Final reflection: Improvement throughout the process

  With the completion of final recording, the whole final project drew to an end.

  Recalling the first draft of the play, it didn't go so well. At the beginning of the project, we faced a lot of problems; First, two of our three members including me, did not watch the movie until it was decided to be transformed into play. So we couldn't have sufficient understanding to the work. I took us quite a while to comprehend the general idea and theme. So the plot designing process was slowed down, and we have to work faster than others to write the script. Well, nothing is going to come out well with a higher pace. The script was a mess and the audience couldn't understand the play.

  It was such a frustration to us and arguments started to occur in my group. Different group members had his own idea of how to change the plot. The main problem was the transition between the scenes. In our play, there are five scenes of present time and flashbacks, the alteration between the past and present is the main theme of the play. In the movie, the transition between the scenes were quite smooth, and audience are able to understand because of the change in characters(actors). For example, little Jamal can just performed by the child character. On contrary, our play has to utilize all sorts of costume and acting changes to show that time has traveled back.

  Another issue was the scene selection process. The components of the movie's plot is quite complicated. Jamal Malik(Performed by me) is involved in a show which can make him a millionaire. And he used all the knowledge from his experiences to answer the question, which were presented in the flashbacks. Each question that the host asked has a corresponding flashback scene for explanation purpose. Of course, we can't pick all the scenes from the movie, or it will be too long for a play. Therefore we had to pick the ones that best represent the concept, and abbreviated them. Eventually, my group picked six scenes, and they connected quite well.

  During the process of discussing and solving problems, the group members got the chance to communicate, and a good teamwork atmosphere was built. The later process was smooth and our play got much better.

  For me, my character appears in every scenes, and shows up as both adult and child. It was quite a challenge for me. Firstly, I had to change costume quickly between the scenes, since the alternation of old and little is frequent. Also, I had show different characteristics on different age of Jamal. When he is little, he was always afraid of the darkness and dependent on his brother Salim. But the Jamal at the show is brave and confident. He had been through all of the conflicts and finally became a man who owns real wealth - which is experience. I think I did so much better at the end, because the starting was not good at all. The lack of emotions was my biggest short side.

  Generally, the play was a success to us. It's probably the hardest theme to perform in the entire year, and we made it! There are a lot of improvements shown in the play, the actors had grown too. It's a great treasure for us.

Final project link

https://youtu.be/cY3jpLdsx4g

Project reflection

  For the project, my group and I have already finished the script, stage effects and the first draft of filming. These combined together took us one week.
  It's really been a tough process for my group, especially at the beginning. Most of the group members were lacking understanding to the movie, and I have to admit that I'm still having troubles comprehending a few parts of the plot. Movies are usually consist of complex scenes, and our chosen work is a great example of that. The combination of flashbacks really made our scene selection process hard. Each flashback moment is related to one of the question that's been asked in the show. There were so many scenes that could be used but we have to gave up some and arrange for the best. Another problem was that it was hard for us to come up with ideas of designing details. We tried to mimic the movie as much as possible, but I still think my group's performance lacks creativity and thoughts. It's hard to describe cultural aspects when we don't know about it. There's a gigantic gap between our performance and the movie. The movie was full of depressed emotions and scenes that make people reflect a lot, while our performance is plain and bored. Lastly, the issue that's bothering us the most is that we are not able to show how the flashback scenes are connecting to the questions. In the script, my group cut too many scenes that might well-explain the plot's logic. For example, one of the questions was "Which U.S president is on the one hundred dollar bill?". The main character - Jamal was supposed to answer the question from recalling memories that appeared in the flashbacks. But we gave really vague explanation in the flashback scene, since it's much shorter than the original scene. Many said that they could not get the idea.
  However, there are a few things that are going well for us.  Cooperating is essential for a teamwork. There's almost zero conflicts in our group and we feel comfortable working with each other. So new ideas are keep coming out and we really are trying to improve this project. The first thing that we have to solve is the comprehension problem. How the audience are able to understand our work? We started to create lines and scenes that can help explaining the connection. For example, in one of the "present" scenes(during the show), Jamal will whispering that "I remember when I took the money.." to connects to the last flashback. Another new line that shows the identity of flashback scene was added in when Jamal says: "I remember when I was little..." And actually turns to the audience and think. I felt like this works better for the transition part.
  For me, individually, I think my acting skills are still not utilizing well during the performance. My group did not practice efficiently before the actual filming, so that's something that we have to make up later. I need to remember my lines better and be more emotional. These are really the most basic things for performing but I'm still doing a horrible job. I can admit that a great part of the reasons that the show is not good enough is because of my wrong attitude.
  I believe that we are going to do better in the rest of the time, since we still have great team spirit and atmosphere. It just take each one of us more time to reflect and improve.

New impression of comedy

  The first thing I thought of when I saw the title was that the show is going to be funny, but I didn't know that it's such hilarious. A lot of the moments just made me shivering on the chair, they were absolutely great. My favorite scene was the morning meeting one, the impressions of different teachers couldn't be better. I can tell that the designing crew really put a lot of efforts in mimic the teachers' language and signature actions. Other scenes were quite impressive too, such as the beginning scene, which is a fantastic demonstration of the prevailing political campaign in U.S. Just like the meeting scene, the play and the actors were just experts in mimicking different people and events. This element plays an important role that connects the audience and what's going on at the stage closely. The audience can understand the plot better while laughing crazily.
  Another good thing about the play is that the props were used suitably and efficiently. Expressing the atmosphere of the scenes and very simple. The backstage staff were being very professional and adept at switching everything on the stage. I was so impressed by it because I realized how much work they had to put in during the practices.
  However, there were also some scenes that were not such appropriate, in my opinion. Well, the idea of cross-gender acting was an issue. It worked fine for some places, but I don't like it overall. It might be fun to see a male actor to perform female characteristics, but this theme lasted for over half of the show. It wasn't really presenting the strength of this form of acting but decreasing the audience's interest in the show. I believe that in quite a few scenes, cross-gender acting was really not necessary. Female characters could totally played by female actors. Take an example of the swan and alien scenes, where all of the female characters were played by boys. There were already several places like that already, so the idea was not fresh anymore, the funny part therefore did not play its role.
  Overall, the performance went well and I really liked it!

Music

Jamal thinking about the answer - Darkness new version
Show host ready to say answer - drum sound effect
Audience Cheering - Applause sound effect
Jamal and Salim escaping - William Tell Overtune
Salim ready to kill kidnapper - Western duel music(The good, the bad and the ugly theme)
Hindi and the crew discussing about the intrigue - in the hall of the Mountain king(Grieg)
Jamal winning the money - Chariots of Fire theme

One of the question's song - Darshan Do Ghanshyam

Gun shot sound effect

Confused progress

  My group and I have encountered a few barriers that are keeping us away from designing the performance fluently. To me, Jamal Malik is a total stranger few days ago, and maybe he still is. Most of the group members only got the chance to went though the whole movie briefly, since only one of us have the resource. The lack of detail and understanding to the movie makes me nervous and becoming short of ideas. In the first step, which was the distribution of characters, each one of us had an idea of what we prefer to act so it was decided pretty fast. But problem came immediately: how are we going to demonstrate the characters that we don't know that well. I really need more time to digest the figures in the movie that represent the author's ideas. One of us suggested that we don't need to follow the movie completely, I can just insert my own understanding into the performance.

  My role in the play is Jamal Malik, the character that shows up most frequently. It may be a tough experience for me, because I don't know much about Indian culture. But I would say Jamal's character is definitely not the hardest to perform, since his characteristics generally remain stable. Unlike his brother, who evolved from a smart kid to a killer, to a criminal, Jamal is always like a piece of white paper but covered with ink - reflecting India's most bottom parts of society's darkness while remains white and pure inside. It's going to be hard to perform all that, showing his fear as well as strength. How humble he is when facing all the treasure in front of him, because of all the darkness he had witnessed.

  Lastly, we are still trying to decorate the script, to make it vivid. It's taking longer than the original plan, since we are making a decent amount of changes from the movie. But I really enjoy the process, because I get to know the story better and it really interests me.

Character development

Jamal Malik - play by Ben
 
   - In our performance, his character appears in different ages, because of the flashbacks. But the general development of Jamal goes from a little orphan who is accompanied by the brother, to a incredible game winner. In Jamal's childhood, he had a vagrant and dark life among india's streets. As an orphan, he and his brother begged for life. The criminal kidnapped the two naive, innocent child, and their lives were no longer the same. However, Jamal's pureness still remains in his heart, comparing to his brother. When the scene flashbacks to where they came back for revenge, Jamal didn't touch the kidnapper's blood. He uses his experiences as wealth instead of changing by it. This "wealth" brought him extreme pains but eventually turns into true assets. His character at the show was still the little Jamal, innocent and tough.

Salim Malik - played by Joseph

   -  Salim's character went through the most changes in the performance. Starting from his childhood: as Jamal's older brother, he was protective and tough. His characteristics were reflected by every moments. When they were trapped by the kidnapper, Salim was extremely calm and intelligent. He used the acid to made the kidnapper blind, and brings his brother out of danger. However, because of his belligerent personality, Salim changed into another person while growing up. He went back with his brother to the bad guy, and executed the pathetic kidnapper. Violence grew in Salim's heart at that moment. Later, Salim chose to walk the path of criminals and became a negative character. It's a contrast to his brother who remains innocent.

The "Millionaire"s Host - played by Leo

   - The host did not have such significant changes like Salim throughout the play. He is consistently excited by Jamal's answer, whether it's caused by show effect or true excitement. The host is also hypocritical dramatic - There's a controversy in the process of designing Leo's acting, that as an upper level(rich) TV host, he held discrimination deep inside of his heart. But we can't really show that in the performance, because his identity of TV host requires his respect to Jamal. In the movie, the torture and interrogation of Jamal showed how people are skeptical about his knowledge, but we will delete that scene in our performance, and therefore the people(including the host)'s despise to Jamal can't be demonstrated that well. Finally, we decided to keep the part where the host mislead Jamal to the wrong answer to show how insincere he is to the poor young man's success.

New demonstration of classic work - Final Project Proposal

  My final project will be based on the short story, "The Little Match Girl". There's probably no one in this world that haven't heard of this story. But if you don't, it's written by one of the most popular fairy tale writers - Hand Christian Andersen. This most famous work basically tells how a little girl was trying to sell her matches. It took place in the New Year's Eve, the little girl had been living in poverty since she was borned. She could not either sell out her matches or go home. During the process of selling matches, the little girl couldn't resist the cold and had to light up a few of her matches to warm herself, and the amazing parts of the story started happening since then. Different scenes started to occur in the little girl's vision, there was a warm, wonderful meal inside of the windows. The family reunions in front of the table and are all having a good time. The little girl couldn't reach any of it and could do nothing but watching. The second match made her see her grandmother, gracious beloved grandmother, who was dead. She keep lighting up the rest of her matches so grandmother could not escape from her eyes. Finally, the little girl ended up dying in the cold with hypothermia. The story is so touching and heart-breaking, but that's why I'm trying to transform it into the performance.

  There are a few things that I want to discuss in this proposal.

  My performance will be requiring at least three to four actors. The character distribution varies depending on the number of actors we have. The little girl's character will remain constant from the beginning to the end. If only three actors are available, actors besides the little girl's will be involved in the "big meal" and also one of them will be the grandmother in another scene. If four or more characters are involved, the grandmother's character can be performed by one and therefore others will be at the meal. In the last scene, The "meal characters" can also be the people on the street who found out about the girl's death.

  There will be seven scenes in the performance. The opening scene will give the audience an idea of what's going on. The stage will be set up as the street, the little girl holding the matches and passers just walking by her without giving a look. The little girl will be dressed with very few clothes and shivering in the snow. At the end of first scene, she will be lighting up her first match. After a brief blackout, the second scene will occur with a brighter light, and there are people sitting around the table with incredible food. The little girl is observing and expressing her feelings. The third scene will be shifting back to the street, and she lights up the the second match at the end. After that, will be the scene where she spends time with her grandma, all of the good times are shown. At the end, the grandma starts to walk away but she is not able to reach her. The fifth scene is just like the third one where it shifts back to the street, but this time she used all of her matches. In the sixth scene, the little girl will be with her grandmother for ever, because she has already died but her death is not shown yet. The last scene will be where people finds out her death.

  Above is all of the ideas of my final project.

Exam Reflection

  Generally speaking, I finished the two exams with mostly satisfaction. The test timing was managed and only few obstacles in generating ideas occurred. However, there were still a few things that could have been improved.
  Exam one was a smaller burden to me comparing to the second one. First of all, the questions given were not so hard to comprehend because of the level of vocabularies in them. I selected the third one which was the one that I thought the easiest one. "How does the author utilized the element of fantasy to better explain the story." The novel that I used - The whale rider has a substantial amount of fantasy inside, so it was much easier for me to write about it. I talked about two passages generally which was Chapter 17 and Chapter 18, and one of them specifically(18). The scenes described the ending part before the epilogue, where Kahu communicated with the whale and left the village with the accompany of it. The reason why I picked it is because that it's the climax of the story, which is really emotional and excited, also that it is great illustration of the essence of Kahu's(Maori) cultural background. I explained that it's quite "fantasy" that Kahu is able to communicate and travel with the whale herd.
  Exam two was a little bit more stressful because I ran out of ideas in the middle of writing. It was really a bad feeling because of the blank in my brain. However, it didn't last for a long time, so it didn't affect fluency. "How does the author utilize deep or sudden insights to make readers understand the novel." The controversy in this title to me was that everyone has different perspectives to the term "insight". But I expressed my own understanding to it in my article, I talked about how the two poets created insightful scenes in readers minds that help them understands the idea better by "looking" and "sense".
  The exams were definitely great reflections of what I have learned this year, and I can feel that my writing ability had improved but I still need deeper understanding to the spirit in the books/poems but not just words.

Notes for practice essay

Nature is what we see
- "see" "hear" "know"
- Examples: "thunder" "eclipse"
- Mind: "heaven" "harmony"
- Heart: Comparison of "wisdom" "simplicity"
- Method: listing of example, general terms

Arabic Coffee
- Provide sight(eye)
- Example: whole second paragraph
- Stove, boil, olive beads, warehouse, people, tray
- Provide Sound(ear)
- Example: Like clothes on a line saying: you will live long enough to wear me
- The talk
- Provide ethnic pride(heart)
- Example: strong, thick, black coffee
- The pursuing of "True Arab"
- Traditions
- Long cumulative culture
- Provide spirit(mind)
- Example: people forgive each other
- Men and women sit together
- Disappointment
- All melt in the coffee

Simultaneous existence of certitude/ambiguity in "Because I could not stop for Death" by Emily Dickinson

  “Poets often withhold certitude, which can at the same time empower readers to think creatively.” The quote applies in the poem "Because I could not stop for Death" deeply. The poem provides readers a fair amount of "certitude" but leaves a certain amount of space for them to understand and creates personal views to the concept of death. This combination of certitude and ambiguity allows readers to have a basic idea of Dickinson's understanding to Death while creating their own conclusion about it utilizing the space she left.
  What readers can see clearly is that the author characterize herself as an accompany of the death, travels through several places, such as "the school", "the ring" or "the setting sun". In the author's opinion, death exists everywhere in our dailies based on those example, and most importantly, every stages of our lives. The travelers(author and death) goes from school, which here indicates the youth of human beings, to the tomb which it the end of lives. However, one of the ambiguity was presented here, that she did not clearly tell the readers it was at a graveyard but rather used vague expressions to imply that. "We paused before a House that seemed A Swelling of the Ground – The Roof was scarcely visible – The Cornice – in the Ground – ", and it creates a mysterious atmosphere. This process of going through every stage of lives is certain, that readers are able to know the author's perspective as a "death carrier". "Since then, 'tis centuries and yet feels shorter than the day", her description here draws a conclusion of the process of going from youth to graveyard, that death devours human beings' lives in such a short time.

  The general ambiguity in the poem was on one hand from those vague, abstract terms such as "eternity", "civility", and also from the lack of explanation of death. Indeed, the author used a few descriptions to death from her view as "accompany" and "experience", but she really wanted the readers to build up their own analysis to the existence of death. For example, "Or rather – He passed Us – The Dews drew quivering and Chill – For only Gossamer, my Gown – My Tippet – only Tulle – ", this whole stanza is consist of a list of realistic terms with blurry metaphors inside. The goal is to illustrates how death is able to penetrate every bit of our lives, but her way of expressing it really connects readers to the death itself. Lastly, the usage of abstract words especially those that describe longevity are what brings deep reflection on our lives. If "eternity" and "immortality" are not sufficient on describing death, there aren't any better words that do so.

In class writing based on "Nature is what we see"

  The poem is consist of one stanza with 12 lines. It's relatively short but really meaningful. Dickinson listed a lot of different things in nature in the poem, such as the hill, the afternoon, the squirrel. She also used three repeating similar sentences as main arguments: "Nature" is what we see; Nay—Nature is Heaven—Nature is what we hear; Nay—Nature is Harmony—Nature is what we know. These sentences kind of repeal each other but explain the general idea of what nature is in different perspective, with the help of listed natural things below each. The rhyme(words) of the poem appears randomly at the end of a few sentences, such as "see", "bee", "sea", "harmony" and most importantly at the end - "simplicity". Speaking of simplicity, the poem gives her perspective to the power of nature at the end: "So impotent Our Wisdom is To her Simplicity". She truly believes that the nature has such great power, existing everywhere and has sensational effect on human beings. None of us can overpower the nature even though it's such "simplicity". Among the examples of what she listed in the poem, things tend to be everywhere: "thunder", "sea", "bumble bee". She tried to use the diversity of things to explain how nature exists everywhere in our lives. In additional, we can tell that Dickinson really appreciates the beauty of the nature by the terms: "heaven", "harmony". Lastly, she used "her" instead of "it", to describe the nature in the last sentence. This method of personification to gives nature(of her perspective) a basic characteristic and provides a more vivid scene.

New perspective

  The show was a great demonstration of the book, it not only provides audience a visual perspective but also includes a few elements that were not fully expressed in the novel.

  The light effects that were used were definitely the highlights of the play and they made the performance brilliant. The performance really utilizes every inch of the stage, patterns and colors were projected all over it. One of the first scene that amazes the audience could absolutely be the one at the beginning where Christopher lied down, and massive amount of letters and patterns exploded out of his mind. I was shocked by this effect because there were so many things jumped out of the stage. Christopher had been always a special kid, who had a lot of crazy thoughts in his mind but couldn't express properly. It was not just because that he was struggling with autism but his idea could not be accepted by most of the people. When I was watching the play, I really wanted to stand out for Christopher and speak for him. And the moment when his inside world exploded, I actually felt released. Another great example of light effect could be the one, where he walked in the subway station. It would be quite boring if he just walks in directions with random background. But the show had a sensational performance on that scene with the help of light effect. 

Christopher walked in red lighted path whereas the rest of the stage was in dark. The path occurred  in the order of what narrator said. It was clearer to the audience and everyone was able to focus on Christopher's movement. Lastly, my favorite part of the play was the one where Christopher floats in the "Universe" and a few actors lifted him up. The scene was so touching. Christopher was "bullied" by everyone, things had never turned out good for him. But the moment when he soars in his own world, the world could see how amazing this autistic child can be, and how beautiful his inside world looks. 

  Overall, the performance really gave me a new perspective to those that are struggling the most, and aren't able to express themselves. I wish all autistic children can be like Christopher, being consistent in their goals and never give up on life. I realized that those children could really used the support from their families and loved ones. It's what keep them going and live a "special" normal life.

Staging Design

In my staging, the backdrop is the most important piece of work, and it is an illustration of the whole story's background. Like what the backdrop is shown, the whale is on the top, representing the village's spirit and guide their lives. Under the whale, there are two Maori warriors. They meet each other by the Maori's traditional greeting - hongi. The two warriors represent the union of the villagers and how they stay together and love each other under he whale(tradition, religion)'s guide. On the left side, the pattern represent the tradition of Maori's. And on the right side, there's an airplane and a tree on the beach which represent the view of New Zealand and the modern part of the world. The two sides make a contrast and show the conflict of tradition and modernization. For the staging part, I select the last scene. As what my proposal stated, the whale will show up in the form of human. And in the last scene, Kahu will be having conversations with the old whale in blue light which shows that  they are in the ocean world. The rest of the stage are performed in darker light.

The power of being special

  To best demonstrate the novel, I would highlight three aspects in my performance: Kahu's emotion changes adapting to the atmosphere, centering her and her interaction with the whales. The scenes that contains these three elements are the backbones of the story and they provides audience sufficient understandings to the spirit of it.

*narrator perspective

  The author made a lot of efforts in illustrating women’s struggle against the traditionsand people’s discrimination, which was mainly reflected on Kahu's experiences. My performance's first goal would be to decorate her scenes. The main source of discrimination to Kahu is from her grandfather. He does not see her as the village's future while putting high expectations on the other boys. There are a few scenes that explain that point, such as the scene when Kahu performs brilliantly but the grandfather did not show up. In this scene, I would add several adaptations to maximize Kahu's disappointed emotions. Since the performance is great, I would make the scene looks spectacular to make a contrast with the contempt from the grandfather. Bright music on the background and shining spotlight on Kahu. Kahu would be wearing orange and blue dresses - orange represents her persistence in being the hope of the village, and blue shows her connection to the ocean. All of the boys dance behind her with darker light, makes her the center of the show. Another adaptation that serves as the highlight of Kahu's perspective can be actors's facial expressions, such as that she cries with a smile on the face. This illustration really shows Kahu's two sides of world, one with her good dreams about the future and the other one with the pressures from life. Her smile shows how she is proud of herself when she is able perform the traditions so well, and her tears tells the audience how sad she is when the loved grandfather is absent. Also,  smile-and-tear performance can be added on several other scenes, such as the moment when she leaves the village with the herd of whale. The smiles shows that she is thrilled to be the new whale rider and the tears illustrates her fear and sadness. In order to make Kahu the center with this scene, I would put the villagers in the corner and spectates her leaving, and of course, the light spots at the middle. All of her emotions and tears are fully presented this way.
  The interaction of Kahu and the whale is one of the most amazing parts of the novel. In chapter seventeen, the author used an expression to show the gap between the human and nature, "We have lost our way of talking to the whales." However, the whale can communicate to Kahu somehow, and he keeps asking: "Ko Paikea?" I would make some efforts in this scene because, this "mission impossible" of whale communicating to human demonstrates how Kahu is so different and the magical realism aspect. I would use blue spotlights to focus on Kahu and the whale, and dark light on all the other people, to show their private world and conversations. The whale's character might be difficult to demonstrate, so I would turn it into a person, so the communication makes more sense. This adaptation can be achieved by moving the whale model in the scene, and with the short period of lights out, a person with blue clothing shows up to take its place.
  Those are the aspects and adaptations I would use to stage the scene.

Irreplaceable work of CA musical

  The show Once on This Island is a fabulous work based on the novel My love my love, or the peasant girl. The show is in the form of musical, it's a very high quality performance in many aspects.

  First of all, religion occupies a huge portion of the original play. In Once on This Island, the impression of the gods was outstanding, each goddess had their strong characteristics that were shown by different paintings and props. Agwe had a lot of oceanic patterns on her, which indicated her identity. Erzulie - the goddess of love was dressed in red costume, warming up the whole atmosphere. Asaka fitted exactly in the background, her green and brown costumes seemed to provide her camouflage in the forest. Papage was my favorite one, I could feel smell of death all over her character. Details such as the skulls on her stairs provided audience a strong vision of her. The actors really did great jobs in expressing each god's thoughts. Take another example of Papage, her laugh was definitely one of the highlights in the play, it was so creepy and haunted. Also, light effect played an significant role in the gods' parts. Each goddess had the background lights that fitted their costumes. Agwe was the goddess of ocean so she had blue light around her. Those blue lights were amazing when the scene of storm and rain began. It looked like that the ocean was going to devour the whole stage. 

  Secondly, the love story between Desiree and Daniel was fully presented in the play. The detailed introduction scenes illustrates the background stories behind Desiree and Daniel. When audience started to understand that Desiree was a poor peasant girl and Daniel was a rich young man, the gap between the young lovers was more obvious. Costumes were also important in presenting their identities. Daniel was in a nice white suit which made a contrary to Desiree's peasant dress. The most unforgettable scene of the lovers was when Daniel betrayed Desiree and started to date Andrea, it was really a touching moment. Their twisted relationship between them really attracted audience's attentions. 

  I think the performance couldn't be such successful without the "villagers", who had been always standing behind Desiree. They really gave the audience a full view of the "poor" but nature side. Not only Desiree, but all the villagers had "scruffy" clothing, they exist as a family. Characters like Tonton and Mama were outstanding characters too, they made the story more colorful. 

  As a successful musical, the music crew behind the scenes were the biggest contributors. Their consistent performance supported every moments in the play. The music made the atmosphere vivid and the emotions from characters were strengthened by it. When it's cheerful moment, the music became convivial; when it's sad moment, the music became depressed. My favorite part had been always the main theme, it repeated so many times that it couldn't get out of my head. 

  In conclusion, the musical was really successful, and gave me a new perspective to the novel. I love it!

 

Oral presentation first draft

  My internal assessment performance is based on the novel, "My love, my love, or the peasant girl" which was written by Rosa Guy. The novel illustrates a tragic love story, based on the setting that people are separated by social divisions and economic status. The main character: Desiree is a peasant girl from the poor village who fell in love with a rich young man named Daniel though a car accident. The gap between the rich and the poor peasants is the main argument in the novel. Thoughout the entire plot, Desiree was trapped and stumbled by her love and the story eventually ended up with her death. On contrary, her soul mate - Daniel got to build up a new relationship with another woman and still lived in his rich side of the world. This setting provides such a strong comparison that brings audience different understandings to the book and especially, make them shows sympathy to the main character. Our performance serves to maximize this conflict with different adaptations.
  We made efforts on presenting the difference between rich and poor in several ways. First of all, the staging was what made our performance special. My group set stageright as the "poor area" and stageleft as the "rich area", to show a distinct contradiction between the two social levels. In addition to that, our group used light effect to distinguish the two sides also. When the scene is taken place on the rich side, there will be spotlight focus on that side only and vice versa. This way, the two worlds are no longer existing at the same time. Also, the arrangement of scene orders became a significant factor. The abbreviated scene selection keeps the performance in a fair length  and also, guarantees our performance's understanding to the essence of the original work. Our performance did not change the overall story development but instead, added a few scenes to strengthen the idea of difference. For example, we created three private conversations between Daniel and his father Monsieur Gabriel. Those dialogues did not exist in the original novel, but they serve as contradictions to Desiree and Her father Tonton in our performance.
  My character in the performance is Monsieur Gabriel, Daniel's father. He is an rich man who shows a strong discrimination against the Poors, especially to Tonton. His has both arrogant and didactical character voices depends on who he is talking to. He shows a hard attitude towards Tonton while treating his son with dignity. From hearing that his son got injured to picked him up from the village, Gabriel's character developed a stronger contempt to the Poor side along the scenes. During the process of designing Gabriel's lines, my group tried to add several factors such as classical music and expensive foods to show that Gabriel is a well-educated man.
  In conclusion, our performance needs more work on Character developments and there are several things that I personally need to improve. I utilized a lot of rising tones to indicate Gabriel's aristocratic identity but I still can't make the character more like a father compare to Daniel. More practice and thinking definitely helps and I've been learning how to create a older characteristic by listening to other's instructions.

Review&Reflection

  It's been an interesting process to witness how our group came out with the idea that to show the contrast between rich and poor, and how we interpret it in the performance. The idea is based on a setting that was already existed in the original novel. Our group extracted certain parts from the novel, and edited it so that it shows the essence of the theme. Also, we added adaptations to make the idea clearer and easier to understand for the audience. The theme of showing contrast between rich and poor actually works quite efficiently on presenting the novel's spirit. One of the author's main goals in the book, is to distinguish different social levels in Haiti, so our theme reflects the author's idea in a great degree. In additional, it's a simple concept that nearly all of the audience can understand without trouble. However, that simple concept in the book might be a little vague to the readers because of all the other elements are mixing to together, like a big melting pot. For example, in the book, Ti Moune's character tends to be someone that embraces the nature a lot and really religious, other than just a poor peasant girl. So, our group's performance only gives a focus on her poor side, to make her identity as a peasant more distinctive to the audience, so it gives a whole new perspective of the novel. And of course, we made Daniel and his father - Gabriel two rich but horrible guys to show a contrast. In the original novel, they don't have a lot of parts, but we made these two characters standing out to decorate our idea, so that's kind of a creative way to do it.

  To me, my parts in the performance doesn't always go well. First of all, acting out the characteristics of Gabriel was really a challenge to me, he doesn't have a lot of lines in the novel, so I can't really have a deep understanding on this character. However, I do have my own interpretation of him as a rich jerk that discriminate against poor people. I made a lot of effort in creating his lines in order to show his arrogant and aristocratic personalities. That's sort of a success. Being rich and fool is only one side of him, the other side, which is being a father is even more difficult to present. I had trouble in acting him as Daniel's father, but more like a friend of his. It's not an easy job since Ryan and I are about the same age and I have to act 30 years older. It might be easier to edit Gabriel's line to make him more of a mature character, but my acting skill is the main problem that needs to be solved. Lastly, being able to express all of his lines fluently became a challenge too, Gabriel needs that piece of fluency to show his confidence as a rich person and a father. I need to work on memorization more.

  In general, the performance is going well, and it's a good reflection to the novel. I'll keep working on my parts to make it better.

Achievements as well as improvements

  Our group's performance is based on the theme which shows a comparison between rich and poor. In progress, we have already finished script and blocking. One good thing about our performance is that every scene has close connection to one another. For example, we showed that how Gabriel and Daniel are talking about the engagement so Daniel went visiting Monsieur Galimar, how Desiree got a car accident and Daniel didn't care. We followed the original plot's story development but we did come up with a few new scenes, such as the "rich" conversations. Also, in order to make maximize the gap between rich and poor, a huge portion of the plot are different adaptations from the original work. In the novel, Daniel was a jerk but he did not say really mean words to Desiree but to hurt her feelings. We made him a "better" jerk in the play, such as asking Desiree if she wants money and say that she is an annoying peasant girl. In additional, we are pretty  satisfied with the length of the performance, which totally exceeded our expectations. We wanted to create a 20 minutes plot but it eventually became half-hour long. Every single scenes in our performance straightly makes contrast between rich and poor and there's not much to delete. For example, in a lot of the scenes, rich people(Daniel and Gabriel) express their opinions to the things in one side of the stage, while poor people(Desiree and Tonton) show their attitudes after. Rich people's conversations are full of disrespect to the poors and arrogant attitudes. But the peasants really accept the reality and help other people. I think it's a great demonstration of the novel.
  One of the biggest weaknesses in our script, however, is that there are too many grammar mistakes and unnecessary sentences. It's mainly because of that we came up with our own lines instead of copying the original conversations, and our abilities to manage the language are weak.  However, Every member of our group contributed although sometimes we don't agree with each other's ideas. So it's a really nice process that we have to communicate well and make the script fits everyone's flavor. Another thing that we are worrying about is that the language is not close enough to the novel's. We simplified some conversations between Desiree and Tonton,  as well as made the "rich" conversations fancier, just to distinguish their social status. During this process, we thought of that the language we wrote might not be what the actual characters might say, but still, adaptations are necessary. Those are the sacrifices that we had to make in order to present our theme more efficiently.
  By observing other's performances, I found that our performance is actually the one that stays loyal with the original novel. Other groups came up with really creative ideas such as the "little red riding hood"s adaptations. I like that one the best because it gives audience a different perspective of the novel, our group is urged to achieve that too.
 

Blocking

Conflict

Poor vs. Rich
Good men vs. Villains

Desiree - an innocent, pure, beautiful girl
Tonton - desiree’s father
Daniel -
Gabriel -

Costumes
Personalities
Actings
Language
Colors - black and white



My group proposed to build a focus on the contrast between rich and poor.The idea was discussed during class in various ways and I think it shows the main conflict of My Love My Love the Peasant Girl. The whole story is based on a fact that different civilians are separated by social divisions. Villagers including Desiree are pure and innocent while rich people are mean and manipulating the poors.

From her journey to her death, one thing that my group noticed was the rich’s ignorance. While the main character Desiree is a pure, innocent, and naive girl, the rich people, Daniel and his father, misled her and pushed her off the cliff. Desiree had really pure thoughts and the upper-class people destroyed that piece of pureness. Among the aristocratic world, Desiree is never a part of it. She made effort to fit in but her destiny rejected her. People looked down on her and thought she did not deserve to love Daniel. In addition, Daniel's father made Tonton go back to his town which was in far away by foot instead of providing a helicopter. Daniel fooled Desiree, who was willing to give her everything for him, even her life. Therefore, we want to make a scene that focuses on the contrast of rich and poor. According to what We felt, the upper-class people will be drawn as bad guys and peasants will be drawn as victims of rich's bossing.

Because there are four people in this group, the video should be at least 20 minutes long. Nothing is sure yet, but it seems like Ryan is going to be Daniel, Ben is going to be Daniel's father, James is going to be Tonton, and Julie is going to be Desiree. We are thinking about doing about six scenes from the book. To highlight the conflict between the rich and poor, we will use costumes, languages, music, and body languages.



Script

First scene: Desiree and Tonton’s life - the poor’s life
Second scene: Daniel and Gabriel’s life - the rich
Third scene: Daniel crashes and Desiree finds him & Desiree takes care & romantic mood
Fourth scene: Tonton and Gabriel meet in the village
Fifth scene: They separate (show their thoughts - monologue and dialogue with their fathers)
Sixth scene: Daniel and Desiree meet (Daniel is a jerk)
Sevenths scene: Desiree talks to Tonton; Desiree gets hit by a car; Tonton becomes crazy
Eighths scene: Gabriel asks Daniel about Desiree’s story and Daniel does not even care

Staging

Left side - the poor
Right side - the rich
Lighting effect
Black out
Fade to black
Lights rise on character
Sound effect (freesound.org)
Car crash
Honk
Knocking sound
Music
Ben is playing piano in the second scene
James is playing ukulele in the second scene
Romantic music in the third scene
Dramatic & extreme & minor music in the seventh scene
Classical music in the last scene
Costumes
Daniel - casual dress
Desiree - a long skirts
Tonton - Ryan’s summer pajama
Gabriel - black suit with a black coat
Props
Piano
Ukulele
Chairs
Tables
Hoe

First scene

Lights rise on Ben, James and Julie

*James and Julie are working on a field
*Ben on the center
*Spotlight only onto Ben
Narrator (Ben): “On this island of mountains, forests, hills, and valleys is a lovely peasant village. As in most of the poor villages of the island, each hut stands in its own field on a plot of forested land deeded to the peasants at an earlier time. There is a small peasant girl named Desiree and her father, Tonton.”

*Shoot light to the left side of the stage
*Ben goes back to the right side of the stage

Desiree: “Dad!”
Tonton: “Yes, my dear?”
Desiree: “Oh I’m so thirsty, dad, do you have water?”
Tonton: “Sorry my dear, I don’t. I know we are all thirsty.”
Desiree: “Papa I hate the weather! We are waiting for the rain for three months! The crops are not going to grow now. They need water! But we are all drying out. I have not eaten for a day and you have not eaten for three days! All of us are starving.”
Tonton: “It’s okay my lovely daughter, it is going to be all fine if we keep hoping for the rain, Let’s sing a song and let this song save us from this sadness!”

*They stand up
*They sing a happy happy song
*Tonton plays ukulele and starts to sing

Oh Agwe! Please send us rain. We are all thirsty.
Oh Asaka! Let the land be wet.

Desiree: but Dad… still our village is suffering from the drought…
Tonton: uhh... (ton mu rook - sad face)

Lights fade away

Second scene

*Lights on to the right side of the stage
*Ben is playing piano (Raindrop - Chopin) and
*Ryan stands outside of the room
*Ryan is standing at the middle of the stage facing the right side

Daniel: (*Knock knock)
Gabriel: Come in
*Ryan enters
Daniel: Since when have you started touching those old antiques.
Chopin has always been your favorite, Prelude no. 15 op 29, “Raindrop” right?
Gabriel: A bright young man wouldn't make such mistakes. These legacies were created during 1835-1839, you were right with the title but this one is op 28.
Daniel: Those well-payed music teachers never really illustrate well.
Gabriel: Never blame on others when your father has such expectations on you. So, what’s the business?
Daniel: I heard that you have something to say.
Gabriel: Indeed. Come, sit down here. (*Pointing a chair)
Daniel: (*sits on the chair)
Gabriel: Can you recall the French gentleman Monsieur Galimar?
Daniel: Yes father. I do remember him. He has a beautiful daughter who I used to hang out with when I was a child.
Gabriel: The lady will be back in few week from France. She is almost finished her college. Monsieur Galimar and I were talking about your engagement.
Daniel: It would be my pleasure. What’s the date?
Gabriel: We are discussing about it.
Daniel: Sounds like a plan. See you later, I will be taking a ride outside, I heard that Monsieur wants to see me.
Gabriel: Good. But do not forget to drive carefully when pass the poor village. The roads are tough.
Daniel: Sure.

*Ryan exits
*Lights fade away

Third scene

*Ryan is driving in a car
*Ryan is in the center driving to the left side of the stage

Ryan: I wonder why Monsieur Galimar wants to meet me.

(Sound effect - car crash with honking)

*Ryan unconsciously lays down on the car, bleeding (at the center of the stage)
*Desiree finds him

Desiree: Bon Dieu! A car is en panne. A man is in pain! Come on! Did no one appear? How, with so terrible a crash! Did no one hear?

*She goes to Tonton (the left side of the stage)

Desiree: Papa! There is a man who is injured! Take him to our hut!
Tonton: To our hut? Where is there the room?
Desiree: He can sleep on my mat please?
Tonton: And you?
Desiree: I am fine. He is in emergency. We should take care of him!

*Tonton acts like carrying Daniel and lights fade away
*Daniel walks to the left side and lays down, lights on
*In the hut - Desiree takes care of Daniel - she puts a wet towel on Daniel’s forehead - she looks at Daniel

Tonton: But Dear, who is he? We don’t know his name, or where to find his father at this time of night. He is a complete stranger.
Desiree: I believe that he is from the city.
Tonton: Ahh… Looks quite rich. Rich men’s sons must go to the big hospital for care. They must have soft beds on which to sleep, white sheets to cover them. Then should I go to find his family? It is so dangerous if this rich boy dies here.
Desiree: (taking care of Daniel without responding him)

*Tonton gets ready to leave the house

Tonton: I will go to the city in the direction the young man had been coming from. To find his father.

*Tonton leaves the house

Desiree: He must not die. I shall not let him die. I’ll protect you. I’ll do battle, if battle need be done, with the gods, to keep you alive.

*Desiree prays
*Daniel opens his eyes
*Daniel raises his Body up

Daniel: Where am I? What happened to me?
Desiree: The God responded!
Daniel: I had dreams. Terrible dreams. Dreams that plague me. Dreams of hands reaching out for me, of dungeons opening up to me… Then I feel that touch, hear that voice, that song… Your hands hold me back. Mon Dieu! I cannot stand those other hands reaching out to me. I am not so brave. I am not...
Desiree: “I’m here. I’m here to keep you safe.”
Daniel: Who are you? Have i known you in another time? In another world? Your face… Your voice… everything is so familiar.
Desiree: I’m of this world.
Daniel: Tell me your name, beautiful lady. (touches her face)
Desiree: Please call me Desiree.
Daniel: Oh Desiree, please come to me and hold my hands.

*Desiree sits with him on the bed and holds his hands

Daniel: Now I feel much better. Would you stay with me until I go to sleep?
Desiree:(says nothing but nods and holds hands)
Daniel: How lucky I am that I met you...

*Daniel falls asleep

Fourth scene

*Gabriel plays the piano

*Tonton knocks on Gabriel’s house

No answer.

*Tonton shouts loud. Again and again.


Tonton: Hello??? Is no one there? I am here to meet Monsieur Gabriele. I just want to tell him that his son is in our village.

(*Gabriel smashes his piano.)

Gabriel : Ahhhhh too loud! Who is this poor guy? Guard! Guard!
Tonton : I hear you inside Monseiur! Please open the door!

(*Door opens)

Gabriel : What do you want peasant pig!
Tonton: Excuse me sir? I have very important thing to tell you!!
Gabriel: I do not listen nor believe what poor guy says. Get away from my hotel. This is not a place for people like you.
Tonton : Your son! He is in our village!
Gabriel : Say that again?
Tonton: Your son had an accident. He is in our village.
Gabriel: What?! (Or some kind of reaction that shows he’s suprised)

*Gabriel does not answer him and go to the left side of the stage
*Gabriel goes out of the light

Sound effect - helicopter.

Tonton: Umm excuse me sir? How do I get back to my home?

Sound effect gets quieter
*Gabriel runs into the poor village side (grasping)

Gabriel: Where’s my son? Take him to me!! I don’t want my son to stay this decrepit place!

Gabriel: My lord! What are these people doing to my dear son!

*Gabriel dispels the crowd and picks up his son

Gabriel: What have they done to you, the poor peasants are smelly and they have no manner.
Lets get out of this place.

*They left

Lights on Tonton in the middle of the stage

*Tonton is walking home

Tonton: That horrible man left me here even though I told him where his son is. I will never talk to him again!





Fifth scene

Lights on the rich side
In Gabriel’s mansion

*Gabriel enters the room and sits on a chair
*Daniel is already sitting on a chair and drinking a cup of coffee

Gabriel: Are you awake my son?

Daniel: Yes, it was such a nightmare.

Gabriel: I told you to be careful while driving, didn't I?

Daniel: Yes, but it was an accident that couldn't be prevented.

Gabriel: Fine, but stop driving by those peasants villages from now on.

Daniel: I hope so, but I think I discovered something from that village.

Gabriel: Nothing from those villages can impress my son.

Daniel: It's that peasant girl who saved me from the accident, she was such a gem, her eyes are like white marbles.

Gabriel: Don't forget who you are my son, those peasants are not reliable.

Daniel: I do realize that, I'm just appreciating her beauty. Andrea is just so much better, I don't really care about those peasants.

Gabriel: I want this conversation to end here, don't forget to meet Monsieur Galimar, he will come visit us.

Daniel: Yes dad. I just need to have some rest.


Lights on the poor side
In the village

*Tonton got back to the village from the rich town
*Tonton walks into the stage

Desiree: Dad! I was waiting for you so much!

*She runs to Tonton and hugs him

Tonton: Yes I’m back. My dear daughter, is everything alright? You seem so sad.

Desiree: Not really, not one moment in my life can be more depressed than now.

Tonton: Oh lord, what happened to you, is it because of that young man you saved?

Desiree: Indeed, Monsieur Galimer came here few days ago and took his son from me…

Tonton: Don’t be sad my daughter, he will be well cared by his own family.

Desiree: He was just too attractive to me and I really can't forget about him. Even though he left, I can't forget about everything.

Tonton: I think you are in love, I'm not able to pull you out from this, just follow your heart.

Desiree: It hurts.

*Tonton left the stage
*Desiree stands up and looks at the rich side

Desiree: I must go see him again, no matter what.






Sixth scene
Desiree starts a journey to rich town to meet Daniel
She is wearing a huge backpack.

Desiree: I can’t wait to see Daniel, He will be so proud and happy when I get there.

(*She walks to the backstage and lights off)

Narrator: One day passed.

(*She shows up by walking from the back stage)

Desiree: It feels like this forest is endless... How long is this journey going to be?
Narrator: Two days passed.

(*She takes bread out from her backpack and starts to eat )

Desiree: It’s freezing out here… I want some warm food. But it will be worth later when I finally get to Daniel’s house.
Narrator: Few days later, she gets to the rich town.
Desiree: I have never been to wealthy town like this. I believe that hotel upon the village is
where my love lives.

*Desiree walks up to the hill
*she knocks on the door

Desiree: Hello, Hello? Is anyone there? I'm here to see Monsieur Daniel!
Daniel: Oh lord where is that noise coming from. Is this the peasant girl again? Sounds like her.
Desiree: Hello, Hello?

Opens the door.

Daniel : Oh I think I know you. Have we met before?

Desiree: (shocked) Sorry?

Daniel: Ahh.. You are the girl who saved me. okay come in.

Desiree: (Smiles) Thank you.

Daniel: So.. Why did you come here? Do you want me to pay you because you saved my life?

Desiree: No.. I am here just because...

Daniel: (Laughs) Oh don’t tell me that you like me or something because that will never happen hahaha
Desiree: Sorry Monsieur…
Daniel: I don't care, now, leave if you don't mind. Or unless you are going to ask me for money.
Desiree: No, I'm not the person that you are thinking about. But I will leave since you said it, I hope I can see you again.

Desiree left

Daniel: She is such an annoying peasant, ruined my day.


Seventh Scene

*Desiree comes back to her village
*She is depressed, her clothes are dirty
*She sits on the floor

*Tonton sees her. So Surprised. Runs to her.

Tonton: Oh no… my dear… What have they done to you?
Desiree: Papa… I just… I thought I found the true love I have ever dreamed.
Tonton: and…
Desiree: Sorry papa...
Tonton: No Dear, don’t be so sad. It is going to be all fine… No more cry but only happiness will be here with your true families. Let’s stay with us.
Desiree: But he is my happiness. He is a part of me…
Tonton: My lovely daughter, I understand it is going to be a hard, I understand you lost him and want to go back somehow. My dear. We are so glad that you are back here safely. And we are so proud of you. We can sing together, we can dance together, and we can make you smile as before. That’s what we want to see not this sad Desiree.

*Desiree cries.

Tonton: Feeling better?
Desiree: Yes papa thank you…
Tonton: Thank you my lovely dear.

*Night comes. Tonton and Desiree are sleeping.
*And Desiree wakes up.
*Desiree stands up and starts to walk to the middle of the stage

Desiree: I wish this was all dream…

*She Goes closer to the road.

Car lights from rich side get brighter.
Sound effect - Loud Crashing Sounds

*That wakes Tonton up.

Tonton: Oh… Please no… This is not going to happen…

Only the corpse of the girl remained on the road.
*Tonton cries and shouts his sadness.



Eighth Scene

*Daniel is listening to one of Richard Wagner’s music
*Daniel is sitting down on a chair


Gabriel: (*Knock Knock)
Daniel: Who is this?
Gabriel: It’s me, son.
Daniel: Oh, come in please.

*Daniel turns off the music
*Gabriel leans on the piano and starts to talk to Daniel

Gabriel: Isn’t that Richard Wagner’s music?
Daniel: Yes. As you know, he is my favorite.
Gabriel: Oh really? Then did you know he is a German?
Daniel: Of course I know everything about him.
Gabriel: Didn’t he have quite a few affairs with many different girls?
Daniel: Yes he did. Even after he married with his wife, he flirts with other gentlemen’s wives. Ironically, Wagner is the one who composed the “Wedding March”.
Gabriel: Hmmm interesting. WHy do you like him?
Daniel: I admire him. He is like my role model. He is smart and brilliant. He deserves to be a playboy. By the way, are you here to tell me something, dad?
Gabriel: No, I was just wondering what you were doing. Ah, did you hear that the peasant girl from the poor village died few days ago?
Daniel: Who died?
Gabriel: The peasant girl! I think her name was Desiree. People are saying that she was hit by a car.
Daniel: Dad, I do not think we have to take care of that peasant girl.. she is none of our business.
Gabriel: You are definitely right.
Daniel: Do you remember the macarons that we ate in France? I really miss that. I asked the cook to bake the best macarons for me, but they were not the same.
Gabriel: Oh, the macarons in France was the best. Maybe we can visit France next weekend. I will tell my secretary to book a plane ticket.
Daniel: Thank you dad. I even dreamed about the macarons yesterday.
Daniel and Gabriel: Hahahahaha (laugh)

Script

Conflict

Poor vs. Rich
Good men vs. Villains

Desiree - an innocent, pure, beautiful girl
Tonton - desiree’s father
Daniel -
Gabriel -

Costumes
Personalities
Actings
Language
Colors - black and white



My group proposed to build a focus on the contrast between rich and poor.The idea was discussed during class in various ways and I think it shows the main conflict of My Love My Love the Peasant Girl. The whole story is based on a fact that different civilians are separated by social divisions. Villagers including Desiree are pure and innocent while rich people are mean and manipulating the poors.

From her journey to her death, one thing that my group noticed was the rich’s ignorance. While the main character Desiree is a pure, innocent, and naive girl, the rich people, Daniel and his father, misled her and pushed her off the cliff. Desiree had really pure thoughts and the upper-class people destroyed that piece of pureness. Among the aristocratic world, Desiree is never a part of it. She made effort to fit in but her destiny rejected her. People looked down on her and thought she did not deserve to love Daniel. In addition, Daniel's father made Tonton go back to his town which was in far away by foot instead of providing a helicopter. Daniel fooled Desiree, who was willing to give her everything for him, even her life. Therefore, we want to make a scene that focuses on the contrast of rich and poor. According to what We felt, the upper-class people will be drawn as bad guys and peasants will be drawn as victims of rich's bossing.

Because there are four people in this group, the video should be at least 20 minutes long. Nothing is sure yet, but it seems like Ryan is going to be Daniel, Ben is going to be Daniel's father, James is going to be Tonton, and Julie is going to be Desiree. We are thinking about doing about six scenes from the book. To highlight the conflict between the rich and poor, we will use costumes, languages, music, and body languages.



Script

First scene: Desiree and Tonton’s life - the poor’s life
Second scene: Daniel and Gabriel’s life - the rich
Third scene: Daniel crashes and Desiree finds him & Desiree takes care & romantic mood
Fourth scene: Tonton and Gabriel meet in the village
Fifth scene: They separate (show their thoughts - monologue and dialogue with their fathers)
Sixth scene: Daniel and Desiree meet (Daniel is a jerk)
Sevenths scene: Desiree talks to Tonton; Desiree gets hit by a car; Tonton becomes crazy
Eighths scene: Gabriel asks Daniel about Desiree’s story and Daniel does not even care

Staging

Left side - the poor
Right side - the rich
Lighting effect
Black out
Fade to black
Lights rise on character
Sound effect (freesound.org)
Car crash
Honk
Knocking sound
Music
Ben is playing piano in the second scene
James is playing ukulele in the second scene
Romantic music in the third scene
Dramatic & extreme & minor music in the seventh scene
Classical music in the last scene
Costumes
Daniel - casual dress
Desiree - a long skirts
Tonton - Ryan’s summer pajama
Gabriel - black suit with a black coat
Props
Piano
Ukulele
Chairs
Tables
Hoe

First scene

Lights rise on James and Julie
James and Julie are working on a field

Narrator (Ben): “On this island of mountains, forests, hills, and valleys is a lovely peasant village. As in most of the poor villages of the island, each hut stands in its own field on a plot of forested land deeded to the peasants at an earlier time. There is a small peasant girl named Desiree and her father, Tonton.”

Desiree: “Dad!”
Tonton: “Yes, my dear?”
Desiree: “Oh I’m so thirsty, dad, do you have water?”
Tonton: “Sorry my dear, I don’t. I know we are all thirsty.”
Desiree: “Papa I hate the weather! We are waiting for the rain for three months! The crops are not going to grow now. They need water! But we are all drying out. I have not eaten for a day and you have not eaten for three days! All of us are starving.”
Tonton: “It’s okay my lovely daughter, it is going to be all fine if we keep hoping for the rain, Let’s sing a song and let this song save us from this sadness!”

They sing a happy happy song
Tonton plays ukulele and starts to sing

Oh Agwe! Please send us rain. We are all thirsty.
Oh Asaka! Let the land be wet.

Desiree: but Dad… still our village is suffering from the drought…
Tonton: uhh... (ton mu rook - sad face)


Second scene

Ben is playing piano (Raindrop - Chopin) and Ryan stands outside of the room

Daniel: (Knock knock)
Gabriel: Come in
Daniel: Since when have you started touching those old antiques.
Chopin has always been your favorite, Prelude no. 15 op 29, “Raindrop” right?
Gabriel: A bright young man wouldn't make such mistakes. These legacies were created during 1835-1839, you were right with the title but this one is op 28.
Daniel: Those well-payed music teachers never really illustrate well.
Gabriel: Never blame on others when your father has such expectations on you. So, what’s the business?
Daniel: I heard that you have something to say.
Gabriel: Indeed. Come, sit down here. (Pointing a chair)
Daniel: (sits on the chair)
Gabriel: Can you recall the French gentleman Monsieur Galimar?
Daniel: Yes father. I do remember him. He has a beautiful daughter who I used to hang out with when I was a child.
Gabriel: The lady will be back in few week from France. She is almost finished her college with full scholarship. Monsieur Galimar and I were talking about your engagement.
Daniel: It would be my pleasure. What’s the date?
Gabriel: We are discussing about it.
Daniel: Sounds like a plan. See you later, I will be taking a ride outside, I heard that Monsieur wants to see me.
Gabriel: Good. But do not forget to drive carefully when pass the poor village. The roads are tough.
Daniel: Sure.


Third scene

Ryan is driving in a car

Ryan: I wonder why Monsieur Galimar wants to meet me.

(Sound effect - car crash with honking)

Ryan unconsciously lays down on the car, bleeding
Desiree finds him

Desiree: Bon Dieu! A car is en panne. A man is in pain! Come on! Did no one appear? How, with so terrible a crash! Did no one hear?

She goes to Tonton

Desiree: Papa! There is a man who is injured! Take him to our hut!
Tonton: To our hut? Where is there the room?
Desiree: He can sleep on my mat please?
Tonton: And you?
Desiree: I am fine. He is in emergency. We should take care of him!

Tonton carries him without answering her.
In the hut - Desiree takes care of Daniel - she puts a wet towel on Daniel’s forehead - she looks at Daniel

Tonton: But Dear, who is he? We don’t know his name, or where to find his father at this time of night. He is a complete stranger.
Desiree: I believe that he is from the city.
Tonton: Ahh… Looks quite rich. Rich men’s sons must go to the big hospital for care. They must have soft beds on which to sleep, white sheets to cover them. Then should I go to find his family? It is so dangerous if this rich boy dies here.
Desiree: (taking care of Daniel without responding him)

Tonton gets ready to leave the house

Tonton: I will go to the city in the direction the young man had been coming from. To meet his father.

Tonton leaves the house

Desiree: He must not die. I shall not let him die. I’ll protect you. I’ll do battle, if battle need be done, with the gods, to keep you alive.

Desiree prays
Daniel opens his eyes

Daniel: Where am I? What happened to me?
Desiree: The God responded!
Daniel: I have dreams. Terrible dreams. Dreams that plague me. Dreams of hands reaching out for me, of dungeons opening up to me… Then I feel that touch, hear that voice, that song… Your hands hold me back. Bon Dieu! I cannot stand those other hands reaching out to me. I am not so brave. I am not brave.
Desiree: “I’m here. I’m here to keep you safe.”
Daniel: Who are you? Have i known you in another time? In another world? Your face… Your voice… Haunts me.
Desiree: I’m of this world.
Daniel: What is your name, beautiful lady?
Desiree: Please call me Desiree.
Daniel: Oh Desiree, please come to me and hold my hands.

Desiree sits with him on the bed and holds his hands

Daniel: Now I feel much better. Would you stay with me until I go to sleep?
Desiree:(says nothing but nods and holds hands)

Daniel falls asleep

Fourth scene

Gabriel plays the piano

Tonton knocks on Gabriel’s house

No answer.

Tonton shouts loud. Again and again.


Tonton: Hello??? Is no one there? I am here to meet Monsieur Gabriele. I just want to tell him that his son is in our village.

(Gabriel smashes his piano.)

Gabriel : Ahhhhh too loud! Who is this poor guy? Guard! Guard!
Tonton : I hear you inside Monseiur! Please open the door!

(Door opens)

Gabriel : What do you want peasant pig!
Tonton: Excuse me sir? I have very important thing to tell you!!
Gabriel: I do not listen nor believe what poor guy says. Get away from our village. This is not a place for people like you.
Tonton : Your son! He is in our village!
Gabriel : Say that again?
Tonton: Your son had an accident. He is in our village.

Gabriel does not answer him and go to his helicopter.


Gabriel takes the helicopter to the village

Tonton: Umm excuse me sir? How do I get back to my home?

Helicopter flies away.

Helicopter arrives at the village

Gabriel: Where’s my son? Take him to me!! I don’t want my son to stay this kitsch place!

Gabriel: My lord! What are these people doing to my dear son!

Gabriel dispels the crowd and picks up his son

Gabriel: What have they done to you, the poor peasants are smelly and they have no manner.
Lets get out of this place.

They left

Tonton is walking home

Tonton: That horrible man left me there even though I told him where his son is. I would never talk to him again!





Fifth scene

Tonton comes back to the village.
Tonton talks about what happened in the village and desiree tells that gabriel took daniel with his helicopter
Daniel’s condition gets much better and show his real life

In Gabriel’s mansion

Gabriel: Are you awake my son?

Daniel: Yes, it was such a nightmare.

Gabriel: I told you to be careful while driving, didn't I?

Daniel: Yes, but it was an accident that couldn't be prevented.

Gabriel: Fine, but stop driving by those peasants villages from now on.

Daniel: I hope so, but I think I discovered something from that village.

Gabriel: Nothing from those villages can impress my son.

Daniel: It's that peasant girl who saved me from the accident, she was such a gem, her eyes are like white marbles.

Gabriel: Don't forget who you are my son, those peasants are not reliable.

Daniel: I do realize that, I'm just appreciating her beauty. Andrea is just so much better, I don't really care about those peasants.

Gabriel: I want this conversation to end here, don't forget to meet Monsieur Galimar, he will come visit us.

Daniel: Yes dad. I just need to have some rest.


In the village
Tonton got back to the village from the rich town
Desiree: Dad! I was waiting for you so much!
(She runs to Tonton and hugs him)
Tonton: Yes I’m back. My dear daughter, is everything alright? You seem so sad.

Desiree: Not really, not one moment in my life can be more depressed than now.

Tonton: Oh lord, what happened to you, is it because of that young man you saved?

Desiree: Indeed, Monsieur Galimer came here few days ago and took his son from me…

Tonton: Don’t be sad my daughter, he will be well cared by his own family.

Desiree: He was just too attractive to me and I really can't forget about him. Even though he left, I can't forget about everything.

Tonton: I think you are in love, I'm not able to pull you out from this, just follow your heart.

Desiree: It hurts.

Tonton left the stage

Desiree: I must go see him again, no matter what.






Sixth scene
Desiree starts a journey to rich town to meet Daniel
She is wearing a huge backpack.

Desiree: I can’t wait to see Daniel, He will be so proud and happy when I get there.

(She walks to the backstage and lights off)
One day passed.
(She shows up by walking from the back stage)

Desiree: It feels like this forest is endless... How long is this journey going to be?

Two days passed.
(She takes bread out from her backpack and starts to eat )

Desiree: It’s freezing out here… I want some warm food. But it will be worth later when I finally get to Daniel’s house.

Few days later, she gets to the rich town.

Desiree: I have never been to wealthy town like this. I believe that hotel upon the village is
where my love lives.

Desiree walks up to the hill

Desiree: Hello, Hello? Is anyone there? I'm here to see Monsieur Daniel!

Daniel: Oh lord where is that noise coming from. Is this the peasant girl again? Sounds like her.

Desiree: Hello, Hello?

Opens the door.

Daniel : Oh I think I know you. Have we met before?

Desiree: (shocked) Sorry?

Daniel: Ahh.. You are the girl who saved me. okay come in.

Desiree: (Smiles) Thank you.

Daniel: So.. Why did you come here? Do you want me to pay you because you saved my life?

Desiree: No.. I am here just because...

Daniel: (Laughs) Oh don’t tell me that you like me or something because that will never happen hahaha

Desiree: Sorry Monsieur…

Daniel: I don't care, now, leave if you don't mind. Or unless you are going to ask me for money.

Desiree: No, I'm not the person that you are thinking about. But I will leave since you said it, I hope I can see you again.

Desiree left

Daniel: She is such an annoying peasant, ruined my day.


Seventh Scene

Desiree comes back to her village
She is depressed, her clothes are dirty

Tonton sees her. So Surprised. Runs to her.

Tonton: Oh no… my dear… What have they done to you?
Desiree: Papa… I just… I thought I found the true love I have ever dreamed.
Tonton: and…
Desiree: Sorry papa...
Tonton: No Dear, don’t be so sad. It is going to be all fine… No more cry but only happiness will be here with your true families. Let’s stay with us.
Desiree: But he is my happiness. He is a part of me…
Tonton: My lovely daughter, I understand it is going to be a hard, I understand you lost him and want to go back somehow. My dear. We are so glad that you are back here safely. And we are so proud of you. We can sing together, we can dance together, and we can make you smile as before. That’s what we want to see not this sad Desiree.

Desiree cries.

Tonton: Feeling better?
Desiree: Yes papa thank you…
Tonton: Thank you my lovely dear.

Night comes. Tonton and Desiree are sleeping.
And Desiree wakes up.

Desiree: I wish this was all dream…

She Goes closer to the road. Car lights from rich side get brighter.
Loud Crashing Sounds

That wakes Tonton up.

Tonton: Oh… Please no… This is not going to happen…

Only the corpse of the girl remained on the road.
Tonton cries and shouts his sadness.



Eighth Scene

Daniel is listening to one of Richard Wagner’s music

Gabriel: (Knock Knock)
Daniel: Who is this?
Gabriel: It’s me, son.
Daniel: Oh, come in please.

Daniel turns off the music

Gabriel: Isn’t that Richard Wagner’s music?
Daniel: Yes. As you know, he is my favorite.
Gabriel: Oh really? Then did you know he is a German?
Daniel: Of course I know everything about him.
Gabriel: Didn’t he have quite a few affairs with many different girls?
Daniel: Yes he did. Even after he married with his wife, he flirts with other gentlemen’s wives. Ironically, Wagner is the one who composed the “Wedding March”.
Gabriel: Hmmm interesting. WHy do you like him?
Daniel: I admire him. He is like my role model. He is smart and brilliant. He deserves to be a playboy. By the way, are you here to tell me something, dad?
Gabriel: No, I was just wondering what you were doing. Ah, did you hear that the peasant girl from the poor village died few days ago?
Daniel: Who died?
Gabriel: The peasant girl! I think her name was Desiree. People are saying that she was hit by a car.
Daniel: Dad, I do not think we have to take care of that peasant girl.. she is out of our business.
Gabriel: You are right.
Daniel: Do you remember the macarons that we ate in France? I really miss that. I asked the cook to bake the best macarons for me, but they were not the same.
Gabriel: Oh, the macarons in France was the best. Maybe we can visit France next weekend. I will tell my secretary to book a plane ticket.
Daniel: Thank you dad. I even dreamed about the macarons yesterday.
Daniel and Gabriel: Hahahahaha (laugh)

Group work lists

Julie James Ryan Ben

Script

First scene: Desiree and Tonton’s life - the poor’s life 

Second scene: Daniel and Gabriel’s life - the rich

Third scene: Daniel crashes and Desiree finds him & Desiree takes care & romantic mood 

Fourth scene: Tonton and Gabriel meet in the village

Fifth scene: They separate (show their thoughts - monologue and dialogue with their fathers)

Sixth scene: Daniel and Desiree meet (Daniel is a jerk) 

Sevenths scene: Desiree talks to Tonton; Desiree gets hit by a car; Tonton becomes crazy

Eighths scene: Gabriel asks Daniel about Desiree’s story and Daniel does not even care

Staging

-Left side - the poor

-Right side - the rich 

-Lighting effect 

  Black out

  Fade to black

  Lights rise on character

-Sound effect (freesound.org) 

  Car crash

  Honk 

-Music

  Ben is playing piano in the second scene

  James is playing ukulele in the second scene 

  Romantic music in the third scene

  Dramatic & extreme & minor music in the seventh scene

  Classical music in the last scene 

-Costumes

  Daniel - casual dress

  Desiree - a long skirts 

  Tonton - Ryan’s summer pajama 

  Gabriel - black suit with a black coat 

-Props

  Piano

  Ukulele

  Chairs

  Tables