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A Moon for the Misbegotten is a 1943 play by Eugene O'Neill. The play is a partial continuation of A Long Day's Journey Into Night utilizing James Tyrone as a central figure; all this nearly a decade after the events of Long Day's Journey. In addition to Tyrone--whose involvement in the play is mostly offstage--the play pivots on the Hogan family, poor tenant farmers on Tyrone's estate and their struggle to survive. The family has dwindled to one son, Mike; a daughter, Josephine called "Josie" and their father, Phil. The family's other son have left to seek their fortunes elsewhere which Mike also does at the opening of the play.

After a disastrous first production in 1947, the play was shelved for quite sometime until Panamanian director, Jose Quintero revived it on Broadway in 1973 with a cast including Colleen Dewhurst and Jason Robards. Following this production, A Moon for the Misbegotten has garnered a reputation as

Theatre

• Intro
• Overview
• History
• Styles
• Education
• Spelling notes

Theatre intro

Theatre (also spelled theater see note) is a branch of the performing arts concerned with the performance of a story. In performing a story, actors may utilize written texts or plays, gestures, music and dance among other things. To accomplish a theatrical performance, only a performance and a spectator or a group of spectators (known as an audience) may be used. British director Peter Brook states in the opening of his book The Empty Space that the only thing needed for theatre is for a man to walk "across this empty space whilst someone else is watching him." While little is needed to create theatre, it often includes other elements such as a theatre building, scenery, costumes, special lighting and recorded or live music.

Theatre originates in the human need to relate stories and experiences. It is found throughout the world and in all cultures. The earliest and most primitive forms of theatre developed from tribal ceremonies and rituals. Often these would contains re-creations of events and stories which over time became codified with specifics being heldfast. In the West, the ancient Greeks staged performances on the threshing grounds to honor various deities. Overtime these performances grew more elaborate and the text was written. Actors, costumes and music were introduced and the theatre was born.

Commedia

Arlecchino (Harlequin), a conniving servant or Zanni and often an agile acrobat. He is holding a slapstick. From a 1671 illustration.

Commedia dell'arte is a highly stylized form of improvised theatre that originated in Italy in the early Renaissance and later spread to the rest of Europe. Roughly translated, the name Commedia dell'arte means comedy of the profession in reference to the professional actors who performed with many of the commedia troupes. The term also separated the improvised commedia dell'arte from written comedy known as commedia erudita. This form of theatre grew out of a variety of historical traditions including ancient Greek and ancient Roman theatre as well as Italian liturgical theatre and folk comedy.

The first commedia dell'arte troupes performed in the streets and utilized simple plaform stages and backdrops. The script for the play would generally be a skeletal breakdown of scenes and plot leaving the actors--who were often very highly trained in not only acting but singing, dancing and acrobatics as well--to improvise much of the dialogue and action. The characters were stock characters and often well known to the audience so little exposition was needed. Each of these characters was indicated by a prescribed mask, costume and series of gestures and movements. As commedia spread, these characters were often adapted to include local mythology with many of these characters transcending commedia into the theatrical traditions of the region. One of the most well known of these characters began as Arlecchino who bcame Arlequin in France and later Harlequin in England.

Commedia dell'arte itself transcended from simply Italian theatre into European theatrical tradition as a whole. Numerous playwrights throughout Europe found inspiration in commedia's tradition and they utilized the basics of commedia plots, characters and lazzi, or comic business, in their own works. Among the many playwrights influenced are William Shakespeare, Lope de Vega and Moliere. Though commedia fell out of use in the late 18th century it was revived in the early 20th century and numerous troupes were formed worldwide.

Latter Days

Background

The issues of homosexuality and Christianity have been devisive in the United States, including within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, LDS or the Mormon Church. The church's stance on homosexual activity is that while the desires that may be experienced by a homosexual are not inherently sinful, action taken in accordance with these desires are sinful. According to the LDS periodical, the Ensign, Most people have inclinations of one kind or another at various times. If they do not act upon these inclinations, then they can go forward as do all other members of the Church. If they violate the law of chastity and the moral standards of the Church, then they are subject to the discipline of the Church, just as others are.