Research
Research
These are the areas of research that I will be focusing on and using to immerse myself further into my characters shoes and his motivations. This research will help me have a better understanding of the plays setting and the context surrounding the play which will aid in making creative decisions in the set design and the lighting effect to highlight key themes such as:
- Racial issues 1960s
- Itallian Mafia
- 1960's New York, Bronx
- Interracial relationships
Bibliography
Primary Sources
Context
Based on a true story
Chazz Palminteri's has been reliving his autobiographical 'A Bronx Tale' for three decades , first as a one man play , later as a film and now it finds new life as a Broadway musical.
Set in the 1960s, the street-wise musical centers on the coming of age of an Italian-American boy from the Bronx named Calogero whose loyalties become divided between his hardworking father, Lorenzo, and the charismatic local gangster, Sonny.
“It’s very much of my own life. My real name is Calogero, my father was a bus driver … and I fell in love with a black girl when I was 17”
How is the stage show of A Bronx Tale different from the film, other than it being performed by one actor?
"It's more of a visceral experience, because I'm the guy. I am [the protagonist] Calogero. I'm telling you the story of my life, and about my father the bus driver and Sonny the wise guy.
After doing the play one night, somebody told me that Robert De Niro was in my dressing room. He told me that A Bronx Tale was the greatest one-man show he'd ever seen. He asked me if I realised that I'd essentially done a movie onstage. I said, "yeah, I know." Then he told me that he would direct the movie and play my father, and I would play Sonny. I ended up getting a million and a half dollars, plus I got what I wanted.
“It’s because they’re archetypes, these characters, the father, the son. You don’t have to be from the Bronx, you don’t have to be Italian-American. ‘A Bronx Tale’ was a huge hit in Japan; you know, figure that out. ... It just touched and it touches people … and it’s been doing that for 30 years. The musical, I think, is the best of all,” said the writer, director and Oscar-nominated actor.
Citation Information :
Brandy Mcdonnell (3/3/2019),Based on a true story: ,Oklahoman. Avalible from: {https://oklahoman.com/article/5624605/based-on-a-true-story-chazz-palminteris-autobiographical-a-bronx-tale-finds-new-life-as-a-musical} (24/04.2019)
1960's New York, Bronx
During prohibition in the 1920s, which was a period in time where alcohol was mad illegal , bootleggers, gangs and secret bars serving alcohol known as speakeasies was running rampant in the Bronx. Mostly Irish and Italian immigrants smuggled in the illegal whiskey. By 1926, the Bronx was noted for its high crime rate and its many speakeasies.
After the 1930s, the Irish immigrant population in the Bronx decreased as a result of better living conditions being provided in the New York suburbs and in other states. The German population followed suit in the 1940s. So did many Italians in the 1950s and Jews in the 1960s. The migration has left a thriving Hispanic (mostly Puerto Rican and Dominican) and African-American population, along with some white areas in the southeastern and northwestern part of the county.
Cited Information
Yes The Bronx.org (n.d) History Of The Bronx. Available From:http://yesthebronx.org/about/history-of-the-bronx/(24/04/2019)
Racial issues 1960s
Racism against black people grew in popularity after 1860, after attempts made based on discrimination towards black people was supported by theories cited as 'scientific evidence', to infer thing such as difference in brain size between African Decedents and Europeans in order to conclude one is less intelligent and therefore is more inferior to the other.This is known as Scientific Racism.
In 1863, a scientist and anthropologist by the name of Dr James Hunt, President of the London Anthropological Society quoted skeletal and anatomical data to argue people of African descent were inferior, and claimed black men and women were unintelligent because they had thick skulls.
Dr hunt also read a paper entitled ‘On the Negro’s Place in Nature’ to a gathering of the British Association in Newcastle. in his paper "On the Negro's place in nature" wrote,"the Negro is inferior intellectually to the European...[and] can only be humanised and civilised by Europeans.''
Fast forward to the 1960s where a group of 13 African American and white civil rights activists launched the 1961 Freedom Rides, which were a series of bus trips through the south of America protesting segregation on interstate buses, and in waiting rooms, bathrooms and bus stations.
Sadly, the bus the group was travelling on was fire-bombed, and they were badly beaten after local police colluded with the KKK to bring the activists down. That being said, the Freedom Riders still won in the end – by September 1961, the Interstate Commerce Commission had issued regulations prohibiting segregation in bus and train stations nationwide.
Notes taken from research to be used for the lighting colour :
- KKK denotes white supremacy
- KKK dress like ghost
- The word ‘Ghost’ connotes ; Spooky , ghostly , eerie = Connotations in colour - white and cold blue, possibly green
- Fire bombed bus has links and similarities too calergros friends who fire bombed themselves when attempting to commit harm on black people.
- Confederate Flag - connotations of racism , violence , hatred , blood = Connotations in colour - Red
The scene where Calegeros friends are attacking a group of African Americans and lashing out screaming racial slurs , I had an idea to use a red lighting effect connoting the pure hatred whites had against blacks at the time. I also had an idea to highlight the theme of white supremacy in the scene where Calegeros friends are in the car planning to carry out an attack on a black community with fire bombs.The theme of white supremacy in this was scene was to be shown by the lighting being a blue cold LED white light shining where the car and I was set up. This was also an intertextual reference to the historical context above, referring too the 1961 incident where the KKK a hate group preaching ideas of white supremacy, firebombed a bus full of protestors , who peacefully protested against segregation but were faced by a horrific fate.
The KKK started at the end of the Civil War between the North and Southern States over the embellishment of slavery.The Klan quickly assembled as a vigilante group to intimidate blacks in the south - and any whites who would help them - in order to prevent them from enjoying basic civil rights. Outlandish titles (like imperial wizard and exalted cyclops), hooded costumes, violent "night rides," and the notion that the group comprised an "invisible empire" conferred a mystique that only added to the Klan's popularity. Lynchings, tar-and-featherings, rapes and other violent attacks on those challenging white supremacy became a hallmark of the Klan.
Cited Information :
HANNAH-ROSE MURRAY (OCTOBER 12, 2015)Black History Month Post: ‘All Englishmen Were Not Shakespeares’: William Craft’s Attack on Scientific Racism in Britain. U.S Studies Online. Available From:http://www.baas.ac.uk/usso/black-history-month-post-all-englishmen-were-not-shakespeares-william-crafts-attack-on-scientific-racism-in-britain/ (24/04/2019)
Yasmin Jeffery(2017), Race relations in the 1960s , The Telegraph, Available from:http://www.gojimo.com/race-relations-1960s/(24/04/2019)
SPLC Centre , Southern Poverty Law Centre (No Date). Ku Klux Klan, Available From:https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/ku-klux-klan(24/04/2019)
Interracial relationships
interracial Relationships and Violence
The introduction of institutionalised slavery changed the nature of the way interracial relationships were viewed . The raping of African-American women by slave masters and other powerful whites during that period casted an ugly shadow on relationships between black women and white men. On the other hand , African American men who so much as looked at a white woman could be brutally beaten and even killed. This is a major reason why interracial relationships continue to carry a bad reputation, because of their association with violence, which carries on even further too July 11, 1958, where newlyweds Richard and Mildred Loving were asleep in bed when three armed police officers burst into the room. The couple was dragged from the bed of their home and thrown into jail. Mildred remained in jail for several days, all for the crime of getting married. At that time, 24 states across the country had laws strictly prohibiting marriage between people of different races.
Supreme Court ruled that laws prohibiting interracial marriage were unconstitutional in June,1967. Although such laws officially remained on the books in several states and the last law officially prohibiting interracial marriage was repealed in Alabama in 2000.
In addition to interracial marriage being a crime , those involved in interracial relationships sometimes would have to deal with disapproval from their family as well as their greater racial community. You may be viewed as a “sellout” or a “race traitor” for dating interracially.
This successfully links to the way Calegero was feeling when he said "She was beautiful but she was black and that was a no no in my neighbourhood" this shows Calegero would be feeling fear of resentment from his friends and family. After researching this I gained ideas in using the colour red for the lighting to convey meaning as it has multiple connotations such as love but also danger and resentment which our binary opposites to the feeling of love. This scene would convey meaning suggesting despite his potential feelings towards the girl whose of another race to him the atmosphere being full off Red is a sign and a warning for him not to further pursue.
Cited information :
PBS Learning Media (n.d)Interracial Relationships That Changed History. Black Culture Connection. Available from:https://www.pbs.org/black-culture/explore/interracial-marriage-relationships/(24/04/2019)
Nadra Kareem Nittle. "(2019, June 1). Difficulties Faced by Interracial Couples Historically and Today. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/common-problems-interracial-couples-have-faced-2834748.(6/04/2019)
Itallian Mafia
The Mafioso adhered to a strict code of silence when dealing with the law. The punishment for the violators who broke this code was death .This is why Calegero who lived in an Italian neighbourhood with a local Mafiso presence said ‘A rat was the lowest thing you could be in my neighbourhood’, a ‘rat’ means to give information to the police.
By the mid-20th century, there were 24 known crime families in America, comprised of an estimated 5,000 full-fledged members and thousands of associates across the country. Prior to the 1960s, some government leaders, including FBI Director J.Edgar Hoover, voiced skepticism about the existence of a national Italian-American organized crime network and suggested instead that crime gangs operated strictly on a local level. As a result, law enforcement agencies made few inroads in stopping the Mafia’s rise during this period.
The Mafia was gaining too much power and influence politically and financially so In 1970, Congress passed the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, which proved to be a powerful tool in the government’s war against the Mafia, as it allowed prosecutors to go after crime families and their sources of revenue, both legal and illegal.
Citation Information:
History.com Editors(October 22, 2009) Mafia in the United States,A&E Television Networks Available from:https://www.history.com/topics/crime/mafia-in-the-united-states.(24/04/2019)
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