West Side Story Critique Essay - 1208 Words

Irvine Valley College’s production of the play West Side Story is a well performed play that people should see. It possess qualities of a musical, thriller, crime, drama, and romance to create a captivating performance. The theater at times was filled with laughter and sadness to create an interesting emotional roller coaster. In this critique, I will be reviewing aspects of scenography, costumes, music, and many other pieces of the successful production. To begin with, the scenography mimics the aspects of Upper West Side New York during the 1950’s to allow the audience to understand the setting of the play. Most of the sets depict an urban setting in which the audience can clearly see that the story takes place in a well-developed†¦show more content†¦Having Doc use a rag to wipe off the table or having the Jets sitting on the bar also reinforced that the shop the audience was viewing was a store or possible restaurant.. During the rumble, having the gang’s reveal their knives escalated tensions while clearly showing a brawl was brewing. In the end of the play, a loud sound created from a gun allows viewers to determine that the gun was fired. Costumes in this play were used to show two different cultural societies in West Side Story. The Jets gang dressed in khakis or jeans with bland tucked polos as a representative of the American lifestyle while the Sharks dressed in colorful open-buttoned shirts and dress pants as a representative of the Puerto Rican’s adapting to the American lifestyle. The woman associated with the Jets often time wore a single colored dress like white or light pink while the woman associated with the Shark’s often times wore bright multicolored dresses. The costumes used in the play seemed to distinguish that the gangs were in the middle class. It seemed that some men in the play wore slim-fit shirts and suspenders to represent masculinity. In comparison, the woman wore more revealing dresses express the sexuality of and portrayal of a woman during the 1950’s. Moving on, I thought the overall acting of the play was fairly good.. At times I felt the play underperformed during certain scenes like how Tony first fell in love. In contrast, the scene where Anita tries to warnShow MoreRelatedTelevision, Television And The Internet1399 Words   |  6 Pagesvisual mediums, news channels and news outlets are influential in creating images and stories for spectators to consume. The development of these images tells stories and draw frameworks for audiences to evaluate and make sense of the world. Over the last few decades, global media conglomerates reporting on Africa, often portrays the continent in a state of distress and in need of humanitarian aid. 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