Outstanding Performance with the Main Elements of Theater

Imagine if you went to a really, really fancy theater called the 5th avenue theater, and saw a live musical performed by outstanding teenagers. I left the theater, greatly impressed. The 5th avenue theater in Seattle is really fancy, and old. There were chandeliers too, the pattern designs were really beautiful. The musical was mind blowing! The set was big enough for them to move around a lot. The lights changed color depending on the character or how intense the situation was. The actors/actresses were outstanding and really talented for their age. Especially the solo singing, which went on for 5+ minutes straight, no breaks! Into the Woods is an amazing play and you should see it because it has dramatic plot-twists.

The play is about 4-5 fairy tales combined into one big play, Rapunzel, Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, little red riding hood. In the beginning, all the characters were focused on themselves, all they cared about was about themselves/family. Nearing the end, all the characters figure out that they need to work together to defeat a big enemy. They had fights, blaming each other for who started the disaster. The play consists of love and loss, Action and includes characters having a dramatic death.

Into the Woods is an excellent play because of the outstanding performance of the characters.

One example The play showed a very strong potential in the formal element of theater called character because the characters had a lot of emotion, they did gestures and expressions which let the audience know how they were feeling and how intense it was. When the baker tried to steal little red ridings hood, she screamed and cried out loud as a big tantrum which let the audience know she was upset. Another example is when one story shifted to the next story, the characters that were out of the spotlight stayed absolutely still till the spotlight shifted towards them, it was like time froze!

Based on this evidence, we can conclude that the characters show strong emotions because of how the little red riding hood screamed, cried and threw a big tantrum over her hood.

Into the Woods also shows a great performance in the element of theater called Melody. For example, the play shows a great performance in the element of theater called Melody because of their ability to sing with loud voices, and solo singing for a long time. This evidence suggests that the Melody was showcased very neatly because the scenes for each characters are long and their ability to sing for a long time can help them narrate and act out in the story.

Another example that the play showed a great performance on the element of theater Melody, is the background music being able to switch quickly, One moment when there's chaos going on in the play, the music is intense and loud, Another moment when it calms, the music is quiet and peaceful. This evidence reveals that their ability to quickly switch the music helps the story act out and shows how intense the story is depending on the situation.

Into the Woods shows a great performance on the element of theater called Language/Diction.

One example is of how the peasants spoke differently than the royal. The princes spoke in more of a clear and high voice but the peasants spoke in a more of a low, helpless and sad voice. Letting the audience know that the royalty is in a higher position, sort of saying “I'm better than you” with that voice. This evidence suggests that Into the Woods shows a great performance on the element of theater called Language/Diction because of a character's difference of speech depending on what roles they got.

Another example is of how the baker and the baker's wife speak. The baker speaks in a more of a low and calm tone, and the baker's wife speaks more of a high and optimistic tone. Letting the audience know that the baker is more of a calm person whereas the baker's wife is more of an energetic person. This evidence suggests that Into the Woods shows a great performance on the element of theater called Language/Diction because of how the actors/Actresses let the audience know what type of personality or emotion the character is feeling in the way they talk.

I think you should go watch the play Into the Woods at 5th avenue theater because of the outstanding performance with the main elements of theater which sure leaves a great impression. I think their play was really successful since everybody left impressed.

Lead Photo: Sarah "SG" Garcia, Cayman Ilika, Eric Ankrim, Porscha Shaw, Yusuf Seevers, Anne Allgood, and Nik Hagen. Photo Credit: Mark Kitaoka

The TeenTix Press Corps promotes critical thinking, communication, and information literacy through criticism and journalism practice for teens. For more information about the Press Corps program see HERE.

This review was written as part of an Arts Criticism workshop at Glacier Middle School in Jessica Fishman's 6th Grade Language Arts classes, taught by Press Corps teaching artists Jordi Montes and Jay Chavez.