Waking Dream

3 Pages 680 Words

Waking the American Dream
America has always stood as a land of freedom, liberty, and an escape from persecution for all. The Statue of Liberty welcomes immigrants with “Give us your tired, your hungry, and your poor…” Furthermore, America is seen as a melting pot yet not everyone mixes together completely and with unrest in the Middle East even less so. Sarah Jones solo performance in Waking the American Dream was inventive and comical. The central concept was a look at the discrimination of different ethnic groups especially immigrants. Her costumes portrayed the lives of different ethnicities that immigrated to America with high hopes.
Jones shows immigrant rights in present day America with the use of a New York poetry gathering as the story line. There are more than ten separate characters of different cultural backgrounds displayed. The one common thread in all of them is their citizenship in America however, for many it means more to them then anyone else. Jones costumes show the discrimination of ethnic groups because of their accents and dress. In a similar fashion to da da kamera, she makes an effective use of jackets as her one costume change. The separate jackets symbolize the different ethnic groups that are discriminated against. For example, the Pakistani host Mohammed Ali wears a tweed jacket and the young American girl Lydia wears a white jacket. Both jackets are symbolic of the owner’s skin color which supports the central concept of different ethnic backgrounds.
As a director Jones was trying to create a comical undertone to relay the more serious stories of the American immigrants. She effectively plays on the stereotypes of race to draw the audience in and then adds a comedic twist. In this way she adds lightheartedness to the concept of racial discrimination. It certainly was effective in making me and the rest of the audience laugh proving that she has a definite comedic talent for impe...