The Immigration Reform Bill of 2013 - Coursework Example

The Immigration Reform Bill of 2013 Introduction The United States of America is forever plunged in the power play of technology and political decisions made by heads of states and industrial giants. Ever since the first propositions of passing the Immigration Reform Bill had come out in 2013, the entire corporate and banking sectors waited with bated breath as to which direction the bill would take and how it would affect their functioning and the country’s GDP. Everybody knows that a huge amount of immigrant population is required to go back to their native lands in spite of availed the high order education in the campuses of American Universities. The entire process of deportation is another factor that sends back another major chunk of young people who have grown up and studied in American colleges, thereby sending away a huge chunk of the talent within these colleges. While authorities stay strict, the government is bearing the brunt of the corporate and banking sectors who are forced to undertake industrialization due to outflow of such talent from their companies. The Immigration Reform Bill sought to address issues from both the government and people’s point of views. And whether it succeeds or not depends upon the election of the minister who is most vehement and active in getting the House to agree to this Bill. The play designed in this article uses five theatrical techniques to highlight the range of events that occur in this politician’s life, till the final verdict of the election, in which he gets to know if he is elected or not. Act I The first act (Act I) has three scenes. The first scene is a congregational meeting held at a Church service, to commemorate the death of the younger brother of this politician. Key characters in the play, like the rival politicians and business magnets who influence them are introduced in this meeting. The political leader although in silence is aware of the brewing political tension in the minds of these guests attending the congregation. The scene uses thought tracking (Mackey & Cooper, 2000, 50) done by another key character of the play Adam Xavier, who is himself a 40 year old high profile journalist familiar with the powerplayers of this game. His observations and dialogues familiarize the audience with the real tension that is present in the thoughts of the characters of the play. The second scene introduces the family of the politician to us where the mother of the politician and his deceased brother laments at the turn of events and asks everyone to make sure that none of the political or business rivalries come in the way of peace inside the family. The third scene is in a local college, wherein a student union demonstrates the need to have a flexible immigration law, to stop deportation of many youngsters, some of whom have been removed from the college campus. Unbeknownst to the politician, his daughter’s best friend Mark, is the leader of this Union. The son of a business magnet himself, this boy is not aware of the tyrant nature of his father, and takes active part in voicing the thoughts of students of immigrant backgrounds. The scene closes with the father arguing with his son in the college lobby. Soundscape (Oddey, 2013, p.30) shows the audience that the college becomes aware of this difference of opinion and students within the union start doubting if their leader Mark, is going to stay faithful to the cause of their protests, given that he is the only son of a richly placed and influential father. Act II Act 2 Scene 1 begins with Adam’s thought tracking (Mackey & Cooper, 2000, p.50) of all the political characters, who are now actively campaigning for the upcoming elections to the Lower House. Everybody knows that to make the Immigration Bill pass, election of our political leader is important and crucial. As he is covering these campaigns, he comes to realize that all the political players are mere puppets in the hands of the corporate sector and its head honchos. Adam tries to face the truth about his own profession and the role he plays in understanding all these false people in a hotseat situation (Mackey & Cooper, 2000, p.50). Regular flashforwards (Mackey & Cooper, 2000, p.48) he leave him disappointed as in his imagination he sees the false candidates winning because they have the backing of lewd businessmen who want to kill the chances of immigrants staying in America. While Adam is busy collecting his thoughts, Scene 2 reveals that a group of businessmen quietly call a meeting of political rivals of our politician and decide upon individual deals that would work in the direction of ousting our politician. An agreement is reached in the midst of soundscape of student protests, election campaigns, BBC broadcasts of election news, and marching military. Act III Act 3 is the final act of the play which has three scenes again. In the first scene, the politician enters a conscious corridor and tries t understand the situation all by himself sitting alone on the room. He resorts to a teichoscopic drama (Lovatt, 2013, p.217) and visualizes his brother in heaven, he talks to him and gets to know that winning elections is not going to make the Bill permanent in the House. Instead, it is going to be the beginning of another assault to the democracy of Americans, led by the corporate sector which is looking for more globalization opportunities, something which gets hindered once deportation stops. Unless the skilled people go back home, these companies cannot grow in those markets. In the teichoscopy, the politician realizes that scores of American institutions and citizens are going to be affected since the GDP will fall gradually. He tries to flashforward to a victorious scene, in which he sees himself winning, but a sudden car accident outside his house disrupts his vision. The scene closes with the politician facing up to the truth in hand owing to the conscience corridor (Mackey & Cooper, 2000, p.50) he visits on his return from the flashforward that he stands to lose more than win. Scene two shows the election results being announced in the White House in which the politician has lost by a small margin and is not entitled to enter the Lower House as a minister of power. Defeat causes everybody in his party to lose hope, but the politician is motivated. He says that the war has just begun. And this time is will be to remove the rot from the roots. Scene three is the final concluding scene of the play in which he goes home to meet his family and sit for dinner with them. He announces his loss to his mother and rest of the members of the family, his next plan of fighting for the Immigration Bill to be passed, and his definite assurance that the defeat will never affect the peace of his family life. The scene closes as everyone on the table clap and raises a toast to celebrate a new beginning. Techniques Used: Since this is an intense political drama filled with serious thoughts of political processes, the audience is given techniques that help him indulge in the concept of the plot. Immigration Reform Bill has not progressed any better after 2013, and the defeat of a key political minister has led to reporters and critics to believe that the Bill is pushed back in the list of the government’s priority. The audience will not be able to relate to this critical process of thinking unless thought tracking is provided to them. In this play, this technique has been used more than once to bring in the opinions of the general public or heads of parties and businesses. Flashforwards as a technique have often been used to portray happy thoughts and predictions. In this play, however, we use it to predict the final climax and use it to prepare the audience and the characters for the worse. The flashforwards (Mackey & Cooper, 2000, p.48) he show the natural reactions of people in the loser’s party. Even the politician is shown depressed and broken down after defeat in the flashforward. However, when in reality of the play, the defeat is announced, audiences are treated with an optimistic reaction from the same characters who were shown distraught in the flashforward, thus giving the audience a completely new ending to enjoy. The story of Mark closes in the final scene where he joins the politician’s family at the dinner table and also vows to stand by the politician in his endeavors. Thus the treatment of the play using flashforwards has been intentionally been made different and novel (Jackson & Vine, 2013, p.16). The third technique used in this play is conscience corridor. Although it is not really required, the politician entering into multiple flashforwards and teichoscopy give him a deeper insight into what his actions are centered around. He realizes that more than winning or losing happiness of his direct family members and the immigrant families is more important. So no matter how hard he loses, he has to keep the spirit alive and get going. His conscience allows him to accept the truth and not recourse to a path of damnation and self-destruction, indications of which he gives at the beginning of the scene. Both Adam and the politician are given the hot seating treatment to bring out to the audience the different challenges of two people in different professions. At the close of every hot seating the realization shares the same wisdom, which shows that nothing is permanent and in a society plagued by selfishness, it is the wrong ones who have it easy and win. But that does not mean that the right ones should lose enthusiasm or take up a laid back attitude. Their path is longer, but their goal is definite. This is reflected in the teichoscopy that the politician enacts on stage, where he sees that his upcoming defeat only takes him closer to his goal. Conclusion: Everytime serious concepts like political power plays are considered for theatrical adaptations, it often becomes difficult whether one needs to use too many techniques or keep it to a bare minimum. Group scenes with demonstrations and strikes form a definite part of such plays, and political jargons usually amuse only the politically educated audience, not the layman looking for entertainment. The above play has been created by incorporating scene elements and theatrical techniques that indulge both the advanced and layman sections of the audience. Therefore, with the use of five techniques, this play is more likely to give out hope to those who have been disappointed by the recent sluggish movement of the Immigration Reform Bill. References: Mackey, S., & Cooper, S. (2000). Drama and Theater Studies. Nelson Thornes Lovatt, H. (2013). The Epic Gaze: Vision, Gender and Narrative in Ancient Epic. London: Cambridge University Press. Oddey, A. (2013 ). Devising Theatre: A Practical and Theoretical Handbook. New York: Routledge. Jackson, A., & Vine, C. (2013). Learning Through Theater: the Changing Face of Theatre in Education. New York: Routledge. Read More