hetsel and gretal performance

8/17/2019 Hetsel and Gretal Performance

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Hansel and Gretel Performance

The Story from the Symbolists: At the beginning we cut right to when

the witch has the children captive. Hansel and Gretel (Played by

Anthony and Greta !uic"ly dispose of the witch in the oven# which

they used the S$% elevator to symboli&e ('hich was a pretty good

idea# The rest of the story fallows the siblings has they try to ma"e it

home with their golden goose. The motivation for Gretel is that needs

to bring bac" her brother without him wasting all their money) in the

goose. *ut the con+ict for the siblings is that they "eep encountering

silver tonged salesmen that try to pawn of their wares for the goose.

The best part for me was the continuous moving stage as we traveled

the halls of ,oble# which reminded me of the -scar winning lm

*irdman where the movie never stopped) as it was made to loo" li"e

it was lmed in one shot.

/ believe the elevator was the strongest supporter of symbolism for the

symbolists. /n the beginning of the play we got to se the witch get

disposed of in the elevator which represented the oven# and in the end

of the play the elevator was the welcoming home of the two children.

Although / would say that was their strongest use of symbolism# they

could have made it a little better. /f they started the play on the top

+oor# the elevator could have represented the oven and the witches


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decent to hell. And when the children got to the end of the play# the

elevator could have represented their home and the rise to a higher

status. Also / was confused on what


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Hensel and Gretel0s symbolism was. *ecause the actors gave them

similar clothes for a reason# unless it was to show how close they are

to each other.

1or the message of the symbolist0s play# / believe they were showing

how that no matter what happens# you need to "eep moving forward

and never loo" bac". Hansel and Gretel0s goal is to ma"e it home and

use the goose to better their nancial situation# but along the way they

are tempted multiple times into giving it up. So they had to "eep their

head down and had to learn how to bloc" out all the distractions on the

path to their goal. Also with us being forced to fallow them instead of

sitting in chairs and watching the scenes play out# we partially

e2perienced their 3ourney and their struggle with bloc"ing out the

temptations.

1or the 42pressionists# our story started when the parents ditched the

children in the woods. Afterwards we watch Gretel as she wonders

through the woods till she comes across the witch house. 'e didn0t

show the candy part of the house because we wanted to "eep the

nightmarish feel to it. *rea"ing into the witch0s house# Gretel and her


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stu5ed brother nd a table full of food# and here is where the clima2 to

the story starts. 'hile Gretel starts gorging herself on the feast before

her eyes# The 'itch6Stepmother steals her brother away from her and

decapitates him. This results with Gretel losing it and chasing the 'itch

around the room and slamming her to the +oor# before nishing her o5

with the "nife on the table. The motivation for Gretel was to survive

the woods with her brother# and when her brother was "illed# Gretel

lost her need for survival.


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1or me personally# / thin" our greatest supporter of e2pressionism in

our play was the writing. To re+ect e2pressionist plays we "ept dialog

minimal# with action being played out through acting and action

through the narrator. Also / made sure that whenever we had dialog# it

was e2pressive and short as possible. ,oah did a great 3ob of carrying

the entire play 3ust through his narration# which is "ey for an

e2pressionist play. 'hile the rest of us had to focus hard on action

through movement and action rather than lines# which was fun to do.

A big factor in this play was the set. 7inimal and nightmarish than"s to

our wor" with the lights# the stage was set to bring the scary woods

and witch hut to life. 'hat / li"e about the set and the narration over

dialog was that ,oah and Alec were actors without having to act. ,oah

carried us through narration# while Alec had to be on point to deliver

the vision we pictured for our stage.


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The message of our play was watching Gretel overcome all. Although

she was played by 89 something 'ee&ie# she was always pictured and

played to be a small girl. And sometimes in the Hansel and Gretel

stories# Hansel is the one leading Gretel to the safety. -r it re!uires

the two of them to outsmart the witch and overcome evil and

starvation. *ut in our play Hansel was useless 3ust li"e his father. This

re!uired Gretel to do more and it made her character arc more well

rounded when the one time she let her guard down# the witch "ills her

brother. And she nishes her arc as a character growing up and facing

the world when she "ills the 'itch.


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adaism what happened: ;ind of hard to describe what happened#

which is good for adaism. The actors recreated Hansel and Gretel by

randomly drawing scenes for their story. 4ach scene was loosely based

of H


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This group did a hell of a 3ob when it came to displaying the ism).

1rom the =heetos# the song at the end# dragging us throughout the

house# and lighting things on re# there are so many good choices for

best depiction of the ism. *ut what / thought was the most creative

and most absurd by far was the drawing of the scenes. >ust how all but

one of the actors decided to lie on the +oor in a plan" position# then

the play would continue because of a random draw# and the actors

would scream the number of the scene is genius. >ust how the actors

had to do the play out of order because of a random draw screams

ada to me. Also how they did this all in one&ies (however you spell

that and had =heetos thrown at them is insane# but perfect.

7essage of the play: 4verything is pointless and art is dead.

hetsel and gretal performance

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