My
best friend, Bobby Burns, invited me to go back to my old high school to see a
play. I was very excited yet nervous at the same time; I didn’t know what to
expect except for people who I’ve been friends with or people who thought I was
awkward, but it didn’t matter to me, I was ready to see my high school again. When
I was driving, everything looked familiar and I was brought back to the good
times and the bad times.
When I drove in the front of my school,
I had a feeling that people, who knew me, would be surprised of my return, but
it turned out that only a few people were very excited to see me again. When
Bobby arrived at the theater, we walked inside and found ourselves empty seats almost
before everybody else arrived. There was a big set with some wooden boxes on
top of each other for the actors to stand up on. As soon as everyone else came
in, the play was ready to start.
Everything was dark at first but
then music started to play the yellow and green lights started to turn on. Music
began to play and we saw one actor, he was standing in the middle and very top
of the wooden setting. He was wearing a green cap, and a green shirt with white
spots, he started singing and moving all around the set and then we spotted an
actress. I realized that the actress plays a mother goose and the actor plays
the husband.
We then see some eggs that start to
hatch and then little yellow ducklings come out and they are all played by kid
actors wearing yellow shirts and they were moving and running around each other.
All the actors started to move around
the set, smiling and singing. They pretended they were swimming by putting
their arms on the sides of their bodies and walking in tip-toes. Then all of a
sudden, the last egg hatched, all the actors gathered around the egg, two
spotlights surrounded the egg. And one actor popped out and surprised us by
yelling, “HOOOONK!!” He was wearing a brown suit with a brown hat. The actor
was the Ugly Duckling.
So then we had some comedy, his dad, tries
to teach the duckling how to quack, but the ugly duckling couldn’t help saying,
“HOOOONK!!” The dad gets startled and we start laughing as he moves his arms
fast from being startled. Then we have another song playing called “Look at
him.” The characters begin to tease the poor duckling except his mother. They
begin to judge him by the way he looks and they think that he should have to
look alike. They start moving back and forth left and right to be visible for
the whole audience. Then we have the first appearance of the Black Cat who
wants to eat the Ugly Duckling. She is dressed in a black suit and her hair is
bundled up to look like cat ears. She is probably one of the best parts of the
play, mainly because she is an amazing dancer. She dances almost all the time. The
way she performs her dance moves is to show the audience that she is an
antagonist.
The next scene is with the Ugly
Duckling and the Cat. The duck is just sitting down while the cat dances around
with her ingredients as she is about to cook him, she dances around him in
circle almost the whole time. Then we have another scene with The Duck and
several new actors pop out dressed like frogs. The lighting was all green and
blue to show us there was a pond. The actors were moving up and down on their
hands and feet except for one actor who plays the dad. He was also hold a black
cane. His voice began to make us laugh, he was moving around goofy and silly.
The Duck and the Frog began to rotate each side of the stage. In the end, the
Frog tapped the ducks shoulder with his cane and all the frogs hopped away. The
purpose of that scene was to talk about why feeling different didn’t matter.
Then we have a scene between the Duck and his love interest, the Female Swan as
the lights began to change into white. They were both standing and singing
together and the lyrics were very heart warming and after the whole song, we
believed they were in love. The Swan was ready to leave and the duck asked if
he would ever see her again and that is where we were invested in the love
story.
Then there was a winter scene, where
the duck gets covered with snow, the actor only uses a white blanket right
before the mother arrives and she starts to cry. Another song plays about how
much she misses her son. We start to feel the sympathy for her and most of the
audience almost cried as the lighting is all blue and surrounding the actress
as she is moving very closely to the blanket. But then, as the mother goose,
moves the white blanket, the duck appears as a swan and says, “HOOOOONK!!!” We
were very surprised when the Ugly Duckling was back. This time, he was wearing
a white suit. The Black Cat returned to find the Ugly Duckling and as soon as
she finds out that he is a swan, she begins to gasp and starts running away with
her feet moving all around.
It was a great experience to see
actors in a play to influence me as director in the future. There will have to
be facial expressions, the way they speak, etc. I was really entertained by
their performances and I even felt sympathy for the one character. It was also
very nice to learn about the lighting technicians and how the story would
surprise us. I learned so much at that play and I hope to instruct my actors
very well as a direct of the future.
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