1. To what extent has modern theatre successfully incorporated puppetry and/or multimedia? Does this enhance or detract from the overall production? Use examples from local productions you have seen, if possible.
With the advent of technology, multimedia is widely used even in modern theatre. Its purpose is to increase tension and suspense of the audience and to immerse them into the world of the stage. In my opininon, multimedia is successful to a large extent when it comes to modern theatre. The use of lights sets and enhances the mood of the play audience will be more able to sympathise with the characters' emotions through the use of coloured lights. For example, blue depicts depression and red depicts outrage. Sounds make the whole play seem realistic and it surrounds and captivates the audience so that they will actually believe that everything is really happening and it is not just a static or empty stage without any excitement or conflict, because not all kinds of conflict can be clearly portrayed solely with acting. An example of a production which uses multimedia is A Midsummer Night's Dream which uses sudden sounds to imply trouble.
Puppetry is also essential for some productions perhaps to create comedic feel and happy moods to the play. For certain kinds of actions like swordfighting, actors may not be able to convey it in a convincing manner. Therefore, the use of puppets can assist in such occasions.
Jasmen Yew Lien Tah
