I did not have much knowledge about theatre or drama except that I was aware that Western understanding of theatre originated from the Greeks and they had a tradition of wearing masks to identify with the characters, they are also assumed to be the inventors of tragedies and comedies. I was aware of the Greek tragedy Agamemnon because I read an excerpt of a play named ‘The Browning Version’ in which one of the characters, who is a student, remarks the play as ‘muck’. I read Macbeth by William Shakespeare in 9th grade and I also read a famous play in 10th grade titled ‘Death of a Salesman’ by Arthur Miller, it is known to be one of the most prominent plays in American literature and culture. Although, I have not seen many plays as much as I have read them. The recent play I watched was my high school production of Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ which although was a small production, was still …show more content…
Especially in the beginning when Delray started singing in the bar with many dancers around, it was difficult to suspend my disbelief and two reasons for this might have been that I was just getting into my mode of watching a drama and secondly, I am not a big fan of Delray’s acting. When the scenes changed, especially the transition from the bar to the department store where Huey worked was difficult to suspend my disbelief. In the beginning of the play I could not forget that the characters are just actors and that Memphis is just a play in general. On the other hand, there were many moments when I dived into Huey and Felicia’s world and was successful at suspending my disbelief. One of the moments were when Felicia’s coat is removed in the background and the scene is transitioned into her concert and also the scene of Huey and his mother having a conversation in their home. The setting and the conversation was so heated that it took me into their world and out of mine. The emotional height of the scene when Felicia started singing “Coloured Women” was at the time when I suspended my belief. There were also many conscious and unconscious moments of singing of characters in the play. One of the examples of conscious moments of singing is at the beginning when Delray and Felicia are singing in the bar after the opening of the play. And one example of unconscious moment of singing of the