Final project reflection

https://youtu.be/Wh6yEHPk2e4

For my final project I chose a poem 'Cinderella' by Roald Dahl to do as a monologue. I was having a hard time discovering a poem or short story that I could perform by myself for more than 5 minutes before I found Cinderella by Roald Dahl. The poem is very rhythmical because of a lot of rhyming words. Also, the author reinterpreted the story of Cinderella very frankly which attracted my interest. And I thought it will be really funny if I act it in one man show.

 To do this project, I needed to think about stage, filming, lighting, blocking, and props all by myself. Eventually, I asked Charlotte for some help and I could figure a lot of parts out. The biggest thing that was helpful was filming part. I thought it was impossible for me to act and also use the camera at the same time. Also, there were a lot of props that I could use i  n Charlotte's house such as extension hair which I used as a wig, barbie dolls that I used for ugly sisters puppet, mask that I wore when I acted as a narrator, and weird shape of chopstick that I used for magic fairy's wand. 

 While we were filming it, there were a lot of trials and errors. There were lots of scenes that I needed to break down because I made too many mistakes when I tried to speak my lines in one take and there were a lot of parts that I needed to change my roles. So, I decided to film it lines by lines and then connected all of them by editing. To cover the awkwardness disconnection between the lines, I used sound effects and music.

In this project I had to do a job of actor, staff, director, and editor. It was possible to complete this project because of grateful help from Charlotte. By doing this one man show, I could learn the necessary preparations and abilities of all jobs involved in the production. As an actor, I needed to be more prepared with my lines, as a staff, I needed to organize the props so that the filming process could be smoother and faster, as a director, I needed to have more specific and clear idea of whole picture of the production so that I could give a quick and clear order to Charlotte who was filming it, and lastly as a editor, I needed to film all the scenes that I needed earlier so that I could have more time and make the production better. It was really great experience to approach the production as many jobs. I was so tired and frustrated during the process because I thought I couldn't complete project, but the completed production was totally worth it to go over all that time.

Brutal Cinderella one man show

I have chosen the poem "Cinderella" by Roald Dahl for my final project in IB literature and performance class. In order to do the final project by myself, I was looking for a poem or short story that I could perform as a monologue. However, I couldn't find an adequate literature that I can perform by myself for 5 minutes. Then, I discovered the poem Cinderella by Roald Dahl which is totally different from the original story. I was shocked when I first read this literature because it is very brutal in its description. But somehow it is also hilarious. Rhold Dahl uses a very dark sense of humor in his poem. It does not seem like a children story because it is so scary and the humor would probably not be understood by children. I believe it is not the real story of Cinderella, but I liked how the writer described and composed the rhythm. It sounds like a nursery rhyme.

To adapt this poem to a stage performance, I would like to do a one man show on the stage. There should be a total of 6 characters, including a narrator, Cinderella, prince, the two evile stepsistes, and magic fairy I need to act. In order to show the audience that I am portraying a different charcter I will be focusing on changing my voice, my facial expression, and posture. I would also like to change the lighting in order to show a change in character if I will be able to have a helper. I want to portray the characters as following:

The Narrator: The Narrator should be frank and good at controlling the dynamic of lines                        because he is an omniscient character. His voice will be sounding clear, confident, and experienced. His facial expression and posture will reflect the characteristics of his voice.

Cinderella: Cinderella‘s characteristic should be young, powerless, naive, and innocent. To express the characteristics I will act more girly and shy . However, when she finds out that the prince is in fact a bad person, it opens up her eyes. Her character undergoes a development almost like she is taught a moral lesson.

Prince: The Prince is a person who is used to get what he wants. He seems like a gentle and nice guy at the beginning, like a typical prince. But his richness has made him arrogant and he only cares about himself. He is also a brute because he kills the evil stepsisters and almost kills Cinderella.

The two evil Step sisters: The two sisters are very rude, nasty and greedy. I will try to make the weird and crappy voice when I act them. Also, I will use a lazy posture and ugly facial expressions.

The Magic Fairy: Fairy can be expressed like an old wise woman. She is a considerate, caring, and motherly character. When I act her, I will use a stick that can represent a magic wand.

Lastly, I would love to use some sound effect and theme music. I will use horror or extreme sound effect when one sister flushes the shoes in the loo and prince cuts off sisters heads. Also, I will use very bright and happy music when magic fairy turns Cinderella into a princess and the ending scene.

Cinderella

I guess you think you know this story.
You don't. The real one's much more gory.
The phoney one, the one you know,
Was cooked up years and years ago,
And made to sound all soft and sappy
just to keep the children happy.
Mind you, they got the first bit right,
The bit where, in the dead of night,
The Ugly Sisters, jewels and all,
Departed for the Palace Ball,
While darling little Cinderella
Was locked up in a slimy cellar,
Where rats who wanted things to eat,
Began to nibble at her feet.

She bellowed 'Help!' and 'Let me out!
The Magic Fairy heard her shout.
Appearing in a blaze of light,
She said: 'My dear, are you all right?'
'All right?' cried Cindy .'Can't you see
'I feel as rotten as can be!'
She beat her fist against the wall,
And shouted, 'Get me to the Ball!
'There is a Disco at the Palace!
'The rest have gone and I am jealous!
'I want a dress! I want a coach!
'And earrings and a diamond brooch!
'And silver slippers, two of those!
'And lovely nylon panty hose!
'Done up like that I'll guarantee
'The handsome Prince will fall for me!'
The Fairy said, 'Hang on a tick.'
She gave her wand a mighty flick
And quickly, in no time at all,
Cindy was at the Palace Ball!

It made the Ugly Sisters wince
To see her dancing with the Prince.
She held him very tight and pressed
herself against his manly chest.
The Prince himself was turned to pulp,
All he could do was gasp and gulp.
Then midnight struck. She shouted,'Heck!
I've got to run to save my neck!'
The Prince cried, 'No! Alas! Alack!'
He grabbed her dress to hold her back.
As Cindy shouted, 'Let me go!'
The dress was ripped from head to toe.

She ran out in her underwear,
And lost one slipper on the stair.
The Prince was on it like a dart,
He pressed it to his pounding heart,
'The girl this slipper fits,' he cried,
'Tomorrow morn shall be my bride!
I'll visit every house in town
'Until I've tracked the maiden down!'
Then rather carelessly, I fear,
He placed it on a crate of beer.

At once, one of the Ugly Sisters,
(The one whose face was blotched with blisters)
Sneaked up and grabbed the dainty shoe,
And quickly flushed it down the loo.
Then in its place she calmly put
The slipper from her own left foot.
Ah ha, you see, the plot grows thicker,
And Cindy's luck starts looking sicker.

Next day, the Prince went charging down
To knock on all the doors in town.
In every house, the tension grew.
Who was the owner of the shoe?
The shoe was long and very wide.
(A normal foot got lost inside.)
Also it smelled a wee bit icky.
(The owner's feet were hot and sticky.)
Thousands of eager people came
To try it on, but all in vain.
Now came the Ugly Sisters' go.
One tried it on. The Prince screamed, 'No!'
But she screamed, 'Yes! It fits! Whoopee!
'So now you've got to marry me!'
The Prince went white from ear to ear.
He muttered, 'Let me out of here.'
'Oh no you don't! You made a vow!
'There's no way you can back out now!'
'Off with her head!'The Prince roared back.
They chopped it off with one big whack.
This pleased the Prince. He smiled and said,
'She's prettier without her head.'
Then up came Sister Number Two,
Who yelled, 'Now I will try the shoe!'
'Try this instead!' the Prince yelled back.
He swung his trusty sword and smack
Her head went crashing to the ground.
It bounced a bit and rolled around.
In the kitchen, peeling spuds,
Cinderella heard the thuds
Of bouncing heads upon the floor,
And poked her own head round the door.
'What's all the racket? 'Cindy cried.
'Mind your own bizz,' the Prince replied.
Poor Cindy's heart was torn to shreds.
My Prince! she thought. He chops off heads!
How could I marry anyone
Who does that sort of thing for fun?

The Prince cried, 'Who's this dirty ****?
'Off with her nut! Off with her nut!'
Just then, all in a blaze of light,
The Magic Fairy hove in sight,
Her Magic Wand went swoosh and swish!
'Cindy! 'she cried, 'come make a wish!
'Wish anything and have no doubt
'That I will make it come about!'
Cindy answered, 'Oh kind Fairy,
'This time I shall be more wary.
'No more Princes, no more money.
'I have had my taste of honey.
I'm wishing for a decent man.
'They're hard to find. D'you think you can?'
Within a minute, Cinderella
Was married to a lovely feller,
A simple jam maker by trade,
Who sold good home-made marmalade.
Their house was filled with smiles and laughter
And they were happy ever after.

IB exam

For the IB exam, I didn't prepare enough to take an exam. First, shamefully I didn't complete the book "Whale rider". I only watched a movie and read some parts of the book that we talked about in the class. So, when I was taking the exam, I actually had no idea what I was writing. I spent 30 minutes to read a book during the test. It was very embarrassing experience to just sit there down and stare at the questions without coming up with any ideas. Eventually, I chose one question and tried to answer it, but my point was totally off from the question. I described the scene when Kahu goes into the ocean to reach to whales and finally she rides those whales and grand father realizes that Kahu is the true leader of the tribe. I didn't even complete it. I only wrote one and half pages about when Kahu was trying to approach to the whales and ended up with couple of lines that describes when Kahu actually rides the whale because I was out of time. 

The second day's exam was even worse. My teacher recommended us to memorize two poems from each of two poets, so that we could bring them up during the test and answer the questions. However, I.. . didn't memorize any of them. I honestly don't know why I didn't or couldn't do the works that my English teacher told me to do. Even when I had extra review session with her, I was just starring at the poems and not thinking anything. Thus, when I was taking the exam, I couldn't write a single word until most of the time passed. I literally wrote three sentences about "Because I could not stop for Death" and handed it. 

I really don't understand my behavior in past few weeks. I was totally out of my mind and  the book and the poems were not coming into my brain. I handed several quizzes without writing any single word. I felt so sorry and shamed to my teacher, but my mind was not on working.

Notes

Emily Dickinson
Death

Immortality, civility, eternity
Slant rhyme

First stanza
Death-, ourselves-

Second stanza
He knew no haste
My labor and my leisure too
Away, civility

Third stanza
We passed the ×3
School, children
Recess, Ring
Gazing grain, setting sun

Fourth stanza
Gossamer, Gown
Tippet, Tulle
Chill, Tulle

Fifth stanza
Ground, ground

Sixth stanza
Horse's Heads
Day, Eternity

Key words
Death, immortality, eternity, civility, we

Are black and white opposite?

Emily Dickinson – Death

“Poets often withhold certitude, which can at the same time empower readers to think creatively.”

My favorite part of literature is poetry. It is because I hate reading and it takes extremely long time for me to read novel. However, since I am a musician, I love to read lyrics of songs. As a singer, I think delivery of the lyrics is one of the most important part of performing. To deliver it properly, singers need to put a lot of time and effort to understand the lyrics. It might be impossible to fully understand the message of author. But, readers can receive the literature and understand it in their own way.

Firstly, death is the biggest theme of this poem. Emily Dickinson mentioned a lot about characteristic of death. Personification of death encourages readers to think about characteristic of death which most of people usually don't think about too much. Ironically, the other biggest theme in the poem is life which is usually considered as an opposite idea of death. By combining the characteristics of those two opposite ideas, it encourages readers to think about the idea which is important but is avoided by people to be thought about.

There are a lot of poems and lyrics that often withhold certitude. It is because human can never understand others' thought perfectly. So, the smart poets know the fact and try to write their ideas that they want to speak out to the world in the most effective way. In my opinion, that is why readers feel like poets often withhold certitude. Also, themes of poems always exist in somewhere in every individual's life. People just forget about things that are not related to them at the moment or are not considered as important part. And those small ideas that authors mention stick into readers brain and makes it to work in different way, which causes the thing called creativity.

Too well described...

Last Wednesday our English class had a sweet trip to New York Broad Way. Since, it was the first time that I visited Manhattan after I came to this school, and my girl friend was also accompanying, I was extremely excited. The show that we watched was "Curious incident of the dog in the night time". The play was basically about a boy who has an autism. The boy tries to find the person who killed a dog, which leads him to find his mom who left him when he was young. In the first half, most of the story happens in the boy's home town but the second half was about the boy's journey to find his mom which lives in London.

 The biggest thing that caught my attention was staging. They used a lot of weird sound effects such as siren sounds and electronic sounds. Purpose of the sound effects was to describe the characteristic of autistic individual. People who are affected by autism has great ability of visualization, but also has poor hearing ability. The sound effects that they used perfectly expressed how autistic feel when they hear things. Also, the lightening was very captivative and splendid. It made me to be speechless. The other thing that I was so interested was the cool props. The whole floor was built up by the tiles which could be opened, closed, and go down.

 This show changed my opinions of  autism or those people whose actions are weird. I used to keep away from those people, as if they could hurt me. But the show described the life of autist so well. The sound effect, lightening, blocking, choreography, acting, and the way how author told the story strongly encouraged me to focus on the play and helped me to understand the mystery of the human brain. Although the show had lots of interesting and funny elements, topic was still heavy.

I suppose that the show affected the audiences in all different ways. For me, before I got into the theater, I was just glad about watching a Broad Way play with Charlotte which is huge fan of Theatre. During the show, however, there were a lot of scenes that reminded some of my personal memories which made me extremely nervous and uncomfortable in the theater. Fortunately, she recognized that I was having hard time just sitting there down and watching it. I sincerely appreciated that she hold my cold hands and helped me to release my tension. After the show, I was exhausted and surprised because of the too well described play. I would say this play is a awesome show, but I won't recommend it to people who already know and understand about an autism. You will feel extreme pain in either your brain or heart for 2 hours and 45 minutes.

Time to go back to a student from an actor

We played "Once On This Island" for the winter musical in Cheshire Academy. This musical is an adaption of a novel called My Love My Love by Rosa Guy. I was one of the member in the casts and I played Daniel. Daniel is one of the main characters in the musical. For me, it was really hard to play Daniel because I have never done romantic actings before and it was my first time acting on the stage. So I had been getting too much stress and pressure before the show. However, fortunately the show went pretty well. Among the entire music in the musical, my favorite song was "Pray". Even though I lay down on the floor for the entire song and pretend to sleep, I could feel every actor's energy from the song and a lot of audiences told me they got goose bumps by that song. 

When I first got a script of the musical and watched the entire performance on the youtube, I was actually so confused. Before I read the script and watched it, I was just excited about the fact that I got the male leading role. However, after I realized that I need to be a jerk and the time of my singing part is less then the time of laying down on the ground and driving, I was disconcerted and disappointed. It took quite a lot of time and effort to get rid of those emotions and focus on my role. I think this show was generally very interesting and well fitted in our black box theater. First of all, I think the four gods were very well described and each characters were very well cast. Maggie's voice expressed the Agwe's dignity, Abigail's vibrant performance expressed characteristic of Asaka, Charlotte's intensity and moderation expressed the Erzulie's beauty, and Gianna's acting and make up perfectly expressed the Papa ge's creepiness. Also, I think the actors who had peasant and rich roles did a great job to express their character. Even though I had little bit of dissatisfaction of my role and the ending, I would say the play was very interesting and beautiful.

Two months of preparing for this musical "Once on this island" was very meaningful time for me because a lot of things were new experience to me and I felt those time healed my scars from my past. Firstly, this was my first performance that I acted on the stage. When I was in Korea, I once dreamed to be an actor and learned acting but things didn't go well because of my back problem. Eventually, I needed to give up everything that I sincerely desired and had a hard time forgetting everything. So, I truly appreciate this chance that I could be on the stage and work with everyone for the performance. I needed to answer the question "what was your favorite memory during the rehearsal?" for information about me that was gonna be hanging on the wall with my photo. I answered "when I wear the microphone" because wearing microphone was totally new thing and somehow I felt wearing microphone was kind of funny. However, my real answer that I hid in my heart was "every time when I open the black box door". It's really hard to explain that feeling but I always got emotional and excited when I opened the black box door and stepped into the black box. However, that doesn't mean I only had easy and joyful time in the black box. Honestly, there were several times that I wanted to storm out of the black box during the rehearsal or just skip the rehearsal and not show up. When Ms.Digiacomo yelled at me although when I was trying really hard, when I could imagine my history grade was falling down because of 4 hours rehearsals, when my partners attitude, words, and actions annoyed me and drove me crazy, when I needed to lay down on the cold, hard black box floor for more than 30 minutes, and when I could never get the one single note for my duet song and practiced it like for a hundred of times, I really wanted to kick the door and run away from the black box. I actually don't know how I handled those hard time and have good feelings and memories about everything that happened in the past two months. The truth is I learned a lot of new things that I haven't learned in my life before and became a little bit bigger person than couple months ago. One thing that I really felt bad for everyone was even though I was the oldest kid among the students, I couldn't fulfill the role of it because of bunch of my excuses. For the next year's musical, I hope I can be a person who can embrace the group and contribute to make a better team.

 

The story of two different wolrds

The novel that our group adapted to a new version is "my love, my love" by Rosa Guy. The novel is basically about a tragic destiny of peasant girl "Ti moune" and her star crossed love story. Ti moune's tragedy begins when she finds out Daniel crushed in his car in the forest. She falls in love with the rich boy Daniel at first sight which she is not supposed to desire. At the beginning, she only cares about the boy's well being. However at the last part, her desire toward Daniel becomes too huge so that she couldn't handle. Although she has been grown up in the peasant village, since she was adopted by her parents, there are a lot of part that shows Ti moune's difference from other peasants. She always had the desire and curiosity about outside world of the peasant village and the book emphasized that desire and curiosity as the cause of her death. But also, her death can be interpreted as a true freedom because of the butterflies that come out from her body after she dies.

In the scene that our group reinterpreted, we emphasized the contrast between rich and poor. Our group didn't agree with how the book described that her death was her fault. So, we decided to make the rich as villain. In the book, Daniel actually loves Ti moune but he had no choice but to chooses his fiance "Andrea" because he is in the situation that he can't change or do anything with. That characteristic reduces Daniel's fault for Ti moune's death in the book, so we gave a slight change to Daniel's characteristic. We changed his character from indecisive young man to womanizer playboy so that we can show how the rich ruins the peasants which also represents the strong and the weak. To show the extreme contrast we used music as the biggest source. Fortunately, since our group had amazing musicians, we used ukulele for the peasant's side and piano for the rich side.

To act a Daniel, my key point was showing the different attitude between in front of Ti moune and his father Gabriel. I acted very gentle and sweet to Ti moune but I showed Daniel's real personality which is a playboy who never thinks about girls seriously in the conversation with father.

 

For the staging, we put couch and piano on the left side of the stage which represents rich side and we put ukulele and some cushion on the right side of the stage. Our scene starts from the narrator standing middle of the stage introducing the play. Then we perform peasant side and rich side in an order.

 

 

Being an actor

Our group's interpretation is mostly based on the original text. Instead of creating whole new settings, we inserted few things to emphasize the contrast between rich and poor. First thing that we used to describe the contrast was music. Since our group has wonderful musicians, music was the first source that we came up with. James who plays Tonton plays ukulele which represents poor side and Ben who plays Gabriel plays piano which represents rich side. More than only playing those instruments, we also used music in our lines. While peasants concern about their daily survival, riches have conversation about old classical music which also show extreme contrast. Also, we focused on creating the characteristic of riches. Since the original text really didn't describe the riches, we needed to imagine what riches talk about and make the personalities up. And that is where we came up with Daniel's character which is really different from original Daniel's character.
 We tried to make Daniel as mean character as we could so audience can feel that rich actually destroyed poor. Original text is more focused on Desiree's desire. Story begins with her own desire and ends up to the tragedy which is result of her desire. However, we didn't really agree with the ending and wanted more realistic and critical ending. So, we started our scene with showing the contrast and led to the tragedy which is all caused by riches. Our goal is to make audience feel this story is about how cruel the rich are, not a naive peasant girl's sad love story.

 There are a lot of personal challenges for me to do this project. The biggest issue is acting out our performance for 20 minutes and keeping our energy which also requires the perfect memorization of lines. Since all of our group members never had an experience of performing on the stage for 20 minutes and are not professional actors, it is really challenging to be an actor who can deliver what author meant to show. To do so, first, we all need to memorize the lines perfectly which is really challenging work for me. Secondly, we need to create and put emotions in the lines and control them. Even if I got that second step, it is extremely difficult to recall and expose those same level of emotions every time when we perform. I think it is because my personal level of energy changes by what happened to me on that day in real life, but I still need to express appointed amount of energy when I perform. And I think that is one of the most important skill that is required to actors. Also, to make our scene better, actors need to create more chemistry with each other and better teamwork which we are not really good at yet. Ben and I are still focusing on remembering our lines when we practice on the stage. As soon as we are completely done with lines, we are going to work on our emotions and character.

Project: making Daniel a s** ** a *****

 Our group worked on writing script and blocking this week. First of all, our interpretation of the text which is the contrast between peasant and rich is well described in the script. Our interpretation is emphasizing the realistic part which the original text didn't. The book is more focusing on Desiree's desire which is freedom but doesn't describe Daniel and rich people as a hellkite murderer who killed the main character of the story. So, it doesn't really sound like a tragedy at the end even though Desiree dies all because of Daniel. Thus, our group decided to describe Daniel and Armand as villains and Desiree and Tonton as pure and innocent existence.

 To show the contrast between the poor and rich on the stage, we divided the scenes that show peasant life and scenes that show rich life evenly and inserted them in between each other. Also, we separated the stage into half and are going to use the light to emphasize the huge gap between the worlds they live. So, the lights will only focus on the left side of the stage when the peasants, James and Julie, act, and lights will be out and focus only on the right side when the riches, Ben and Ryan, act. 

 Our performance starts with the narrator introducing the peasant village to tell audiences that peasant's life is the main point of our performance. After the narrating, most of our scenes are composed with dialogues. In the first scene, Tonton and Desiree show their hard life by talking about their farming and worrying about the weather, but also show their pureness and innocence by singing songs that contain their hope and happiness. And the song selection is the part that we are still working on. We are considering between making our own melody and using the words that are in the text book or choosing one specific song that is already made. But, I would like to compose our own melody and use the original word from the story, because it will represent the mood of the original text. 

 There are three scenes that we need to put a lot of effort for the sound effect and lightening. The most important thing in the third scene is the teamwork between actors and the crew who controls the light and sound effect. Daniel needs to do laying down and moving spots for few times keeping in tune with light and sound effect which is going to be controlled by Ms. Guarino. Another scene that we need the same work with the third scene is the seventh scene, when Desiree dies by car accident. But, it won't be complicated as the third scene because she doesn't have to move her spot. The last scene that we need sound effect is fourth scene, when Gabriel takes a helicopter to go to peasant village. Also, we need to find adequate prop that can express helicopter.

 The last work that I still need to work on is the dialogue between Daniel and Desiree in the Third scene. I'm comfortable and good at serious and mad acting, but romantic acting is my weakest part which I need to practice for this project and our winter musical. I will practice my lines with keeping what Ms. Guarino said: be softer and more gentle, in my mind. Also, I think watching romantic movies that have attractive male main character can be helpful for my acting. Additionally, I'm really proud of our last scene's script. We made riches as mean as they can be and that ending perfectly emphasizes the interpretation that our group meant.

Concept of the project and Script Draft

Group Project (Ryan Kim, James Kim, Julie Lee, Lambert Ben)

Conflict

Poor vs. Rich

Good men vs. Villains 

Desiree - an innocent, pure, beautiful girl 

Tonton - desiree’s father

Daniel - Rich son

Gabriel - Daniel's father 

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

Daniel is driving in a car

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

(Sound effect - car crash with honking)

Daniel 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) 

Project proposal

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.