Blog Post 600-800
Select a passage from a novel you have chosen to study which deals with despair and euphoria. How might staging, design, and acting combine to register one of these experiences for an audience?
From page 163 - 165, we can finally see how is the story possibly ending. It is huge damage to Desiree's heart. Compared to the poor Desiree, the crowded, fancy, wedding with a great number of people who have much fun is the stage for Desiree. In the book, besides main characters, the author still gives many details to describe how fancy is the wedding by descriptions of faculties, foods, buildings, and music. I believe a big proportion of readers likely ignores these details, because they potentially know something big happening soon, whether it is a happy or bad ending. If I have to design this stage, I would mostly enhance the effects of background music and building set up on this stage. The church is strongly mentioned. I can see it appeared multiple times. Churches are holy and serious, bringing happiness to most of the people. We can't ignore the fact that it is a wedding not for Desiree, and this element becomes a discomfort for everyone including audiences. Desiree is on the outside of the church, so what's on the center up or so-called background should be the white or bright color stairs. On both sides of the stage, we can see two tables of foods and drinks. The person who should be kneeling on the center, weak and sad, is Desiree. Before the main characters appear, the sound of crowded people should overwhelm the stage. I hope this could make a despairing sense for Desiree to make a comparison to the situation before Andrea comes back and the time when she takes care of Daniel in the palace. Before she is in this situation, she is respected by people in the palace and feeling comfortable, and now she is ignored by everyone. Nobody cares about her. There are two characters making connections and contacts with Desiree in this passage. There are Mathilde and Daniel, pushing the atmosphere of the story to the ending. First, we see how does Daniel hold Andrea's arm stepped from the church. Then, Desiree feels really bad for this. I want to put Desiree on the down right and those two on the up left. This is the longest distance between them. In a black box, physically there is no "distant" between any two spots on the stage, but I hope audiences would be brought into this scene when they see how do actors present on the stage. When Mathilde appears, as the book says, she is a good woman with sad and searching eyes. I want Mathilde to face everyone to let everyone to see her searching eyes. When Desiree sees her, she wants to say a word but she can't, and she can only life her arm a little bit. A low voice breaks through the silence. After Mathilde sighs, she decisively turned around and away. "Madame Mathilde, it's me." is the only line here, and it is spoken out when Mathilde almost quits from the stage. Not long after, Daniel limped up to the gate. He looks flushed, pretty happy with an obvious smile on his face. It is a question here to make the final despair for Desiree. I would let Daniel throwing his coins and walking toward Desiree. When he sees the weak Desiree on the ground, she ignores her at the beginning. After a second he turns away from her, his sight falls on her for a second and leaves without hesitation. In the end, there is no music, no sound, and the light is only gathering on her in the center of the stage. She raises her head, looking at the path walked by the Daniel for a long time, and suddenly grips her hairs and shout with a daft tone, :" Where is my lovely red comb?". At this time we all know Desiree loses everything.
From page 163 - 165, we can finally see how is the story possibly ending. It is huge damage to Desiree's heart. Compared to the poor Desiree, the crowded, fancy, wedding with a great number of people who have much fun is the stage for Desiree. In the book, besides main characters, the author still gives many details to describe how fancy is the wedding by descriptions of faculties, foods, buildings, and music. I believe a big proportion of readers likely ignores these details, because they potentially know something big happening soon, whether it is a happy or bad ending. If I have to design this stage, I would mostly enhance the effects of background music and building set up on this stage. The church is strongly mentioned. I can see it appeared multiple times. Churches are holy and serious, bringing happiness to most of the people. We can't ignore the fact that it is a wedding not for Desiree, and this element becomes a discomfort for everyone including audiences. Desiree is on the outside of the church, so what's on the center up or so-called background should be the white or bright color stairs. On both sides of the stage, we can see two tables of foods and drinks. The person who should be kneeling on the center, weak and sad, is Desiree. Before the main characters appear, the sound of crowded people should overwhelm the stage. I hope this could make a despairing sense for Desiree to make a comparison to the situation before Andrea comes back and the time when she takes care of Daniel in the palace. Before she is in this situation, she is respected by people in the palace and feeling comfortable, and now she is ignored by everyone. Nobody cares about her. There are two characters making connections and contacts with Desiree in this passage. There are Mathilde and Daniel, pushing the atmosphere of the story to the ending. First, we see how does Daniel hold Andrea's arm stepped from the church. Then, Desiree feels really bad for this. I want to put Desiree on the down right and those two on the up left. This is the longest distance between them. In a black box, physically there is no "distant" between any two spots on the stage, but I hope audiences would be brought into this scene when they see how do actors present on the stage. When Mathilde appears, as the book says, she is a good woman with sad and searching eyes. I want Mathilde to face everyone to let everyone to see her searching eyes. When Desiree sees her, she wants to say a word but she can't, and she can only life her arm a little bit. A low voice breaks through the silence. After Mathilde sighs, she decisively turned around and away. "Madame Mathilde, it's me." is the only line here, and it is spoken out when Mathilde almost quits from the stage. Not long after, Daniel limped up to the gate. He looks flushed, pretty happy with an obvious smile on his face. It is a question here to make the final despair for Desiree. I would let Daniel throwing his coins and walking toward Desiree. When he sees the weak Desiree on the ground, she ignores her at the beginning. After a second he turns away from her, his sight falls on her for a second and leaves without hesitation. In the end, there is no music, no sound, and the light is only gathering on her in the center of the stage. She raises her head, looking at the path walked by the Daniel for a long time, and suddenly grips her hairs and shout with a daft tone, :" Where is my lovely red comb?". At this time we all know Desiree loses everything.
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