Class Plays

I truly liked all the plays. I never thought of how much I would enjoy doing this project but it was writing my own play as well as watching/acting out other’s plays. Everyone was creative in their own way. I enjoyed writing my play because I wanted two problems women go through into one play. I also wanted to incorporate it within a rich and poor society. My message was that, it’s not just the poor that go through treatment or abuse; it can be anyone, so money isn’t everything.
The three favorite plays that I enjoyed watching were Max’s play, Jessica’s play, and Sarah’s play. I liked Max’s play because it shows the racial barriers that still exist today. Even though Blacks and Whites have the same rights, some still look down upon each other and label each other. Max’s play shows that even the elderly still have the same attitude they had back in the day when they were younger when blacks were discriminated against. However, people say “oh their old, they don’t know what they’re saying” I still haven’t made up my mind of whether or not that should be a good excuse to still have the same beliefs even though times have drastically changed. I guess they’re still living in the same era these events took place.
I liked Jessica’s play as well because I found it really interesting how back then, mothers and other family members were afraid to talk to their children about sex. I feel like it’s a really dumb thing to do to let your child date but not be aware about sex or how one gets pregnant. Jessica’s character felt guilty to abort the child but she was also kind of ashamed to have it as well because at those times, not many teenagers get pregnant without getting married first. She was forced to marry the father even though he turned out to be not so faithful to her. I do feel that she was a very strong character to put up with her pregnancy and to leave her supporter and raise the child on her own.
Finally I liked Sarah’s play because it reminded me of mine, except mine was a little more dramatic. Sarah’s play was good because her character (the mother) was also very strong, although she seemed to be forgiving unlike mine. The message I got from her play was to not judge a book by its cover because the family seemed to be perfect, but the husband was cheating on her that whole time. However since hers had a good ending and he came back for her and supposedly “changed his ways” I guess you can say there’s still hope.

Wicked !

Wicked was definitely an interesting version of The Wizard of Oz, but for a musical it was pretty good. Elphaba was definitely a strong character, I think. She despite everyone looking down on her because she’s not pretty enough, she’s still not let down. For someone that has to put up with all that hatred, she’s still willing to help people. It’s really ironic though, that the more she tries to help, the more hatred she’s gaining from everybody. She’s never appreciated, but still she stands strong and seems to not care of what anyone thinks, and sticks to being a good person.
I kind of had mixed feelings about Galinda. It took me a while to really know whether or not she actually liked Elphaba. She’s the one who gave her that witch’s hat in the first place, but then again, when she shows up at the party and everyone is staring at her, she goes up to her and starts dancing with her so everyone else can accept her. I guess deep down, she’s a good person, but she lets her popularity get in the way of her friendship, which shows she isn’t a strong character at all because unlike Elphaba who doesn’t care what people think, Galinda certainly does. I did like the fact that Fiyero, who happened to be the handsome guy, fell for Elphaba than Galinda, who was pretty and popular. I guess this was a message that beauty is only skin deep.
I also had mixed feelings about Elphaba’s sister, Nessarose. At first I felt bad for her for being in a wheel chair and not being able to walk. And I especially felt bad that she actually thought Boq liked her, when he only hung around her to impress Galinda. However, when Nessarose becomes governess, she starts taking advantage of her power by making Boq her servant. I still don’t understand why she would do that, if she liked him. He would obviously hate her even more. If she wanted him to stick around, she could have gave him a different less demeaning job.
The Wizard was also portrayed differently in this play than how we knew of him in the traditional Wizard of Oz play. In this play, he seems like he’s just there. He has no power what so ever, and he chooses to act through someone with powers. This obviously doesn’t make him a strong character at all.

Evita

Evita is a play by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on the life story of Evita Peron. This play/musical was ok to read. It is interesting that it is actually based on a real person. This story is very fascinating that I find it almost fictitious. It was interesting to know that Evita actually got to the top by sleeping around. Although she has accomplished a lot during the years, this gets me thinking if she actually really is a strong character. I don’t think she would be strong by getting to the top the easy way. I realize that it’s hard for a woman to get to the top on her own without doing “favors”, but personally I still don’t think that’s right.
I do think that her message is powerful to the people by representing herself as more of a regular person than one in her position. This message shows strength in itself because it shows that even though she had risen in society from coming from a middle class family, rather than showing herself as just rich and powerful, her appearance was still sending out a message that she is a woman, and she made it to the top and if she can do it, they can do it. Evita did do a lot of good to society as well. She helped people get jobs and homes, which was very beneficial at the time, although in the end, she robbed the government of their money by spending all of it, and of course, a lot of it was for her own benefit. I guess she could have helped people and not spend all of the money at the same time by focusing on a big issue rather than trying to help with everything at the same time. It won’t work out. In the play Che was right when he basically stated that Evita focuses on what happens today rather than also thinking about how this will affect the future. I don’t think that was very responsible.
Finally, I would like to state that since we read a lot of plays where men and their wives did not get along, it is good to know that Evita and Peron worked like a team and supported each other the whole time they were in politics. He liked her for herself rather than just using her to help him get to the top and that was a very powerful point in this play.

Barriers

“Barriers” was an interesting play to read. I always knew that Muslims would get stereotyped since the September 11th attack, but I never knew that people would go so far as to beat them up or discriminate them everywhere they go. It’s crazy what people have to go through to be accepted or just to make a living in peace without getting harassed. I think this play was yet again one that would be understood better if watched since their were different scenes going on at the same time. Overall it was pretty good.
To me the strongest character in the play would be Naima. She’s strong because even though she’s going through all this harassment at home and whenever she goes out, she still does what she needs to do without being so afraid from the harassment she will put up with. An example of this was when Chris and Jeff offered to walk her to the store and she refused. Another example is that she wasn’t afraid to put on the hijab, which everyone knows is a Muslim symbol. She cared more about pleasing her husband and family than thinking about the consequences that she will go through as a result of wearing it. Although we do see some paranoia in her character with her husband Khalil, she’s still a strong character with putting up with him. I do believe he cheated because he “claims” that the lady he talked to was only a “friend”. Unlike his wife, I feel that he is not a strong character at all. He seems selfish to want Sunima to stay home from college and not care about her love for Roger. I understand that the death of his son Nabhil caused him a lot of pain, but he seems like he doesn’t know how to deal with it. He starts talking to other women, he goes to the bar and gets drunk, and kind of gets away from his religion. He also becomes very selfish with his daughter. Not only that but I kind of feel like he didn’t treat his wife very good. He always seemed to have an attitude with her.
I am kind of surprised as to why Sunima was taking a whole different attitude about the discrimination that goes on with her culture, and her brother’s death. Her character seemed kind of shady and also selfish because she only goes to visit her family just to tell them that she’s going to get married. She was never really there for them. I guess maybe she doesn’t really realize the type of discrimination her family is going through since at school she seems to be in a whole different environment but on the other hand, she too needed to deal with the loss of her brother. It’s a little weird that she was taking it so lightly, like she was in her own little world where telling her family about Roger was her only goal.
Overall, the play had a good ending. I feel by erasing Nabhil’s message, they kind of let all the grief go and go on with there lives. Especially, when Khalil started praying on his mat again. Naima also got home safely despite the harassment she had encountered and made peace with her husband.

And the Soul Shall Dance

And the Soul Shall Dance was a very interesting play to read. Not only was it about immigrants who are struggling to make a better life for themselves but its about Japanese immigrants. Until reading this play, I had never really realized the troubles Japanese immigrants encountered when coming to America. How they were forced to live in these small deserted camps, and couldn’t own properties of their own and moving every couple of years. I could really imagine how hard that had to be for them to make a stable living.

The character I found most interesting in the play would have to be Masako. Although she is only 11 years old, it was really hard for her to fit in either the American culture, or her family’s culture. She’s in the middle between both. I can imagine her struggling with her family at home, who probably wish she had a little more Japanese culture, and with any American she comes across, who is bound to treat her like she is different already. I liked her character because I can really relate to it, since I too had to go through the adaptation of both cultures (Egyptian and American) at the same time, when I was younger.  It was understandable though, how Masako and Emiko related to one another. They both had that lost feeling that they don’t belong where they are. Each one feels like her life can get better and seeks for a change. I felt really sympathetic for Emiko. Just thinking about her life, makes me a little upset. Not only was she forced by her parents to marry someone that she doesn’t love, but after saving up enough money to go back to Japan, Oka takes it from her to help his daughter come to America. That’s like the last bit of hope taken away from Emiko especially because of how abusive and disrespectful Oka treats her. Emiko is also portrayed as having an outgoing, younger personality than Hana. She likes to sing and dance, and sounds like in Japan, she was a free spirited character.  That is probably another reason why she and Masako get along so much.

Another character who I found interesting is Kiyoko. I kind of felt bad for her also.  She obviously did not have such a great time at Japan; living with her grandparents who reminded her of how unloved she was since her mom died. Even though she came to America to live with her dad, she had high hopes of living a better life, but when she encounters how her dad and stepmom go through with each other, she realizes that this isn’t better at all. I guess this is what helped her and Masako get along and actually find something to talk about or relate too: their lives in America despite if the fact that Masako is a Nisei and Kiyoko is an Issei. They are both encountering struggles, which is very significant to this play.

Mulatto

Color Struck wasn’t exactly the best play I ever read. I did like reading it because of its interesting dialogue that conveys that the characters are African Americans from the south. Overall, the play wasn’t that bad. It’s interesting because it depicts the same problems we have today. I did have an issue with both of the main characters, Emma and John, however.

Let’s start with Emma. I understand that she had self esteem issues about her skin tone because lighter skin girls got more attention from society, but sometimes she got so paranoid, that she was almost obnoxious. John may have sent some flirtatious messages to Effie, but it got to the point where Emma didn’t even want him looking at her or anyone else that was female. I think that could get a little annoying if you are in a relationship with someone because not only does he know that she has low self esteem which would not be attractive to most guys, but she was too paranoid. When I was reading the play, there were some parts of it, where I just wanted to tell her to shut up. For example, the fact that she didn’t want to go on stage with John, seemed so stubborn. It was pointless for her to not have gone since John would have danced with only her anyway. This jealousy and paranoia may have been the cause of her daughter’s death and I think that is very selfish of her. I know that she was stunned to see john, but she cared more about him liking her “mulatto” daughter, than actually getting her sick daughter help immediately. I think her jealousy was one of the reasons why she had a bad life. Maybe it was because in a way she pushed everybody out of it unknowingly due to her self esteem. Not just john, because he himself wasn’t exactly a great person, but if she was like that with John, then she may have been like that with any guy that she dated.

Also John’s character was kind of selfish in a way. As much as Emma told him how she felt about him flirting with lighter skinned women, he did it anyway. He didn’t seem to have any respect for her or for the way she feels. I thought it was really disrespectful when he came back to her 20 years later when his wife died, just because he wanted to get married. Emma was like his backup plan. To be honest, if I was Emma, I would have married John just to use him since she was so poor and still had feelings for him anyway. However, I did feel John was right when he told Emma that “she despises her own skin, that she can’t believe anyone else would love it.”

            I thought the article “She’s Pretty for a Dark-Skinned Girl…”was very interesting because the author was right when she said that lighter skin girls are always more adored than the darker skin ones. Many models today are light skin, in hip-hop music videos, most of the girls are either light skin or not even black. I just can’t understand why African American’s themselves think darker skin girls are less attractive. It’s crazy how they still have this depiction till today. This article is very relevant to my personal experiences, because when I was in high school, I would always notice that the light skin girls do get a lot more attention from guys than the darker skin girls. I think all types of race, and culture is beautiful. It’s sad that this has been a stereotype now, that lighter is more beautiful.

Lady Windermere's Fan

Out of both the plays we read this week, my favorite would have to be “Lady Windermere’s Fan” only because I got into it the most. I had a much harder time getting into the first play, “A Woman of no importance” although I did enjoy it most towards the end. Both plays however, shared some of the same things. They both criticized the English society, which I guess Oscar Wilde did purposely to show how they are all about higher class and social ranking, and that’s what matters to them. Also, both plays focused on women who was each deceived by a man. In “Lady Windermere’s Fan”, Mrs. Erlynne, betrayed her husband and daughter for another man, but he had also betrayed her, leaving her with nothing. In “A Woman of No Importance”, Lord Illingworth lied to Mrs. Arbuthnot when she got pregnant with his child and promised her he would marry her. Of course, he never did, which made her live a secret and guilty life of sin.

            In “Lady Windermere’s Fan”, the fan played a lot of significance in the play. Although it was just an unimportant object that Lady Windermere received as a birthday gift from her husband, we see it throughout the whole play and it became important to a few characters. For example, from the beginning of the play we see it as being significant because it was a birthday present from Lady Windermere’s husband, who throughout the play was the one who was thought to have been cheating on her that whole time. We then see it as a weapon against Mrs. Erlynne, when Lady Windermere threatened to hit her with it if she had come to her birthday ball. We then see it when it is left in Lord Darlington’s room and Mrs. Erlynne told the men, she thought it was her own fan and grabbed it by mistake. She then wanted to keep it purposely to remember her daughter by. Not only that, but Lord Windermere, wanted to get rid of it even though it was his own gift, because he had thought of it to be in the hands of a sinner, something that shouldn’t be touch by his wife who is known to be pure and of innocence.

            Overall I liked the play. It was kind of interesting reading something from the Victorian period in England, where we can see how the high class interacted with each other. I think Oscar Wilde made a great point in showing how English people care more about their money and their reputation, than someone who is a puritan, who in both plays, were looked down at.