Contemporary World Theater

1. After reading the various plays for this class, what do you believe is the main purpose of theater? For example is it to describe the play writer's point of view on a specific event that may have happened in one's life of history? Or is it open the audience's mind to change a view point? Use any play to support your answer.

A theater is a building, part of a building, or outdoor area for housing dramatic presentations, stage entertainments, or motion-picture shows.^[1] The plays shown in a theater can serve multiple purposes. Plays have the ability to educate, to entertain, and also to prompt the audience to think about certain events that might have occurred in the past in the world, or even might still be happening. Here, it plays an important role, who is the play writer and which indication he/she has. A lot of times individuals produce plays in order to get the point of view across to a large variety of people, or one is trying to point out a certain issue in society. In other cases, the author would like to remind others of historically important events, and sometimes the playwright is just trying to process own experiences and finds it best to do that through a play.  
“Angels in America – Millennium Approaches” by Tony Kushner is a great example of how a playwright has the ability to discuss common issues in relationships and today’s society between multiple homosexual male characters and point out that everybody can have some kind of challenges along the way, but at the end everyone would just like to be happy. Here, jealousy, serious illnesses, and job decisions are part of the characters life. The playwright seems to indicate that even though the characters have different religious believers and do enjoy same-sex relationships, they still all have issues like heterosexual individuals. Nobody should be discriminated because of a different religion, skin color, or sexual orientation.
Tim Blake Nelson tried to remind his audience about all the tragic that happened during the regime of Hitler with the play “The Grey Zone”. This is a great example of a playwright who tries to remind about the past and educate the general public. Because such horror should never be allowed again, but it is also important that it is never forgotten.

1. Many plays are enjoyable while you are watching them. However, a good play is one that you still think about after it’s over. What was one message from a play from this class that you were still thinking about after the week’s assignment was over? What did that playwright do differently that left an impression on you?

The plays read in this Contemporary World Theater Class were all to some extent ‘inspiring’, as well as eye-opening, and a lot of them caused me to do further research and think about issues addressed in the plays. “Topdog / Underdog” by Suzan-Lori Parks was shocking and sad at the same time. Not growing up in a socially bad environment, protected me from some troubles going on somewhere else in the world.
The play which had me thinking the most was “Art” by Yasmina Reza. At first the play seems simple, and not much to it. The playwright uses very limited characters and when picturing those they are dressed modestly and the entire play does not consist of many accessories. Three friends with different opinions are arguing over a painting. It gets out of hand and almost splits the friendship. One can relate this situation very well to one’s own life. A lot of time people get hung up on something so small, not even worth fighting over and because everybody wants to insist that their opinion and statements are the correct one, individuals rather throw away a life-long friendship than give in. This shows how superficial today’s society can be, and how much everybody wants to be an Alpha – human, and egoistic. Another big point this play made, is that not everything is as it seems. Everybody is different, and therefore we all have different perspectives on certain things. This is what makes us unique and the world so innovative. Humans are really quick to judge. One judges others by their skin color, clothing, religion, or language they speak. This play teaches that what we might think we see on the outside, and believe we know, does not necessarily need to be the truth. Trying to be more open minded might open more doors and help me educate myself more. Every day I am lucky enough to have such a beneficial life, I would like to think that I am (at least trying) to learn something new, widen my horizon, and maybe become a better person. What one believes to be able to see on the outside, might just be an illusion from the opinion one has already formed in the inside?