42nd Street

Saw a pleasing production of 42nd Street at the Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario.   Many delights rewarded theatre-goers: brilliant costumes (especially for the chorus girls), imaginative Busby Berkley inspired choreography, an excellent pit orchestra (placed on the balcony), great use of the Shakespearean three-quarter round stage, and solid performances by the cast.  The show has a definite “feel good” affect.

I enjoyed 42nd Street so much, that I wanted to get the DVD of the original movie that inspired the Broadway production.  In doing so, three other “gold digger” movies come with the set.  Thus, you see the early and some of the best Busby Berkley choreography, beautiful showgirls, and some great scenes with Ruby Keeler, Joan Blondell, Dick Powell, and in Dames, Jimmy Cagney does a great songs and dance to Shanghi Lil.  

Music and Lyrics by Harry Warren and Al Dubin support the song and dance routines and lift you out of the doldrums.  These depression era songs capture an age and helped audiences feel better about themselves, while facing up to their financial circumstances.  There is a breezy and determined effort to succeed. The struggles of performers putting on a successful show carries over to the toils of the average Jane and Joe trying to rise above the depression.   

Do yourself a favor and catch 42nd Street or any of the “gold digger” movies. 

All Purpose Dialectic Diatribe

Writing humor is difficult.  What can provoke laughter in person, with appropriate delivery, can seem very unfunny on paper.  Besides, comedy can be offensive, because it's usually at the expense of other peoples foibles, and is often intended to be corrective.

I wrote the following letter to the editor of a local paper hoping to provoke a few grins and, possibly, cause some change, but the editors have not published my offering.  Why? I ask myself.  Is it not humorous, does it offend too many people, is it too long?  Well, I'll probably never know why the paper hasn't published my letter, so I'm going with it offends too many people.  Besides it's directed at the people who write letters to the editor, as well as the editors themselves.  At least the internet/blog offers freedom of speech.  Here it is:


To the Editor:

In consideration of the large number of politically charged letters you print I am offering the following all-purpose dialectic diatribe in an effort to help you free up space on your editorial page for enlightened, well-reasoned, and substantiated opinion.


THE ELEPHANT:
I am appalled that the liberal commie administration has once again proposed legislation that will stifle business and raise everybody’s taxes.  Moreover, Obamanation’s socialist policies enable lazy, shiftless people unwilling to find jobs.  If only these bleeding heart tree huggers could understand the importance of using God given natural resources and letting Capitalism, as our Founders intended, provide for people.  But no!  Instead, these government loving un-Americans will allow immigrants with foreign religions to take over our country, while businesses dry on the vine like so many unwatered grape leaves. We must not stand idle while leftist zealots fleece the pockets of every patriot.

THE DONKEY:
These petrified tea partiers can only say “No!” “No” to more affordable health care.  “No” to education.  “No” to change. These archaic neocons think: The Constitution protects the greedy;  The Constitution enables the already powerful;  The Constitution provides for less taxation for the wealthy.   Cloaked as Colonial Clowns, the Republican party has become a bunch of nay saying rightwing nuts!  Led by a Presidential candidate who won by default, because the favored sons and daughters of their party each shot themselves in the foot, uttering inane ideas and unfounded accusations, the Republican Party presents, that man who is out of touch with most Americans, Mitt the Twit.

Thank you for printing this letter.  I hope it serves its intended purpose, even  if it removes many seriously humorous opinions.

Remembering the Edinboro Shooting

One of my daughter's best friends, Marin Cogan, wrote, "Recollections from Another American Shooting," for GQ.   The recent tragedy in Colorado inspired her remembrance of a school shooting that occurred in our hometown of Edinboro.  More than memory infuses her column, as she reflects on conditions that allow the mentally ill to go unnoticed, untreated, but entirely capable of purchasing weapons of destruction.  

Please give her article a read.

Happy Holidays!

This year I'll let the newly weds, my daughter, Amelia and her husband, Todd entertain you with their Holiday Cheer.

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

P L A Y W R I TING:
Build That Play!


Forest D. Feighner

FOREWORD

Can playwriting be taught? The skilled storyteller weaves together intrigue, suspense, and discovery with clear and imaginative language. Audiences find interest in well-developed characters, astonishing events, new locations, and stimulating times. The storyteller charms the audience throughout the entire action. Stories without end or purpose get boring and turn people away from the art. As crafts capable of holding an audience spellbound, drama and theatre can be taught.

This text is intended for the beginning playwright.

Playwriting is a craft as well as a form of artistic expression. Within the technical skills of any craft, there are fundamental artistic principles, such as unity, harmony, and balance. Artistic perspective fits within the framework of theory put into practice. In fact, aesthetic value is a part of the theory.
Perceiving order out of chaos and creating balance out of inequity are integral parts of the beauty of drama. Developing the dramatic imagination in creating engaging visions of mankind's place in the universe is a high calling. Drama engages in, answers, and then asks again for a new generation the fundamental questions: Who am I? What is the purpose of life? Where are we? Whom do you seek? What is the nature of creation? Why are we here? These questions should not be reserved only for scientific inquiry. Drama can provide enlightenment while giving truthful reflection of the times. By bringing wisdom, drama becomes radiantly entertaining.
Playwriting provides entertainment. Every night in theatres from Broadway houses to San Francisco studios, in community theatres, high school auditoriums, and college performance centers across the country, professionals and amateurs are creating drama. Visions of faraway places, romantic encounters, adventure, intrigue, familiar faces, and imaginative beings tantalize the observer's imagination and make one ponder their meaning. Watching fights, dances, acrobatics, and all manner of human movement strikes us as interesting, especially when given a dramatic purpose. The skillful playwright uses cultural perplexity as fuel for entertainment.
These WebPages will focus on the one-act play of about thirty minutes. The exercises in these WebPages have been classroom and production proven. Plays written in my playwriting class have been produced as part of Dramatic Activities of Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and entered as participating productions in the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival.
My students have used each of the WebPages's Tasks as a step in the process of writing the one-act play. Completion of one Task leads to the next and by the end of a fifteen-week semester, students complete the crafting of a thirty-minute one-act play.

•  Schedule of Tasks.
•  Requirements for Play.
•  Table of Contents
•   Playwright's Resources and References can be found at http://www.erie.net/%7Efeighner/theatre.html

Back to Playwriting

Schedule of Tasks | Requirements for Play | Table of Contents

Back to Prof. Feighner's Home Page

Copyright c 1999 Forest Delano Feighner, EUP.
designed by Forest Dean Feighner, 1999
for Playwriting: Build that Play!

Musical Terms

Anyone who has played piano or an instrument in a school band has encountered musical terms, such as allegro (a fast tempo), A tempo (original tempo), or Dolce (sweetly). With the exception of certain composers, nusical terms are usually in a foreign language, notably Italian. Unfortunately, most high school and even college musicians don’t know a foreign language. Thus, they must interpret the foreign words found in music and learn to apply the interpretation at a glance while they read notes.

Lists and dictionaries are available. Many music folders for bands have a small list of frequently used musical terms, but it is surprising to see how many amateur players, even after years of experience, don’t understand terms like Da Capo (D.C.), or Dal Segno (D.S.). D.C. means “Repeat from beginning or From the beginning,” whereas D.S. means “Repeat from sign or From the sign.” Obviously, players who don’t know what these terms mean will soon be lost in the music.

A recent discussion of a less well known term, “lusingando” has prompted me to wonder once again why musical terms are not translated in American sheet music. Learned and skilled musicians interpreted lusingando variously as haltingly or hesitantly, coaxing, flattering, and singing, just to name a few of the offered suggestions. A Virginia Tech online musical dictionary defines the word: “A directive to perform a certain passage of a composition in a coaxing, caressing, flattering, or alluring style.” Thus, even well informed musicians can have variances of opinions about musical terms. When the guides to interpretation are misunderstood they serve instead as hindrances. As is the written word, written music is intended to illuminate readers. Notes do this even better, perhaps, than words. Why then should the clarifying terms be left to bafflement?

Matt Damon Defends Teachers

Normally, I steer clear of politics, but since teaching, teachers, and acting are dear to me, I am posting this interview.