Play Review

The Glass Menagerie

Date: 1973

Director: Anthony Harvey

Amanda Wingfield: Katharine Hepburn

Tom Wingfield: Sam Waterston

 Laura Wingfield: Joanna Miles

Jim O'Connor: Michael Moriarty

          The Glass Menagerie is a film adaptation of the play The Glass Menagerie written by Tennessee Williams.  The 1973 version is almost identical to the play because it does not have too many differences between the play, including the setting, scripts, and light.  The first scene is Tom walks along a river, and the setting is dark.  After he sits on the side of the river, he memorized his family, Laura, and Amanda.  Then, the story begins with Amanda's talking on the table in the evening, which is the same as the play told.  The play mentioned Tom enters the room and sits at the table when Amanda is talking, however, the film begins with Amanda's talking when Tom is already at the table.  In addition, in the film, Amanda talks to Laura at first and then accuse Tom pushing food with fingers, but in the play, the script does not clearly show who Amanda is talking to.  Therefore, in the film, the plot makes the story more intense and clear.  The main plot is the same as the play: Amanda is nagging to Tom and Laura, Tom always argues with Amanda and goes to "movie", Laura addicts to the glass menagerie and meets Jim, and in the end, Tom leaves home.  In the end, when Tom mentions that Laura touches his shoulder and he asks Laura to blow out the candles, Amanda is standing near Laura.  In the film, the scene is clearly an illusion, but in the play, it does not mention Amanda, and the scene is showed ambiguously.  The film specifically demonstrates a feeling of sadness and a feeling of regret.  We can clearly see that when Tom is sitting near the river and memorizing his story with Laura and Amanda, his face is full of sorrow.  He seems that he is crying.

          The staging is under the expectation because the play depicts the setting really well.  The room is small, and the clothes and the furniture look old.  The telephone and the tape player show the time of the play.  Moreover, the dancing hall is opposite to their apartment, which also follows the description in the play.  The music is an unexpected surprise to me because you cannot imagine what the music will be even if there are many music cues written in the play.  At the beginning, the scene is dark, and a person is walking on the street alone.  We can know later that the person is Tom. With the scene and the scenes after, the music is played by the piano solo.  The music is slow and simple.  There is no many complicated chord or notes combination.  The melody is played alone without many accompaniment chords.  The eighth step notes close to each other and is plated in a slow and continuous tempo.  Moreover, the notes are neither played in a low pitch nor a really high pitch, the music is sound comfortable.  Compare to the other pieces of music I heard, I have to say that the music does not show too many emotions.  It is not sad, and it is not full of regret.  The melody is played over and over again in the same pitch, same tempo, and same notes.  With the scene that Tom is sitting by the river alone, the music shows quietness with a little bit lonely, but not too strong.

          I like the acting of the actress of Laura.  When the gentleman caller, Jim, lifts Laura up and kisses her, there is a slow camera shot that records the faces of them closely.  Laura is enjoying the kiss.  After the kiss, Laura is still intoxicated in Jim's kiss and Jim's hug.  She closes her eyes and relaxes her body and leans on Jim's shoulder.  However, the camera changes to Jim's reaction.  Jim is shocked, and his open eyes and the frown shows how Jim does not appreciate the happening.  I love the reaction that the actress of Laura show.  After Jim pushes Laura off his hug and opens a distance between Laura and himself, Laura's head is too blank to make any reaction.  Therefore, Laura still keeps the gesture of hugging Jim.  Laura's face shows stagnancy, shocking, and sadness.  She is quiet standing near to a table, and all of the facial expressions and the gesture makes me feel so sorry for her.  It brings me a huge sympathy to Laura, and I begin to appreciate the fantastic acting of Joanna Miles.

          In the end, I think the film clearly expresses the plot and the theme of the original play.  It is worthy to watch, even though sometimes there are a lot of monologue-like conversations between Amanda and other characters.  Moreover, the film gives a great idea about how to show the story on a small stage because the setting in the play happens in a small room basically.  It tells us how to make the story enjoyable even though there is not a dramatic plot and actions.  We can make the story more attractive by showing our detailed gesture when we make an action and emotion when we say a lot of redundant lines.  

Amanda's Journal

1.
      Tom left, that is what I can predict, so I am totally cool with it.  After all, there is already a man left home a long time ago.  Therefore, nothing surprised.  But I am still depressed because it reminds me again that the prosperous past is gone, and I will be alone from the beginning to the past whoever passed through my life and whatever my life is.
      Oh yes, I still have Laura, but will she leave?  I do not know.  My mind is chaotic.  On the one hand, I want her to stay because I cannot live all by myself.  It is not fair that everyone left and only left me in the dark.  Yes, I know my kids hate me nagging at them, but that is the way for showing my care, my worry.  On the other hand, I want her to leave.  There is a day I have to leave this world, so imagine that if I died, who will take care of Laura?  I hope she will find a gentleman who loves her as I do, who worry about her like I did.
       I hope they will all have wonderful lives.

2.
      I worry about my daughter.  She is sitting on the chair quietly for a long time as if she is not there.  Her face is pale, her eyes are glassy, her hair is dry, and her hand voice is shaking.  After Laura gave out her special unicorn glass to Jim, she gave out the rest of glass menagerie to other people.  I was shocked at first because I cannot understand why she did it.  I once guessed she might be loved to jump out of her illustration, and it made me happy for a while until I saw her getting weaker and weaker days by days.
     She is like a ghost.  I hope one day she would find a good gentleman caller to save her lonely soul.  To be honest, even if she cannot find anyone, she should stand up strongly and live well.  But how I teach others about it?  I cannot even reach the goal. I miss Tom, but I do not know where he is.  He left like his father did, but fortunately, he often sends a letter to his sister every month.

3.
     I started to find more jobs in this town because I cannot afford Laura and me with the only part-time job, but it is so difficult to get one.  When I came to the admission office of any workplace, they asked me what I can do and what education I got.  Everyone glimpsed me for a second and never hung up their head.  They all kept asking questions and kept writing.  Their voice is as cold as a machine, and I can not see their smile.  I cannot even see their faces!  Do they start doing like that?  Do human start to treat people like that?
     I am so mad and so sad, and it made me feel that everyone does not like me, including Tom and Laura.  I feel like I am a vagrant lost in this world, and this feeling makes me sick.  Remember the past years, people were nice, and I was still beautiful and gorgeous.  There was nothing for me to worry about, but now I am continually worried and listen to others.

4.
      Alright, I did not find any job after a few weeks.  You know, I visited at least ten offices yearning to get a job, and because of that, I have to answer the same question over and over again and try not to forget their impolite neglect.  They begin to value the education more because the society needs the well-educated youths.  The competition is intense.  Therefore, it drives me thinking that maybe I should... walk out of the valley to gain more job opportunities... or get a higher education?  Time is so much different than the past, and it made me so scared that I cannot even sleep well.
      Laura is better now after a few days.  She does not sit in the same place staring out of the window for a whole day anymore.  She begins to read books and help me to do some chores.  Even though she still cannot show her smile or have any facial expression, I am glad she is turning better.  My daughter is back, and that is the most fortunate thing I got these days.

5.
     Ok, I decided to go to college at night first, and once after I finish the education, we can move out of the valley and start a new life.  I talked to the college office and after a lot of bargains and beggings, they allowed me to study in the school without any tuition.  Instead, I have to do the clean of the school.  It still satisfied me because I can finally see a possibility of the future.  I only have Laura, and I cannot lose her.
     The decision was so difficult to make, but once I saw Laura becoming more reactive, I thought there is something to change.  The old me love to look into past.  The story I told so many times was my proud, and I know the story made my two kids bored, but I can give up on telling that.  However, the good story cannot feed us and bring a comfortable life to us, so I decide to say goodbye to my past.  Yes, it is so enjoyable when you drop into your glory because there is no pain and no worries, but sorry, I cannot stay in the glory longer.  I feel like the past glory will make me lose Laura if I still stay in the past.

6.
     Laura left.  She kissed me and hugged me.  She smiled at me and said farewell.  And she left.  Without a second look.  Laura whispered thank you to me for raising her up when she hugged me.  Her eyes were shining, maybe there was the tear in her eyes.  I do not know.  I only felt cold.
     She looks like a real woman now.  There is no word to describe her.  You cannot tell that she is confidence or not now, and you cannot tell that she is outgoing or not.  You cannot see anything by looking at her face.  In other words, you can see everything through her appearance, confidence, happiness, sadness, and calmness.  She lived as a mystery.
     She said she will find her brother.  I know it is not true.  There is no address on the envelope.  She said she will never come back.  The place is nothing worth to her.  She said she will get a job out of the valley, maybe she will meet a man and have a marriage.  She said she might have friends.  She said she will have a family and have a lovely kid.
     She said she will love her life.  She said she hopes that I can enjoy my present.
     And she said, "Sorry, mom.  There is no letter from me."
     "Farewell."

7.
     This place is like a huge striking clock because it never stops going.  Therefore, the people who want to stay and give a glimpse of their past will be weeded out of this place.  And I never thought I will be one of them.
     I walked through a wonderful youth age, and I continued to feel that this property will be with me until I die.  I was too young and childish.  My journey will be a solitude that is full of lost.  I should know it earlier in order to not show my desperation too much.  For those who left, who said goodbye, who still stay, they are all so sure that they will have the most beautiful lives.  However, after hundreds of farewell, after thousands of hopeless moments, who else will embrace their happiness without any tears and doubt?  Well, hopefully when the happiness comes, I can have your warmest greeting, I can see you turning back from the long distance, and hopefully, when the happiness comes, I can stand by your side.  Hopefully, the people who left and the people who stay will meet in the end.
      "Once, if I remember well, my life was a feast where all hearts opened and all wines flowed."
      Farewell.
           

Plot Shape of Each Character

Laura

Laura's journey looks like water or ocean, which is full of the small curves.  It is quiet, and the curve line can expand almost infinitely.  The reason that I choose curve line for Laura is that she covers her thoughts up so well.  Since in the high school, she liked Jim, but she never let Jim knows.  Everything is deep under the water.  When the night comes, when people stand by the ocean, they cannot see anything clearly, but they can hear the sound of crashing waves clearly.  The waves are like people murmuring and telling their sorrow.  Laura is this kind of person, who is quiet in the daytime, but pour out her heart at night.  Glass menagerie is Laura's night that she can tell her story to the menagerie. 

TOM

  Tom's journey is not as quiet as Laura's.  He desires to run out of the valley and run away home.  He is easy to get angry.  Because he thinks his mother does not believe and support his dream, he always fights with his mother.  His journey and his temper are like a fire that is full of energy and direction.  Because the shape or arrow of fire is clear, which is toward the sky, it is like Tom's journey.  He has the temper, so he argues with his mother;  he has a dream, so he yearns to go out of the valley without any doubt.  What he did is what he wants to do, which is like the shape of fire, clear and unidirectional.

Amanda

I will draw Amanda's journey as a stair down to the place that we can not see.  Amanda had a good childhood.  Her family is not poor and she used to has beauty and honor.  However, after his husband runs away, Amanda's life is staying in the past.  She wants to reach the old prosperity, but all she did is let her memory go back.  I believe chasing past is not a good choice because it will lead you to a more vague illusion and give you a more deserted heart.  In the end, she is alone without her husband, her daughter and her son staying with her.  Amanda is literally alone, and it is what the past gives to her.

10 Discussion Questions

1.  Do you think Amanda can live without their children? 
2.  Will Tom live alone?  What about Laura? Can she live alone?
3.  Is Tom only a dreamer?
4.  What is Jim to Laura?
5.  What are the changes on Laura?
6.  If you set the scene, what light color you want to use?
7.  What is the theme of the music on this play?
8.  Does Tom still love his family?  If you act Tom, what the specific characteristic you want to act out?
9.  What is the main color of the play, and what color of costume for each character?
10.  When Amanda continuously looks back to the past, what specific skill and body language you want to use to show the change if you act Amanda?

Understanding of the Characters by Quoting

Tom

       "Look, Mother---I haven't got a thing, not a single thing left in this house that I can call my own."  

      Tom does not think the house and the family are belong to him.  In other words, Tom does not have any second thinking about he belong to the family, even though he earns money to support his family.  We can know that Tom is seeking the world out of the small valley from other sentences, but the deep concern in his heart to push him make the decision is lacking a feeling of belonging.  The reason of it probably is that his mother does not support his hobby and his dream, or his mother talks too much about her sweet memories and expectation to truly care about the inner thoughts of Tom.  Therefore, Tom is frustrated about the situation and wants to leave. 

Laura

       "But, Mother--- I'm--- crippled!"

       Laura does not have too many lines in the play, so it is easy to show that the girl is really quiet.  For this personality, someone are quiet with birth, but someone are quiet when they grow up.  The sentence above classifies Laura is probably the second one.  Laura used to like a boy, but then she is not confident to contact him now.  She use her crippled excuse to stop her mother's nagging.  Amenda desires Laura to communicate to other people, but Laura makes a lot of excuses to run far away from the society.  However, from the sentence we can know that, all the excuses are to cover her inferiority.

Amenda

       "We can't have a business career.  No, we can't do that--- that just gives us indigestion."

       Amenda is still living in the old ancient time, who not only looks to the past and misses her husband but also keep a traditional old concepts about women.  She believes the destiny of a woman is marriage, and she regards being a wife as a position of women's lives.  For her concepts, unmarried women are lost in the society because she cannot rely on anyone.  Even though it is reasonable for her to have an extreme concept because her husband's leaving dragged the family into poverty, she could not deny a woman's value.

Characters in The Glass Menagerie

Amanda: The female host of the apartment
Amanda used to be a lovely social lady, and she often tells her experience of chatting with gentlemen callers.  Amanda is also a good mother who has a son and a daughter.  She wants her children to be successful and happy, so for Laura, her daughter, Amanda is yearning to find a gentleman caller for Laura.

Tom: Amanda's son
Tom is a worker in the warehouse, and he loves writing poem, but he is not satisfied with the job and the living.  Tom wants to run far away from his home and from his town, but he cannot, so he always goes to the movie at night to escape the tragic reality.  He does not have a good temper because he often argues with his mother.

Laura: Amanda's daughter
Laura is two years younger than his brother Tom.  She is lovely but crippled, so maybe because of her specialty, she does not want to attend any social activity, such as business college.  She is so fragile that she only plays with her glass substances and photograph, and this habit makes her terribly shy in front of people.  She seems peculiar to most people. 

O'Connor: The Gentlemen Caller
Act I does not mention Mr. O'Connor too much, but according to the few description of Mr. O'Connor, he is a workmate of Tom, and he is also Tom's classmate in High School.  He is Irish, and he does not like drinking.  O'Connor will visit Tom's house and have dinner with Tom's family.  The dinner is also an opportunity for Amanda to introduce her daughter Laura to O'Connor. 

Mr. Wingfield: Amanda's husband
Mr. Wingfield in this play is only shown in a picture, and he is also mentioned by Amanda, his wife. No one acts this character.  Mr. Wingfield used to be a wire connector and Amanda's husband, but he leaves Amanda because he wants to see the other world connecting by the other part of the wire.   

Romeo and Juliet Adaptation

Reflection on Romeo and Juliet-- Psycho-Thriller

Video Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMOHo1m1eoI&t=7s

Our adaptation is a psycho-thriller, which tells a story that because Romeo cannot accept Rosaline's rejection, he imagined a lover who is called Juliet.  The story began as a modernized Romeo and Juliet, but when it comes to the end, Romeo realized all the happening to him and Juliet is his illusion.  He is a psychopath living in the hospital.Danny, David, Stella and I are in a group.  I made the proposal and all of us like the adaptation.  Therefore, we wanted to tell an entire story to the audience instead of a part of it, and the thoughts lead us a little bit stray away from the requirement.  Besides the worry, I think our group did a great job as beginners.

I separated the story into four scenes and each member of our group wrote one scene's script.  The script fully explained the story and clearly described the details and character's personality.  The process of making script is quick and straightforward but after the process, we met a lot of troubles like one of our members had too bad experience and a bad mood to continue working on this assignment, Davide hurt his ankle so that he could not run and have intense exercise and so on.  As a result, I wanted to stage the video only in the black box in order to finish recording the video in time, because I do not think we would not have enough time to record the video if people do not cooperate and accidents happen.  However, Stella insisted on shooting some parts of the story outside so that audience can recognize the place clearly.   Under the condition, we had an argument, and in the end, we made an agreement that we will work out together to choose the staging and try to make the shooting work more efficient.  To be honest, I like Stella's suggestion about the staging outside, because the outcome of the video demonstrated that the staging set off a good atmosphere.  Especially for the last second scene shooting on the track in the evening, the spacious background and the dark night add some blue in the theme.  The only shortcoming about it is that we really cannot shoot the scene in the sunset because we all have afternoon activities and time conflict.  Therefore, even though the background is dark, we turned on the flashlight and tried to make the scene brighter. 

I am pretty enjoying this video shooting, and I think I did a great job on it.  I made the proposal, edited the film and chose and added music to it.  I was so satisfied with the music I chose.  According to my trivial understanding of music, I not only chose the music based on the theme of the video but also connect each beat of the music with the video.  I would feel uncomfortable if the music comes out or disappeared suddenly, and I hate music ends in an unfinished phrase, so I tried to put the music in an appropriate moment in the video and trimmed it to work with the tempo of the film.   For the first scene that Tybalt asks Mercutio to take medicine and Romeo comes to fight Tybalt, I did not expect any specific emotion or feelings emerging from the film, but when I edit the clips, I felt the scene was hilarious and crazy because even though the psychopaths treated the conversation and the fighting seriously, the sight in a spectator is funny and ridiculous.  In addition, Danny did a tremendous face expression when he stands up and hit Davide, so I speeded up the fighting clips and slowed down the speed on the Danny's hitting part and added a funny music in it.  It is a humor from a clips editor, so I hope audience like it. 

One big weakness of our adaptation is the speaking in the film.  Our speaking is so quick that sometimes it is difficult for the audience to hear it.  In addition, it is great for us to write a detailed script, but it is a little bit frustrating that we did not exactly follow the script words by words.  The biggest mistake is that we understand the plot and we know what we should say, so we just say what we want to say.  Therefore, the language is not clear, and it is so easy for actors to forget to speak out the important information that the film wants to show. The weakness made me frustrated because if we could spend more time on memorizing lines, we should act better and save a lot of shooting time.  We should correct the bad habit next time. 

Review on The Caucasian Chalk Circle

The Caucasian Chalk Circle

Cheshire Academy's Varsity Players Present

CA Blackbox Theater-- Nov 9-11, 2017

Author: Bertolt Brecht

Translated by Eric Bently

Grusha Vashnadze: Samantha Weed

Azdak:  Yuheng Peter Deng

The Singer: Amalia Gutierrez

Simon Shashava: Yuanjun Aaron Luo

Director: Mr. Aronson

Producer: Mrs. Jennifer Guarino

Stage Manager: Yin Angel Kok

Lights: Rujian James Zhou

Sounds: Rongchuan Leo Wang

The Caucasian Chalk Circle is a play written by a Geman modernist playwriter, Bertolt Brecht.  It is an epic theatre, which means the story is related to the contemporary political issue.  The story is a fiction based on the WWII, and it tells how a servant becomes a strong mother who is better than the child's real mother.  Grusha Vashnadze, the main character of the plat, is the servant.  In the war, the queen, Natella Abashwili lost her child and ran away.  Narella Abashwili only cared about her treasure and property, so at that time she did not notice the loss of her child.  Grusha Vashnadze picked up the child, Michael, keeping away from the enemy and adopting the child in a chaotic period.  After few years past, when the war ended, Narella Abashwili came back to ask her child back.  However, Michael was growing in Grusha's caring, so Grusha did not want to give out her "child".  Under this condition, a Judge called Azdak showed up to solve the problem by drawing a circle around the child and making the rule that the child will belong to the one who can drag the child out of the circle first.  Narella Abashwili dragged the child out of the circle first, but Azdak awarded the child to Grusha.  The reason is that only a good mother can do nothing harmful to her child in any situation.  Actually, it is a performance of the performance, because the st.ory above is told by a singer.  The singer and other people in the valley are deciding who will control the valley.  Even though the author gave the story a happy ending, but I do not think if people are like what they act on the stage will end as a happy ending in the reality, because all the people are only caring about their benefits.  People have to bribe the judge before the opening court; the grandmother will force a marriage to make money and the queen really cares about her clothes instead of her child.  Therefore, the injustice happened all the time in the play, and it further reminds us that there are still many injustices around us.  The only way to fight against the injustice is to do the right things and stand for your justice.

The performance begins with a song.  The staging light is blue while the music goes, and actors are sitting on the chairs and freezing.  The stage is pretty quiet at first, and the blue light makes the stage more mysterious and a little bit depressive.  After the music, the story begins.  Two groups of people sit in the opposite and argue who will be the governor or manager of the valley.  There are many rules seems reasonable to regard to choose the manager, but the main key is that who can field the fruit should own the land.  The property should belong to the people who worth to own it.  The singer begins to tell the story of caucasian chalk circle.  The singer is also the narrator of the story, and she plays an important role on the stage.  When Grusha and Simon have an argument and misunderstand each other, the singer takes their places to tell their inner thoughts and feelings for them.  It is smart to set in this way because it can help the audience to understand the character more.  Even though I think it is kind of embarrassed when actors should freeze after each line, I can simply understand Grusha's and Simon's grievance and the helpless feeling.  People are all enduring a hard time, and they will have arguments when they ignore each other's difficulties and refused to listen to others.  Then, through the inner feelings, the audience feel the strong sympathy for the character because they know the characters' difficulties.  Therefore, it is great to have narrator going through the performance.

For the acting, I am really interested in Linda's performance.  She acted three characters in the performance.  Even though the characters are all mean and selfish, she acts them out differently.  For the princess, she is mean and mincing; for Corporal, she is mean and strict to her subordinators;  for the soldier seeing the mock court, she shows that she does not care about the mock court and she does not believe what prince Kazbeki said.  Linda made the characters so mean and selfish that I really want to hate the characters and go on to the stage and kill them.  Therefore, I appreciated Linda's performance.  Moreover, I really got shocked when she was screaming.  When she screamed, the pitch is so high and uncomfortable that Stella sitting beside me started to scream with her.  At that time, I had to use my hands to cover my ears, but I still felt my ear will be deaf soon.  Other people also did good jobs.  All of them put one hundred percent passion on the performance.  On the backstage, I heard that Peter and Jason really fell to the ground when they performed, and Peter's hands wear scratched when he fell to the ground.  Thank them to show the best play to the audiences.

The only defect in staging is that we do not have enough people to perform on the stage so each actor on the stage act two to three characters.  It could make audience confused and struggled with figuring out the which role they are playing.  For the costume, they are all wearing same dark clothes.  I think the costume could be different and be lighter.  The reason is that Blackbox is all black so it cannot catch audience's attention when the characters wearing dark clothes.  I understand it is a quite political serious play, but the characters might dress up in lighter blue because the lighter blue is cool color and it might not bring a negative effect on the theme of the play while catching audiences' attention.   

Blog 8: Character in Romeo and Juliet

Our group used my proposal that Romeo is a psychopath and all the things happen in the original story is his imagination.  I outlined the story into four scene, and there are four characters so each person in our group gets one character.

I act Mercutio, the best friend with Romeo.  Mercutio is a patient in the psychiatric hospital, but he does not, strictly speaking, have any mental problem.  The only problem for him is that he has transvestism.  He likes to dress like a girl and collect different women's underwears.  He did not steal underwears from others but buy them in the store, and he did not make any trouble to the society.  However, people's offensive judging drives Mercutio crazy.  The society does not welcome Mercutio, so in the end, the policemen sent him to the psychiatric hospital because of rumors of him among the crowd.  

Therefore, if I were Mercutio, I would love to stay in the hospital forever because other patients will not judge me by their "common sense".  I do not have to keep my habit in secret.  Therefore, I live in hospital happily as a patient.  As a girl, I am acting a man, but because of the man's transvestism, I should act like a girl in a male's perspective.  It is extremely exciting for me.   

For customs, I need a wig, dressing unmatchly.  I will act like a crazy person in front of the crowd but act commonly when I talk to my best friend Romeo.  I like making jokes around, but talk all my troubles to my friend, even though my friend Romeo is living in his imagined romance and does not care about others' lives.  I think Mercutio is a smart person, so he knows why Romeo got a mental break and he gives Romeo his sympathies.  However, he does not believe in love, especially the love at first sight, so they often got an argument.

The Proposal 2 for Romeo and Juliet

Theme
This is the second proposal used for Romeo and Juliet.  In this proposal, Romeo is a psychopath, who is living in the hospital.  The reason of his illness is that he could not accept that Rosaline refused his proposal.  Therefore, he imagined he fell in love with Juliet at a party. In addition, the reason of why his lover went away is that Juliet died for him instead of refusing his love.

Scene:
First Scene
1.  Romeo takes a walk with Lawrence.  Lawrence asks him whether he does not miss Rosaline or not.  Romeo tells Lawrence that he finds another love, who is better than Rosaline.
2.  Lawrence was so surprised and happy, he asks who, and Romeo says the person is Juliet.
3.  Lawrence feels upset and stops the conversation. There is no one in the hospital called Juliet. 
4.  After they walk out of the church into the garden, Romeo sees Tybalt is going to kill Mercutio, so Romeo run into Tybalt and wants to kill him. Tybalt is only arguing with Mercutio.  Mercutio is also a patient who has transvestism.  Romeo runs down Tybalt, riding on Tybalt's body and punches him.  Romeo takes out his toy gun.
5.  Lawrence and Mercutio drag Romeo away from Tybalt.  Romeo starts to cry and saying that "I killed a man, I should be banished!! I am Dying, I cannot see you anymore, my love!!"  Something like that...

Second Scene
1.  An extremely bright light wakes Romeo up, Lawrence is sitting beside him.
2.  Lawrence comforts him.  Romeo started to confess his guilt and regret that he can never see Juliet again.  He is so panic that he cannot control himself.
3.  Mercutio brings Juliet to Romeo in time.  Romeo stops shouting and hurting others.  He hugs Juliet and looks around.  He talks to Juliet that he has to run now because the meeting is not allowed.  Romeo gets down the stage.

Third Scene--After a Long Time ago
1.  Romeo talks to Mercutio about his missing to Juliet.  It has been a long time that Romeo has not seen Juliet.
2.  Mercutio is confused.  You mean Rosaline?  Who is Juliet?
3.  Romeo is panic because he remembers Mercutio brings his love to him.  Romeo explains.
4.   Mercutio realizes Juliet is the person on the picture that he brings to Romeo that day.   Therefore, he says,"oh, you mean the woman in the picture.  She died a long time ago." In Romeo's sight, Mercutio brings a woman to him, but in the reality, Mercutio finds a pretty woman's picture in the trash can, so he made a joke. Mercutio is surprised why Romeo loves a picture so much.

The Last Scene--Church (Lawrence's office)
1.  Romeo rush into the office and ask Lawrence Juliet's death.
2.  Lawrence tells the truth.
3.  Lawrence is not a priest, and he is the doctor.  Therefore, the church is Lawrence's office.  Romeo creates a figure of Juliet by staring at the famous picture on the wall of the office for a long time.  Recently, the picture is trashed, and it makes Romeo think Juliet is gone.  Mercutio is another patient.
4.  A nurse comes in to remind Romeo to drink the medicine.  The nurse is Tybalt.
5.  Romeo is not banished.  
     Romeo does not kill people.  
     Romeo does not have a girlfriend or wife.  
     Romeo is a psychopath.

Character
Romeo--The main character who believes he loves Juliet so much.  His temper is not stable.  He has a really strong headache.  Sometimes he cannot look into others' eyes because he can find the truth in other's eyes.  He would rather live in his imagination.   
Lawrence--A great doctor who has patience.  He believes he can lead Romeo to face the truth and help him to get rid of his heart attack so that he can be healed.
Mercutio-- Another patient who is anti-socialist and has transvestism.  He is crazy and always disturb the security of society.  Actually, the society does not welcome him to live as himself, so the society put him in the hospital.  Except that, he is normal and smart.
Tybalt--  A nurse but with a bad temper.  He is biased, so that is why Mercutio is arguing with Tybalt.  For the job, he is professional and responsible.

Setting
The story happen in the hospital.  The setting should contain Lawrence's office, the backyard of the hospital and Romeo's room.    

The Proposal of Romeo and Juliet

Theme:

The adaptation will be a thriller that Juliet does not want to marry Paris, but she cannot argue with her dad.  Therefore, she makes a big conspiracy to refuse the marriage and leave the family, and Romeo's love is her method to get the purpose.

Scene: 

1.  Juliet did want to marry Paris, but she cannot prevent the marriage.  
2.  She feels helpless, but her pain stops in the party.  The reason is that she sees Romeo in the party.
3.  Therefore, she tempts Romeo to fall in love.  Romeo falls into a trap.  In addition, she drags Romeo to pass by Tybalt on purpose to cause the direct conflict.
4.  The story goes what the original storyline is.  (we can act out some of these scenes or use the narrator to explain the story.)
5.  Juliet wants to use someone's death to transport everyone's focus from her marriage.  Therefore, at that night when Romeo kills Tybalt, Juliet send Nurse away so that she can run away from the house.  However, Romeo comes too quickly to let Juliet escape.  The plan fails.
6.  Juliet wants Romeo to take her away, but Lady Caplet comes in time.  The second plan fails.
7.  Before the marriage night, Juliet goes to Lawrence and ask for a fake potion.  She remembers once Romeo tells her that Lawrence is good at making medicines.
8.  After the effect of the potion, Juliet wakes up, and she finds Romeo and Paris are both dead.
9.  Now, no one will miss her, and no one will force her to have marriage.  She has freedom.
10.  She leaves.  She is not going back to her family.

Characters:
1.  Juliet
2.  Romeo
3.  (Tybalt)
4.  (Mercutio)
5.  Paris

Setting:
The settings are changing.  There are bedroom scene, dance pool and the scene of a church.  We can set the scenes in the black box because the outside backgrounds are easy to confuse people where the story take place.  The difficulties are that this play contains so many pieces of the scenes, and it also requires to record the small emotion expressions.  The scenes happen at night.

Music:
     I would love to use the pop music or R&B music in the play instead of classical music.  The music should contain the lyrics, and because the love in the play is a conspiracy, then the music should be more sarcastic and crazy. 

Review on Film Version Romeo and Juliet

Review on Film Version Romeo and Juliet

Director: Baz Luhrmann

Romeo Montague: Leonardo DiCaprio

Juliet Capulet: Claire Danes 

Tybalt: John Leguizamo

Mercutio: Harold Perrineau

The movie Romeo + Juliet is an adaptation of Shakespear's Romeo and Juliet in a modern version, which means the story will take place in the metropolitan that all people wear the clothes as casual as we do.  The only difference is that the film still keeps Shakespear's language.  The lines from Shakespear's play will be spoken in this film almost exactly the same with some cutting and rearrangement.  It is also a dramatic love story that Romeo and Juliet love each other and get married behind the hate and opposition of two families, which are Montague and Capulet.  Following what the play goes, the main plots of the movie are the same with the plots in Shakespear's play;  the turning point is that Tybalt killed Mercutio and Romeo was banished because of killing Tybalt; the climax is that Juliet drinks the potion to play dead, and Romeo believe the death is real and drink a real poison.  In the end, Romeo and Juliet both died for the love.  

The story of the movie happens in the modern world, so a policeman called Prince take the place of a real Prince in Shakespeare's play, and the tools they fight are the guns instead of the swords.  Montagues are all wearing beachy clothes which are really colorful, and Capulets are all wearing the formal black suits.  In addition, we can see the car driving in the city, and helicopter flying around to searching people.  These are the common changes in the movie to cater to the modern setting.  However, there are more important changes to show the theme and the specialty of this movie.  

At the beginning of the movie, there is a TV reporter reporting the tragedy between Montague and Capulet, which is the death of Romeo and Juliet.  The reporter said the words that the chorus says in Shakespeare's play.  Next, there are many clips of the movie flashing in a short time which is foreshadowing the story to give audiences an impressive view of the play.  In the end of the story, the last picture is that the same TV closes.  It is creative and smart to change the old-fashion chorus to a new reporting form.  On the other hand, the same TV connects the beginning and the end of the movie.  This creative change applies every plot or picture of the story as a whole so it can be easily understandable and convincing.

Secondly, many lines of Nurse and Lawrence and Paris are cut off.  For example, there is Lawrence's explanation when Prince asks him to tell the truth of the death of Romeo and Juliet, but there is no any business of Lawrence in the movie version.  When Paris knows Juliet's death, he comes to Juliet's tomb, but in the movie, Paris did not show up since he meets Juliet in the church.  Actually, the death scene of Romeo and Juliet in the movie is quite quiet and painful.  No one shows up to interrupt their conversation, and no one goes to find them in the movie.  In addition, the movie also changes the plot a little bit to let Juliet wake a few seconds earlier.  Then, under Juliet's eyes, Romeo dies.  In the play, Romeo dies first, and when Juliet wakes up, she finds Romeo's cold body lying beside her.  Comparing two different version, the movie version is combined more emotion for the characters than the emotions in the old play.  The emotions could contain surprising, regrets, pities, love and so on, and because of the unclear death, Montague and Capulet did not make peace with each other in the movie.  It demonstrates a reality that sometimes no one will treasure your death so the death is kind of invaluable.  It is also an awareness for the people that please do not give up lives so easily because I think it is the most successful change for the movie version.  

In the end, there are also many symbols to show the character's characteristics.  For example, water can represent Romeo and Juliet's innocent so the water appears several times in the movie.  Juliet's first shot is her face in the water.  She is taking a shower.  Comparing other Capulet's exaggerated makeup, especially Juliet's mother, Juliet is more natural and innocent.  The second scene of water leads Romeo and Juliet to know each other.  In the party, Romeo sees Juliet with a fish tank between them.  The water in the fish tank is shining and flowing, and it makes the scene really romantic.  Then, the biggest scene that related to water is Romeo and Juliet kisses under the water.  It is the first meet after the party.  Romeo cannot forget Juliet so he comes back to Capulet's house to find Juliet after the party at that night.  Therefore, they meet near the pool, and they talk about their love and drop into the swimming pool by accident, and they kiss.  It is also romantic, but besides that, the water emphasizes the pure love.  There are no other things in the camera at this scene except Romeo, Juliet and water so the water point out that Romeo and Juliet's love is pure, innocent and without any other purpose.

In the movie, I love DiCaprio's acting.  I have to say that his first shot is really charming and impressive.  His first scene is the sunset set his figure off to a melancholy gentleman, which is the figure that all girls would love.  In the beginning of the movie, DiCaprio did not show his emotion really much because he is suffering the old love.  Everything is redundant and boring for Romeo at that time, and DiCaprio acted really well.  After meeting Juliet, Romeo sets the fire again in his heart.  The distinction DiCaprio act significantly by showing different facial expresssion and different tone of speaking.

Reading Notes on EF's Visit To a Small Planet

The play can live in any time and space.  It can live in another world.  The article is to teach people how to read literature or read the play.

1. Language is not the barricade of understanding the play

2.  Too tight a focus on language will make the play hard to know

3.  Too tight a focus on creating character make the play so easy to understand.

4.  To understand a play, read the whole play first to understand what is mainly about of the play.  Secondly, know the detail of the story, such as the time, place and climate in the story.  In the end, regard the play as a whole thing, and understand the micro perspective.

5.  Do not understand the play the way that you think it should be.  You have to find the evidence to understand the play.
6.  Conflict and Central figure of the characters should be the main point you are looking to.  
7.  Language habit can also be worthy for you to pay attention.
8.  The change of the play should grab your attention because most of the questions will ask you to analyze the change.  The change mostly happens in characters, time, and place.  In addition, the change can also happen in the tone and the mood of the language.  
9.    The play is not independent itself.  You will always find the shadow of you in the story.  Sometimes, you will find the character's personality is kind of similar to you, or what character did is what you expect.  It is common to have the feeling.  Moreover, the play is a reflection of the world, of the human being.
10.  Every assumption you make about a character must reflect the conditions of its world, including the way psychology functions in that world.  The reaction and the action that character make must have reasons behind it.  
11.  The play or literature is conscious, determinate, limited. 

Management of a Party

Tea and Drinking Party

Theme

The party is mainly divided into two parts.  One to chat with each other to share their living stories and the other is to have fun.

Where

A big garden that near a big glass house for entertainment.

When

Spring and Fall for a whole week

Who

Anyone from the same country speaking the same language.  The people should be from different class and have different jobs in the different clothes.  The party will be held in every country.

Decoration

The decoration of the garden is toward old fashion, such as Versailles, or the Chinese courtyard that contains a lily pool.  The decoration of the entertainment building is modern style.  There are KTV, dance pool, and mini golf in the building. 

Food

We will drink tea in the garden, and drink wine, peer and so on inside.

Activity

We can have communication to inspire our idea.  The party is mostly like to favorite the artist, musicians, and writers and so on.  They can create a lot of new art and literature by sharing people's different living stories.

Blog 7 Cast and Props

Our Casting and the Objects match to characters:

1. Romeo--Sword
2. Juliet--A bunch of flowers
3. Tybalt--Swords
4. Mercutio--Wooden Sword
5. Benvolio--Pipes
6. Friar Lawrence--Potion
7. Nurse--A letter
8. Capulet--over exaggerated golden necklace
9. Prince--Crown
10. Paris--A golden goblet of wine

At the beginning of our discussion, we follow the story's line to think the casting and the objects for the characters.  Therefore, Romeo, Juliet, Tybalt, Mercutio, Lawrence, and Nurse are irreplaceable for casting, and swords will be the main props for objects.  For casting, there are four more positions to let us choose the character.  Paris's existence is a threat to Juliet's love, so he is important; Prince makes the banishment to Romeo.  They can be the turning point in the play, but Capulet and Montague are more like a symbol.  The member of each family should stand on the stage to make peace with each other.  Therefore, we chose Capulet and Benvolio.  When we think about Capulet, we do not think of Lady Capulet or Lord Capulet at all because they are like one thing for us, which is the power and reputation of the family.  To be more specific, Lady Capulet and Lord Capulet share same finance and make same decisions in the family.  The only difference between Lady Capulet and Lord Capulet is the reaction when Juliet shows her attitude about her marriage to Paris.  Lady Capulet can talk to Juliet in peace, but Lord Capulet cannot, but all in all, it does not matter.  The reason is that Lady Capulet has to listen to Lord Capulet, and Lord Capulet wants Juliet to marry Paris.  The situation is the same if we have Lord or Lady Capulet either. 

For Montague, we do not have a clear memory about the Montague because they hardly show up in the play.  In addition, Lady Montague is dead in the end.  Therefore, we forgot the existence of Montague in our discussion until Ms. Guarino mentioned it.  After a reconsideration, I still want to keep Benvolio instead of Romeo's parents.  Firstly, Benvolio is also a member of Montague so he can represent the Montague.  Secondly, I believe Romeo spend more time with Benvolio than his parents.  I can see it in the play when Romeo's parents worry about Romeo but they do not go for a conversation with Romeo directly but let Benvolio talk to Romeo.  It is easy for Benvolio to chat with Romeo, so Benvolio is really important for Romeo.  In the end, in the play, Benvolio has a clear personality which is peaceful and calm, but Shakespeare did not write too many lines for Montague to identify Montague's figure.  Therefore, if we let Montague and Capulet all wearing necklaces and diamond ring in the black dresses, the audience can mix characters' identities.

For the object, especially for Romeo, our group wanted to choose sword for him because the play need it.  However, we did not think that Romeo can pick up someone else's sword to kill Tybalt.  Then, I prefer to let Romeo wears the suit of armor, which is the idea of Cassidy's group.  I like their explanation, and I also agree that a Knight figure really fit Romeo.  Moreover, I would like to point out the differences between Tybalt and Mercutio.  Tybalt is a real soldier in my mind, he is good at fighting, but he does not abuse his power.  Tybalt is pretty serious.  Therefore, the swords for him should be the double swords that carry on the back or a long katana swords that only belong to a real Japanese soldier who follows the Bushido.  Even though Tybalt is not a Japanese soldier, I want to show his honor and the spirit to the audience by carrying really long fancy swords.  For Mercutio, I will give him a tagger, or a wooden sword because he is not a real soldier in my mind.  Mercutio is like a childish boy, who will say what he wants to see and get temper immediately when he feels mad.  A mature person can speak a word or show his or her emotion after a consideration, and they will react properly in a proper situation.  Therefore, Mercutio cannot have a sword as same as Tybalt's.  

Next, I would like to explain the golden goblet of wine for Paris and a pipe for Benvolio.  Paris in the play also shows up with the propose of marriage.  Every time he speaks, he talks about the marriage with Juliet.  Therefore, it makes Paris seems like he does not care anything else but his marriage.  I pick a goblet for him because I think drinking wine is the most important part of the wedding.  I used to think Paris can carry the diamond ring all the time, but the ring is too small to show his figure, so I change the idea to a golden goblet.  In addition, a golden goblet can show the feeling of happiness because people only use the fancy ware in an important party or meeting to show his welcome and his reputation.  Benvolio has a pipe, and the pipe shows his peaceful identity.  In many movies I saw before, a lot of fighting between men will be solved when a person hands out the cigarette for them.  "Calm down! Cigar?" One person says.  After a short time, the men who want to argue with each other will sit on the sofa in a silence with a cigar.  Benvolio has the ability to stop people from fighting, so he is like a cigar, pipes or cigarette to calm people down.  

In the end, I think our group's casting and objects can be used for the play as long as we change the swords of Romeo to suit of armor.  Other group's meanings of objects are too vague, which can make the audience confused, such as the kaleidoscope.  Although kaleidoscope is a new and interesting idea, you have to explain to the audience in the words directly.  However, the audience will understand our group's objects.  In my opinion, the objects should be easy to understand, and they also should be useful for the characters to use.

Reading Note on Act 5

Plots:
1.  Balthasar brings the news of Juliet's death to Romeo.
2.  Romeo is in great pain, and he prepares to run back to see Juliet.
3.  He buys a poison.
4.  Friar Lawrence asks John to send letter to Romeo
5.  Friar John does not send the letter to Romeo
6.  Lawrence goes to Juliet's tomb with an iron crow.

Note:

The reading makes me so nervous and anxious because I know the truth as a reader, but I cannot tell Romeo to stop suicide.  Even though we do not know Romeo is dead in the first half reading of Act 5, we can see his purpose when he buys poison.  He is reckless, he is too rush.  If he can wait a moment, or if he comes late, the end will be changed.  At this moment, it seems like that fate cannot be controlled by the human.  It is the willingness from the god.  

When an emotion gets too hot, people cannot maintain their intelligence and patience.  The love comes too quick, and the irrational love cannot live in the world too long because some irrational love will cause accident or death like Romeo and Juliet, and the other irrational love more often will change to regret in the reality.  Therefore, if Romeo and Juliet do not die, can they live together happily like they expect?  I do not think they will still continue their love because they do not know each other well in such a short time.  When they really live under a roof, they have to worry about living, they have to worry the finance, and they might worry about their children's education.  All of this can bring pressure to them and cause contradictions between Romeo and Juliet.  It is a reality.  Then, for love, I think it is a happy ending for them because they die in love.  Even before they live at the last second, they know they love each other.  The real tragedy is for the people who drop into a love like Romeo and Juliet, but they have to see their love goes to hate and void in the end.  

Reading Note on R & J 3

Plot:
1. Capulet allow the marriage between Paris and Juliet, and they sign the wedding day on Thursday.
2. On the other side, Romeo goes to Juliet's room.  He climbs to Juliet's bedroom
3. After a long conversation, Romeo climbs down and say farewell to Juliet.
4. Juliet drops into the sadness because of Romeo's living
5.  Mrs. Capulet comes to Juliet.  
6.  In the conversation, Juliet has to pretend she is sad about Tybalt and she is furious about the ugly devil--Romeo.
7.  Mrs, Capulet sends the information of marriage to Juliet, and Juliet refuses the marriage.
8.  Mr. Capulet comes.  He is extremely angry with Juliet's attitude.
9.  Mr. Capulet ask Juliet to marry Paris, or he will not recognize Juliet as his daughter.
10.  Nurse comes to stop Mr. Capulet.  Nurse cannot help Juliet.
11.  Juliet ask her mom for help, but Mrs. Capulet stands on Mr. Capulet's side.  Mrs. Capulet cannot help.
12.  Juliet looks for Nurse's opinion.  However, Nurse suggested that Juliet should marry Paris.  Romeo is a banished man, and he will not blame on Juliet's change according to Nurse's opinion.
13.  Juliet agrees.
14.  When Nurse leaves the stage, Juliet is mad at Nurse because of Nurse's suggestion.
15.  Juliet does not change her mind of loving Romeo.
16.  Juliet goes to Lawrence.

Note

Juliet in this scene is totally changed.  In my opinion, she is more quiet, more stubborn, and she is hiding herself from everyone.   It is a surprise for me that Juliet agrees Nurse's suggestion.  I know the agreement is fake, but I cannot believe Juliet even lie to her the closest person in her life.  You even if do not trust your closest person or best friends, who else you will trust?  It is really sad to see Juliet is covering her missing to Romeo while cursing Romeo with her mother.  It is also sad to see Juliet endures the marriage and covers herself with lies to keep a distance with everyone.  I can imagine that Juliet now is alone and lonely.  Even though Romeo will be the strong back up for her in spirit, Romeo cannot help her practically.  Therefore, we can understand how strong Juliet is because it is extremely difficult to fight against a whole world in order to keep faith and love.  I admire Juliet so much.   

Paragraph Practice

The beginning of the tragedy is always with someone's death.  Therefore, the people or the events that cause the death should be under the spotlight.  In Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio is the person that should be blamed.   He started an argument with Tybalt first and triggered a fight with him, and then Tybalt stabbed Mercutio to death.  If Mercutio learned to control his temper and did not argue with Tybalt, Mercurio would not die, and then Romeo would not kill Tybalt and get banishment.  Before the scene, even though there is a fight between servants, people stayed in peace.  Tybalt saw Romeo in the dance party, but he did not rush to Romeo and beat him; Although Benvolio could not stand with Capulets, he advocated peace.  Tybalt has a bad temper, but he can control it.  In the scene, when he comes to find Romeo with anger, he treats Benvolio and Mercutio politely.  Tybalt says to Mercutio and Benvolio, "Gentlemen, good den, a word with one of you."  Clearly, Tybalt did not want to get trouble with any of them.  However, Mercutio plays words game with Tybalt to trouble him.  Tybalt gets steps back, but Mercutio did not stop annoying him.  Finally, Mercutio suggests a fight, and he dies.  His death causes Romeo's fury, and the serial consequence comes after leading the story to tragedy.  

Review of Les Miserables

Review of Les Miserables

October 7, 2017

Bushnell Theatre, 166 Capitol Avenue, Hartford, CT 06106

Produced by Cameron Mackintosh

Directed & Adapted by Laurence Conor & James Powell

Nick Cartell as Jean Valjean

Josh Davis as Javert

Melissa Mitchell as Fantine

Matt Shingledecker as Enjolras

Phoenix Best as Eponine

Joshua Grosso as Marius

Jillian Butler as Cosette

Les Miserables is the musical which adapted by the book, Les Miserables, that is written by Victor Hugo in the 19th century.  Base on the June Rebellion in Paris in 1832, the story talks about an ex-convict from Bastille, Jean Valjean's experience of redemption.  In Valjean's life journal, he adopts a girl, Cosette, from a poor woman who dies in syphilis and brings her up.  When Cosette becomes an adult, she meets Marius, and they fall in love with each other.  However, the rebellion happens right away after they confess to each other.  Marius joins the ABC rebellion team and almost dies there.  Valjean comes and saves him in time.  The rebellion fails, and many people die in the event, but Cosette and Marius still alive.  Cosette and Marius get married after many years, and Valjean dies in peace.  Back to the story, there is another character who is as important as Valjean, Javert, a captain of the army.  Javert devotes himself to arrest Jean Valjean to keep the society in order according to his faith.  However, when he sneaks into the ABC team and is captured by the people in the team, Jean Valjean let him go.  Javert then starts to doubt his faith.  Afterward, he jumps out of the bridge, drowns and dies.  The reason that I would love to go back to the story and point out Javert's experience is that the story can be mainly about the faith, which is the theme of Les Miserables.  Relate to the class about Single Story I had last year, if there is no Javer's monologue, we can easily judge that what a justice that revolution has, and we can criticise the first class's abuse on people.  However, Javert's monologue made me think the problem deeply.  Under a chaotic society, every person is so small and powerless, but when each of them believes in something, such as a faith or love, everyone is great and remarkable.  Although there is someone who seems negative and opposite to justice, they might have their own standard of justice.  Moreover, it is difficult to find out the right and wrong in the chaotic society.  As a conclusion, there is wars and many terrible ugly deeds in the society, but there is also passion, love, and kindness around people. 

The musical was played on the Saturday's sunny afternoon.  The day was warm and a little bit windy.  We went to the Bushnell theatre right on time.  Our sits were on the second floor so we saw the full view of the musical and the music pool in front of the stage.  The stage was different from the stage of Romeo and Juliet that we saw in the park last time.  The stage is regular and common like every other stage.  However, when the musical began, the stage managing started to surprise me.  The stage is like separated to two parts: frontstage and backstage.  There was a thin screen that can be raised up and dropped down, and there were also two apartment-like structures and the doors moved from the right and the left sides of the stage to separate the entire stage to two parts.  The background that in the behind the stage might be a LED screen, which can make the scene more real and change the picture quickly.  Secondly, for the stage managing, the musical had a lot of huge props, such as a building, a fence, a huge ladder, and the chairs pile for the attack scene.  The props came to the stage surprisingly quickly and slid away from the stage without any sound.  In addition, there was no people to move the props.  This is the most perfect stage managing I have not ever seen before.  Firstly, the props built up the environment to let the audiences go deep into the story so that even people cannot understand the lyrics or not interested in the songs in some part, they can understand the plot by looking to the setting on the stage.  Secondly, the efficient props managing make the musical more solid.  If the props change slowly, it can definitely slow down the speed of storytelling.  The efficiency connected the plots tightly, which made me cannot move my eyes from the stage.  

A good musical should have a good sound effect.  Les Miserables in Bushnell Theatre did an excellent job on the sound effect. The actors' voices were full of emotions, and the voice brought a huge influence.  The music played in the pool was clear and bright, the quiet and sad parts of the play used a lot of harp solo (or guitar maybe), and for the strong and furious scene, all instruments played together to push the scene to a climax.  The music worked with actors well.  The light for the stage was basically dark, sometimes warm.  The most impressive light using for me is the song Who Am I sang by Jean Valjean.  When Jean struggled in his identity, two orange warm lights projected from the two sides of the stage instead of projecting directly above the character.  The result of the lights was that it made three Jean. One shadow was back of Jean, and one shadow was in front of Jean, and Jean himself was between the two shadows.   Jean was an ex-convict but also an administrator of the city, so the shadows were like his two identities.   The light using was so smart because it revealed the struggling inside Jean clearly.

In the musical, I love all actors.  Everyone acted our their identity perfectly with strong passions.  I cannot find out which one I like better so I would love to say I really appreciate the little young actors who act the little boy.  He was also an important character because he pushed the plots forward.  The little boy was in the ABC team, he was a smart and brave boy.  The little young actor acted out the intelligence of the little boy while shows the energy and naive characteristic that only belongs to a little boy.             

I love the musical so much.  I watched movie version in China when I was 12 or 13 years old, and this is the second musical I saw.  Therefore, I did not understand what the plots were mainly about because the topic is too heavy, but I remember that it is the movie I watched with my parents and my aunt in the midnight.  I was so sleepy, but I had a strong sympathy for the poor people who suffer in the unfair society.  One day more is the most impressive song for me because it shows the strong connection between all characters in the movie, and make me feel a strong passion of expecting tomorrow.  Therefore, I remembered the song since that day, and I saw the musical four or five years later when I was a high school student.  The same content was played in different ways, and I saw in different place with different people at a more mature age.  Les Miserables will be a remarkable and unforgettable musical for me.     

Reading Note on R & J Act 3

Main Plots:

1. When Mercutio has a conversation with Benvolio, Tybalt comes.
2. Tybalt wants to find Romeo, but Mercutio troubles Tybalt.
3. Romeo comes, and Tybalt shows his anger to Romeo.
4. Mercutio cannot stand, so he wants to fight with Tybalt.
5. Tybalt fight with Mercutio and stabs Mercutio
6. Mercutio dies
7. Romeo kills Tybalt
8. Prince and two families come
9. Prince banishes Romeo
10. Nurse comes to see Juliet with rope
11. Juliet get the information of the death and banishment from Nurse
12. Juliet feels sad and lucky at the same time.  Sadness for the death of her cousin and the banishment of her husband.  Feeling luck is because Romeo is alive.
13. Romeo hides in Lawrence's house.  He wants to kill himself when he hears his banishment.
14. Nurse comes and brings Romeo to Juliet.

Notes

This can be a turning point of the story.  When everything goes well, the death suddenly turns the story to misery.  It is so dramatic and shocking.  In Shakespear's writing, there are so many unbelievable scenes describing the death and sorrow, and the sorrow always caused by the person who has a bad temper, such as Mercutio, Tybalt, and Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet in Hamlet.  It makes me think of the temper.  Is modesty really important?  I think the answer is yes.  Actually, I love to be friend with the people who have patience.  The people who have impatience does not mean they are nor good people, but when they live together, they always get into fights.  My parents are a good example, and I have abundant experiences about it.  I remember the worst argument they had is that they wanted to get a divorce after slamming the doors, broking bowls and chairs.  The sound of everything they made is loud, harsh, and it made me frightening.  Therefore, I decide to be a mild person and decide to marry a person who will never shout to me.

In-class Writing

In Act 3 Scene 1 who is really responsible for Mercutio’s death: Mercutio, who provoked the fight, Tybalt who stabbed him, or Romeo who got between them? Use specific evidence (direct quotes) from the play to back this up. 

In my opinion, I believe that Mercutio is responsible for his own death.  There is no one could help him to carry the guilt, even though Tybalt truly murdered him.  The reason of that is that Mercutio is stagnant and insane in this scene.  His irrational and radical personality is the main cause of his death.  Firstly, if Mercutio could not have a fight with Tybalt, he would not be stabbed by Tybalt.  The fight is started by Mercutio's provocation.  The evidence in the book is that Mercutio says, "Will you pluck your sword out of his pilcher by the ears?  Make haste, lest mine be about your ears ere it be out."  It clearly shows that Mercutio invites Tybalt to fight instead of Tybalt.  The fight should be ended as someone dies or be injured.  Therefore, Tybalt hurts Mercutio is normal for the fight.

Secondly, Mercutio did not behave well before the fight.  He always argues with Tybalt although Tybalt does not focus on him at all.  Tybalt wants to talk to Benvolio or Mercutio to find Romeo, but Mercutio is irradiated immediately by Tybalt's words.  Tybalt says, "Gentlemen, good den, a word with one of you."  Mercutio answers, "And but one word with one of us?  Couple it with something make it a word and a blow."  From the conversation above, we can know that Tybalt wants to have a normal conversation quickly and peacefully, but Mercutio wants to provoke Tybalt for a fight.  The reaction of Tybalt is nice and strong.  He says, "You should find me apt enough to that, sir, and you will give me occasion."  It means that he does not mind to fight with Mercutio unless Mercutio gives him a proper reason or excuse.  He emphasizes that he is not a weak person, but he is not a person who shows off his power and his arrogance either.  It is a figure of a gentleman.  However, Mercutio does not make a concession.  He says, "Could you not take some occasion without giving?"  Mercutio sneers Tybalt why he does not make any reason.  Clearly, Mercutio is troubling Tybalt for no reason.  As a result, it is reasonable for Mercutio to be responsible for his death.

If I am the director, I would focus on the custom of the two character.  To be honest, we understand that Tybalt comes to the street with anger, which means he and Mercutio both have bad tempers.  The only difference is that Tybalt knows how to control himself.  Therefore, if their costumes are both dark red, I want to add some black color on Tybalt's clothes because the black can make people feel more steady.  Furthermore, I would love to add some allegro speed music playing with violin and drum because the violins' higher sound and the drumbeat can emphasize the intense environment.

Blog 6

Agree with the following statement and use specific details and quotes from the text to support your argument:
Friar Lawrence is a peacemaker.

I agree with the statement that "Friar Lawrence is a peacemaker," because Lawrence is not only a scientist but also a priest.  Based on the two identities he has, he is potentially inclined to a peacemaker.  The more specific details can make the statement more clear, so the next is that why I think Lawrence is a peacemaker.

As a scientist, he can make the medicine to heal people and also can make the poison to kill people.  When Lawrence comes to the stage, he acts as a herbal scientist while he is like a worshiper to nature.  He says, "Many for many virtues excellent, None but for some, and yet all different. O, mickle is the powerful grace that lies in plants, herbs, stones, and their true qualities...Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied, And vice sometime by action dignified...In man as well as herbs, grace and rude will; And where the worser is predominant, Full soon the canker death eats up that plant."  First, Lawrence appreciates the power of nature.  He thinks nature is human's mother and this magic mother is omnipotent.  Then, he compares the plant to the human.  He believes that the herbs have no difference from the human.  The all compete with each other, so sometimes they are kind because they can improve themselves together, but sometimes they are evil because they kill others to protect themselves.  All herbs have their functions, so all the human have their own personality and specialty.  The last line and the most important lines Lawrence provides is that everything related to crime cannot live longer.  From the sentence he says, we can say that he is a wise old man, who knows every knowledge and see the truths behind the appearance clearly.  He can understand the evil mind that people have, but from the last sentence, we can see that he believes that the evil mind cannot be stronger because this mind can put people to death.  It is a common sense that war is like a demon, which advocates the human to make evil actions.  It disobeys the saying of Lawrence.  Therefore, he can be seen as a peacemaker. 

As a priest and Romeo's close people, when he hears that Romeo falls in love with Juliet and wants to marry her, Lawrence shows his big surprise.  After a few second, he agrees to be the witness of their marriage.  He explains, "O, she knew well Thy love did read by rote that could not spell.  But come, young waverer, come go with me, In one respect I'll thy assistant be;  For this alliance may so happy prove To turn your households' rancor to pure love."  It demonstrates that Lawrence is a thoughtful person.  Even though he got shocked, he finally agrees to be the witness after thinking.  It is from a deep consideration instead of an emotional and subjective reaction so we can know that he really wants to make a good advice to Romeo's future, and he also wants to solve the hate between the two families.  As a conclusion, Lawrence is a peacemaker.