Podcast: Night Vale Pilot

 

Screen Shot 2017-02-14 at 1.22.31 PM.pngWelcome To Night Vale Episode One: Pilot

 

WelcometoNightVale. “1 – Pilot.” YouTube. YouTube, 14 Jan. 2015. Web. 9 Feb. 2017

Night Vale is a place where things never go quite as expected, and often have disastrous consequences. To those who are familiar with Night Vale that nothing is ever quite right in that town and there is little plot to the show with limited background information given to the events it discusses. Cecil speaks to the audience as if we are one of his own- a citizen of Night Vale but also at the same time an outsider. As an outsider we don’t know what to focus on first. The Night Vale addresses the strange occurrences of its everyday life suggests that we are assumed to be in at least partial knowledge of these affairs. He refers to the citizens of Night Vale by name as if we are to be as familiar with them as he is. The town is given no specific geographical setting for a reason because Night Vale is all around us/ everywhere. This strange and exotic town is a metaphor for everything we live through on a daily basis. Its exaggerated state of being reflects the chaos of our everyday lives. Night Vale citizens battle supernatural forces and inexplicable occurrences while we battle finals week and college tuition, and their questionable authority figures sometimes remind us of our own. Cecil even goes on to talk about the weather and daily going ons of this town as if we are really there. Yet through all of this, they are still able to maintain somewhat (ordinary to them) lives. The goal is to give the show as much animosity as possible while still realing the audience in to make them feel a part of the show and how we in the real world can overcome the also unfair and inexplicable occurances we face. Night vales successful horror is subtle and the pauses or transitions in between in segments gives me an idea for how I could do a reading of Agamemnon to give the audience an idea about how reeling and gruesome some scenes are.

 

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garit.daniel@gmail.com

Analysis of Shakespear in India

Paul, Richard. “Shakespeare in India.” Folger Shakespeare Library. N.p., 19 Oct. 2016. Web. 14 Feb. 2017.

This podcast discusses the impact of Shakespeare on India in the 1800s and 1900s and how Indian theater shaped Shakespeare’s work and its understanding. The podcast goes beyond the goal to explain Shakespeare in Modern India and how the growing film industry has influenced the stories of Othello, Macbeth and Hamlet. The podcast also explains the move from Shakepeare productions in rural areas to more urban and then its transition to something that is performed at most colleges in India, which each have their own Shakespearean societies, with the biggest one being The National School of Drama. The Professors of English went into depth about the directors adapting the stories into something the audiences of India, especially Bengal in this case, can relate to. Professor Singh called is “Indianization” of the texts and the readings. This was necessary in order to allow the sudden acrophilia, but lack of interest in English drama production, to be handled properly. The dramatic forms, indigenous dramaturgy and classical Indian music was required to cross-pollinate Shakespeare with folk-theater that Indians already related to. In my own podcast, I will be able to use this transition and modification in not just India but other British colonies to expand upon it as I analyze Wasps or The Second Shepard’s Play.

vidushi.gupta@emory.edu

Blog Post 2 Part One: Podcast Rhetorical Analysis on NPR’s Fresh Air

               Co-hosts David Bianculli and Terry Gross host a podcast on NPR’s Fresh Air, and I chose the episode about writer/director Damien Chazelle and his recent work on ‘La La Land’, and Meryl Streep and her recent work on ‘Florence Foster Jenkins’. The hosts work together to inform the audience, consisting in this case of their dedicated fans and those interested specifically in the performing arts and movie making, about the process Damien Chazelle and Meryl Streep go through to make their art come alive and why they chose to pursue their recent works. The interview with Gross informs the listener about the motives of each artist behind the work, like how Chazelle’s background in Jazz is what lead him to write and direct the musical ‘La La Land’, or how Meryl Streep chose to portray a terrible singer because her background knowledge in singing allowed her to see what Jenkins did right. The narration by Bianculli gives the listener some background knowledge on the works being discussed, and a voice that breaks up the monotony. The variation of sounds between each voice and the use of audio clips from the movies of each guest effectively engages the listener and keeps them aware and interested throughout the show. Ultimately, the podcasts success is due to the preparation of the hosts for their concise yet detailed questions and comments, and their skilled editing in mixing the various audio files. Without the mixture, just the narration and interview alone might have proven to be boring or slow in momentum, and thus uninformative.

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Work Cited

       Gross, Terry, and David Bianculli. “‘La La Land’ Director/ Meryl Streep.” NPR. NPR, 2017. Web. 14 Feb. 2017.

haley.williams@emory.edu