Puppet Presentation

The professor from CalState San Bernadino is incredibly funny. And she's so amazing at manipulating the puppets. The big floppy blue one looked exactly like how the ones on TV look and act. I was so intrigued. The cat one creeps me out though. It just looks scary. Especially the eyes. Definitely the eyes. But it's awesome how she made all of these herself. Of course, I loved the Nerf balls covered in cloth on a stick. There's so much thought put into a simple movement that people would just do normally. Puppeteers are so amazing. Instead of my Nerf ball doing what it was supposed to, I tended to do the movement instead even though I didn't need to move at all. And then my Nerf ball looked strangely spastic. Especially making him act all ninja; I could not do that at all. The detail put into making your hand talk like a mouth is also so interesting. Did not ever realize that our mouths speak in syllables. If she hadn't told us, I would've just opened and closed my hand whenever I started a new word. And the whole throwing thing or whatever to make moving the thumb joint easier, never would have noticed or thought of it. Actually, I don't think I'd even realize that only the THUMB is supposed to move. I move my entire hand. But now that I think about it, it really is only our jaw that moves. Wow, learning new things every day.

Puppet Scripts/Making

So we were supposed to devise a script based off an international fairytale or folktale. My group (Irene, Cindy, Celestine, Natalie, and me) chose a Filipino one where a beautiful princess is walking along the river and she meets the King Crab but she's disgusted by him so she runs away and shuns him when he asks her to talk. He is completely offended and goes after her to attack her. He scratches up her face and when she tries to wash the cuts with river water, her skin begins to turn into scales and then she becomes this ugly fish. Devising a script is harder than I thought it would be (everything seems to be like that). We just wanted to make our characters say random things but when we really looked at it, it didn't seem appropriate. Not in like the bad inappropriate but it just didn't fit what the story should be and where it was from. It's also really hard to change some of the story into actual dialogue (did I spell that wrong? the computer underlined it in red) so we had a lot of Narrator parts. But then Ms. Karr told us that that was bad. So we're making the characters pretty much announce what they're doing now. I'm not quite sure if it works better, but at least most of the Narrator is gone now. I'm also responsible for making the trees for our setting. It's quite fun except cutting them out is a bit annoying. Even though I only have two trees.

PPP Pitch

Eric and Kaitlyn wrote this together after I left Kaitlyn's house, so I don't really know what this is. Especially the theatre part that I didn't understand, they still wrote theatre-in-the-round. Maybe I'm confusing things, I don't even know anymore. But this is the pitch:

Our inspiration for this was Calvin’s toy Hobbes. It will be about a young boy and his father who lost his job and the family has to move into a Hooverville. In the play, the father finds a new job in a candy factory. He begins at the bottom occupation as a person who places candies in the boxes. In the beginning, he is ill-tempered, but his son inspires him to work harder. Eventually, he becomes a manager and succeeds. The father will wear ragged clothes in the beginning, and as he becomes wealthier, his clothes will become more formal. His son will have ragged clothes as well. The people competing with the father for jobs will also be wearing ragged clothing. The boss will wear a suit. It will take place in a theatre-in-the-round stage to make the audience feel closer to the performance. The lighting will be very dark and ominous in the beginning and towards the end; the stage will be brightly lit to show how wealthy he has become. There aren’t many props that will be used, maybe a conveyer-belt-looking-thing with some boxes and candies on top to show them working. Also, the child will have a toy tiger that he talks to and plays with. Father will have a suitcase as he goes higher up in pay. The set will be made mostly of cardboard boxes in the beginning, and there will be more furniture in their house towards the end of the play.

The word count is 249 which is pretty amazing. At least I think it's amazing. I'm just blogging about this since I haven't in a while.

Practice PPP

I went to Kaitlyn's house today to work on this thing. I still don't really understand how we're supposed to take something as inspiration and expand on it. Like I understand that we'll need to research on what our idea is, the setting, the clothing of the time period, etc. but where does this expanding on the actual inspiration thing itself come from? Our inspiration is the cartoon from last year of Calvin and Hobbes.

This is what we eventually came up with:

Background of the Great Depression
• Started in October 1929 with Black Tuesday (crash of the stock market)
• 25% unemployment in the United States
• Establishment of Hoovervilles, usually around the railroads
• Bank robbers such as Bonnie and Clyde become heroes because bankers were so unpopular
• Many fathers left home to find employment
• Coincided with Dust Bowl in the Great Plains
• Bonus Army kicked out of DC by General MacArthur on the orders of Hoover
• New election of F.D. Roosevelt and his New Deal
• Many people lining the streets selling apples to try to make money.
• This background information wil be used to

General Storyline
• A family is forced to leave their home because they are no longer able to pay for the housing
o This is because the father has currently lost his job store clerk
o Now, they have to move into a Hooverville
• At this time, the father is distraught while the boy remains optimistic
o The boy will have a stuffed animal which will later be used as a parallel to the son and the father. The stuffed animal is inspiration for the boy to remain happy while the boy is inspiration for the father to work.
• The father then spends days looking for a new job
• He is disappointed because he cannot find one
• He comes back ill-tempered and unhappy while his son cannot understand why
• Then, he finds a job at a candy store. He is a candy boxer.
• He meets the boss—who is very generous
o He is benevolent and he wants to lower his work load, thus he looks for a manager. However, while he is observing, he does not tell anyone he is looking for a new boss of the company.
o The problem: the father is at a very low level of work. He has to work his way up to prove that he can be the manager.
• He works hard and he quickly is promoted because the boss is impressed by his diligence.
• There is an antagonist. There is a co-worker, named Louis, who wants to please the boss.
o He tries to sabotage the father. However, he eventually is caught and is on bad terms with the boss.
• Ultimately, the boss favors the father in the end. And in the end of the story, the boss reveals that the father will be able to take over the company.


Setting:

Source: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://arizona.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341bf80c53ef011168d02683970c-500wi&imgrefurl=http://www.blogforarizona.com/blog/2009/03/bushvilles-the-new-hoovervilles.html&usg=__Yo1hd241NBiWtHD_iH_H8WBm-MY=&h=340&w=437&sz=27&hl=en&start=0&sig2=ETindzVOEqO8t4u6T3piSg&zoom=1&tbnid=1aVoZBaEv08VCM:&tbnh=124&tbnw=158&ei=iGKQTPHKPJHAsAOTubx8&prev=/images%3Fq%3DHoovervilles%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26biw%3D1366%26bih%3D571%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=289&vpy=106&dur=923&hovh=198&hovw=255&tx=114&ty=119&oei=iGKQTPHKPJHAsAOTubx8&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0 -- In this picture, we learned how the setting should look like.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www3.niu.edu/~td0raf1/radicalunionism/548_154_hooverville_umsl.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www3.niu.edu/~td0raf1/radicalunionism/unemployed.htm&usg=__pivp_ZT8Qp9lQh3SPBTDEbEMISU=&h=484&w=502&sz=33&hl=en&start=0&sig2=Nm7NLgkPavK9OvLviWYxMg&zoom=1&tbnid=HC7Lv6Nb28GuCM:&tbnh=126&tbnw=135&ei=BmSQTKTCLovQsAPf0sF6&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dhooverville%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1366%26bih%3D571%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:10%2C3&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=293&vpy=260&dur=1415&hovh=220&hovw=229&tx=181&ty=195&oei=BmSQTKTCLovQsAPf0sF6&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:15,s:0&biw=1366&bih=571 – from this image, we learned what an individual Hooverville looks like.
Hooverville like the one pictured above.
In the play, the focus family specifically living in a particularly shabby and quickly thrown together house made of wooden planks and a cardboard box.


http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://arizona.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341bf80c53ef011168d02683970c-500wi&imgrefurl=http://www.blogforarizona.com/blog/2009/03/bushvilles-the-new-hoovervilles.html&usg=__Yo1hd241NBiWtHD_iH_H8WBm-MY=&h=340&w=437&sz=27&hl=en&start=0&sig2=ETindzVOEqO8t4u6T3piSg&zoom=1&tbnid=1aVoZBaEv08VCM:&tbnh=124&tbnw=158&ei=iGKQTPHKPJHAsAOTubx8&prev=/images%3Fq%3DHoovervilles%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26biw%3D1366%26bih%3D571%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=289&vpy=106&dur=923&hovh=198&hovw=255&tx=114&ty=119&oei=iGKQTPHKPJHAsAOTubx8&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0

The factory will somewhat look like this in the production. This will be part of the setting because the father will spend a lot of time working there.


http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://arizona.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341bf80c53ef011168d02683970c-500wi&imgrefurl=http://www.blogforarizona.com/blog/2009/03/bushvilles-the-new-hoovervilles.html&usg=__Yo1hd241NBiWtHD_iH_H8WBm-MY=&h=340&w=437&sz=27&hl=en&start=0&sig2=ETindzVOEqO8t4u6T3piSg&zoom=1&tbnid=1aVoZBaEv08VCM:&tbnh=124&tbnw=158&ei=iGKQTPHKPJHAsAOTubx8&prev=/images%3Fq%3DHoovervilles%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26biw%3D1366%26bih%3D571%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=289&vpy=106&dur=923&hovh=198&hovw=255&tx=114&ty=119&oei=iGKQTPHKPJHAsAOTubx8&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0 – This picture helped us imagine what the line for getting the job looked like. Setting up what the Great Depression looks like.

This image represents many men during the Great Depression lining up for the job. This image will help us set up the scene in which the father is waiting in line hoping to get picked for the job in the candy factory.
Staging:
• Either in theatre in the round so that the audience can see the full set.
• Or in a proscenium theatre depending on which would work best for blocking.



http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.playhousecompany.com/images/drama.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.playhousecompany.com/drama.html&usg=__13_dJyiFizQ_pNMLw8eU5khtHp4=&h=428&w=640&sz=35&hl=en&start=21&sig2=N23hHwK9Z7rOEz2lpZBkGw&zoom=1&tbnid=Zr9loqbrZtzCKM:&tbnh=125&tbnw=205&ei=SmiQTJn0K4vEsAPey-SxDg&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dtheatre%2Bin%2Bthe%2Bround%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1366%26bih%3D571%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:10%2C342&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=239&vpy=225&dur=7481&hovh=183&hovw=275&tx=175&ty=86&oei=CGiQTKuZMoL4sAOwifV5&esq=5&page=2&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:21&biw=1366&bih=571 . – This gives us an image as to what a theatre- in the round looks like. This gives us an idea with the amount of space the staging has.

Costuming
• Still presentable clothes at the beginning
• Clothes gradually become shabbier and more patched up
• Only one outfit per character but with clothes layered on so the outfit looks slightly different depending on the season.
• Father and sons: winter coat (younger ones with more secondhand), wool pants (different lengths, some look like they have been outgrown), beat-up looking shoes, newsboy caps for sons.
• Mother and daughters: winter coats, leggings/ tights, very simple dress with minimal decorations, similar shoes to the male characters possibly a hat similar to a sunhat.













http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1108/706103675_b07ab61127.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.loansafe.org/forum/great-depression-2/17395-how-did-women-suffer-great-depression.html%3Fpagenumber%3D&usg=__BR54ygUvRVOTEbn2TK15AS54UPw=&h=309&w=500&sz=106&hl=en&start=0&sig2=v9vpDWgfbALmHfmPa2M1Lg&zoom=1&tbnid=hj0zvtIl9rGQFM:&tbnh=122&tbnw=166&ei=MWyQTOqqH4H4swP1qIx9&prev=/images%3Fq%3DGreat%2BDepression%2Bwomen%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1366%26bih%3D571%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=608&vpy=255&dur=1040&hovh=176&hovw=286&tx=176&ty=99&oei=MWyQTOqqH4H4swP1qIx9&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=23&ved=1t:429,r:11,s:0


This is the costuming for the men and boys. Each of them are dressed in shabby brown clothing and do not have many decorations. They are not wearing suits, but rather some overalls, and some heavy torn-looking clothing. The clothes are undersized, for the most part.


http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1108/706103675_b07ab61127.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.loansafe.org/forum/great-depression-2/17395-how-did-women-suffer-great-depression.html%3Fpagenumber%3D&usg=__BR54ygUvRVOTEbn2TK15AS54UPw=&h=309&w=500&sz=106&hl=en&start=0&sig2=v9vpDWgfbALmHfmPa2M1Lg&zoom=1&tbnid=hj0zvtIl9rGQFM:&tbnh=122&tbnw=166&ei=MWyQTOqqH4H4swP1qIx9&prev=/images%3Fq%3DGreat%2BDepression%2Bwomen%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1366%26bih%3D571%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=608&vpy=255&dur=1040&hovh=176&hovw=286&tx=176&ty=99&oei=MWyQTOqqH4H4swP1qIx9&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=23&ved=1t:429,r:11,s:0

Women, like in this picture will also be dressed in shabby clothing. They mostly wear dark colors and sweaters. Others might wear light coats.


http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.sydneymate.com/store/stuffed-animal-toy/stuffed-lion-tiger/free-picture/tiger_plush_toy1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.sydneymate.com/store-det/stuffed-animal-toy/stuffed-lion-tiger/19597-OT.htm&usg=__U66Ix7gfYcwifhb12swVDIIghAs=&h=400&w=400&sz=38&hl=en&start=0&sig2=b8kT5DBG-JlRIeYsH3W6Dg&zoom=1&tbnid=VSXU1HcAfw-I_M:&tbnh=130&tbnw=128&ei=53KQTJmPAoXWtQPugb12&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dstuffed%2Btiger%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1366%26bih%3D571%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:10%2C114&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=594&oei=53KQTJmPAoXWtQPugb12&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=23&ved=1t:429,r:16,s:0&tx=100&ty=80&biw=1366&bih=571
Toy used as the center of the piece, held by the son. Does not necessarily have to be a tiger but it must be a bit worn to look like it has gone through everything with the boy. The tiger will show up over and over again to show that this is the inspiration for the boy to remain positive just like he is the inspiration for his father to keep working.

*I feel like they didn't understand when I said theatre-in-the-round because our picture is of a proscenium theatre but since Eric is writing the actual proposal part, maybe he wants to change it? I don't know. Whatever, it's not important.

In the Heights Review

I wanted to continue my post-every-day thing so I'll do my review now. I actually saw In the Heights in summer with Celestine and Irene. It was at the Pantages Theatre (I seem to see everything there which probably isn't a good thing). Before I say anything about the actual show itself, I was just really excited because the actress playing Vanessa, Lexi Lawson, was actually in Rent when I saw it (also at the Pantages) about a year ago. I am now so into the Broadway musical world that I recognize specific actors and actresses. Pretty proud of myself. Anyways, the actual production now. The set was amazingly intricate. The way you could see into each store and they could also be kind of "pulled out" or the scene could extend out into the stage while still being in the store was awesome. And the changes all happened so quickly. The transformation of the stage into the club was also pretty cool. The set itself was still recognizable but it was clear to the audience that the setting had changed, even without the dialogue. The lighting, mood, and music all were modified to fit what they should be in a club. The one thing about the set that didn't make sense to me, however, was the upstairs apartments. There was some guy from the chorus singing in one of them at one point, and then later, Benny and Nina come out from the same apartment? Do they all live together or something? I understand that the guy in the apartment earlier made the blocking more interesting but it was a bit weird that they would all live there. Especially since some girl was up there with a flag earlier, as well. Of course, I loved the music for this which is probably completely natural seeing as how this is a Broadway musical that is relatively popular. My favorite is definitely 96,000 just because of the way it sounds. And because the beginning where everyone goes 96,000 over and over again gets stuck in my head so much. I think I will embed a video of it here. Share the love.



I actually did not watch this but the video title said that it was so I'm just going to believe it right now. I lost my train of thought after looking for that video. Uhhhh... I don't think I had anything specific to say about the lighting since I cannot get over the set. At the end when they pulled down the mural the spray paint guy made, I started crying. IT WAS SO SAD. I can't believe that she died. It was terrible. Some of the choreography seemed a bit awkward to me at times. Like when the people would stop and just slow motion their last movement? I don't know how to describe it but I thought it was weird. Maybe it fit with the song, I'm not good at keeping up with lyrics especially since some words were Spanish and I just got really confused and blanked. Even though the Spanish was pretty English-related. Off topic, but Lexi Lawson (the actress that I saw last time) has really pretty legs. I was and am infinitely jealous of that.

Sidenote: I made dinner theatre. I am the only girl who got a guy part. I guess I was so amazing they had to change the guy role to female just for me. /in self-conceited mode right now.

Dinner Theatre Callbacks

This is also going to be a short, relatively unnecessary post telling of callbacks. This was better than yesterday because most of the intimidating advanced drama kids were in the performing arts center doing callbacks for the fall play. I actually did not even bother to try out for that because I was already too scared. My life is so pathetic. Anyways, callbacks were also better because the part I had to read this time, I understood this character so much better. I think it's kind of funny how I got called back for a guy's part, but I'm not complaining. I'm aristocratic and snobby now. That can totally happen naturally, considering how fabulous I am in real life (just kidding, even though I really am pretty fabulous). Okay, I'll stop now, my blog is getting too blog-ish. But I'm excited since I think I did way better today than yesterday so hopefully I got in! :)

Dinner Theatre Auditions

I realize that I am blogging like every single day for the past three days which is weird but everything seems to be coming up at the same time. I don't know why. Anyways, this post is going to be relatively short outside of these unnecessary sentences I'm sticking in. Today was dinner theatre auditions as my title says. I kinda regret going now because I feel so inferior compared to the kids in actual drama. I mean, us IB kids don't do anything outside of what is necessary for class. I felt so out of it. And also, pantomime is infinitely harder than it looks like. I was not quite sure how to do it but some people did it SO WELL. Seriously, these auditions are not good for my self-confidence. And I was like shaking the whole time. If you looked at my paper closely, it was shaking. I was so nervous, I don't even know why. Oh well. Whatever.

EDIT: OMG, I MADE CALLBACKS. I don't even care if it's just because I know Anna and Cindy, I'm so excitedddddd. HAHAHAHA.