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Ragtime

            
             The first ever showing in the new Dorothy Young Center was success. Ragtime was the first play performed in the new black box theater. Ragtime takes you back to the early part of the twentieth century America when racism was very evident, immigration was happening at Ellis Island and immigrants were looking for that elusive goal of achieving the American dream. To name all the characters in the play would take up the whole review so I am not going to mention all of them. I was very impressed with the showing of Ragtime. I enjoyed the entire show. It was the first time I have ever seen what a black box theater looked like. The director used the entire theater to show everyone in the play. The use of the upper tier as a upstairs to the house in New Rochelle and as a platform to speak in Union Square. Also the floor of the stage was used to its fullest. The scene with the baby in the garden, the garden was in the floor of the stage. Also the use of the trap door in the funeral scene really showed how the director used the whole stage to get across certain sentiments to the audience like sorrow in that funeral scene. .
             The beginning of the play gives a brief bio on some characters, then everyone in the cast it seems was out on stage for the singing of Ragtime. This really was amazing to see everyone singing together. It really got me into the play a lot more with action right at the start of the production. The acting in the musical was also very good. Josh Cashman with the little girl was fantastic. He had to learn how to do a Yiddish accent with the fact that he had to sing with that voice. An amazing accomplishment. Coalhouse played by Abdel Gonzalez was also another character I knew previously and was impressed by how well he played his character that was so hated and discriminated against. .
             The Show was like a live history lesson on the early twentieth century. The showing of racism not just against blacks but other immigrants was as bad or worse than was seen in the play.


Essays Related to Ragtime

1. Scott Joplin: The King of Ragtime

... with accented quarter notes in the treble over accented three-quarter notes of the bass; this gives a cakewalk feeling to the piece. Ragtime's systematic syncopation was its most important contribution to jazz. The syncopation is achieved by a melodic note being delayed or advanced for half ... early professional life. They had among their members some of the town's brightest and most enterprising young black men. Joplin, like most other ragtime players of his day, was an entertainer. They sang, played, or harmonized in barbershop groups, supplying the dance music and entertainment requ...

  • Word Count: 3626
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2. Jazz, Ragtime and Blues

... ;better music'" (Haskin 39). On the other hand, W.C. Handy popularized "Memphis Blues" and made it a classic. The two artists withstood difficulties in attempting to popularize their music. Ragtime originated through traveling pianists aggregating to the Mississippi river where they mixed their styles with that of the folk songs, dances, and hymns from the people in the region to ... produce ragtime's characteristic syncopated style. Joplin excelled at this "ragged" style and pursued a music career that made him not only popular, but also respected. Unfortunately, his efforts were for na...

  • Word Count: 1458
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3. Music Summary - Ragtime

... "Solace" (Paterson). A more recognized movie, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", also featured the composition "Bethena: A Concert Waltz" by Joplin (Paterson). Versions of ragtime works are included in the films "The Gremlins" and "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope" (Paterson). Overall, a variety of motion pictures of different genres have contained ... a form of ragtime in their musical selection. Considering its jazz-like sound, it may be surprising to some that ragtime has been used in video game background music and computer games. The BBC Microcomputer System included the series...

  • Word Count: 478
  • Approx Pages: 2
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4. Ragtime

... them that make the novel, and characters so interesting, as well as a further more significant meaning for them. There are two main relationships within Ragtime that sexual activity takes place. These relationships are between Father and Mother, and Younger Brother and Evelyn Nesbit. The sexual activity between Father and ... , and fury takes over him, and he joins Coalhouse Walker's gang. This relationship between sex and violence is first referred to in the beginning of Ragtime. The author writes, "Across America sex and death were barely distinguishable"(p 4). When he pleasures his bo...

  • Word Count: 922
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5. Freud And Ragtime

... was the culture of Freud's life back in Vienna, gave women many reasons to envy men: the same conditions, in fact, that the American feminists in Ragtime, fought against. If a woman who was denied the freedom, the status, and the pleasures that men enjoyed wished that she could have these things, she ... , were seen as having penis envy to males and would never amount to much, which was drastically different from the women like Emma Goldman in Ragtime who were fighting for their freedom from the repressive male dominated society in which they were living. To Freud the American image of a ...

  • Word Count: 1154
  • Approx Pages: 5
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6. Ragtime

... to a former slave on November 24, 1868 near Linden, Texas. He stayed in Texas until the 1880's when he moved to St. Louis. While studying there he formalized ragtime. This style can be described as a unique blend of European classical styles with a taste of African American harmony and rhythm. Throughout the 1890's Scott Joplin wrote some of ... that affected his brain and was forced to be institutionalized. He stayed there for less than a year when he died in New York April 1, 1917. Another Great composer of ragtime was James Scott, who was born in Neosho, Missouri. Known as the "Littl...

  • Word Count: 300
  • Approx Pages: 1
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7. Racial profiling in Ragtime My Time

... Time," Alton Fitzgerald White went though life doing everything right. He was raised to be respectful and had great manners. White was very successful in life. In the play "Ragtime, My Time," White uses an analogy to compare himself to the main character in the play. Throughout the article, White gives vivid details of what he went though in one ... ...

  • Word Count: 730
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8. Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow

E. L. Doctorow describes various characters with different social statuses in his novel Ragtime. In pursuit of Sarah, Coalhouse Walker enters into the family of Father and Mother. Walker is an integral factor that brings forth changes in other characters. After Sarah learns that ... has said in month is tell Mother to "send him [Coalhouse] away, please" (156). However, after Coalhouse intrudes into Sarah's life, persistently visits her every Saturday, and plays ragtime music on piano, the girl has been changing internally. Although Sarah does not blatantly show her affection, her personality...

  • Word Count: 514
  • Approx Pages: 2
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9. Ragtime Literary Analysis

In the novel Ragtime, by E.L. Doctorow, injustice polarizes society by racism and murder. Racism is defined in the Encyclopedia Britannica's dictionary as a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities ... , she probably would not have been attacked the way she was, if at all. In the end, she dies an innocent death. Murder is another injustice that polarizes society in Ragtime. Murder is defined in the Encyclopedia Britannica's dictionary as the crime of unlawfully killing a person especially with malice aforethought. A clear example of this is the murder of the ...

  • Word Count: 727
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