Art and culture﹕Performance types
【明報專訊】Hi, I am Chattie. I am a cloud. I have been travelling around the world and have seen a lot of people and places. Last time, after I had brought you to a theatre and told you about its layout, I watched the show there. The story was quite strange. I couldn't believe that the dragon was the main character and it fought with the evil queen to save the soldier. Frankly, I like the story because it is very creative. There were lots of jokes. I laughed my head off. It was a fantastic show! I had a fun night.
As you can see, it is one of my habits to watch performances in theatres. Watching performances can be entertaining and inspiring. I love to watch all kinds of performances because I get different feelings or messages from them. Let me tell you the kinds of performances I like most. They are comedy, tragedy and mime.
Jeffrey Chan
•An artist, theatre director and English teacher.
•He is interested in breaking frames in his living, direction and teaching.
•A co-founder of Sparky Creative.
Travis Ying
•An artist, theatre stage designer, illustrator and registered teacher.
•He is interested in spotting arts in daily life and he cannot stop sketching at meetings.
•The creator of Chatties and Friends, a co-founder of Sparky Creative.
Comedy
Comedy is a kind of drama. There are lots of elements that make you laugh. For instance, the characters often make stupid decisions and some of them are lucky enough to solve all their problems. The endings are often happy. Lovers come together. Misunderstandings are solved. Missing family members are found. Kingdoms are saved. We are relaxed and happy when we watch a comedy. I should watch more comedies because some say those who laugh more are less likely to get sick!
Tragedy
Tragedies are another kind of drama. They won't give us joy. Their characters suffer and keep facing a lot of challenges. Unlike comedies, many of them have sad endings. People die. Missions fail. Grave mistakes are made. Some may ask me why I like tragedy. Tragedies are often sad but they clear my mind. I take pity on the characters that feel painful. In addition, the bad examples remind me to avoid making wrong decisions and getting bad endings.
Mime
The third kind of performance I like is mime. Mime artists use their bodies and faces to tell stories. They don't talk. They can perform anywhere they like because they create everything they need by miming them out. They can create apples, cups, ropes, walls, doors, lifts, escalators and whatever they can think of. What we have to do is to imagine what they are doing. It is usually very real though there is nothing real. Some mime artists perform on stage and some perform in streets, where we can even touch them. My favourite mime artist is Charlie Chaplin (差利卓別靈). He brought mime into silent films.
Comedy, tragedy, mime and many other kinds of performances are the diamonds of the world. People have spent thousand of years to create them. To enrich your mind, watch more performances in theatres!
■Vocabulary Words
entertaining (使人得到娛樂的)
inspiring (啟發的)
comedy (喜劇)
tragedy (悲劇)
mime (默劇)
misunderstanding (誤會)
mime artists (默劇家)
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