4,000 Miles

A motif that I noticed the most throughout the play was the grandmother, Vera, constantly having to put her hearing aid in. I think this choice escalated the idea of miscommunication between Vera and Leo. Although communication between the two characters wasn't always clear, the scene where Leo is telling Vera about what happened to Micah was one time where both characters seemed to connect even though Vera only heard bits and pieces of the story. It was one of the few times that they weren't talking over each other or speaking in a harsh manner. 

Judith

The MDQ that I came up with for the play Judith was, did Holofernes want to be killed? He talks about how he fights in these wars and sends people to their death and I think maybe he felt remorse for it and felt like he deserved to die just as much as the men that he sent in to battle. He also didn't put up much of a fight when the servant is telling Judith to kill him. I also wondered if Judith actually wanted to kill him. Even though she said she was not being truthful with him, it did seem like she sort of loved him or at least admired him. The closer it got to killing him, the more hesitant she became.

Night Mother

Wow, talk about depressing. I did not take the disclaimer given in class very seriously, what a mistake.

The question I kept asking myself was, "What will it take for her mom to convince her not to kill herself?" Right from the start Jessie is pretty headstrong about her decision, and the further I read into the play I wondered why she hadn't done it earlier. Then it's revealed that she wanted to make all of the necessary arrangements so that her mother would be taken care of so she obviously cares about her mom and I wonder why she couldn't convince her to change her mind about killing herself.

Trifles

I was excited to find out that we were going to read Trifles because I really enjoyed it when I had the chance to read it in high school. 
I like the way the writer makes you feel sympathy for a woman who has, allegedly, done something so wrong. When I first read this the class had to perform a mock trial and it was very hard to look at just the facts and evidence when prosecuting her without considering your own feelings. I guess in the time that this play is set in, it was easier for a man to look at a woman as an object that is to be seen and not heard.

Overtones

I feel like we talked a lot about the message of the play and what we liked and disliked about it so I'm going to talk about the play from a technical and performance aspect.

I would be really eager to see a performance of this. I like that there are two actual actors on stage, but I really liked what we talked about with the idea of shadows. I also thought it would be interesting to maybe just do voiceovers and in the beginning of the scene and the voices of Maggie and Hetty are at a whisper and throughout the play they get louder and louder and when they disappear it would be interesting to, maybe at that point, see them onstage and then we finally see the womens' "true selves". Although I'm not sure if the audience would understand that these two new actors on stage were the voices they were hearing earlier, but it could be a cool thing to try.