Sample Questions Outline

5. Select a passage from a novel you have chosen to study which provides an effective introduction of an important character or characters. How would you use staging, design and acting to ensure that this introduction would have dramatic importance for the audience?

7. Select a passage from a novel you have chosen to study where suspense is the dominant mood conveyed to the reader. Indicate how, by staging and action, you might explore a suspenseful scene on stage for an audience.

9. Select a passage from a novel you have chosen to study which presents a clash of two cultures.By paying due attention to the context of the passage, outline how you would dramatize the clash in order to bring out the differences between the two cultures for an audience.

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5

• "then came a resounding crash, so shattering that she knew a giant star had fallen to smash their tiny village. Then a silence. A silence so profound that the insects held their breath." (page 27)
• "Bon Dieu!" she cried out in the darkness. "A car is en panne. A man is in pain!"" (Page 30)
• "Once again Desiree reached through the window to touch the stranger... As she sang dozens of lamps appeared, dotting the dark night, some coming down from the hill, others approaching along the road." (Pages 30 and 31)
• This is the introductory scene for Daniel Beauxhomme and the point at which we see the beginning of rising action in the novel.
• How to get the importance of the scene through to the audience.
• I would remove the Gods from the scene to show that they do not yet know od Desiree's love for the man.
• I would also want to do this to make sure that it was clear based on the wardrobe that Daniel is wealthy and Desiree along with her people are not.
• I would use the moment of the crash as a scene change, this way I would go from the stream setting to another spot in the forest where the crash takes place.
• The staging would be very crowded to show the seclusion that the crash is taking place.
• A back projection of the hill and road would be good to show where the car could have been coming from and where Desiree went up to to get help.
• I would make sure to really push on the element of silence that the book talks about on page 27 to show the theme of suspense. One thing that I would do is take away the music that I had playing before from the festival up the hill to really draw on the fact that there is going to be a change.
• I would want Daniel to be wearing a formal suit.
• Blue shirt to show a connection with Agwe and it would also show a relation to the butterfly that Desiree caught in the previous scene while she was in the river.
• I would want the car to be white and be a vintage car to set the time as when cars were not as well known and would be harder to get to the island, explaining why some people didn't really know what it was and what to do with it.
• The color of the car also would symbolize the wealth that Daniel has, I want the car to be white since it is hard to keep that color clean and being around the peasants it would not be clean.
• I would also want Daniel suit to freshly ironed without wrinkles and have him wear formal dress shoes and white socks.
• The car should take up a large portion of the stage (Life sized possibly) to show the large significance that this scene has
• Also, want to show how small Desiree is and use that to symbolize her innocence.
• I would have the car facing the audience so that they feel like they are in the forest as well and have Desiree come up from the side to further give the indication that she didn't see the car crash but merely heard it.
• When the peasants come along to see the crash I would want that to be the moment where sound reenters the scene.
• Keep Desiree's singing but have it be very quiet, and unsure of what she is doing.
• Show her caring nature
• Don't want to add music and keep it quite to show the severity f the situation. Want Desiree to be the one that decides when it is right to bring the audio elements back into the scene.
• Another thing that I might do is to have some of the peasants with lamps come down the aisles from the audience
• Play on the part where it says they come from multiple directions.
• I would also change the colors of the lights,
• Cool tones at night to go with peace, water, tranquility
• Harsh yellows and reds of the flames and candles to show the blood, danger, etc. of the crash
• Another way to add some drama would to add smoke to that car and have Desiree cough once or twice to show the rush for her to check on the man and start to imply that danger of being with him.

7

• "Here, take this knife. Strike hard, strike deep...In confusion, she let the knife fall from her hand. she ran." (pages 155-157)
• How to get the importance of the scene through to the audience.
• SPlit the stage in half
• One half is Desiree in her room
• Other half is Daniel laying in his bed.
• Lights down on Daniels side while the gods are present.
• I want to set the room that Desiree is in almost exactly like her home back in the village.
• Have the gods slowly come in along with a mist covering the floor?
• Have the Gods change their costumes to ones that look like they are about to go into battle.
• Really show the audience that the Gods are angry 
• Would have a physical transformation go on with Desiree
• As lines are being read I would have Agwe and Papa Ge start to get closer to Desiree, eventually cutting off the audience view of her (the smoke will help with this too).
• Use this moment to bring in some of the more fairytale elements from the book. 
• Put a back projection of Papa Ge's eyes, and do some flashes to Daniel laying with her back in the house to show a corruption fo, Desiree. 
• Change Desiree's dress to an all-black gown.
• Put the black dress over her old one
• Pull Desiree's hair back into a braid (wig)
• When Desiree "wakes" remove the Gods and the Smoke, turn the back projection off. 
• As Desiree walks along the stage to Daniels side, her lights go off.
• Daniels lights are up in blue and purple tones to show that it is still night. 
• Use Desiree's body to show a physical conflict going on inside her. Trying to fight and not kill Daniel.
• As Desiree gets closer have the lights turn more red and orange to show a blood sunrise.
• When Desiree drops the knife and runs the black dress falls from her
• Agwe and Pape Ge go and grab both the knife and the dress before walking off stage 
• Show they are losing their control over her.
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9

• "I have trained you. I have talked to you. I have driven all thoughts of heathen gods and their foolish ceremonies from your head. How is it that this morning you speak like an ignorant peasant?" "Monsieur le Patron," the woman said...I dare not challenge the gods! What if, when we throw out the mud, we let the gold slip into the river?" (pages 124-125)
• How to get the importance of the scene through to the audience.
• I would want to have Gabriel standing on a slightly raised platform (or use force perspective) 
• Make him look like he has more power.
• Make him closer to the Gods (competing for power)
• I would have Mathilde in neutral colors just like the peasants were to shoe her connection with them. 
• Have Gabriel in a white suit to demonstrate his power
• I would have the weather change form a sunny day to rain to show the anger of the gods
• especially Agwe
• Another thing that I would do is have Desiree look more like a child to show her uneasiness, and that Mathilde is the one doing the fighting for Desiree. 
• As Gabreil gets