Aida

I have recently had the deepest pleasure of being in the Massillon production of Aida. For those of you who don't know, Aida is a Broadway play written by Elton John and Tim Rice. It is superb in every fashion, from the story about a love affair between a Nubian slave and Egyptian prince, to the wonderful music written by the flamboyant king of piano pop music himself. The show is being sponsored by Rivertree Christian Church and directed by Broadway actor/director Jon Tisevich. It opens on October 12th and runs for 2 weekends. . . *cough* you should all come out and see it *cough!* Anyways, enough personal banter, on to the show!

I have noticed some very interesting things having to do with semiotics at work in both the cast of Aida and also the musical itself. First off, I guess I'll address interesting semiotic understandings at work in the cast of Aida.

1. The musical backgrounds of the cast- while Aida features primarily gospel music with a couple of pop rock songs thrown in, the cast brings to the table a vast range of different musical tastes and understandings. We did an exercise as a cast when we began our time together in which we got to know each other's musical backgrounds. A good way of understanding it according to the study of semiotics would be that all of the people in the cast come from different musical affinity groups. Some belong to the Rock affinity group, while others still belong to the hip hop affinity group. Our lead character, Aida (played by a woman named Joy) belongs almost entirely to the Gospel affinity group. One girl belongs to the 70's Hair Rock affinity group, while another girl belongs to the Reggae affinity group. All of these affinity groups fall under the larger semiotic domain of music. They use the signs and symbols, language and methods of music. The various different design grammars, while conflictive in nature, act to give the cast a unique view on the show and make it the spectacular production that it is.

2. The different cultural understandings of music, emotion, and expression- I have also noticed that people in the cast have different understandings of the world based on the cultures in which they have been raised. We have a very culturally diverse group. There are Irish, English, Russian, Czech, German, as well as African American heritage. These two groups (Caucasian and African American) each have a very different understanding of the world around them. I personally have noticed that when people are stressed, it is much more obvious to see that an African American girl named Gia is much more visible than a Caucasian girl named Jane. This comes partially from the different understandings of expressing ones feelings and emotions. In the Caucasian affinity group, often children are more encouraged to hold their feelings in. The Caucasian/European culture is a very reserved one, while the African American affinity group is a very open and expressive group.This is evident in how we have sang, in the movements and facial expressions, and also in the basic every day reactions to practice.

Now on to the show itself.

1. The mixing of musical genres- Within Aida, as i've touched on very briefly earlier on, there are different musical genres at work. While the play is overtly Gospel in nature, there are many elements of Rock, Pop, African Tribal, and Arabic influences within the music. For instance, while Gods of Nubia is a very straightforward Gospel song, the prelude that leads up to it has many middle eastern/Arabic elements to it. This seamless integration of musical genres can be known as hybridity. It is very interesting to see how this is put into play in Aida.

2. How different historical cultural values are related to modern understandings- In Aida, the song Gods of Nubia, the lyrics are polytheistic in nature. The lyrics state, "The gods love Nubia, their beautiful creation. Their songs roll sweetly across the harvest plain." The interesting thing here is that this polytheistic understanding is expressed in a very monotheistic way, describing the gods in a way that would never be understood or communicated in historic Egyptian culture, but instead in a modern way like the one that Judeo/Christianity describes the monotheistic God.

These things were very interesting to me, I look forward to seeing how the show plays out. Again, shamelessly I must state, YOU MUST COME SEE THIS PLAY

Massilon Lincoln Theatre
October 12-14, 19-21

Hope to see you there!

P.S. Look for these interesting semiotic objects at play in the musical! It will liven up your mind!