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.