Follow the Yellow Brick Road: Gender, Power, and the Megamusical in the Land of Oz. Part 2

8:07 AM Amanda Prahl 0 Comments

In the first part of this series, we looked at the female characters in Oz and what they symbolize, both on a dramatic and musical level and a theoretical level. Now, let's take a look at these women's relationships and the remarkable (and unusual) use of female friendship to structure the show. But first, just to wrap up the gendered character analysis, let's also take a quick look at the men of Oz, particularly the men of Wicked.

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Dear Broadway: Not Every Movie Needs To Be A Musical

12:30 PM Amanda Prahl 0 Comments

If you've been paying any attention to Broadway these days, you might have noticed a few familiar titles. Or more than a few. In recent seasons, the theater world has been overrun by "new" musicals that are based on existing stories, particularly films. Some (Once) have been great. Others (Ghost, anybody?), not so much. Now, adaptation has been the bread and butter of book musicals since Rodgers and Hammerstein adapted Green Grow The Lilacs, a play with 64 Broadway performances to its name, into one of the most popular and groundbreaking musicals in theater history: Oklahoma! The difference is, the adaptations we're seeing today are not true adaptations of a story into something new for the theater. Instead, it feels like producers go down a list of popular movies and try to shoehorn them into a milieu that simply doesn't work. I love musical theater, but here's the thing: not everything should be a musical.

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Follow the Yellow Brick Road: Gender, Power, and the Megamusical in the Land of Oz. Part 1

3:25 PM Amanda Prahl 0 Comments

I thought I'd try something a little different for this post, something a little more academic. But not dry, I promise! The musical I love best in the world is Wicked, and I've always had a fascination with the world of Oz. As I've grown older and learned more about the story and its contexts over time, I wanted to do some research into the power and gender dynamics in the story. This particular commentary ended up pretty long, so I'm dividing it into sections. (Note: I'll put references at the bottom of each post in case anyone wants to take a look at some of my sources). First up: a character analysis of the ladies of Oz.

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Calling all Cortexifans: Here's a successor to Fringe- and you should be watching!

11:04 AM Amanda Prahl 0 Comments

"You are my favorite thing, Peter. My very favorite thing." And for five glorious seasons, Fringe was a favorite thing for millions of fans who loved its unique blend of outrageously creative and creepy sci-fi mythology, thoughtful philosophy, and emotionally rich character arcs. In today's TV milieu, dominated by anti-hero cable dramas and sharp-tongued sitcoms, there is little, if anything, that captures a similar spirit of adventure and darkness alongside a healthy dose of hope. But with last season's breakout hit Sleepy Hollow, it seems the spirit (no pun intended) of Fringe may once again be on our TVs. Here's four reasons why you should be watching, Fringe fan or not.

Sleepy Hollow cast, image (c) Fox

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Ma'am, Yes, Ma'am: Women and Institutionalized Authority on TV

8:01 AM Amanda Prahl 0 Comments

There is really no argument that modern television screens are full to the brim with strong female characters. From the fiery antiheroines of Homeland, Revenge, The Sopranos, and Game of Thrones to the funny professional ladies on 30 Rock and Parks & Recreation, to the steely-tough heroines found throughout sci-fi from Buffy Summers up through Alias, Fringe, and the modern companions of Doctor Who, there’s no shortage of strong females, no matter what your tastes are. But no matter how amazingly fierce and capable they are, there’s still one thing missing from nearly every one of them: institutionalized authority. Why is it that nearly every female character must answer to an authority personified by men? This isn’t meant as a slam on capable, clever, worthy male authority figures. I have always been a pretty low-key, middle-of-the-road feminist who has no problem with men. The problem I see is when these things become a pattern.

Let’s break this down by a few genres: drama/procedural, comedy, and sci-fi.

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The Fan's Guide to the Elements of Writing: Chekov's (or John Watson's) Gun

8:10 AM Amanda Prahl 0 Comments

As I've gone through writing courses, I've learned a great deal about seemingly simple devices that recur in many works and that can prove very useful, whether you're analyzing a story or writing one of your own. This is the first in what will be a recurring series on The Storyologist: The Fan's Guide to the Elements of Writing. We're going to look at these devices and their uses through the lenses of films, TV shows, books, and theater that many of you are probably familiar with.

We're going to start with a very well-known device used in foreshadowing: Chekov's Gun. Or, as I'm going to look at it here, John Watson's Gun.

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"New New Doctor": Companions, Character Development, and Why I'm Dreading the Regenerated Doctor

2:50 PM Amanda Prahl 0 Comments

In my time as a Doctor Who fan, I’ve come across my fair share of anti-Moffat critiques. He’s usually given credit for writing some excellent episodes, but his era as showrunner has generally been criticized for, among other things, a lack of character development, a not inconsiderable degree of sexism, and a set of companions whose lives revolve entirely around the Doctor.  I agree with some of these critiques, disagree with others. But I’ve thought about this long and hard, both as an aspiring/studying writer and as a fan, and I’d like to talk about what I perceive to be the main problem with Moffat-era Who: the ignorance of character development/continuity, particularly in how the Doctor learns and changes (or doesn’t) because of his beloved companions.


Image (c) Doctor Who/BBC

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