Drama Essays West End Production

Drama Essays West End Production In the West End production of The Woman in Black, assess the skills of the two male performers when performing their role(s). Essay Outline: ‘As Alfred Hitchcock noted, suspense and atmosphere are more potent than scary events themselves’ Part 1 Introduction Introduction: ‘The Woman in Black,’ West end mainstay and classic enjoyed by many people since 1989, is a remarkable adaptation of a superb horror novel. Stripped down to a minimal cast by the impressive Stephen Mallatrat who has fitted a cunning theatrical frame around it, the play, which has seen many different duos taking the roles involved in the drama and ‘always bringing something new to it’ , is still to this day a massive hit. Undoubtedly talented, the two actors on stage, Brian Miller and William Rycroft, handled their varied roles superbly and brought the tension and terror inherent in the adaptation forth, using the limited props, large amount of space and excellent writing, to scare the audience witless.     Ã‚  Ã‚   Part 2 – Physical appearance and specific actor traits Physical and vocal qualities – Vital in creating the characters and expressing the different contexts of the change within the play, in a wonderfully orotund, flamboyant and self confident way, Rycroft educates the storyteller in the ways of theatre and the techniques of acting. Coaching the older ‘Kipps,’ clearly portrayed as a less confident and able man, his magnificent vocal expressions display him as the stereotypical Victorian actor. Especially with a two man cast, it is vital that the ranges of vocal abilities in the two men are expressive and changeable, and there is no doubt that through the different characters portrayed this is in evidence. Range of facial expressions and other actor skills– Perhaps the most dynamic and vivid use of a facial expression for me, was Rycroft’s reaction to the final twist in which he is asked about providing the ‘woman in black’ as part of the performance. Twisting in horror, his abject terror contrasts beautifully with the perceived ‘pale, wasted face and expression of desperate, yearning malevolence’ of the woman in black. Elsewhere throughout the play, his confident, expressive features work well in expressing the slightly woebegone look of Kipps, the actor who has slipped a little too far into the horrors of his past but still manages to become more adept at ‘performing’ throughout the play. From the self conscious, withdrawn character at the opening, through to his improved attempt at reading Shakespeare and finally onto his ability to switch characters, his facial expressions, and indeed whole character, seems to evolve. Creation of emotion – In a ‘two hand’ minimalist play, creating base, thrusting emotions within the hearts and minds of the audience is vital in place of spectacular effects, impressive sets or big choral numbers. Indeed, the raw fear and suspense (as well as dark humour) produced by the two actors is extremely well done. Using many of the devices discussed within this essay, and manipulating the vulnerability of the stark setting, they are able to, and carry off a wide range and evolving set of personal movements, expressions and speeches. Coupled with this, the fact that there are only two of them, makes their dialogues, and emotion fuelled actions, paramount to the audience’s concentration span, as they focus on these two purveyors of this simple, chilling and edgy tale. Part 3: Interaction Rapport with audience and response/ Use of Black Comedy – Again, I was very impressed with the skills of the two actors in terms of their ideas of audience participation. From the moment that Rycroft came striding up the aisle of the theatre talking about the need to really make the morbid tale ‘live in performance to an audience of family and friends,’ one immediately felt a part of this close knit group. It was as if he was striving to please and perform admirably directly for the benefit of the audience in the theatre itself, and lift the moribund tale for our immediate benefit. The occasional smattering of black comedy in this piece is also beautifully dealt with, Rycroft’s cool delivery of amusing lines giving the audience an element of relief to hold onto, before the actors deliver them once more into the unfurling horror. Interaction with other performers – The use of the two narrators within the performance allows an additional dimension to be added to the play, with the very process of storytelling and its purpose being investigated, as well as the chilling tale itself. Rycroft is magnificent in portraying the vessel, for which Miller (as Kipps) can relay his tale, and the heated discussions between the two talented performers split the mind away from the horrors somewhat, to concentrate on the issue of truth within a story that may be lost to the ideas of excitement within storytelling. Rycroft is also effective in moulding his reaction subtly differently to each of the different characters that Miller plays, making sure that the changing of characters does not seem stilted. Part 4 Setting Costume – The use of varied costume between the two actors, offers an almost surreal twist to the play, and while Miller is spectacular in manipulating his acting talents to drift between his roles, the occasional modern costume mixed with Victorian imagery does a lot to distort the mind of the already shaky audience. Less really does mean more in this production, and the fact that a mere change of coat can transport the two actors into entirely different roles, speaks volumes of the performances of the two men and the level of versatile performance required to suitably mix up their acting characters. Space – The key to this play, and inspiration for much of the horror generated by the stark atmosphere, is the power of immense space that setting the adaptation inside an empty Victorian theatre conveys. The feeling of spiritual goings on outside the main two characters is paramount, and Miller and Rycroft are able to exist all over the theatre, bringing the realism and terror to life within a large, empty setting. They have room to build their characters and through use of facial expressions and extravagant posture, utilize it widely. Part 5 – Interpretation of the on stage atmosphere Directorial interpretation of play – Mr Mallatratt adds ‘deliberate environmental anachronisms’ so claimed the Times review in 1989, and so it seems, much to the mystical improvement of the production. Set in a Victorian theatre, yet at no particular, specified time, modern touches (such as electric torches and sound effects) are used, allowing the audience to become uneasy with the setting and allowing the actors to spread their story in a setting that cannot be entirely tied down to anything specific within the mind. Form and production aims/ Sensitivity to style – Apparently, the original aim in performing ‘The Woman in Black’ with only two authors was to save money, and while a magnificent job has been done to use minimal output to produce such a thriller, one cannot help to wonder how a big budget production may handle this play. Mallatrat himself admits that ‘there are scenes he would have loved to have included but simply couldn’t,’ but I feel the actors have taken on board the necessity to make this appear a ‘classic ghost story’ and have taken the necessary steps to provide the exuberant and expressive performances within the stark setting that are required. Part 6 – Conclusion and Bibliography – The Woman in Black is undoubtedly a very tense and exciting script reaped from a ‘classic style’ horror tale in the vein of Henry James, and requires two excellent actors to take on the roles, engage an entire audience with their characters internal struggles, and essentially build up a horrific tale and ghostly presence. In my opinion, Miller and Rycroft both performed excellently using a wide variety of styles, stage devices and a mixture of expression and clever use of scenery, stage play and setting to grip the audience into what is a very compelling tale. Of course, with a story so moreish, it could be claimed that their jobs were easier than those of someone acting out a more complex and ‘slow’ narrative, but the fact they were able to mould their acting techniques to fit the changing of characters, lack of physical prop stimulus and slightly eclectic timeframe of the events taking place, shows the p resence of great skill. I am only interested to see how the next two actors can deal with the roles!  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚   http://www.cix.co.uk/~shutters/reviews/00191.htm Review of former actors http://www.londontheatre.co.uk/londontheatre/reviews/womaninblack.htm Reviews of The Woman in Black performed by other actors http://www.thewomaninblack.com/pdf/wib_pack.pdf Interview with Susan Hill describing her reaction to the on stage version Irving Wardled, The Times, January 1989 Susan Hill The Woman in Black (Vintage: 1998) http://www.susan-hill.com/pages/books/the_books/the_woman_in_black.htm Interview with Susan Hill

Objectives in Corporate Finance Essay

If you don’t know where you are going, it does not matter how you get there† Aswath Damodaran Stern School of Business Aswath Damodaran 2 First Principles Invest in projects that yield a return greater than the minimum acceptable hurdle rate. †¢ The hurdle rate should be higher for riskier projects and reflect the financing mix used – owners’ funds (equity) or borrowed money (debt) †¢ Returns on projects should be measured based on cash flows generated and the timing of these cash flows; they should also consider both positive and negative side effects of these projects. Choose a financing mix that minimizes the hurdle rate and matches the assets being financed. If there are not enough investments that earn the hurdle rate, return the cash to the owners of the firm (if public, these would be stockholders). †¢ The form of returns – dividends and stock buybacks – will depend upon the stockholders’ characteristics. Objective: Maximize the Value of the Firm Aswath Damodaran 3 The Classical Viewpoint Van Horne: â€Å"In this book, we assume that the objective of the firm is to maximize its value to its stockholders† Brealey & Myers: â€Å"Success is usually judged by value: Shareholders are made better off by any decision which increases the value of their stake in the firm†¦ The secret of success in financial management is to increase value. The most important theme is that the objective of the firm is to maximize the wealth of its stockholders. Brigham and Gapenski: Throughout this book we operate on the assumption that the management’s primary goal is stockholder wealth maximization which translates into maximizing the price of the common stock. Aswath Damodaran 4 The Objective in Decision Making In traditional corporate finance, the objective in decision making is to maximize the value of the firm. A narrower objective is to maximize stockholder wealth. When the stock is traded and markets are viewed to be efficient, the objective is to maximize the stock price. All other goals of the firm are intermediate ones leading to firm value maximization, or operate as constraints on firm value maximization. Aswath Damodaran 5 The Criticism of Firm Value Maximization Maximizing stock price is not incompatible with meeting employee needs/objectives. In particular: †¢ – Employees are often stockholders in many firms †¢ – Firms that maximize stock price generally are firms that have treated employees well. Maximizing stock price does not mean that customers are not critical to success. In most businesses, keeping customers happy is the route to stock price maximization. Maximizing stock price does not imply that a company has to be a social outlaw. Aswath Damodaran 6 Why traditional corporate financial theory focuses on maximizing stockholder wealth. Stock price is easily observable and constantly updated (unlike other measures of performance, which may not be as easily observable, and certainly not updated as frequently). If investors are rational (are they? ), stock prices reflect the wisdom of decisions, short term and long term, instantaneously.

Editing on Requiem for a Dream Essay

This essay will be, in the first part, mainly talking about the role of film editors in the modern film industry, while during the second, presenting a complex of creative editing techniques the editor used in the film requiem for a dream, to further demonstrate the former topic. For quite long, film editors are deemed as people who do nothing more than cutting the film apart, taping them back together and threading them onto a Moviola. The common-sense views of the job of a film editor, therefore, seem to be naively oversimplified. To be sure, the editing work can be incredibly tedious in a way. It involves viewing miles of footage for hours over and over again and turning them into a coherent and enjoyable whole that will bring sound and sight together artfully to convey the director’s vision. The difficulties of the work, according to that definition, are hard to miss, which is what happens in between the art of editing. Firstly, as an editor, you need to not only know the art, the business and the technology at the same time, but also be well adept at all. Secondly, even though the magic is in your wand and curses to make the final story come to life, you cannot cross that line between a conveyer and a manipulator. After all, it is the director that â€Å"rules†. Thirdly, it means you have to stand the long and tiring hours of working in isolation. Yet you also have to work closely in collaboration with others such as the sound editors and musical directors as the film nears completion. Walter Murch, a preeminent Hollywood film editor, who has won the golden statue for three times, worldly-renowned for his masterful editing work in the English patient and the cold mountain, describes a film editor as a cross between a short-order cook and a brain surgeon. To rephrase his words, film editing requires the capability to do really delicate jobs to mainly assure the continuity of the movie, but also the routine ones—-cutting and assembling, just like a short-order cook flipping the burger. Editors are the invisible man whose wonderful work somehow often goes unnoticed while the general public perception grants way too much credit on the directors and actors. Indeed, they are undoubtedly essential to the play as a whole, but the editor, the dark artist who makes all the broken pieces into their best shape is indisputably no lesser in importance than either of them. Moreover, in some films, the role an editor plays can be so critical that it defines the overall style of the entire film. In the following part, I will try to illustrate this point by looking into the various creative editing techniques the editor of requiem for a dream employed to make the film a stylistic one as it is. The first and foremost editing technique is the one that runs through the entire film, termed as â€Å"hip-hop montage† by Darren Aronofsky, the director of this movie. It is a subset of fast cutting used in film to portray a complex action through a rapid series of simple actions in fast motion, accompanied by sound effects. One example is the recurring scene in which Harry, Tyrone and Marion shoot or snort the heroine in the room. A fast set of shots encompassing the movement of body cells, the magnification of pupils, the cutting of dollar note, the ignition of lighter, the sound of moan are put together swiftly and seamlessly, followed by the fast motion of their after-drug activities. This happens regularly throughout the film primarily to imply the frequency of such behaviors, and the fast motion followed simply indicates how boring and senseless these people are as if those reactions can be ignored. Fast motion editing is another one that used by the editor quite often in the film, usually trying to imply the high frequency of the action or, not to bore the audience with the routine and tedious scenes as long as they understand what is going on. Respective examples are when the mother Sara takes the pills every single time and when she does the housework afterwards. The fraction of the doctor-patient sequence is rather unique in such a way that a contrast of fast motion(doctor) and slow motion(mother) are brought together in the same shots, causing a distinctive yet unspeakable feeling to the audience. Split screen editing is used extensively as well, along with extreme close-ups. The most illustrative one is a set of shots where Harry and Marion caress each other on the bed. The screen is equally split into two parts with the left side on Harry and the other half on Marion. The reason this scene is carried out in this way is because it manifestly shows us the places on each character that the other person is focused on. At this romantic and somewhat psychedelic moment, they both lose a sense of self and are enraptured by their lover. The visual representation of this has to be split since an attempt to convey this in one shot would feel slightly cluttered and in disarray. Another editing/ shooting technique well-worth-mentioning, is the long take used in the film where Marion walks out from her psychiatrist’s place after having sex with him only in exchange for money—-from the doorway, all the way to the elevator, down to the gate, out to the street, then the rain falls and Marion pukes. To observe in more depth, you will find the usage of â€Å"dissolve†. The dissolve appears in the story when Sara dances weirdly and ghostly in her dark bedroom with the red dress partially on her plump body and the nearly scary makeup on her pale-white face. The dissolve allows the appearance of multiple images of Sara at the same time on the screen with different degrees of transparency, thus creating a creepy and spooky ambiance. In addition to all those mentioned above, there is a shot in which the conversations match in two shots with different locations and time yet the same people. The matching of conversation is between Marion and her psychiatrist. The last shot of the first scene is in the restaurant where Marion says â€Å"I need some money† and the first shot of the next scene is on the bed with the psychiatrist saying â€Å"May I ask what it’s for†. This is incredibly coherent while controlling the pace very well. To end this essay, Stephen Kings once says: To write is human, to edit is divine. From this quotation and the analysis above of the role of an editor as well as the in-depth exploration into requiem for a dream, we can at least paint a closer-to-reality profile of an editor and in the meantime gain deeper understandings of the crucial work he/ she does in delivering a masterpiece film.

Death Of A Salesman By Arthur Miller - 1127 Words

Arthur Miller: â€Å"Death of a Salesman† Analysis Willy Loman had been a salesman for all of his life. Although he was a hard worker and kept up with an exhausting schedule, his family always practically lived in poverty and Willy was inferior in his company. He always told his family that they would get the big break he deserved. He had raised two sons, Happy and Biff, to think that life has somehow cheated them and insists that they will get their payback someday. Willy s wife, Linda, lives in denial that Willy has tried so hard to keep from collapsing. In Arthur Miller s Death of a Salesman Willy ultimately loses his way in search for his own identity. No matter how much Willy searches through his past, he fails to come to the realization or self-actualization that is common in a tragic hero. The partial conclusion that his idea of suicide offered him shows only a slight discovery of the whole truth. Willy seemed to understand himself professionally and knew what he was doing in sales but failed to come to the sad truth that he failed not only himself but his family. He managed to do so through the decieving antics of his life. He could never truly grab hold of the understanding of what it is like to be a â€Å"Loman†; spiritually, emotionally, and mentally. Willy was too focused on his own mind and dreams to be successful and he let it get in the way of his morals. Even though all of this is true, some readers may not come to the realization that Willy did, in fact, come to aShow MoreRelatedDeath Of A Salesman By Arthur Miller1387 Words   |  6 PagesAmerican play-write Arthur Miller, is undoubtedly Death of a Salesman. A rthur Miller wrote Death of a Salesman in 1949 at the time when America was evolving into an economic powerhouse. Arthur Miller critiques the system of capitalism and he also tells of the reality of the American Dream. Not only does he do these things, but he brings to light the idea of the dysfunctional family. Death of a Salesman is one of America’s saddest tragedies. In Arthur Miller’s, Death of a Salesman, three major eventsRead MoreDeath Of A Salesman By Arthur Miller888 Words   |  4 PagesDeath of a Salesman† is a play written by Arthur Miller in the year 1949. The play revolves around a desperate salesman, Willy Loman. Loman is delusioned and most of the things he does make him to appear as a man who is living in his own world away from other people. He is disturbed by the fact that he cannot let go his former self. His wife Linda is sad and lonely; his youngest son Biff is presented as a swinger/player while his eldest son Happy appears anti-business a nd confused by the behaviorRead MoreDeath Of A Salesman By Arthur Miller1573 Words   |  7 Pagesrepresents a character with a tragic flaw leading to his downfall. 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Arthur Miller puts a modern twist on Aristotle’s definition of ancient Greek tragedy when Willy Loman’s life story directly identifies the fatal flaw of the â€Å"American Dream†. Willy Loman’s tragic flaw can be recappedRead MoreThe Death Of A Salesman By Arthur Miller846 Words   |  4 PagesA Dime a Dozen The Death of a Salesman is a tragedy written by playwright Arthur Miller and told in the third person limited view. The play involves four main characters, Biff, Happy, Linda, and Willy Loman, an ordinary family trying to live the American Dream. Throughout the play however, the family begins to show that through their endeavors to live the American Dream, they are only hurting their selves. The play begins by hinting at Willy’s suicidal attempts as the play begins with Linda askingRead MoreDeath Of A Salesman By Arthur Miller Essay2538 Words   |  11 PagesSurname 1 McCain Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course: Date: Death of a Salesman Death of a salesman is a literature play written by American author Arthur Miller. The play was first published in the year 1949 and premiered on Broadway in the same year. Since then, it has had several performances. It has also received a lot of accordances and won numerous awards for its literature merit including the coveted Pulitzer for drama. The play is regarded by many critics as the perfectRead MoreDeath Of A Salesman By Arthur Miller2081 Words   |  9 Pages#1 â€Å"Death of a Salesman† by Arthur Miller is a tragedy, this play has only two acts and does not include scenes in the acts. Instead of cutting from scene to scene, there is a description of how the lighting focuses on a different place or time-period, which from there, they continue on in a different setting. The play doesn’t go in chronological order. A lot of the play is present in Willy’s flashbacks or memories of events. This provides an explanation of why the characters are acting a certainRead MoreDeath Of Salesman By Arthur Miller1475 Words   |  6 Pagesto death to achieve their so- called American dream. They live alone and there is no love of parents and siblings. They may have not noticed the America dream costs them so much, which will cause a bigger regret later. In the play Death of Salesman, Arthur Miller brings a great story of a man who is at very older age and still works hard to achieve his desire, which is the American dream. Later, he no tices that his youth is gone and there is less energy in his body. Willy Loman is a salesman, who