Essay \"The Golden Dragon\" Production Critique - Grade 82 PDF

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The Golden Dragon Production Critique...

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Dr. Mitchell THE 2000 14 October 2015 The Golden Dragon Production Critique A show done in a black box theatre is very different to one done in a traditional type of theatre. I imagine the directing is also different when the same actors play multiple roles. Ralf Remshardt executed effective directing in The Golden Dragon and there was effective lighting and scenic design to fit the play however, the sound design was fairly ineffective. In the Director’s Note, Remshardt states that the actors play opposite genders and different races because “this is a play about who we are, or appear to be, and who we’re not, and who we wish we were.” This production concept was shown well, as the cast played very different parts well and convincingly. The decision to cast all non-asians in an asian play was a good decision because had a few been asian, and a few non-asian, then it would be harder to have a willing suspension of belief that they were all asian. One would assume that the asians were playing asians and the non-asian were playing non-asian parts. The blocking was effective for a black box theatre because whenever a scene took place on one of the sides, on the outside of the main acting area, the two or three actors in the scene never faced the same way. For example, in the scene with the drunk man and the shopkeeper, they both completely face each other instead of facing the audience on that side of the theatre as it would happen in a proscenium stage. If the actors face each other, as they did in most of the scenes, the audience either sees the sides of both faces or one of the actors are facing them.

Tiana Alderson used selective visibility effectively, especially during the transitions between scenes. One of the transitions was one where the scene with the two flight attendants switched to the scene with the projection of the cricket. Most of the transitions has small pauses and the actors were seen as they were getting ready for the next scene. The transition mentioned above however, was lighted well and attracted attention to the flight attendant scene until the cricket scene was ready to be executed. There was no time when the audience was waiting for a scene to happen in dim light. The scenic design done by Nicole Bianco was effective in aiding the story. The set had four poles with different types of objects on each one. All of the objects represented some sort of the story. There were cooking utensils on one of the poles, some baby toys on another and electronics and other items that were made in China on the other two. The set in a black box theatre is important because the audience sees the set before the show starts. Just from looking at the four poles, one can tell that the story was about something to do with a kitchen and Asia. There wasn’t much scenic design other than the four poles, but the use of projection screens was also effective in telling the story, which was also done by Bianco. The sound was not evenly distributed throughout the play. For example, in the kitchen scenes, there was a sound effect that was played for the clanking of the skillet. Although the sound was realistic and aided in making the scene come to life, the sound effect was so overpowering that when Abele was shouting her lines, it was very hard to hear what she was saying. Overall, the directing by Remshardt, and the lighting and scenic design was effective in portraying this production of The Golden Dragon however, the sound design was ineffective in shaping the story....