Lit and Performance

Children of the Sea Plot: two narrators who don't know each other are in love.                 The girl is angry at the fact that her father does not let her keep writing letters to her lover. However, she does not know that her father gave up all his properties to save her daughter from the danger of Macoutes (A military force created by Papa Doc).         The female narrators heard the news that their neighbor was killed by the Macoutes.         The male narrator tries to escape Haiti by using a boat. In his boat, there is also a pregnant woman who was raped by Macoutes. When her baby died, she suicides too.        A few days later when the female narrator sees a black butterfly, it foreshadows that the male narrator is dead. Characters: Male narrator                    Female narrator         ...

The recorded written history of Haiti  began on 5 December 1492 when the European navigator  C hristohphor Columbus  happened upon a large island in the region of the western Atlantic Ocean that later came to be known as the Caribbean.  It was inhabited by the  T aino , and  A rawakan  people, who variously called their island  Ayiti ,  Bohio , or  Kiskeya   (Quisqueya) . Columbus promptly claimed the island for the Spanish Crown , naming it  La Isla Española  ("the Spanish Island"), later  L atinized  to Hispaniolaze . French influence began in 1625, and French control of what was calledSaint Domingue —modern-day Haiti—began in 1660.  From 1697 on, the western part of the island was French and the eastern part was Spanish. Haiti became one of the wealthiest of France's colonies, producing vast quantities of sugar and coffee and depending on a brutal slave system for the necessary labor. Inspired by the...

Edwidge Danticat Edwidge Danticat is a Haitian-American novelist and short story writer. Born January 19, 1969  Books: Breath, eyes, memory, the farming of bones...  When she was two years old, her father André immigrated to N ewYork , to be followed two years later by her mother Rose.  When asked in an interview about her traditions as a child, she included storytelling, church, and constantly studying school material as all part of growing up.  While still in Haiti, Danticat began writing at nine years old.  At the age of 12, she moved to Brooklynn  New York, to join her parents in a heavily Haitian-American neighborhood. As an immigrant teenager, Edwidge's disorientation in her new surroundings was a source of discomfort for her, and she turned to literature for solace.  Danticat did not realize the racism until she went to college because of the protection of her community. Central themes: Three themes are prominent in various analyses of Edwi...

1) I’m really confident about my body language and facial expression, because I know how to use them at the right time. Also, blocking wouldn’t be a big problem for me since I know how to move freely on stage. In addition, I am good at using the appropriate lighting in order to crease the right emotion of the characters, which can improve the quality of the performance. The use of gesture is another element that I am good at. Gesture can make the performance less awkward and show emotions of the character, even more, the relationship between characters. 2) On the other hand, it is important to always have the willingness to improve. Articulation would be one of my main concerns when I’m performing. When I have too many lines or movement on stage, sometimes I can have a hard time to pronounce each word clearly. Secondly, I need to learn how to develop my character more, for example, through the strategy of hot seating or spend more time on learning the script. Music is also a problem ...

Ivan’s group I really like their idea that gives us a clear timeline, which makes it easier for us to follow. Ivan as a narrator truly impressed me by using his deep voice to emphasize how severe this event was. Cassidy, on the other hand, performed as an angry man whose brother was killed by black people. Her use of voice also impresses me. Her emotion was expressed so real that her voice was shaking. For the setting, I like how Ivan sit behind the other two since he is the narrator. Their theme of political issue was shown by their severity, which is expressed by their body language and facial expression. Overall, their performance was impressive. Jasmine’s group The use of background music definitely helps to set up the tone of this play, I felt really engaged in the play because of the music. Jasmine’s use of gesture also helped to build up the emotion, which is related to the theme of violence. She was moving freely on the stage, using good facial expression and body language...

For the verbatim theater project we did last week, my group ( Cassidy, Denny, Stella, and me ) decided to choose Cassidy to act me. She talked about how I feel about the two dorms I have lived in - VDP and Markins, and also relationship with my roommate, including my experience livening there. The purpose of people doing this kind of theater is that they want to explore a character more and also improve their acting skills, such as gestures, body movement, and voice. In addition, Verbatim is also a fun activity for performers to develop their mocking ability, which can bring their performance to another level.  Verbatim theater accomplishes performers’ goal that is to view things with more details. For my group’s project, we spent a lot of time on discussing the topics and specific stories. Eventually, we decided to let Cassidy perform since she knows me well and the way I talk to people. In order to create a script, we did several interview ( Lesley asking me questions about ...

I think theater can be viewed as a platform for people to express their thoughts on an event or a phenomenon. For example, the play 'the glass menagerie' is used by Tennessee William to express how harsh the poor people's life was during that time. Also, for actors and actress, a theater can be a way for them to express themselves and relax, acting on stage can be a relief for them. For instance, when I was on the stage, I feel free, because I can express my true emotion. There could be a lot of purposes for a person to do or watch theater. Acting can be a hobby to a lot of people since it is fun and challenging. When I first started to participate in theater, my purpose was to try to be more confident and relaxed in front of people, since I used to have a confidence issue when facing lots of people. For the purpose of watching a theater, it can be seen as a learning purpose. A play can help the audience to understand the history better, a good example of it would be the pl...