The most memorable moments in both Romeo and Julliet and West Side Story is the dance/ party scenes. Both involve members from both families being at the event, involves some sort of "partying" and has a member of the families being in some sort of conflict with the other. The only difference is that in West Side Story the families know that they are at the same party.

WSS VIDEO                             R&J VIDEO

My personal opinion is that R&J and WSS cannot be compared because of the difference time periods they are set in and also the language. In both cases, they are so vastly different that the comparision could only be made as a general comment rather than a comparision of the same thing. Both stories are good in their own way with their own merit.

Burlesque, Vaudeville, Extraviganza

http://prezi.com/ilhqj3-w9-pd/present/?auth_key=utc240m&follow=rgavjt8wiinc


Questions:
1. Word Burlesque comes from with language?
2. Who was the father of American Vaudeville?
3. What are the 5 types of specticle?


Answers:
1. Italian
2. Benjamin Franklin Keith
3. Equestrian, Military, Burlesque, Fairy, and Romance.

18th Century Opera Round Two

Race in American Musical Theatre

Here is a link to Katherine, Ben, and my Prezi - http://prezi.com/sqjgveckcoq7/present/?auth_key=u0ej3qr&follow=8_phfsvz7bup
 

Also, here is my section of the bibliography:

Bibliography

Jones III, Marshall. "Theatre Communications Group - American Theatre - March 2012." 24 March 2012. Theatre Communications Group. Article. 30 March 2012.

Padgett, Ken. Blackface! - A History of Minstrel Shows. 13 March 2012. 30 March 2012. <http://www.black-face.com/minstrel-shows.htm>.

—. Blackface! - The History of Racist Blackface Stereotypes. 13 March 2012. 30 March 2012. <http://www.black-face.com/>.

Public. Youtube. 30 March 2012. 30 March 2012. <www.youtube.com>.

Rogin, Michael. Blackface, White noise: Jewish Immigrants in the Hollywood Melting Pot. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1996. Online book section.

Yes Sir, Mr. Bones. Dir. Ron Ormond. Perf. Chick Watts, Cotton Watts and Ches Davis. 1951.

 And our three questions:

Q: What were the two different methods of applying blackface?

A: Burnt cork over a layer of cocoa butter or black grease paint.

Q: What was “the first full length musical, written and played by blacks to be performed at a major Broadway house.”

A: In Dahomey

Q: Who was the composer of “Porgy and Bess”?

A: George Gershwin

The Expressions of LUUURRRVE

Since I am a romantic, the two scenes that stood out to me as having the most similarities in Romeo and Juliet and in West Side Story are the scenes in which Tony/Romeo profess their great love for a woman.  They are both young men that have been forever changed after having laid eyes on a particular woman.

In West Side Story, this exclamation of love is expressed in the form of song, titled “Maria”.  Tony is in wonderment at this new woman he has met, Maria.  This song is sung shortly after Tony and Maria meet.  Here are some lyrics that represent the emotion and feel of the song:
“The most beautiful sound I ever heard (Maria, Maria, Maria, Maria)
All the beautiful sounds in the world in a single word (Maria, Maria, Maria, Maria, Maria, Maria)
Maria!
I just met a girl named Maria
And suddenly that name
Will never be the same
To me”

In Romeo and Juliet, a similar exclamation of love is made by Romeo of Juliet, in the form of a now famous soliloquy.  Beginning with the line “But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?” Romeo is in wonderment at Juliet, whom he had recently met.  She is beautiful to him, and he spends this speech explaining her beauty.  Here is an excerpt from his soliloquy:

“The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars

As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven

Would through the airy region stream so bright

That birds would sing and think it were not night.

See how she leans her cheek upon her hand!

O that I were a glove upon that hand,

That I might touch that cheek!”

 http://www.monologuearchive.com/s/shakespeare_068.html

These two scenes are similar for obvious reasons: these two young men have just fallen in love with a woman and are expressing that love.  However, they do differ from each other.  “Maria” has simple lyrics.  The object of the song is clear, and there are only a few different lyrics throughout the song and they are repeated.  To profess his love for Maria, Tony is mulling over her name and how that one name has forever changed his outlook on life.  Romeo’s soliloquy differs from this greatly.  It is much more complex in terms of its dialogue.  It uses poetic devices and diverse comparisons to describe his love for Juliet.  In the end, however, both of these songs generally convey the same message: LURVE!   

Romeo and Juliet vs West Side Story

I love Romeo and Juliet. I like West Side Story too, but Romeo and Juliet is just so good! People don't like it because they think the story is stupid, or they can't keep up with the language, but it is a language evolved into what you speak today. The two stories are the exact same. The only difference is that Maria does not kill herself. The problem with Shakespeare is that people are forced to read it in high school. Well, when you read lines off a page, the story does not move very smoothly. When you go to see it and the lines actually sound like a conversation, the show has a lot more substance. I feel that West Side Story is the equivalent to the new Oceans Eleven. It is a great movie and it is very entertaining and clever, but a lot of people only know the version with George Clooney. They don't know about the fabulous original 1960 movie with Frank Sinatra and The Rat Pack. It is sort of like For Good from Wicked, and then For Good from Glee.

Shakespear's West Side?

It’s clear that most people see and believe these two pieces of art to be separate entities, which I fully agree, however it seems almost inhuman to not compare them. Without comparisons, we wouldn’t have the ability to decide the things we like.

Personally speaking, I would choose WWS over R+J. Why? Because it has singing and dancing, big surprise, though this is not to discredit R+J. In fact, I believe that WWS gives new life to R+J, for those (like me) who find Shakespeare’s work a bit daunting. After knowing a version of the R+J story, I think many people would want to research the root of WWS and discover the play which the musical was based off of. Not only does this enhance your knowledge of the musical, but it also can make it more enjoyable by find the similarities, and how they have been modernized.

Some of the comparisons (which have been mentioned) are…

·         The Montagues and The Capulets – The Jets and The Sharkes

·         Romeo falls in love and gets killed – Tony falls in love and gets killed

·         Juliet has a relative killed by her lover – Maria has a relative killed by her lover

·         The Prince tells the families that if there was another riot that the heads of each family would be killed – The Lieutenant tells the Puerto Ricans and the Americans that if they get into another fight, they’ll be taken to jail.

·         Both stories have an accidental death, which causes the hero to kill their lover’s relative.\

·         Both a meeting moment at the dance

·         Both have a romantic moment on an outside structure

·         And both have a fight near the end, which leads to death.

Of course we could do this whole comparison thing with Romeo and Juliet and the animated film Gnomeo and Juliet. But I’ll leave that for another day.

Romeo and Juliet vs. West Side Story

While the two remarkable pieces of theatre are beautiful and have achieved great success in their own right, I have to say that Shakespeare will always hold the highest esteem in my mind.
While West Side Story's jazzy melodies and awesome dances are easy to fall in love with, it lacks the tragic irony that we see in Romeo and Juliet. Where both the lovers murder themselves for love of each other in R&J, Tony is killed by Maria's prospective husband. This adaptation does not follow the thematic thread of true love, as outlined in the play, but is perfect to illustrate the major theme of discrimination in the Musical. West Side was written as a social statement about discrimination and gang war in the 1950s, the additional themes make it arguably a little more layered than Shakespeare's tragedy, which could then be seen as beautiful in it's simplicity.
Romeo and Juliet iconicized the forbidden love scenario that perpetrates our culture and has given us a model of young passion, which so many now compare themselves to. I'm not going to say it was the first of its kind, but it certainly was the biggest.
Romeo and Juliet is also timeless, which gives it an advantage. There have been hundreds if not thousands of different versions. It's ability to adapt to every culture and every period is just one of the many things that keeps it alive. West Side Story does not have this name versatility, the lyrics alone clearly establish the setting. Mounting a production of West Side set in 18th century London would be as difficult as performing "Grease" as cavemen.
Here are two movie trailers for Romeo and Juliet, completely different from each other.

Romeo and Juliet v. West Side Story:

In my opinion, I do not think that R+J can be compared to WSS at all because of the difference in language.  R+J is a very serious play if you think about it, whereas WSS is your typical cheesy musical.  Yes, of course WSS has it's deep moments with individual characters but after watching it I only remember the life in the sound of the music and the difficulty in choreography.  After watching R+J I think about the sincerity in their words and how carefully they were chosen to develop specific emotions, atmosphere, mood, etc.  I know I am not the only one who feels this way.  Although I love musicals much more than plays, Romeo and Juliet is one of the greatest plays I have ever seen and I love it just as much as any musical.  It is rare, but that is what makes it so interesting to pick out the difference between such a wonderfully written play and a fantastic musical.

19th and 20th C. Operetta/Challenges to Operetta

http://prezi.com/nsietbz6p6cn/american-operetta-in-the-19th-and-20th-centurychallenges-to-operetta/

Gwen And Justin

QUESTIONS:
1. What is arguably the most successful American Operetta of the 19th Century?
2. Who founded the Ziegfeld Follies
3. In what year did Tin Pan Alley find a great resource in sheet music causing sales of millions of copies within the year


ANSWERS:
1. Robin Hood
2. Florenz Ziegfeld
3. 1910


 Works Cited
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operetta
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/broadway/hello/operetta.html
http://www.essortment.com/musicals-artists-history-60668.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_Pan_Alley
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziegfeld_Follies
McLamore, Alyson. Musical Theatre: An Appreciation. Upper Saddle River: Person, 2004.
Wilson, Edwin, and Alvin Goldfarb. Living Theatre: A History. 4 ed. Boston: McGraw, 2003.