Three days prevented my husband from becoming an American citizen in the summer of While he was in possession of a green card when we married in the summer of the permanent resident spouse of an American citizen can become a citizen after three years , an administrative error caused his citizenship interview to be scheduled for three days before our anniversary.
He passed the interview with flying colors, but was denied citizenship based on that technicality. It was frustrating and we felt powerless before the Goliath that is Homeland Security; but compared with some of the immigration horror stories I've heard, I cannot help but feel like we are among the lucky ones.
Anyone who has gone through US immigration or loves someone who has knows what a nerve-racking experience it can be. So I was not surprised to feel flashbacks of anxiety while watching Working Theater's production of Leila Buck's American Dreams , which brutally reimagines the immigration process as a game show.
This stealthily wrenching interactive play is now performing evenings and matinees in your living room through the dismal magic of Zoom, the video conferencing platform I would gladly relinquish forever for a COVID-free world.
Buck initially wrote American Dreams for the stage, and it was presented at Cleveland Public Theatre in But like so much of our world, the play has been adapted for the Internet.
It has taken to the transition better than most, with the stultifying control of the Zoom boxes reinforcing the play's Orwellian qualities. In the age of the reality TV presidency, it doesn't feel beyond the pale to turn the citizenship process into a televised event: We've already violated that boundary when it comes to dating The Bachelor , finding shelter House Hunters , and building a career any number of reality talent contests. Gladiatorial cruelty is presented in a cheery red, white, and blue package — leaving us all feeling complicit in the American carnage.
They portray the show's hosts, Sherry and Chris, who ask our three international contestants a series of questions to determine which of them will walk away with the grand prize: American citizenship.
They are acting under the purview of Bree Coffman India Nicole Burton , a representative of the federal government charged with democratizing the immigration process by asking "the people" that's us to choose our newest citizen.
The goal for the two contestants — a male and a female, better known as Mister X and Miss Circle — was to win three squares in a row by deciding whether the star in the square was telling the truth when asked a trivia question. Related: Hollywood Squares turns Clue: It's the game show that inspired one of the funniest parodies ever on Saturday Night Live.
The quiz show — which first aired in and consists of three rounds where contestants try to answer clues in the form of a question — has cemented its impact on pop culture by providing constant fodder for SNL. Game shows have always been about making a deal, but this was the mother lode! Longtime host Monty Hall did his best to trick contestants in the audience — who wore crazy costumes to try to get his attention — into taking a deal that was worse than the prize in their hands.
Players, natch, were hoping to get more out of their deals. Related: Let's Make a Deal attracts biggest audience ever amid coronavirus lockdown. It was kind of like The Dating Game , but better. Before the show, a bachelor or bachelorette would choose from one of three members of the opposite sex to go out with, then the studio audience would pick whom they wanted the person to go out with.
Original host Chuck Woolery would interview the daters, and if the audience's pick matched the bachelor's or bachelorette's, the pair got another date for free! Ah, corporate-sponsored l'amour. Related: Chuck Woolery's Love Connection. Fans adored this celebrity matching game primarily for its bawdy humor and banter between host Gene Rayburn and beloved panelists such as Charles Nelson Reilly , Brett Somers, and Betty White.
Given a few notes from famous songs, contestants were challenged to, obviously, ''name that tune. Newlywed couples answered questions to see just how well they actually knew each other. The show became famous for arguments between couples who maybe didn't know each other as well as they thought; it led to more than one divorce.
We have nothing to say except: No whammies! No whammies! Just in case you have no idea what we're talking about, we'll explain. So, on the game show, which first aired in , there were two rounds: In the first, players answered questions, and then in the second, they faced a big game board where they tried to have a rotating flashing light stop on a dollar or prize square and not on a ''whammy'' space, which would wipe out the prizes they'd earned.
Even though he retired in , opening the door for new host Drew Carey , the answer for ''What did you do when you were home sick from work or school? On this game show, two teams — each with one celebrity and one unfamous person — faced off. One teammate gave the other clues for a certain category, such as ''Things That Are in Egypt. Related: A Dick Clark appreciation: The deceptively laid-back, conservative revolutionary.
Remember when contestants on a low-budget MTV matchmaking show whittled down possible mates by physical traits such as eye color? And remember when cohost Jenny McCarthy would yell at male players, yank their ears, and just be all-around crude on said series? Well, we do, and we secretly wish Singled Out — and the obese naked cupid who served as the face of it — would make a comeback. But this time on something longer than a Quibi. Long before players raced around the globe for cash on The Amazing Race , they were racing around a grocery store on Supermarket Sweep.
The game show, which originated on ABC in , had teams of two answer grocery-related questions e. Related: Supermarket Sweep host Leslie Jones knows grocery stores and 'what the hell is expensive'.
But Game Show has no real attitude. The usually reliable Mark Waldrop directs as if he's sinking in theatrical quicksand. This show isn't a satire or a send-up. It has nothing to say about any of the ingredients of a game show--greed, the nature of contestants, the trivialization of knowledge, etc.
The bottom line is that there is nothing sly or clever about Game Show's show-within-a-show. Oh, there is a surprise foisted on the audience, but it's badly executed and so fundamentally unfair that the production offers an apology to those who might be offended by the fast and loose way it bends its own rules.
Audience members play the game Ironically, the actual game show is entertaining because the live audience provides better material than the play's authors. The paying customers also prove to be more original and entertaining as personalities than the characters played by the show's cast.
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