Third Draft
The scenes that we chose to perform was parts of Act I Scene II and Act I Scene III. These are the scenes where Amanda had two critical arguments with each of her children. We chose these scene because both of them can well-shown how the relationship was between all three of them. Also, it can tell the audiences clearly about three main characters' personalities. These two scenes especially showed the relationship between Amanda and both Laura and Tom; it mainly showed not only how annoying Amanda is, but also in some way she is a good mom who will think about both her children and herself. This is the reason why we think these scenes are essential to the whole play.
These scenes are from the very beginning of the play. When I was first to read the book, I realize that these are the critical turning point and raising point of the whole play. When Amanda talked with Laura, she said "I went straight to your typing instructor and introduced myself as your mother. She did not even know who you were." (Williams 16) This scene is where Amanda found out that Laura had not go to school. The word "even" that Williams chose had shown that Amanda was angry at that time when she knew that Laura's teacher did not even know her. After Laura told Amanda that she was walking in the park for the whole time, Amanda asked: "Even after you'd started catching that cold?" This sentence can easily show that Amanda was cared about Laura and did not want Laura to get sick and hurt. When Laura told Amanda what she did "...I visited the penguins every day!..." (Williams 17+18) The way that Williams' carefully choice of words, even the punctuation in this paragraph showed that when Laura talked about what she did, she was happy and enjoyed the moments she had by herself. After Laura told Amanda everything, Amanda was much angrier than before; then she said "You did all that to deceive me, just for deception! Why? Why? Why? Why?" (Williams 18) The writer's usage of language, like four "why" in a role with for question marks followed, valid highlight that how disappointed Amanda is, and showed her emotion of both angry and disappointing at Laura about she did not tell Amanda anything about why she quit school. The last part we chose in this scene was Amanda's long paragraph; it is kind of like a monologue. She said "So what are we going to do now,... Moreover, I do not think that is a very pleasant alternative." (Williams 18) From this paragraph, it emphasizes how much Laura had made Amanda down, and how Amanda feel regret for Laura. Most importantly, beside worried, disappointed and other good emotions, it also showed that Amanda was selfish and only thinking about letting Laura marry to someone and all of them could enjoy the rest of their lives. This is where readers would be confused about Amanda's personality, and people will think whether she is a good mother or not.
For the second scene, we chose Act I Scene III. This is where Amanda just finished a conversation with Laura, and she immediately went into another argument with Tom. We start with the line with "Why that woman! Do you know what she did? She just hung up on me." (Williams 21) This sentence marked that Amanda just got off from a phonecall unhappily, which build up the emotion and the environment for her started to yelling at Tom for no reason and just bothered him when he was writing. Amanda first warning Tom to sit up straight for couple times, but Tom did not listen. Then, Amanda said "Now, I have seen a medical chart, ... go on beating for you." (Williams 22) The author used a whole paragraph for Amanda, to let her "introduced" the medical chart, which showed one of Amanda's important personality which is being annoyed and being so picky about Tom, even she was saying things that are right. Tom was so annoyed by Amanda, so he started to piss off. Amanda responded him with lines "Don't you dare talk to me like that!" "...Have you gone out of your senses?" "... You big---big---idiot?" "... No, no, no, no, no!" (Williams 22) All these sentences showed that Amanda went out of her patience and she could not stand Tom anymore. After Tom argued that Amanda did not know him, Amanda used words and phrases like "ashamed," "don't believe," "stumbling," "muttering," "maniac," etc. She used all these inappropriate words to describe Tom and trying to hurt him. On the other side, I think Amanda was saying these words because she wants to prod Tom into action and gets him out of the escaping to the movie. Also, she was trying to preventing Tom from escaping the family without telling her. After the argument, Tom was trying to go out, but accidentally broke Laura's glass menagerie, this for me, count as the first climax of the whole play, and this is where the play first time brings out the theme---Laura's glass menagerie. In this scene, it has a foreshadowing which is, firstly, Tom said: "I am going to the movies!" (Williams 24) This was the first sign of his escaping at last.
I played Amanda in our group. In order to translate two scenes of a literary play, there is a very straightforward difficulty appears for our group, which is how to set up two scene on one stage and show the distinct differences between two settings. What I did is I create an invisible line in the middle of the stage, I divided the stage into two parts and had two settings. We had two tables on each side and chairs for each of us; we started from the left stage with Amanda and Laura. After we finished the first scene, Amanda walked to the right stage to start the second scene with Tom.
For the first scene which is between Amanda and Laura. I started the scene with the position of off-stage, I entered immediately when we began performing. I walked in with a heavy step because of I knew that Laura has not gone to school at all, using the heavy step helped me to build the emotion of disappointed and a little bit mad at Laura. I set down without looking at Laura to show that I was upset and do not want to talk much. Soon after, I started with a tiring and doubt voice for my first line, and suddenly increasing the voice for "Deception! Deception! Deception!" (Williams 16) Which is my second line, the increasing of my voice well shown that Amanda was pissed off about Laura lied to her, and still lying now, pretending that Laura is practicing typing for school. To show more of the emotion, I added a movement on the third "deception," I slapped on the table to show how mad I am. When I was telling Laura, "I did not go to any D.A.R. meeting... of my entire life." (Williams 16) I turned left to look at Laura directly on her face to show how upset I was and want her to feel the anger and disappointment, and watched her into the eyes with a sincere facial expression, then turned back to face the audiences. And all the conversation after was full of upset and disappointment, so my emotion was keeping down, and my voice did not change that much, it maintained a low tiring voice. Until I told Laura, I went to her school and knew that she has not gone to school for a long time. I raised my voice to show the returning of the anger and a little bit of wrong. Using a more strong voice questioned her where did she go, and what has she been doing every day for almost ten hours. Also, the active voice I used for questioning did not only show the disappointed or angry but also showed that Amanda cared about Laura because she is her daughter, explained that Amanda was worried about her and wanted to know if there was anything wrong happened or not.
After Laura told Amanda that Laura had walked in the park, Amanda responded with "That's not true!" "... in that light coat?..." "Even after you'd started catching that cold?" (Williams 17) The first two sentences showed Amanda did not believe in Laura, so I used a weird loud voice with going up at the end of the sentences to show the questioning at the end. Soon after, Amanda got pissed off again after Laura told her what Laura did. I stood up in a sudden to show the anger and to look straight into Laura's face and said, "You did all that to deceive me, just for deception! Why? Why? Why? Why? " (Williams 18) The four "why"s in a role showed how mad Amanda was, to show this anger, what I did is I started with a medium loud voice, and the voice went up eventually. I shouted the last "why" out, all these voice changes build up the changing of Amanda's emotion. And I said "Hush!" (Williams 18) with the same voice and the same emotion. All of a sudden, after Laura said that she couldn't face it, everything just became quiet. To show that quiet, me as Amanda had calmed down a little, and I set down with a deep sigh and started asking laura with a low, slow, and smooth voice, "So what are we going to do now honey,... sit... and watch the parades go by?... Moreover, I do not think that is a very pleasant alternative."(Williams 18) These lines are sure to be said in a quiet and low voice, here is when Amanda had a conversation with Laura; here is where the real feeling came out; here is where to show that Amanda is truly worried about Laura's future, but also her future at the same time. This is the end of the first scene, and the stage lights went off, and come up right after to show the scene changed. However, the second scene is showing more about how Tom gets annoyed and mad at Amanda, to show how bad their relationship is in this way, instead of from Amanda’s point of view.
Overall, I played Amanda, and I tried my best to get to know about this character that is easy to know her personality, but hard to act out. So, after playing Amanda, I feel like my acting skills had improved, because there is just so many emotions and attitudes I do not do in real life. Amanda is a challenging character for me, and I think for everyone who played Amanda. The two sided-personality is really hard to show and make it clear at the same time. Additionally, after performing these two scenes, my skill of remembering the script had also improved. Now I know that the easiest way to remember the script is to understand it and put yourself into the play as the character you are going to be. This kind of project I would like to do more to improve myself.
These scenes are from the very beginning of the play. When I was first to read the book, I realize that these are the critical turning point and raising point of the whole play. When Amanda talked with Laura, she said "I went straight to your typing instructor and introduced myself as your mother. She did not even know who you were." (Williams 16) This scene is where Amanda found out that Laura had not go to school. The word "even" that Williams chose had shown that Amanda was angry at that time when she knew that Laura's teacher did not even know her. After Laura told Amanda that she was walking in the park for the whole time, Amanda asked: "Even after you'd started catching that cold?" This sentence can easily show that Amanda was cared about Laura and did not want Laura to get sick and hurt. When Laura told Amanda what she did "...I visited the penguins every day!..." (Williams 17+18) The way that Williams' carefully choice of words, even the punctuation in this paragraph showed that when Laura talked about what she did, she was happy and enjoyed the moments she had by herself. After Laura told Amanda everything, Amanda was much angrier than before; then she said "You did all that to deceive me, just for deception! Why? Why? Why? Why?" (Williams 18) The writer's usage of language, like four "why" in a role with for question marks followed, valid highlight that how disappointed Amanda is, and showed her emotion of both angry and disappointing at Laura about she did not tell Amanda anything about why she quit school. The last part we chose in this scene was Amanda's long paragraph; it is kind of like a monologue. She said "So what are we going to do now,... Moreover, I do not think that is a very pleasant alternative." (Williams 18) From this paragraph, it emphasizes how much Laura had made Amanda down, and how Amanda feel regret for Laura. Most importantly, beside worried, disappointed and other good emotions, it also showed that Amanda was selfish and only thinking about letting Laura marry to someone and all of them could enjoy the rest of their lives. This is where readers would be confused about Amanda's personality, and people will think whether she is a good mother or not.
For the second scene, we chose Act I Scene III. This is where Amanda just finished a conversation with Laura, and she immediately went into another argument with Tom. We start with the line with "Why that woman! Do you know what she did? She just hung up on me." (Williams 21) This sentence marked that Amanda just got off from a phonecall unhappily, which build up the emotion and the environment for her started to yelling at Tom for no reason and just bothered him when he was writing. Amanda first warning Tom to sit up straight for couple times, but Tom did not listen. Then, Amanda said "Now, I have seen a medical chart, ... go on beating for you." (Williams 22) The author used a whole paragraph for Amanda, to let her "introduced" the medical chart, which showed one of Amanda's important personality which is being annoyed and being so picky about Tom, even she was saying things that are right. Tom was so annoyed by Amanda, so he started to piss off. Amanda responded him with lines "Don't you dare talk to me like that!" "...Have you gone out of your senses?" "... You big---big---idiot?" "... No, no, no, no, no!" (Williams 22) All these sentences showed that Amanda went out of her patience and she could not stand Tom anymore. After Tom argued that Amanda did not know him, Amanda used words and phrases like "ashamed," "don't believe," "stumbling," "muttering," "maniac," etc. She used all these inappropriate words to describe Tom and trying to hurt him. On the other side, I think Amanda was saying these words because she wants to prod Tom into action and gets him out of the escaping to the movie. Also, she was trying to preventing Tom from escaping the family without telling her. After the argument, Tom was trying to go out, but accidentally broke Laura's glass menagerie, this for me, count as the first climax of the whole play, and this is where the play first time brings out the theme---Laura's glass menagerie. In this scene, it has a foreshadowing which is, firstly, Tom said: "I am going to the movies!" (Williams 24) This was the first sign of his escaping at last.
I played Amanda in our group. In order to translate two scenes of a literary play, there is a very straightforward difficulty appears for our group, which is how to set up two scene on one stage and show the distinct differences between two settings. What I did is I create an invisible line in the middle of the stage, I divided the stage into two parts and had two settings. We had two tables on each side and chairs for each of us; we started from the left stage with Amanda and Laura. After we finished the first scene, Amanda walked to the right stage to start the second scene with Tom.
For the first scene which is between Amanda and Laura. I started the scene with the position of off-stage, I entered immediately when we began performing. I walked in with a heavy step because of I knew that Laura has not gone to school at all, using the heavy step helped me to build the emotion of disappointed and a little bit mad at Laura. I set down without looking at Laura to show that I was upset and do not want to talk much. Soon after, I started with a tiring and doubt voice for my first line, and suddenly increasing the voice for "Deception! Deception! Deception!" (Williams 16) Which is my second line, the increasing of my voice well shown that Amanda was pissed off about Laura lied to her, and still lying now, pretending that Laura is practicing typing for school. To show more of the emotion, I added a movement on the third "deception," I slapped on the table to show how mad I am. When I was telling Laura, "I did not go to any D.A.R. meeting... of my entire life." (Williams 16) I turned left to look at Laura directly on her face to show how upset I was and want her to feel the anger and disappointment, and watched her into the eyes with a sincere facial expression, then turned back to face the audiences. And all the conversation after was full of upset and disappointment, so my emotion was keeping down, and my voice did not change that much, it maintained a low tiring voice. Until I told Laura, I went to her school and knew that she has not gone to school for a long time. I raised my voice to show the returning of the anger and a little bit of wrong. Using a more strong voice questioned her where did she go, and what has she been doing every day for almost ten hours. Also, the active voice I used for questioning did not only show the disappointed or angry but also showed that Amanda cared about Laura because she is her daughter, explained that Amanda was worried about her and wanted to know if there was anything wrong happened or not.
After Laura told Amanda that Laura had walked in the park, Amanda responded with "That's not true!" "... in that light coat?..." "Even after you'd started catching that cold?" (Williams 17) The first two sentences showed Amanda did not believe in Laura, so I used a weird loud voice with going up at the end of the sentences to show the questioning at the end. Soon after, Amanda got pissed off again after Laura told her what Laura did. I stood up in a sudden to show the anger and to look straight into Laura's face and said, "You did all that to deceive me, just for deception! Why? Why? Why? Why? " (Williams 18) The four "why"s in a role showed how mad Amanda was, to show this anger, what I did is I started with a medium loud voice, and the voice went up eventually. I shouted the last "why" out, all these voice changes build up the changing of Amanda's emotion. And I said "Hush!" (Williams 18) with the same voice and the same emotion. All of a sudden, after Laura said that she couldn't face it, everything just became quiet. To show that quiet, me as Amanda had calmed down a little, and I set down with a deep sigh and started asking laura with a low, slow, and smooth voice, "So what are we going to do now honey,... sit... and watch the parades go by?... Moreover, I do not think that is a very pleasant alternative."(Williams 18) These lines are sure to be said in a quiet and low voice, here is when Amanda had a conversation with Laura; here is where the real feeling came out; here is where to show that Amanda is truly worried about Laura's future, but also her future at the same time. This is the end of the first scene, and the stage lights went off, and come up right after to show the scene changed. However, the second scene is showing more about how Tom gets annoyed and mad at Amanda, to show how bad their relationship is in this way, instead of from Amanda’s point of view.
Overall, I played Amanda, and I tried my best to get to know about this character that is easy to know her personality, but hard to act out. So, after playing Amanda, I feel like my acting skills had improved, because there is just so many emotions and attitudes I do not do in real life. Amanda is a challenging character for me, and I think for everyone who played Amanda. The two sided-personality is really hard to show and make it clear at the same time. Additionally, after performing these two scenes, my skill of remembering the script had also improved. Now I know that the easiest way to remember the script is to understand it and put yourself into the play as the character you are going to be. This kind of project I would like to do more to improve myself.
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