TA 152 Theatre

THEATRE ARTS TA 152: ANALYSIS OF DRAMA AND THEATRE

Theatre Arts TA 152 is The Analysis of Drama and Theatre course. It has no prerequisite. I actually attended this course one day in CSULA as an elective course. Here is an analysis of the movie I saw yesterday.

I watched the movie "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" on TV last Sunday, and I enjoyed it. The movie is about our hero starting his way up to the corporate ladder in the mailroom department. This plot makes this movie special to me because I also started my way up in the mailroom department when I was 16 years old.

Robert Morse, who has the leading role, is so much like Jerry Lewis that for the first 10 minutes of the movie, I thought it was Jerry Lewis. Not until the movie showed a larger face did I realized the face is not that of Jerry Lewis.

Our protagonist started as a mailroom clerk, same as I did, then was promoted to junior executive, then junior executive with his own office, then director of personnel department, then vice president of advertising, then chairman of the board, all within a month or so. What a career!

It should also be noted that the Frank Sinatra song "I Believe in You" with the notable lyrics of "cool clear eyes of a seeker of wisdom and truth" and "grin of impetuous youth" came from the Broadway musical of this movie.

Lastly, the movie "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" was followed 2 decades later by another movie using almost the same plot and starting in the mailroom department, “The Secret To My Success.”

Here's a practice exam for Theatre Arts TA 152: Analysis of Drama and Theatre.

Question 1. Who is the actor in the leading role in the movie “The Secret to My Success”?

Question 2. What year was the movie “The Secret to My Success” released?

Question 3. What year was the movie "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" released?

Question 4. What song was the character "Finch" singing to himself?

Question 5. Who was the leading female actor in the movie “The Secret To My Success”?

Question 6. How old is the movie industry, in centuries?

Question 7. What standard equipment did all the junior executives in the movie "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying"  have in their desks?

Question 8. What does WWW company stand for in the movie "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying"?

Question 9. When did Theater Arts began?

Question 10. Who were the first playwrights?

The show must go on.

John Sindayen