie (Waves at the girl she knows from one of his classes) Looks like everyone is here already.
Nick (Whispers to Ryan) Yeah We shall be enlightened. Let our hearts lead the way to heavenslegs
Ryan And if I dont get there Im gonna screw you with a pogo stick (turns to Kele James) How did we meet this guy anyway (Kele James laughs while Nick chants with eyes closed at the background - clitoris, clitoris, clitoris feel me)
(The three started to move towards the crowd while talking and dodging some people along the way. They finally sat down at the couch amidst the drinking and dancing of everyone else in the room)
Ryan Hey man, Ive heard you are getting into something
Kele James Yeah, Im into Lily, the new girl Shes so fine and
Ryan I meant another something
Kele James Well, even the holiest of holies get tempted and we are human dude, we get into trouble sometimes
Ryan You know that you aint gonna go anywhere with that.
Nick Ow he is going somewhere alright
Ryan Nick
Kele James Well, Im not into the settling down stage yet, Im so young man
Nick Oooooh Mr. bachelor huh.
Ryan You very well know Im not talking about Lily man.
(Kele James becomes silent)
Nick (looking far away) I know MEXICO has lots of nice
Ryan James, you are the star of the football team. There is much potential in you and many are afraid youll throw it all away.
Nick The idea is fine with me, at least I aint that affected.
Ryan Nick, nobodys asking for your opinion.
Nick You dont talk to me like that young man
Ryan what the are you losing some screws (he turned his attention back to James) James, we are just concerned. Youve been skipping classes as well as football practice. We just wanted to see if you were really into drugs and now we have confirmed it. James, dont throw your career away, many would like to be in your position, popular, football star, college scholarship offers, and you are just throwing it all away.
Kele James I am making a living out of this. I dont have to go to school. I know a few who dropped out of school and now own a Porsche and good estates in the bay area. If you arent street smart, and wise, you aint gonna survive in this world This is the goal of living, to survive and since money is the driving factor in making your survival and your overall lifestyle better, then Im all ears on anything that will get me that easy money. I dont have to run fields, execute plays. All I have to do is bring the goods to those who need it, like a distribution model of business.
Nick It is different James when you earn a clean living. You do not know how many lives you are destroying because you make these drugs available. You wouldnt know the effects of drugs on people. Can you sleep at night if you eventually knew that the persons you sell pot to get into road accidents, shooting incidents and suicide Religion aside, Dont you think that spurring something wrong in this world is a selfish way of survival I dont see beggars selling pot, so why should you So why should you think you need the money far more than they do Well, who is the PEA BRAIN NOW
(Some of the popular girls from their school went in and their conversation came to a halt when the girls forced them to dance. They approached the bar after dancing. Nick prepared for an open bar and asked one of his cousins to serve as the bartender knowing that he took a class on bartending when he was in college)
Ryan (orders the bartender) vodka please.
Kele James same here, and please pass the nuts.
Nick Thats what she said
Nick hey Dave, Ill have a double
Nick SWEET. (whispers to Ryan and James) She likes my sister 
(Ryan and James laugh out loud)
(after a few minutes Ryan tells the guys to stay put, hell just meet a friend. Suspicious, both say yes but suddenly tailed on James)
(James took out bags of weed. And talked to some people in the corner of the room.)
Ryan (In an inconspicuous area with Nick) I knew it. Damn this guys in trouble.
(James took a stick out of his pocket and lit it. He smokes away and gives a taste to his customers)
(Ryan and Nick went back to their seats as James turned his back to return to his friends.)
Kele James Hey guys.
Nick (intentionally coughs while saying the words) Junky
(Ryan looks sternly at Nick.)
Kele James What 
(Nick still smiling)
Kele James What
Nick (intentionally coughs while saying the words) whore junky. Whore junky.
Kele James Do you have something to say besides that punk (grinds his fists)
Ryan Hey, lets cool it.
Kele James What were you saying wiseguy Huh
Ryan Lets get out of here.
(Kele James pushes Nick as they go outside)
Nick Hey watch it
Kele James What were you saying
Ryan James, we saw you selling pot and smoking too.
Kele James Well that is none of your freakin business.
 (All three went outside and Nick and James got into a fist fight, James landing the first punch on Nick, while Nick retaliated a punch back to James. Kele James made a good kick on Ryan when he tried to break the fight, collared Nick and thrown to the side of the truck and gave him three good punches on the face. Ryan comes up from behind and choked Kele James. Both Ryan and Kele James fall to the ground with the same choking stance when Kele James tapped Ryan.)
Ryan  (releases choke and breathes heavily) fuck.
(Kele James breathes like a boy with asthma and coughs heavily)
(Nick is still down unconsciously leaning on the side of a truck.)
Ryan (rushes to Nick) Hey man, are you alright
(Nick was silent even after 3 calls of Ryan.)
Ryan Hey man, we are not in Pullman, you better wake your sorry ass (Ryan continues to shake Nick)
Kele James Hes just knocked out really good. Damn that was fine.
Ryan Yeah, and is almost loosing breathe good too
Kele James Well, you got me from behind you moron.
Ryan (turns to Nick and checks his pulse) Well, he still has a strong pulse alright.
Kele James I told you the asshole is just wondering in never land. Hell be back.
Nick (mumbles) mommy
Ryan (laughs) Hey Ricky Hatton, get up.
Nick Where am I (holds left cheek) Damn that hurt.
Kele James (laughs conservatively while he brushes his hair.) Its a good thing you still have your jaw intact. You could have looked a jawless fossilized dinosaur.
Nick Wow you know about dinosaurs Thats not new, youve got the same pea brain.
(All three laugh it out when they suddenly hear sirens from a police car. All three ran as fast as they could.)
Kele James Im in serious thought, guys. You are right. Thank you.
Nick We are outta here You owe us one James
Kele James Shut up and keep running (All three laughing)