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.