ACT 215 Study Guide - Fall 2019, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Richard Nixon, Magic!, Los Angeles Lakers
14 Feb 2019
School
Department
Course
Professor
ACT 215
Cynthia Valencia
Professor Contey
Plays About Sports
November 9, 2017
Response: The Tall Girls
1. The sport of basketball definitely affected the lives and experiences of the characters.
In a sense basketball is the environment of constant competition and this is what drives
the players to perform to their highest potential. For example, on page 27 Puppy explains
to Lurlene how her mom is diminished by Puppy’s father because he’s making her stay in
Poor Prairie to continue being a lawyer since they are the only ones still making money
during the great depression and Dust Bowl. So since her mom is upset that she has to stay
she is strict with Puppy and doesn’t want her basketball or else, “She’ll ship me Downstate
to St. Catherine-on-the-Wheel if I cross her,” said Puppy. But diminishment isn’t always a
bad thing for example on page 57 Haunt Johnny expresses his coaching style. Johnny tries
picking on each girl and help them realize what their flaws are in order for them to be able
to improve. So he was trying to diminish their confidence/ego in order to make them
better players. Another example, is found on page 47 where Haunt Johnny is elevating
Jean by encouraging her to keep up the good work because he believes that she is worthy
of being “a great shooting guard” which the position that most people desire because their
the center of attention and are usually the star/leader on the court. The final example I
found was on page 62 where Jean and Almeda were playing a game of one on one in order
to see who deserves to be the shooting guard. Since no one defended Almeda she wanted
it to be 1 on 4 and Jean’s team won. Everyone was surprised by the performance they say
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and elevated Jean expect for Almeda of course. They were all so proud of one another and
you could tell that Jean is a natural leader because she doesn’t only play the game well but
also makes sure to encourage her team like when she said, “You all played a good game.”
She is definitely different from Almeda who only really cares about herself.
2. In this play, money didn’t play as big of a significant role than in previous plays. But it did
affect some players more than others between their relationships with the other
characters and the sport. For instance, on pages 59 and 60, the girls were talking about
how other girl basketball teams are making money and they found out that if they would
wear “scanty uniforms” the men would travel a long way to watch and pay to see “high
school girls playing basketball in nearly no clothes.” Because I am aware of time era I
understand why the women want to wear a revealing uniform. The girls need to make
money and this is the only way they know how to do the thing they love, basketball.
Another great example where money is a factor is on page 59. On this page, Puppy is
talking to the other girls and says, “The more expensive your sneakers, the better you
play.” The girls believe this because Puppy is so fast and her shows haven’t gotten worn
out so Jean wants to the get the best shoes that cost the most so that her status is high.
Money in this play is viewed more as a scarcity and everyone wants/needs it and they’ll do
anything to get it. The money issue arises again on page 68 where Inez and Puppy discuss
how they are going to pay up the money they owe the bank. They’re having difficulty doing
this because they don’t only have to pay the bank what they borrowed but also interest.
Inez emphasizes that if they lose the farm they’ll have “nowhere to go” so the fact that
money is a huge necessity in this play it plays a vital role in the characters lives.
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3. The theatrical elements in the script really helped establish the sport for the audience.
The intro is very vivid and as it mentions how “A basketball dribbled on hard-packed dirt...
slow, initially, and then with increasing speed,” really helped set the tone of the play and
give the audience a feel for the sport. When it says the sound of the dribbling creates a
“thunderstorm of basketball” on page 5 I can really imagine it but I would also add in sound
effects of crowds cheering in the darkness to go along with the dribbling. One of the most
difficult aspects that the cast and directors most likely experienced was learning how to
get accustomed to the basketball life. For example, they were required to practice by
doing basketball drills in a number of scenes. Plus being able to nail each drill and shot
must've been really hard if the actor had little to no experience. Because a basketball is so
unpredictable that when this play is performed it will be hard to predict what will happen
so there are no guarantees that every shot will go in. Because of the unpredictability of
the ball, it could easily go out into the audience or even backstage if the character loses
control of the ball. Another valid difficulty of the play is that it must have been really hard
to move around on a small stage like "Theatre Wit" because of the limited space. So I feel
that if the stage is fairly big it would provide the cast with more space to work with. I really
enjoyed how this play expressed a team dynamic that allowed the audience to relate to it
more easily and at the same time the players did a great job at expressing how important
basketball was to these girls. Basketball in this universe of the play was more personal just
because these girls had to fight to be able to be taken seriously and even be able to get a
chance to play. Compared to our previous play based on basketball I have more or an
appreciation and connection towards this play Tall Girls. The characters had to play with a
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