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- Reading responses are due by midnight on the night PRIOR to our discussion of the required reading.
Trash Anthem was interesting, it was defiantly different from any play I read before. This one had them talking to the audience at times, and the actor for the boots never comes out you only hear his voice. I think this worked great though, I thought the play was funny and kind of strange but in a good way. At first I was a bit confused, but when I got further into the play it started to make sense. I think the play is defiantly using a lot of dark humor, so I can see how it can turn off some people. Dark humor isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but if it’s yours then it’ll probably make you laugh. I think the ending is when it got more suspenseful because we know the police are coming for, and I can’t tell if I feel bad for her or not. I think I understand why she is upset, her partner cheated on her. Though I don’t think murder was the best option, maybe divorce its less messy. I really like the risk it too, and I think as writers really makes you realize that you can really think out of the box with play writing.
ReplyDelete-Alyssa Rangel
Trash Anthem reminded me a lot of the deadpool movies. I think it was because of the way the speaker/narrator would talk to the audience rather than being a 1st or 3rd person speaker. I think it gives the whole play a different feel to it since it is more interactive and would catch the audiences attention more.
ReplyDeleteI’m not a big fan of plays, I like scary stories or suspenseful reads and I feel like this was a bit of that. It’s hard to catch the readers eye but this one did.
It was suspenseful, because murder and the reason why she did it, I stan. It was like a novela, and I feel like it is something realistic that happens and we probably don’t hear or find out about it. I know I’ve seen a lot of crime videos and feel like that’s probably how people think they can get away with murder.
-Cecilia Cantu
Trash Anthem was a really interesting play to read because at times I really did not know where the conversations were being directed. It is also pretty weird because it seems to go from a nice story to a sort of dark one in an instance. Also, the language was very southern like and I actually enjoyed that because the audience gets a fresh new voice. Overall, I enjoyed reading this because I got to picture the conversation the woman was having with the boots and it had me constantly thinking about everything. It had me thinking about how boots sounded like or how the woman was directing conversation. This was also a funny play to read because of how unrealistic this seems to be. Also, the language they used with each other at times is funny to read. For example, boots says “there’s a mole on your back, the one shaped like the statue of liberty”. And then she says “bullshit” which makes it a funny conversation that I haven’t really seen much of in plays that I have read. However, this story was also kind of gloomy in a sense when the boots says, “I used you, I’m sorry, you’re here, I’m not” and the tone changes in a way.
ReplyDelete-Alec De La Garza
I was very much confused by this play at first, and I can’t say I still understand it to it’s entirety, it was quite chaotic and its multiple interpretations of the word “boots” kinda blended into each other and I had trouble realizing was was truly going on. I read it out-loud with my friend and I understood it a little better. I think the idea of tackling an unfaithful relationship is always interesting, in this case, the woman on the bad side of the relationship is contemplating murder, and the whole back and forth is quite interesting. The reason I didn’t like this one too much (although I appreciate the stylistic use of language to give this a more distinctive edge) is because the story never felt like it was building to a crescendo. The conversation/argument kinda flatlines throughout its entirety and you never get the sense that something terrible can happen at any point. The implementations of the songs were great though and submerged this into a more delusive place. The ending with the police was anxiety-endusing.
ReplyDelete-Luis Garza
Trash Anthem was very interesting but also made me very sad. As soon as the Boots character is given lines, you already know that Jenny is having some sort of a mental break. We find out that the boots actually belonged to her husband, who she just finished burying in the back yard after catching him cheating on her with their next-door neighbor -- Jeff. The boots talk to Jenny until the point where the police come for her. Bootz gives her some sort of closure as “he” answers questions she still had for her husband. Jenny tells us, the reader, how she first fell in love with her husband and how she thinks she loved the boots he wore more than him because those were the boots he would wear when they went out dancing together. That’s probably why she didn’t bury them. They were the only things that she had left to hold onto that reminded her of when he loved-- or at least was with only, her. The ending when Jenny is singing along with Boots kind of confirmed my theory that she was going through some sort of mental break that was brought on by the affair. It’s sad that the play ends with her singing along with Boots, the only thing she had to hold onto from her husband. The “water” they were surrounded by disappears and turns into the blue lights from the police cars. Jenny and Boots’ song ends together as she prepares to get taken away.
ReplyDeleteBethanee Campos
Trash Anthem by Dan Dietz was a little strange, but I liked it. There was a bit of dark humor in there that appealed to me a lot. The dialogue was different than any play that I have read. This was a great play and kind of reminded me of Tarantino’s Hateful 8. The part with every guy being a peanut was hilarious to me and I honestly don’t know why, but it was. Dark humor is not for everybody and people can be too sensitive that will cause them to say this play is problematic or misogynistic. It reminds me of Deadpool because I could see Ryan Reynolds killing it in the script and play. What was messed up is that BOOTS cheated on the woman and how the police were coming. The play was a little all over the place and there were no cutting corners with profanity. So yeah this play was fun to read and I am actually really interested in seeing what other work Dietz has done. I’ve always been intrigued by playwriting and want to dive into it because I always had a dream of making my own and bringing to life on stage for people to see and enjoy.
ReplyDeleteKrista Olivarez
Okay, interesting, I didn’t know that a play could about a dead man’s boots existed. This was interesting because it’s a type of play that you don’t see too often. The mix up of the names to never really being named is something new to me. I liked the leisure that came with this writing, along with a touch of progressiveness with the whole gay thing. I am disappointed though that the man cheated on Woman and having been hiding in the closest does not excuse his behavior. There are only a few things in this world that I despise, and the very first one is cheating. I know it was done for the play and made an interesting read, but I don’t know how something of this caliber would translate to a stage play. How would you get a boot to talk or would you have a mic and someone in the back of the stage, saying the lines, the leads obviously have to have their lines memorized so that you do not look like a total idiot if possible. I really enjoyed the aspect of sleeping with the neighbor as it can be quite interesting to say the least. 10/10 would recommend to read.
ReplyDeleteJonathon Morin
Trash Anthem explains thestory of a woman discovering her husband has been cheating on her with their next door male neighbor. Throughout the play, she is talking to a pair of boots that were owned by the husband. The boots have their own personality while they speak back to her and carry a conversation. At first, I was confused on who she was really talking to but then it slowly started to click to me. I also discovered that she went and shot the husband with a gun and was burying him during the story since she had a shovel. The boots then warn the woman that the police are coming for her, while the woman questions the boots asking if he really loved her as his wife. At the end, the police show up and she seems to accept her consequence. I found it interesting that the boots were meant to be like her husband and she was able to carry on a conversation with them and not seem so crazy like she did in the beginning. Overall, it was an excellent play and I enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteIn the reading of "Trash Anthem" we were able to experience a sense of maybe a type of dark humor. Though, not everyone is a fan of its type of entertainment it quite results interesting due to all the hooks it sends throughout the piece. Also the way it was portrayed and narrated seemed something different than what we usually see in chapters. In my opinion it indeed gives the full play a different aspect to it due to the fact that it is more interactive and definitely catches anyone's attention. It was interesting due to the suspense incorporated within the murder situation and the reasons behind it. It was sort of a telenovela where you have he cheater getting what 'they deserve" and the victim getting their needed revenge. however, that's not the world's reality and nor how it works and problems are or should be resolved. Or who knows? Maybe people have actually taken things into their own matters and that's where we have all those crazy story lines in the news.
ReplyDeleteVictoria Rodriguez
What I liked about the 10 minute play, “Trash Anthem” by Dan Dietz is that the woman in history had a nice relationship with the boots, although the woman imagined how the boots spoke to her, to be honest I cannot imagine a pair of boots could speak to me that is something crazy and creepy maybe if I imagined so like a caricature-shaped boot. The boots were the woman's confidant. The woman had a big connection with her boots and told her how she felt about that boy she was in love with. For a moment I thought I was talking about some boots I thought something you wear but I think the woman was talking about boots that it function was to open peanuts like a nutcracker does. I can imagine white plastic boots opening peanuts instead of nuts. What I didn't like about the story is that there wasn't much respect between the boots and woman don't use the right language they always spoke with bad words in my opinion that's not right because you can speak without using an obscene word. I don't feel like it's wrong to use bad words, the thing is, I'm not used to it. I thought that since I was going to read a play the language was going to be more formal.
ReplyDeleteOscar A. Jacome Serrano
What I liked about the 10 minute play, “Trash Anthem” by Dan Dietz is that the woman in history had a nice relationship with the boots, although the woman imagined how the boots spoke to her, to be honest I cannot imagine a pair of boots could speak to me that is something crazy and creepy maybe if I imagined so like a caricature-shaped boot. The boots were the woman's confidant. The woman had a big connection with her boots and told her how she felt about that boy she was in love with. For a moment I thought I was talking about some boots I thought something you wear but I think the woman was talking about boots that it function was to open peanuts like a nutcracker does. I can imagine white plastic boots opening peanuts instead of nuts. What I didn't like about the story is that there wasn't much respect between the boots and woman don't use the right language they always spoke with bad words in my opinion that's not right because you can speak without using an obscene word. I don't feel like it's wrong to use bad words, the thing is, I'm not used to it. I thought that since I was going to read a play the language was going to be more formal.
ReplyDeleteOscar A. Jacome Serrano
This story is a fair bit too exotic for my taste, however, I feel like most people wouldn’t have this problem with it. Nonsensical talking boots tend to be a great attention grabber, if the narrator was very talented I might enjoy it, but in most cases, my suspension of disbelief would be shattered. It’s a little similar to Sure Thing in that, without some context it would be hard to enjoy. This is where the similarities diverge to me. Sure Thing manages to be - without the use of forced crude humor – hilarious. You can even look past the humor of Sure Thing to see both sweet and thoughtful writing. That would be the kind of writing to make someone feel good – one of the many points of a play. Trash Anthem manages to inspire something more like, “What did I just read?”. Slight bits of discomfort accompanied this feeling even before I finished reading the play. I don’t think these feelings would abate if I saw the play on stage either. If anything, it would be a great deal more uncomfortable to see these things acted out. Maybe I am being overly harsh, but it once more comes back to the point of the play: how does this make me feel?
ReplyDelete- Christopher Hinkle
DeleteI thought this piece was very entertaining. It reminded me of the movies or show that include small town gossip, where so and so's husband has a "pretty young thing" on the side. This play actually reminds me of a song called "If It Hadn't Been For Love" by the Steeldrivers, it was a story about a man that wouldn't be on the run from the law, and eventually wind up behind bars "if it hadnt been for love". I'm in no way condoning murder if your spouse cheats but there are many crazy things people do because of love or if they get their heart broke. I love the fact that she was talking to the boots. It was a perspective you don't see when in these situations, we got to hear the boots side of the story aka her dead beau. I thought it was enjoyable that they were still bickering like an old married couple even though she killed him and she was about to be taken by the law.I have to admit i didn't really see the point in the "song" that she would sing every now and then, i thought the story was great on it's own without that extra bit of "symbolism" i suppose you would call it. All in all this is a play i would undoubtedly go see! I also think it would make a great movie !
DeleteAisha Teegarden
I thought this piece was very entertaining. It reminded me of the movies or show that include small town gossip, where so and so's husband has a "pretty young thing" on the side. This play actually reminds me of a song called "If It Hadn't Been For Love" by the Steeldrivers, it was a story about a man that wouldn't be on the run from the law, and eventually wind up behind bars "if it hadnt been for love". I'm in no way condoning murder if your spouse cheats but there are many crazy things people do because of love or if they get their heart broke. I love the fact that she was talking to the boots. It was a perspective you don't see when in these situations, we got to hear the boots side of the story aka her dead beau. I thought it was enjoyable that they were still bickering like an old married couple even though she killed him and she was about to be taken by the law.I have to admit i didn't really see the point in the "song" that she would sing every now and then, i thought the story was great on it's own without that extra bit of "symbolism" i suppose you would call it. All in all this is a play i would undoubtedly go see! I also think it would make a great movie !
ReplyDeleteAisha Teegarden