I originally purchased "Wake Up and Smell The Coffee" with two purposes in mind. I had seen H.S. Drama students performing excerpts from the DVD as monologues and I was curious to see more. As such, I was attempting to 1.) satify my own personal interest in theatre, and 2.) exploring the potential of the DVD as a teaching text for senior high school Drama students by studying how one actor performances (like Anthony Sher's Primo) can be entertaining, sustain an audience relationship and utilise a variety of performance techniques. Especially for those students that don't have regular access to live performance for whatever reason. Personally, I found "Wake Up and Smell The Coffee" an excellent, entertaining and challenging show. It has been recorded maintaining a sense of the live performance atmosphere and the interview extra adds another interesting perspective to the whole performance making process. I particularly love how Bogosian manages to link each set piece into a collective thematic whole that not only entertains but also provokes us. He doesn't seem to hold back on any taboo subjects and attacks pertinent topics. The show seems so relevant to our contermporary world that there is a starting notice informing us that the performance was written and performed prior to September 11th 2001. I would happily recommend the DVD to anyone interested in performance, social commentary and/or comedy.
In regards to my second purpose as a teaching tool, I would feel less comfort offering this DVD to a room of senior students to watch as a whole but there are certainly plenty of sections within that would lend themselves to a student viewing and will help budding actors to appreciate how one actor can use elements of theatre to create a engaging performance. Finally, as a theatre lover, I would like to thank Mr. Bogosian for making this performance available.
(Note: This is a copy of my review from Amazon)
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