At first impressions when looking at the stage setup, I initially thought that the story would be a typical romance story of a man falling in love with a woman at a cafe counter. There was no reason to think of creating a story that mainly had two characters except for a love story, as there weren’t many side characters present to demonstrate other possible theater genres. I would later realize that the story is more than just a romance story, but rather follows the theme of friendship. This is an underrated genre that I feel many plays, TV shows, and movies don’t do a fantastic job of doing through their similar framework of friendship storytelling. When watching “The Counter”, however, I came to realize that my initial thinking of the play was entirely false.

       Despite not admitting to it, Paul had undergone many rough periods of his life after having broken up with his true love at high school, developing PTSD from his firefighter career, and even having seen his loved ones at their deathbeds being mistreated by the staff at their nursing homes. Katie experienced a different kind of suffering that involved imposter syndrome through failing to contact her once true love and undergoing many surgical procedures that had her uterus removed. Paul, however, managed to share these experiences amongst himself and Katie by saying aloud, “Let’s be friends! Yes, the type of friends that share their secrets and talk about experiences they would never share with anyone else.” As a person who had many friends who sympathized with me during my stressful challenges in high school, I thus heavily related to Paul and Katie’s friendship and grew very content when seeing their friendship developing into one that’s very important in sustaining each of their lives.

       The friendship bond didn’t form, however, until after a huge part of the story had unfolded. The beginning of the story felt very repetitive to me, as it was quite dialogue-heavy with Paul and Katie introducing themselves to one another and their lifestyles and interests. I strongly felt that the entire beginning could’ve been shortened to under a few minutes, as a play that has only 1 hour of screen time should be dedicated to plot development and landing the perfect ending that the audience could be satisfied with. Throughout the play, I laughed whenever Paul took his sweet time in wearing his heavy coat, carefully zipping it, and making a dramatic exit out of the cafe door. This is shown multiple times throughout the play, which illustrates an extreme repetition of events. Rather than having just that scene that spread no emotional impact to the audience, I think that the writers could’ve had Katie expressing her emotions of anger or sadness to the audience while cleaning up the Cafe in contrast to her leaving the scene in preparation for the upcoming one.

       The beginning portion did feel like a very important unfolding of events in reaching the climax. I was beginning to get hooked up in the play when Paul offered Katie a type of poison that he wanted her to use to end his life. At that moment I asked myself, “What kind of friendship is this?” Eventually, though, I’ll learn that Paul is offering that poison through his high trust in Katie in getting his final wish to live in surprise within the last few moments of his life. Katie was the person that Paul would want to have breakfast with before the final few moments of his life because of the sense of comfort and empathy that Katie had given him throughout the rough periods of his life. The interactions between Paul and Katie arguing on the morality of poison were very emotional to me, as it expressed to me how much they meant to each other especially when sharing lifelong secrets. This trust in itself is what makes friendships very important, as it emphasizes the respect and support that are essential for meaningful connections.

       At the end of the play when Katie got a voicemail from her ex-boyfriend in town, I almost shed tears when Paul jumped up and down in joy. The acting was top-notch and definitely impactful when having only two people discuss with one another their lifelong challenges. The silence between Paul and her ex-girlfriend was stunning, as I saw Paul’s expression of regret of not having spent his lifetime with his one true love. I wanted this acting to land a perfect ending, but instead left a cliffhanger that left many to question the events that would’ve happened. I’ve heard questions like, “Did Katie end up going back to date her old boyfriend?”, “Did Katie end up poisoning Paul that day?”, “Had Paul died shortly after Katie left the coffee shop?”. These lingering questions, in my opinion, shouldn’t be left out in any form of storytelling. This is because it emphasizes the lack of quality writing in closing the loose ends of the play to make the audience satisfied rather than craving any more events.

My experience began outside the Roundabout Theater, which looked old from the outside. When my class and I stepped into the building, we had to go to the basement to get to the theater. We then took our seats, and the play began. It started with two people, Kaite and Paul, in a diner. Kaite is the owner of the diner and serves Paul, a retired firefighter, coffee almost daily in the mornings. The play went on through their conversations and escalated when they decided to share their secrets. Katie revealed that she used to live in a different city but moved when her friend didn’t share her romantic feelings. Paul revealed that he feels his life is meaningless and wants Kaite to poison him. Upon hearing each other’s secrets, they were enraged and wanted to change the other person. The play went on and developed each other’s characters and shared their secrets. Finally, the play ended when Kaite’s friend arrived in town and asked to meet with her.
Overall, the play wasn’t horrible to see; many parts were interesting and funny, but after a while, their talking made me sleepy. I feel that the play needed more action or at least a change in scenery. The play only had three characters and one setting. If they had a larger crew or more settings, then the play would’ve been better; however, the play did well for their resources. Another thing that I disliked in this play is that it feels incomplete; the ending did not show if Kaite got together with her friend or what happened to Paul.

The Counter is a play about a a waitress and a regular visitor in a local diner of a small town.  The unexpectedly become friends and he asks her for an unusual favor which reveals their deepest secrets.

Paul starts off each morning by going to a coffee shop. He would meet Katie and he was determined to become friends with her. He learned that she came from another city, but he assumed she left because of her old boyfriend. It turned out that she had 27 voice mails from him that she kept on her phone, and she wanted to go through each with Paul. As he continued his routine each day, they learned a lot about each other and became friends. He strangely asked Katie to pour a poison he got from the dark web into his drink when he was least expecting it. He said he wanted to go out on his own terms, but he also wanted it to be a surprise.
In addition to this, Katie found out that Paul was once an alcoholic, and Paul found out Katie had a hysterectomy. This was the main reason why Katie left, not just because of her boyfriend. Katie also found out that Paul had an affair with her doctor, Peg Bradley. After going through several of Katie’s boyfriend’s voicemails, a new one was discovered. Katie found out that her old boyfriend came to her town and wanted to see her. This surprised Paul, and then the play ended.

Katie spent the last two years trying to escape her reality. She moved to an isolated town because she got friend zoned by someone she kissed. Paul is different. He wants to have control of his life, which is why he wants to chose the way in which he goes out. He gave Katie the poison because he wants his death to be a surprise. He claims everything was straight forward, like the books he used to read where he could predict what would happen before it actually happens. However, the play ended with Katie deciding to go visit her old friend, which was a complete surprise to him.
I was confused about this ending. It seemed very sudden and I was under the impression that the play would end with Paul being poisoned. It can be inferred that he was poisoned that day, but the audience will never know for sure. Aside from this, I was impressed that the whole play was done by two characters and in the same setting. I also felt like some people in the audience were planted there to laugh at some of the jokes they made throughout the play, even though they weren’t really that funny.

On Saturday, 9/21, I made a trip to Manhattan to visit the Banksy Museum. I had ordered my ticket online prior to arriving, which was convenient. However, I do not think I would have had to wait very long to purchase a ticket in person because there was no line, and there were only a few people in the museum at the time. These people were different from one another, some were younger couples, some were older, and there were a few small families walking around. I thought it was interesting that Banksy’s art attracted various different demographics.

Attempting to ignore the amount of pieces that were displayed on artificial walls (to me, this felt disingenuous), the images themselves were quite intriguing to me.

1. Show Me The Monet, 2005

This piece stood out to me because I remember seeing original Monet works at the MoMA when I visited for this class. This modern take on the piece in which Banksy adds items such as shopping carts and traffic cones to the landscape. These items look out of place in the context of the piece, which seems to be intentional. I think that this can be interpreted as commentary on the rise of the capitalistic nature of the world, as shopping carts are essentially polluting this image of a natural environment. The parody-like disposition of this painting is exemplary of a common theme among Banksy’s art, which is that it goes against the anticipated. He uses his craft to call out issues in the world that he deems important to spread awareness about. This can be considered a sign of non-conformity, which is both prominent in his ideology and his art.

2. Game Changer, 2020

This piece piqued my interest due to its meaning. This art is a tribute to healthcare workers, aligning them with figures of superheroes. While this can be considered a general sentiment, in context it is more meaningful when the year it was made is taken into consideration. This work appeared in 2020, amid the peak of the global pandemic. Nurses and healthcare workers were risking their lives to treat others and worked to minimize the spread of the virus. Creating this work dedicated to the sometimes unacknowledged challenges that these workers faced signifies how Banksy not only uses his abilities to draw attention to negative aspects of the world that need attention, but also utilities his art to uplift the under-appreciated.

3. Festival (Destroy Capitalism), 2006

The message of this piece continues to affirm the anti-capitalist beliefs that are conveyed in other art that Banksy has created. However, the metaphor of a merchandise stand stood out to me because when I reached the end of the museum, I was led into a gift shop. I found various different items bearing images of Banksy’s most famous and popular pieces, all available to purchase. I am aware that this museum is unaffiliated with him, but it provokes me to wonder why he would not stop the operation. I believe this may have been intentional to give further meaning to pieces such as this one, as even Banksy’s most anti-capitalist works have been commodified in some shape or form by this museum. Whether they are merely being displayed, or they are literally being sold in the gift shop, they are being commercialized. This solidifies the idea that capitalism is still on the rise and that this is a current matter.

In conclusion, the Banksy museum allowed me to explore the various topics that Banksy used his art to discuss and raise awareness of, but its existence may be built upon irony.

The day before, I looked up information about the play and learned it was a new work, so I decided to keep an open mind. While researching, I found out that there would be no intermissions. This wasn’t a problem, but it was definitely a change from what I was used to seeing in the couple of Broadway plays I had attended before. After work, I headed to the ferry and, although I was almost late, I managed to catch the 1:30 ferry.

When we finally arrived at the Roundabout, I didn’t know what to expect from the play. The set was simple yet extremely detailed, and although it was static, the use of lighting created a sense of movement. The play centered around a man named Paul, who comes to the same diner every day, and a woman named Katie, who runs the diner. Paul slowly reveals to Katie that he is depressed and that his world has become mundane. He tries to use Katie as a source of “entertainment” by learning why she moved to this place and how her life became so “boring.”

He discovers that Katie ran away from her past, moving from the big city to this small town in an attempt to escape. The person she tried to escape was a guy named Gil, a friend with whom she had developed romantic tension. When she decided to kiss him, thinking it was the right thing to do, she was met with a reaction she hadn’t hoped for. Instead of facing the consequences, she ran away.

On the flip side of the story, Paul tries to get Katie to open up by divulging details about his own life and how he ended up in the diner. He begins by telling her that he is depressed and tired of how predictable the world has become. To create a surprise, he offers her a bottle of poison, stating that he wishes to be “poisoned” by her as a final surprise. At first, Katie protests and tries to come up with different solutions, which temporarily keeps the problem at bay.

As the play unfolds, Paul continues to share more about his life, revealing the loss of his brother and mother. This clearly serves to illustrate why Paul is so jaded toward life, highlighting the significant grief he has endured.

The climax of the story occurs when Paul becomes upset with Katie for prolonging his death, feeling that she has no idea what he has been through. In an effort to calm him down, Katie reveals that she had a hysterectomy, and on the day of the procedure, she felt a part of herself die. She shares that the only two people who know about this are Paul and Gil. This revelation allows Paul to better understand Katie’s situation, and the scene concludes with a silent hug, accompanied by an unspoken promise from Katie to end Paul’s life the next day.

When the next day arrives, Katie receives a call from Gil, who is in the area and asks if she’s free to meet. Hesitant, Katie realizes that the right thing to do is to reconnect with him and attempt to restart her old life. Paul fully supports her decision and decides to take over the diner in her absence. The play ends on an ambiguous note, with Paul staring at his untouched coffee, which may or may not be poisoned.

The play, though slow at times, builds beautifully toward the finale, with the tension between Paul and Katie escalating until it culminates in a single scene. Everything feels genuine; these are two people with very different outlooks on life trying to find common ground. Paul, much more jaded, views every experience as the same and believes that the only surprise he is missing is death. In contrast, Katie is comfortable with the mundaneness of her life, fearful of opening herself up to new possibilities and confronting her past.

Through their interactions, both characters evolve. Katie seizes the opportunity to revisit her past and attempt to right the wrongs she once made, while Paul is surprised to learn that Gil, rather than abandoning her, had spent two years trying to find her. This revelation surprises Paul so much that he hesitates to drink the poisoned coffee at the end, beginning to realize that maybe there is more to life than he initially thought.

     My trip began when I arrived at Snug Harbor. The layout of the park was confusing, but I managed to find the Art Lab building. When I entered, I was greeted and given a free rubber wrist band and a sheet of paper that depicted what activities were located in what room. I decided to go to the oil painting lab, since I have never tried it. When I entered the room, I was greeted by an art teacher and my peers. The class began with the art teacher showing some of her works made with oil paint, they seemed beautiful and the thought of soon making something similar made me excited. The art teacher continued by setting up the classroom with chairs, easels, and art models. After that the class was handed a canvas, a plastic cup with a paint dissolving solution in it, a paintbrush, a wooden board with paper on it, and paper towels. Then I had a choice of what to paint and I chose a pair of pears on a dark red background. I set up my equipment near the pear model station and chose the oil paints that I need. 

     I began painting the pears by drawing an outline of the pear shapes with a light-blue paint. In order to do this, I needed to dip my brush into the paint dissolving solution then the light-blue oil paint. Then I began mixing colors to match the color of the first pear, which was a brownish-green, a yellowish-green, and a light-green color. After a couple of attempts, I finally made the desired colors and colored inside and a bit over the light-blue outline. Then I moved onto the next pear, which had a yellow-brown and yellow-green color, and colored in the outline. After fully coloring the pears, I went on to create the color of the background, which took me a while to replicate it accurately, and colored it in. With the main details of the painting done, I went on to create the shadows, which was just a darker version of the original color. Finally, I created the stems of the pears and finished. The teacher told me that the painting will take a week to dry and to keep dust off of it. I took my artwork and went home. 

For my first experience with professional live theater, I would definitely say that I enjoyed The Counter. The play followed Paul, an aging retired firefighter (played by Anthony Edwards, who I totally did not expect to see after knowing him only from NBC’s ER) and Katie, a waitress at the diner Paul frequents. Initially, I found their banter amusing, as it almost reminded me of my own job. I work in a bakery, and I periodically get customers who love to tell me their life stories all while I’m ringing them up or helping them choose a cake for whatever occasion. Paul and Katie’s friendship steadily deepens as the play progresses, only for Paul to ask of Katie the unthinkable. One day, he gives her a vial of poison he had purchased online and tells her to put it in his coffee without telling him when, so that he can be “surprised”. Understandably appalled, Katie sees to it that Paul does not fall into any deeper of a depression that he seems to be in and does everything in her power to keep Paul alive. A theme of the play I found to be especially compelling was that of dying on one’s own terms. Paul’s brother had died in a feeble state, weakened by disease–something Paul absolutely does not want for himself. Although his purported method of achieving such a thing is morally questionable at best, I nonetheless respect that he simply wished to die on his own terms.
An aspect I highly respected about Katie’s character was her self-assurance in regards to why she left the city in the first place. Paul jabbed at her, saying her moving was a “give-up life”: for Katie, however, it was anything but. In actuality, it was her new beginning after a traumatic hysterectomy due to endometriosis. The scene where she finally tells Paul off and explains why exactly she moved was, for me, one of the most satisfying in the entire production.
Beyond that, I found their friendship beautiful. Paul and Katie genuinely supported and uplifted each other throughout the play: Katie continually pushed Paul to stay alive, whether that be through learning Italian or pursuing an old relationship with Dr. Bradley, and Paul was a support to Katie in navigating her feelings for a friend who had rejected her. Ultimately, Katie decides to go meet this friend on Paul’s urging, and the two share an embrace before she leaves and Paul is again left alone. I admired Paul’s selflessness in this moment: someone as lonely as himself could very well have told Katie to stay at the diner so he could have his conversation partner, but he only ever had her best interests in mind, just as she did his. The Counter, to me, serves as a testament to the profound strength of friendships forged in unlikely places.

Art Lab felt like a blend of different junctures on my art appreciation journey. On one level, it was a regression to a bygone experience of art in my life. My friends and I were in an oil painting class with an instructor, trying our best to mimic the scene in front of us. This recalled my childhood experience of art as the exercise of a skill: developing a technical ability to mimic reality on a canvas. On the other hand, I gained thematic value from observing some of the art pieces which lined the walls, which is how I conceive of art’s value today. 

 

First, I spent my time in an oil painting class. The instructor, an artist herself, explained the process behind her realistic art. She starts abstractly and gradually attempts to replicate real world sights. These include apples and views from Staten Island.

My impression of the overall style of her works is that realism feels antiquated. I gain nothing exceptional from these images of fruit and a boat that a photograph couldn’t have communicated in the same way. That is not to say that a realistic painting has no value. However, a realistic painting does not provide any substantial unique value in terms of the medium itself. Realist art is impressive as far as the mechanics. A person is accomplishing what only a camera can do. However, creativity is limited in the painting process because the artist feels no need to communicate a message. In the same way that abstract expressionists rely on obscurity in lieu of a message, contemporary realist painters rely on their expertise. Their work is based on the notion that they don’t need to do the difficult work of revealing some theme of value because they can stand on their own competency. The vapidness of realism was confirmed by my own experience of actually performing oil painting.

 

I chose to paint pumpkins.

Initially, I believed that I would try to convey a message. I thought that the variation in the sizes of the pumpkins coupled with their closeness would convey that diverse things can meld well together. This kind of intentionality is artistic. It is the same reason why a photographer is an artist; they choose the subject and how to frame it. However, as soon as I began painting, my higher-order artistic thinking went out the window. All that was on my mind was how to produce the most accurate paint colors, paint the shadows and display all of the pertinent marks of the pumpkins. The artistry ceased once the shot was chosen and thus the resemblance to photography ended. That is because the goal of my realist art was to put my mental image on paper, unclouded by themes or emotions. The entire exercise felt juvenile, hearkening back to a time when the best artist in the class was the person who was most adept at using the medium. I feel like my view of “good art” has matured since that time. It is no longer based on adroitness in wetting the brush just enough to produce aesthetically pleasing strokes. Instead, it is found in the imagination which went into the piece, whether that was the thought behind what subjects to depict or how to depict them. One could argue that when one nails down the technical skills enough, one has the room to add in inventiveness. Professional artists are likely concerned with the message of their work no matter the genre. However, if the art is photorealistic, then there is no original thought beyond the initial framing phase. A painter of realism is best served by being as machine-like as possible.

Due to the emptiness of realism, my favorite part of my finished painting is my name. That part feels personal and infused with authentic thought unlike the remainder of the work.

 

The art on the walls of the Art Lab reminded me of where I find the substance in art.

First, this painting resonated with me because it has the elements which realism is missing. Through its manipulation of the size of objects, it conveys relative significance. That the sculpture, guitar and bottle of wine tower over the city exhibits that the arts and the bars are what the artist finds beloved in urban life. The relative size also relays the primacy of the individual. Rather than the collective force of the city, the objects which matter to a specific individual are given visual priority. Additionally, the purple colored sky conveys tranquility. The artist is communicating that they find immense solace in the highlighted aspects of their life.

Second, where I can appreciate realism is in the above painting, which also graced the Art Lab walls. The artistic value is found in the setting choice. In fact, this image would make for a photograph which is just as beautiful. The painting depicts an object of possession in a way Berger would have despised, but I find it quite charming. The image embodies the success of retirement. The caption ought to be: a person sighs with satisfaction and takes one last look from the dock at their boat after a long day of wading through the sea. What is picturesque is not even so much the sunset, but that the sunset feels like it is a merited reward. The spectator is placed in the shoes of a person who has earned the luxuries of island life after years of material acquisition. The sun is setting on one’s life and yet, this painting captures that one still has many moments left to relish in one’s own greatness. I don’t look forward to aging, but this painting makes me question whether I should. One dreams of coming to a point in life where one can just bask in all their accomplishments. There is nothing which says wallowing in one’s own success like buying a boat, which fulfills no practical need other than that very human impulse for delighting in one’s own preeminence.

 

I went to Art Lab at Snug Harbor with a couple of my friends. I think this made the class more enjoyable. It was my first time oil painting, and it was definitely the most difficult medium I have ever worked with. The instructor was very helpful and showed me how to color mix since mixing the oil paint is a little different than other types of paint. I decided to paint a bunch of tomatoes in a paper container. It was very difficult to paint the shadows, since the oil paint layered itself in a way I wasn’t used too. I think my painting came out decent for a first try, but I’m interested in trying something like this again. Overall, the class was a really fun experience.