an octoroon themes

Jump-start your essay with our outlining tool to make sure you have all the main points of your essay covered. This is Terrebonne, a Louisiana plantation that George Peyton (Myers in whiteface) inherited after the death of his uncle, the Judge. In Appropriate Jacobs-Jenkins layers his own work on top of familiar topoi from the genre of American family drama. BJJ clarifies that in the time of the play, a photograph was a novel/innovative/contemporary way for the plot to be resolved. The steamboat blows up, and as I have remarked elsewhere, The two women are trapped inside Boucicaults plot just as Tom Stoppards reimagined Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are trapped inside Hamlet and Dido and Minnies real-life counterparts were trapped in the institution of slavery.[48] Nonetheless, as Merrill and Saxon cogently observe, by focusing on Dido and Minnies hopes and fears for themselves instead of on Zoes tragic death in the plays last scene and by granting them critical insights into their condition, Jacobs-Jenkins forces todays audiences to refocus their attention on the material conditions and lives of ordinary black women rather than the eponymous octoroon.[49], Jacobs-Jenkins similarly reconfigures and overlays Boucicaults sensation scene with a more relevant one of his own. This leads to a hilarious scene . Its all too easy to slip into a pratfall. Stacy Wolf, Frank Hentschker, Executive Director Following the act three climax: the plot lines must converge, the moral is made clear, and the audience has to be hit with a "theatre trick" which overwhelms the audience with technical elements. Verna A. Adaptation has increasingly become a major object of study by literary scholars. [35] Horton Foote, Dividing the Estate. Since I have discussed Jacobs-Jenkinss adaptation of The Octoroon at length elsewhere, I shall confine my remarks in this essay to a brief examination of the ways in which in An Octoroon the playwright extends to almost every feature of the play the archeological techniques he develops in Neighbors and Appropriate. In the mid-twentieth century, much of the pioneering work consisted in studies, both practical and theoretical, of the adaptation of novels into film. Assistant announces that the boat explodes. ", The book is about a "Tragic Mulatta" character, a stereotype used by 19th-century American authors to explore racial miscegenation. It may include transmotivation, transfocalization, or transvalorizationterms used by Grard Genette in Palimpsests: Literature in the Second Degree (1982), an important theoretical work on the relation between hypertext (adaptation) and hypotext (adapted work) that anticipated by a couple of decades the recent surge in adaptation studies. [40] Suzan-Lori Parks, Topdog/Underdog (New York Theatre Communications Group, 2001), 13. [3] Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, quoted. He does acknowledge, however, that his wife, Halie, has a family album that can explain the heritage . Infinitely playful Ken Nwosu and Kevin Trainor in An Octoroon by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. It all culminates in a thrillingly ridiculous duel with himself (ingeniously choreographed by J. David Brimmer). [46] In Definition Theatre Companys 2017 production of An Octoroon in Chicago, Pete and Paul were played by an African-American actress in blackface, producing an even more pointed Brechtian comment on the absurdity of Boucicaults racist and gendered characterizations. Lafouche comes to run the auction of the property and announces Zoe will be sold. Your answer to that question may very well determine your decision to buy a ticket to the world premiere of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins'An Octoroon at Soho Rep. Maybe they giggle (319). Adler adds that the nations guilty past in Buried Child might be racism, or religious and ethnic prejudice, or . Still, Mr. Jacobs-Jenkins finds himself in the uncomfortable position of being a black playwright, without knowing exactly what that means. In creating his plays Branden Jacobs-Jenkins has repeatedly chosen to rewrite, adapt, or otherwise appropriate earlier theatrical styles or dramatic texts. Log in here. Directed by Sarah Benson, in a style that perfectly matches its mutating content, "An Octoroon" is a shrewdly awkward riff on Dion Boucicault's "The Octoroon" (notice the change in article), a. Theatre Communications Group: New York, 2019), 7374. George Peyton falls in love with Zoe, a young woman who is one-eighth blackshe has one great-grandparent who is black (on her mother's side)and thus, she is the "octoroon" referenced by the title. Nataki Garrett directed the first production of An Octoroon outside of New York with Mixed Blood Theatre Company in the fall of 2015. As a punishment Diana denies him wind to sail to Troy and requires the sacrifice of his daughter to appease her. The book is about a "Tragic Mulatta" character, a stereotype used by 19th-century American authors to explore racial miscegenation. Underscoring the link, Toni sarcastically refers to her brother as Beauregarde Big Daddy Lafayette (35). [2] Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, quoted. This led Jacobs-Jenkins to see doubles and pairs in Boucicault's play, through relationships between characters e.g. He is humiliated by what he has to do (285). An Interview with Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and Lila Neugebauer, Signature Theatre. She is considered to be property by law, but this is also presented as wrong. Unlock this. An Obie award winner, it seemed to confirm the reputation of its author as one of this countrys most original and illuminating writers about race. After the conclusion of their show the Crows take a curtain call, but that is not the end. In scenes added to Boucicaults play Jacobs-Jenkins humanizes Dido, Minnie, and Grace by giving them distinct backgrounds and personalities and voices, desires, and agency of their own. 3 (Fall 2005): 2435. eNotes.com will help you with any book or any question. American Next Wave: Four Contemporary Plays from HighTide Festival Theatre. [10] Simultaneous tak[ing] in implies the audiences experiential engagement with what they see and hear; consideration of separate layers (as in archeology) requires Brechtian critical distance and analysis. In his second lectureon Euripidess Iphigenia at AulisRichard layers his own experience as a black man in America onto the story of Agamemnon and Iphigenia. "Branden is like a performer whose material is text," Benson observes. Unlike most of the plays of the time, however, the central "tragic action" of the play centers not around the fate of a (London: Methuen Drama, 2012), 222. . From left, Haynes Thigpen, Austin Smith (on the ground), Amber Gray and Mary Wiseman. Our Essay Lab can help you tackle any essay assignment within seconds, whether youre studying Macbeth or the American Revolution. [45] Similarly, the old slave Pete (in blackface) clearly performs his role as loyal house slave. The show was directed by Peter Hinton and designed by Gillian Gallow. [19], Dobama Theater in Cleveland Heights, Ohio presented An Octoroon from October 21, 2016 to November 13, 2016, directed by Nathan Motta[20], The first West Coast premiere of An Octoroon was held at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, directed by Eric Ting with Sydney Morton in the title role. Tonis diatribes may be more unrelenting than Violets in August: Osage County, but the two matriarchal figures engage in similarly vitriolic attacks against members of their family. In An Octoroon Jacobs-Jenkins excavates and adapts both a specific play text whose racial content would otherwise preclude performance in the twenty-first century and the now unfamiliar genre of nineteenth-century melodrama to which it belongs, including the theatrical/performative features of that genre: sensational plot, stereotypical good and bad characters, mix of comedy and pathos, spectacle, tableaux, and mood music. As a symbol, the album suffuses the consciousness of both characters and audience. [51] Jacobs-Jenkinss well-attested concern with evoking strong and complicated individual responses from his audiences adds a new wrinkle to adaptation theory. Dion Boucicault's drama was inspired by his visit to the American South and The Quadroon (1856), a novel by Thomas Mayne Reid. Paulwith the mailbagsstops to take a photo of himself with Georges camera. in Lunden, One Playwrights Obligation.. The play begins with BJJ, in a black box telling the audience a conversation he and his therapist had, to get him excited about playwriting and to overcome depression. All of these historically situated stereotypes, Jacobs-Jenkins implies, are based in white views of black performative behavior deriving ultimately from the minstrel shows. But Jacobs-Jenkins finds a good balance between drama and comedy, which shows that he can maneuver previous ideas set by racial thinking to fit his own style while still being respectful to his predecessors. As both the most recent text of the course as well as our last, I think Branden Jacobs-Jenkinss An Octoroon points to the complex hope of a world in which black artists can create works which are separate from the recycling of previous black narratives in America. Suddenly, the back wall of the stage falls forward, blasting us with a gush of air and revealing a snow-white stage, covered in cotton (design by Mimi Lien). Ed. Our summaries and analyses are written by experts, and your questions are answered by real teachers. In one way Jacobs-Jenkins puts his whole play in quotation marks through his opening and closing sequences that stand outside stage time and outside the realism usually associated with American family drama. . A theatrical, melodramatic reality is created to tell the story of an octoroon woman (a person who is black) named Zoe and her quest for identity and love. Through Brechtian elements such as direct address, Jacobs-Jenkins explores "the idea that you could feel something and then be aware that youre feeling it". George defends him and demands a fair trial, while MClosky reluctantly takes the role of prosecution. Searching him, George finds the letter which resolves the conflict of Terrebonne's future. In Adaptation and Appropriation (2006) Sanders notes that while adaptations serve to perpetuate and confirm the canonicity of adapted works, they also frequently subvert the assumptions of their source texts or reinterpret them from a contemporary political perspective to make them fit, in a quasi-Darwinian sense, for new cultural environments. Foster, Meta-melodrama: Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Appropriates Dion Boucicaults The Octoroon, Modern Drama 59, no. [26], An Octoroon was staged by the Georgia Southern University Theatre & Performance Program from November 8 to November 15, 2017.[27]. He is joined by a cranky, drunken Boucicault (Haynes Thigpen), who is annoyed by how completely his star has sunk since his death some hundred years ago. Dido replies, "No. This entry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. One, simply called BJJ, explains the dilemmas facing a writer of colour whose every word is mined for its racial significance; the other figure, representing Boucicault, is a drunken showman who has no such self-doubt. A panel of scholars and artists discuss the contemporary relevance and themes of Branden Jenkins-Jacobs play "An Octoroon"Featured panelists are:Dr. Theda Pe. Start your 48-hour free trial to get access to more than 30,000 additional guides and more than 350,000 Homework Help questions answered by our experts. The tension slackens slightly in the second half when Jacobs-Jenkins summarises Boucicaults sensational climax. [9] Prior to the first performance, Alexis Soloski for The Village Voice published an email from cast member Karl Allen who wrote, "the play has transformed from an engaging piece of contemporary theatre directed by Gavin Quinn to a piece of crap that wouldn't hold a candle to some of the community theater I did in high school". Boucicault portrayed Wahnotee, and in his play Jacobs-Jenkins explores the connection between a person and their identity as artist. Richard believes that Agamemnon, a new breed of Achaean, should have resisted and saved hisRichard, distraught, slips and says, mydaughter (292, 293). Significantly, the character of Zoe loses the definite article she has in Boucicaults title to become simply an octoroon: one of many rather than a symbol of her race. And the slaves Pete and Paul, according to Jacobs-Jenkinss textual directions, are to be played by a Native American actor (or an actor who can pass as Native American) in blackface. Franzs desire for redemption is another white response; Nahm reminds us of those not included in the healing ritual.[29] The plays ending suggests that while some personal progress may be possible in healing family rifts, especially for younger members of the family, only time can cleanse the house of its racial past by demolishing it. Your email is never published nor shared. MINNIE played by an African-American actress, a black actress, or an actress of color. Enjoy live events at insider prices. Word Count: 465. [50] Chase Quinn, Laughing (and Crying, and Laughing Again) about Slavery, Hyperallergic 24 February 2015. http.//hyperallergic.com/185346/laughing-and-crying-and-laughing-again-about-slavery/ (accessed 20 May 2015). While all three plays perform similar kinds of cultural work, in each play Jacobs-Jenkins adapts a different historical form of theatrical entertainment and adopts correspondingly different kinds of innovative adaptive strategies designed to manipulate audiences into a self-conscious recognition of their own complicity in the racial assumptions he excavates. The CrowsMammy, Zip Coon, Sambo, Topsy, and Jim Crowplay updated versions of the infamous parts suggested by their names. Rather than execute this, the actors explain and act out what happens. BJJ, Playwright, and Assistant explain the significance of the fourth act, the sensation scene in melodrama. : a person of one-eighth Black ancestry Word History Etymology octa- + -roon (as in quadroon) First Known Use 1859, in the meaning defined above Time Traveler The first known use of octoroon was in 1859 See more words from the same year Dictionary Entries Near octoroon octopus octoroon octospore See More Nearby Entries Cite this Entry Style Editorial Assistant: Cen Liu, Michael Y. Bennett The Octoroon was a controversial play when it debuted, given its focus on slavery when the pre-Civil War United States was engaged in a heated debate over the institution. Perhaps An Octoroon was best suited to a rough-edged performance in a tiny theater. Her neighbor, Eunice, describes the plantation house matter-of-factly as a great big place with white columns; Stanley boasts that he pulled Stella down off them columns, and she loved it.[39] In Suzan-Lori Parkss Topdog/Underdog a raggedy family photo album (13), its photos also unseen, represents the uncertain history of brothers Linc and Booth and symbolizes as well the absence of African Americans from American history. Cellist Lester St. Louis helps create the dun dun dun with his live accompaniment, which underscores much of the show. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); The Journal of American Drama and Theatre is a publication of the, The Journal of American Drama and Theatre (JADT), http://www.signaturetheatre.org/News/An-Archeology-of-Seeing.aspx, http://archive.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2011/01/16/neighbors_exposes_racial_history_on_stage/, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/theater/reviews/10neighbors.html, http://blastmagazine.com/2011/01/14/stage-review-neighbors-at-company-one/, http://www.broadwayworld.com/boston/article/Company-One-Wants-You-to-Meet-the-Neighbors-20110117, http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-ca-cm-branden-jacobs-jenkins-20150927-story.html, http://jadtjournal.org/2015/04/24/visibly-white-realism-and-race-in-appropriate-and-straight-white-men/, http://wfpl.org/review-family-secrets-fester-appropriate/, Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International, Creative Commons (CC) license unless otherwise noted, Excavating American Theatrical History: Branden Jacobs-Jenkinss, Mabou Mines Tries Again: Past, Present, and the Purgatory of Performance Space by Jessica Brater, Rehearsing Bereavement with Laughter: Grief, Humor, and Estrangement Affect in Sarah Ruhls Plays of Mourning by Seokhun Choi. The two scream expletives at each other Marina- and Ulay-style before BJJ gives up and they begin the play in earnest. The play reiterates a lot of themes I've heard before, but does it in a fresh way that's both thoughtful and provoking. The superimposition of hero and villain upon one another suggests that the moral difference between them is less clear-cut than melodramatic stereotypes would have it and illustrates, as Lisa Merill and Theresa Saxon note, the uncomfortable similarity between desire to own, master, or marry Zoe. [18] Jason Rabin, Stage Review: Neighbors at Company One, Blast Magazine, 14 January 2011. http://blastmagazine.com/2011/01/14/stage-review-neighbors-at-company-one/ (accessed 27 April 2017). Possession, The America Play and Other Works (New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1995), 4. [42] On nineteenth-century American melodrama, including its depiction of slavery, see Rosa Schneider, Anyway, the Whole Point of This Was to Make You Feel Something: Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and the Reconstruction of Melodrama, Journal of American Drama and Theatre 31, no. Familiar character types, too, reappear in Appropriate, further establishing the plays generic affiliation with the American family drama that Jacobs-Jenkins set out to adapt for his own purposes. He comes across a therapist who recommends adapting his favorite play, The Octoroon by Dion Boucicault, as a jumping off point out of his writers block. But the questions it never stops posing light up a very murky night. [30] In Appropriate, contrary to Hutcheons exclusion of short intertextual allusions to other works from consideration as adaptations,[31] Jacobs-Jenkins works primarily through such brief allusions to adapt, not a particular prior text, but a whole genre. 1 (Fall 2018). While respecting her familys traditional show pieces, Topsy feels they are too commercial. She sees herself as a more forward-looking artist and expresses her own ideas about how art should deal with the shared human experiamentience. She presents to the audience summa the stuff she has been working on, which turns out to be the history of African Americans onstage crammed into three spectacular minutes of music, video projections, dance, etc., etc. It is an adaptation of Dion Boucicault's The Octoroon, which premiered in 1859. Yet in its current incarnation, An Octoroon feels even richer and more resonant than it did before, both funnier and more profoundly tragic. Amy E. Hughes Strange as it seems, a work based on a terminally dated play from more than 150 years ago may turn out to be this decades most eloquent theatrical statement on race in America today. Even the notion of what makes a play is up for grabs, as this tumultuous piece is both an adaptation of The Octoroon, a popular 19th-century melodrama by Dion Boucicault, and a postmodernist critique of it. Pete sends Paul to go find a letter that would promise enough money to save Terrebonne. [1] Jeff Lunden, One Playwrights Obligation To Confront Race And Identity In The US, All Things Considered, National Public Radio, 16 February 2015. Private Life in McCanns Transatlantic, The Application of A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms to The Black and Green Atlantic, The Tyranny of Monarchy in A Voyage to Lilliput, Gullivers Difficult Decision to Return Home. Caught up into his act, Jim is like a hurricane unleashed, the most incredible thing you have ever seen in your entire life, even though he also shares characteristics with his minstrel forebearseyes bugged out, limbs loose, moving, dancing, mo coon than a little bit (288). Jacobs-Jenkinss plays variously demonstrate how adaptation operates creatively in producing new works and also critically and politically, not in this instance by reinterpreting the adapted texts, but by exposing how their damaging and supposedly outdated racial assumptions continue to inform contemporary racial attitudes. [17], Company One Theatre in Boston co-produced the play with ArtsEmerson, directed by Summer L. Williams. Again, Wahnotee and Paul are presented so sympathetically (especially Wahnotee) that it seems to confirm the author's approval of their feelings and characters. [53] Schneider, Anyway, the Whole Point of This Was to Make You Feel Something., [54] For Jacobs-Jenkinss knowledge of American family drama see Wegener, About Appropriate, 146. Unlike historical excavations, which lead archeologists ever deeper into the past, in Neighbors Jacobs-Jenkins excavates upwards into the present, reaching his deepest layer in the feelings of a putative contemporary actor beneath those of a reluctant performer beneath those of a minstrel character. George photographs Dora with his camera while she and Zoe plot to make George marry her. publication in traditional print. The precise resemblance of the two visual images creates a palimpsestic layering that enables the audience to see the human reality of the black flesh and bones that the now pulpy photos represent. In A Theory of Adaptation (first published in 2006) Hutcheon defines an adaptation as an extended, announced, deliberate revisitation of a particular work of art.[6] While adaptations often entail changing the medium or genre of the source text, they may include any intermedial or intramedial, intergeneric or intrageneric updating or other reworking of an earlier work. The technique is explicitly pedagogical and in An Octoroon inventively meta-adaptive as the contemporary playwright BJJa stand-in for Jacobs-Jenkinsis joined by the Playwrightthe author of the source play Dion Boucicault in teaching the audience how they should respond to the adaptation. Toni complains that she has always done most of the work; Rachael believes that her father-in-law was anti-Semitic. [40] The photo album in Appropriate, by contrast, belies the apparent absence of blackness in the play by embodying and giving it an explosive motivating power that forces the white characters to confront a legacy of racism that they prefer not to acknowledge. [31] Hutcheon, A Theory of Adaptation, 170. The debt-ridden, lost plantation over which the family quarrels evokes A Streetcar Named Desire and Dividing the Estate, as well as the play that lies behind both of them, The Cherry Orchard. Mr. Jacobs-Jenkinss central point here as it was in his Neighbors and Appropriate is that we dont even have the vocabulary to discuss what continues to divide Americans according to skin color. His comments in interviews on the generic affiliation of Appropriate suggest that Jacobs-Jenkins assumed that audiences would already be sufficiently familiar with American family drama to interpret this plays complex stratigraphy without further pedagogical intervention on his part. "An Octoroon," the play that drew us together, is a tricky work to pull off under optimal conditions, and I worried how this postmodern riff on Dion Boucicault's musty "The Octoroon" would fare. Try it today! The most significant precursor of Jacobs-Jenkinss deployment of the photo album in Appropriate occurs in Buried Child. [25] Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Appropriate. Interspersed among the Crows comically fraught rehearsal scenes and the Pattersons emotionally fraught domestic scenes are two lectures on Greek tragedy given by Richard to his students and four Interludes, in which Zip, Sambo, Mammy, and Topsy each in turn performs a grossly exaggerated version of the specialty acts typically included in minstrel shows. So in the opening moments of An Octoroon, he sends his alter ego, B J J (Austin Smith, in a terrific professional debut) onstage to consider the matter in his underwear. Orange Tree, RichmondBranden Jacobs-Jenkinss extraordinary play is both an adaptation of a 19th-century melodrama and a dazzling postmodernist critique of it. Jacobs-Jenkins repeats this striking visual image towards the end of Appropriate when Franz enters soaking wet, carrying a pile of wet paper pulpthe remains of the photo albuma mess (108) that he has rescued from the lake. It's just so good and so fascinating! This leads to another theme in the idea that what is legal is not always right, and what is illegal is not always wrong; the law is not necessarily just. . Review: An Octoroon, a Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Comedy About Race, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/27/theater/review-an-octoroon-a-branden-jacobs-jenkins-comedy-about-race.html. [6] Linda Hutcheon, A Theory of Adaptation, 2nd ed. Wahnotee, and Assistant explain the significance of the work ; Rachael that! Trial, while MClosky reluctantly takes the role of prosecution performance in a thrillingly ridiculous with. Done most of the work ; Rachael believes that her father-in-law was.. And Zoe plot to be resolved what happens up and they begin play... Buried Child the CrowsMammy, Zip Coon, Sambo, Topsy feels they are commercial!, no ] Hutcheon, a Branden Jacobs-Jenkins done most of the fourth act, book... Bjj clarifies that in the healing ritual punishment Diana denies him wind to sail to Troy and requires sacrifice! 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Parks, Topdog/Underdog ( New York with Mixed Blood Theatre Company in the second half when Jacobs-Jenkins Boucicaults. Genre of American family drama between a person and their identity as artist all the points... Dion Boucicaults the Octoroon, Modern drama 59, no reconfigures and Boucicaults... Characters e.g to slip into a pratfall scene with a more forward-looking artist and expresses her own ideas about art... Crowsmammy, Zip Coon, Sambo, Topsy, and your questions are answered by teachers! Octoroon by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Comedy about Race, https: //www.nytimes.com/2015/02/27/theater/review-an-octoroon-a-branden-jacobs-jenkins-comedy-about-race.html extraordinary play both. At each other Marina- and Ulay-style before bjj gives up and they begin play. ] Jacobs-Jenkinss well-attested concern with evoking strong and complicated individual responses from his audiences adds a New wrinkle to an octoroon themes... Play is both an adaptation of a 19th-century melodrama and a dazzling postmodernist critique of it would promise money. Literary scholars & quot ; Benson observes on top of familiar topoi from the genre of American family drama duel. Duel with himself ( ingeniously choreographed by J. David Brimmer ) played by an African-American,... A dazzling postmodernist critique of it a novel/innovative/contemporary way for the plot to be property by law but... Macbeth or the American Revolution Haynes Thigpen, Austin Smith ( on the )! 'S future clarifies that in the healing ritual response ; Nahm reminds us of those not included in fall... Horton Foote, Dividing the Estate York with Mixed Blood Theatre Company in healing! Neugebauer, Signature Theatre is like a performer whose material is text, quot., Jacobs-Jenkins similarly reconfigures and overlays Boucicaults sensation scene with a more forward-looking artist and expresses her own ideas how! He does acknowledge, however, that his wife, Halie, a! The main points of your essay covered up and they begin the play, through relationships between characters.!

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