Jacob Herr
Bio
Born & raised in the American heartland, Jacob Herr graduated from Butler University with a dual degree in theatre & history. He is a rough, tumble, and humble artist, known to write about a little bit of everything.
Stories (32/0)
Give the People What they Want
As the history of the performing arts marched forward into the modern era, the atmospheres of 20th Century drama shifted from melodramatic “bombasticism” of Aphra Behn and John Augustus Stone, to social realism and to the “epicness” and simplicity of political playwrights such as Bertolt Brecht and Luis Valdez. Instead of having audiences sit back and relax, the encouragement was to sit up, take notice, and act upon the values and messages for which the play brought forward to it’s audience; to walk into the show with one mindset and walk away from the show as a changed person, with an alternate social or political position. What is to be analyzed here is how Bertolt Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle and Luis Valdez’s Quinta Temporada illustrate how the theatre can interact with the programs of social power, in order to provoke the message of how it is the will of the people which ought to stand as most powerful of all other entities (politicians, bureaucrats, etc.).
By Jacob Herr4 years ago in The Swamp
Spiritual Truth & Blindness to Reality
On the stage, the hero’s journey to discover the truth behind the atmosphere of the play and the circumstances which have put these characters into these positions which the audience witnesses from the comfort of their seats, can be seen over and over again through time and history. However, most audiences see only the essential journey for which the story’s protagonist must embark and accomplish, followed by the spectacle which glazes the actions of the protagonist and the other characters which he or she encounters along the way; like hot fudge and caramel on an ice cream sundae. This essay is not shaped for such meager and sportive tricks. The purpose of this essay is to analyze how the protagonist’s journey for spiritual truth, fulfillment of revenge, and fulfillment of redemption in such works as Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannous, and William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Hamlet, can leave themselves blind to their environmental realities.
By Jacob Herr4 years ago in Geeks
Defining Democracy
The political system of democracy is very much like a chameleon. As time and world cultures change and develop new ideas of civilized order, the democratic process of human government continually makes entrances and exits in differing appearances throughout history. Much like how the actor in the course of a stage play can enter and exit a scene with one outfit and portraying one character, only to appear again, later on, with a different costume playing a secondary part with a completely opposite personality and moral compass; in comparison to their previous performance. For democracy ought to be concrete in it’s values and goals, but also have the ability to be flexible with the everlasting changes of the human condition and of human nature as new eras rise and fall, as well as when technology eliminates human dependency.
By Jacob Herr4 years ago in The Swamp
What You Put Into Life is what You Get Out of It.
In 1992, director and film star Clint Eastwood released a film that he announced would be the final western he would ever direct or act in. A film simply titled, Unforgiven. Upon it’s release, the film was heralded as a cinematic masterpiece; winning a total of four Academy Awards, and two Golden Globes. Nearly 30 years later, the film is still ranked as one of the best western films ever made. Yet, what is it that makes this film successful and what elements make the movie one of Clint Eastwood’s best works and performances?
By Jacob Herr4 years ago in Geeks
The Don of Avon: Scarface Bill Shakespeare
Once the winter of their homeland’s discontent was made glorious summer by treaties and merry meetings, one man (who wasn’t shaped for sportive tricks, nor made to court an amorous looking glass) was determined to prove a villain and hate the idle pleasures of such days. In Shakespeare’s Medieval England, such a man was the hunchbacked King Richard III, and in Howard Hughes’ 1920’s America, it was the mafioso Antonio “Tony” Camonte. The purpose of this essay is to analyze the mythical monster and sociopath that is Shakespeare’s “Richard of Gloucester” and Howard Hughes’ cinematic adaptation of Al Capone (Tony Camonte) to further emphasize how such villainous figures at face value are in fact tragic figures, who fall from grace by means of greed, ambition, and the shedding of blood; and ultimately embrace their appropriate fates by the sword of justice.
By Jacob Herr4 years ago in Geeks
How the Tides Almost Turned
They came off the boats to a world they never could imagine. Some called this southern land of swamps and Spanish moss their home from birth, while others derived from another continent, across the ocean. However, the one thing that these people did have in common was their status as human capital; animate tools for the institution of slavery, which fueled the economies of every nation which claimed the land as theirs; from France, to Spain, to France (again), and finally to the United States. The prosperity of an ethnic minority would be built and supported, for generation after generation in this region until the end of the Civil War, by the toil, complacency, and suffering of enslaved Africans; people with virtually no sense of freedom or enfranchisement in a nation conceived in the Enlightenment ideas of liberal democracy, personal liberty, and equality for all. Yet, for one brief moment, this system of morally putrid exploitation, would be violently challenged and bear the potential of stipulating the power of American expansion. In January of 1811, 500 slaves of Louisiana’s German Coast (an agricultural region dominated by plantation homes and sugar cane fields) rose up in defiant rebellion against their masters and nearly took New Orleans for themselves; to become a center for an independent black republic. Yet, this was by no means an anarchic act of racial resistance created in the heat of the moment. Rather, it was a masterfully organized, ingeniously calculated, and strategically planned effort to undermine the slave-owning class and reinforce such Enlightenment ideas into a full and legitimate practice. This is the story of the Louisiana Revolt of 1811.
By Jacob Herr4 years ago in The Swamp
The Forgotten who Helped Forge a Nation
The living experiment of democracy known as the United States of America and it's baptism of fire, known as the "American Revolution", contines to live on in the minds and hearts of millions acorss America and the world. However, the historical narratives of the revolution and subsequent infancy of a nation are only beggining to transform as new generations are given the responsibility from the old to carry on the legacy of such notable people as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Alexander Hamilton. Yet this select few of people are, in reality, only the surface of much greater narratives which encompasses the story of America's creation. Stories and participants of the revolution, which have lived under the collossus-esc shadows of the "Founders". What of the African Americans which fought alongside their white bretheren on the field of battle? What of the women and native tribespeople? what did they stand to gain or lose through this conflict?
By Jacob Herr4 years ago in The Swamp
The Volcano Rumbles Before it Erupts
The War of 1812 (lasting from June of 1812 to February of 1815) was a conflict which acted as a “Second War of Independence” to signify the lasting power of this upstart constitutional republic known as the United States, and the last war which the US would engage with the military power of Great Britain. Yet, it is also a war for which little of it is remembered by modern generations of Americans or even people who live across the pond. To many Britons, 1812 was the year of Napoleon’s failed Russia Campaign. Though the war is still remembered by many native tribes and Canadians. To them, this war was their chance to walk into the spotlight and defend their own versions of freedom, liberty, and sovereignty; even if their efforts would result in accidental victory or honorable defeat. Yet, people still wonder how this atmosphere of nationalistic violence came to be. What were the events which transpired that caused the final war between the US and Great Britain? Who were the figures who stirred the political pot too fast or two hard, until the hot water spilled all over the place? This essay seeks to answer such questions and observes the positions of all sides who would find themselves at each other’s throats with muskets, swords, cannons, and scalping knives.
By Jacob Herr4 years ago in Serve
Uneasy Lies the Head that Wears the Homburg Hat
People say that the works of William Shakespeare are analyses and reflections of our human condition; whether of the story is about doomed love, political ambition turned to bloodshed, or situational humor which turned the simplistic things of life into the funniest of material. Yet, very rarely can people see such reflections of life in Shakespeare, which can also be made in real history. After all, Shakespeare himself was not a historian. He was a starving playwright who wrote propaganda pieces to entertain and (partially) educate the plebeians and royals of Elizabethan England. However, such characters such as Richard III, Marc Antony, and Prince Hal (King Henry V) can be reflected in terms of their styles of personality and leader ship in numerous figures throughout our history, whether if such people brandished a sword and crown or a cigar and glass of whiskey. The purpose of this essay is to examine how the leadership theory of how leaders are made, not born, can be seen in the works of British literature (The Henriad: Henry IV Part 1, Henry IV Part 2, & Henry V) and can also transcend into real figures of England’s history (Sir. Winston Churchill).
By Jacob Herr4 years ago in The Swamp
In Defense of the Übermensch
First off, the name is pronounced Nietzsche (as in “KNEE-CHA”); not “NITCH”, or “NEETCH”, or “KNEE-CHEE”. However, the pronunciation of this 19th Century German philosopher’s name doesn’t change the fact that he is one of the most referenced philosophers in pop culture. Such references range from the famous Richard Strauss composition "Also Sprach Zarathustra" (also known as the opening theme of Stanley Kubrik's 2001: A Space Odyssey or Elvis Presley's entrance cue during his "Las Vegas Jumpsuit Era"), the opening of the 1982 fantasy film Conan the Barbarian with his famous quote “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”, to the Black Sabbath 2013 song God is Dead?. For those who know nothing of the man, Frederich Nietzsche was a philosopher who wrote and lectured in the latter half of the 1800’s, donned a walrus mustache, and believed that everything in this life is meaningless. In order to give meaning to life, we must overpower everyone else and obtain our wants and desires. To do so, makes you an “übermensch” (or superman).
By Jacob Herr4 years ago in Motivation
Bloody Sam On the Lam
His name is one that brings memories of a mad genius; a cinema auteur with balls of steel. He was a man who would redefine the Western genre and horrifically expose the true nature of inhumanity and violence, that the old school studios and television audiences took for granted; while at the same time, serving as the ground work for the newest generations of directors and Hollywood rebels. This is the story of Sam Peckinpah.
By Jacob Herr4 years ago in Geeks