Cloud Nine and Trifles Comparitive Essay

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THEA 101 Comparative Essay Cloud nine and Trifles Question Two: Compare the ways in which characters are developed and distinguished one from another in your two chosen plays. Ensure that you consider the performative requirements and potential, as well as the relationship between dialogue, plot, and theme. In any play, characters are the most important element. They influence everything, from the plot to the costumes to the lighting and action. Remove a protagonist from the textual play and everyone else will be impacted; relationships will change, themes will modify and the plot will be altered. On stage it will be much the same; one less antagonist will mean different music, different sets, and different actors. A play can easily exist without a set, without costumes, even without a script; but without characters to define and guide a play, to create action and tension through their own actions, to portray themes and to entertain the audience, it can be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to create an engaging performance. It is for this reason that the way characters are developed and distinguished from one another so important in viewing, understanding or critiquing a play. Characters are such a pivotal aspect of theatre that if they are not successfully identified they can severely hinge the entertainment value and deeper meanings of a play. This is actually quite difficult to do, as the development of characters relies on as many different aspects as the characters themselves affect. Both textual and dramaturgical features of a play are needed in order to develop a character to their full potential. Relationships, theme, plot as well as potential costuming, lighting, music and other techniques are all equally significant in their ability to develop and distinguish different characters. Actors too are similarly important in character development as
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