my own play- possible idea

A father wants to reconnect with his teenage son whom he has never talked to.
The father left his son's mother when the boy was a toddler. He is a distant father who sends a check every month and sometimes remembers to send cards. If he sends presents- they're never wrapped. The father doesn't have any close friends but spends a lot his time drinking coffee at the local cafe and talking with the other people who can sit in a cafe all day. He knows the cafe crowd well, but is critical of their lifestyles, failed relationships, and catty behavior. (He of course, doesn't realize that he himself exhibits the exact behavior he abhors)
The event that piques the father's interest in seeing his son is a newspaper article about his son winning an award. The aricle talks about which college the son has gotten into and how he is sure to succeed at any of them.

Father is much richer than his son though the checks he sends each month don't reflect that. He doesn't have to pay child support because he never married the mother.

The son thinks he can afford to go to any college that he got in to and is self-absorbed with the end of high school and trying to pick a college.

The father contacts the son and they meet. The son doesn't particular love the father and the father doesn't know how to build a new relationship with his son, so their conversation is awkward and strained at times. The father keeps trying because he has been thinking over his life and wishes he could have stayed in contact with his son. He wants to find out more about his son and be a part of his life.

The son doesn't understand or particularly invite his father's new interest in him. The son holds it against the father that he has money and he and his mom don't.

The son then finds out from his mother that he can't afford any of his top schools and will have to settle for more affordable choices.

the son does not want to ask his father for help (his father could fund his entire college education to his top school) because he doesn't want to be indebted, but he really wants to go to his top choice college.

The son asks his father for the money the next time they meet and the father is taken aback. The father doesn't feel that his son going to a top choice college should be how his money is spent. The father sees nothing wrong with the more affordable colleges and refuses to give the money.

The deadline to pay a deposit at a college is approaching, so the son isssues an ulimatum to his father: either the father pays for his college or the father should remove himself from the son's life and stop trying to get to know his son while not providing the son with the benefits of having a wealthy father.

Islam talk for extra credit

I went to the talk by Dr. Shabana Mir on Thursday, October 25. I went into the talk not knowing what she was going to talk about other than the broad topic of interpreting the Koran. Coming out to the talk, I knew exactly what her point was, which was a refreshing difference form how many speakers dance around a central message. She talked about the prominent place that woman scholars had in the Koran and how over time, their became fewer scholars. She addressed this topic with the intent of proving how people today who claim to want to go back to traditional roles of women actually do not want to go back to the original tradition of the Koran times. The new ideas I learned about Islam were that the times closer to when the profit lived were considered holier. She proclaimed herself as a traditionalist, but one in the correct sense of the word- wanting to emulate the times closest to the prophet. Also, I learned about Muslim woman scholars, Ayshe and various others, who were called upon after the prophet's death to make religious judgments and decisions.

I didn't find much that I could directly apply to understanding the milieu of Roar, but the talk did help me understand the different distinctions between Muslims (traditionalist, modern) which is made mostly on the basis of how each Muslim believes the Koran and the religious laws should be interpreted.

Superman

I went to see It's a bird, it's a plane, it's superman: the musical last week and I had mixed thoughts on it. Maybe I didn't love it because I'm just not a big fan of musicals in general, but I think that there were some elements that I didn't like beyond the cheesy 60's dance theme that pervaded the entire play. The play didn't invite me to care about the characters- Clark Kent had problems to contrast the great life of Superman, but his personality wasn't developed enough so that I would feel empathy for him. None of the characters really sparked my interest so the play became more of a sequence of neat design elements strung together to create a spectacle that was fun to watch but wasn't moving or memorable.

But- I can talk favorably about the design elements! I really liked the backdrop of the the cartoon strip that had a different square highlighted in each scene to show how the play correlated to the original American Superhero. The other major cartoon reference was of the actors on the structure that looked like a cartoon strip- It reinforced the cartoon while allowing the action to progress.

The dances really stood out as crazy productions and highlighted the great dancers in the cast. I felt mixed about the singing as a part of the play. I felt that it often had the purpose of allowing the actor to get downstage of the cartoon strip background so that the set behind it could be changed. The evil docter had a great sequence in font of it- but his singing monologues to the audience seemed slightly repetitive.

In all, I don't want to disrespect anyone who was a part of it- maybe I would have just chosen a different musical to put up and that was the director's choice that I disagree with.