Soap Operas can be melodramas and are shown on TV, however, don’t last as long or are nearly as popular. Do you think melodramas have more affect on the audience depending on the platform it is performed on? Whether it is on TV or in theatre ?

This reading mentions how print culture affected the acting techniques of the time, including how the publication  of The Art of Speaking by James Burgh and John Walker gave actors and spectators gesture references to go by when they were presenting or reading other’s body language. What I wonder is, whether actors truly stuck to each gesture or expression they were taught goes with a certain emotion, or if they developed their own expressions that projected the same emotion. Also, if they did only stick to what was given to them, when did this begin to evolve into actors creating their own styles?

How did the contribution of philosophers come to distinguish Melodrama that we know today? (Sensational drama accompanied with orchestral music)

How did philosophers come to the eventual conclusion of melodrama and its contribution to society?

I am not truly sure if anyone understand the philosophers from different eras but what do we think they were trying to convey? What are the tiny aspects that take part in theater that reflect some of their philosophies and do we think it is still useful in modern theater?

In the 1600 and 1700s, we saw how philosophical thinkers such as Locke and Hobbes influenced what was represented on stage as well as the audiences’ reactions to it. What would be the modern day equivalent of this type of thought influencing theatre? Social media?

I have always been taught that the most effective acting comes from being able to put yourself in your characters shoes, try to make that characters reality as real to you as possible embody that and then show that. I found it very interesting that Diderot seemed to think the opposite.

I wonder though what kind of effect his philosophy of how to act would have had on the acting we see today? What if more people tried to act based off of trying to just create the “illusion” of that character rather than become the character?

Melodrama, being the strong appeal to emotions through character, has been almost satirized by the modern usage of the word melodramatic. Why is that? Does the use of an art form in such a banal phrase shift the meaning of a legitimate art form?

As a Bronx native, I always get a sense of pride whenever I see my hometown borough getting it’s share of the New York City spotlight. I was definitely caught by surprise when at the New York’s Yiddish Theater exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York, The Bronx was presented as one of the main hubs for Yiddish theater in the city, as far uptown as 180th Street. There was even an entire show that revolved around Jewish workers and their commute to and from The Bronx and Manhattan, entitled the Bronx Express. The dream-like show follows a man who interacts with characters on the train’s advertisements, which I found especially relatable as during my sometimes hour-long commutes, I completely lose myself in the characters, text and symbolism that the advertisements emit.

Kagura Dance

Noh Theater

Noh Walking

Bunraku

Kabuki Fight Scene

Kabuki clips