Last performance and reflection

Our groups own adaptation of the novel The Little Prince was the satisfying ending and the conclusion of our time in IB Literature and Performance.  Through this final project, I was able to develop insights into the little Prince’s story and his personalities as well as the characteristics of other main characters like rose, fox and the king when we planned the emotion needed to be express and certain actions needed to be conducted. Even though our play is not that long, the performance as a whole has indeed grasped the essence of the original novel in my perspective. In the four scenes that we created in our performance, we showed to the audience the trip of the little prince from the cause that pushed him to leave his rose to his return with the understanding of the concept of love taught by the fox.

I acted as the little prince in the play and since this character is the only one who was presented in every scenes, I demonstrated the little prince’s various emotions while he was communicating with different persons and his growth as a character. Little prince symbolizes the hope, love, innocence, and insight of childhood. Though the prince is sociable and meets a number of characters as he travels, he never stops loving and missing the rose on his home planet. He continually reminded himself of the rose in his planet and after showing that the little prince knows rose is “ephemeral” and is “in danger of speedy disappearance” from the King and realizes there is a flower that has already tamed him, it was quite natural in our adaptation that the prince eventually recognizes his love towards the rose.

The first time we took the “final draft” was not as fluent and vivid as we thought it should be, except group members’ issues in reciting lines, I did notice that I myself was not in the good state to express the prince’s emotions as I had planned and in the fox scene, I responded too quickly several times before Cherrie finished her lines. Thankfully, the actual final performance was excellent. All group members really devote their attention and effort into the play. Olivia acted out King’s arrogant, loneliness and impatient; Cherrie showed fox’s tenderness and sadness when the prince was destined to leave her; Sophia, as always, was just the real representation of the rose who has trouble of showing her love.

Adding famous songs interruptedly in the characters’ lines was quite original and I don’t know how they came up with that idea. Nonetheless, those sound effects actually somehow contributed to the overall success in some degree that I cannot really explain. Maybe those songs made the play more lighthearted or maybe those let the atmosphere be more enjoyable. This performance in generally made a great ending for this course in my junior year and I have made quite a lot improvement associated with acting until this time. It is worthy to select this course in my high school. :)

https://youtu.be/Iq6c0ZKsmh8

Gradually Approaching the Curtain Call

Generally speaking, the practice for the performance is unexpectedly fluent and as a group, we have achieved what we aimed for in each step. During the classes in the Black Box, our group well utilized our time to improve and stage our performance. Videoing the first draft gave us the confidence that after fixing some little problems and use other props in the final draft, our performance can be perfect. Sofia can undoubtedly show Rose’s emotion and her personality to the audience and Olivia can give a new impression of the King to others by substituting her real emotion and some personality into this character.  Sofia, especially, helped me to shape how I should read different lines specifically with the attitude of awkwardness. I like how we planned the movement and action during the fox scene in which I first pretended I can’t see Cherrie at first and during Cherrie’s speech of how to tame her, we both gradually stand closer until “I” eventually leave her ruthlessly. The only part of the performance that I don’t quite get it is the several occasions when we start to dance with modern songs. However, it indeed make the play more lively and relaxed. I personally feel that by doing those action, a kind of unexplainable joy could be sent to the audience even though the play is not a comedy.  

During the first draft of the play, our group did not really has a plan, with detail, of how we would act when the music started. As it turned out, those parts of performance was kind of in a small chaos. Thankfully, now we have regulated and changed our actions in those three parts. Hopefully, Oiliva, Cherrie and I won’t forget our lines during the final recording. In the rest of time, I definitely need to practice recording my lines. This task of memorization was not that hard since most of the time, I just need to give an natural and simple response to other’s actions and words. I ought to work more on my delivery of lines and the volume of speaking. Besides, I noticed that I need to face the audience more as I went through the video of my first draft. At least, my body and face should not completely face towards the characters that I am talking to.

In Julie’s group, I like their idea of letting James stay behind the stage and act as Madame Sofronie. His voice changed dramatically and the sound really let the audience visualize the appearance of an old and mean lady in their mind. In Ben’s group, they are quite creative in setting this story as their performance. The first flashback was kind of confusing as the scene suddenly changed while Jamai was supposed to be still in the scene of the show. However, as the play progressed, I can easily realize that there were several flashback. However, I did not see the clear connection between the flashbacks and Jamai being in the show.

A new form of play shown in CA

The performance overall consists several pieces of independent funny stories and it indeed succeeded in bringing laughter among the audiences. In every small scene, there were plots that  were noticeably funny. Many actors or actresses in the play demonstrated their strong ability to mimic other people in the real life. The beginning of the play was quite impressive as political candidates and their daughters presented in a “show”. All the actors all dressed like the people they represented, especially the actress of Hillary Clinton let me recognize with character she was acting like instantly. Another scene that attracted me so much was just like the scene that many other students would like the most. During the morning meeting plot, most people almost laughed after every lines. Especially Ms. Anderson, Mr. Dykeman and Mr. McBreen’s characters were just like the real ones. The proper costumes, like the CA clothes that Mr. McBreen always wears, and pops, like the paper coffee cup that John held, played a huge role in making the morning meeting such realistic and funny. Ms. Anderson’s little jokes’ plot also gave us so much fun during the play. Music and song were greatly implemented in the play. “John Jiang the Latte Boy” and John’s later response to the girl were full of a nice rhythm and they are both quite pleasant to the ears.

Unavoidably, there are little flaws in the play. Sometimes the jokes might be a little hard to understand as the teachers and other parents side laughed while it was extremely quiet in the student audience side. Besides, sometimes it was hard to hear clearly some characters’ lines. Moreover, I thought the swan scene can be improved because the audience only laughed during the part when there were cross-dressing performers appeared on the stage. Nonetheless, this play definitely gave me the motivation to see future CA plays in my senior year.

           

Great Start of the End

I think comparing with other groups’ progress of writing script, our task is a little bit easier since The Little Prince itself mainly tells the story through conversation between the little prince and other characters instead of narration and other description. However, we still faced the main difficulty when we tried to maintain the basic storyline while condensed the lines of the little prince as brief and essential as possible because the little prince, acted by me, is presented in every scene in our adaptation. Sometimes, we found that every word that he said was important to the overall development of the story and we hesitated a lot during the process in which we wrote the lines of the little prince. Still, even though we finished the script, improvements are still needed because I think we have written too much and I am afraid that I might lose myself in those overwhelmingly lengthy lines.

Don’t get me wrong though, I think our script in other parts is definitely good enough and the idea of letting the King act with the unique and obvious personalities of other inhabitants in different planets is brilliant. The plot of the adaption basically comes from the original story except the ending part in which we added a scene that the little prince and rose meet again in this small planet. So far, our group is working pretty well with all members participating in the project even though I think I could have participated more in writing the script. I love to see that other members, especially Oliva,  are all quite excited and immersed in doing this adaptation. I think Olivia and Sophia can really give a compelling performance of their characters to the audience. I hope this performance will perfectly summarize the ending of this course and this year.

            

         

Final Project Proposal： Unsettling Dream

The story that I want to choose and adapt to the play is “A Wall of Fire Rising” from the book Krik Krak written by a Haitian writer Edwage Danticat. Krik Krak is a series of emotional short stories with separated plot yet interlinked knowledge. “A Wall of Fire Rising”, in particular, shows how a common Haitian family arduously keeps living in a hopeless place. Guy’s family, like most other Haitian families, lives in a insecure and poor life. They drink “drops of rainwater from a gasoline” and they sometimes “boiled clean sugarcane pulp” , “which is used to suppress gas and kill the vermin in the stomach that made poor children hungry”, as their food. Guy, as the main person who supports the whole family, does not have a formal job, and the only thing he can do is pray everyday that he can find a part-time job. Some will argue that everyone has an opportunity to have a better life as long as he or she is hardworking and has a heart that desires improvement. However, in Haiti during that time period, this is not that case.

Later, Guy is looking forward to work in a sugar mill, but finds out that even his position of cleaning the toilet is number seventy-eight on the permanent hire waiting list. The ending of the story is where the most dramatic and meaningful part. Guy sees the hot-air balloon on the field of the sugar mill and becomes obsessed by it. He keeps watching others “flying” the hot-air balloon and thinks that he could one day manage that balloon to fly away and seeks something new. He once tells his thoughts to his wife and is harshly criticized, reminding himself that he has at least a wife and son to look after. Yet, one day, Guy still sneaks into the hot-air balloon and actually manages to let the balloon lift-off. Sadly, when realizing that the balloon does not has the power of leading him to a new life, Guy jumps off the balloon and dies in front of his family.

Through the adaptation of this whole short story, I want to show the conflicts between love of the family and the pursuit of dream. There will be basically two kinds of setting of the scenes: the scenes happening in guy’s house and the scenes happening in the sugar mill. The play will start with the family trying to use bowl to get “drinking” water that is leaked from the roof and end with the part that Lily, the wife of Guy, covers little Guy’s eyes and little Guy reciting the lines from his play over Guy’s dead body, saying that “I call on everyone and anyone so that we shall all let out one piecing cry that we may either live freely or we should die”. Because many of the aspects that cannot be shown in the play, the rainy weather, the launch of the balloon and Guy’s fall in the the ground will be demonstrated by sound effects. The rising of balloon can be shown through Guy walking gradually upstairs and eventually jump-down with facial expression of despair. 

           

Time is precious :(

The examen questions overall did not overwhelmingly surprised me and in both examen one and two, there were questions closely associated with what we have learned and discussed in the class. It was quite lucky that I attended the last review time right before the examen 2 and comprehended the meaning and the purpose of second stanza in the poem " my grandma in the star" through teacher's analysis of this stanza phrase by phrase so that I could be able to choose the question which referred to the importance of different stanzas in the poems.

Sadly, I overestimated the time I actually had during the examen. I was under the impression that since I could already write that much in the in-class writing time frame, 90 minutes examen time can give me many time to consider my sentences and paragraphs structure, word choice and content. During the examen, however, I spent more time that I had imagined on those thinking process and when the time was over, I still had many content I “planned” to write in the essay. The same misjudgment happened again during my examen 2 when I wrote down the poem on the essay paper and spent time on my word choice. Nonetheless, writing down the poem did give me advantages with which I was able to analyze the topic clearly and especially, the prompt I chose need me to look at the poems stanza by stanza. The lesson that I learned from this IB examen is always plan the time ahead and write the essay with the knowledge that I am not a fast writer. Time is precious:(. 

Notes

Patterns, aimed at the mind, the heart or the ear of the reader, are used by poets to 
achieve their purposes. In the work of at least two poets you have studied, examine various 
patterns and their effects.

The two poem that I will discuss: My Grandma in the Stars and Hope is the thing with feathers. Hope is the thing with feathers has four stanzas each with 4 lines and My Grandma in the stars even though has varied lines in each stanzas, has distinct meaning in each Stanzas.

Hope.... : the use of dashes and the feeling they bring to readers, the repeated words “and” “that”, the meaning of hope as bird carries through the whole poem

Grandma....: “on earth” & “with dust”, different meanings of stanzas

It is possible we will not meet again

on earth. To think this fills my throat

with dust. Then there is only the sky

tying the universe together.

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.

I bow to your rugged feet,

the moth-eaten scarves that knot your hair.

Where we live in the world

is never one place. Our hearts,

those dogged mirrors, keep flashing us

moons before we are ready for them.

You and I on a roof at sunset,

our two languages adrift,

heart saying, Take this home with you,

never again,

and only memory making us rich.

“Hope” is the thing with feathers - 

That perches in the soul - 

And sings the tune without the words - 

And never stops - at all - 

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard - 

And sore must be the storm - 

That could abash the little Bird 

That kept so many warm - 

I’ve heard it in the chillest land - 

And on the strangest Sea - 

Yet - never - in Extremity, 

It asked a crumb - of me.

In class writing

The poem only contains one stanza; however, the stanza can be divided into three major sentences. The first one starts with " Nature is what we see", the second one starts with " Nature is what we hear" and the last one starts with ” Nature is what we know". The first two sentences are quite rhythmic and after the first lines of the two sentences, there are  both phrases of things in nature, demonstrating why we can see and hear nature. I notice that there are lots of words including the E sounds like see, harmony, and sea. However, in the poem overall, there isn't an obvious rhyme pattern.

One thing that the poem shows is that nature can be found everywhere. Through the first part of the poem, she uses many examples of details that representing nature with a bright tone. The tone of the poem changes in the last part of the stanza. Poet tries to use the difference between nature's simplicity and humans' complexity to show her preference of staying with nature instead of people, and maybe the complexity of humans is what causes the poet to live reclusively.  Nature is easy to get along with.

Practice Essay

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 Day

I first surmised the Horses' Heads

Were toward Eternity –

For most of the time, poems can be interpreted in various aspects and what poets try to convey in the poems are likely to be ambiguous. This poem, Because of I could not stop for Death, is not only a classical example for Emily Dickinson's obsession towards death, but also a piece of literature that can give readers different thoughts and implications in their “aftertaste” of the poem. Emily Dickinson’s preoccupation with Death is what interests generations of literature learners and in her poems, death itself are portrayed in diverse appearances.

Because of I could not stop for Death, at the first glance, gives readers a refreshed description of death which has been often surrounded with darkness and fear in other poems. In this poem, the poet personifies death into a gentleman caller. In the first two stanzas, Death himself is undoubtedly depicted as a patient and kind gentlemen. Through the lines like “He kindly stopped for me” and “ We slowly drove - He knew no haste”, Death appears to be a considerate person who knows that the narrator is unable to come to her final destination by herself and kindly carries her to his carriage with the understanding that the narrator still needs time to prepare herself ( that is why he drives slowly, giving time for the narrator to look at the scenes outside and calm down). The journey that the narrator is taking can represent her leaving life and later in the following stanzas, all those scenes, such as school, fields of gazing grains and the setting sun, seem to imply that  all those recalled memories start to fading away through the journey. However, after first three stanzas, the tone of the poem changes and grows into ambiguity as though Death leads the narrator into darkness.  “Or rather” in the first line of the fourth stanza is likely a turning point. “ The Dews drew quivering and Chill” and they “pause before a House” which is like a “swelling of ground” has scarcely visible roof all seems to depict a gradually cold and dark atmosphere. In the final stanza, narrator, or the poet, hides her feeling and simply tells her contradicted feeling of time and her surmise that the journey will be endless.

The poet’s true inner feeling towards her journey or death is under veil with the contradictory emotions can be sensed by the reader in the first part and the end part  of the poem. The characteristic of death can be arguably separated into two sides. Readers can develop their own conclusion to the figure of death. He could be a true warmhearted gentleman as he carries the narrator slowly passing through all those warm scenes or an insidious liar who are in bright appearance in order to seduce narrator with an illusion to let her start the journey, intending to lead her eventually in darkness. The poet’s attitude towards death is also unclear, leaving space for readers’ imagination. The last stanza can both show that death traps humans into an freezed or unstopped time or death actually relieves humans from the past and gives them a sort of immortality because the journey will be in eternity.

When fancy technology and unsophisticated play meet each other

I have not seen many plays performed by professionals to this day, and the only recent memory I have is watching a mediocre drama narrating a life of a musician. Nonetheless, the play "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time" has subverted my impression of play performance to some extent and most significantly, it has showed the promising possibility and future of combining technologies into modern plays. I was astonished to figure out that how the stage can be so advanced that it can have so many functions. The stage itself can be seen as not only a wide screen which can show images and videos but also as a moving machine, especially in the part when the front stage started to lower down to make a scene in the train station with proper decoration and the part where the back of the stage extended part of itself, forming stairs that the main character can walk on “in the air”. I also like the way they showed the different houses and families in this block. With all those small bulbs on the surface of the stage, audience can easily sense what they are performing when the lights lines up to show the contour of the street and different houses.

Besides the well-used technology that gave audience a visually stimulating experience, all actors show those characters’ personal trait. Christopher and his father feel real to me and the way the performers showed Christopher’s inner world and his autism is quite effective. I like the idea of showing overwhelmingly massive number symbols and equations “floating” on the stage when Christopher cannot control himself or is frightened or disordered by outside influences. By doing this, audience like me can develop an insight or a visual sharing into Christopher’s inner emotions and struggles.  

Identify 3 themes

1. The first poem shows her father's the sense of belonging. He wanted to have fig directly from earth and after so many house moves, the father finally planted a figtree in the house in Texas. " I am talking about a fig straight from the earth -- A gift from Allah"

2. The love of her grandma. In the thrid prom, the poet shows her love towards her grandma and the connection with her grandma. "Take this home with you, 

never again, 

and only memory making us rich". 

3 the theme of life and death. People will die in on point or another and people will easily encounter the fear and imagination of death. " It is possible we will not meet again on earth. To think this fills my throat with dust".

Stage Diorama

Most part of the story could happen in the houses whether it is the conversation between the family members or the performance of Kahu. Therefore, I will set the performance mainly in the indoor area of a traditional Maori house. The background of the performance will be a picture of the traditional house with a scene of oceans in the back of the house, showing that characters can actually hear the sound of whales with such a close range to the sea. Besides, the inside furniture of the house is traditional and simple: a Capet, sleeping bags, and a table, showing the conservation of Koro. Also Koro will dress in a Maori dress while Kahu and the uncle will wear sport shirts and hats. The light that she'd on Kahu and Koro will be in different color, indicating the conflicts in their ideology.

      

Staging Proposal

The original novel is narrated through the perspective of the first person, the uncle of the main character, Kahu. However, I feel less comfortable to develop insights into the story through first person perspective other than that of the main character because the whole story is felt less complete and the emotions of some characters in some periods of time were blur. Therefore, if I will stage the novel, I will show the performance through third person perspective to the audience like the film. The Whale rider is not simply about the growth of Kahu from a little child to the leader of the Maori tribe, but also a story showing the collision between the old tradition and the new modern world and the conflict between Kahu's will to be recognized as a capable girl by Koro and Koro's unwillingness to view her as an equal candidate of the tribe leader due to he being limited by the tradition. I will highlight the transition of Koro's attitude to Kahu. In the novel, I feel like the transition of Koro is a kind of abrupt and he suddenly change from dislike Kahu to respect her and view her as “rightful leader” once she is able to communicate and rider the special whale with the scared tattoo. The love of Koro to Kahu is absent in the perspective of the uncle; therefore, I will choose the scenes in which Koro is so depressed to know that his oldest son will have a girl as his first child and angry when Kahu sneak into his lessons to young male students and meeting with elders. Later, I will add some plot into the original one and stress the fact that Koro discovers Kahu’s talents in learning the traditions of Maori tribe, becoming nicer to Kahu and still refusing to let her attending the lessons to raise future leader due to her identities as women. The last scene would be Koro’s wakening to the truth that Kahu could definitely be the leader of the tribe no matter what her gender is.

I would not add actual appearance of whale into my play, but I will add whale sounds into the play and the scene in which whales are dying on the beach. I will show the degree of this disaster through the dialogue between Kore and the uncle with the background music of thunder. In the final scene , however, Kahu will pretend to see the ancient whale and communicate with it. Besides, in order to show the tribe was facing the point in which the leader need to decide whether they need to embrace the new modern world with all those fancy outside ideas or just preserve their old tradition and stay in their homeland, I will show the two different groups of within the tribe. Elders like grandma Flowers and Grandpa Koro are the representation of the conservative group and second generations like Porourangi who left the hometown and went to Germany.  Elders might wear in conservative traditional Maori costume with deep color while others wear in colorful modern sport shirts.

                                       

Review of the performance

The performance Once On the Island is indeed a very impressive musical performance. It is adapted from the novel “ My Love, My Love” and although it is a musical version, it gives audience a generally well-rounded story. I like it more than a regular play. The effort that all those people participate in the performance is quite noticeable. There are quite a lot places in the performance can be seen as creative. First one is the background. The painting makes a direct connection to the story: there are poor village on the left end side and rich community on the right end side with a large forest in between, showing the journey of Ti Moune from her home to Daniel’s hotel. The second one is the part where the performers choose to use little paper men to tell the story of the history of the beauxhome family while Webeke stood on a stair as a storyteller. That really gave me a refresh visual.

There are two things that are extraordinary in my point of view. I had never realized how many great singers in our school until that Sunday when I saw the performance. Every singer and actor combined the songs and the story so well. Ryan and the actor of Ti Moune did make their characters more charming with their songs; especially, the way Ti Moune showed her emotions and sang change my impression of Ti Moune being a simply naive person who thinks herself higher than other peasants and are destined to have Daniel’s love. With those songs, the transition of Daniel is more detailed than the book in which brings Andrea to the presence suddenly and  has no description of why Daniel changed his love. “Some girls you love and some girls you marry” explained Daniel’s inner struggle of love and the way he acted shows Daniel still has feelings of love to Ti Moune. Besides, the music and songs indeed make a harmony. The musical band has made a great contribution to the overall success. As far as I can notice, there is only one sound that comes from the computer, which is the sound of thunder at the start of the performance, and all these other sound are all comes from the band. The variety of musical instruments and students involved in the band are quite amazing.

All those themes from the original novels are presented in the performance. The theme of poor and rich is showed thorough costumes and lines ( Peasants are all barefooted with poor poor clothes). The theme of Gods is showed by constantly letting four gods stay on four sides of the stage with pops that coincide with their identities. However, The last part in which Ti Moune transfers into a tree is a little bit confusing and I like the original version that she disappears with butterflies more.

             

Oral Presentation

\My Love, My Love is an adaptation of the well-known tale: The Little Mermaid. They both narrates the love story between two people with distinctly different identities. I had one chance to read through the original version of the Little Mermaid and figured out that the true plot was far from the Disney’s fairy tale version of the same story. Like the Peasant Girl, the Little Mermaid never had the fortune to truly seize her love. In order to show the universality that many fairy tales share, our group decided to adapt the story into the setting of the Little Red Riding Hood because the journey that Ti Moune take to find her “true Love”, Daniel, is quite similar to the journey that the little red riding hood takes to get to her Grandma’s house. Besides, there are lowa Erzulie, who embodies the kind wood-chopper who willing to help the main character, and Papa Ge, who embodies the wolf who never stops trying to ruin her life. The performance still did mainly based on the original plot and we tried to perform those scenes to show the similarity between two story, which will be mentioned later.

I act mainly as Daniel, who appears to be fragile because of the pain from injury when he first comes to the sight of the audiences. He is the representation of Grandma who does not have the power to resist the outside malice. However, with the help from Ti Moune, he recoveries from his pain and develops the feeling of love and dependence on Ti Moune. Papa Ge, while they are both immersing in happiness, tries to interfere their relationship by befuddling Daniel and using his power to take over the control of Daniel’s body with a false aim of leading Daniel to his true love. Therefore in the performance, I, as Daniel, acted without reciting lines myself while Papa Ge behind me actually spoke “through” me. This part of performance represents how the wolf tries to be grandma after he swallows her. However, the different way that I acted as Daniel and all those rude actions and sentences let Ti Moune eventually realized that I was possessed by Papa Ge, echoing the plot in which the little red riding hood sees through the faked appearance of Grandma outside the door. Unfortunately, Daniel later actually fell in love with Andrea because of her elegance and beauty. Ti Moune, with her sadness and unwillingness to let it go, asked if Daniel wanted her to leave and Daniel gave her the answer: being the servant of the house because they loved to have her around. I emphasized on the fact that we ( Andrea and I) “both” don’t want her to leave and it were both of us that loved her, excluding any form of individual relationship with me and Ti Moune.  

Our performance mainly stayed in the center of the stage and there are mainly two scenes: the scene in the forest which is the road to the hotel and the scene in the hotel where Daniel and Ti Moune meet. Our background is also painted with trees and two community (the rich and the poor) on two opposites. Our costumes and sounds were all carefully chose in order to really put actors into the characters.

                 

Self-examination from the rehearsal

We have applied the elements in the story Little Red Riding Hood into the play of the peasant girl. The novelty of showing this topic with the proper performance can be relatively easy to notice. The aim of our group is to show the how fairy tales all share some universal plots to some extent and  how fairy tales are usually differ from the real life situation. All the characters in the Little Red Riding Hood are symbolized in our play （Papa Ge as wolf, Ti Moune as little red riding hood and Daniel as Grandma） except the Hunter, who supposes to save “Ti Moune” and “Daniel”. In our play, the love between Daniel and Ti Moune is eventually defeated by reality even with the help from the god, Erzulie.

From today’s rehearsal, I find out there are especially two  parts where I should focus to work on with other group member.  First one is the start of first scene where Daniel is suffering from pain and Ti Moune is trying to comfort him. Olivia and I both need to have more confidence and be more “professional” because we really need to show how Ti Moune can actually let Daniel feel that she is the one who is different and can give him hope. I do admit when I perform this part i just want to muddle through the part where Ti Moune should hug Daniel and let him lay down. For future performance, Olivia should really hug me with emotions and I should show the relief I feel under her arms.  Second part is when Papa Ge controls Daniel, I suppose to make some certain actions simultaneously when Leo says certain lines, but in the rehearsal, my actions are always slower than his lines. We need to practise more on that and try to find a pace that we can both agree upon. Other small details in the play are not clear or being realistic. For instance, I did not show the confusion when Papa Ge no longer possesses Daniel and I the shift of focus to Andrea is a little bit abrupt.  I need to work more on this and let the change from confusion of current situation to obsession with Andrea be viewed more natural by the audiences.

The later part of the play is where I feel much more comfortable with. I am quite pleased with the emotions and movement that I put into my performance with Andrea and Ti Moune. I show the love to Andrea and the reluctance to let Ti Moune go because of Andrea’s willingness to keep Ti Moune as a people, more like a pet,  who can humor them. Besides, I am satisfied that I can recite my lines without any hesitation and know exactly when all the other group members’ lines end now. In this rehearsal, I truly see the effort of all of our group members to make a better performance than before.

Future expectation and present affrimation

We have been working on the script from the very beginning and still, I have to admit, further improvement on both script and movement planning are quite needed. However, a degree of movements and emotions of characters when speaking certain lines is agreed by the group. For instance, we all view the idea of changing the original plot to that Daniel is controlled by Papa Ge to first meet Andrea yet then actually falls in love with Andrea with his own will, showing the cruelty of truth in society which is not often displayed in fairy tales like the Little Red Riding Hood. Nonetheless, in order to show the ubiquity of most plot of the Little Red Riding hood. We have tried a lot to let our performance to involve the elements of that story. One of them is the conversation between Daniel, who is actually possessed by Papa Ge at the moment, and Ti Moune. We aim to let the this plot to look like the scene in the Little Red Riding Hood in which the wolf tries to pretend Grandma and wants to deceive Little Red Riding Hood but finally is seen through by the main character because his misbehavior.  That is why we added three question from Ti Moune to Daniel during the conversion and answering those questions, Daniel will shows a totally different personality, leading to Ti Moune’s line,  “ You must not be Daniel. Oh, I know. It is you, Papa Ge who is behind all these. “ Another adjustment is the costume： We let Ti Moune wear in red and holding a basket of fruit, which is mentioned in the original noval, during her journey to the hotel and let Papa Ge wear in a wold costume.

When going through the script and practising,  I realize the lack of fluency in our performance. Sometimes, Cherrie need to be both Andrea and Erzulie at the same time, and there is some problem with how Andrea should craftly “disappear” and “appear” as Erzulie. Besides, I think we still need to add more plot which shows how Daniel and Ti Moune develop their relationship; otherwise, the sudden jump from Ti Moune entering the Hotel to Daniel falls in love with Andrea will seem to be abrupt.  Leo and I also need to work hard on scene where Papa Ge speak through Daniel. We need to show a degree of coordination: I need to act when Leo is behind me and speak. Moreover, Olivia is definitely need to work on her emotion when acting as Ti Moune. She has to be sad and worried instead of showing her happiness. She need to add body languages like pulling a piece of Daniel’s suit, showing her reluctance to let Daniel go with Andrea. Lastly, we have not memorized our lines at all, and we need to accomplish that very soon, although personally, I don’t view this a tough thing to improve.

Scripts with Blocking

Scripts:

Scene 1 two minutes

Lights on.

Desiree is on the stage alone.

Flashlight Desiree

Ti Moune

I must go! Daniel beauxhomme needs me!

Bring a basket and goes on the way

Comes Erzulie

Erzulie

I am Erzulie, your loa of love. My daughter, I left you in the curve of that tree so that you might live. Where are you going? Young girl

Ti Moune

My loa, Can you tell me if this road leads to the castle of one Gabriel beauxhomme who has a son called Daniel?

Erzulie

Oui, but that is far...

Ti Moune

How far is it?

Erzulie

Kilometers and kilometers. One must travel by the road as it runs along the forest. One must travel along the road as it runs by the sea. When the forest narrows to a point, and meets the sea, there is another road that crosses, leading east. One must take that road, into the grande ville- then One still has a long way to go.

Ti Moune

I will go there by my feet, Daniel needs me.

Erzulie

I'm going to lead your way. Wish you can find the true love in your life, ( or maybe the biggest surprise for you. Take this red comb with you, you will need it at some point.

Papa Ge comes from the upstage

Papa Ge

Hahaha!!!!! Remember Ti Moune, you have given me your soul and happiness of your love. I’m going to keep an eye on you..

To Erzulie: Love, Love, love. How they delight in the word? How they love the talk of dear, lovely Erzulie. Vain Erzulie - as though vanity were in itself a virtue. There must be room for me in all your plans.

Ahahahahahahahahaha~~~~

Scene 2 four minute

Ti Moune goes on her way

Papa Ge: Remember your family, your home, people who love you, your little brook and your past. Can you get away so easy? No you can’t.

You want to fall asleep,

Your mind is filled with fear,

Ti Moune: Screams and runs away Get out from my mind! I’m not afraid.

Papa Ge: Run! Run! You are starving, you are exhausted. Ha, can love cover these pain?

Erzulie: Jump out from the jungles, as a old woman Where are you going, young girl?

Ti Moune: deep breathe Mama, I have to travel to the black mountain in the Grand Ville. Now I have been told I still have O many kilometers to go.

Erzulie: That’s for sure, oui. For that distance you will need a great deal of patience and more food to eat along the way. Gives food to Ti Moune

Ti Moune: Thanks mama.

Erzulie: Ti Moune, with all your patience and the long way you have to go, I’ll give you bread.

PapaGe: Too young too Naive, she think she can get into the hotel with such a peasant look! Ha

Ti Moune continues her way.

Papa Ge control the guardian.

Ti Moune arrives the city.

Ti Moune: A new world, a strange world. I’m confused about all the lights, beautiful clothes around me. Too fancy to make me feel this unnamed anxiety. I don’t belong here, but I must be, for Daniel, and my dreams. (Gets into the city, gate)

(Keeps walking, wants to go through the door)

Guard (stops her)  

Ti Moune: (with confusion) Bonjour, Messieurs.

Guard ignores her

I mean good morning sir.

He turns, saw her and turns away

She push the gate

Guard stops her again: Peasant pig. Get back with the scum where you belong.

Ti Moune: I have come far. I have traveled many days and many nights to see Daniel Beauxhomme.

Guard: What crazy house did she escape from? The girl even doesn’t have shoes. (laughs) But what do you think? You can just walk in so? Why do you think we stand out here?

Ti Moune: Shoes? Oui, I need shoes to get in. (searching and find a man)

Sir? Will you trade me shoes for this basket of  mango?

Man: Well, it’s fine to be sure, the finest mango I have ever seen. But why should I exchange a pair of shoes that cost eight gourdes for one mango that cost only two?

Ti Moune: I must have shoes! (Facial expression, disappointed but firm)

Erzulie: This is a lovely fruit, oui? Where did you get it, ma fille?

Ti Moune: That, my aunt, I cannot tell. The tree from which this fruit came was chosen by the gods.

Erzulie: All the more reason I must have it. Will you take a dress with the shoes for the fruit?

Ti Moune: Of course Madame, I need these to pass the gate.

(Passing the gate, and find Daniel)

Scene 3:  two minute

Daniel first stays in the center of the stage and holds his head painfully. Then comes Ti Moune from left stage.

Ti Moune: I’m here. I’m here to keep you safe.

Daniel: (in love and weak) Who are you? Have I known you in another time? In another world? Your face… Your voice… haunts me.

Ti Moune: (sad) I’m of this world

Daniel: But it’s impossible that I have known you - in this world. I’m weak, so weak. Help me…. help me……

(Lays beside him)

(murmuring)A girl who has given me hope

Days later

Ti Moune: Madame Mathilde says you no longer need me. She wants me to leave.

Daniel: There’s no need for you to worry, my love. You shall be with me always. I cannot lose you, otherwise I shall lose my health and strength if you ever leaves. And the next time I shall die. Ti Moune has earned my heart with her care that it now belongs to her.

Papa Ge: I cannot let this go so easily. It’s incredible that you figure the way to get to here by your foot instead of starving to death. It seem like you have a pretty firm spirit. But what if I destroy your hope? What if your dare Daniel fell in love with another woman? I’m looking forward to see how well it goes so much! HAHAHAHAHAH

Daniel: ( Daniel Stretch himself) What a nice day. I have never felt so better after that car accident. My princess Ti Moune indeed has the power to heal me.

Papa Ge then started to control Daniel

another scene 3min

Daniel meet Andrea (Daniel acts while papa ge speaks out) In the Hotel

Papa Ge: Ha~ She’s a good target.

Andrea looks back.

Papa Ge: Hey my beautiful young lady (kiss on her hand)

Do I have the pleasure to have dinner with me? Oh, I forgot to tell you my name, I’m Daniel Beauxhomme, the son of Gabriel Beauxhomme, the owner of this hotel. It’s such a pleasure to have you with us.

Andrea: Thank you for your invitation. Hmm Such a jeune bel homme. I’m Andrea. I will attend the dinner with you.

Daniel: I promise that you will have an unforgettable memory.

(Holding each others hand)

Ti Moune sees them on their way

She Stops him

Ti Moune: Daniel, Daniel why you are holding a hand of a lady that is not me?

Daniel: Don’t bother me, I can do whatever I like, cuz I am the master of this hotel.

Ti Moune: Is there anything I have done that hurts your feeling?

Daniel: (ignores Ti Moune and turns to Andrea) Don’t let the misbehavior of  this peasant girl to ruin our mood of enjoy tonight. Forget all these, follow me. Andrea.

Ti Moune grabs a corner of Daniel’s suit.

Ti Moune: Don’t you remember all those nights that I accompanied with you? Don't you remember all those times that I tried to heal you. Look ( searches her pocket and takes out the red comb). This comfort you every time you cried out from nightmares.

Daniel: (Get his hand away from that red comb). Stop daydreaming. I heal myself and you are here only because my kindness.  Now, be thankful and step aside.

Ti Moune: You  must not be Daniel! How can you be so flirtatious to a lady and forget everything! Oh, I know. It is you, Papa Ge. You are behind all these, aren’t you. I must ask help from my loa Erzulie.

Erzulie: My daughter, it’s the last time I can help you. I will lost my power after this.

Ti Moune, Please my loa, he must not love that girl. He must love me!

Erzulie: Gave me that red comb.

Controlled Andrea and woke Daniel up

Papa Ge: ahahahah I cannot lose this game! I will be back!

Daniel: Oh what happened. Who is this young lady in front of me? She’s so beautiful and elegant. She spoke different tongues, speaking french elegantly with those island guests. Hearing her, it makes me to smile without controlling. When she laughed, it was a free laugh that needed the world to contain it. How can she be so perfect?

to Andrea: Young lady, May I ask your for dinner? Forgive me for the rush asking, you are so charming that I cannot drive my eyes off you.

Ti Moune: How can this happen! No! He must love me! I have saved him! Oh no ! Erzulie, why don’t you help me. That cannot be true!

Black out

Ti Moune: (walks to the table and cires) “Daniel, tell me what have I done to give you displeasure?”

Daniel: “displeasure? You? You who found me, ared for me, and gave me back my life? Never! It is this life that brings me joy. It is this life that I have pledge to Andrea”.

Ti Moune: Then must I leave?

Andrea: (whispers to Daniel) Daniel, how lovely. Never have I seen such a beautiful black girl. Can we keep her?”

Daniel: No, Ti Moune, stay. I love you. Andrea loves you. You must stay with me - with us - always.

seconds later, spotlight in the middle.

Walking alone through the light and fade in the dark.

Papa Ge laughs: HAHAHAHAH