Comparison of Dramatic Technique in Philadelphia, Here I Come! and a View from the Bridge

Priestley sets out a sequence of stage directions at the beginning of the play, he applies them successfully as a dramatic device. He uses the stage directions to show the audience that the Birling family are cold and distant, and how supposedly capitalism has affected their lives. Highlighting he gap between

The plots are quite similar in both plays, both the film and the play tell a story about a man who meets 3 people, in the

Stage directions are used during the play to reveal even more of the personality of each of the characters. The extremely-confident personality of Nick is made clear in the first scene, when Nick, Lucy and Lewis first enter the darkened theatre, and Nick starts to toy with Lucy in the dark, pretending to be a ghost. Stage directions can also be used to reveal the feelings of characters. When Lucy and Nick leave, and Lewis is left with Roy, you can tell just by watching the way Lewis holds his body, and moves about the stage, he feels betrayed by Lucy, and by Nick.

Broadway is famously known for its forty theaters and the major productions that it puts on. Broadway was created in the early 17th century by the Dutch. Since that time Broadway has grown in length as the city developed from a small settlement on the S tip of Manhattan Island and now extends 27 km (17 mi) to the city’s N boundary in the Bronx.

Miller is able to portray the madness of Salem in a variety of ways, throughout the whole of the play however the ending of each act allows the audience to fully feel the hysteria. By incorporating changes of key themes and ideas as well as using links throughout the text and a variety of dramatic techniques towards the end of each act, Miller is able to leave the audience with a sense of this madness. The ways in which he reflects the madness change from scene to scene however each technique is just as important as others.

Priestley uses stage directions as another dramatic device which helps show the way the characters speak to each other. It shows how the characters must act, directs emotion and creates tension. An example of this is:

The end of Act 1 closely resembles a Greek Tragedy. In the boxing scene, Eddie begins to make bold moves and does things that are out of the ordinary. “Feints with his left hand and lands with his right”. He starts making mistakes without realizing it as he decides to physically hurt Rodolpho by punching him. This is just the beginning of his path towards self- destruction as he makes his fatal flaw later on in the play. The other characters in the play are all slowly turning against him. Catherine decides to be rebellious in front of Eddie, “You wanna dance, Rodolpho?” Marco challenges Eddie by asking him, “Can you lift this chair?” Beatrice criticizes Eddie for being too overprotective and his unnatural affection towards Catherine, “Well then, be an uncle then.” Rodolpho tries to reason with Eddie, “I have respect for her, Eddie.” “All right, sure. But I can’t stay in the house all the time, Eddie.”

In Scott McCloud’s “Understanding Comics,” he defines art as both “any human activity that doesn’t grow out of EITHER of our species two basic instincts: survival and reproduction” (164), and “the way we assert our identities as individuals and break out of the narrow roles nature cast us in” (166). Although McCloud was discussing graphic novels in his work, I think that these quotes and his argument apply to any type of visual rhetoric. As a former theatre minor at Marquette, I have had the opportunity to be privy to this argument in the form of theatre. Watching a play unfold onstage has an effect on the participating audience, largely due to the intricacies of each scene. While a good play must start out

The interactions that Sam and Willie have are usually done in a slightly crude joking manner, as the joking is usually oriented about Willie beating his wife Hilda Samuels. Sam has good intentions, but his jokes and comments are not always welcomed or seem in the way that Sam had made them out too be. He was only trying to add constructive criticism, but it came out more harsh as if Sam was making fun of Willie. The stage directions show where to go. No stage directions, then there wouldn’t be any formality. It would just be chaotic. Stage directions show you where to go and exact movements and cues on personality, vocal tone, body language, and facial expressions. Without stage directions, you would be lost on what to do. The stage directions

In Alfieri’s final speech to warn Eddie that this problem could go further than his immediate family, he tells Eddie that he “won’t have a friend in the world” and “even those who understood will turn against you, even the ones who feel the same will despise you!”. He says this to make Eddie feel bad for the upcoming actions and to bring some reality to him. Miller makes use of several exclamation marks to add a sense of desperation and urgency to Alfieri’s tone of voice to urge Eddie to rethink what may become a catastrophe. Alfieri also goes on to say that “that is my last word Eddie, take it or not, that’s your business”, to inform Eddie that he is giving up with helping him and does not want to be involved anymore, its Eddies choice if he will come to a catharsis or not. Arthur Miller also uses stage directions, in this section of the play, to foretell that Eddie Carbone’s end is near and little can be done from others to prevent it, only Eddie alone.

[1] Since it opened in 1984 the theater has won worldwide acclaim for the quality and scope of its productions. [2] Those productions range from all-male casts (such as the one shown on the next page) performing works in the sixteenth-century Grand Kabuki tradition to U.S. premieres of contemporary works by leading Japanese choreographers. [3] The theater doesn't just book productions; it works closely with the artists, whom it presents. [4] In fact according to the managing director for programs between 60 and 70 percent of the theater's presentations 396 are developed in partnership with the artists. [5] In 1988, for example the theater staged the first, Broadway-style Japanese musical, Utamoro: The Musical which is Tako Izumi's story of the eighteenth-century woodcut artist Utamoro.

Alfieri ends the play by telling the audience that he mourns Eddie and tries to present Eddie as an innocent guy that has just followed his destiny. He also goes on to say that, “every few years there is still a case [like this]”, further trying to make Eddie seem innocent.

He takes on a dual role of the lawyer and commentator. He alerts Eddie that he ‘won’t have a friend in the world’ if he keeps pushing the boundaries, he already knows Eddie’s tragedy is inevitable and builds a sense of foreshadowing. Miller has three purposes in this scene for Alfieri: to reveal the acceptance of Eddie’s feelings towards Catherine, to convey how it might affect Beatrice and to be the voice of reasoning. He bluntly tells Eddie that there is no positive way out. When Eddie implies he may have feelings for Catherine Alfieri is already aware and implies that this will be his fatal flaw. ‘he never realises it, but though the years-there is too much love for the daughter, there is too much love for the niece’. This explicitly tells Eddie to let the feelings go, Alfieri is conscious about the fact Eddie does have strong feelings towards Catherine and he is also a perceptive character which Eddie is not, but Alfieri is alert that this will be Eddie’s downfall. During Eddie’s confession time he confides his fear that Rodolpho is homosexual and is pretending to love Catherine as an opportunity to obtain a green card. Eddie says ‘He’s stealing from me!’ and ‘it’s breakin’ my heart’. This really allows the audience to feel the intensity of the frustration Eddie feels. The scenes have now created a cathartic effect because the tension has been released now that Eddie’s feelings are in the open from the audience’s

Eddie is the protagonist and a classic tragic hero. It was common for the tragic hero to be someone ordinary and not of high birth. Eddie is a longshoreman his character is generally decent, loving and responsible. Throughout the play he is protective towards Catherine ‘I'm responsible for you', ‘she's gonna finish school'. During the play we see Eddies character obsessing with Catherine. He soon becomes sexually attracted to her, and is unable

Marco’s action suggests he’s protective of his “little brother” and is quite threatening from the aspect that he rises to defend him if necessary. This is significant to the audience because it foreshadows that Eddie’s impulsive behavior will be the reason he loses Marco’s respect as well as It will be the reason “he won’t have a friend in the world.”