One of the main themes of “The Adding Machine” is the conformity of society. In the 1920’s, sexism, racism, anti-Semitism, ageism, and pretty much any other form of “ism” one could think of

In a show where most of the choices, lighting, acting, set, and costumes were so deliberate, the technical problems of the show were more distracting than normal. For example, both nights I saw the show, a light stage right ghosted on and off many times during the show, most visibly during the Elysian fields scene. Because all the other lighting choices had been very clear before, I assumed that this light coming on must mean that a person was about to enter or something was about to happen. I was not the only one distracted by this light. The second night I saw the show and knew to ignore the ghosting light, every time it went on or off, the people around me turned their focus from the touching scene between Zero and Daisy to the rouge light.

The lighting was the primary way used in the production to switch locations. To do this, Rychard Curtiss used a mother load of gobos. To set the location of the play before the show even began, the pre-show lighting was general wash with city gobos stage left and right. These gobos remained up in the opening scene of Mr. Zero’s apartment. I especially like the way the swirl gobos were used during the transitions the courtroom scene. As the jury circled in and out with their chairs, swirl gobos were put up on stage left and right. I thought this gobo nicely complimented their movement. Gobos were also used in the jail scene where an image of bars was projected over Mr. Zero in his cell. In the scene of the Elysian fields, the only scene where true color is used, Curtiss used a tree gobo, which made the stage look like it was under the canopy of a huge, beautiful tree. Highlighted with warm yellow, orange, green, and blue lighting, the lighting very effective transformed the dull, gray set into a lovely meadow worthy of being called heaven. However, there was one scene were the gobo used made almost took me out of the scene. In first office scene, Curtiss used a gobo of 0’s and 1’s in the background. I understand that this was used to add to the numbers being read b

Some topics in this essay:
Rychard Curtiss, Kenneth Goldstein’s, Daisy Zero, Elmer Rice, Zero Six’s, Elmer Rice’s, Adding Machine”, Dobie Giebel, Lt Charles, Hofstra University, adding machine”, “the adding, “the adding machine”, stage left, elysian fields, rychard curtiss, lighting design, gobos stage left, rice’s play, set costumes, daisy zero, play zero, production “the adding, elmer rice’s play, elysian fields scene,