Anna in the Tropics

Rachel VanReeth

Script Analysis Assignment  

1. Identify the MAJOR CONFLICT of the play. This is between two characters or a character and a group of characters or force.
The major conflict in Anna in the Tropics is between Conchita and her husband Palomo. Conchita realizes that Palomo doesn’t love her like he use too and that he has a lover, so she wants one as well.
2. Identify what these characters REPRESENT.
Conchita and Palomo represent Anna and her husband in the book that Juan Julian is reading to them and Juan Julian represent Anna’s lover, because he is Conchita’s lover.
3. Identify the TURNING POINT of the major conflict. This is the point of no return. At this point in the story the protagonist and the antagonist are destined to reach the climax of the story.
The turning point is when Conchita asks Palomo questions about his lover and he will now answer her, she tells him that she wants a makeover and then is going to get a lover of her own.
4. Identify the CLIMAX of the major conflict. This is the height of the conflict. There is no where else for it to go and it breaks open, explodes, or dies. Be as specific as possible. Write the scene number and describe the specific moment.
The climax is when Palomo goes into the cigar factory and see’s his wife Conchita making love to Juan Julian. He then knows for sure that Juan Julian is her lover and he just stares at them. Even though he has his own lover, he is not happy by the fact that his wife does.

5. Identify the RESOLUTION of the conflict. The conflict comes to a conclusion. Be as specific as possible. Write the scene number and describe the specific moment.
The resolution is when Cheche come up behind Juan Julian and shoots him, this kills Juan Julian and now Palomo never has to worry about his wife being with her lover again.
6. Identify the FINAL ACTIONS of the two figures involved in the major conflict. Then explain its significance.
The final actions are that Juan Julian dies and Conchita lover no longer exists. Palomo no longer has to worry about his wife and her lover because he is now dead, because Palomo told his wife to sleep with him one final time and to tell her lover to do it like he was a knife because all things gets killed. Well now that Juan Julian is dead, Conchita can no more be with her lover and Palomo doesn’t have to worry about it. Palomo starts to read the rest of Anna in the Tropics and it is like he is reading to only his wife, especially that part where it said he was finally telling her everything that he had been meaning too.
7. Identify each of the characters' (in the major conflict) over all OBJECTIVES. This is a want that drives them all the way through the play. Keep this active and playable for an actor. Think of action verbs.
Cheche kills Juan Julian because he does not like lectors because his wife left him for one.
Conchita falls in love with Juan Julian because her husband no longer felt the same for her and she wanted a lover just like Palomo had.
Palomo is Conchita’s husband and he does not like the fact that his wife had a lover and he wanted it to end, he even asked what the lover said to her, he was trying to get his wife back and he knew he had to change and be what she wanted him to be.

8. Identify the SUBJECT of the play. Force yourself to one word.
The subject of Anna in the Tropics is love.
9. Identify the IDEA of the play.
The idea of Anna in the Tropics is that they are playing the characters out of the book in their real life, and the only one who truly realizes that is Conchita. She knows her life is just like the book.

10. Write a short paragraph, 75 to 100 words that describes what the play is ABOUT to you and what it conveys. This is your interpretation of the over all meaning of the play FOR YOU.
First, I thought the play was very good; the cast did a great job. The meaning of the play to me was that they were actually just like the characters in the book that Juan Julian was reading to the workers. Conchita was the first to realize this and she became Anna, she had a husband but also a lover. Her husband, Palomo, did not treat her the same anymore so she wanted someone who would treat her the way that she did. She even told Palomo that they were like the characters in the book and he just told her nonsense. Then when he realized it was true and her lover was Juan Julian he kept referencing to the book and making Juan Julian aware that he knew that he and his wife were lovers. In the end Cheche kills Juan Julian because he is against lectors because his wife had left him for one, so it solved his problem and Palomo’s. The other characters that were in the play didn’t go into as much dept and meaning in reference to them portraying the book like Paloma, Conchita and Juan Julian did.

Vaudeville

   Vaudeville grew out of the culture of incorporation that defined American life after the Civil War. It marked the beginning of popular entertainment as big business, and depended on the white collar workers using their leisure time to take part in the performances. Variety showman, M.B. Leavitt claimed the word originated from the French "vaux de ville" ("worth of the city, or worthy of the city's patronage"), but in all likelihood, as Albert McLean suggests, the name was merely selected "for its vagueness, its faint, but harmless exoticism, and perhaps its connotation of gentility." (http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma02/easton/vaudeville/vaudevillemain.html)
   Vaudeville is a touring act that is made up of stand up comedy, musical numbers, magic, circus, slap stick and even animal tricks. A couple  of the most popular Vaudeville performers were B.F. Keith and E.F. Albee, who were both parts of traveling circuses, people from all over would go to Vaudeville acts just to see them perform. Hartley Davis who was a well known journalist who wrote many articles on Vaudeville stated, "the origins and success of vaudeville can be attributed to the attempts of men like B.F. Keith to bridge the widening gap between high and low entertainment."
   An example of a a few acts in a Vaudeville show would be the following: (http://www.musicals101.com/vaude3.html)


   DUMMY: My father killed a hundred men in the war.
   VENTRILOQUIST: What was he? A Gunner?
   DUMMY: Nope, a cook.


  
   YOUNG MAN: I want to ask for the hand of your daughter in marriage.
   OLD MAN: You’re an idiot!
   YOUNG MAN: I know it. But I didn’t suppose you’d object to another one in the family.

   A few acts that one could also find in Vaudeville shows were burlesque acts or freak shows. The freak shows would consist of many very tall and very short men and women, people with disfiguring diseases, fire eaters, and people with many tattoos and piercings. They also called these people freaks or nature.

   According to http://www.musicals101.com/vaude1.html appearing in vaudeville was no vacation. A successful act toured for forty or more weeks a year, doing "one nighters," split-weeks or weekly stands depending on a theatre’s size. The number of performances per day varied from circuit to circuit. Performers put up with these demanding schedules because even those who did not reach the level of headliner (which is whose name appeared on the sign as the main act for the show) could make good money. In 1919, when the average factory worker earned less than $1,300, a small time Keith circuit performer playing a forty-two week season at $75 per week earned $3,150 a year. 

  

  

   Found at www.youtube.com are the videos I posted above, one showing an act between three brothers, music is being played in the background while they dance to it, the other incorporates a Vaudeville performance with an animal, so you can see a couple different styles.
   There have been numerous attempts to revive vaudeville – a hopeless task, given the changes in American popular culture.According to xroads.virginia.edu the last live echo of vaudeville was Radio City Music Hall, which kept the presentation house format alive until economics forced it to become a concert venue in 1979. It is fair to suggest that vaudeville's legacy lives on through television, where the remote control allows viewers to skim through choices to find entertainment to their liking?

Indonesian Puppetry

    According to http://discover-indo.tierranet.com/wayang.html Wayang Kulit in Central Java is probably one of the oldest continuous traditions of storytelling in the world, and certainly among the most highly developed. Flat and round puppets, called the Wayang are used for Java puppet shows. These are used as shadow puppets and are usually made of leather, as shown below. Wayang is actually the Indonesian word for "shadow."

    Wayang Kulit style puppetry has been established well over one thousand years ago and is viewed as a highlight of their culture. In Wayang puppet shows the puppets on the right are good characters and the puppets on the left represent bad characters, the two inches in between then puppets is considered their stage.What the audience sees at this type of performance is that of a magical event, people truly feel like these puppets have come to life. Wayang Kulit performances are usually performed on special occasions such as holidays, religious festivals, birth celebrations and even cremations.

    Wayang Golek puppets are wooden rod puppets that perform the Hindu cycles and also an Islamic Arabian adventure cycle. (http://www.art-pacific.com/artifacts/indonesi/puppets/wayang.htm) These type of puppets are usually created in family workshops and the master carver makes the heads, he does this because the head represents the personality of the puppet.

    The image above is showing the detail that the master carver puts into the Wayang Golek puppets head, the head is roughed out from soft wood and the details are chiseled in. 

    The stages in Indonesian puppet theatres are screens of white cloth with colored borders. Long banana stems, usually two or three are placed and secured below the screen. Then the puppet masters drive the sticks of the puppets that won't be used in this play into the top banana stem starting at the outer edges with the largest puppets from each of the opposing sides and stepping down towards the center to the smallest. A gamelon is an Indonesian orchestra consisting of about thirty instruments and this is typically played during a puppet performance. (http://www.dcgamelan.com/ensemblespage.html)

    When looking for a video on you tube, I found one that incorporates the gamelon style music and is a viewing of the Wayang Kulit puppet performance.

    Wayang puppetry has been claimed to be the "masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity," by UNESCO (http://www.helium.com/items/115672-introduction-to-indonesian-wayang-puppetry-and-entertainment), it is rich in value and very unique with a high quality of art and great beauty.