Final blog

Last Friday, I had my last Literature and Performance class for the year. During that class period, my group finished working on our final project when we performed our adaption for the entire class to watch. My whole group worked really hard on making the adaption be the best it could be and I think that the performance turned out very well.
One of our biggest successes was being able to convey the complex backstory of our characters, as there were very complex family dynamics among the characters in Miranda's family, and the events that did not occur on stage, such as the destruction caused by the moon falling out of orbit after it was hit by an asteroid. My group also did a good job at clarifying her complex way that time worked in our production, as there is a pattern of changing from scenes of what the family's lives are like after the destruction caused by the moon moving out of its orbit to flashbacks of events that happened between the moon crisis. The clarity of these ideas are extremely important to our adaption because these help give the scenes context, which makes the audience better understand the plot.
Despite our eventual success, making these aspects clear to the audience was extremely hard and took a lot of work. My group had to work on several different revisions of the script, as each one included more lines about these subjects, which allowed for the plot to be more clear. This was most important for the development of the characters' relationships, as they were reflected in the addition of new lines, and the establishment of the events involving the moon and the changes that happened to Earth, as we chose not to stage that scene, as my group decided to focus more on the development of the characters and their relationships. We also used different lighting to help distinguish the pattern of the flashbacks and current events. My group used the same kind of stage lighting for all the scenes that were flashbacks that looked distinctly different than the type of stage lighting that was used during all the scenes that occurred in the present. This allowed it to be more clear to the audience when each scene was set, as there was a visual pattern of the lighting used. The structure of time was also helped by the use of costumes and set changes.
I think that my performance showed great improvement. I was able to memorize most of my lines and was able to ad-lib the ones that I did not know exactly, but I knew the point. I also extended my acting abilities, as I played a character that is very different from myself or any other character that I have ever played. She also was going through something that I have never experiences, such as starving during the apocalypse, which was also a challenge at times. Despite these challenges, I worked very hard and was able to have a very successful adaption of my group's play put on. I also had a lot of fun doing it, which I think is the best and most important part of it, which is something that I can say about all of my experiences in Literature and Performance class this year.

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Comedy Tonight-

Outside of class, I have been working on the school's spring theater production. I have been working with the cast and crew on the performance for several months in preparation for putting this show on. The show is a mix of skits written by members of the CA community, including myself, and musical numbers from a variety of different sources. My job for this performance was to sing in the ensemble, direct and write one of the skits, and act in several other skits. All of us worked really hard to put on a great show and  I think that all our hard work paid off.
Most of the performers in the cast and crew were returning to drama, as they had worked on previous shows at school before, but many of the people were trying out new roles, like being actors, directors, writers, and crew members. I was one of those people, as I have never written or directed any kind of performance that was outside of Literature and Performance class, let alone in front of an audience of about 100 people! I am extremely exited to say that I think that it went well, as the audience was laughing so hard that I could hear them backstage. All the other skits also got a lot of laughs and the audiences loved it both nights.
We also had very few significant bumps, yet the three big ones we had all, coincidentally, involved me. The first was that one of the actors in one of the skits that I was in forgot to come out on stage in the beginning of the scene, so that when the narrator of the documentary in the skit made several references to him, despite him not being there. He did come out at the perfect time, so I didn't need to talk to the air. I also accidentally came out at the wrong time for a scene change and ended up having to be in a, thankfully, short scene between two aliens. One of the other actresses was sick and could not go on during one of her scenes, so I had to go on in her place and read her lines from a clipboard, because I had never read the script and had rarely saw the scene. It went well, as I was proud of my performance, read all the lines correctly, and even got some laughs along the way.
I loved being in all three plays this year and can't wait for the next one, but now I have more time to focus on my final performance for class, which I also love doing.

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Final Project Progress Report

For my final project, I am putting on several different scenes from Life As We Knew It with a group of my classmates, Jack, John, Grace, and Michael. We have been working on it for a couple of weeks now and my group has made a lot of significant progress on our final project over the past week. We worked on memorizing our lines and blocking, so that we could perform our first draft. After getting some feedback yesterday from the class, we edited our script and blocking, that we now are working on memorizing. I think that it is going quite well.
I helped Grace revising the script, which included adding information about Jack's character and what happened to the moon, by giving her suggestions of what people could say and where they could say them before she wrote the script outside of class. This enables us to make the entire plot more clear to the audience. I also did a good job at memorizing my blocking for the scenes. I also worked on developing my character, Miranda, by making significant changes in her behavior and personality before and after the moon is moved, which disrupts the planet. I also worked on being able to do the scene changes needed for the performance with the people in my group quite well. We just assigned people to certain props and set pieces, which they were in charge of moving, which was a lot easier than when I had to do most of the scene changes during my last Literature and Performance project.
The biggest issue that I have is with memorizing my new lines. For me, the task of memorizing lines is one of the most challenging things that people have to do when they act. I am better at memorizing blocking, because it usually is somewhat logical and smaller amounts of it than the amounts of lines that I have. It also helps that if I do it enough when I practice I can remember it better and I am able to remember it at a much faster rate than the lines. My group is quite good at memorizing the lines and their blocking, so it gave me a less time during class to focus on learning them with my group in things like read through. Now, that I learned my blocking, I can now turn my focus to learning the new lines and getting more confident on the older ones that I know.
My group has clarity of their scripts as the biggest problem that they have to deal with. I think that this new addition to our script, plus adding lighting, costuming, and potentially sound clues will help make some of the more confusing parts more clear to the audience.
The other group, whose performance about a man's murder, was extremely entertaining, because it was extremely comical. The actors in that group had very good characterization and the ones that were memorized were able to do a great job. The other group had a problems with the clarity of their scene, because some aspects, like some of the relationships between the characters, was confusing and had some seemingly contradictory information. However, they are going to revise their script, use props, and wear costumes that would all help with this.
I am having a great time working on my final project and watching the other group's. I just can't wait to see the results of all our hard work look like!

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Final Progect Update!

For my final Literature and Performance project, I get to work with Michael, Grace, John, and Jack. Our adaption was originally going to be based on several scenes from the book, The Giver, but we decided to change the subject of our adaption to a different novel. We chose to adapt, Life As We Knew It, a novel told from the perspective of a young girl named Miranda about her and her family's life after the Earth drastically changes when a meteor pushes the moon out of its orbit. In the adaption, I will be playing the role of Laura, Miranda's mother and one of the central characters in our adaption.  In class, we have been working on our adaption  for about a week now and we have made a large amount of progress on the project.
One of the areas that we have made the most progress in is the selection of the scenes from the novel that we are going to perform. As Grace was the only member of our group to have read the actually book and I only read a summary of it, we were quite limited on the scene choices. This was because of the fact that we had to heavily rely on Grace's information about the novel and her opinions about the individual scenes when choosing the scenes. However, we were able to work together with Grace on picking the scenes, because we read several different summaries on the book, some of which were very detailed, and Grace also provided us with further information. We also had to chose a scene for each actor that centered around their character.
We also made a lot of progress on our script, as my group worked together to finish it on Friday. By using Google Docs and discussing it at the same time, each of the members of my group were able to work at the same time on the script that we were writing. It also allowed us to have a large amount of say in the creation of the script. It also let us have a large say in the creation of our characters, as we all worked on writing our own character's lines.m
I think that we are off to a great start to our project. I am having a lot of fun working on it with my group. Soon, we will start to stage our adaptions and I will tell you all about it.




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The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time The Play Edition

Recently, my classmates and I went into New York City to see the play "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" on Broadway. I had a lot of fun going into New York City with all my friends. I even got a cute little button with a face on it because I won a game that they play at the show. However, despite how much fun I had, I had mixed felling about how they  adapted the book into a play.
I really enjoyed the fact that they tried to simulate the mind of an autistic person for the audience by playing loud noises and bright lights randomly. I also liked how the stage was set up as a giant grid, because this is an excellent way to reflect how much Christopher loves numbers and how integral they are to his ways of thinking. I also thought that it was super inventive that they used a screen that could have images that correspond to the plot rejected as the backdrop of the scene. This made a very interesting way around having very limited amounts of props, set pieces, and actors. My favorite part was when Christopher was looking for Toby and almost got run over by the train, because they got to use a lot of different projections and kinds of lights to make the set seem realistic for the audience. The only part of the play that I enjoyed more was when Christopher got Sandy, because Sandy was one of the cutest puppies I have ever seen and I loved how happy Christopher got when he got Sandy.
I did have some problems with the adaption, despite the parts that I greatly admired. I think that Mr. Shears is presented as a nicer character and more sympathetic than in the novel. This was greatly disappointing, because Mr. Shears is the main villain in the novel and the play presented him as a sarcastic guy that was placed in a difficult situation, instead of the abusive, drunk monster he was in the book. I also thought that the acrobatics that were part of the play were kind of strange and I didn't really like them. I'll admit that they were cool, but they mostly felt random, out of place distractions for the audience that served legitimately no purpose whatsoever.  It also ignores the fact that Christopher states several times throughout the show that he hates to be touched. I also was kind of let down by the large amount of humor that they added to the show, because it kind of takes away from how serous the story is.
Overall, I really enjoyed seeing the play on Broadway. It gave me a lot of insight into different ways to stage plays that I would never think of, especially that acrobatics thing, because I am a stickler for sticking to the basic points of the plot. I also thought it was so cool to be able to see a book be brought to life before our eyes, because bringing things from people's imagination to life is one of my favorite parts of theater.

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In class writing

1-The poem has only one stanza with twelve lines. The entire poem is only one sentence long. There is a slant rhythm pattern that goes ABACDBEBFGHB. There are many different words that are highlighted as they are randomly capitalized along with capitalizing the words that begin each line. This is extremely important, as almost all of the capitalized words have to do with nature, like "The Hill" and what the poem describes nature as "Harmony(Lines 1 and Lines 9)." This random capitalization helps connect the different parts of nature that are described in the poem, while also distancing these symbols from everything else in the poem, which is mostly the words that relate to human beings, as the "we" is implied to be humans(Line 1). This is very important, as it shows that the speaker, much like Emily Dickinson herself, relates more closely to nature instead of other people. The tone of the poem starts off on a more happy note, when the speaker describes the beauty and wonderfulness of nature. However the tone quickly shifts to a darker tone as the speaker describes human being's lack of appreciation for nature and that humans can not even begin to comprehend how wonderful nature is.
2-The poem is largely talking about how many people are unable to fully understand or appreciate nature's beauty, despite surrounding all people. This is clearly shown when the speaker says that "Nature is what we know—Yet have no art to say- So impotent Our Wisdom is to her Simplicity (Lines 10- Line 13)." These lines shows how people are entirely inadequate to acknowledge or respect nature in the way that it deserves, despite the fact that people see it all around them. This connection is also build by the fact that all the words relating to nature are capitalized, while all the words that are implied to be about human beings are not. It also draws the focus away from the people and towards nature to help correct this injustice. It also creates a distinct connection between the speaker and Emily Dickinson as Emily held similar beliefs about human beings, which implies that the speaker may be herself or some form of herself.

Proposal

In preparation for our IB exam in May, my Literature and Performance class read the book, The Whale Rider. In class, we have been discussing the book. My classmates also have to design our own version of the novel that would be performed as a play.
My adaption would be focused on the family dynamics between Kahu's family. One of the things that I would change about the novel would be that the whales would be minimally involved in the play. This is because it draws away from the focus on the family and is extremely challenging to stage both the actual whales themselves and the entire plot about the whales without looking entirely ridiculous. I also would tell Rawiri's stories about his time abroad in the opposite way that it is told in the book. I would move the stories that Rawiri mentions in his narration about his family's life to the center of the stage, with his times in the other countries to be shorter stories told by one of his family members as if they are reading one of his letters to Kahu.  I would also need to add more action that would happen with his family at home, so that there is enough things to happen in the large interval of time that he is gone.
There would also be major changes to the characters that I would include, decides the whales being made into background characters. I would shift the focus to be more on Kahu herself, as she has a very interesting story and is unintentionally the center of most of the family dynamics that the book explored. I also would add a small amount of interactions between Porourangi, because he was mostly left our of the novel, yet would have an extremely interesting role in the family dynamics that would be explored in my adaption. I also would cut out many of the unimportant characters, such as the boys that hangs out with and Jeff, because they have little impact on the outcome of the story and could only distract the audience from the main focus of my play, which is the family dynamics.
     As my focus is the family dynamics, I would also minimize the roles of the gods and the magical realism in the play. While I would include some crucial  parts of the mythology that are needed to help guide the audience through the plot of the play, most other examples of the mythology would be ignored. An example is how the stories behind Kahu's name and the whale rider would be kept,  while some of the periodical references to the gods would not be kept. This  would have played a very limited impact on the plot, especially since mine is focused on the family. It would also allow for the audience to focus more on the family and be less confused.
My stage would be extremely simple. One set would be for the outside of Nanny and Koro's house and the beach, which would, be shown by the ground being yellow and a palm tree. My second set would be their house's living room and their bedroom, which would be divided by a vertical wall at the center of the stage. My last set would be the ocean for where the whale's few scenes take place. It would have nothing on it, except for a blue backdrop at the back of the stage.
These are some of my ideas about my staging of The Whale Rider and the changes I would need to make to turn the novel into a play centered on the family dynamics.

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once on this island

Over the past few months, outside of class, I have been working on being part of my school's winter musical, Once On This Island. The musical is actually based on the book we read in Literature and Performance class, "My Love, My Love," which made it even more interesting, as I was even more familiar with the text.  In the musical, I played a gossiper, peasant, tree, and storyteller as part of the ensemble. All the cast and crew's hard work culminated last weekend when we had three separate performances of the musical, which went quite successfully.
There were quite interesting circumstances that we had to work under that made it more challenging to perform. Most of the cast was sick, which made performing more difficult. It made it harder to sing, but we persevered and continued. One of the members of the ensemble, Erin, was so sick during the last night that she could not go on during the waltzing number, so another cast member, Weike, in her place, with very little notice. One of the crew members got sick about a week before the play and she could not be part of the show, which made Mrs. Monhan take her place. Despite the short notice, she was able to do an amazing job overall, despite some bumps on the road.
Despite these problems, overall I think that we did a very good job. No one messed up on their lines in a completely obvious way. The only slight problem was that on Saturday night, Ryan, who played Daniel, skipped a couple of lines in his song. However, he continued and did such a good job, I never even noticed and I have been listing to the song for about three months straight. Everyone was loud with their lines, which is needed when having to speak over the orchestra's playing.Everyone was also very in character, which made the acting even better
  The dancing went well and the choreography must have looked great. The whole cast had energy in everything we did, especially in our dancing.  Our energy made the show more fun for the audience to watch and more exciting. We also played off of the audience, especially the audience on Saturday. That audience was the most active, yet strangest audience I have ever seen. They laughed when Julia, who played Ti Moune, tried to kill Ryan's character.
The singing was also amazing. The whole cast was able to hit almost all their notes,  even the people who were sick. Our voices blended together very well together. It also was helped by the pit, which was fantastic.
The only significant improvement I think that should be made to any of the musical would be the  the musical numbers, "The Sad Tale of the Bauxhommes." Despite everyone doing a great job during the musical number and everything going perfectly, none of the audiences found it to be very funny, as it was intended to be. This was mostly because the writing and the lyrics are so difficult to find funny at all by themselves and the humor does not match the tone of the musical at all. This must have caused the audience to take the number as a serious one, despite the use of puppets and ridiculous dancing. The only thing that could actually counteract is would have been to cut the number entirely or to make it even more ridiculous with more dancing and puppets.
Despite all our success, the biggest one was that we all had a lot of fun performing. After the success of this musical and all the fun I had performing in it, I can not wait to start working on our comedy skits, which is the spring production. I can not wait till I get to perform and have just as much fun. Bye bye.

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Oral presentation outline

Novel-
One sentence mini summary
Sexist nature of the book
No female figures in charge of their own fate
Deseré controlled by other male figures periodically throughout the book
Andrea has to marry Daniel after it was arranged by her parents
 Erzulie loses to Papa Gé over power
Mama Euralie has no real aspirations and restricts
Women stereotyped
Maman Eurelie is stereotypically over protective mother
Eurzulie controls love- more stereotypically feminine
Deseré is Cinderella
 Andrea plays rich women character
Asaka as more of a mother figure
Women seen as pawns in a game
Andrea promised to marry Daniel and manipulated by him
Deseré sees the only way to improve her life as marrying
Daniel is manipulated by Daniel
 Papa Gé and Agwe control Deserè's life
 Deserè dies after trying to stand up Daniel and deciding to not kill him
Adaption-
 Vision - show sexist nature of the play more blatantly
Changing genders portrayed-
Andrea made more sinister and manipulative to make Deserè more clearly a victim of sexism
Andrea was also established as being more connected to Papa Gè because of this more sinister nature of her
  Asaka and Eurzulie made into a man as she had some control over Deserè's fate
Asaka and Eurzulie also made into a man to make Deserè seem more like a victim, as they give her advice that demeaned her and takes advantage of her
Thematic Elements- Subjugation of women
Deserè made into a more clear women
All other characters are played by boys to show the differences between the characters and how it separates the treatment characters in the novel, especially Deserè
Message in both the book and our production is for women more clearly be rich and conform to men's standards to be happy and it is the only way to get a better life. It also is that standing up for yourself against men will lead to your death.
Message for men is that you can do whatever you want, especially to women, as long as you follow society's standards and everyone will still love you
Staging
      Overall performance-
Limited movements to focus on the dialogue
Limited blocking and props to reflect the limited descriptions in the novel
Deseré is never in the center of the stage center and the boys are always closer to stage  center to visually reflect how  Deserè and the other  female characters (in the novel) are never equal to the male characters in bot the adaption and the play
     Your Role-
  Character development
Weak willed to make her seem more like a victim and allows her to be manipulated by men
Loyal to a fault to show how the women do not stand up to the men, until the end when she stands up to the other male characters to show that the novel veiws standing up to men as the worst thing to do
Works in clothing factory as a seamstress to show she has a job that fits the stereotype of women being the ones who sew clothing
Wants to be an engineer to show that she wants to have a job that is stereotypically held by men and show she would give up her the only real thing about her that breaks the stereotype at the chance to get married instead
Conclusion-
 What learned
 How to work with a group in the area of creating an original performance
Making characteristics of a novel be shown in a theatrical adaption
Experience helped with the understanding the book
Highlighted the sexism in the novel
Look for important symbols that should be represented in the adaption that were crucial in the novel

Progress report

While working on “My Love, My Love” scenes, we have been working to develop our analysis of the play.  My group’s analysis of the play is that the play portrays women in a very sexist manner. So through the process of working on this theory and extending it into our performance, we came across some issue, but in the end, we were successful.  There has been some reluctance despite some issue that has come across through the time that our group has been working together.
One of the many ways that we showed the sexist nature of the book was by changing the genders of characters and making them more sinister.  This effectively made Desiree seem more like a victim than she does in the book.  The gender swapping also relates to the sexist nature of the book as Andrea is portrayed as a boy instead of a girl because it shows how Andrea is very manipulate and controlling in our adaption, despite the character itself remains a girl.
Through this process, the audience can more clearly see how sexist the book is as Desiree goes through her journey.  The male characters are also portrayed as more sinister because this victimizes Desiree while also staying consistent with the fact that it shows more sexism and he male treat Desiree and want her to chance.  It also shows that the one time she sticks up for herself, she is rejected by Daniel and dies as punishment for her actions.  This is not as clear in the book, as it seems almost unrelated. It was also highlighted by the fact that some of the characters change genders such as Asaka and Eurizuile.  IN the novel they have more power than most of the other women, but they are portrayed in a more sexist way as some of their more sexist-feminine ways remain.
We were successful in creating an atmosphere where it is quite clear that the difference between Desiree and the other characters is gender.  We were also successful in creating a more sinister place with the events that take place in our fictional city of New Haiti.  We also were able to use props, costuming, and dialogue to help illustrate the power that the more male characters have over Desiree.  We also changed the plot to have Andrea force Desiree to try to kill Daniel.  This represents the fact that she represents Papa Ge.
Despite our successes, we did come up with some problems that we had to deal with.  After trying to make Jack, one of my group members, into a girl, it was difficult to find costumes that fit his character without making Jack uncomfortable.  We also had conflicting ideas over some of the visions that we had over the role of the fortune teller and whether it was going to be someone who would help Desiree.  I thought that the fortune teller should be someone more interested in profiting off of Desiree problems and who didn’t’ genuinely care for her.  They thought that the fortune teller should care for Desiree.  In the end, we thought that the fortune teller should care for Desiree.
Overall, I think that my group did a good job of portraying the sexism form the novel in our performance.  We have been working hard and have been successful in this portrayal, and I think it is working out quite well.

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Adaption update

In the past few weeks, my class has been working on performing adaptions of "My Love, My Love." I am working with Adler and Jack on our modern adaption of the book, where I play Deseré. Our goal for our adaption is to show the sexist message of the book. We have been doing a lot of work on our adaption and it is coming along quite nicely.
The blocking of our adaption is quite good, because it reflects the power dynamics between the male and female characters quite well. An example of this is how I never am in the sender of the stage, as I am the only female character. It also draws focus to the important events, as it is quite simple and mostly is quite stationary. I also think that we have good chemistry, as it looks believable that we have the complex relationships between the characters in the adaption.  I also am doing quite well with the memorization of the blocking and my lines, which lets us have more freedom acting it out. I am also doing a good job leading my group, as I help Adler and Jack learn their lines. I also wrote the majority of the script and give most of the blocking.
I also noticed that we could improve on certain aspects in our performance. After seeing the differences in projection in the other actors performances, I realized that I need to be able to project a little more, while still giving the impression that I am more timid that the other characters in my scene. I also saw that pacing was quite important after watching one of the other groups go too fast, so I have to work on slowing down when I talk. I also noticed how important it is for certain characters to have definable characteristics, but in my case, I need to have my character, Deseré, have very few defining characteristics compares to the other characters.
I think we are also don't a very good job at making it show that the book is very sexist and promotes women to change themselves for men, as it shows that it is the only way to move up in society. The casting is very reflective of this , as a girl plays Deseré, a character that has very little influence in the story. This is very different from the more dominate characters, who are played by the boys. The staging is one of the best ways that this is shown. I do not go into center stage at all during the adaption, while the other characters are in center stage. I also speak quieter than the other characters. It also is significantly shown in the script. Deseré is repeatedly controlled by the other characters in the adaption. She also is shown to give up many different things for the benefit of the characters portrayed by the boys. The other characters also often diminish Deseré and her desires.
Over the past few weeks, my group has made a lot of progress on our adaption of "My Love, My Love." We have been working very hard on our scenes. The blocking, script, and performances have evolved over our many practiced during class and has turned into something amazing. With more time, our performance will only get better and better. I can not wait to share that progress with you.
 Write back soon.
Maddy L

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My Love, My Love Script and Blocking

(Light fades in on Deseré at desk sewing )

Narrator (offstage)- This is Deseré Moone. She has worked in her tiny town’s clothing factory since she dropped out of high school to work to provide for herself after her mama and dad’s death. Her parents adopted her after she was abandoned in a tree behind the factory and left her with no family or money after their death. She was all alone in a world that barely acknowledged her existence.

------(Daniel enters.)

Daniel(muttering)- I hate this stupid factory. Everything smells of oil. I wish I never left New Haiti. At least, in my apartment the other people in the hotel leave me alone.

(He pauses when his eyes lock on Deseré. They lock eyes for a minute, but he interrupts. )

Daniel- Hi, I'm Daniel. What is your name?

(Phone rings, interrupting her answer.)

Daniel- Sorry, Dad.(pause)I got lost, Dad.(pause) I have never been here before. I’m coming.

(Daniel exits quickly without looking back at Deserè)

Deseré- Deseré. My name is Deseré.

(Cut to black…

Light fades in on desire with the fortune teller.)

Narrator (offstage)- desire can't stop thinking about Daniel and decides that she is going to go to a fortune teller to get a plan of what she should do.

(Deserè is sitting down in the Fortune Teller’s office. He is in red light, symbolizing Erzulie.)

Desire-  He loves me. He loves me. One day we will get married and live in the city. I won't have to work in a factory. I can go to school and become an engineer...

Fortune teller- I get the idea. I know that love is the most powerful force in this world. Love should fuel your life. (Looking at crystal ball)

Desiré- I have just learned it’s power, as someone has thrown me under its spell.

Fortune teller- I see that the higher powers have sent Daniel here as a message to your destiny.

Deseré- But he lives in New Haiti. I don't think I will ever see him again here.

Fortune teller- Go to him. Go to him. That must be what the higher powers desire.

(Lights turn blue and resembles Agwe. )

Fortune teller- They have taken your parents from you. They plan for you to have someone to accept and love.

Deseré- Really? Me?

Fortune teller- They intend for you to have a family with Daniel, as long as you do what he wants and fit his “imagination.” This is their only requirement. Do this and you may get all your heart’s desires.

Deserè- I really will get a better life and become an engineer?

(Lights go back to normal and the Fortune teller becomes Asaka)

Fortune Teller- Yes, dear. You will be very happy. As I can see the future. I have planned for this day for many years. We have been quite close after your parent’s death.

Deserè- I know. You were my protector and taken good care of me. You have given me the best advice a girl could ask for and prevented many stupid decisions from being made. There are things that I could never repay you for...

Fortune Teller- I know. I have become quite fond of you. Here (hands her a suitcase). These should be all the things that you will need on your journey and your life in the city. Wait. I almost forgot one last thing. (Turns around to get scarf and shoes.)

Deserè-What did you forget?

Fortune teller(presents both objects and opens suitcase)- A scarf for warmth and pretty shoes to impress the people in New Haiti. Wait, there is only enough room for one. You chose.

Deserè- I choose the shoes.

Fortune teller( hugs Deserè)- hurry my dear Deserè. You must be on your way. (Deserè starts leaving) Remember what the higher powers said. (Deserè stops and listens) Loving Daniel will give you a better life. You will gain a family and your heart’s desire’s if you become what Daniel wants. Everything you need is in that suitcase.

Deserè- I know.(she leaves)

(Black out )

Narrator- (offstage)- Deserè takes her long journey to New Haiti. She gets to the gates of the city, exhausted but excited. There she is greeted, or rather mocked, by a cruel guard, who forbids her to enter the city.

Deserè- Please. I have been traveling for three days. I used all my money on the three train tickets and the bus pass. Please just let me in.

Guard- you do not have a pass for the poor. And I would never let a low life factory worker into my beautiful city.

Deserè- But I am here to see...

Guard- I have heard it all before, little girl. You're here to meet the mayor, the Pope, the president, gods, One Direction, but with those clothes, I would never allow you to enter the city.  You poor folk should stay with the poor people. The rich are clearly better than you poor people. go back to your town. That is where you belong.

Deseré- But I am destined to date Daniel Beauman. I was told by...

Guard- I don't care if gods flew down to tell you there. It wouldn't change a thing if they flew down on dragons or wrote it in flaming letters in the sky. The rich will never accept you as you are. You would need some miracle to change you to make you acceptable to Daniel and his standards. Those monstrosities on your feet would become the laughing stalk of the town. (Deserè opens the suitcase on the floor and puts on the shoes) What are you doing, you delusional little girl?

Deserè- Would these be more to your liking?

Guard- No. You are still poor, designated to live in the dirt. The only way I would ever let you in would be if you had a pass from a New Haiti citizen or if I was dead.

Another Guard (off stage)- Luie, come here. We need your help over here. Right now.

Guard- Ugh. Don't go anywhere unless you are going to go back to where you came from. (Guard exits)

Deseré- The higher powers must really must have made this my destiny. Now all I have to do is fall into Daniel’s desire. (Picks up her suitcase and walks slowly) Ouch, these shoes really hurt, but I must hurry. Daniel is waiting.

(Black out)

Narrator(offstage) - Deseré walked around the city for several hours looking for Daniel’s building. She finally got to the building, which was the tallest in the city, and waited till it was late at night. When it was finally dark, she snuck in through the back way for the maids and janitors by pretending to be a maid. She found his apartment after she got directions from one of the maids.

(Open on Daniel’s apartment. Daniel is sitting at his desk reading.Offstage, Deseré knocks on the door.)

Daniel- Who could that be? (He opens the door) you're the girl from the factory. I thought I would never see you again.

Deseré- Yes. My name is Deserè.

Daniel- Why are you here? How did you get here? It takes five hours to travel between the factory and New Haiti by helicopter. How could you be able get here so fast?

Deserè- I came to follow my dreams. I went on three trains and walked for hours just to come and find you.

Daniel- But you don't have a key. How could you have gotten passed the guards at the gates?

Deserè- I have some higher powers on my sides. They never would have let me fail.

Daniel- What higher power? Do you mean God?

Deseré- No. Higher powers, what controls the world and everything in it. My fortune teller...

Daniel-  You see a fortune teller? That's different (hints at it being strange)

Deseré- Yes.

Daniel- Well that must stop if you want to stay here. Everyone would laugh at you.

Deseré- Oh.

Daniel- Well, you have traveled very far. You must be hungry. I have some food in the kitchen that you can eat and we can have dinner together. You look more lovely now, as you are wearing those shoes.

Deseré- Thank you.

Daniel- The kitchen is in here and the bathroom is over there.(deseré exits) she believes in fortune tellers and higher powers. there is no such thing. She’ll be believing in the right things in no time.

(Black out.)

Narrator-(offstage)- Two weeks  has passed and Daniel has grown to love Deseré almost as much as she does. They go on dates almost every day and spend almost all their time together. Tonight is the big party in his honor. She has been preparing to go to the party every day.

(Lights come up on Daniel’s apartment. In his appartment, Daniel is sitting at his table. Deseré comes out in a fancy dress and her hair done.)

Daniel- You look lovely. The only thing that could be better is if your hair was done and if you did not wear that grubby necklace.

Deseré- Ok ( she undoes her hair and puts in a comb that she gets from her suitcase on the table.) I want everything to go perfectly for you. But can I keep my necklace on. My mama gave it to me.

Daniel- No. Do you think any proper women would wear a necklace that old and ugly to a party with the mayor of the entire city in its attendance?

Deserè- Ok (she takes off the necklace)

Daniel-Do you think you are ready for the party?

Deseré- I think so, but I want to be perfect for you. Can we practice one more time?

Daniel- What is the name of the most talented surgeon you know?

Deseré- Dr. Goodman.

Daniel- What is Mrs. Goodman’s favorite pastime?

Deseré- Quilting.

Daniel- What is your dream job?

Deseré- Being an engineer.

Daniel- No. No respectable, high society women desires to be an engineer. that is the most foolish thing that you have ever said.

Deseré- But that is what I want to be.

Daniel- No. If you expect to stay here as my girlfriend and maybe be my wife one day, you could never be an engineer. You probably wouldn't even have a job. You just get to sit around, maybe watch some Desperate Housewives. these are the tiny sacrifices someone has to make to stay with me. Say you dream of being a teacher.

Deseré- You want to marry me?

(Doorbell rings.)

Daniel- I'll get it. (He goes to the door at the center of the stage. Andrea is there.) What are you doing here?

Deseré- Who is it?

Daniel- it’s no one.

Andrea- that's how I'm described? I've only been gone for a month with my family and I'm downgraded to no one.  (Andrea enters)

Deseré- who are you?

Andrea- I'm Andrea, his fiancé. who are you?

Desire- I am Desiré, his…( shys away)

Daniel- she means nothing to me. All she did was keep me company while you were gone in your place. She is just some poor factory worker chasing after some fantasy of being acceptable to people like us. I never even thought you would find out. (Desiré runs offstage)

Narrator- Daniel and Andrea went to the party that night, which would become legend in New Haiti for generations. Desiré, on the other hand, cried herself to sleep in her hotel room. Then, she woke up and began to cry again. She did not stop crying until she heard Andrea ring the doorbell.

(Black out)

(Lights come up. Andrea and Deseré are sitting at a table in Deseré’s hotel room.)

Andrea-  I am so sorry that Daniel treated that way.

Deseré- It is okay.

Andrea- I don’t think that I will ever be able to forgive him for cheating on him. I would be out of my mind to think that I should marry him still. I was having some doubts before, but this has been too much for me.

Deseré- Oh.

Andrea- I do think leaving him at the altar would be a good punishment, but I want more.

Deseré- What do you mean?

Andrea- I want to get revenge. That is why I came here today. I need your help.

Deseré- What do you want me?

Andrea- Well, if he sees me, he will know something is wrong. You know that the bride and groom are not supposed to be see each other on their wedding day, right?

Deseré- I know.

Andrea- Well, I think that we should kill him.  

Deseré- What?

Andrea- He betrayed us and I think that we should make him pay.

Deseré- You want me to kill him?

Andrea- Yes and after we could live as roommates. I would help provide for you. We also could probably get away with it. My dad is the chief of police. It would work. Don’t worry. Anyway, aren’t you mad that he was not honest to you?

Deseré-I am, but I wouldn’t kill him.

Andrea- He let you think that you meant something to him, when he only saw you as another girl and replacement for me. It was cruel and unfair. He is a sick man. No other girl should have to go through that. I think

Deseré- I am mad, but I’m not sure that I could kill him over it.

Andrea- Fine. Here are some scissors to stab him with. (She pulls scissors out of his bag.) See what you can and can’t do.

(Black out.)

(Lights come up. Deseré is standing by the door in the center of Daniel’s apartment. She is holding the scissors by her side. Daniel is standing in front ot the door and in stage center.)

Daniel- I am so sorry for what happened today.

Deseré- I forgive you, but I have something to give you.

Daniel- What is it?

Deseré- (She waits a minute. She raises the scissors when he turns around to put down his book down. She then drops it) Nothing. I just wanted to say that I forgive you. (noises offstage) What is that?

Daniel- Oh. It’s just Andrea. She came to talk about everything and we made up. The wedding is still on.

Deseré- What? She said that she would never marry you. I thought that because you loved me, you would apologise. We were going to get married. I Was going to get a better life. The higher powers were going to give that to me. (Andrea comes on stage from the bathroom side of the stage.)

Andrea- I’m sorry, Deseré. He apologised and that was all I needed. We are getting married.

Daniel- I’m sorry, but I never really loved you. I hope we can still be friends, but I think you should go home now.

(Black out)

Narrator- Daniel and Andrea got married in the wedding of the century. They lived happily ever after, keeping their high society status and money for the rest of their lives. Daniel continued to operate his father’s clothing factory and eventually passed it on to their children. Andrea got to stay at home and became associate. She also was able to develop a hobby of her own, needlepoint. However, Deseré did not get her happy ending. She ran out through the city and go to the gates in less than a hour.