On October 30, 2015 I went to see the play Hana's Suitcase performed at Young People's Theater. The play is about a girl named Hana Brady who was murdered in Auchwitz and how her suitcase was found at the Tokyo Holocaust Education Center. The story alternates between the past and present. Some scenes telling the story of Hana's life and journey, while other scenes show a teacher's journey to educate Japanese children about the horrors of the Holocaust. In addition, the audience is exposed to the hardships and cruelty the Jews had to face during World War 2. Hana's Suitcase is a well written and entertaining story and all aspects of production really helped in communicating the main message to the audience. Creative use of stage, voice techniques,
…show more content…
Different voice techniques influenced the audiences understanding of each character and the tension of the scene. The actors were very convincing in the character they played. I observed that some actors played more than one character, each with different personalities and tone of voice. As well, in unhappy scenes such as the one were Hana's brother gives a speech at the Tokyo Education Center, long pauses were used to create meaning and emotion through speech. Actors tone of voice really paints a picture to who the character is. In one particular scene, the Nazi soldier speaks with a strong powerful voice. He stresses his words in order to show power, strength and authority. His tone of voice brought fear not only to Hana but to the audience as a whole. In addition, the projection in his voice intensified his diologue and added meaning to the scene. Actors did an exceptional job by incorporating emotional qualities to their voices. By doing this, the audience 'feels' the characters emotions, thoughts and senses. Aside from facial expressions, actors really used their voices to express their words. If I were to see this play a second time, except this time with my eyes closed, just by listening to their voices would make it very easy for me to visualize the story. This is not because of how well the music and sound effects sounded, its how exceptionally well the actors used voice
Different voice techniques influenced the audiences understanding of each character and the tension of the scene. The actors were very convincing in the character they played. I observed that some actors played more than one character, each with different personalities and tone of voice. As well, in unhappy scenes such as the one were Hana's brother gives a speech at the Tokyo Education Center, long pauses were used to create meaning and emotion through speech. Actors tone of voice really paints a picture to who the character is. In one particular scene, the Nazi soldier speaks with a strong powerful voice. He stresses his words in order to show power, strength and authority. His tone of voice brought fear not only to Hana but to the audience as a whole. In addition, the projection in his voice intensified his diologue and added meaning to the scene. Actors did an exceptional job by incorporating emotional qualities to their voices. By doing this, the audience 'feels' the characters emotions, thoughts and senses. Aside from facial expressions, actors really used their voices to express their words. If I were to see this play a second time, except this time with my eyes closed, just by listening to their voices would make it very easy for me to visualize the story. This is not because of how well the music and sound effects sounded, its how exceptionally well the actors used voice