Turns & Fragments

1. There were two parts to the performance. The first performance, Turns, begins with a old women entering a subway. She greets the people around her and starts to make conversations. She talks about the shoes brand Nike because many majority of the audience is wearing Nike. In the middle, a guy holding a guitar enters and starts playing music. The old lady become energized and starts dancing with some of the audiences. As she starts to become fatigued, the music also became softer and slower. She tells audience all the years she spent taking the train and different types of people she observed. The play ended when got off the train. The second part, Fragments, begins with a man reading off a paper titled "Screen Test for Dissociative Identity Disorder. Soon another actor, played by Tiar Jamoor, starts talking. She describe the voices in her head. She went from talking to yelling. Then we see that she acknowledge and becomes the voices for couple of seconds. All the lights in the room were turn off and performers wore white mask and holding cell phones to their faces. We heard noises of several different people talking in the background while the performers walk around.

2. Both Turns & Fragments have a completely different storytelling style than the play As You Like It. The relationship between the audience and the performers are 2 dimensional and separate. Like most plays, As You Like It have an imaginary wall in between the audience and world of the play. Occasionally, a character talks directly to the audience, breaking the 4th wall. While in Turns & Fragments the audience and the performers are interactive. It was almost as if there is no imaginary wall between the audience and the world of the play. The audience takes on a character in the play. In Turns, the audience is the people of the subway. The old lady walks and dances amongst the audience and talks directly to the audience, asking "How are you today?" In Fragments, the audience became more subjective. The first half, the audience watch how a person with Dissociative Identity Disorder behave. The second half, we journey into the mind of that person. Feeling what she is feeling. And the performers guided the audience on the journey.

3. The theme for Turns is everyone have their own unique story and observing someone can allow you to understand their story. Play arrange the seats for the audience into that of a subway seats. At first everyone was confused because the spacing of the seat are so small and different. Instead of facing a particular area, the audience faces each other. But when the play begin, sounds cleared up the confusion. We heard the metal track, the wind, and the announcements of the stops. These familiar combinations allow the audience to understand that we are in a subway. Tiar Jamoor play as the old lady. She is dressed with a green shawl over her head and a small bag. When she's energized and dancing, she takes the shawl off. The act of taking the shawl off accompanying the music convey to the audience that she is ready to dance. The important part is the ending because the she explicitly tells audience her thoughts and therefore connecting the theme to entire play. The theme in Fragments is someone with a mental problem is not only a burden to that person's lives but also cause a frightening mind of chaos. The audience walks into a dark room illuminated by several red lights. the seats are also arranged in a way the all seats are scattered and facing in different directions.This set design make the play uncomfortable and unpredictable. On each of the seats is a survey titled "Screening Test for Dissociative Identity Disorder". I glance round and saw some people have their pens out, ready to answer the survey. I was also about to write something but a person stood up and began to read off the paper. The play took off and I realize that the set up allows the performer to utilize the audience individually because we are all separated. The actress effectively convey to the audience her unstable mentality with sudden burst of shouts and drastic change of character. She went from frightened to depressed to flirty to aggressive. When the whole room when pitch black with only the performers with mask illuminated and sounds of voices, the audience understands that we are in her mind and we heard all the voices that she hears. Both plays effectively made the audience feel the tension and atmosphere of the play through lights, sounds, and seating.