Expressionism and The Adding Machine

Prompt #12: Identify three techniques or strategies of expressionist theater in The Adding Machine and supplemented by images of expressionist theater. What is the purpose of these techniques employed by
Futurism, Constructivism, or Surrealism?

Many new techniques were introduced to the theater world in the 20th century which transformed theater to be what it is today. Many of the techniques introduced can be found in The Adding Machine. The Adding Machine gives great examples of "station-to-station" structuring of action, representation of subjective states, and the lack of an uplifting message at the end.

Elmer Rice's The Adding Machine has a lot of techniques used by expressionists

Rice uses station-to-station structuring of action, which means that he described the main character's journey as he went through different phases of the story. In The Adding Machine, Rice depicts Zero's life through as Zero goes through life at home and work, the trial, being in prison, and after death. 

Rice uses station-to-station structuring of action to illustrate Zero's life through the play. This photo here shows Zero behind bars. 

Rice also uses representations of subjective states in The Adding Machine. He does this by adding huge monologues that involve characters talking to themselves, having two characters talk about differently subjects (split dialog), dreamlike situations, abstract identities, and estrangement. He incorporates all these different techniques throughout the play, from the beginning to the end; the huge monologues can be found in the dinner and trial scene, the split dialog can be found in the work scene, the dreamlike situations can be found in the prison, grave and heaven scene, the abstract identities can be found throughout the whole book and the estrangement can be found in the scene which took place in the place of paradise for people who have committed a sin. 

The place of paradise for people who have committed a sin is an example of estrangement

Lastly, Rice ends the play with a rather pessimistic message. Rice demonstrates that technology is slowly taking over the world and that human morality is slowly becoming corrupted. By having a pessimistic message, the play creates a uneasy feeling in the audience that urges them to apply themselves more in society. 

By apply these techniques, the audience gets a better sense of the story by creating images in the audience's mind. It gets the audience thinking and more involved with the action. It also teaches the audience about morality in a symbolic way.

My Role in the "Ballet Creative Project"

Prompt #11: Explain your contribution to the second creative project. What role did you play in the project? What did you learn from the project? How did you learn from others in the group? You may include images of your collaborative activities with the group.

For the second creative project, our group has decided to make a powerpoint presentation on the art of ballet. A certain aspect was assigned to each person in the group to research, create slides about, and explain to the class. I was assigned to research and compare the topics of ballet and modern dance.

Inspired from watching Swan Lake and Black Swan, our group was inspired to create our project about ballet.

From this project I learned a bit more about the background of ballet and modern dance. Surprisingly, modern dance was created in order to rebel against ballet's strict structure by creating a form of dance that is more free. I learned that ballet was created during the Renaissance Era. Ballet also takes a lot of finesse and many years to perfect. I relate ballet to martial arts because it takes the same amount of effort and devotion of time to become better; I have studied Kung Fu for 11 years and I must admit that it is a very hard to master.

Working with a group is always a learning experience and working on the creative project as a group proved that point. I believe that we learned a lot from the first creative project about communicating more and our group did talk to each other more during class and through Facebook. I feel like this group worked a lot better than my first group and in return, the project was a lot more fun to do and a lot easier to do. If there was a problem, it was choosing a topic for our creative project. With so many brilliant and persistent minds working on this project, our group had many ideas and it took a while to actually get a set plan for the project. If I were to do this project again, I would definitely try to solidify a plan faster.

Overall, this project has been a joy to work on, especially with a great group. Although we are still piecing the final parts together, I have no doubts that we will impress with this project.

Alex Shen's "The Adding Machine," Scene 7

Prompt #9: Think like a director/designer. Choose a scene from The Wild Duck or The Adding Machine. How do you want the spectator to see the moment? How should the characters look? How should the setting look? How should the props look? Select images from the web. These are the images that designers, actors, and casting directors will see in making decisions about how things will look or how they should play the roles. Identify the images, identify their roles in the scene or moment, and give reasons why you chose them. Select at least three characters, props, or design elements, such as costumes, hairstyles, furniture, or lighting effects.

I really enjoyed reading The Adding Machine. The script used descriptive words to create a vivid picture in my mind as I read through the story. Of all the scenes from The Adding Machine, I could clearly imagine scene 7. Everything in my mind was planned out and seemed like it would make the perfect play.

I imagined that the scene took place in a park on a nice sunny day (which could be simulated through lighting) sometime early 20th century. The park would have green grass because the description in the book made it sound nice and scattered randomly would be a few oak trees, but in the play there would be one tree in particular that would be used for the scene.

I imagine the setting to look like this, which is Central Park located in England

Mr. Zero would appear, played by a man around his 50's. He would be wearing a black suit with a white collared shirt, black shoes, and a black tie. He would also look very tidy - cleanly shaved and everything very tidy. However, he would be a bit pale because he's dead. From the way I see it, Zero's role in the play is to emphasize the author's message that everyone is unintelligent. This scene in particular shows Zero reveal Daisy his love for her.

Shrdlu, would look different from Mr. Zero. He might be a bit younger than Mr. Zero, possibly in his 30's or 40's and wearing the same clothes as Mr. Zero but with the addition of glasses. In scene 7, Shrdlu explains how nobody every stays in the nice area for long, which consequently leads up to the next scene.

I imagined Mr. Zero and Shrdlu dressed like the men in the pictures above. These men wore clothing from the Victorian Era.

Daisy, possibly in her mid 40's (although looking younger), would come in with a very pretty white dress and a some makeup on to make her looks match her beautiful dress. In scene 7, Daisy surprises Zero with her presence in the afterlife and the fact that she has loved him while both of them were still alive. Zero admits that he shares the same feelings, but does not accept Daisy's offer to live together in the afterlife forever.

I imagined Daisy to be dressed from the Victorian Era, like the women above.