27-10
Costumes, like props, can usually be kept simple. Easy-to-understand symbols
help get ideas across. For example:
A tie with a
money sign
can represent a
businessman
(or expct
from the
city).
Ragged clothes
with brightly
colored patches
represent the
poor farmer.
5. Keeping people’s attention: Action, tears, and fun
Entertainment does not simply mean being funny. Some amount of humor is
important, but too much can quickly become boring. A play or drama will hold
people’s attention best if it has lots of movement, action, and surprises.
Try for a balance between serious or sad events, and light or humorous
ones. Moments of humor or ‘comic relief are
especially important when The story is disturbing
or threatening. Humor can be introduced in many
ways. Here are a few possibilities:
a) Use of strange-looking or comical masks
or puppets.
It helps if these look enough like real people
or things to be recognizable. Some puppets or
masks can be worked into almost any kind of
theater production.
b) Persons dressed up as animals always bring
daugther.
c) Giving amusing or symbolic names to the characters.
For example, in the play in Spanish, “Small Farmers Unite to Overcome
Exploitation” {see page 27-27). the rich maize-lender was named Brutelio and his
wife Dona Exploitiva. The poor man who worked for Brutelio rather than joining
the others in their struggle for their rights was called Lamberino, which in Spanish
means ‘BooMicker’.