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.
Monday, November 5, 2007
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.
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.
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.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
design lab blog
Imagine that a play has been written about you, and you are designing a costume for the actor playing you. What sort of outfit would this actor wear and why? What clues would the costume give about your personality? Be sure to mention the fabric, color, and length of the garments. This prompt can also relate to the monodrama you've created. If you are reenacting an event from your past, what would you have worn at that time, and why?
The outfit would be modern. I want the costume to be athletic to accommodate the movments of the character playing me, since I'm very active. However, I don't want the costume to make the character's gender ambiguous, since I am neither transsexual nor androgynous. The colors incorporated in the costume would be warm colors to convey a general optimism and happiness, but not particularly flashy colors, to convey that I'm not the center of attention. The costume would have a coral top, to convey a youthful feeling with the sort-of pink and a confidence and loudness with the sort-of orange. Also, in staying with the period, my character would wear stretch blue jeans to accommodate the actress' movements and to fit in with the other teenager characters. The shirt would be short-sleeved and t-shirt material to convey un-self conciousness and not caring particularely about my outer appearance. Yet, the t-shirt would be tight-fitting to be subtly feminine.
The outfit would be modern. I want the costume to be athletic to accommodate the movments of the character playing me, since I'm very active. However, I don't want the costume to make the character's gender ambiguous, since I am neither transsexual nor androgynous. The colors incorporated in the costume would be warm colors to convey a general optimism and happiness, but not particularly flashy colors, to convey that I'm not the center of attention. The costume would have a coral top, to convey a youthful feeling with the sort-of pink and a confidence and loudness with the sort-of orange. Also, in staying with the period, my character would wear stretch blue jeans to accommodate the actress' movements and to fit in with the other teenager characters. The shirt would be short-sleeved and t-shirt material to convey un-self conciousness and not caring particularely about my outer appearance. Yet, the t-shirt would be tight-fitting to be subtly feminine.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Antigone set design
Using the theme you and your group chose to highlight in your collage, write a paragraph or two describing how you would transfer the images incorporated with that theme into a set design. You can describe the overall set design or focus on an important item that would be on stage. (For example, if your theme involved chaos vs. order, and you put a picture of a prison on your collage, how would you represent that prison on stage?) How do these set elements reflect your theme?
In my group's collage, the whole conflict of Antigone versus the king is based upon the blood and bones of the war. In the collage, we represented this by gray and red paper squares littering the bottom of the paper. For a set, I would actually want to have dried skeletons w/clothing and other artifacts that would clearly label them as recently dead. I want the stage to be littered with theses bodies, so that the entire play takes place with the characters walking around them to act, literally have the war directly influence every action on stage. I think that the war is a big theme in antigone- it is chaos (bloody killing on the battlefield) and order (the systematic and historical acceptance of war as a way to solve differences). Antigone wants to bury her brother and thus complete the god's end to a war, whereas the King wants to enforce his law, which is the government end of a war- a new government & its regulations. I don't know if this would be possible, but if the performance was set in a small theater, I would want a stench, like rotting flesh- or just a disgusting smell that can't be labelled as anything known (like rotten milk) to permeate the performance space. For practical reasons, I would want it to be a smell that actors could breath and smell for the entirety of rehearsal time and the performance- but one that when the audience walked out of the theater- they would wonder how they could have stood the smell for so long.
My group also saw the theme of Antigone's inevitable death as a continuing thread throughout the entire play. We represented this with all the pictures and themes of out collage leading up (like a mountain) to a cave with a over-sized noose.
blood & bones
cave w/noose
law of the people-kingship vs. law of god- moral
chained hands vs. unchained
In my group's collage, the whole conflict of Antigone versus the king is based upon the blood and bones of the war. In the collage, we represented this by gray and red paper squares littering the bottom of the paper. For a set, I would actually want to have dried skeletons w/clothing and other artifacts that would clearly label them as recently dead. I want the stage to be littered with theses bodies, so that the entire play takes place with the characters walking around them to act, literally have the war directly influence every action on stage. I think that the war is a big theme in antigone- it is chaos (bloody killing on the battlefield) and order (the systematic and historical acceptance of war as a way to solve differences). Antigone wants to bury her brother and thus complete the god's end to a war, whereas the King wants to enforce his law, which is the government end of a war- a new government & its regulations. I don't know if this would be possible, but if the performance was set in a small theater, I would want a stench, like rotting flesh- or just a disgusting smell that can't be labelled as anything known (like rotten milk) to permeate the performance space. For practical reasons, I would want it to be a smell that actors could breath and smell for the entirety of rehearsal time and the performance- but one that when the audience walked out of the theater- they would wonder how they could have stood the smell for so long.
My group also saw the theme of Antigone's inevitable death as a continuing thread throughout the entire play. We represented this with all the pictures and themes of out collage leading up (like a mountain) to a cave with a over-sized noose.
blood & bones
cave w/noose
law of the people-kingship vs. law of god- moral
chained hands vs. unchained
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Unemployed
I don't know if I can ever check my email again or open another letter. I just can't. The emotional stress that I undertake in those 30 seconds or so of reading that email or letter just might make me burst. Or rather implode from the shear depletion of hope or self worth. I don't even know where this letter comes from. Do you know how sad that is, when I've sent out that many job applications that I don't remember where I applied last? How will they remember me, when I can barely remember them? Only I DO know them.Not them in particular but the job, I know the job. I can smell it, that technical writer job or even perhaps a manager position. Some are in the healthcare sector, the tech industry or a non-profit- but they all have the beautiful, alluring quality of offering me the security of a year-round job with a salary and benefits. I want the feeling of having a job so bad, that the idea is always on the edge of my consciousness, slipping in and out of my direct thoughts throughout the day. The warm comfort of a job that could bandage and sooth the wounds of the last....what is it now? ....7 years.....gosh. Seven years to be unemployed, what a huge chunk of my life to not be working, earning money, supporting my family. What a waste, what a goddamn waste! The whole point of the American dream, heck the whole American dream, is to work and make your life miraculously better. But that miracle can't happen if your unemployed...like me.
unemployed = no identity/useless to society- what do you do?...."nothing"
unemployed statistics- dont' count someone as unemployed after so many months.
I wonder, how long can you not work before you can be on Welfare, get food stamps, take advantage of that big ol' safety net that Uncle Sam is supposed to have for hard working folks like me? That would really help me out, to get my food for free, one less bill to pay. Just the cell phone bill, the cable bill, the internet bill, electricity, gas, water....they all pick away at me, one bill a month. My savings dwindles, bill by bill, month by month, year by year. I don't want to look at the cash left. Its not even cash anymore, nope its beyond the stage where you can measure it in solid money amounts, I measure it by the nitty gritty dollars and cents that measure the time that is left for me. There is no life without my savings acounnt and without a job. I will be beyond a nobody in society, I will be nothingness, not even a vacant body to mourn my loss of existence.
unemployed = no identity/useless to society- what do you do?...."nothing"
unemployed statistics- dont' count someone as unemployed after so many months.
I wonder, how long can you not work before you can be on Welfare, get food stamps, take advantage of that big ol' safety net that Uncle Sam is supposed to have for hard working folks like me? That would really help me out, to get my food for free, one less bill to pay. Just the cell phone bill, the cable bill, the internet bill, electricity, gas, water....they all pick away at me, one bill a month. My savings dwindles, bill by bill, month by month, year by year. I don't want to look at the cash left. Its not even cash anymore, nope its beyond the stage where you can measure it in solid money amounts, I measure it by the nitty gritty dollars and cents that measure the time that is left for me. There is no life without my savings acounnt and without a job. I will be beyond a nobody in society, I will be nothingness, not even a vacant body to mourn my loss of existence.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Scene Design- Equus
Describe a performance that you have seen in which you were moved by a vivid scenic image. What elements of the image make it memorable for you? How did they enhance the meaning of the play (or film) for you? Do you think the image fit the director's interpretation of the play (or film)? How did it help convey the mood? When describing the image, incorporate terminology from the text and ideas discussed in lab.
I saw Equus two years ago and the most striking image I remember was the sparse stage- only a raised circular platform. The horses heads were metal and were more like frames that had not yet been wrapped in horse skin (a kind of gross image) but the point was they were representational and allowed the audience to see the actor's faces. The horses also wore horse shoe platforms that made them about 6 inches off the ground. The horses galloped on the stage at one point and the noise I could hear as the metal horse shoes struck the wooden platform was one of the main sounds on the stage besides the Alan Strang, the main character's, yelling. I think that the horses heads, horse shoes, and sparse stage complemented the story in which Alan's thoughts, relationships, and religious ideas are stripped down to their core and origins by his psychiatrist. The beauty of the design concept was that although the story of a boy stabbing the eyes of horses is horrific and weird story- the design of the set was so sparse that it could have been set almost anywhere which helps the story- which doesn't directly apply to many people (I hope) relate to Alan, his psychiatrist, and his family by letting the audience concentrate on the relationships not on the time and place. The costumes for the people were realistic and the horse's costumes were the bare minimum to indicate to the audience that they were horse, which all followed with the entire design of the play.
I saw Equus two years ago and the most striking image I remember was the sparse stage- only a raised circular platform. The horses heads were metal and were more like frames that had not yet been wrapped in horse skin (a kind of gross image) but the point was they were representational and allowed the audience to see the actor's faces. The horses also wore horse shoe platforms that made them about 6 inches off the ground. The horses galloped on the stage at one point and the noise I could hear as the metal horse shoes struck the wooden platform was one of the main sounds on the stage besides the Alan Strang, the main character's, yelling. I think that the horses heads, horse shoes, and sparse stage complemented the story in which Alan's thoughts, relationships, and religious ideas are stripped down to their core and origins by his psychiatrist. The beauty of the design concept was that although the story of a boy stabbing the eyes of horses is horrific and weird story- the design of the set was so sparse that it could have been set almost anywhere which helps the story- which doesn't directly apply to many people (I hope) relate to Alan, his psychiatrist, and his family by letting the audience concentrate on the relationships not on the time and place. The costumes for the people were realistic and the horse's costumes were the bare minimum to indicate to the audience that they were horse, which all followed with the entire design of the play.
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