Last post on this blog.

For the finally project we did in our class, although I feel like it could been worse and there were few mistake that we made during the performance, but I still assume that we did a great work.

With the light and the sound effect, the stage change between before and after the sunset become more reasonable then with out them, although we set where people should enter or exit at the last minute, which result in many mistake that we made in the last two scene. Both Miranda and john exit the wrong way. But the stage change was simple and useful in the play which easily let the audience know there are two kind of the stage and people act differently in different stage. So with those information I assume it was very easy to know the difference before and after the sun set. The other change we made to shows the flash back was the cloth change. All of as bring the winter cloth with us, which made audience easy to see the different of their dress.

I also think we made the character more clear to the audiences, like “peter” was more like a boyfriend of Miranda’s mother, not a random friend or doctor, and also clearly shows that he end in death because the flu, which kill many people after then sun set. Peter’s death make the whole play more hopeless and also made Miranda wish to go to the town more reasonable: because that she was the only hope to survive although that was way too risky. Also, Miranda shows how important the food are, john also was the only one who eat two meal a day. But I few a little bit of disappointment about we delete the line about the fire department was no longer work.

The mistake that we made in the play. We did not set the stage center at the center of the stage so there were a little bit to the left in the vidicon, also the other mistake that I already mention was people exit to the wrong side few time, and that would make some misunderstand to the audience. The other mistake was the winter cloth were not “winter” enough, which were more like autumn. But because in summer most of us will not stage winter cloth so it was able to forgiven.

After all I am glade that we went though the finally project and close this one year IB class with a good work. We took IB exam already and spend enough time struggle on every IB project we have done as an IB student. Although even at the end of the year I still assume that I could do better if I was in the b period class which will make me more talktive and have better cooperation with my group. One of the reason is I am not good enough to wrote, plan, stage or perform in any of the project we did this year. And I understand that is the reason I could not go to the AP lit class.

 

The hopeless earth

In the scene we played during class we shows some confusion in our play, the flash back are the second scene, the fourth scene, and the sixth scene. And the other confusion that we had was who is my character. I agree we still have a lot to work on, but I feel the group work was good and we did have a lot of progress during other days. I assume a play that without lighting change and sound effect is not a complete play. What we had for the first draft was the brave draft which with out the sound and the light effect, we even did not have the setting of them for now, so to understand this play was hard and required a lot of reading of the orgian book.

The book was about the story that after a sunset the sun never went up, every one living in the city that full of snow and darkness. My character was a doctor who also is the boy friend of the mother of the family, he always come visit the family after the father leave them, after the sun set he visit the family more frequently to give them advice to survive. Both of his daughter died during the flu and himself also died after few days. So we add in a new scene talk about the kids did not wish to get the flu and they will feel hopeless when they got the flu, because the boy friend of their mum who is an doctor got the flu and finally killed by they flu, which makes them feel disappointment when they found out that the visitor of their family has been killed by the illness and also they will give the hopeness emotion to the audience.

We use the flash back to show that the compare the life they once had and the life after then sun set, they used to have TV and watch football together, but now they even need to save food for living and let the younger brother eat two meal a day, but rest of them only eat one meal a day. The older brother was once a successful collage student that leave with the love and honor, but after he come back he was the man who tried his best to survive with the entire family.

The other thing that we did about the play we show that the stage dose not change much but they still need to use the limited sources to survive. That also reminded the audience that they are till 16 years old young kids who are childish and always has disagreement with the family. The younger brother was only 14 years old and he need to be the strong one of the family, and the only girl as the main character she need to go to town and looking for supplies. They have a life they they should not have and they did what they can tiring to survive.

Few Concerns

The last show of then school year, which named comedy tonight is a group about multiple comedies. I went there Friday and I was very amazed by the lighting control and the hard work that those actor did during practice, those are very beautiful. I specially like the morning meeting one, the imitation was almost real. But what I really worried about was the content of few comedies, which point at several different nations, countries, and religions which may made the student who share the culture, come form those countries, belong to those nation, or have those religions very awkward or shamed. 

In the first comedy, john jiang, who known as donald trump who shout out he will drive those Muslim and those Mexicans out of US, which indeed Donald Trump said. But the strong political tendency will hurt the students or teachers who think the other way. And speak about “drive those Muslims and Mexicans out of US” may hurt the feeling of the Muslim and Mexican students in CA. Because more or less CA is still an international school. 

And the other comedy which I was worried about the content was the one that William An played as a man who lost every thing he had in one morning, which is so absurdity that even make people feel bad about what happened, and for this comedy was about laugh about someone’ s pain and the absurdity that people always not wish happened on themselves. So I wander should we have a comedy like this in the play.

And the last one was about the swan, although I got some idea that this play was wrote base on a real story happened in CA, which i hope what I assumed was wrong because I could not be the only one who knew this story or the only who figure this out. So a strong story like this will easily point to a student who was once involved in the story that happened in the real life which is really unfair and cure to that student.

Although I made a lot of negative evaluation but I still think the show was great at some point, may be the best show that ever played in the Black Box.

life as we knew it

About the final project we are working on which is a novel named "life as we Knew it" is about a story after the disaster which block the sun an kind of make the world became a wasteland. Under the background like that we have five character which are the mum who is the only adult of this family and tried her best to make sure all of her family can survive from this disaster. Miranda, the main character who is only 16 years old, two of her brother, the older one jonny was a collage student who return in the middle of the science, the younger brother who is the “last hope” of this family and the boy friend of the mum. In this play we tried our best to show the “hopeless and the conflict between the family” which is hard to pretend we are living in the wasteland and we need to try our best to survive.

There are eight scene in the play and the end of those scene is not the end of the book which is hopeful and bright, the scene end in a kind of dark spot when Miranda try to go to the town and find supplies which under the condition like that was basicily tried to kill herself. In our scene the conflict between families was mostly about food and water which is important at that time. The family wish to save the little brother by letting him have two meal a day but the rest of the family have only one meal a day, but the kids will became hungry and find everything they could eat. The family had conflict about peter who visit them and ask him for the supplies and medic support from him. 

Final project A childhood memory

For my final proposal i wish to do the “empty house” form the novel wrote by Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle <Sherlock Holmes>.

I choose this book because this book was the first western novel I ever read as a child in china, although now this book seem like popular then 10 years ago but I still wish to rebuild this scene form my childhood memory although that may incomplete or got confused in few details. Form this book I first learned about the whodunit so I wish to do this book for my final project. 

The Sherlock Holmes contain many story of how did Sherlock Holmes shove many cases during his life in England, but nether him or Dr. John Hamish Watson I like the most although they are both active brave and wise, just like the hero for every child, but I liked Inspector G. Lestrade more then those two main characters because although this decive was old and not as wise as Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, but he would show up every time when the main character needed and this made him as the hero who will finally send the guity to the Justice.

Empty house was the scene happened after Sherlock Holmes confirm dead in scene “The Adventure of the Final Problem” I choose this part of the book because this part was a new start for the book in some way, and this scene did not require many people act, only four of them and the body is enough, and people can act more then two characters in the same time so we may just need three people in the act because there one three of then show up in the same time. The empty house was about to solve a case which one man was murdered in his home with out make any sounds or let any one notice, the bullet shot though the window and killed that man with out making any sound, and this is also the scene when Sherlock Holmes came back form the “death”

After he has been travel for few years and came back to england. The stage would be setting like 19 century in English as best as we could do and this may requires all the characters use british english while they speak to show the audience that they were live in British. I wishInspector G. Lestrade have the Scottish accent but even I do not now what did that sound like.

This scene did not require much light effect and the sound effect also, so this can set just the bone chiller and have the same rain effect form that, also the other thing that require is two time of the stage change which can be just simple change the setting of the stage will show the audience that was two different place. So this was the basic setting for the finial project that I wish to accomplished in the end of the year.

IB test

In this first IB test that I ever take i feel like I did fine on the test one and feel a little bit lost on the second one. The IB test was different then I thought, which should be more casual. This test was almost the same we learned although we dislike the book and had a hard time to understand and memorize the poems and the author’s name. In the test I feel like we were given too much time for the work we should do, i feel like if I work with out any stop for relax i could finished the test in about one hour. And the time setting for the test is also weird, the test time is one and half hour and after one hour we may leave but we can not leave in last 15 min. So if we finished sooner then it one hour and half then we spend 15 min to review what we wrote then we need sit 15 min for nothing. But the test rules and directions was easy to understand and follow, that make sence then many ACT and SAT test. The first test was easy then I thought, it was basicly about the understanding of the book and some stage and act questions. What I did was simply spend half my paper to talk about what my understanding of the book and use the last half to stage and talk about the act directions and drew a stage setting at the end of it. I use to drew the stage by computer and this is the first time i drew the stage setting by pen so I may not did as well as the first time. But the second test i spend about two paragraph talk about the background information and I feel that maybe too much.

 

Light

The curious incident of the dog in the nighttime is a play that we went to see at board way at Wednesday. I have to say the profession of the actor and the light show me how different the Broadway is. The light was remarkable which shows ever thing that happening on the stage. Although I set at very back of the theater I still can see what happening when the actors moves, and even what the thoughts. In the plays I have seem, none of them shows how did the characters think when they thinking, and what emotions they had. That really helped me understand  the characters by telling what's in their head. But although the lights was fantastic, it made me headache after the show. 

  The other thing I wish to talk about is the professional actors was clear better then the unprofessional actors by using the lines and movements to shows who they are. By those movements and lines made me easier to understand why they did what they did. 

 The character I liked the most was Christopher. Even though I still insist has some kind of dysphrenia. But the actor did a good job by showing the part that he gets break down by anything. And where did not know what he should do he will always follow the girl who lead him. 

In class writing

In the pome nature is what we see there is only one stanza. This pome talk about the nature as " Nature is what we see" &" Nature is what we hear " use personal feelings to describe the nature But those two lines are the only lines that talk about how did the author feel about the nature. The other line mostly just give the example of the great creature of the nature.  And what she feel as a human compare to the nature. 

The only thing that this poem talk about was the human compare to the nature which shows how small and how weak human is. The author use the nature to shows that human kind know to few to understand and learn the nature. 

In class writing

Culture difference The culture they learned form their religion and family are not the same as western world. Who calls anyone civilized?

Family what she remembered form her family. my father would say. And he’d prove it,

Love the love between families and the love that connects people together. My grandmother’s voice says nothing can surprise her.

Stage set

The Whale Rider

Form the novel “whale rider” I learned that is book is a basic book about the movement of the women right which happened in New zealand. If this book would be performed I assumed that I will focus on the culture and the religion that they have in the island, which is the background of the story. Although this book told us a good story and how did a common girl fight for her own right, but after I read this book I still feel like the characters are not very clear about their personalities. But the characters was important such as the Papa Apirana, Kahu, Nanny Flowers, and the Bull Whales. They are the basic of the entire story, pap Apirana was the leader of the nation who is the sample of the right of man, he was powerful but obstinate, he still refuse his granddaughter lead the nation or have connection with the whales. Nanny flowers was the sample of the female in the nation who was old and wise but do not have the right as a male, although she was more respect then others in the nation, her gender still became the problem which stop her from influence the entire nation.

For costuming the characters all those cloth should both have the sign of morden and also shows the tradition of their nation, and as the leaders family they should have tatto on their body, Kahu as the girl who fight for her own right I will put her in the most tradition cloth to show that she is the inheritor of her grandfather, but other characters such as Uncle Rawiri should dress like an morden people who was cool and well effect by the western culture. Papa Apirana should be a old man who have a large shirt on, he looks old but that should not make him looks weak, he should be an powerful and imperatorial old man who lead the entire nation.The point that was to make a difference between them and the other living outside but this different should not be the difference between civilized and primeval. 

  For staging of the play, I would have a small house in the center and all the in door play was in the house, and there should be beach out side of the stage around the house. 

The hard part of this play was the magical realism and how to show the unequal between man and woman on the island, this part mostly appear on the conversation between people, but how did the actors act was also important. The magical realism was hard because the stage was limit and how should people know there was a whale or other things, mostly I would use the background music and sound effect to shows the state of those whales and the people. 

This may be help to shows the magical realism and the society condition on that island, which is hard to follow the book,  and bring together the entire story.

Story teller

When I first saw the musical I can not say that I am able to tell I like it or not. I always feel a little bit hard to understand or comment a musical. May be that because I am not good at music. But I think this play is better then the last one, and it is the first time I have seen that there was so many people involve in this play. There were more then 15 people on the stage and more back crew number, music crew and tec crew. I went to the play on Friday, the opening night, and I would say that was the best opening night I ever seen in 3 years.

Because that I already read the book and discuss enough about what was happening in the book so I will write about the change that this musical made and I like them or not. As long as I started the book I still assume that papa gue is a good man, not a ban man at least. The death is nature, and what the god did was just doing his job- took everyone who was live long enough. But in both the book and this musical papa gue was a bad guy who wish to stop those young lover get together. But when Desere was died he also shows his respect although he once black mailed her to kill Denial. As Denial, the actor did a great job that showing that Denial did not love Desere because she saved his life but because she is beautiful enough. When his father and mother disagree with his marriage he turn to Anderia right away. And after Desere dead she turn in to a tree that was the simple of the compromise of the rich and the poor, when their children could love each other and they can share the island. And even at then end the poor also show tolerant and forgiveness to the rich, compare with “Even a rich some time dies.”

The music was another enough part of the musical, I really like the music although in the opening night the music crew maybe made a few mistake that make the actor get confused, but the back ground music was remarkable and beautiful. The poor people seems very nature, all about the earth, the ocean, the bird and love, but when we get to the rich city the music was different, very modern the few parts that Anderia sings I feel like that was the music in this century. The Tec Crew also did a great job then the last one, they use the light very smoothly and peacefully, which made us can clearly understand the change of the stage but also did not get flashed right in the eye.

After all I will say that I love this musical and I do think every one of the actor did their best, and I should thank them for this great play.

Oral presentation text -- first draft

In our sien I played the gods, but as the human kind of god. I played a Fortune teller who is the Agwe Asaka and Erzulie at the same time, in this character the only thing that he wish was lead Desere to a good life and married Denial. At the same time I also played Papa gue the god of death, what he want was control the fate and keep Desere away form Denial with all cost, just like what he did in the book when he tried to take Denial’s life, the only thing that he want is stop the other gods and took Denial’s life. He is the guard and Andrea, Denial’s fiance, who tried to stop Desere enter the city and try to black mail her to kill Denial and betray her at last. 

Although in the book the gods did not really care about what happened in the earth and Papa gue just doing his job, but still rest of those three gods did not wish to let Desere end in death. In our performance we show that point with more clear and extreme idea which just make the gods help and stop her personally. We set our performance in to the morden time which did not change much form the book, but we also change a lot of things which like Denial did not really get into a car accident and Desere thinks that Denial love her was just her hallucination. But those will make the end more reasonable when Denial finally choose Andrea instead of Desere just because he was not really care about that relationship with her but just playing around. So at the end he choose to send guard after Desere to make her leave the city. We also change Andrea’s character in to more dangerous and evil which shows that she was papa gue himself, so she black mailed Desere and leave her no choose, when Desere has to kill Denial no matter she did it or not then end must be an tragedy.

In out costome and stage we did not plan a lot because of the resources limit, we only did black out a few times and we did a little bit of costome change for the fortune teller because as a normal person who live in the morden time they do not dress in fancy clothes very often. Although we did some costome change for Desere because we use a shoes which is fancy enough could please  the people in the city. The stage did not change much, mostly we use a desk and chairs would be enough for all our will, and most our set expect the guard part were all in-door. So when we need to change we just use black out and that will be all the things that we need. We had the set about the light change before but because the resources limit we could not do did in our performance.

Blog 14

In the part that we decide we will perform was kind of the short version of the original play which set up the background in the modern although the original set is in the modern time. In our setting we did not put much attention on the gods who will effect what happened down on the earth, but we assume everything that planted just happened like they should be. So there are only few gods appear in the play who are Awe and Papa Gue who wish to give the girl he protect a good life with denial and the bad guy who wish to destroy everything that girl loved. 

In our setting which we spent a lot of our time came out this topic and use the setting we used. We use Deseré as a factory worker who lost both of her presents. Denial is the owner of the entire factory and he never came here before. When his father let he came to the factory he lost and meet Desere. We did not wish to make the car accident part again because that are not those things that happened in everyday. After that Desere go meet a Fortune teller who is actually Awe himself. After she get the fate that she should married to Denial and have a good life in the city she start her way to the City which is the area belong the rich and them are not welcome to the poor.

In our way which we wish the audience to see was this may happened in the real life and this is the short version of the original play although we did not keep that many details of the original play. As I played the two gods my goal was show that those two gods are different, one of them was tried to help Desere get her dream, no matter the love or the dream job. The other gods wish to stop Desere form her dream who is also the guard of the city which did not wish Desere get in to the city. Some time I failed to show that those two gods are different between each other, other times I always forget that I am playing a god and did not show that some idiosyncrasy that a god should have. While I play those characters I shall show both idiosyncrasy of gods and human, and different human should speak differently and act differently when they meet Desere. I assume that this is the good part I did so far, a fortune teller is clear different then a guard of the entire city, and also different then a girl who is going to married the most rich boy in the city, Desere means different things to them and when they meet Desere they shall act differently and even speak in different accent to show that they were from different level of the society. In a place that everyone speak french a fortunr teller shall not become the high class of the society.

The Reflect of My scenework

Our scence was not have a easy start at first. Our group keep getting sick and have problems to deal with. So we did not have enough time for this scene. We finished our stage today so we did not perpare enough for our stage. SO this is what we need to prove on because that we did not fully discuess about our staging and blocking on the stage. In the first scene the stage was simple which only have two character on the stage and denial could came in in any door and always seem right. But the second part about the fortune teller should let both of them show their face to the audience and which is hard if two of them face each other. And as we perform that we always be too quite about that part. The third part of the play which in set in the entrance of the city of New Haiti about a guard stop her form enter in the city because that she was a poor girl in the lower class, I assume that guard should have a desk and when the other god make he leave the entrance of the city he should leave into the city instead of outside of city. And we should add the part of how did she get in the city and how did she find Daniel’s building. The only describe of the building is the tallest building in the city which should add more describtion about how beautiful the building is and why is the building is the tallest of the city. Next part of this play is how did Daniel think about her as a girl friend, and I love that part when Daniel said that “she should believe the right thing” which is him leading her live as a higher class and abandon her after his girl friend came back. This part’s blocking is good and simple, the next part when Andrea came in and say that she forgive Daniel and will marry him we did not clear about where should Andrea came in. 

I also watch the scene other group have and I really like Jone’s group which about have one man play all of four gods and have a fight between each other and this idea will really makes the whole play interesting. Although the move between characters was too quick to understand at first. The back ground was about a car crush which let Desere lost her memory and assume that Daniel was the one who lost his memory.

In the scene my character’s analysis was hard to show to the audience but all of them share one goal which is keep Desere away form Daniel. The Fortune teller give her the fake information ,the Guard stop her form inter in the city Andrea wish to let her kill Daniel, the man she loved, only because she could have another chance to get back Daniel and marry him.

Props/ costumes

Props/ costumes 

Comb io

Sewing kit 

Fancy shoes

Desk

Chair

Raggedy clothes  

Fancy dresses

Suitcase 

Blanket 

Fabrics

Scissors 

Fancy guy clothes

Fortune teller costume and set

Mask

Crystal ball