Anna in the Tropics

In the play Anna in the Tropics I saw two different major conflict one between the Owners of the factor and wheater they should install machines. If the owner Santiago put in machines a lot of workers would lose their jobs; on the ther hand if he put in the machines he can boost production of his cigars. The other conflict i can see is between Juan Julian, Cheche, Palomo. Cheche conflict with Juan Julian is the fact that Juan Julian is a lector and his wife ran off with the last lecterand Palomo sees his wife is have an affair with the new lector. Cheche and Palomo represent jealousy and Juan Julian represents sensitivity and romance.   On the other hand I think Santiago and most of his family represent the appreciation of had work. Santiago seems to prefer quality of over quantity; on the other hand his brother thinks the opposite and would rather install the machines and lay off the workers. The turning point between Juan Julian and the men was when Palomo saw Conchita kissing the lector in the factory. The turning point between Santiago and the machines is when Cheche brought the cigar rolling machine and was trying to convince Santiago that the new machines would modernize their factory and boost sales. The climax of the conflict between Juan Julian and the men was when Cheche got drunk and shot Juan Julian out of hate he had for lectors. The climax for Santiago is when he decided to not use the machines and keep the workers. Santiago also decided to make a new cigar and put his daughter picture on it to boost sales. In the end Palomo recognized what his wife had seen in the lector and change his ways. The Santiago family realized that they had made the right decision keeping the old traditions were the right thing to do. I really had a good time watching this play. I didn’t think that I would. I found myself intrigue by the actors and their performance. I was always wondering what was going to happen next. The difference between viewing this play and seeing a movie is I could feel the situations the actors were portraying. I felt like I was in the cigar factory; watching the event of the day takes place. Seeing a movie is entertaining but the feeling of seeing this play had a different feel to it. The performance was very believable and lot of feeling behind it. This was my first live play. The experience of seeing this production change what my perception of what live theater is.

Commedia dell'Arte

Commedia dell'Arte is a form of improvisational comedy, which began in Italy during the 16th century and spread out from there. The performers have a scenario in outline form. A Group Would  have a week or so to improvise an entire performance from stage directions. The performers write the dialog and since the performance is improvised timing requirements are greater than in regular theater. The main characters usually are Pantalone, Gratianom, Pedrolino and Arlecchino. Pantalone is a merchant of Venice and he is rich, greedy, and he's miserly. Gratiano is usually a lawyer type. Pantalone and Gratiano are old male characters, they are referred to as the "vecchi", which is Italian for old male.  Pedrolino and Arlecchino are the servants of the old men. Collectively they are known as zanni.

Seeing a commedia Dell’ Arte performance; would consist of professional actors trained to perform the art of Commedia Dell’ Arte. The staging of the set would be simple, so the audience can focus on the characters being portrayed. The actors will perform their dialogue with different props, music and dance. If the performance is traditional the focus should not be focus on the dialect but on the physical aspects of the story telling. The reason for focusing on the physical comedy is that you probably won’t be able to understand the dialect. I think this keeps the audience focused on the performance more than the subject of the play.

                                       
                                       These are some of the different traditional commedia dell'arte mask.

In this video the modern art of the clown traces its roots to the Italian Commedia dell'Arte. This is theatre based on improvisation. Even when an overall script existed at all, each performance still differed from every other.

In the beginning actors would often interact with the people watching, suiting the comedy to the audience's taste.  If people of the upper class were in the audience, the comedy tended to be smarter. On the other hand, if the audience was more of the middle or lower class the improvisations were bawdier.

   

The Zanni never does well at his job, since all he thinks about is food or sleep.  Often, he is distracted while on a mission, after hearing the name of a fruit--or after falling asleep.  Zanni seems to be stupid, poor, and slow, and therefore is the lowest character on the social scale. A modern version of the Zanni would be Homer Simpson.

Ciatations: Commedia dell'arte: a handbook for troupes By John Rudlin, Olly Crick,www.commedia-dell-arte.com, Wikipedia,The World of Theatre, by Mira Filner and Claudia Orenstein

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