Progress

So far in the completion process of the Krik? Krak! my partner and I have done a lot of work to make out scene sensible and true to our idea, as well as the characters involved. We worked to revise and add more or less to each moment, so each of us has an even amount of lines and importance throughout the scene. It took awhile to come up with a complete idea, since I came up with something a little bit more free-ing as far as writing the script goes. There were a bunch of ways we could have gone with the characters, but I am confident that the way the script is written will help the audience to get a bigger taste of each character's personality (in my partner and I's opinion.)

I am glad we got to perform in front of the class because it was difficult to tell what parts were lacking, and which lines could be confusing to an audience. I am very aware now of how my performance looks like to an audience, and how important it is to be clear with the lines and defining the characters. Most of the feedback we got was about how both of us needed to be louder and use more emotion and gestures to get our points across. It was difficult to do this since my partner and I did not have our scripts memorized, but I know that we definitely need to be louder and make sure we stick to a slower pace. I feel like some important parts of the script got lost to the audience since we were too quiet, and went too quickly.

After reading through all of the comments, I was able to add more to the script to create a real climax and slow our performance down a bit. I added more lines to where the girl kills herself, since I feel that this section goes by way more quickly, making things seem fake and unimportant. I also added more lines towards the ending, making the guy turn his anger more toward the girl, before turning on himself. It is important for the audience to see this transition.

Even though I felt like we added a lot to the lighting/sound/prop work, I know that we need different objects and furniture in some places, and less in others. I also know that we need to focus the lighting more, making sure that it is clear to the audience when the two characters are apart and when they are together. I realized that with all of the scene changes, we are going to need to have specific music for certain moments to fill up the space between scenes as well as throughout the scripts to convey the specific emotions and aura of each scene.

I am excited to continue working on our scene, and I hope to make our performance easier to understand. I think my parter and I took on a lot with this idea, and I hope that it comes together well in the end. I think were are off to a good start, and with this new feedback, we can have a wider range of awareness for what our performance needs.

School of Rock Post

I am very pleased with how the show turned out overall. This year's cast was lively and ready to get out and do their best. The theatre program is clearly progressing, and since I have had the opportunity to be apart of this show, I am so excited to definitely be apart of what is to come in the next year. Even though I did not start out wanting to be involved in the musical, I am very glad that I got the chance to participate. I know that theatre has always been a passion of mine, and this show has given me the chance to grow as an actress and a team player.

It was very fun to work with John and Lexi during our scenes, and I felt that we were able to achieve a good balance between each other. Everything really came together in the last few weeks of practice with everyone working their hardest. I could hear how much the songs and voices improved over time, and how the cast was able to mend their voices together to create the atmosphere needed in each scene.

Everyone was very supportive of each other throughout practice, and especially during the show. I felt that we all helped each other out, and kept a positive vibe throughout the entirety of the three shows. I am very appreciative of all the encouragement and good energy that went on backstage, and throughout rehearsals. I know that I still have a lot to work on in all areas of theatre, but I hope to improve as time continues. I was able to see how important character development is, and how difficult and fun it is to reach out of a comfort zone. I commend the whole cast for their great work, and I can't wait to see how the CA theatre program will evolve and expand in the time to come.

UPDATED Final Script and Lighting/Sound Cues

*plain black box*

>Stagining #1

-Separate lights go up on both girl and boy

-Boy’s side has a blue tarp underneath him

Girl: I am writing to you from the bottom of the banyan tree, manman says that banyan trees are holy and sometimes if we call gods from beneath then, they will hear our voices clearer. Now there are always butterflies around me, black ones that I refuse to let find my hand. I throw big rocks at them, but they are always too fast.

Guy: I go now as though it was always meant to be, as though the very day that my mother birthed me, she had chosen me to live life eternal, among the children of the deep blue sea, those who have escaped the chains of slavery to form a world beneath the heavens and the blood-drenched earth where you live.

Girl:  Last night on the radio, I heard that another boat sank off the coast of the Bahamas. I can’t think about you being in there in the waves. My hair shivers. From here, I cannot even see the sea. Behind these mountains are more mountains and more black butterflies still and a seas that are endless like my love for you.

Guy: Perhaps I was chosen from the beginning of time to live there with Agwe at the bottom of the sea. Maybe this is why I dreamed of the starfish and the mermaids having the Catholic mass under the sea. Maybe this was my invitation to go. In any case, I know that my memory of you will live even there as I too become a child of the sea.

-Lights go down

*Girl is alone*

*The boy is dead*

-Lights go up on the girl on her side of stage

Girl: I cannot fathom why the universe hands me such bad luck. My love is gone, and so goes my only peace of mind in this existence. I need to be with him. I need to hear his comforting voice. I need to hold his hand. The world that I live in is so violent and I don’t have enough power to make it peaceful. The noise will not stop. I am trapped.

I cannot handle this anymore…

-Lights go down

-Audience hears sound of sea

>Staging #2

-Lights go up on girl in middle of stage

*Girl is on “cliff”*

Girl: This is it, what will be next? I am but a being in the natural world, leaving to the supernatural. Will our spirits meet when I go? I hope to float like a butterfly... to you.

*She jumps*

-Lights go down

*back to plain black box*

*Guy enters the scene*

>Stagining #3

-Lights go up on both sides

*She awakens on the floor*

*she sits*

Girl: What is this place? *looks at hands* I feel weightless…

*looking around*

*confused*

Guy: *Turns to girl* Why are you here? This cannot be your time. *to himself* you possessed so much life when I left you.

Girl: *sees the boy* *steps back*  Am I blind? Is it just a fantasy?

*surprised*

Guy: *walk towards girl*

Girl: *gets up* *walks towards him*

Guy: I knew you would come, but not this soon. I would have waited as long as you needed to live your life in our last form.

*walk around each other*

Girl: I couldn’t fathom living, knowing that you were gone.

Guy: Did you write to me?

Girl: Of course. Everyday.

Guy: Me too.

Girl: What happened then? Were you hurt? Could you feel death?

Guy: There was no where else to go. I jumped like the rest off the boat. I drowned, peacefully. My senses were numbed, there was no pain. The only thing I could feel was the deep ocean caressing my whole existence… and the warmth of love I had from you. Once I was here enough time though, I felt your soul. I knew you must have been hurt in some way.

Girl: I wasn’t hurt. I flew to you and now we are here. All I wanted since you left is to be somewhere with you.

Guy: *a little angry* Now that you are with me, I feel powerless without someone representing my life on earth. We are so likeminded, you should have lived out a legacy we could have shared. You could have made a difference on behalf of both of us.  

Girl: *looks down* *a little sad*

I could not change my destiny to be here. We all have a different walk to live, and this is mine.

Guy: No, it was mine. My death was not voluntary, it was true. You were selfish. Now we both have to look down and see all of the violence. Up here we are both peaceful, but trapped. There is nothing you can do to help. I can only feel the pings of anger and hatred filling into the place I called home. One day it will boil over, and I will only sense the dull emptiness of my people gone and defeated.

*Starts to rant, upset and emotional*

Guy: My family, one by one, giving their lives over to the XXX, fighting for our people. I cannot help them. I cannot do anything. I feel dull and numbed to the cause I devoted myself to. I needed to be there, I needed to help. I should have known the boat would sink. I could have done so much more, I could have been smarter, I could have fought in a different way.

Girl: *quietly* I was trapped. This was my escape, our escape. You could have died either way, land and earth could not change what was meant to be. Accept your freedom. We are here now, healthy and unbound.  

*Guy turns to girl*

Guy: I left a coward.

Guy: I was selfish, bound to my desire for freedom. Instead of standing up for my kind, I fled, representing nothing. Leaving you, leaving everyone.Things should have been different.

Girl: *walks over to guy* But they’re not. You lived the life you were supposed to live. A coward refuses to face their truth, but you accepted yours head on, and completed a task that most people are so afraid to face. You wanted freedom for yourself and our people, and you brought other people one more reason to keep a legacy alive.  

Guy: Then why can’t I be in peace?

*Girl is consoling guy, lights go out*

Costumes, Props, etc. of Children of the Sea

Costumes: 

Girl-
At the beginning
-Casual (but nice) long skirt or dress
-Short sleeve top (if wearing a skirt)
-Mourning clothes --> Darker, more plain.
-Sandals

In the afterlife
-White everything
-White dress or skirt
-Casual, summer-like
-Light fabric
-Nicer shoes (Light colored)

Guy-
At the beginning
-Boat clothes --> brown, raggedy, ripped, old
-Maybe ripped pants or shorts (brown or grey)
-Dirty shirt, maybe a button down, maybe something more casual
-Sandals

In the afterlife
-White everything
-Light fabric
-Pants and button down shirt
-Nice Shoes (dress shoes, lighter colors)

Props:
Both guy and girl will have diaries and pencils/pens

Description of Set: 

First scene-
-Boy and girl on either side of stage, something separating them in the middle, maybe a wall
-Maybe a blue tarp on the boy's side to show how he is on the boat, maybe he is standing on a piece of wood in the middle of the ocean

Second scene-
-Girl is in the middle of the stage standing at the top of the "cliff" (portable stairs or tall box) blue tarp fills the stage underneath her
-(Pillows underneath the stairs will not be shown when she is jumping off the cliff)

Third scene-
-back to first set, boy and girl on either sides of stage, except both sides are completely plain, with nothing separating them in the middle.

Children of the Sea script progress

*plain black box*

Guy: Perhaps I was chosen from the beginning of time to live there with Agwe at the bottom of the sea. Maybe this is why I dreamed of the starfish and the mermaids having the Catholic mass under the sea. Maybe this was my invitation to go. In any case, I know that my memory of you will live even there as I too become a child of the sea.

Girl: Last night on the radio, I heard that another boat sank off the coast of the Bahamas. I can’t think about you being in there in the waves. My hair shivers. From here, I cannot even see the sea. Behind these mountains are more mountains and more black butterflies still and a seas that is endless like my love for you.

*Lights go down*

*Girl is alone*

*The boy is dead*

Girl: I cannot fathom why the universe hands me such bad luck. My love is gone, and so goes my only peace of mind in this existence.

I cannot handle this anymore…

*Lights go off*

*Audience hears sound of sea*

*Girl is on “cliff”*

Girl: This is it, what will be next? I am but a being in the natural world, leaving to the supernatural. Will our spirits meet when I go? I hope to float like a butterfly... to you.

*She jumps*

*Lights go down*

*back to plain black box*

*Guy enters the scene*

*She awakens on the floor*

Character Analysis

My character is the man from "children of the sea" who writes letters to a girl that he is in love with. In our performance he will die and be reborn in a spiritual realm, waiting for the girl. He is around 19 or 20 years of age, and will appear tattered and worn out from the experience he had on earth. In our performance he will be optimistic and humble, similar to his reactions in the story. His attitude will change when he sees the girl for the first time again, acting happier and even more alive than he was on earth. His walk will be slow, maybe weak at first. He does not show a strong sense of power in any way, but does have a good awareness of self. His voice will be kind and ethereal almost, speaking slow and steady. He seems much more grounded to me in the story than his counterpart. He was her safeground throughout the  story, almost like writing to him kept her in check, even though he was never able to read it. My character had a lot to worry about throughout his experience in the story, as he was fleeing on a boat from Haiti to save his life. Writing to the girl helped him to keep a piece of home with him on his journey, and keep parts of himself sacred. The characters will meet, and both characters will be happy, but he will be much more calm, since he presumably dies before the girl, and has already experienced the afterlife he is in. His motivation is to understand his next life and to gain a sense of clarity and peace with the girl, so they can both move on from whatever experiences were in their recent past.