Open Prompt #2

     1972. In retrospect, the reader often discovers that the first chapter of a novel or the opening scene of a drama introduces some of the major themes of the work. Write an essay about the opening scene of a drama or the first chapter of a novel in which you explain how it functions in this way.

     Almost every good novel or story starts out with a very catchy scene, a scene that is usually the setting of the whole story, scenes such as murder. Like Curtains, the Broadway musical written by Rupert Holmes. Jessica Cranshaw was mysteriously murdered at the beginning of the story. When Holmes wrote the story, he was careful not to show too much detail as to what had happened that caused the dramatic death. Yet viewers would immediately figure out this is a comedy-tragedy musical.

     In the beginning of Curtains, Jessica, the lead singer, sings rather poorly. With each word pronounced wrong and very off key. Viewers knew that this is supposed to be a joke, and that something will happen to Jessica. At follow by the fall of the Curtain. Jessica died. At the point everyone knew that Jessica was supposed to die, but no one knows how or why. Holmes carefully wrote the murdering scene. He made sure that no viewers notice the oddness of two people going up the stage from two directions to present flowers. And the abstract of the colors of the flower, even if someone did notice, no one would suspect that one of those flowers is the weapon that caused Jessica’s death.

     In the second half of the first scene, viewers learn that no one likes Jessica, and everyone hoped she either leave or die. So at that point everyone was considered suspect. Lieutenant Frank Cioffi, local Boston detective, showed up and locked up everyone from the show in the theater. Immediately viewers would see that Cioffi is now in charge of the scene. Everyone is under his control. Viewers might not know what would happen next, but comprehend that the rest of the musical would occur inside the theater. At this point viewers would understand that there is a killer on the loose, a detective trying to catch the killer, and everyone inside the theater is a suspect.

     A lot of writers would show a dim detail of the plot which provides the basic background of the story at the first scene. This writing style prevents readers/ viewers from knowing too much about the detail of the story, yet understand what is going on and would guess around for answers. It creates a mood for the audience causing them to predict what would happen later on in the story. Holmes’ Curtains is one of the stories that provides enough information for audience to predict but not enough for audience to know the detail.