Here are the guidelines:
- Reading responses must be AT LEAST 200 words.
- Include your full name at the end of your comments. Unnamed comments will be deleted.
- From the "Comment As" drop-down menu, choose Anonymous, then click "Publish."
- Reading responses are due by midnight on Mondays and Wednesdays, no exceptions.
In "Now We're Really Getting Somewhere" Kristina Halvorson explores different aspects of life among young adults in a professional atmosphere. It is important to note the ages and sexes of the actors. All in their twenties. Three women and one man. We have a woman,Elaine, supervisor who acts as though everything is going great when in fact they are not. She approaches these conflict resolution meetings with cynicism. She never shows up on time causing customer service reps Jen and Bethany angst and disillusionment. Jack, the only male, enters the scene with confidence causing consternation between Jen and Bethany. Their Monday morning meetings are referred to as a safe place for the women, and they view him as disruption and a violation even though he is at the center of the dispute. The difference of this play compared to the others I've read is the number of characters and the overall length. It does bring up the debate of having safe places and how the role of women in the workforce are viewed.
ReplyDeleteIn "Now We're Really Getting Somewhere" Kristina Halvorson explores different aspects of life among young adults in a professional setting. It is important to note the ages and sexes of the actors. All in their twenties. Three women and one man. We have a woman, Elaine, supervisor who acts as though everything is going smoothly when in fact they are not. She approaches these conflict resolution meetings with cynicism. She never arrives on time causing customer service reps Jen and Bethany angst and disillusionment. Jack, the only male, enters the scene with confidence causing a feeling of consternation in both the reps. The Monday morning meetings were seen as an all woman safe place, and they view him as a disruption and a violation of trust by Elaine even though he is at the center of the dispute. Elaine views their complaint as an excuse to make their unhappy lives public, and in the meantime naming Jack as their source of discontent. The two big differences I noticed in this play versus the others I've read is the number of characters as well as the overall length.
ReplyDeleteSpiro Zagouris
The play “Now We’re Really Getting Somewhere” by Kristina Halvorson has been one of my favorite plays that we have read so far in this unit. This play has a very common setting, a work office, where four co-workers are about to have one of their regular meetings. These co-workers are four characters within their mid- and late-twenties; they all have their very different attitudes and personalities. We are introduced to Jen, an unhappy person who is clearly not satisfied with her job, and the same happens with Bethany, who tries harder not to be unhappy. I think these two characters are somewhat alike, they want to change their work environment since it is very hard for them to be working in an office without truly being respected and just being called “girls”. Then we have their supervisor, Elaine, who does not really help a lot improving this situation and she defends a lot the other character, Jack, the “nice” guy. I think that Halvorson made a great job by creating these characters because they all interact according to their personalities towards the conflict they are having in their meeting. I enjoyed reading their different lines and reactions and I think I will enjoy it even more when the play is performed in class.
ReplyDeletePaulina Longoria
I enjoyed "Now We're Really Getting Somewhere" a lot. The different personalities that each character brought to the play made it easy to imagine how each character was reacting to the situations. this play consisted of only four character, Jack, Elaine, Bethany, and Jen. One of my favorite things about this play was that it was about co-workers that did not agree with one another which can be relate-able to some people who work. It was fun reading the play especially because you did not know what the next person was going to say next and I feel that the characters fit in perfectly with the scene at their work space. Bethany and Jen are similar characters in the way that they don't feel appreciated in their work space and feel that Elain doesn't see that causes Jack to be seen as the conflict of the play since Bethany and Jen aren't very help with Elain always defending Jack. This is by far the best play i have read, I really liked how there were more characters in this play and how it is relatable in life situations. I found it quite intriguing to see what was going to happen next through the scenes.
ReplyDelete-Karla Romero
"Now We're Getting Somewhere" by Kristina Halvorson is very entertaining. The title of the play is sort of ironic since throughout the play the four characters are getting nowhere. All the characters are in their 20s and have different yet the same type of personality. Jen and Bethany both are pretty unhappy and even though it seems like they don't really like each other in the beginning, they end up teaming up against Elaine and Jack. On the other hand Elaine and Jack are kind of similar since they both don't really ever resolve anything. There were moments that I found kind of funny. In the beginning the conversation between Jen and Bethany made me laugh since Jen sounds so unhappy its almost funny. Jack and Elaine made me angry. They both were seeing the problem yet not doing anything to fix it. You can see how much Elaine does want to change anything because even when Jen goes off on her, she doesn't get super angry or tell Jen to leave or give her any real punishment, instead tries to comfort her, showing how even when not given the respect she needs, she doesn't do much so nothing would change.
ReplyDelete-Rebecca Muniz
“Now We’re Really Getting Somewhere” by Kristina Halvorson was a very entertaining and realistic play. It really revolves around the conflicts one would have within their professions. I could easily find myself being involved in that type of situation. Out of all the characters in the play, I would say I would relate to Elaine the most. I have never been a huge fan of confrontation or putting myself, or anyone else for that matter, in uncomfortable positions. However, I do wish I could be more like Jen. It really takes a lot for a person to say how they truly feel so that the things one might not enjoy could be resolved. Even though I do identify with Elaine the most, I did find her quite irritating. Even after Jen bravely expressed her thoughts, Elaine practically shut her down and resolved absolutely nothing in the end.
ReplyDeleteThe title is pretty ironic since they didn’t actually get anywhere. It did seem like some situations would get resolved in the middle of the play, but they were left just as of Jen didn’t do a whole monologue of what she was frustrated with working the job she has. I really enjoyed this play and found it the most relatable one.
Angela Milan
The play “Now We’re Really Getting Somewhere” is about co workers meeting and discussing issues at work. The play seems a little menial from the beginning. Jen is the character that stands out the most because she really wants something to come out of the meetings, however Elaine just seems to be extremely unconfrontational that she does not want to stand up for herself or confront Jack the incompetent co worker. Things escalate because Jen decides to confront Jack and tell him what he is doing wrong and what he should d to make things better. Elaine being so unconfrontational just wants to seep everything under the wrong and pretend everything is fine. The play is entertaining because it is filled with a little tension and the way that Jen decides to make a change by exposing the real aspect of the situation in their work. I did not like that nobody else stood up with Jen and actually made her seem like the bad guy at the end. I can understand Elaine to feel hurt or offended but she really was losing her self respect by not standing up for herself. I think that after Jen spoke out then they were really getting somewhere with their issues. – Maria Ramirez Montoya
ReplyDeleteThe character I enjoyed the most from this play was Jen because she was so blunt with the way she would talk to her own boss, and she even admitted in her face how she didn't respect her. I didn't' really like Elaine's character because she was a careless boss, she would not address the real issue going on at work, and she would let Jen talk to her like that, and even though I liked Jen's character Elaine should of not let her employees disrespect her like that. Jack was put out as "nice enough" at the beginning of the play but in reality we didn't see much of his character development. I honestly thought Bethany was going to be the one to drop the shoe since she was the first to admit that they all hated jack, but Jen's character really surprised me. I enjoyed this play because of its many characters that not the other plays had so it made it a little more interesting in my opinion.
ReplyDelete-Carina Pompa
Now we’re really getting somewhere felt like it doesn’t go anywhere but actually does. It felt like reading a conversation. What kept the play interesting was that there was a dilemma throughout the performance that everyone never addressed. Or if they talked about it, it was not talked about it enough. Team communication is important in every job setting and I think that came out clearly with Jen’s lines. The job setting sounds horrendous. Everyone expects others to go above and beyond but there is no fundamental commitment to do so. The play shows us how no one working there really knows each other. Any feedback is thrown out the window, even their meeting is cut short because everyone agrees to leave. I found the title and telecommunications company setting ironic which helped it a lot in being humorous. The last lines with Jen repeating “I am doing the best that I can” encapsulates the amount of stress this woman has to live with. She is trying not to be cynical, but her environment seems to prevail every time, reinforcing her negative attitude. No once seems to care so why would she? I think she took Bethany’s advice in thinking that it could be worse, although I’m not sure that’s good advice to begin with.
ReplyDelete-Leonardo Torres
Kristina Halvorson’s play “Now we’re really getting somewhere” has been my favorite read so far. The setting for the play takes place in a common office setting with four coworkers, Jen, Bethany, Elaine and Jack, who are all around the same age. As I read the play I couldn’t help but smile from time to time because I felt like this was written about my work setting at my hotel. We have weekly front desk meetings that transpire like this play almost every time. Each character fit each one of my coworkers and because I was able to picture my staff as I read the play, it made the reading that much more enjoyable. I found that Jen and Bethany are really similar characters except Bethany still tries to not be so negative whereas Jen just doesn’t even try. I think these two were my favorites of the play because of how similar yet contradictive they were to each other.
ReplyDelete-Arianna Martinez
The thing that I really enjoyed about this week's reading was that it provided believable dialogue with believable characters. It provided an appropriate setting for our characters to conversate and the setting really lent to their flushing out. It almost sounds like a conversation you could have with people in a professional setting. Not only that but these four characters never felt like they were crowding a scene and fighting for dialogue. It felt natural and flowed extremely well. The thing that I seemed to enjoy the most about this week’s play was that it felt extremely believable and I can’t wait to play it out when we get to be in the class. It is something that I can draw on for my play at the end of the semester. The thing that I also really liked is how you can take the manner in which they were talking and apply it to almost any job you’ve had and you can picture a group of coworkers that you just enjoyed talking to and being critical with. Even if you were just messing around it is something that we all have done at some point or another. Overall it was a fun piece. - Jesús Iván González
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the play Now We're Really Getting Somewhere by Kristina Halvorson. The play itself is actually pretty funny it. I could picture the interaction between each character because it's over a really modern topic with the uneasy and awkward moments when it come to working with others who you feel that aren't putting the work or passionate about the work they are doing. I really enjoyed that they went the route that sometimes you do have to just rip the bandaid and just confront the problem head on. I was kinda lost when they bring up in the play when the morning meeting are considered safe space for the three female character which was never really bring it up so it felt like it was just said for no reason. Other than that as i previously stated i really enjoyed the overall plot and how they used the youth because most people have the mind set that the youth are more temper mental and are more aligned with their emotions than a more rational thought process.
ReplyDeleteDaniel Acosta
The play "Now We're Really Getting Somewhere" was a good read. The characters were different, and the dialogue was interesting. I appreciated that the ending wasn't all in the main characters favor. That life. I was looking for a deeper meaning by reading it over twice, but I it seems to me that there might not be one. Obviously, the characters are displaying a scenario where the scale between passion and mediocracy dips more on the latter. That could be an analogy on what the author thinks the mindset society has. But, that wouldn't be completely accurate because many businesses and entreprenuers are hard working are thriving on their efforts. Another thought I had was the possible difference between the higher management versus the lower employees. Maybe this was a play on how someone who's gotten gotten promoted, and accepts their mediocracy for what it is, can just stop dreaming for better things. And, in comparison, those who are still at the bottom are always seeking for more, for better. Either way, I enjoyed the banter and contrasting characters.
ReplyDelete-Cassandra Ramos
i am ERIC BRUNT by name. Greetings to every one that is reading this testimony. I have been rejected by my wife after three(3) years of marriage just because another Man had a spell on her and she left me and the kid to suffer. one day when i was reading through the web, i saw a post on how this spell caster on this address AKHERETEMPLE@gmail.com have help a woman to get back her husband and i gave him a reply to his address and he told me that a man had a spell on my wife and he told me that he will help me and after 3 days that i will have my wife back. i believed him and today i am glad to let you all know that this spell caster have the power to bring lovers back. because i am now happy with my wife. Thanks for helping me Dr Akhere contact him on email: AKHERETEMPLE@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteor
call/whatsapp:+2349057261346
i am ERIC BRUNT by name. Greetings to every one that is reading this testimony. I have been rejected by my wife after three(3) years of marriage just because another Man had a spell on her and she left me and the kid to suffer. one day when i was reading through the web, i saw a post on how this spell caster on this address AKHERETEMPLE@gmail.com have help a woman to get back her husband and i gave him a reply to his address and he told me that a man had a spell on my wife and he told me that he will help me and after 3 days that i will have my wife back. i believed him and today i am glad to let you all know that this spell caster have the power to bring lovers back. because i am now happy with my wife. Thanks for helping me Dr Akhere contact him on email: AKHERETEMPLE@gmail.com
or
call/whatsapp:+2349057261346