Kiss Me Kate

Although I am far from being a theater buff, I have been fortunate enough to attend a fairly broad array of live performances. I've seen The Lion King on Broadway which I found incredibly amusing, every year my family attends A Christmas Carrol performed in Pittsburgh as a holiday tradition and I also took a tech theater workshop class for two semesters in high school in which I worked several school performances. In this age of overwhelming technology I believe many people, myself included, do not admire staged shows as much as they deserve. Almost every show I attend I will find myself shocked with how entertained I became. This certainly held true to the Kiss Me Kate show on Saturday. The catchy songs and upbeat humor of the play were absolutely a nice surprise. Kiss Me Kate was very similar to most musicals I have seen, I always am absolutely amazed by the talents of actors in these types of shows. As somebody with limited musical ability I feel that whenever those with such skills are on display i can only help but appreciate it. I think that my favorite musical may have to be West Side Story. It is such a classic and although I have never seen it performed live I think that the story and the great songs are enough to call it one of the best ever. Kiss Me Kate is certainly in a bit different subgenre within musical than West Side Story but obviously the integration of performing songs and acting are a common aspect the shows share. I have never neither read or even heard of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew so I cannot speak to the accuracy of the show, however i very much enjoyed how the play was integrated into the other. I think that the way the writers of Kiss Me Kate were able to follow the plot of Shrew and then to add songs that so perfectly fit into the story was magnificent. Also I felt the switching back and forth between the play within the play and what was actually happening in "real life" in no way took away from the experience, it certainly enhanced it. I really enjoyed the part of the show in which Lilli took Mr. Graham's note behind stage and read it, while at the same time the Shrew played on. The use of the transparent curtain was a very nice addition to the performance. If i could pick one aspect of the show that i enjoyed the most it would easily have to be the humor. I feel as if there is nothing more dull than a live performance that fails to keep the audience interested. For instance, my high school's rendering of The Crucible was easily one of the most excruciatingly painful things I've been forced to sit through.Kiss Me Kate was full of witty one liners and character portrayals like the mob men who kept the audience laughing. All in all I am glad to say that i expected to be a boring, mandated, and Saturday-consuming escapade ended up being a fairly entertaining and culturing experience.

This Penn State Life

My immediate reaction to listening to this podcast certainly not a positive one. As a nationally syndicated radio show i would expect there to be much less anti-student bias in the piece. Although every once in a while you hear an appeal from a member of the community who says that they enjoy being around the "high energy students", the majority of the piece tells about the drunken stupidity of Penn State students. I absolutely cannot deny that these activities occur, they certainly do and i witness them on a weekly basis. However i felt as though the piece did not do a satisfactory job of comparing Penn State and State College to other campuses and surrounding communities across the country. Honestly although some of the stories told, such as students passing out in stranger's homes, are seriously concerning, i feel as though much of the problems that were addressed were common to many college towns.

I believe that the piece had both strong and weak ethos appeal. Certainly the residents of State College who were interviewed were completely credible in their knowledge of how students drinking and other activities affect their day to day lives. They have the right and deserve to be heard because clearly their lives have been seriously affected by all of this. However i felt that there lacked a very serious presence of sober students. It is quite easy to make somebody sound completely ridiculous and stupid while they are heavily under the influence of alcohol which nearly all of the students who were consulted were. The pathos appeal to me as a student was incredibly strong but in a very negative way. With almost every minute that the podcast played i became more and more defensive and infuriated. This may be due to my ties to Greek life which was specifically attacked. I have chosen to participate in the Greek system here at Penn State not only because it gives opportunity to party and act recklessly, but for a variety of reasons. Nowhere in the piece did they address philanthropy or any other aspects that fraternities are involved in. The show did a very strong job of providing statistics and numbers to make its points about how large the party scene is here at Penn State. I felt like the police officers's testimony was particularly effective because nobody would know better then the authorities.

I find the part about McClanahan's General Store very interesting. Im not quite sure about how a testimonial from a store owner and his sales work to define a party school. The idea that Penn State gear selling more when the team is winning is more of common sense than proof that kids love to drink. The point that the store makes condoms readily available tells me only that they are promoting safe sexual practices, something that should be commended, not condemned. Partying is only one aspect of life at Penn State and not what defines our school. The idea of a party school is just subject to a large student population, often with good sports teams. I do not have sufficient data to back up this claim, but with friends at schools of varying sizes I believe that Penn State students do not excessively engage in more drinking than those at schools such as Notre Damn, University of Pittsburgh, or even Duke. I really cannot even deny that i take a pride in our high rank on the list of biggest party schools. Friends of mine at Ohio University have often made notice of their recent takeover of the number one spot. I love my school, regardless of any rankings, and I am so glad to say I am a Penn Stater.