Shadow box play review Essay Example for Free

Shadow box play review Essay On the night of the 28th of November 2013, I had the chance of watch some of the third year Lasalle theatre students produce and perform Michael Christofer’s â€Å"The Shadow Box†. Despite having very little knowledge of the play itself, I thoroughly enjoyed the play and was kept engaged throughout. â€Å"The Shadow Box† revolves around three main terminally ill characters, Joe, Felicity and Agnes, who had to deal with the fact of not being able to live much longer. It also involves their family and friends facing the inevitable death of their loved one. The play addresses the theme of death and the idea of seizing the day and living life to its’ fullest, otherwise known as ‘Carpe Diem’. Keeping within the genre of realism, the play uses dark comedy to emphasize and enhance the message of the play ‘to grab onto life and live it with all your might’. The play was held in the Creative Cube and the space was set up with blocks of different heights, distinguishing the three individual spaces, as well as a void-like segment placed center up-stage. The space showed the cottages of Joe’s, Brian’s and Felicity’s, from stage left to stage right respectively. The void-like space had a swivel chair with a spotlight on it. During the play, the different characters had a chance to sit on the chair and discuss their current situations with numerous voices that encouraged each of them to express their emotions. This gave the audience an insight into their personal feelings and thoughts of their condition. Even though the set was not exactly the most extravagant, it had basic set pieces such as a couch and a table that made it unambiguous to the audience that the play was set in their cottages. I felt that the set was enough to inform he audience of where the play was set in and what really mattered was the content and acting of the play. What had kept me engaged was how strong the relationships between the characters were and how I as an audience member could so clearly see each character’s development throughout the play. I could actually see how each character grew from being almost angry and confused of their inevitable death, to growing to accept it. The show began with Jordan Prainito, who played Joe, walking into a void and being questioned by several voices about his family and his daily routine ever since he began living at the cottage. It wasn’t made clear to the audience who exactly the voices belonged to, however I got an impression that they were doctors and it seemed as if it was a daily or weekly routine to talk to these voices. The other characters underwent the same thing and as I have mentioned before, it gave us an insight into their personal emotions and their opinions of the whole situation. The relationships between the different characters were so well established that made the play extremely captivating to watch as you could also see the personal struggle of each character slowly losing a loved one. My favourite relationship established within the play would have to be between Felicity and Agnes, played by Rachel Tay and Samantha Jean Kwok respectively. They played a mother-daughter relationship where the daughter, Agnes, had to take care of her terminally ill mother who seemed to have a side condition of dementia. You could see how patient Agnes had to be with Felicity, and how she had to remind her mother of basic things, such as the date and time, to slightly more serious things, such as who Agnes was, as Felicity had a mindset that her other daughter, Claire, was still alive and was taking care of Felicity instead and not Agnes. My favourite character would be Beverly, who was played by Chinie Concepcion. She was acting as Mark’s ex girlfriend, who was the terminally ill patient in cottage #2. Mark, played by Renfred Ng also had a gay partner, Brian, played by Brett Khao. Together, Beverly and Brian fought and worked together to overcome their fear of losing a loved one so soon. As they had contrasting personalities, Beverly’s being loose and carefree, whereas Brian was rigid and uptight, this created an interesting segment to watch on how the two had to work together for Mark’s sake. Chinie Concepcion brought so much life to her character and did a really good job of portraying her character as the ‘life of the party’, or rather life in general (She also rocked her sparkly 6 inch heels throughout the whole show). Each relationship played throughout the show was kept real, distinct and extremely powerful. It made me feel almost connected to the characters who had to face the expected death of their loved ones. I especially felt this from the relationship between Stevie, played by Kimberly Chan and her father Joe. As we saw the first meeting between Stevie and her father, you could almost feel her excitement and joy bouncing around the whole space. This was seen through her facial expressions and eagerness to make him proud through her songs played on the guitar. However, she had not known of his coming death and it was the biggest bomb dropped throughout the whole show. As each relationship and character had their good points, it made the show enjoyable and engaging. Thus, I felt that the third year Lasalle students did Michael Christofer proud as making this the Singapore premier of ‘The Shadow Box’. Everyone should definitely take some time off to catch the play, it was extremely moving and thought-provoking as well as it made me think about really living life to it’s fullest and how true the expression ‘Carpe Diem’ was.

The Theme of Black Leadership in Invisible Man Essay -- Ralph Ellison,

     Ã‚   Ralph Ellison's interest in effective black leadership is directly reflected in Invisible Man. The characterization of Bledsoe in the beginning of the story is that of a ruthlessly self-serving black leader (McSweeny). In chapter five, a "mythic model" for black leadership is outlined in the eulogy of the founder of the college, which is given by Homer A. Barbee (McSweeny). While Invisible Man is residing in the apartment of Mary Rambo, she drills into his head the importance of leadership and responsibility. In chapter thirteen the anger of the crowd watching the eviction begins to rise, and as one onlooker observes that "All they need is a leader" (Ellison 274). These events lead to Invisible Man's first act of leadership when he delivers a spontaneous speech to the crowd. Invisible Man comes to realize that the fundamental problem confronting a potential black leader is the lack of an infrastructure (McSweeny). He states, "...we had no money, no intelligence apparatus, either in government, business or in labor unions; and no communications with our own people excep...

Links Between Ancient Empire (Songhai, Ming and Mughul) Essay

| Ming China| Songhai| Mughal India| Government and Society| * Absolute rulers * Government followed out all emperor’s orders * Emperor seen as god| * Peace patrolling by navy * Surrounding chiefs kept more of their power if they paid tributes * Based on Islamic Principals. * Performance based NOT birth * Based on military and religion * Slaves did all manual labour| * Based on Islamic principals * Local rulers kept power but had to pay tributes * Centralised administration * Efficient bureaucracy * Practiced religious tolerance | Role of Women| * Good education to teach their sons * Got married – family finance * Thrice following (followed whatever they were told by men) * Only influential if wealthy| * Men didn’t talk to women in public * Respected by men but had to act shy and timid * Separate housing between men and women. | * No education, liberty or rights * If they gave birth to a female they were shunned upon * Not allowed to go anywhere without permission * Women were seen as inferior| Travel and Trade| * Traded silk, porcelain and tea * Trade to show off China’s wealth and power * Traded with West Asia and Europe along the silk route * Brought goods back from exotic places visited | * Gold and salt trade * Huge caravans regularly crossed the Sahara desert. * Timbuktu and Goa became large commercial centres of these routes| * Export of agricultural products * Shipbuilding – key industry (Europeans bought from them) * Private trading – voyagers to East Africa, Europe etc†¦ * China was an important trading partner.| Links/Contacts with the rest of the world| * Zheng He voyagers – linked China to India, Ar abian Peninsula and East Africa. * Trade connected them to Asia and Europe – silk road along Med. Sea * Communication routes created via military courier system| * Trade in gold and salt along Sahara desert linked them to the Arabs and Europe through gold trade * Arab traders were the link from Africa to the rest of the world. * Commercial centres were a place for merchants from Med. And Europe to trade. * Exploration of Portuguese| * Contacts with China and South East Asia * Europeans ships visited India and they bought from the Indians * The British set up BEIC to trade| Learning and culture| * Education was wide spread. * Standardised education * Stand was high because they could print text books at the time * Different pantheons of Gods * Practised Buddhism and  Taoism | * Timbuktu and Goa – main centres of learning * Recruited teachers from over-seas * Islam – dominant culture * Recorded as one of the largest Islamic in history| * Established libraries in different languages * Welcomed scholars to his courts * Islamic * Practised religious cultures| Technology| * Inventors of gun powder * Compass * Paper * Printing| * Mosque Architecture – detailed and big * Took years to build| * Invented concept of zero * Modern math * Celestial globe * Advanced architecture | Decline of the Empires| * Invaded by the Moroccan army * This was possible because modern weaponry – Songhai didn’t stand a chance even though they had more men * Succession battles between Mohammed Askia I’s sons in 1593 led to civil war * Lost total control of trade and wealth due to Portuguese explorations around West Africa. | * Threats of invasion by Mongols and Machu * Weakened by power struggles * Became isolated because of the Great Wall of China * Sever famine * Economic problems – people stopped paying taxes | * Main threat – BEIC * Wars of succession weakened empire after Akbar’s death. * |

Forth vs. Fourth How to Choose the Right Word

The words forth and fourth are homophones: They are pronounced the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings and etymologies, although both have Old English roots. How to Use Forth The adverb forth means moving forward in time, place, or order. It also means simply to the forefront when paired with verbs such as bring, come, and put. The expression and so forth is equivalent to and more of the same or etc., whereas to hold forth means to go on talking for a long time, and to set forth means to give a detailed written or oral account of something. The Forth is also the name of a river in south-central Scotland. How to Use Fourth The adjective fourth refers to the ordinal number corresponding to four and situated between third and fifth For example, hes fourth in line at the bakery. In baseball, batting fourth refers to the cleanup hitter, typically the best batter on the team whos most likely to hit a home run and bring any players who are on first, second, or third base home. A fourth is also a musical interval, and a fourth gear is usually found in automatic and standard transmissions. The noun fourth refers to the fourth day of any month. July 4, Independence Day in the United States, is often referred to as the Fourth. Fourth can also refer to a fraction, as in one-quarter, or the last person of four to join a card game. Examples The following examples show some of the uses of forth: Sofia loved to hold forth (talk at length) about European history whenever she got the chance.The expectant father paced back and forth (backward and forward) in the waiting room.The third speaker was Eleanor, who set forth (expressed) her ideas on addressing the towns budget woes.Michael began to talk about his past in detail, including his childhood, teenage years, young adulthood, and so forth (and the rest). Fourth is used as an adjective, adverb,  or noun in these examples: Jakes fourth grade  (grade 4) class was assigned to draw something interesting that may be found inside the home.At the game, Steve was the cleanup hitter, batting fourth (batter No. 4) in the top of the ninth inning with runners on first and third.At the last minute, Susan arrived to make a fourth (player No. 4) at bridge.Will you be watching fireworks on the Fourth (July 4)?We split the cost of dinner, with each of us paying a fourth (25 percent) of the tab. How to Remember the Difference The simplest way to remember the difference between forth and fourth is that forth means forward and theres no u in forward, whereas fourth is always associated with the number 4. Sources â€Å"Forth | Definition of Forth in English by Oxford Dictionaries.†Ã‚  Oxford Dictionaries | English, Oxford Dictionaries, en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/forth.â€Å"Fourth.†Ã‚  American Heritage Dictionary Entry: Fourth, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?qfourth.