Book of Mormon

This blog post asks you to employ your knowledge of the elements of drama in relation to the stage play The Book of Mormon. Choose three to four elements of drama (discussed in the first drama lecture) and consider how these are employed to symbolically represent pertinent American issues in the performance of the musical. In other words, you need to consider how the theatre techniques employed by the director and company critique, endorse, criticise or expose particular American themes. For example, you might focus on a character that is a caricature of a particular American type OR you might focus on a piece of set or a prop that symbolises some aspect of American life.

There are many elements implemented in the Broadway musical The Book of Mormon that critique the American themes and culture. There are four elements I want to discuss in this post in regards to the broadway show The Book of Mormon: movement, symbols, place and human context.

Symbol

There were many symbols that were implemented in the musical but there is one scene where symbols resonated the most with American culture and its capitalism. In the opening scene it started off with billboards of big companies that represented the capitalism of America. These billboards consisted companies such as: McDonald’s, Walmart, Crown Casino and Wendy’s. The billboards in the background represent the capitalist industries/companies in America. This is something that was brought up by Nick Burns, a lecturer from NYU about the gentrification of these companies moving in and therefore creating a capitalist society.

I also think the Mormons themselves are symbolizing the American people or even a large popularity of the world. That society, like Mormons, believe in some false and they  they continue to follow the rules (the capitalist game) they will reach the top.

Movement

In the musical, the audience seemed to really respond and find the movement of the characters humorous. Which really gave me an insight on what they found funny. There was something in particular in the opening scene when the narrator is describing the history of Mormons and Mormon begins digs and then does leg pop and skips away, the audience and myself laughed at this as this melodramatic movement as came off as humorous: “Christ leaves and Mormon begins to write and dig” (1). 

Movement was also essential when it came to Mormons there posture and how they walked, when in contrast to Arnold Cunningham it showed that the other Elders were following the rules and were disciplined and that Cunningham was the one that was going to disobey and this is evident when he makes things up: :youre making things up again Arnold”.

You can even see in the image below all the Mormons standing up straight while Cunningham is in the back with his back slightly slouched.

Place

The place I want to discuss is how they set Africa in production. This represented which was explained in James’ lecture as “The Single Story”. The way Africa was presented is how everyone thinks Africa is like, totally disempowered, no proper housing, the rugged look of the set showed the bubble of which Americans live in and how mislead they are by what they Africa is as they thought it was like The Lion King: “OH-BOY -Like the Lion King”.

Human Context

The human context is an important element in this production as the relationships the characters had with each other and the places is coherent with American culture. The relationship of Elder Price with Elder Cunningham most resonated with the selfishness of American culture, which is evident in the song “You and me but mostly me”. The song represents an underlying message about the flawed capitalist game where in order to succeed in America others must be put down “Theres no limit to what we can do – Me and you./ But mostly Meeeeeee!” (15).

 

 

Waitress

Choose a theme that has some resonance with American life or culture and comment on the way this is explored in the musical version of Waitress. For example, you might write a blog post that critiques the musical in terms of its exploration of American middle-class apathy OR its critique of American capitalism. You are encouraged to explore a theme that has not been discussed in class.

I think the story of Waitress carries many elements that represent the American life and culture. One element that intrigued me the most was the affair Jenna had with the Doctor. I have realised that affairs are quiet common when it comes to American texts, even the texts we read in this unit, such as Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby and Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. This theme of affairs being embedded in these stories represent a reality of American culture as it represents the people being trapped and using this affair as getaway from their everyday life.

In the musical Waitress there is a common theatrical technique used where they place a square spot light on Jenna, I interpreted this as she is being trapped in a box. Evidently this is a representation of American culture where people feel trapped in their lives trying to reach freedom which is achieved by the American dream.

Another element added in the musical that coincides with freedom was when the words “sugar, butter, flour” and the lights will all sim. This represented Jenna’s thoughts, her  love for making pies which the main ingredients are sugar, butter and flour and where Jenna found her freedom. The search for freedom was consistent in this musical as the “sugar, butter, flour” were constantly repeated throughout the musical.

The affair she has with Dr. Pomatter is different to other affairs in the texts of the novels, such as Miller’s Death of a Salesman and Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. In Waitress the affair was a way for both Dr Pomatter and Jenna to escape. It also showed the contrast of different wealth where Jenna, in the middle-class and Pomatter being in a more wealthy state. This shows that money is not answer to freedom.

Something else I found intriguing about the relationship of Jenna and Pomatter was that when Jenna finally gave birth to her daughter she found the love and happiness she has been yearning. Her daughter was the escape. When her daughter was born and Jenna finally held her daughter we could see in the film and n the musical that everything else in life was irrelevant and the her new-born child is all that matters to her. Immediately she leaves her violent husband and then leaves Pomatter. This represents the American culture pursuit of happiness and when she got a grasp of her happiness she saw it as her way to freedom.

These elements added int he musical represent the American culture as the search for freedom is continuous throughout the move until the birth of Jenna’s daughter. The birth of her daughter was her happiness hence why everything else became unnecessary and gave her the strength to leave her violent relationship with Earl and her affair with Pomatter.

 

 

A Bronx Tale

Write a blog post that compares the portrayal of gender in the film version of A Bronx Tale with the musical adaptation. In view of the two texts, do you believe that gender is represented differently or is there a commonality?

Before I watched the musical version of A Bronx Tale I was skeptical and curious as to how they were going to represent the story and the themes on stage, as a musical. In my opinion, when a story such as A Bronx Tale is being presented in a form of a musical the verisimilitude and realism of the characters are destroyed. As realism does not consist of breaking into sing and dance. Although, I do think that the representation of gender was presented very similar to the film. The cast was also male dominated which is similar in the film as well. (Evidence below)

Below, I have attached an interview with the writer of the original one man show A Bronx Tale, Chazz Palminteri he says “that the themes are so aporetic, it’s about love and father and love and hate and it is something that is relevant today”. This shows that the themes such as gender and love were taken into consideration when creating this musical and the producers wanted to make sure that they were presented very similar to the film as they carried importance.

In this blog post I will describe and discuss a variety of examples in the musical that supports my stance on the gender representation of the musical in contrast to the film.

Int he musical, there is a male dominance when it comes to the “Mario test” and the “Sonny test”, like the film. Although, in the musicall the male dominance is then counteracted with the intelligence of Jane. Also something I realized in the first song/dance in the musical there was a small dance battle between the males and females (which is evident in the video linked above) where the males and females continue to push each other which represented they were fighting for dominance.

Something I realised as well as I watched the musical. During the scene where Lorenzo says he wants to return C’s money and his wife Rosina says “wait! let’s not make any rash decisions”, the crowd was in laughter. I found it surprising as it represented the American culture and that they probably see women as people who are after money. regardless of what Rosina said the male dominance in the scene remained intact as Lorenzo still gave the money back regardless of what his wife said. Lorenzo’s dominance of the decision on whether to keep the money depicted his masculinity which is also similar in the film as well.

There is also a shift of masculinity you see when it comes to C. Like the film, there is a scene in the musical where C still checks whether she pops the lock open for him and therefore passing the “Sonny test”. I found this hypocritical of him as he still needed some recognition that she should not dump her regardless of what he went through to be with Jane. Then there was a shift where he began to slow dance with her which I did not find that it went well with the story because earlier he was just testing which objectified her.

In summation, the similarities of the film and the musical in terms of gender was extremely song. The relationship Lorenzo had with his wife still represented the same dominance in the house hold in both versions of the text. Also the relationship C had with Jane was similar in both texts as well, although, i do find the slow dance scene somewhat hypocritical scene.

I Pray – Gospel Service

Choose one poem or prose extract from Lecture 4: The Later Twentieth Century and discuss how it has amplified or enhanced your understanding of a particular place or event seen in today’s travels through New York. Try to imitate the style of your poem by writing one stanza which describes the place or event that you have chosen to focus on.

The style I have chosen to write this poem is 2pac’s I Cry. I have always admired 2pac, ever since I was a young teenager, so it felt right to choose his style of poetry.

I Pray

Sometimes when I’m alone

I Pray,

Cause I want a better day.

The connection I feel when I pray is strong

Like God is right next to me singing along.

I pray because no one knows the truth,

And that it is spreading to the youth.

Every Sunday I’m not alone.

Cause my family is all around me.

We pray,

Cause we want a better day.

I look around and see the smiles

I see the love we carry in our eyes and voices.

but where are the cameras to show the truth,

they only want to show what gets the views.

The world continues to watch and believe.

While we continue to pray for a better day.

So painful and sad,

to see the ignorance in the world.

I Pray

and no one asks me why.

The poem above is inspired by my visit to the Gospel church in Harlem. That is an experience I will never forget. I felt compelled to write about it, because I felt a real connection with this experience. I remember the energy I felt when the people from the African-American community came up and shook our hands and told us “Welcome!”. They were just filled with love and compassion and it made me question “where is the media now?”. Part of my poem is about the selective stories the media chooses to publish which then allows the wider community to continue to believe the stereotypical thoughts on the African American culture, as the media wants to show “what only gets the views”.

I, being a Muslim, come from a minority and I experience something similar as well. The media selects the stories on Muslims that continue to place us as bad people. When I was at the Gospel Church I just wished the world would come now and see these people pray and sing and spread the love amongst one another as it can change the minds of what the African-American people are presented to be by the media.

The pastor that day was talking about welcoming rejection as God gave them strength to pull through the rejection like Jesus Christ did. This was another topic I decided to cover in my poem as I found it inspiring. Even though, the African-American community continued to face rejection they were encouraged to welcome it and continue to pray. Hence the line in my poem “I Pray,/ Cause I want a better day”.

The visit to the Gospel service was really a spiritual experience which I really connected with and I recommend everyone whether religious or not, to go and visit as it really is spiritually uplifting.

This photo was taken before the Gospel service started. 

The Great Gatsby and America Today

Choose a painting that you have explored at MET and discuss how it has amplified your understanding of the literary themes and forms that we have been exploring.

The painting that resonated with me most was Thomas Hart Benton’s painting called ‘America Today’. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby really correlates with Benton’s painting as it represents the different social classes of America society which are also represented Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. The glam and the wealth vs the poor and suffering.

The name of the painting, ‘America Today’, in my opinion seems timeless. It is as if Benton is claiming that American culture and society will remain the same. Benton’s painting is very large and takes half a room, so in this blog post I will explain some parts and how it amplified my understanding with Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and the American culture.

I remember seeing this section of the painting and saying to myself “wow”. This section of Benton’s painting represents the poor people of American. I remember asking our tour guide at The Met “Why did Benton feel the need to only show their hands and not there faces?” and she replied “I believe the hands speaks volumes already, We don’t need to see the faces of these individuals as the hands already express the emotions that these individuals experience”. I remember looking at that section of painting again and remembering when Nick Caraway describing the “valley of ashes” and when derbies in chapter, he says:

“This is the valley of ashes – a fantastic farm of ashes where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with transcendent effort, of ash-grey meth, who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air”

Caraway’s description of the Valley of Ashes can be seen the picture above as the hands showing desperation correlate with the people of desperation from the Valley of Ashes.

Another painting that resonates with The Valley of Ashes is attached below.

The American working man, working hard to achieve his American dream. This amplified my understanding of Caraway’s description of George Wilson: “he was a blond, spiritless man, anaemic, and faintly handsome. When he saw us a damp gleam of hope sprang into his light blue eyes” (Chapter 2). The painting attached above amplified my understanding and gave me a visual representation of the “working man”. When I saw this painting, I remembered Caraway’s description and one word in particular in his description: “spiritless”. I could see the lack of spirit this man carried as he is just trying to reach the American dream like everyone else.

The last section I would like to talk about is attached above. The reason I think this resonates with Fitzgerald’s  The Great Gatsby is because the dance and party life style that is also presented in this section of Benton’s painting. Oberving the couples dancing on the left, I remembered a passage from Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby when Caraway was describing the party scene at Gatsby’s house:

“there was dancing now on the canvas in the garden; old men pushing young girls backward in eternal graceless circles, superior couples holding each other tortuously, fashionably, and keeping in the owners – and a great number of single girls dancing individualistically” (Chapter 3).

Observing Benton’s painting ‘America Today’ was something that really amplified my understanding of Scott Fitzgerald’s text The Great Gatsby and the American culture. Seeing the different classes presented in the painting correlated with the different classes presented in The Great Gatsby and thus representing the American culture hence its title ‘America Today’.

“So Damn Happy!”

Write a paragraph in the style of J.D. Salinger – and using Salinger’s style of narrator – describing a location in New York that gave you a new understanding of the novel. Briefly say what this new understanding is.

I decided to recount the day we toured Central Park and the Carousel in the style J.D. Salinger. the reason I chose to use this style of narration because I felt a strong connection with Holden and his perception of life.

Today we had a scheduled tour of Central Park in New York city. I have been to Central park once before and it was snowing. I remember looking around into a sea of white and even though the cold bothered me, I could see the beauty in the snow. Which got me thinking about those ducks Holden asked the cab driver about. It got me thinking what the ducks are doing now.

The day we toured Central Park, it was a sunny day and the snow has melted off and we could see the beautiful green all over. At our first stop. we stopped at the Lake as I looked into the Lake, it was still frozen. Which then got me thinking again about those ducks! I remember seeing a sign that said to not go on the frozen lake as the ice was thin. I remember thinking, “who would be stupid enough to go into the lake and think they can skate around like it is an ice skating rink”.

A photograph of me looking into the frozen lake in Central Park.

On this tour we had a two tour guides, as they were talking about the history of  Central Park and the stories behind certain places and attractions, I kept thinking to myself that these two tour guides can be saying a whole load of crap and we would not even know about it. I had my trust in my professors judgement as they knew what they were doing and I’m sure they looked into these guys when they decided to choose them to be our tour guides. But the thought that these two tour guides could be total phonies couldn’t escape my mind.

We arrived at the carousel. The carousel was closed and I remember an ironic moment when Michael got up and started reading the last couple of pages of Catcher in the Rye and he was quoting Phoebe” I thought the carousel was closed during the wintertime” and I could hear a soft chuckle from everyone realising the irony.

This was the moment I was looking forward to the most. I remember reading the novel Catcher in the Rye and reading that last paragraph really hit me to my core. That was the moment that Holden truly found his happiness, his purpose in life. Although, the carousel was closed I could envision Holden sitting on the seats watching his sister Phoebe go around and around the carousel and thus finally seeking happiness and finally feeling “so damn happy”.

Seeing my professor Michael get up there and read the last couple of pages while I looked around the carousel, seeing the ticket booth, the seats and envisioning the horses inside really resonated with me. I feel, that this resonated with everyone as well. As Michael was reading those last pages of the novel I can sense happiness and inspiration among us because Holden found happiness and we were inspired because everyone wants to be “so damn happy”.

Seeing it all right in front of me gifted me with a real connection of the characters and gave me a new emotional connection with carousel and its surroundings.

The photo attached above is the closed Carousel where Pheobe was riding and that booth in the middle was the ticket booth.

These are the seats where Holden was sitting and when he finally found his true happinnes and watched Phoebe as she went around and around the carousel.

Start spreading the news….

Two more sleeps till I’m on the way to the city that never sleeps…. NEW YORK! NEW YORK! I have just packed my bags and I am ready to go, let’s just hope I packed enough winter clothing.

Whenever I tell people I’m going to New York to study a drama/literature unit they always respond is “that’s so cool!”. It really is an unbelievable opportunity to able to partake in this unit. After months of studying the texts we are going to physically connect it to the NYC which is something I am looking forward to.

As you all may or may not know, in the year 2016 I lived in America, in Florida, Orlando. I was employed and working at Walt Disney world and I experienced so much. I cannot wait to experience the American culture again (except the tipping system, I hate it). I’m intrigued to see if the culture differentiates from the culture in Orlando (Maybe that’s why Elder Price wants to go to Orlando).

Two more sleeps till I leave to the city that never sleep.

“To Honor America” float at Disney’s Electrical parade at Walt Disney World.

American Literature – Summative Entry

Oh what a unit it has been! I am very glad I was able to experience this unit.

From the Native American Literature to the Beats generation, I found it all interesting and an amazing experience. As some of you may or may not know, I lived in the United States of America for 7 months and I wish I knew all of this about the history of American literature then, because I would’ve been able to appreciate the American culture more and I would have been able to see things in a different perspective an example of this is in one of my blog entries on Huckleberry Finn.

Another reason why I think that this unit is so integral to study now is because of the crazy things that are happening in the United States at this moment. With Trump’s presidency, a rise of Nazis and of the KKK moment. I have also written about the impact of American literature in one of my blog entries, especially Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay Self Reliance and its impact to today.

Learning about the African American culture through literature was truly insightful. Today, we have the Black Lives Matter Movement and they rebel against racism through their protesting, I am not saying that is wrong but seeing literary artists rebelling through the words of poetry and literature was beautiful. I started to watch clips about Harlem as it made me so excited to visit and I am happy to say that I will hopefully visiting Harlem next year in New York! There is one video I would like you guys to see about Harlem, it truly shows the beautiful culture they have, the kindness, the smiles, it truly is an America everyone wants. This video segment has over 2 million views, which truly is a representation of what the people want to see. I cannot wait to visit Harlem.

Another topic that truly opened my mind and then blew it wide open is William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying. I loved the novel and the film so much that I wrote two blog entries about them. My first entry about Faulkner is about his philosophy, he states: “Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself”. I found this quote insightful and something that all humankind should take in because we get so distracted in being better than the other  when we should be focusing more on bettering ourselves. I think Trump should take in this lesson rather than trying to start a Nuclear war with North Korea just prove a point. I speak more of this in on of my blog entries.

The film based on Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, directed by James Franco needed a blog entry of its own, that is how much I loved the film. You can really see that Franco attempted his best to stay true to Faulkner’s literary techniques and that is what I loved about the film that much. I speak more of this in my blog entry  and I further explain my thoughts on Franco’s directing of the film. I do recommend that everyone to give this a watch.

I wish I can continue to talk about my literary journey of American literature I had this semester but I will conclude this journey with a quote by Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th U.S. president:

“I believe the more you know about the past, the more prepared you are for the future” .

This quote is something that is integral to the unit and I realised how essential the literary history of America is, as I can see how the culture of America was and the way it is today.

Peer Review 8

Hello Victoria,
This is a great entry and I loved what the Beat Generation represented. I see them as a rebellious group, rebelling against the norms and allowing the people to feel the freedom of being who they are. We all have become distant on who we really are on the inside and instead we wear these masks in front of society just conforming to the normality and the expectations of others.
Great blog entry!

https://victoriakotsoris01.wordpress.com/2017/10/23/blog-post-9-2/

Blog Entry 9 – James Franco and ‘As I Lay Dying’

I never knew this film existed until my literature professor, told me about it. When I saw that it was directed by James Franco, I was a bit skeptical as Franco has carried the reputation of creating comedic films and taking on comedic roles. An example of one his comedic films is Pineapple Express, here is a quick clip to get an essence of Franco’s comedic roles.

I watched one of James Franco’s interview’s about the film , through this interview I was convinced that Franco, directing this movie, was a good choice as he thought it was essential to stay true to the novel and implemented unique directorial techniques, such as split screen to stay true Faulkner’s literary techniques of observing through the characters perspective.

I watched the film with my girlfriend, I was not disappointed, It was an amazing production which stayed true to Faulkner’s novel, in respect to his literary technique. The split screen, the slow motion, the confessionals to the camera was an amazing directorial choice. Then I look over to my left to my girlfriend and she’s like “what?”. She just did not get it, she couldn’t appreciate the film techniques, she hated the split screen as it confused her. This gave me great insight of the importance knowing the text when seeing the film, as you cannot appreciate the film without the novel.

I found the film amazing, I loved how Franco stayed true to the novel, because I can imagine as a film director it must have been a difficult task but evidently, Franco has immersed himself in creativity which allowed him to present such a great film. This film gave me a whole new perspective of James Franco, he is no longer only carries a comedic persona he is now a genius in my eyes.