After reading it, I found out the relationship between Amanda and Tom is dynamic. When the time passes, their attitudes toward each other are changing. The relationship between Amanda and Tom is awkward but peaceful at least at first. Tom is enduring his mother, but he still respects to her. For Amanda, she notices Tom's impatience, but she still decides to leave the trouble alone and treats Tom as the past. From line said by Amanda when Tom slights over her, “Every time I want to know anything you start going on like that,” we can prove that Amanda can feel Tom’s impatience. (William, 35). Therefore, Their relationship has forcefully remained between Amanda and Tom until the end of the book, Tom left the house. As an audience, we would like to think they both can be blamed. Tom should understand his mother's care and thoughts. Amanda was thinking the whole family, but Tom's attention is more toward his interest and his development. On the other hand, Amanda is also an egoist. We can see that she does what she thinks without respecting her son’s hobby. Amanda used to return the book that Tom borrowed to the library without Tom’s permission. Tom is so angry to her mother action, but her mother explains “I took that horrible novel back to the library-- that awful book by that insane Mr. Lawrence. I cannot control the output of a diseased mind or people who cater to them, but I won’t allow such filth in my house.”(Williams, 22). Every adjective word from the sentences showing above is full of negative and extreme disgust feelings. Amanda does not like the book, so she speak forward. It is acceptable and understandable that the person has different opinions, but it is not proper to combat a person’s hobby and abuse the subject in front of the person who loves it and appreciate. For the action like Amanda does is absolutely egotism. It clearly demonstrates the arrogance and egotism of Amanda, and it also shows that how Amanda does not care other’s feelings. Therefore, they are the same kind of person. However, for Tom and Amanda's perspectives, they all blame on the other. When I played Amanda, I would not only like to find the changes in Amanda's attitude but would also like to find out what Amanda thought when she changes the attitude toward Tom.
Amanda feels Tom's disagreement and dissatisfaction, but she still keeps doing the annoying things. I believe there are two reasons push her to keep her annoying personality. Firstly, she is sure that she is making the right choice for Tom. Amanda thought the writing could not earn enough money to support an entire family, so she restricts Tom write. It is a truth that it is so difficult to live by relying on words. Therefore, compared to the reality, Amanda thinks working hard in the warehouse can earn basic financial support, and the job in the warehouse is more stable than writing. Secondly, the past of Amanda makes a great difference from the present she lived. Amanda's past is full of glories according to her memorization. Therefore, compared to the bleak present life, she spends her most of time on hiding in her past and escaping the reality. Then, even though Amanda feels Tom's dissatisfaction, she has no time and is tired to face the problem. As a result, she is forced to handle the family as a single mother, and she is also living in her fantasy as an outspoken romantic woman. The conflict makes her complicated, and I believe living between the fantasy and reality will bring a lot of reluctant feeling to the lives.
When I played Amanda, I continued putting layers in the character building. The first layer would be the behavior and appearance, which is as simple as possible. Amanda is so outspoken that she usually talks without thinking, and her words hurt Tom and Laura. Her behavior gives me the first impression of her, egotism. All the kids and teenagers will somehow feel like the world is moving around them, and then they talk whatever they want without thinking about the influence or effect to others. However, adults will not do it because when they grew up, they will be independent and socialize with a lot of people. They have to cooperate with others. Amanda in the book does not seem like she is a cooperative person, even though she looks socialized. To show the childishness, I walked brightly in the first scene. When I came out at the beginning, I was wondering where Tom is. For this part, I was aimlessly walking and looking. After Tom response, I felt slightly happy and walk quickly to him with small skips, because I, as Amanda, can now grab a person to talk. The communication between Tom and Amanda is quick. One reason is that Tom's attitude of ignoring to his mom, and the other is that Amanda does not have to think. The only thing for Amanda for this scene is speaking. Therefore, my reaction is fast without hesitation. For example, when Jacob said "He will come tomorrow," I responded immediately. I responded so fast that Jacob did not even fully pronounce the last consonant in the last word. I said, "Tomorrow? Oh, no, I can't do anything about tomorrow. I can't do anything about tomorrow" with a face with blame and anxiety. From the line, we can see that Amanda's line repeated twice, and this phenomenon actually is often in the book. I thought it was redundant at first, but then I realized that for the people who respond too fast or speaking without thinking, they did not even know what they are talking about. Based on this understanding, I wanted to show that the differences between the repeated lines. For the first repeated line, I said quickly with same facial expression, and then for the second repeated line, I slowed down my words and raised up my voice. The purpose of it is to show that I was not sure about the last sentence I said, so I verified by repeating the sentence words by words.
The second layer will be her inner thought. I acted out her contradiction by reacting to Tom and adding the pauses between the sentences. In addition, facial expression can also help to improve the contradictions. Acting in the last scene focuses on Amanda’s inner thought more because it is also the tragic ending in the book where Amanda cannot bare Tom’s indifference and rebellion. The last scene is set in the party and then the family receives the bad news. The party should be full of joy and hope, and it really is at the beginning. When the family gets the news, the atmosphere immediately drops into a freezing state from an exciting state. Therefore, the argument happened between Amanda and Tom next is probably the argument without temper restrain or logic. Especially for Amanda, she already has a bad communication skill, and now she loses her temper, so the lines she said definitely does not from her willingness. In other words, she complains, blams, and then she lost Tom. To act out the unwillingness, I not only emphasize the impetuous feeling by crying, shouting, sobbing, and hitting Jacob, but also added a few actions after the last line of the scene. After my last line and also the last line of the argument, “Go, then! Then go to the moon-- you selfish dreamer!” Jacob turned the back to me and exited.(William, 67). I stepped forward and wanted to grab him, but I failed, so I just stood where Jacob left with sobbing. For a few second, I used my right hand that I wanted to grab him to cover my mouth, and I ran off the stage from the other side. It is a series feeling changes from anger to regret and then to deep sadness. I used my fist to hit on Jacob’s chest to release my anger, and then I reached out my hand trying to urge him to stay, but I failed, so I withdrew my arm and covered my mouth by hand. There was no word but gesture language. The staging light was dim, and slow blues revealed the tragic ending.
For the staging, we set up easily. The first scene is the same as the second scene. The difference between the two scenes is that the first happens more in the fire escape, and the second scene is set in the living room. Moreover, since we did not have any monologue, we did not set a strong spotlight or change the staging.
Amanda feels Tom's disagreement and dissatisfaction, but she still keeps doing the annoying things. I believe there are two reasons push her to keep her annoying personality. Firstly, she is sure that she is making the right choice for Tom. Amanda thought the writing could not earn enough money to support an entire family, so she restricts Tom write. It is a truth that it is so difficult to live by relying on words. Therefore, compared to the reality, Amanda thinks working hard in the warehouse can earn basic financial support, and the job in the warehouse is more stable than writing. Secondly, the past of Amanda makes a great difference from the present she lived. Amanda's past is full of glories according to her memorization. Therefore, compared to the bleak present life, she spends her most of time on hiding in her past and escaping the reality. Then, even though Amanda feels Tom's dissatisfaction, she has no time and is tired to face the problem. As a result, she is forced to handle the family as a single mother, and she is also living in her fantasy as an outspoken romantic woman. The conflict makes her complicated, and I believe living between the fantasy and reality will bring a lot of reluctant feeling to the lives.
When I played Amanda, I continued putting layers in the character building. The first layer would be the behavior and appearance, which is as simple as possible. Amanda is so outspoken that she usually talks without thinking, and her words hurt Tom and Laura. Her behavior gives me the first impression of her, egotism. All the kids and teenagers will somehow feel like the world is moving around them, and then they talk whatever they want without thinking about the influence or effect to others. However, adults will not do it because when they grew up, they will be independent and socialize with a lot of people. They have to cooperate with others. Amanda in the book does not seem like she is a cooperative person, even though she looks socialized. To show the childishness, I walked brightly in the first scene. When I came out at the beginning, I was wondering where Tom is. For this part, I was aimlessly walking and looking. After Tom response, I felt slightly happy and walk quickly to him with small skips, because I, as Amanda, can now grab a person to talk. The communication between Tom and Amanda is quick. One reason is that Tom's attitude of ignoring to his mom, and the other is that Amanda does not have to think. The only thing for Amanda for this scene is speaking. Therefore, my reaction is fast without hesitation. For example, when Jacob said "He will come tomorrow," I responded immediately. I responded so fast that Jacob did not even fully pronounce the last consonant in the last word. I said, "Tomorrow? Oh, no, I can't do anything about tomorrow. I can't do anything about tomorrow" with a face with blame and anxiety. From the line, we can see that Amanda's line repeated twice, and this phenomenon actually is often in the book. I thought it was redundant at first, but then I realized that for the people who respond too fast or speaking without thinking, they did not even know what they are talking about. Based on this understanding, I wanted to show that the differences between the repeated lines. For the first repeated line, I said quickly with same facial expression, and then for the second repeated line, I slowed down my words and raised up my voice. The purpose of it is to show that I was not sure about the last sentence I said, so I verified by repeating the sentence words by words.
The second layer will be her inner thought. I acted out her contradiction by reacting to Tom and adding the pauses between the sentences. In addition, facial expression can also help to improve the contradictions. Acting in the last scene focuses on Amanda’s inner thought more because it is also the tragic ending in the book where Amanda cannot bare Tom’s indifference and rebellion. The last scene is set in the party and then the family receives the bad news. The party should be full of joy and hope, and it really is at the beginning. When the family gets the news, the atmosphere immediately drops into a freezing state from an exciting state. Therefore, the argument happened between Amanda and Tom next is probably the argument without temper restrain or logic. Especially for Amanda, she already has a bad communication skill, and now she loses her temper, so the lines she said definitely does not from her willingness. In other words, she complains, blams, and then she lost Tom. To act out the unwillingness, I not only emphasize the impetuous feeling by crying, shouting, sobbing, and hitting Jacob, but also added a few actions after the last line of the scene. After my last line and also the last line of the argument, “Go, then! Then go to the moon-- you selfish dreamer!” Jacob turned the back to me and exited.(William, 67). I stepped forward and wanted to grab him, but I failed, so I just stood where Jacob left with sobbing. For a few second, I used my right hand that I wanted to grab him to cover my mouth, and I ran off the stage from the other side. It is a series feeling changes from anger to regret and then to deep sadness. I used my fist to hit on Jacob’s chest to release my anger, and then I reached out my hand trying to urge him to stay, but I failed, so I withdrew my arm and covered my mouth by hand. There was no word but gesture language. The staging light was dim, and slow blues revealed the tragic ending.
For the staging, we set up easily. The first scene is the same as the second scene. The difference between the two scenes is that the first happens more in the fire escape, and the second scene is set in the living room. Moreover, since we did not have any monologue, we did not set a strong spotlight or change the staging.
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