Children Of The Sea - IN CLASS NOTES

Children of the Sea

-Two narrators are in love, have some relations ship
-Father disapproves

MALE STORY

• Man is part of the rebellion, radio station program where he talks about views which puts h8m in danger and government wants to get him. 
• Father wants them to not be in love he wants to protect his daughter. 
• Man has to flee and leave on the boat 
• Boat is sinking and throw everything overboard 
• Last thing he will throw overboard would be his notebook 
• Celianne has her baby but her baby is a girl stillborn 
• Forced to throw baby overboard 
• Jumps over after the baby and commits suicide 
• Celianne flashbacks to government raiding her house and raped her causing her to get pregnant, her family was forced into immoral relations and brother was accused of being immoral 
• Soldiers held guns to head and Lionel, brother, was forced to have intimate relations. 
• Mother made him aswell because she didn’t want him to die 
• Raped Celianne 
• Arrested Lionel and never saw him again 
• Celianne scarred herself with a razón by cutting her faced
• REalized she was becoming pregnant, found out about the boat got on, 15 years old 
• Father portrayed as a bad man, but protecting because what happened to Celianne could have happened to the girl and what happened to Lionel could have happened to the man. 

FEMALE STORY 

• Resistance to the father 
• Father slaps he rshe hides the tapes of male radio 
• He tries to burn the tapes and wants to get gasoline for them to leave 
• Father sacrificed himself to save her 
• Sold everything, house land, everything to keep her safe and aliv and not being accused of the government and get her away. 
• Neighbor whose son was killed 
• Witnessed what happened with at the neighbors house 

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Haitian History - IN CLASS

Haiti is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea; Hispaniola has two countries. Haiti makes up western 1/3 of the island while the Dominican Republic makes up the eastern 2/3 of the island. The two countries are not on very friendly terms and never have been since their roots are very different.

Haiti is primarily populated by African-Caribbean people with a history of French colonialism. On the other hand, the Dominican Republic is made up of Afro-European mixed blooded people and their roots are very deeply affected by Spanish colonialism.

Timeline: Haiti

A chronology of key events:

1492 - Christopher Columbus lands and names the island Hispaniola, or Little Spain.

1689- Spanish vs French

1791-1803 - A slave rebellion is launched by the Jamaican-born Boukman leading to a protracted 13-year war of liberation against St. Domingue's.

1804 - Haiti becomes independent; former slave Jean-Jacques Dessalines declares himself emperor.

1806 - Dessalines assassinated and Haiti divided into a black-controlled north and a mulatto-ruled south

1818-43 - Pierre Boyer unifies Haiti, but excludes blacks from power.

1915 - US invades Haiti following black-mulatto friction,

1934 - US withdraws troops from Haiti, but maintains fiscal control until 1947.

1937- parsley massacre - trujillo dictator in DR- kills haitians in DR

Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier

"Baby Doc" Duvalier retained his father's brutal methods

Born in 1951

1956-1971-duvalier（papa doc)- dictator/ president for life.

1957 to 1986, Haiti was ruled by the Duvalier family in persons of Francois Duvalier and his son. This was a period of brutal dictatorship, the suppression of most normal freedoms in Haiti, particularly political dissent from the "Duvalier revolution." It was also a period of a rather stable law and order society that one tends to get with dictatorship.

1964 - Duvalier declares himself president-for-life and establishes a dictatorship with the help of the Tontons Macoutes militia.

1971 - Duvalier dies and is succeeded by his 19-year-old son, Jean-Claude, or "Baby Doc", who also declares himself president-for-life.

1986 - Baby Doc flees Haiti in the wake of mounting popular discontent and is replaced by Lieutenant-General Henri Namphy as head of a governing council.

1988 - Leslie Manigat becomes president, but is ousted in a coup led by Brigadier-General Prosper Avril, who installs a civilian government under military control.

Democracy,

1990 - Jean-Bertrand Aristide elected president in Haiti's first free and peaceful polls.

1991 - Aristide ousted in a coup led by Brigadier-General Raoul Cedras, triggering sanctions by the US and the Organisation of American States.

1994 - Military regime relinquishes power in the face of an imminent US invasion; US forces oversee a transition to a civilian government; Aristide returns.

Former president Aristide lives in exile

Profile: Jean-Bertrand Aristide

1995 - UN peacekeepers begin to replace US troops; Aristide supporters win parliamentary elections

Rene Preval, from Aristide's Lavalas party, is elected in December to replace Aristide as president.

1997-99 - Serious political deadlock; new government named.

2000 November - Aristide elected president for a second non-consecutive term, amid allegations of irregularities.

2002 July - Haiti is approved as a full member of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) trade bloc.

2003 April - Voodoo recognised as a religion, on a par with other faiths.

Sri Lankan UN soldier patrols street in Port-au-Prince

UN force was sent to help stabilise Haiti

UN authorised despatch of 6,700 soldiers, 1,600 police

Mandate set to expire in October 2008, "with the intention of further renewal"

Peacekeepers led by Brazil

2004 January-February - Celebrations marking 200 years of independence turn into uprising against President Aristide, who is forced into exile. An interim government takes over.

2004 May - Severe floods in south, and in parts of neighbouring Dominican Republic, leave more than 2,000 dead or disappeared.

2004 September - Nearly 3,000 killed in flooding in the north, in the wake of tropical storm Jeanne.

late 2004 - Rising levels of deadly political and gang violence in the capital; armed gangs loyal to former President Aristide are said to be responsible for many killings.

2005 April - Prominent rebel leader Ravix Remissainthe is killed by police in the capital.

2005 July - Hurricane Dennis kills at least 45 people.

Preval wins elections

Haitian voters try to enter polling station, February 2006

February 2006: Voters swamped polling stations

Current days: Today Haiti is a nation in disorder and disarray, unsafe, economically desperate without much clear hope of significant improvement in the future. The majority of Haiti's people live in desperate poverty and personal unsafety. They are suffering from hunger, unemployment. The international community, like the US, which has great power in Haiti, seems without serious interest in the plight of the masses of the Haitian poor.

Children of The Sea

Characters:

• "You"
• daughter
• Mother or sister? Man?
• Papa
• ManMan
• Pregnat woan
• Captin

Summarize the plot

• Woman, sister or man is on the boat away from haiti
• they are sort of drifiting at sea
• seem to be people that the hatian government wants to kill.
• Back in haiti it sems like a like sister has been raped and father is angry with her often
• Woman has babby on boat 
• pap hits girl 
• radio kids is the rebellion the boat girl was part of
• Soldiers will go into houses pointing guns and forcing sexual enciunters
• both people are fine with death and one wants papa to die
• mandan killed
• dead children and people everywhere
• baby girl
•  baby is dead
• family in haiti is driving away
• had to throw baby overboard
• had to throw notebook overboard
• woman jumped in after baby and drowned
• 
  

Some personal response

• The story is quite shocking and i thin that it is like beats of no nation
• sad but good in terms of the writing it is realy sad but there is beauty in the sotry it is almost poetic in a way that if you look at the specifc writing it si good but the story is truly heartbreaking which makes it good becase it is believeable and well writtien
• 
  

 "Children of the Sea." Post some reading notes on your blog, specifically 1) identifying characters, 2) summarizing the plot, and 3) offering some personal repsonse/ideas about the story

Haitian History

 

• Discovered by Christopher Columbus 
• owned by Spain
• Independent in 1804
• 1915 us invade Haiti
• 1934 troops leave 
• Stories about military boots
• Ruled by tyrants for a long portion of time 
• Many floods happened recently

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1202857.stm

Edwidge Danticat

Used Britannica and Wikipedia and her website to put in information

• Themes
• Diasporic politics 
• Mother-daughter relationships 
• National identity

• She visited the school last year
• From Hati
• By the time she was four years old, her mother and father had moved to the United States, leaving Danticat and her brother behind with an aunt and uncle. She joined her parents in 1981, but, with her Creole language and Haitian dress and manners, she found adapting to life and school in the United States difficult
• series of interconnected stories about a Haitian immigrant who had tortured and murdered dissidents during the repressive rule of Franƈois Duvalier. Her memoir, Brother, I’m Dying(2007), won the National Book Critics Circle Award.
• Won multiple awards
• January 19, 1969
• centrality of the mother-daughter relationship to self-identity and self-expression [v]. Sophie's experiences mirror those of her mother's Martine.
• 1994 Fiction Award The Caribbean Writer
• 1995 Woman of Achievement Award, Barnard College
• Pushcart Short Story Prize for "Between the Pool and the Gardenias"
• National Book Award nomination for Krik? Krak!
• 1996 Granta magazine's Best Young American Novelists[17]
• Lila-Wallace-Reader's Digest Grant
• 1999 American Book Award for The Farming of Bones
• The International Flaiano Prize for literature
• The Super Flaiano Prize for The Farming of Bones
• 2005 The Story Prize for The Dew Breaker
• 2005 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award[18] for "The Dew Breaker"
• 2007 National Book Award nomination for Brother, I'm Dying
• 2007 The National Book Critics Circle Award for Brother, I'm Dying
• 2008 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Brother, I'm Dying
• 2009 MacArthur Fellows Program Genius grant
• 2011 Langston Hughes Medal, City College of New York
• 2011 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature for Create Dangerously
• 2012 Smith College Honorary Degree
• 2013 Yale University Honorary Degree[19]
• 2014 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, shortlist for Claire of the Sea Light[20]
• 2017 Honorary Doctor of Letters (DLitt) degree from the University of the West Indies Open Campus[21][22]
• 2017 Neustadt International Prize for Literature[23]

• 
  

Reflective Blog Post

1.) what do you know well/ don’t need to review?
- I think that I know most of the terms and stage directions so I don’t need to review that. I felt like I knew what a majority of the general terms were and what the stage directions where when I was asked, there were definitely something that I knew but would like to be more confident in my ansewering, but overall I think that those terms I am pretty good at. I also think that the types of stages are mostly good, thought there are a few that I would like to spends some mor estime on I feel like I knew most of them well.

2.)
- I think that I need to review the acting theorists and some of the more complex terms, because those ones such as teablue and stuff tripped me up a little bit. I didn’t quite remember everything hit the different acting theorists really were saying, so I would like to study hat a little bit more on my own time. I think that I would also like to study more of the technical terms in thearter like dry tech because I didn’t feel super solid in my answers for those and would like to improve upon those terms and my knowledge of them.

Fires in the Mirror Mini Scenes

Responses to what I saw:

 Group 1: Stella, Denny, David

I noticed that they were rolling their chairs when it was their turn to speak, so as their lines continues or came up they would use their chairs to move around the space provided to add levels and blocking.  With the chair movement, I thought that it didn't really work other than the one portion in with Denny was speaking and they made a sort of half circle around Denny and I thought that this movement really blended the fact that they were all performing the same monologue and putting all of their voices together in one cohesive. On the other side, I thought that the use of the chairs was lazy and cheesy because there would have been much more of an effect if they had stood so that I could see more body language from them. I also would have liked to avoid the fact that for them to move the chairs to move they had to pause and hunch over to get around.
Something else I noticed was that Denny had the least amount of lines by quite a bit. I am not sure why they did that but I thought that Denny had some impactful lines and I think that they might have wanted him to bee the child that comes in but I would have liked to see more from him because at the end I just wasn't sure what he was doing.
Lastly, I liked how they only used one monologue rather than mixing them up. I thought that it really pushed forward their topic which was religion. I would have liked them to do maybe one more and worked Denny into that one to aid in the progression of the story, maybe mixing two and having one go at a time but switching them intermittently so you got two stories in the same way.
Overall, I thought that they all did a really good job, especially since there wasn't really time to do much with staging and nobody learned their lines in any group. I thought that they had done a really good job with what they had but there were definitely areas where they could improve.

Group 2: Ivan, Lesley, Cassidy

First, I think that having all the members of the group would have given a totally different feel. I also think that if we had more time to work on our staging that we could have given a much stronger performance. Individually I think that there were a lot of points in which we could have improved. First I think that it was really awesome that Ivan could pick up another role and perform it so well. I also liked his ability to portray the narrator different than the other role he did, there were slight changes in his actions so that the narrator was more behind the scenes than his other role. I also liked his chair placement being fairly off camera was good for the narration lines compared to his lines that had a character attached. I would have liked some more emotion from him though when he was performing it felt static and like there wasn't really a purpose or much of a reason behind it. I personally liked being able to walk around and be int eh center of the audience so I could make eye contact with the whole audience, I thought that it gave me a better connection to what was going on, however, I thought that seeing the audience also had some of the reverse effects on me as well. Seeing people in the audience talk to another person, or point at their laptops was discouraging and made me feel self-conscious. I think that that showed that I recoiled a little bit in the middle of performance so that I had changed my whole demeanor and how I presented myself. I also think that I had the wrong emotion, I felt like my performance came off more sad and heartbroken and angry and motivated. If I could go back I would like to change this so that my emotions were projected differently and I would have liked to keep the same amount of energy as I originally came out with. I would have also liked to have my lines memorized better, I felt like I was looking at my phone a lot and it took away dramatically from my overall performance, I also thought that I was hiding from my performance. I would have liked to have actual blocking too because I felt like I was rolling around on my feet and didn't have a lot of personal actions. 

For Lesley I would have liked her to stand up and walk, I think that we should have been more clear without plans and we didn't do a lot for our movements and blocking so I think that there was a loss of communication. I think she did a good job of knowing her lines well and also spending her time wisely she practiced her lines several times before the performance so I think that helped her a lot as well. I think that since she was the father of Gavin there should have been some more emotion and I almost felt like she was sort of asleep and not into her character. I think that id Lesley really applied herself she would have done absolutely amazing but she has to be more confident. 

Overall I am really proud of my group and think that everyone worked really hard on their performances and while we have areas to improve on definitely are in the right direction of verbatim theater. 

Group 3:Jack, Jacob, Jasmin

I thought that the use of music in their performance, I thought that it was something different that they chose to do and it worked really well. The only flaw that I had was that it was a little bit to loud and I couldn't hear what Jack was saying, while I could make out the other people I still had a hard time. I think that something that might have been better would have been having riot sounds or city sounds to make it seem more realistic and set in the city. I would have liked more emotion from everyone and more blocking. I think that there was some but I'm also not sure what Jasmine was doing with her hands, I feel like that was more Jasmine rather than the character.  I thought the same thing for Jack and Jacob, they seemed like they were reading the script more than acting it out. I know that all of them are much stronger actors than what they were showing, perhaps that was the time allowed but I am not sure. I would have liked some more blocking from them because I felt like it was a little bit static in their performance. I think that they did a good job at their task and definitely had the right ideas and direction, I think that they could have used more time like the rest of us but they did a really good job and had some interesting effects.

What did the scenes acomplish?
Overall I think that not only did everyone do a good job but that we all demonstrated different pieces of Fires int eh Mirror. We all showed the main ideas of anger, sadness, and injustice just in more specific regions. This is evident in the fact that some groups had the same scene ideas. I think that we also did a good job of trying to copy our own style of verbatim theater, we stayed true to the book but all of us added something new that each of us had strengths in. I think that we showed just what the meaning of verbatim theater was combining the exact language interpretation and copying of the people and the previous acting for them that we had seen. All of us took the idea of verbatim theater that was written and made it so that we could bring it to the class and demonstrate the stories of those in Crown Heights.

In Class Writing - 9/10/18

Please post a response to the following prompt on your blog:

Reflect on your experience last week exploring Verbatim Theater. Why do you think people do it? What does it accomplish? What was your experience like (and your group's experience)? Was the process difficult? And if so, how so? Were any aspects easier than others? Did you enjoy it? Why or why not? What did you learn?
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Why do you think people do it? 

I think that people do Verbatim Theater because they want to tell the story of the "underdog" or more so the "little people". It is a powerful message that people send out to the public with these types of theater, and it would make sense to use these different methods in order to propel a movement and show why people should care about something.

What does it accomplish? 

It demonstrates that theater isn't always a fictional piece and it shows different points of views about troublesome topics. This style of theater often also makes you confront a topic that is relatively shut down and I think that it provides a good grounding for any particular movements.

What was your experience like (and your group's experience)? 

My experience wasn't my favorite, I was originally just going to write the script for this project which then turned into being the interviewer and coming up with the questions to ask, writing the script and acting it out. I felt like I had taken on a lot of the work and while most of the group members used what I said and came up with their own spins and other ideas based off of that I felt like I was feeding them answers and I would have liked more help.

My group's experience I fell was the same as mine, it wasn't really that functional and we didn't have the original actor in the piece and I think that if we planned better and worked more cohesively rather than one person doing something and everyone else waiting around we could have split the work and done it at the same time. 

Was the process difficult? And if so, how so? 

I thought that the process was difficult because the group couldn't find a topic that we wanted to focus on so our start was very slow moving and then we didn't have time to do any blocking or really any run-throughs. 

Were any aspects easier than others? 

It was easier to write the script and move on from there than trying to get interviews done. It was also fairly easy to act out because there was no memorization or blocking. 

Did you enjoy it? Why or why not? 

I sort of enjoyed it, I didn't like having to do so much of the work and having to act it out when I wasn't comfortable with the idea. I would have much rather done more behind the scenes stuff rather than acting for the whole class so early in the year. 

What did you learn?

I learned a lot about how difficult this theater is, originally I thought that it was easy and didn't take all that much work but in the end it really did. 

Blog Post 1 - 9/7/18

300-600 Words




Consider the following questions as you write your post: What is theater, in your opinion? What makes it good to participate in, to perform, or to watch? Why do people do theater or watch it or like it? Why do YOU? What aspects of theater are most important for performers to learn and think about? In your experience, what is easy and fun about theater and what is challenging?

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What is theater, What makes it good to perfrome watch etc.


What is theater, in your opinion?


What makes it good to participate in, to perform, or to watch?


Why do people do or like theater why do I like theater


Why do people do theater or watch it or like it?


Why do YOU?


What aspects are the most important to learn what is easy or fun and what is challenging?


What aspects of theater are most important for performers to learn and think about?


In your experience, what is easy and fun about theater and what is challenging.

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Blog Post (599)

To me, theater is a generally live performances that “everyday” people do involving different sets and costumes, were you imitate and act out stories, true or fictional. Theater is fun to participate in when the group of actors, set crew, director, etc. are all passionate about what they are doing and want to be there every day, it is also fun when you get to see what goes on backstage and being able to help organize and work with the other elements that go into theater productions that you don't see when you are in the audience, so hair and makeup, costumes, etc. Theater is fun to watch when the actors engage the audience in what they're doing and are able to throw in a little bit of improv. For example, if someone is sitting in the front row doing something being able to say something about or to them to grab attention and make the audience laugh. Also being able to come from a spot in the audience and like in the lion king being able to walk down the sides to engage audience members and show a different “stage” almost. Lastly, that is fun to perform when you are in a position that you love being able to bring the stories that people love to life and seeing their happiness and reactions, also being able to do something that you love and pretending to be in a different world and life for a little while opens your brain up, because you have to think like that character for a while so you almost start to think in different perspectives just like when you read you get into the head of characters and think about their side just like you do when you are acting.

In your experience, what is easy and fun about theater and what is challenging.

People do theater because it is a time when you can become a different person for just a little while. People also like to do it so that they can bring stories to life for people and that’s a reason that people enjoy and watch theater, they get to see their favorites stories brought to life in front of them. People enjoy literature and the demonstration of literature to understand others lives. I like theater because I like to pretend i'm in another “world” for a little while. I like theater for the same reason why I like to read and write, you get to be someone else and push your own life out of the way for a little bit and adapt to different situations, many of which will not happen but you get it live a different way than you normally would.



Some of the most important aspects of theater to learn is how to improvise when there is a mistake and stay in character, also how to memorize your lines with games and fun way to sit and learn your lines rather than just repeating them. It is fun to start putting together your costumes and getting really into character. But, at the same time that is really challenging because you have to actually become a different person. It is important to learn the terms of theater so that when your director is talking to you, you understand what they're saying and how to move. Lastly, you need to understand how to use different techniques to achieve emotions, so the use of things like music, lighting, posture, and voice to push through what you want to rather than standing like a statue just reciting lines that you memorized.