A Janitor, a Philadelphia, and a CheeseSteak Sandwich

The Philadelphia by David Ives

Humor, in my opinion, is one of the hardest genres to capture in writing without losing the essence of the jokes. Mr. Ives, however, does a fantastic job with it in this one-act script. It is great in so many aspects: the role reversal, the humor (of course), and the cultural relevance. Al, the calm and cool cat, despite losing his job and girlfriend, is mentally in a Los Angeles, while Mark is caught in one of the worse cities, up there with Baltimore, in a Philadelphia. In the beginning of the act, Mark is anxious and frazzled by the occurrences of the day, only to have Al explain how to get through the situation. Only minutes later, when Al realizes he, too, is caught in the abyss that is a Philadelphia, he becomes equally as frazzled as Mark was previously (whilst Mark, now, has the cool demeanor). This reminds me of how people love to give advice, but can never adhere to it, or take it from others. David Ives caught the reality of these sort of situations perfectly here. I also admire that he created the concept of taking the stereotypical feelings about certain cities to explain the mood of the self, and the reactions of those around the self. Reading this story instantly made me a David Ives fan, and I will soon be vigilantly seeking out more of his work.

The Janitor by August Wilson

Such an intellectually modest character, "One of them fellows in that Shakespeare stuff said, 'I am not what I am.'...", yet such a powerful word-smith all the same, "The last note on Gabriel's horn always gets lost when you get to realizing you done heard the first." The characterization made this play an instant-classic in my mind; the janitor is an imaginative, humble, introspective, insightful and hardworking man, able to win over the hearts of the audience within five minutes of dialogue. It is almost as if August Wilson wrote this one-act in response to feeling like he has wasted his years, or through seeing someone display similar emotions. It is quite heart-felt, and the contrast of Mr. Collins' "quit wasting time" was really well placed, despite the arrogance and contempt his one piece of dialogue held for the janitor. Overall, this is a speech that will linger like a krakken in the imaginative abyss of the sea, that is my mind (not even close to the beauty that the janitor was able to spill-out on the fly).

I am a fan of short prose and short stories, having not read many of these one-act plays, nor closet plays. But after reading these, I have become a quick fan, and will certainly be on the look out for more of the same (of these playwrights first, as I know no others at the moment). For that alone, the class has already been worth the while.