Prior to this course, I never knew a theater world existed outside of Broadway. I did not know that Off-Broadway existed, let alone Off-off-Broadway. Unintentionally, I found myself focusing my monthly Cultural Passports on theater productions. From September to early October, I went to Broadway musicals such as A Tale of Two Cities and Legally Blond. From late October to November, I ventured outside the Broadway Box and explored Off-Broadway shows such as Fuerzabruta and Break Out. Besides the disparity in ticket prices and number of seats, Broadway and Off-Broadway did not prove to be much different for me. I go to performances to be entertained and I enjoyed most of the productions, with an exception of one of the above.
Although I had been told that in Fuerzabruta, the audience was part of the performance, I expected an event show with a plot. Needless to say, I was disappointed. It was very interactive – the cast members came down from their platforms and engaged themselves with the audience – but Fuerzabruta was simply not for me. I very much prefer watching actors perform completely separated from the viewers.
I felt that Fuerzabruta was not only pointless, but harmful to the environment. One of the skits involved Styrofoam and pieces of paper. After dancing on a platform for a few minutes, the actors proceeded to break up all the Styrofoam boxes, filled with pieces of paper, on stage. Because that was not enough, every few minutes, a block of paper would fall onto the actors’ heads and burst into little pieces everywhere. Then, the cast members left their platforms and hit some audience members with a few more Styrofoam boxes filled with paper.
After this, the DJ sprayed people with water as they danced. Many audience members screamed with enthusiasm; the wetter they got, the more excited they got. Even though I made sure to stay clear of the water, I also absorbed the music and started dancing with my friend. Despite the fact that I had an enjoyable time, I was annoyed after Fuerzabruta ended. There were tiny pieces of wet paper all over the floor. This show is performed many times a week and the wasted water and paper accumulates. Killing trees and using up our limited supply of water for entertainment purposes is not exactly my idea of fun.
Ironically, when I attended Break Out, I expected a show without a plot; I thought the production would consist of dancing. This time, I was wrong. The storyline consisted of a group of prisoners that run away from jail. They would also start break-dancing or beat-boxing spontaneously from time to time. Nonetheless, the set designs, and not the actors, were the aspects of the performance that entertained me the most.
A large book is seen on the stage before the show begins. Its cover is the same as the one belonging to the mysterious text that magically drops into the prison while the group is fixing a car. (Apparently, that is the task that one would do in jail.) Such a strange occurrence inspires the protagonists to escape and witness all the other wonders of the outside world.
On the first page, there is a rectangular cutout for the car that the group is working on. As the group runs off the stage, the pages turn and the backgrounds change. Now, there is a miniature maze that represents the tunnel that the group manages to dig through. To add a comedic effect, as well as to put everything to scale, the actors attach little stuffed bodies to their heads, which are the only parts of their body visible in this scene, to show how the group struggles to crawl out of prison. More pages turn to become a hospital and a church. The last page of the book is blank. Overhead projections are used to show the group members frolicking on the beach. I believe this was done to make the ending open to interpretation. It is never shown whether the protagonists were sent back to jail.
Fuertzbruta and Break Out are examples of productions in which the audience should expect the unexpected. They break from the tradition examples of theater. Although I know that there will still be performances I may attend and not enjoy, I am now more inclined to watch something I have never experienced before. From what I was told, there are performances that are even more obscure than Fuertzbruta. Now that I have seen both Broadway and Off-Broadway shows, it is time for me to explore the world of Off-off-Broadway.
Carissa Dech
Boris Kalendariov
Change occurs every second, every minute, every day. It happens everywhere and always. Change occurs at the infinitesimally tiny level and the immeasurably grand level. This year’s theme for the Macaulay Honors College is “change.” What we see and do today will not be the case tomorrow or, realistically speaking, in a few years. I can relate to this year’s theme because I came into the program in what I might call a slightly narrow-minded state. I was frankly reluctant to enrich myself with different activities that New York has to offer, whether in the arts, theatre, and special events. My outlook, however, changed as I opened my mind to these cultural treasures and allowed myself to be engulfed in the aesthetic banquet that the city has to offer. The phenomenon that opened this up for me was the NYC Waterfalls project.
I was at a meeting at work the night of the NYC Waterfall activity and was upset that I had to cut it short in order to watch what I presumed to be some mechanical apparatus that tries to portray a waterfall like action. I ran down to the Seaport and made it just in time to buy a quick “Nature’s Valley” oats bar – these bars are my breakfast, lunch and dinner. I was actually relieved to see my classmates waiting in line with Professor Tenneriello. As we boarded the ship single file, with Dong-Hyoek in the beginning and the Professor in the back, we started to take profuse amounts of pictures of every single object even if it had no significance to our purpose. As time passed we became serious and actually started taking some good pictures. I was not only able to bond with my classmates outside of the classroom environment, something that most students do not get to appreciate but I was also able to get some alone time. This was very important as the bonding allowed for us to engage in jokes and informal conversation. The solitary time was also great because I had a rare opportunity to listen to the river’s serenity, an unusual perspective on a city that never sleeps. It was robust and still at the same time.
As the boat ride came to an end I noticed two things while aboard the ship, traveling along the river. The skyline was beautiful at night and it struck me that I took this great city for granted, never really appreciating the architecture of the buildings or bridges. The second thing I noticed was that I was actually enjoying this activity. A sense of change was able to flow through me allowing me to want to engage myself in all cultural enriching activities that I may encounter or that I would like to partake following this one. The artist responsible for the Waterfall project, Olafur Eliasson, had a simultaneous exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. Its title sums up the change in my attitude: “Take Your Time.” And this change bought to me a composed sense of happiness.
Our trip to the NYC Waterfalls was very enjoyable. To me the trip was more about building friendships then actually just going to check out the waterfalls. I’m sure everyone in the class would normally have better things to do with their Wednesday nights then stay out late in the city to go on a boat ride. However, I think it’s a beautiful thing that a group of people who didn’t know each other just a mere 4 weeks ago can hang out after school and have a great time no matter what they’re doing. It is especially significant that we do these things now as a transition from the high school setting to the college setting. Back in my high school I basically knew everybody and I was able to see my close group of friends everyday. Now, I’m with a group of people I’ve never seen before and yet we are still able to become friends through the time we spend together on these trips. Building these friendships now will definitely smoothen out the transition phase and give the college setting a more familiar and enjoyable experience.
~~~Morris Dabbah
Yura Lee
My visit to the MOMA, an unexpected turn of events.
My initial determination was to go straight to the Van Gogh Exhibit. Seeing as how I had to wait an hour for the standby line to open (I didn’t know that I needed a TIMED ticket to see the Van Gogh show, and it was apparently all sold out anyway) I had a lot of time to just walk around. Soon, I found myself at the Printed Picture Gallery that consisted of a collection of prints that chronicled the evolution of print throughout history.
The image above was a from a type of print called Mezzotint in which the artist polishes portions of a roughened copper plate to varying degrees to create areas of white and middle tones in a field of velvety black. This creates an aspect that parallels that of a real photograph because even in the print, varying degrees of light can be seen on different sections of the print (for example, light is reflected in the armor). Although my initial plan was to only see the Van Gogh exhibit, the time that was allotted to me made me explore all the exhibits that I would originally not have ventured to explore. Especially this Printed Picture Gallery enabled me to appreciate the evolution of print and how the earlier forms paved the way for the Digital Print Era that we live in today.
