Almost Maine

                                                           Almost Maine

A Play by John Cariani

This is a play in eight scenes, a prologue, an interlogue and an epilogue.This play has no main plot but has eight sub plots that tie the play together, with a central theme of love. LOVE LOST, LOVE FOUND! It takes place at 9:03 on a Friday night in a place called Almost, Maine. All the scenes take place at the same moment all over the town.
Some scenes there is love lost, but you have hope for the characters. Others scenes behold love found and its lovely and quaint. From the scene "This Hurts" love is described the best. The character Steve who states that he is unable to feel pain keeps journals of  "Things That Can Hurt You " and Things To Be Afraid Of" and it boils down to one thing "love". There are lots of kisses and some heartbreak (the broken heart in the bag) throughout the play. There is lots going on in this small town, we meet nineteen characters. The play is quirky and funny.
The play is cleverly staged. Although the set is minimal it gives the feeling of the vast openness  of Maine.The lighting gives you a feeling of a snow sky. If you are from or have ever been to the Northeast during the winter months you'll know what I mean.
Bravo! Professor Kershner for a great production.
  The major conflict of this play could be love found, love lost. Although the play is in different scenes really not connecting except for the same town and time, the main theme going on is love. Love for better or for worse, as each scene depicts the rewards or complications of falling in or out of love.The eight scenes all have different yet slightly similar conflicts since they all contain the same theme. Some of the scenes are amusing and some others have you feeling for the rejected.
The scene between the two guys hanging out, swapping horror stories of the failures of their love lives, comes to a turning point when one declares love for the other. This is major as their friendship will never be the same again. The climax is when the second fellow realizes he has also fallen in love. I don't believe there is resolution because this love realization between the two would take time to resolve in this small town. My thoughts during this scene were: here are two guys, who evidently get along so well, like the same things, (when they could choose the next night out they both agree on the perfect night) it seemed inevitable that there would be some kind of love between them.The humor in this scene is the characters themselves, two big, burly men in a tender moment.
Another scene has Hope returning after a number of years?, to answer a marriage proposal. The turning point is the lack of response to it, not only a lack but no response at all. The climax is her return. In her return you see hope in the reuniting with her lost love until the door opens, here we meet the new wife and all hope is lost. To add insult to injury the new wife is with child. the resolution is he goes back to the house. Hope is left alone, ironically the same way she left her lover.
I believe all the characters in the play had hope in love. What exactly the meaning of that to each individual was different. the subject in one word love, some looking, some finding, and others losing. I liked even when love was lost, you were left with the feeling that it would be alright.
The idea of the play as I stated before is love either lost or found. The play showed that love may be interpreted in many ways. Love is ever changing.

                                                                           

Vaudeville

Vaudeville
From the french word voix-de-ville
(voice of the city, song of the street)                                                                                       

Everyone loves a clown,............a dancer, a singer, a juggler etc. This is why vaudeville in its day was so popular. The American audience enjoyed the variety of acts that vaudeville provided from the 1880's to the1920's. The variety show was the predecessor to vaudeville. Variety shows catered to the working man,in beer halls and honky tonks. These places were no place to take a lady. It was after the civil war that a performer Tony Pastor opened a theater on 14th street in New York City, and banned drinking, smoking, and profanity. This was the start of "clean" entertainment and the beginning of vaudeville's boom. Other producers witnessed the success of Pastor's theater and started their own theaters throughout the United States. Keith and Albee, two partners, started with two theaters they opened in Boston, Massachusetts and  their partnership produced three hundred fifty vaudeville theaters. They were also the proprietors of the "crown jewel" of vaudeville, the Palace. You had made it big in vaudeville if you played the Palace.

The vaudeville stage was home to dancers, singers, acrobats, comedians, pantomimists, animal acts, and actors performing dramatic sketches. The weekly shows averaged nine varied acts. The life of a vaudevillian was not a glamorous one. Some performers had three shows a night, in different theaters. When silent films came along, they shared the stage with the vaudeville acts. Then came radio that let the audience stay at home and be entertained for free. The crushing blow to vaudeville was the start of talking films. some vaudeville acts were able to make the transition from the vaudeville stage to the big screen ie: the Marx Brothers, the Three Stooges, Milton Berle, W.C. Fields, and Judy Garland, just to name a few. 

Vaudeville still lives on. On television we watch shows that have a vaudeville format, the Ed Sullivan Show, Dean Martin Show, Red Skelton Show, Jack Benny Hour and today there is America's Got Talent. Bob Hope entertained the U.S. troops overseas for decades with a traveling variety show.

E.F. Albee summed up the appeal of vaudeville, "In vaudeville there is always something for everybody, just as in every state and city in every county and town in our democratic country, there is opportunity for every body, a chance for all."

Works Cited

Felner, Mira and Claudia Orenstein. The World of Theatre. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc. 2006.

Slide, Anthony. The Encyclopedia of Vaudeville. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. 1994.

Sobel, Bernard. APictorial History of Vaudeville. New York: The Citadel Press. 1961. Print.