Blog 13

I want to say that this ending is a super tragic, but it is also realistic. This ending is not like most other love story which gives a explaination or two endings. For example, Romeo and Juliet is also tragic but they still love each other and their death earns the peace, and the Little Memaried makes the girl be part of the nature. However, this book's ending really surprised me because it didn't say Tin Moune becomes a tree or Daniel still loves her which I think is the most realistic ending. "Picking up the corpse by an arm and a leg, he dumped it at the side of the road to await the garbage collectors." As we can se, Riches do not know Tin Moune anymore, and her dead body is finally thrown in the garbage. Even though, Daniel promised her that they will always be together, he still forget all those things and finally get married with the wight rich girl. This is how the real world looks like!

I think this book teaches us that we should not be too emotional and we shouldn't live in our own world. Tin Moune fall in love with Daniel in a extremely short time which makes me feel that she is too emotional. After Daniel was picked up by his father, Tin Moune started to think Daniel in her mind which made Daniel such a great person, but you can never know someone completely without spending so much time with them and talk with them. That's why I think Tin Mune is in love with Daniel in her mind not the Daniel in the real world. All those tragic are cause because Tin Moune over imagine in her head about those things. If she didn't think the car accident is her responsibility; if she didn't consider Daniel as her true love so fast; if she didn't leave the village and all her love and go to Daniel, I believe the story won't be like this. Thus, seeing things with only imagination and self perspective can cause huge misunderstanding and unreal dreams, so we should listen to others' advices and be real sometime! 

The Nutcracker

On Sunday we went to the nutcracker play which is a ballet show. This was the first ballet show I ever see, so I find a big difference but also similar things in the play which are connected with straight play and musical performance. The whole play is about a Christmas night, everyone is checking their gifts and one girl get a nutcracker. Then the nutcracker becomes real and started dancing . After everyone leaves, she got up and see Nutcracker is under the Chrismas tree, and this is the point she starts her dream world. The stage seeking change and different kinds of characters and different countrie’s dance start to go. The very end of the show is when the scene get back to the house and we see the girl is sleeping in the sofa.

I really like the way they set the stage and change the stage. Because they have a really big stage, so it's hard to change the setting in a short time, and they have to represent the dream and the realistic. However, they perfectly solved this problem with lights and props removing. For example, when she is going in her dream, all the house was moved away, and the lights go down. At the point when the Chrismas tree was turned around, she completely get into the dream world, and the lights goes up again. Another thing I noticed is the dress, even thought all the dresses looks similar, I looked carefully and I found out the dress who has solo dance has more color on it. It also helped me easily find where to focus on. My favorite dance in this show was when a man jump up and spouse and splits his leg in the air, and I believed it, just be so hard to do it.

Ballet show is also so different from other plays because there is no dialogue or singing which means I have to follow the story by seeing the dance and setting change. I do enjoyed this play, and all the dancers are so talented and hardworking. I want to say Merry Christmas to everyone! And I hope we will be not so crazy after we come back!

In class questions

1. Why do you think after Tin Moune get shoes and dress the guard let her in?

2. If you are Daniel's father what would you do when you see they are hanging out together, and you don't want that happen.

3. Why do you think Daniel lost his memory?

4. What do you think it means when Tin Moune is trying to hold all the papillon in the cage?

As free!!!

“She took only her imaginary cage filled with papillons, her dreams; this her held to her—her future”(Guy 80). I didn't like Tin Moune’s character so much until I saw this sentence because her courage and reactions are super strong. She didn't do much things against her parents except taking care of Dainel and not doing work, but since Daniel was taken away from her, she started to reacting so nervous and active. When I saw her leave the home with only her dreams, I truly felt the power of her character and the power of dreams and love! I couldn't say anything because I never went out alone with nothing; however, I can still image how lonely and hard for a sixteen years old girl. On my personal perspective, I saw Tin Moube as a sympol of independence and freedom. I know there are so many things involves in love, but independence and freedom are the main topic.

I can always feel Tin Moune doesn't have much freedom and independence, and she wants them so badly and she looks like an outstander in her own village. She is the only person goes to the brook where others are not allowed. Here I see a curious child who is trying to discover more and see more, but rules are limiting her abilities which make her break rules and always want to know more about new things which also explain the reason why she wants to take of Daniel. Because of her desire of new, she started take care of Daniel which is also a decision made on her own, so she is feeling, like finally I can be on my own and I can help others. Then she falls in love with Daniel, but it was too sudden. In my opinion she falls in love with him is not just about love, but also about more proving herself. “I'm not a child, Tonton Julian,” Désirée answered. “I'm sixteen years old—and strong. I have no fear.” (Guy 61). As we can see, she doesn't want Tonton to treat her as a baby anymore because she wants to make her own decisions which is finding her true love Daniel, and she also want Tonton to treat her as a adult who are free as the dreams and butterfly, so she proves herself by going to the big city and finding out the Daniel. With this emotion Tin Moune started her journey which she wishes; however, it won't be easy for her!

I truly like Tin Moune now because she is taking all the pain such as the shoes, couldn't understand the language and Daniel forget who she is which is making her evolving into a new life situation. I know she hopes the dream coming true, but I also understand how hard it is for her to accomplish it. I am looking forward to read more tomorrow. So far, she had shown me a strong character and a great dream. However, as she is showing all her dreams the cage of butterfly will be broken, and I hope she be as free as those dreams!

Quiz

In the musical version they take the elements of butterfly, Tin Moune’s wish of love and her difference between other villagers. These three elements have created Tin Moune’s character, and they also make it more clear on how she reacts and decides things in the following story. I consider that Butterfly represent the freedom and beautiful dreams she had, and Love is one of the thing she always wants which is also the reason she leave the village. Last the difference between her and others make her character more interesting and kind of sad in the story.

In the musical, there are so many places mention the word fly, and I consider it represent the butterfly. “Flying as free as bird” “And my fate in the air” these two lines from the musical directly tell me that she wants to fly and her fate is in the air which just like the butter fly. She wants to be free in the air, so she can control her own fate. In the book, butterfly show up in her imagination which just like the situation in the musical. “She took only her imaginary cage filled with papillons, her dreams; this she held to her—her future”(Guy 80). This sentence tells me that she sees her dreams and butterfly as her future which is so close the meaning of fate. 

And all her wishes and fate are about Dinel and Love. That's why in this musical there are so many things she thought to do with Dinel. “Your car will stop and I'll hop and off we’ll drive…..” This one is when she was imaging when she can be together with Dinel and they drive together, and I see it as a love wish. Also in the book, “I must go. Daniel Beauxhomme needs me.” she doesn't even talk with him much, but she knows or feels strongly that he needs her, and deep down I think that she needs him and she wants to be with him because she wants love. 

Last is the difference between her and others. “Happy to have what they have and stay where they are. They never even look up at the sound of a car!” I feel here is more like she is complaining about others because they never do things fun and new, and Tin Moune's always want to discover new things both in her imagination and real world which is so different from others. In the book, no one wants to touch or get to close to the car, but Tin Mounne does and she takes care of Daniel. Also, when others say “better we had left him at the side of the road to perish.” because they are afraid of that polices and rich people will be angry and punish them. However Tin Moune get to be more carefully to heal him and make him well. And the truth is that she saved his life because of her love to Daniel.

Lively and Realistic

Every time when I set a play I will always go through the back ground information first. Then I will figure out what I want to achieve through the play. Finally I will make all the details clear, such as costumes lights and blocking. Because of these orders I can build the play step by step. To day I will mainly focus on the four gods in Once On This Island. I will go step by step to tell you my idea of building these gods.

As we all know Once On This Island is the musical vision of the novel My love My love, and this novel is based on Little Mermaid which was a fairy tale written by Andersen. In the novel there are four gods and each one of them represent Earth, Water, Love and Death, and they fight each other over years and years. According to this back ground, I will set each god completely different to show how they fight each other and how they represent who they are.

Then I will discover what I want achieve through this play which is the most important thing because all my setting is depending on my objective. I want to show the relationships between these gods and I also want to show how they influence the main characters’ lives by their powers and their symbol. In order to show their relationship and effect, I will work on giving them a clear personality or power which they use all the time. For example, I want God of Love to be gentle and soft and it always show up when the characters need help; I want God of Earth to always be around people and watch them doing things which can show the close relationship between human and Earth; I want God of Water to be more active and a little naughty because the water is both good and bad to people which is just like kids who are so cute but some times do bad things; last I want to make the god of Death to always hide around people and show up when they are in danger because death is something hide around you all the time and it comes out at the worst time to give you the final judge.

Depends on what I said before I want to give each God a color, and they are Red for Love, Green for Earth, Black for Death and Blue for Water. I don’t want to give them any mask, but I do want them to wear some small things, such as rings, necklaces and head wear. For instance, I want Death to hold a skeleton in the hand all the time; Love can have a loving heart crown on her head; Water should have a container; finally the Earth can have a leaves crown and hold animals on the hand. I want the light always focus on the gods when they are talking and the light should be lighter on the one is speaking when others are quiet.

Those are all my ideas about creating these four gods, and I want to work more details on each one of them when we set the play. I am looking forward to see how these gods fight wach other and influence people who are on the Island. I also hope my ideas can help to build Gods more lively and realistic.

Picture

Final Fraft

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Litrature and Performance Written Courswork

A Major Analysis of Play and Performance Of Romeo and Juliet by Sharkesphere

Chosen Extract: Act II Scene II, Act IV Scene I, Act III Scene III and Act IV Scene III

session: November 2015

Word Count: 1866

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Through this project I have analyzed and discovered Romeo and Juliet’s characters' changing personalities, actions and reactions much more comprehensively and deeper than before. I want to show that Romeo and Juliet have learned from each other, and they became more like each other which means Romeo and Juliet switched their character roles. In order to show Romeo and Juliet switching their character roles, I choose Act II Scene II, Act IV Scene I, Act III Scene III and Act IV Scene III to compare and build Romeo and Juliet’ character. I am Romeo, Juliet and the Nurse in these three scenes which gives me a challenge to change between these three characters in a short time. Because this play was written during late 1500s, people in this time period saw men as stronger characters and women as weaker characters, and that was why I am curious about how Shakesphere wrote Romeo such a passive character and Juliet such a active character. In this project, I focused on showing how Romeo transforms to a more complaint character and how Juliet evolves to a more powerful character, by using costuming, blocking and switching actors’ gender which helps me to demonstrate each characters' transformation. Romeo and Juliet influence each other by showing their love, and this finally changes them into each other. 

I choose Act II Scene II which is the balcony scene because this is the point when Romeo and Juliet confess their love to each other which represents the beginning of their relationship. After they fall in love, they start to influence each other which changes their roles, indicating the transition. In this scene, Romeo is the one who acts so aggressive, forcing a solid and proven relationship. For example, “Lady, by yonder blessèd moon I vow,  That tips with silver all these fruit-tree tops—” (2.2.107). As we can see, Romeo vows to Juliet to show his love which shows his braveness. However, Juliet stops him because she 

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thinks that it is such a rush, and it is the first day they meet each other, so she does not want Romeo to promise anything. “It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden” (2.2.118). In this situation, they both don’t know much about each other, but Romeo chooses to promise something he does’t even know, and Juliet decides to stop Romeo’s crazy behavior to think more before anything happens. Thus, Romeo is the one who initially pushes this relationship forward without considering problems of reality.

When I was blocking this scene, I was Romeo, so I had most movements to achieve this aggressive Romeo. For instance, I broke into Juliet's house first and hid behind a bush to wait for her to appear, then I moved forward to Juliet when I heard the line “O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name” (2.2.33-34). While I said my line, I went toward Juliet and jumped on a box which was right next to Juliet’s balcony, so I could be as close as possible to her. When Juliet said “May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet. Good night, good night!” (2.2.122-123). I knew she meant to leave me, so I stopped her by holding her arm tightly. Then, when I said “Wouldst thou withdraw it? For what purpose, love?” (2.2.130), Even though I had heard Juliet confirm her love, I still persevered to get her to tell me again, so I looked in Juliet’s eyes and I held my hand to her's and finally we held our hands together. Thus, the forcing of love and aggressive movements built a Romeo who is brave and wants to show his love to Juliet intensely, and he seeks Juliet’s responding love back.

Juliet's chang is mainly showed in Act IV, Scene I and Scene III, which are scenes in which Friar Lawrence gives her advice about Romeo's banishment and how to stop the marriage between her and Paris which her father forces on her. Even though she is seeking help from Friar, she acts so tough and brave, and she is leading and influencing the 

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conversation. For example, "And with this knife I’ll help it presently. (shows him a knife) God joined my heart and Romeo’s, thou our hands." (4.1.55-58). As we can see, Juliet chooses to kill herself if she has to marry to Paris because she loves Romeo so much. She is forcing Friar to give her a good solution rather than staying at home and waiting. Commiting suicide for someone only met two days ago is an action of such a magnitude that it requires not only love, but also courage. At the end of the conversation, Friar gives Juliet a potion which can create a fake death for her, so she can escape the wedding and reunite with Romeo. Even though, Juliet says all the concerns that she has, she still drinks the potion for Romeo which shows bravery of Juliet’s character. 

“What if it be a poison which the Friar Subtly hath ministered to have me dead, Lest in this marriage he should be dishonored Because he married me before to Romeo? I fear it is. And yet methinks it should not, For he hath still been tried a holy man. How if, when I am laid into the tomb, I wake before the time that Romeo Come to redeem me? Romeo, Romeo, Romeo! Here’s drink. I drink to thee” (4.3.25-33,59). 

These are lines which Juliet says when she is preparing to drink the potion, and these lines clearly show that Juliet worries if she will be dead or Romeo will not be able to find her, but she still drinks the potion because she loves Romeo. The last words she says is about how love will carry her to get through this trail. “Love give me strength, and strength shall help afford” (4.1.129). Juliet is acting extremely brave and active than she ever did before which make her become a more leading character.

My Juliet character in these two scenes was much more brave and active than the Act II Scene II Juliet, and I demonstrate it by switching actors' gender and blocking. In these two scenes, I built a manly Juliet because I wanted to show how she becomes to a character who 

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reacts so quickly and bravely. First of all, I wore the dress which Wiebke wore in the balcony scene, so it showed that I was Juliet in the scene which also made Juliet's character look much stronger. I decided to play Juliet’s role because when I was reading the play I saw what a strong character she is, which was the inverse of people’s view of females during late 1500s. Then, I showed that I would rather die than marry Paris by holding the knife up to my neck which made it appear as if I would kill myself any second. However, when Friar gave me the idea of his potion with which I can avoid death, I put the knife down, then I took the potion from Friar Lawrence without any concern which showed I believed in the power of love. In the next monologue when I drank the potion, I chose kneeling rather than standing because I wanted to show I was depressed and hopeless which also can help showing how I beat hopelessness in a later scene. After I took out the potion, I also pulled out the knife to show I was deciding between commiting suicide or drinking the potion. However, after I remembered how much I love Romeo, I drank the potion immediately. Comparing the bravery when I drank the potion and the hopelessness when I was deciding, I represent how Juliet evolves to a manly character who is full of courage and love.

Act III Scene III was selected because it is between Friar Lawrence and Romeo after Romeo knows that he is banished which can be used in comparison with the scene between Juliet and Friar. Even though Romeo mentions that he would rather be dead if he cannot be with Juliet multiple times, he does not do any actual actions to prove it. For example, “So to be banished from Verona is like being banished from the world, and being banished from the world is death.” (3.3.19-20). This line superficially states how much Romeo loves Juliet, how he does not want to live because he cannot see Juliet anymore. However, he did not do anything, like put a knife up to his neck to show his death wish which makes him looks like a 

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coward. He is not only reacting so passively, but also follows Friar’s order completely which shows he is now much weaker than before. For instance, “But that a joy past joy calls out on me, It were a grief so brief to part with thee. Farewell.” (3.3.174-176). As we can see, Romeo now girlishly follows Friar’s orders and stops fighting for Juliet’s love and the future of their relationship. Compared to Juliet’s development, Romeo deconstructs to a feminine character and loses his courage.

Because we switched actors’ gender for Romeo and Juliet, I played the Nurse in this scene. Even though I played a minor role, the few lines I said still pointed out the most important part which showed how weak and passive Romeo had become. “Stand up, stand up. Stand, and you be a man” (3.3.88). This line directly told  Romeo to claim his masculinity which also reflects that Romeo is being so weak and hopeless just like a little girl. When I was saying this line I also used my hands to hold Romeo up from the ground when Romeo was weeping and blubbering which made Romeo looks even more passive and weak, so the audience can see clearly how Romoe reacts differently than he did before which showed he transform to a girlish character.

Through all these three scenes, I had created a aggressive Romeo, a manly Juliet and a girlish Romeo which accomplish my goal that they have changed into each other along with their relation. This was such a  fun and meaningful project, and I have learned how to achieve a character, and also make the character, setting and story believable and realistic. This was the first time I played a female role, but I didn't feel too hard because I wanted to present a manly Juliet. To be honest, I just acted as myself in the real life because I am the person who is brave and react so fast. Switching gender was also so interesting because audience can more directly see how Romeo and Juliet change into each other because they see the same 

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actor, and costumes helped to distinguish characters. Finally, after I tried my best to work on costuming, blocking and switching actors’ gender, it helped me to demonstrate each characters' transformation which showed how Romeo transforms to a girlish character and how Juliet evolves to a manly character.

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Works Cited

Shakespeare, William, Barbara A. Mowat, and Paul Werstine. The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. New York: Washington Square Published by Pocket, 1992. Print.