Final Post

     Remember two years ago, I was so confident that I was going to be a scientist, so in the day that upper-classmates introduced Literature and Performance SL to us in the black box, I was thinking, "ok, it sounds interesting, but can I not take an English class?"  I asked Mrs. Griesbach, my English teacher in sophomore year, whether I cannot take any English class since my ambition was not in the literature.  Ms. Guarino was there as well, and her face turned seriously black after she heard my words.  I remembered Mrs. Griesbach said that the course definitely fit me.  The scene was kind of funny when I looked back because it reminded me how arrogant, ignorant, and ridiculous I was.  Thanks to Mrs. Griesbach and Ms. Guarino's advice.  They are right.  I enjoyed this two-year course, and it changed me.

     I have to say that I am not afraid of acting, because I started acting before junior year.  The funny story also related to Ms. Guarino.  In my freshman year, because I wanted to improve my English speaking, I signed fall drama.  The fall drama was Peter Pan, and I played an Indian queen.  I thought the role at least is a queen, so the queen must be somehow strong and important.  However, the queen basically did nothing in the play.  All she did were kneeling to Peter Pan, being robbed by the pirates, and being killed in the end.  She was so weak that she lost every battle.  In my hometown, we don't kneel easily because the old tradition regards kneeling as our reputations and sometimes self-esteem. The tradition tells us not to kneel easily if they are not gods, or parents.   I did not care about the tradition that much, but back at that time, I still felt uncomfortable with kneeling.  However, after a while, when I saw how much efforts and passions the others dedicated, I was moved and then I found out the interest of acting.  Acting asked actors to not show themselves but be the others that they depict.  Therefore, once you are on the stage, you cannot have so much self-consciousness.  After the show, I began to enjoy playing different roles.  This lesson made me be more outgoing and helped me think out of the box.  Moreover, it caused me to want to challenge playing the roles that are totally different from me.  The class provided chances for me to act.  We performed a monologue, straight play, speaking poems, and we played theater games.

     For the theater games, I remembered the educator I researched was well-known for theater improvisation game.  Viola Spolin, a beautiful lady, the educator who created theater games for acting training.  I first picked her as my presentation is not because of her well-known theater game or her beauty but her name.  Viola, the name of a string, got my interest immediately.   Viola Spolin

I remembered our presentations of acting pioneers should be 10-20 minutes long.  However, I used a whole class presenting her ideas and led the class play theater game for a long time.  I like the mirror game.  The game is about two people face each other, one of them starts telling a story while doing movement and the other should imitate the person's movement and retell the person's words.  I also liked the game that says only one sentence, "How are you?", in different situations.  

     For the performance, I enjoyed the game that acting out Romeo and Juliet in 3 minutes, 1 minute, and 15 seconds.  We were divided into groups, Yun, Aaron, and I were in the 15-second group.  When we were heard that we were going to act out the entire story in 15 seconds, I was so shocked that I cannot react.  I was like "What?" "How can it be possible?", and then I was so excited, "Yes! It is so fun!!"  In the end, we acted out in exactly 15 seconds.  I played Juliet, Aaron was Romeo, and Yun was the person who split us apart.  We did not speak any word.  In the 15 seconds, we acted out how Romeo and Juliet fall in love in first sight, and how they are separated and died one after another.  That is the first silent show I acted, and it was exciting that I can never forget.  

     I love acting, and I love watching movies and understanding a character.  It is my interest.  Therefore, there is no success or failure for me to discuss since I did not take the class as a "class", or a "task".  Instead, the class is more like a platform that allows me to perform and have fun, and the class is more like a library that enriches my analysis skill.  I enjoyed the whole process and had precious time in the class from the beginning to the end.   

Sample Question

Colour and sound provide some of the most vivid effects in poetry. How have at least two poems that you have studied used such visual and auditory aspects as these to enrich their poems?


"The Words Under the Words" and "My Grandmother in the Stars" used many visual aspects to poetry the figure of the author's grandma vividly. Since they are the autobiographic poems, the author wrote the poems mostly by recalling the pictures. Therefore, visuality is strong for readers. For example, in "The Words Under the Words", the author described the scene that her grandmother bakes, "My grandmother's days are made of bread, around pat-pat and the slow baking. She waits by the oven watching a strange car circle the streets." It actually also guides readers to think of the smell of bread, and the line shows the auditory aspect first. It shows the warm picture that grandmother is baking bread and waiting beside the oven. The smell of the bread escapes from the oven and fills the room. The heat and the smell warm your heart. It represents the grandmother's figure: a warm and kind woman. Then, "She waits by the oven watching a strange car circle the streets. Maybe it holds her son, lost to America." We can know that the grandmother's son "disappears" in America. At least the grandmother lost her connection with her son, and that is the reason that the grandmother stares at the cars, hoping her son will show up in the car. The cars are angularly cold, which contrast to the bread, and the picture is clear. Therefore, the visual reveals the strong feeling of solitude strongly.

"My Grandmother in the Stars" is written to remember the author's grandmother.  The author first described her mournful heart thinking of her grandmother.  Then, in the second stanza, she described the picture that after her grandmother left, "Just now the neighbor's horse must be standing patiently, hoof on stone, waiting for his day to open.  What you think of him, and the village's one heroic cow, is the knowledge I wish to gather."  Every subject in the author's eye reminded her of her grandmother, and it also recalled her memory being with her grandmother, "I bow to your rugged feet, the moth-eaten scarves that knot your hair."  In this poem, we can know that the author's grandmother is nice to not only her family but also respect to every living thing.  In the grandmother's world, there is no war, and people are welcomed to live in it no matter speaking the different languages.  

The Words Under the Words--Reading Notes

The Words Under the Words

for Sitti Khadra, north of Jerusalem

My grandmother’s hands recognize grapes,   

the damp shine of a goat’s new skin.   

When I was sick they followed me,

I woke from the long fever to find them   

covering my head like cool prayers.

My grandmother’s days are made of bread,   

a round pat-pat and the slow baking.

She waits by the oven watching a strange car   

circle the streets. Maybe it holds her son,   

lost to America. More often, tourists,   

who kneel and weep at mysterious shrines.   

She knows how often mail arrives,

how rarely there is a letter.

When one comes, she announces it, a miracle,   

listening to it read again and again

in the dim evening light.

My grandmother’s voice says nothing can surprise her.

Take her the shotgun wound and the crippled baby.   

She knows the spaces we travel through,   

the messages we cannot send—our voices are short   

and would get lost on the journey.

Farewell to the husband’s coat,

the ones she has loved and nourished,

who fly from her like seeds into a deep sky.   

They will plant themselves. We will all die.

My grandmother’s eyes say Allah is everywhere, even in death.   

When she talks of the orchard and the new olive press,   

when she tells the stories of Joha and his foolish wisdoms,   

He is her first thought, what she really thinks of is His name.

“Answer, if you hear the words under the words—

otherwise it is just a world with a lot of rough edges,   

difficult to get through, and our pockets full of stones.”

Sample Paper 2

2. Structure matters!

        “I'm Nobody! Who are you?” and "Tell all the truth but tell it slant--" have great structures to grab readers' interests.  "I'm Nobody! Who are you?" is divided to two stanza and four lines each stanza; "Tell all the truth but tell it slant--" is one stanza only that has eight lines in total.  Two poems both have good arrangement, because in "I'm Nobody! Who are you?", the first stanza sets up an environment and the second stanza mainly reveals the strong emotion.  In first stanza, it is like a scene that one person introduces herself/himself and excitingly find that the other person is similar with her/him.  The first stanza is more setting up the background of the poem, and the fourth lines of the first stanza transits to revel the emotion from describing the pictures.  Emily starts two exclamatory sentence "How dreary" "How public" to show a strong negative feeling of being public or being "Somebody".  Moreover, Emily used a metaphor to compare the action of self-exposure to public with the frog, and it help readers to understand the theme of the poem more.   "Tell all the truth but tell it slant" is in one stanza only, because it is the poem that seeks to persuade people that people are too fragile to receive all the truth at once because truths sometimes are explicit and cruel enough to hurt people's values.  The idea is too abstract to be portrayed in details in another stanza.  Besides, when the stanza is long, readers' minds are concentrated.
        To make the poem more persuasive, capitalization plays an important role.  In "Tell all the truth but tell it slant--", Emily Dickinson capitalized every word that describe light and truth, such as "Truth", "Delight", and "Lightning".  The poem we know focus on persuading how bright the truths are, and the capitalized adjectives emphasize the theme of the poem and also grab readers' attentions.  Therefore, the poem easily convinces readers when the readers notice and pay attention to the idea.  Capitalization also works well in "I'm Nobody! Who are you?"  In the poem, Emily changed every "nobody" to "Nobody" and "somebody" to "Somebody".  Reader can interpret "Nobody" and "Somebody" as names, and reader can also interpret the two words as other meaning.  Whatever the interpretation is, the author's goal is achieved, which is engaging the readers to compare and contrast "Nobody" and "Somebody".  Therefore, capitalization successfully cause the readers' interest.

poem reading

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, (340)

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,And Mourners to and froKept treading - treading - till it seemedThat Sense was breaking through -

And when they all were seated,A Service, like a Drum -Kept beating - beating - till I thoughtMy mind was going numb -

And then I heard them lift a Box

And creak across my SoulWith those same Boots of Lead, again,Then Space - began to toll,

As all the Heavens were a Bell,And Being, but an Ear,And I, and Silence, some strange Race,Wrecked, solitary, here -

And then a Plank in Reason, broke,And I dropped down, and down -And hit a World, at every plunge,And Finished knowing - then -

To and Fro: Come and Go
       Life is more than the pictures we see and the knowledge we know.  What we received from the world is twisting into chaos in our mind.  The strong beat and cracking noises are like a crazy violent idea disturbing our sense, and suddenly the sounds and noise can disappear one second after, leaving your mind as quiet as the night in a cemetery.  Therefore, life is jumping between mania and solitude.

I’m Nobody! Who are you? (260)

I’m Nobody! Who are you?Are you – Nobody – too?Then there’s a pair of us!Don’t tell! they’d advertise – you know! How dreary – to be – Somebody!How public – like a Frog –
To tell one’s name – the livelong June –   To an admiring Bog! 

       I like being nobody than somebody.  I'd rather being nothing than the something that they ask me to be.  Actually, even though I'm nobody, they will find a way to advertise me and let me be somebody.  Even though I am clearly somebody in the audience' eyes, I am nobody, or I have part of nobody in my body.

Because I could not stop for Death – (479)

Because I could not stop for Death
He kindly stopped for me –The Carriage held but just Ourselves –And Immortality.

We slowly drove – He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,For His Civility –

We passed the School, where Children strove

At Recess – in the Ring –We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –We passed the Setting Sun –

Or rather – He passed Us –

The Dews drew quivering and Chill –For only Gossamer, my Gown –My Tippet – only Tulle –

We paused before a House that seemed

A Swelling of the Ground –The Roof was scarcely visible –The Cornice – in the Ground –

Since then – 'tis Centuries – and yet

Feels shorter than the DayI first surmised the Horses' HeadsWere toward Eternity –

       Death can be the word that is not always described with gloom.  Death can be an eternity.  It is like a path of going to eternity.  When you on the road, you can see the school, children, grain fields, setting sun, and everything you did and everyone you loved.  It is a beautiful trip, and then you should be satisfied and rested in peace.

Tell all the truth but tell it slant — (1263)

Tell all the truth but tell it slant —Success in Circuit liesToo bright for our infirm DelightThe Truth's superb surpriseAs Lightning to the Children easedWith explanation kindThe Truth must dazzle graduallyOr every man be blind —

       The truth can not be told directly, and it should let the humankind to take time to process it, because people are too fragile to receive all the truth. (the truth dazzles).  

4/26-- Quiz

4. Select a passage from the concluding chapter of a novel you have chosen to study and show how acting, staging effects and design can combine to make it an effective ending for an audience.

       The passage I choose will be the last chapter.  It is the scene that Andrea and Daniel are getting married, and it is also the day that peasants have celebration.  Desiree shows the clear contrast of the happy atmosphere.  She is dead on the road because of desperation and starvation.  
Costumes
1. The riches are dressing colorfully and exotically, and they are wearing the exaggeratedly big shining diamonds and jewelry.
2. The peasants are in brown clothes as always, but their hands, their faces are clean, and their hairs are glowing under the sun.
3.  Desiree is wearing her pretty dress that is given from Daniel's house, but the dress is old and dirty because Desiree did not take care of her outfit.  Her dress is ragged, her bare foot is muddy, and her hair is matted.  She is not as shining as the riches, and she is not as clean as the peasants either.
Staging
1. Will be divided to two parts first.
      a. The left stage is the peasants who have a long table and enough food and meats on the table.  Beside the table, children are dancing in a circle, laughing with the drums playing.
      b. The right stage is the riches' garden where people in big dress dancing waltz with a small string quartet.  They have several round tables, and the shining forks and flowers are on the table.  They are not laughing out loud, but they are smiling, bowing to each other.  The bright lighting is on, and then after a while, Desiree can come to the stage, numbing going through the two different groups like a ghost and then standing on the down center.
2. After Desiree comes to the down center stage, stage is divided to three parts.
      After she speaks her line, the two different groups can interact with each other, while Desiree is still being left out of the group.
Lighting and others
1.   The lighting can be always bright, but we can have some colored smoke (fog) on the stage.  At first, the stage is clean with bright warm light until Desiree comes out.  After Desiree come out, the stage is going to have yellow fog on the one side, and the red or orange fog on the other side of the stage.  When the stage becomes foggy and we cannot see anything clearly, then happiness is like a delusion for Desiree.  When the fog finally swallows Desiree, the audience can only hear the laugh.  Someone can pass the stage and says"oh, who is she?" "What a poor girl"etc.  After people pass by and the fog is clear, only Desiree's copse lying on the center.
Acting
1. Desiree does not know how she should react to the environment since she is the only person who is not happy.  She loses her identity since she is not a rich girl either a peasant girl.  She is weak, starving, and desperate.  The contrast is like a satirical comedy laughing at her childish dream and laughing at all the effort she took.  The extreme loneliness, desperation, and a merciless fate made Desiree cannot bear anymore.  Therefore, she bows down and smiles and laughs with the groups.

5. Select a passage from a novel you have chosen to study which provides an effective introduction of an important character or characters. How would you use staging, design and acting to ensure that this introduction would have dramatic importance for the audience?

       The passage I choose will be the part that Desiree first sees Papa Ge in chapter 4.  In the fight between Desiree and Papa Ge, the characteristic of these two can be revealed clearly.  Desiree shows her determination by shouting "my love, my love!", so that we can know that she is tough fighting death.  Even though Papa Ge does not say any word, from Desiree's reaction, we can feel the dark bloom atmosphere around Papa Ge.
Setting:
1. The stage is split to two part, one side is for desiree, and the other side is for Papa Ge.  Spotlight is on Desiree and every where else is dark.  
2.  The setting is mainly lightning and ranning.  Therefore, the sound backstage will be howling wind, rain showering, and lightning with the sound of cracking wood door.
3.  Before Papa Ge comes to the stage, crow's croaking is sharp and noisy.  It build up the dark enviornment more intense and more ominous.  
Customes:
1. Desiree can wear a white dress to show the figure of life and show the contrast to Papa Ge.  
2. Papa Ge wear in black feather robe (like Snape's black robe), the long hair covers his face, and his face is thin and pale like a dead person. Crow's feather made this robe, and if you get close, you can see the fresh blood that on the feather that is still bright and warm.  When Papa Ge laugh, the black ink flow out of his mouth (like Pirate Salazar).

8. Select a passage from a novel you have chosen to study which deals with a fantasy or dream

sequence of consequence to the narrative. How can acting and design elements be used to stage such a fantasy or dream sequence for an audience?

       The passage I choose will be chapter 11, where Desiree meets Daniel by the pool.  The words mention, "In her sleep she heard him.  Lying at the side of the pool, listening to the sounds from the hotel, she had drifted off to sleep."  In addition, the next chapter does not show any sign that Daniel remembers he comes to find Desiree.  Chapter 11 ends up Desiree holding Dnaiel tight and sleeping with him by the pool, and at the beginning of Chapter 12, Desiree awakes by herself.  Therefore, the chapter 11 can be adapted as a fantasy of Desiree.
Setting:
1. The pool is originally near the hotel.   The blue spotlight is only on Desiree, and everywhere else is darkness.  The background can be the dark blue screen with black hotel and skysrapers's models.
2.  When Daniel comes and while they are talking, the blue light spreads out.  It represents the change of a small pool to large endless sea.  The dry ice is released to the stage, and the background of hotel and skyscraper disappear.  Instead, the screen shows the skys full of stars with a bright moon.  
Customes:
1. Desiree can wear a light blue dress that is blue before Daniel comes and is shinning in the light after Daniel comes.    

In-Class Writing 4/19

Select a passage from a novel you have chosen to study which deals with despair and euphoria.  How might staging, design and acting combine to register one of these experiences for an audience?

       Euphoria and despair can both exist on the stage; euphoria can come from the greatest despair; euphoria can be another's tragedy.  Therefore, in the wedding scene, the euphoria from peasants and the riches and the despair from Desiree can be both showed on the stage.  The production is going to be adapted based on the description of the wedding day:

      The torture of her dangling arm increased with every heartbeat.  Determined merrymakers guided her up the hill, back to the gates.  She stood wedged among them, her face against the bars, looking in.  Foods had been laid out on long tables outside the gates.  Food had been laid out in the gardens inside the gates.  Outside, peasants started the first feast for many years knowing it to be the last for many years to come.  Inside, guests nibbled and chatted.  Outside, drummers beat the drums of the island.  Inside, guests danced to the waltz.  Food and rum were consumed outside.  Liquors and foods were consumed on the inside.      

Inside, people are chatting and dancing in excitement celebrating Daniel's wedding day; outside, people are preparing and dancing in the feast.  However, in this scene, Desiree is in great despair.  She keeps thinking that Daniel would take her home and cannot believe that Daniel did not come.  To show the contrast, the stage will be split into three parts: from left stage to right stage are peasants, Desiree, and the riches.  The staging will be discussed in details later.
       Costumes are easier to prepare.  The riches are dressing colorfully and exotically, and they are wearing the exaggeratedly big shining diamonds and jewelry;  the peasants are in brown clothes as always, but their hands, their faces are clean, and their hairs are glowing under the sun.  Desiree is wearing her pretty dress that is given from Daniel's house, but the dress is old and dirty because Desiree did not take care of her outfit.  Her dress is ragged, her bare foot is muddy, and her hair is matted.  She is not as shining as the riches, and she is not as clean as the peasants either.
       The staging will be divided to two parts first.  The left stage is the peasants who have a long table and enough food and meats on the table.  Beside the table, children are dancing in a circle, laughing with the drums playing.  Then, the right stage is the riches' garden where people in big dress dancing waltz with a small string quartet.  They have several round tables, and the shining forks and flowers are on the table.  They are not laughing out loud, but they are smiling, bowing to each other.  The bright lighting is on, and then after a while, Desiree can come to the stage, numbing going through the two different groups like a ghost and then standing on the down center.  After she speaks her line, the two different groups can interact with each other, while Desiree is still being left out of the group.  Desiree does not know how she should react to the environment since she is the only person who is not happy.  She loses her identity since she is not a rich girl either a peasant girl.  She is weak, starving, and desperate.  The contrast is like a satirical comedy laughing at her childish dream and laughing at all the effort she took.  The extreme loneliness, desperation, and a merciless fate made Desiree cannot bear anymore.  Therefore, she bows down and smiles and laughs with the groups.  The more exaggerated the laugh is, the more euphoria the stage can show, and also the greater the despair the stage can have.
       The lighting can be always bright, but we can have some colored smoke (fog) on the stage.  At first, the stage is clean with bright warm light until Desiree comes out.  After Desiree come out, the stage is going to have yellow fog on the one side, and the red or orange fog on the other side of the stage.  When the stage becomes foggy and we cannot see anything clearly, then happiness is like a delusion for Desiree.  When the fog finally swallows Desiree, the audience can only hear the laugh.  At the end, when the euphoria and despair are too much for people to endure, and then when people become uncontrollably crazy, there is no difference between euphoria and despair.  

        
        

Readingnotes 6 (12-14)

Readingnote 5 (11)

       Desiree wear shoes, and she meets Daniel Beauxhomme.  Even though they do not formally introduce themselves, Daniel Beauxhomme is familiar of the girl (Desiree).  Desiree lives outside the hotel near the pool where she can see the light of Daniel's room.  One night, in her dream (I suppose), Daniel comes to her and laid with her.  Desiree sings songs for him.

        Desiree had never worn shoes.  Her feet were large, her toes long, straight, and wide apart.  These liberated toes she forced together to make them fit the confinement of the unyielding plastic of the too-small shoes.
     
       She smiled.  It's he.  It's he at last.  She sighed.  At last it's he.  Her brilliant smile attracted young Daniel Beauxhomme, who said to her, "Mademoiselle, your face is not strange to me.  Who are you?  From where do I know you?"

        I shall never leave these grounds again, Desiree Dieu-Donne vowwed, looking around her.  I shall die before I do.  As through in answer to her silent vow, a papillon came to rest on an azalea ush beside the steps.  Quickly Desiree captured it and put it into her cage.  A nearby artisan, seeing her ritual, inquired what she had done.  Desiree laughed gaily.  Hearing her loud, happy laughter, all the artisans laughed along with her.

        Desiree lived in a sort of terror.  But never had she lived so well.  When darkness came, when guests gave up outdoor pleasures, when the night watchmen replaced those who worked days, the grounds became her playland.  then she kicked off her shoes, eased her sore feet in cool grass, and in the happiness brought her by the release from pain she ran and played freely.  In the orchards she gathered fruits.  She ate them along with the leavings of guests' dinners, placed in buckets outside the kitchen for collectors.  Meats she had never before tasted, buttered bread, legumes cooked in strange sauces became her nightly meals.  She bathed in swimming pools where bats swooped down to quench their thirst.  She washed her clothes.  she washed her hair and combed it with her magic comb.  Stretching out at the side of the pool, as black as the night that absorbed her, she listened tot eh laughter of guests, to music playing, to the coming and going of cars, while gazing up at the windows of Daniel Beauxhomme's room.  Only when his lights went out did she go to sleep.

        Never did she attempt to go into the hotel, or to try to see Daniel Beauxhomme.  She longed to.  But she feared being caught and banished from the grounds and losing forever her chance to save him.  This forced her to exercise patience.  The gods had sent her to him.  She had to use her patience, until they sent him to her.  And they did.

Readingnote 4 (8-10)

       Desiree started her journey.  She saw a lot of people, peasant, vendor, women, men, and city people, the riches.  She was being challenged, discouraged and was starving; She begun to doubt and question the gods after seeing those gods argue with each other, and then she regain the religious hope because she got food.  She was also practicing patience along the way, because the road seems long and endless.  She went to a town, went to a forest.  She met another peasant girl who lost her parents, and then she met the city.  She was scared by the light of the city, but she did not stop walking.  When the reality is revealed before the idealism, there is another broken American dream.

       How vain, how selfish, how proud and petty were these gods to whom the gentle peasants humbled themselves.  How they scorned one another.  And their ridiculous schemes.  Agwe--- tall, beautiful, his lofty head of the richest blue-green seaweed decorated in gold--- strutted back and forth as he had in the houngfor, his wicked eyes a blazing blue.  Ah, the arrogance with which he threw back his head.  But for whom did this selfish god care?  Asaka sat sulking, looking drab and ragged in a brown dress.  Erzulie, forever lovely, paraded herself so vainly.  And all the while the gods preeened, Papa Ge sat in the background with a smug smile on his mouth, his bloodied teeth clutching a cigar, and looked beyond Agwe and Erzulie and Asaka.

       The two women turned to look at each other through the darkness.  Then they pushed their heads out over their wooden crates.  They looked first at Desiree's thick, uncombed hair and her ragged dress, then stretched out their necks to peer down at the peasant girl's feet.  They laughed.  Their laughter traveled down the road from vendor to vendor, so that at one moment laughter followed her, then soon laughter preceded her.  Vendors left their crates to stand on the road to await her coming.  "To the dreamer all things are possible," one vendor said.  "Ti fille, go back to sleep, oui."

       What if she lost her looks?  She put both hands to her face.  Only did she think of the gods.  She had been so critical of them.  So how to call on them for help?  Discouraged, but now knowing how long the road was,  Desiree abandoned all thought of sleep.  She walked through that day and well into the night.  Then her strength failed.  Finding a tree with wide-spread-slept the clock around through the following night.

       As she watched the resplendent women dancing in the arms of men, the peasant firl sensed a stirring within.  Fear spread through her, up from the soles of her feet, through her body, her face, her head--- an unnamed fear, never before felt.  She started to run.  But this unnamed anxiety blinded her, and she tripped and fell facedown.  Not on ground--- on concrete, which did not yield to her weight.  It bruised her face, the palms of her hands, her knees.  more than the cars with htheir blinding lights, more than the music and the houses, this strange hardness caused her deeper unease.  She who had traveled night and day with courage and confidence now suddenly succumbed to despair at the strangeness aroung her.

Twelfth Night

Twelfth Night

Brittany Bland-- Projection Designer

Zachry J. Bailey-- Assistant Stage Manager

Carl Cofield-- Director

Byron Easley-- Choreographer

Mika H. Eubanks-- Costume Designer

Molly Fitzmaurice-- Production Dramaturg

Abigail Gandy-- Stage Manager

Frederick Kennedy-- Composer and Sound Designer

Samuel Kwan Chi Chan-- Lighting Designer

David Phelps-- Technical Director

Riw Rakkulchon-- Scenic Designer

Cast

Abubakr Ali-- Sir Andrew Aguecheek

Erron Crawford-- Feste

William Demeritt-- Orsino

Allen Gilmore-- Malvolio

Tiffany Denise Hobbs-- Olivia

Moses Ingram-- Viola

Manu Kumasi-- Antonio

Chivas Michael-- Sir Toby

Ilia Isorelys Paulino-- Maria

Jakeem Dante Powell-- Sebastian

        Twelfth Night, or What You Will is a comedy by William Shakespeare, have been written around 1601-1602 as a Twelfth Night's entertainment for the close of the Christmas season.  The play tells the twins Viola and Sebastian are separated in a shipwreck and then Viola, who is disguised as Cesario, pretends to be a male, serving in the Duke Orsino's house and falling in love with him.  Duke Orsino is in love with Countess Olivia, but Olivia rejects his love.  Instead, Olivia loves Cesario (Viola).  Because of her gender and other reasons, Viola cannot respond to Olivia's love, but when Olivia engages with "Cesario" but actually her brother Sebastian, Sebastian accepts her engagement.  Sebastian comes to the town, finds his sister, and clears up the misunderstanding.  In the end, Orsino and Viola are together, and Viola and Sebastian are coupling.

        The comedy cannot be thought deeply.  I think if you really look into the story, the ending is a little bit suspicious.  Olivia loves "Cesario" but then when she realizes that Cesario is a girl, and instead, Viola and Sebastian are twins, she accepts Sebastian immediately.  Therefore, I highly doubt that Olivia and Sebastian will have a happy couple life when the days go by.  Neither do Orsino and Viola.  Viola falls in love with Orsino a long time ago, but Orsino loves Olivia.  Even though I can see that sometimes he is hesitating about the emotion and feeling that he has to "Cesario", he keeps chasing Olivia.  Moreover, the end is rushed.  The story of Malvolio and the story of Antonio are not complete.  Therefore, it is entertaining, and we do not have to think too much.

          I love the show because of its setting and acting.  For the setting, the light projection is the surprisingly successful one.  At the beginning of the show, Orsino is standing on the stage with visual reality device on.  He said, "If music be the food of love, play on," and the lighting projected on the screen with different colored smoke and some women' heads circulated like a kaleidoscope.  The density of the projecting light can decide whether you can look through the screen, which means that the screen itself is like yarn or thin fabric, but the light can be density enough to make the screen seems as heavy as a curtain.  The delusion that the stage made at the beginning really got me.  With the words, music, and the vision on the screen, I could feel the absurdity of love.  The colorful smokes were expanding to the edge of the screen from one point and the colors were mixed together.  The smoke, the fog disguised your vision first, but when they were cleared, you saw the exaggeration of women' faces and bodies with a sex implication in it.  The line, "If music be the food of love, play on," shows a strong desire of Orsino of controlling love.  He wanted to control the love in the heavy fogs and delusion, which is hardly achieved.  Therefore, I think his action is absurd, and his attitude toward love is arrogant, complicated, and irrelevant.
        The costumes are lovely.  Inspired by Black Panther, the costumes mixed traditional African culture with new fashion.  For example, Viola and Sebastian wear long greenish rob inside and have blazer outside.  They look exotic firstly, but as the play goes on, I found it I love their costumes.  I would love to wear my blazer like that.  Compare to Viola's blazer, Olivia's two costumes are gorgeous and beautiful.  Maybe because of her first appearance in the red light surprised me, her costumes and herself leaves me an impression of elegance and silent pomp.  Sir Aguecheek's costume might be in a French style, and Feste's costume is hip-hop.  The costumes revealed the personalities of character really well, and I love all the costumes they designed.
         

Reading Note 3

       "Desiree Dieu-Donne felt no joy in the awakening life around her.  She saw the flowers, the plants spring out-- scenes of brilliance to startle the eyes.  She heard the happy talk, the ready laughter of peasants, but only one thought sustained her: I must leave."
       "How did one start?  Put one foot out, the other is sure to follow."
       "She loved Mama Euralie.  How to defy her?  How to tell her that she had to leave her and Tonton in their old age?  The old woman held silent, but her bright eyes grew more anxious as time passed."

Daniel studies in France.  Daniel's generations came from France, and they support Napoleon.  However, a man married a peasant girl, and their children became to support this Island.  Therefore, the father fought sons.  Father ended up sailing to France, and the sons occupied the castle (hotel), and then there is a curse for the sons that they will never come back to France.

       "Then he fell in love with a peasant girl--black as night, with skin as smooth as velvet, slanting eyes, and pretty white teeth.  La Belle, they called her... Ti Moune," he said, studying the face of the peasant girl.  "She must have looked much like you..."

       Tonton Julian--Wise and kind.  Optimistic and open minded
       "Ahhh, sixteen.  That is the age.  But remember, bravery can sometimes be the mark of a fool, ma petite.  The stronger the swimmer, the faster he drowns."
       "My wife, treasures that need constant watching have already been lost.  Real joy only comes in the future"

Erzulie:
       I am Erzulie, your loa of love.  I do not hold you to the vow you made on that stressful night.  Nor, ma belle, am I speaking of a most improbable love you hold for the young man--- whose way of life is as impossible a distance from yours as the road you must travel to see him.  What I shall speak of is love--- yours for Mama Euralie--- hers for you.
     

In-Class Writing 4/2

        if I stage My Love, My Love as a play, I would costume Desiree in the dress like the picture followed.

The long dress is the Caribbean's tradition.  Therefore, to follow the figure of a peasant Desiree, I would dress her a brownish old dress.  The color and the pattern of the dress is faded since the peasant could not afford the new colorful dress.  However, the dress will be sealed with some flowers, and the dress would be a little bit shorter than the picture shown above (but will not be above the knee).  To show a figure of a dreamy teenage girl, Desiree would love to decorate her dress with flowers and perhaps weave a flower bracelet for herself.  She could not stand doing peasant work in the village, so she usually ran through the field chasing the car.  Therefore, she ripped her dress shorter that she can run quickly.  Desiree would still wear the peasant's dress, but because of the colorful flower she had, her costume would stand out from the other peasants.

        There could be a connection between Desiree's costume and Mama Eulalie's costume.  The dress would be bigger for Desiree so that it could show that the dress was passed to her from her mom.  It repeatedly showed the audience that they were too poor to afford the clothes.  The main setting of the story would be that the situation of peasant's lives would not allow the peasant to think beyond basic surviving.  Then, the existence of Desiree would look impossible, and it could reveal the realistic and tragic ending.  I would adapt My Love My Love to be as realistic and practical as possible.   The story can be romantic and dreamful, but the hierarchy and poverty are always there limiting people's imagination and possibility, and therefore, the hierarchy and poverty lead the story to the tragedy.  Then, costume for Desiree would not have any connection with gods or goddess if there are gods and goddess on the stage.        

Pinterest board

https://www.pinterest.com/sunxueqing2000/setting/

Reading Note 2

Plot

        Desiree found the man, called Daniel, and the other villagers came.  They concerned whether they should do.  In the end, Tonton Julian went the direction that Daniel was going to and M. Bienaime went the direction that Daniel came from.  They were going to find the family of Daniel or the people who knew Daniel.  In these days, Daniel was carried to Desiree's home and was took care of by Desiree.  Not for a day, the rain and storm came, and the village people shifted to the top of the mountain.  Mama Euralie was so desperate and angry with the gods.  She was stressed, worried about her missing Julian, a daydreaming girl Desiree, and the lives that we will have.  One night, "Papa Ge" came to Desiree and Daniel.  He asked for Daniel's life, but Desiree was so unwilling that she would not give Daniel's life to him.  Papa Ge left, and the day after turned back to the sunny days.  

       Helicopter arrived.  Monsieur Gabriel Deauxhomme came out.  He looked for his boy Daniel Deauxhomme and thanked Euralie and left Julian five gourdes.  Then Gabriel took his son and left.  The visit had taken less than ten minutes.  Seven days later after they went, Julian came back.  Mama Euralie praised the gods again.

Reading Notes 1

Settings:
        Poor and Rich people.  Riches are rich, poor are dying.
        These terrible battles of the gods affect the lives of all the islanders, rich and poor.  But the wealthy in towns, protected from the excesses of the gods' furies, claim to be masters of their own destiny.  The peasants accept the will of the gods as theirs.  They pray to the gods when times are hard and give thanks to them when life goes well.
        The land is dry and woods are cut down.

Characters:
        Asaka-- goddess of earth
        Agwe-- god of the sea (no rain for the main characters for a while)
        Mama Euralie and Tonton Julian-- two peasants that are religious in god, yet do not believe in gods.  "Mama Euralie and Tonton Julian kept their heads bent over their work.  They had been raking through the dry, parched earth since early morning.  Now the sun was at its height.  They had no patience for the tales of old men, which they knew all too well."  Practical and realistic.
        Desiree-- the adopted daughter of Euralie and Julian-- she was thrown on a mountain by her mother when she was 4 years.  Agwe got angry and drown the town, but Desiree is safe.  Euralie and Julian saw the girl and brought her home, and called her Desiree--Gift from God.  She desires a different life so much that she is chasing her dream and cannot focus on the work that a peasant should do.
        "A car.  A car.  From what unknown place had it come?  To what strange place was it going?  Oh, to be flying against the wind in a car.  To be rushing off to a city, a town..." "The peasant girl tried hard not to daydream when Mama Euralie was around her.  Impossible.  She sighed."
        M.  Galimar-- a rich landowner. Arrogant and prejudice
        "Like most grands hommes, M. Galimar lived in a big city, far away from the lands that bore his name, and sent his children abroad to school."


Plot:
       When peasants have their celebrations, Desiree came to M.Galimar's land, the land that no peasant want to be close to except her.

Footloose Review

Footloose Review

Director—Jennifer Guarino

Music conductor— Eunyong DiGiacomo

Dance Director— Ms. Pollard

Custome Manager— Mrs. Bass-Riccio

Lighting Conductor— Mr. Macbreen

Stage Manager— Lynch

Piano Player— Nathan Trier

Drum Player— Jesse Ofgang

Ren— Tony

Ren’s Mom— Cassidy

Aerial— Olivia

Shaw—Aaron

VI— Jenna

Chuck— Nan

Lyle— Grace

Travis— Stella

Aerial’s friends— Mao, Caroline, Amelia

Willard— Ray

Footloose was played in Cheshire Academy in 2019 winter musical.  It is a comedy musical, mainly talked about Ren moved his home with his mom to Bomont, the small town that people are not allowed to dance and have fun, from Chicago.  Ren was not happy about the law and wanted to change the law, but the stubborn town manager and priest, Shaw, was against his suggestion.  Through a lot of effort, Shaw was convinced by Ren, and the town can dance again.

It is my pleasure that I can play a role in Footloose.  In the play, I played Lyle, a body of Chuck.  Lyle and Travis are the bodies of Chuck who is the ignorant and awful person who was got out of school and got involved with drug dealing.  Even though Travis and Lyle are not kicked off from the school, but they are also bad boys.  However, they gradually left Chuck and followed Ren, and in the end, they are with Ren and Ren’s friends.  

It is an interesting story for Travis and Lyle.  As Lyle, I believe that he is not as awful as Chuck, and he is not as thoughtful as Chuck either.  The reason for being with Chuck is that the feeling is cool and exciting.  What they did are totally different from most students.  They feel like they are breaking the rules that nobody likes, so they have the excitement of guilt.  In addition, Chuck is the topic in the town before Ren came, so Lyle and Travis want to be the spotlight, being talked among students.  However, after Ren came, the spotlight is on Ren, and it made Lyle and Travis jealous of Ren.  When Chuck loses dominance, Lyle and Travis left Chuck.  In addition, Ren is the person who is easy to get along with, so Lyle and Travis are more willing to be bodies with Ren instead of tempered Chuck.

Because of the differences between boys and girls, or good boys and bad boys, there is a challenge for me acting Lyle, which is so exciting.  Being a different person on the stage is the most exciting thing for me.  At the beginning of the play, I was wearing jeans, a dark green T-shirt, and a leather jacket with my hair tied.  I walked in a stride and tried to talk in a heavy voice to build up a male’s figure, and then I talked and stood carelessly to emphasize how irrelevant Lyle is.  The song we sang is The Girl Gets Around.  The lyrics are about the players playing with girls so I can be irrelevant and careless as much as I want.  Nobody can stop me from doing it, because I have Chuck as my big brother who can stand out for me.  Even though we are so scared of Shaw that we pretend to be good when we meet Shaw, we can make fun of him after he is gone.  Lyle called it strategy and bravery.  I called it cowards.  

At the end of the show, when we danced in the prom, we dressed in suits and met new friends, I made Lyle a little bit shy.  In my opinion, Lyle is not rude enough to be totally bad.  Instead, he just wants to be popular.  Therefore, when he finds out that it is another way of getting popular and welcomed not only by being a bad boy, he showed his inner side more, which is a shy boy that who can be blushing when talking to pretty girls.

There is also another role for me to play in the middle of the show which brought funs to me.  In the second scene of Act II, I played a cowgirl.  It is a female character, so I can dressed up, let my hair down, walk with jog a little bit, and saying my lines in a higher voice.  In addition, to distinguish the two characters more, I added the southern accent in my cowgirl’s line.  Every time when I thought I am a southern American international student, speaking English with a mix of Chinese accent and southern accent, it can make me laugh for a while.

For the production, lighting is amazing.  Compare to the last winter musical I attended, the stage got more lighting.  We have the party light that when we dance; we have the red light when the car crash showed; we have the three spotlight that can be used at the same time.  Besides, the cues of lighting change are more than the last one, which can be more difficult to control and more interesting when it works well.  For backstage and pit band, we also got a camera and screen, and it made the production much easier and more professional.

In the end, I enjoyed being a part of the show.  It is my last musical in high school, and I decide to engage with more dramas when I get into college.