Things to think about while reading:
- What do you think of the transition from one story to the other?
- What do you think about the way it's staged?
- What is the character's need to tell? Why is she telling this story?
- What is the dramatic action? Meaning what does the character want and how does she attempt to achieve it?
- How do you feel about the piece's language? It's pacing? The characters? You get the point.
I also just want to hear your initial thoughts about the piece. What did you like about the piece? What didn't you like? Things of that sort. Remember to post a few of your thoughts in the comment. Looking forward to discussing this with you guys in class on Wednesday.
-The transitions are kind of rough - she just says "Okay. This is...," which doesn't really make for a smooth transition.
ReplyDelete-The staging is very interesting. The slide show is an interesting take on how to show her story instead of using actors to tell the story. I love when she gets up and starts acting out her memory. Also, the staging is very specific - it is said when to cross to center, when to cross to stage right, etc.
-She is telling about her family life, mainly about her father. She also says that she has a checklist of things she wants to say to her father before he dies. Her final line in the play is, "I'm putting my hand on my father's life." This makes me think that her purpose is explaining her father's life as a whole and about how wonderful it was.
-I want to sit here and say that she wants to inform the audience about her father, but I know that is not specific enough. She wants to gather all the information about her father to prove how much he truly means to her. She succeeds in the end by recalling wonderful events in his life and showing how much they mean to her.
-She paces the story well, speeding up when she needs to and going into grave detail at other times. She paints a beautiful picture of her father, one which I can see him inside and out. The ending was my favorite part as far as pacing and language goes. She explains her thoughts completely, and then she ends with such a powerful line.
Overall, I liked this play, but at the same time I did not. It was an interesting choice, but it will definitely help us with our monologues. It told a story, but it told it in a way that worked, which we all talked about the other day in class! I liked some moments more than others (when she recalled about walking into Auschwitz for the first time was powerful!), but some moments bored me (when she talks about the specifics of traveling).
I believe this play, although slow at times, represents what a good story teller can do by herself. I enjoyed the metaphorical context of the trip to Cedar Pointe and the trip to Germany (concentration camps). This is a powerful image in that it shows the audience that there are connections to both places-mainly both being considered tourist destinations. The camps represent what some may see from a historical vantage while cedar pointe is a place to ride roller coasters that permit you to feel danger of death without really being in danger. The camps, on the other hand, represent death itself and the writer explores the idea of why people are attracted to death, or the danger of it. The pacing was slow at times and the transitions fuzzy-but all in all, it was an interesting attempt at a one person performance. I think watching it live would have effected me a little more as it pertains to the characters. Adam Command
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