ce. They have lived through the hard times depicted in the play and have learned the hard way. Therefore, the message has meaning for them and will keep them interested in the performance.The role of spectacle elements, such as song and dance, also play an important role in engaging the audience. The Wheat Pool song is used in the play as a means of setting the mood, and capturing the audiences attention. As the song was written in 1926, it is used to arouse memories in the minds of the audience members. Other songs such as The Prairie Winds, and Homesick Blues, are used sporadically throughout the play to keep the audience interested and alert. The director of the play, Guy Sprung, also chose to use a well-known local fiddler, Bill Prokopchuk, for the musical sequences. Audience members are able to relate to the music as well as the musician.Dance is another element of spectacle used in the play to engage the audiences interest. At the end of a scene entitled Leo, two tap dancers are used to symbolically show the formation of the Wheat Pool in 1924:Man enters. Starts to tap, then realizes he has only one shoe on. Girl enters-same thing but missing shoe on opposite foot to Mans. Idea strikes. If they tap together, the alternate shoes will make it sound as if one person was tapping. The dance goes from slow and tentative to frenzied ending with the old-fashioned theatrical tam-ta-ta-tam-tamtan-tam. They finally turn their backs to the audience, and their two T-shirts together make up the following message:WH EATPO OL19 24By using dance, a spectacle element, during this crucial scene, the audience is forced to pay attention to the importance of the scene.Paper Wheat relies heavily on comedy to captivate the audience. Comedy is a very alluring genre. If you can make an audience laugh then you can keep their attention. So the key is to find out what will make your audience laugh and then use it to entertain them. Paper...
