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.