Snow in Midsummer 447-448 [12-12-2011]

Participation Grade = 100

I gave myself a 100 because I think that I tried really hard during acting training and I gave a bunch of feedback. I also volunteered for Meisner but you didn't pick me.

Today I read pages 447-448 of Snow in Midsummer. Mrs. Cai had just came home and she told Dou E that she was being forced to marry Old Zhang. She didn't however tell Dou E that she was being forced to marry Donkey, she said "Since it has come to this, I think you'd better take a husband too." But Dou E didn't take to the idea well. She told Mrs. Cai that should could take a husband if she must but she wont. When the men arrive Dou E didn't welcome them and made it clear she didn't want to marry donkey.

Snow in Midsummer 445-447 [12-9-2011]

Today I read pages 445-447 of Snow in Midsummer. Mrs. Cai re-introduces herself as 13 years older. She changed Dou's daughter Duanyun's name after Mrs. Cai's son and Duanyun got married. She was now Dou E. Three years ago however, Mrs. Cai's son died leaving Dou E a widow.

Mrs. Cai went to see Dr. Lu to collect money. He didn't have the money so he lured her out to the village and tried to strangle her when Old Zhang and his son Donkey saved her and then threatened to strangle her themselves if she and her daughter-in-law didn't marry them.

Dou E then introduced herself. She had a pretty sad life filled with death and loss starting at just the early age of three years old. "A three I lost my mother, at seven was torn from my father; then the life of the husband I married was cut short; so my mother-in-law and I are left as widows, with no one to care for us or see to our needs."

[No participation grade this is a make up blog]

Snow in Midsummer 443-445 [12-8-2011]

Today I read pages 443-445 of Snow in Midsummer. This play starts with Mrs. Cai as the narrator. She is a widow with a eight year old son. Today is the day that Mr. Dou, the man that Mrs. Cai leant five taels of silver to last year, brings his daughter to Mrs. Cai so he wont have to pay her back. Mrs. Cai wants to make his daughter her daughter-in-law.

Dou then enters and now he is the plays narrator. Dou is the master of all learning in the world. His wife died and all he has left is his only daughter, Duanyun. Much like Mrs. Cai. Dou is selling his daughter to Mrs. Cai to get rid of his debt and get some cash for his journey. At first I thought he didn't really care about his child but then he said, " Ah, child, your father does this against his will.!" Mrs. Cai bought Dou's daughter for two extra taels then what his debt had been.

Doctor enters stage and is now playing the narrator. Dr. Lu was his name and he wasn't a very good doctor. I cannot bring dead men back to life, and the live ones I treat often die." He borrowed 10 taels of silver from Mrs. Cai and with interest now owes her 20. She keeps coming to collect the money but Dr. Lu doesn't have it.

[No participation grade this is a make up blog]

Everyman 533-534 [12-7-2011]

Today I read pages 533-534 of Everyman. Everyman finally sees who his true friends are. The two who have yet to leave him and continue to say they never will, Good Deeds and Knowledge. I finished reading Everyman today.

[No participation grade this is a make up blog]

Everyman 531-533 [12-6-2011]

Today I read pages 531-533 of Everyman. Everyman's new friends assure him that they will always stand by him. " Everyman, we will not from you go till ye have done this voyage long." "I, Discretion, will bide by you also." "And though this pilgrimage be never so strong, I will never part you fro. " But then Everyman said something about not living anymore, "In this world live no more we shall, but in heaven before the highest lord of all." All of his new friends took back what they said and left Everyman. Strength even said, "Thou art but a fool to complain; you spend your speech and waste your brain." As they left Everyman said, "For when Death bloweth his blast they all run fro me full fast.

[No participation grade this is a make up blog]

Everyman 529-531 [12-5-2011]

Today I read pages 529-531 of Everyman. Everyman calls for Discretion, Strength, his five-wits, and Beauty. The play is suddenly so different from the beginning when no one wanted to help everyman. Now everyman has a group of friends who are actually willing to go on this journey with him.

[No participation grade this is a make up blog]

Everyman 526-529 [11/29/2011]

Today I read pages 526-529 of Everyman. Knowledge leads Everyman to the House of Salvation to find Confession. Everyman Kneels down and asks Confession for mercy and to heal Good Deeds. Confession told Everyman that he will be saved and Good Deeds also got better and was able to walk.

[No participation grade this is a make up blog]

Everyman 524-526 [11/28/2011]

Today I read pages 524-526 of Everyman. Everyman begins by saying "Then of myself I was ashamed, and so I am worthy to be blamed: Thus may I well myself hate." He then turns to his good deeds for help. Good Deeds wanted to help Everyman and said that she would come along on the journey if only she were able. Good Deeds said, "Here I lie, cold in the ground: Thy sins hath me sore bound." Even though Good Deeds can't go she introduces Everyman to her sister, Knowledge, who is willing to go with Everyman on his journey.

[No participation grade this is a make up blog]

Everyman 522-524 [11/25/2011]

Today I read pages 522-524 of Everyman. The play has started to take form and I'm beginning to understand everything. In what I read today, Everyman notices that the people who say they love and care for him and promise to help him with whatever he needs keep breaking their promises and aren't really there for him. "For fair promises men to me make, but when I have most need they me forsake." "Lo, fair words maketh fools fain: They promise and nothing will do, certain. My kinsmen promised me faithfully for to abide with me steadfastly, and now fast away do they flee. Even so fellowship promised me. What friend were best me of to provide?" Like God said earlier on, mankind has become extremely selfish. His friends are only willing to help him if what he's doing wont harm them or take anything away from them in any way.

Still, Everyman continues to look for help. He thinks of his goods and riches and thinks that they can possibly make him hopeful like they always had, so he calls upon them. The goods answer makes it sound like Everyman has more goods then necessary, more stuff then he was even aware of, and stuff that was never touched more then once and then thrown into a closet. "I lie here in corners, trussed and piled so high, And in chests I am locked so fast- Also sacked in bags-thou mayst see with thine eye I cannot stir, in packs low where I lie." Everyman then asks his goods to go on the journey with him but the good absolutely refuse.

[No participation grade this is a make up blog]

Everyman 520-522 [11/24/2011]

Today I read pages 520-522 of Everyman. Everyman told Fellowship about his visit from Death and Fellowship said that if Death was the messenger there was no way in hell he was going with him! Everyman continued pushing Fellowship to come with him. Still Fellowship refused and Everyman said "Wither away, Fellowship? Will thou forsake me?" as Fellowship answered, "Yea, by my fay! To God I betake thee." After Fellowship exits, Everyman plans on asking his kinsmen and Cousin to help him. As Kindred and Cousin enter, Everyman tells them about the same journey he had explained to fellowship. However both Kindred and Cousin refused, saying, "Nay, Everyman, I had liefer fast bread and water all this five year and more!" "As for me, ye shall go alone."

[No participation grade this is a make up blog]

Everyman 518-520 [11/23/2011]

Today I read pages 518-520 of Everyman. Death exits leaving Everyman panicking about the journey and wishing he had never been born. Fellowship enters and shows concern for Everyman as he says, "Sir, why lookest thou so piteously? If anything be amiss, I pray thee me say, that I may help to remedy." At first Everyman was hesitant to tell Fellowship what was wrong, "If I my heart should to you break, and then you to turn your mind fro me, and would not me comfort when ye hear me speak, then should I ten times sorrier be." However, after Fellowship assures Everyman that he's willing to help with whatever it is that Everyman has to do, Everyman tell Fellowship about the journey. I finished reading when Fellowship was saying that he cares for Everyman, but such a long, hard, scary journey isn't something Fellowship is willing to do for Everyman.

[No participation grade this is a make up blog]

Everyman 516-518 [11/22/2011]

Today I read pages 516-518 of Everyman. After God exits, Death is still going on about what he is going to do to mankind. "He that loveth riches I will strike with my dart, his sight to blind and from heaven to depart. Except that Almsdeeds be his good friend - In hell for to dwell, world without end." Everyman enters and after some conversation, Everyman asks "What messenger art thou?" Death introduces himself and then announces why he is there. "For everyman I 'rest, and no man spareth; for it is Gods commandment that all to me should be obedient." Everyman tries to bribe death, offering him a thousand pound to have mercy on him. Death responds by saying, "I would receive gifts great, all the world I might get. But my custom is clean contrary: I give thee no respite." This shows how devoted Death is to god. During this time no man would choose God over a thousand pounds, they were all to selfish and greedy. But death couldn't be given all the gifts in the world to turn his back on God. After more begging and Death denying Everyman mercy, Death exits after saying, "For thou mayst say this is the day that no man living may 'scape away." Meaning, no matter what they do, mankind will be punished for their sins.

[No participation grade this is a make up blog]

Everyman 514-516 [11/21/2011]

Today I read pages 514-516 of Everyman. The play starts with on character on the stage. This character is The Messenger. The Messenger begins by explaining what Everyman is about. "You think sin in the beginning full sweet, Which in the end causeth the soul to weep,-" The Messenger continues with, "Here shall you see how fellowship and jollity, both strength, pleasure, and beauty, will fade from thee as flower in May." I feel like The Messenger made the story sound very interesting and makes the reader want to continue reading. The Messenger exits as God enters. God talks a lot about how he is really upset that after everything he did for mankind, mankind is being selfish and greedy. God said, "Drowned in sin, they know me not for their God." "My law that I showed when I for them died they forget clean, and shedding of my blood red." "To get them life I suffered to be dead." "Everyman liveth so after his own pleasure, and yet of their life they be nothing sure. I see the more that I them forbear, the worse they be from year to year." As god finishes the end of his long monologue, he begins to talk about showing mankind a lesson. God says, "I must do justice on every man living without fear. Where art thou, Death, though mighty messenger?" I finished off reading at the point where Death had just told god that he will go and teach mankind a lesson in God's name.

[No participation grade this is a make up blog]

The Bacchae 234-237 [10/11/2011]

Today I read pages 234-237 of The Bacchae. The chorus starts by praising Dionysus. Teiresias summons Cadmus and both of them are retiring. Pentheus comes on stage and tells the retired gods that there have been reports of women leaving home to frisk in mock among the thickets on the mountain dancing in honor of Dionysus. He also said that he has captured some of the women and jailed them.

[No participation grade this is a make up blog]

The Bacchae 230-233 [10/10/2011]

Dionysus bound the fawn-skin to the womens flesh and armed their hands with shafts of Ivy. They said that Dionysus was no son of Zues. He hounded all of the women from Thebes up to the mountains where they wondered, crazed of mind, and compelled to wear my origes' livery. Dionysus thinks hes god and hes going to try and prove it to everyone.

[No participation grade this is a make up blog]

Oedipus The King Pages 182-185 [10/07/2011]

Today I read paged 182-185 of Oedipus The King. Creon is now the sole defense of the country. He consulted the gods about Oedipus and instead of death Creon is going to drive him far away where he can't hear a human voice and Oedipus will stay there forever. Creon also let Oedipus see his kids and hold them. But he had to give them back and then Creon took him away.

[No participation grade this is a make up blog]

Oedipus The King Pages 176-181 [10/06/2011]

Today I read pages 176-181 of Oedipus The Kind. Oedipus's wife was actually his birth mom, and when he was a baby she gave him to the shepherd with orders to kill the baby. Jocasta was terrified over the horrible prophecies. But he didn't kill the baby, instead he gave the baby to Laius's father, Polybus. The shepherd pitied the baby, he also told Oedipus that King Laius,

"hoped he'd take him off to his own country,

far away, but he saved him for this, this fate.

If you are the man he says you are, believe me,

you were born for pain."

His wife Jocasta killed herself after storming out of the room earlier. She was ripping her out as she rushed up to her room, slamming doors, flinging herself across the bridal-bed. Oedipus found Jocasta hanging by her neck. He cried as he slipped the halter from her throat, and laid her down in a slow embrace. Then he took the long gold pins that held her robe and dug them into his eye sockets as he said,

"You, you'll see no more the pain I suffered, all the pain I caused

Too long you looked on the ones you never should have seen,

blind to the ones you longed to see, to know! Blind

from this hour on! Blind in the darkness-blind!"

[No participation grade this is a make up blog]

Oedipus The King Pages 171-175 [10/05/2011]

Today I read pages 171-175 of Oedipus The King The messenger told Oedipus that Polybus wasn't his real father.

"Polybus was nothing to you, that's why, not in blood."

He even said that Polybus and himself were equals.

"No more than I am. He and I are equals."

Oedipus was confused because the messenger was a stranger. He meant nothing to Oedipus so how could he be equal to his father?

"Neither was he, no more your father than I am."

"Then why did he call me his son?"

"You were a gift-"

The messenger was the person who found Oedipus to give to Polybus. He found him down the woody flanks of Mount Cithaeron. He was a herdsman scraping for wages. But he was also Oedipus's savior. When he first found him his ankles were pinned together and he set him free. The messenger actually got Oedipus from another shepherd who was a servant of Laius. Oedipus set out to solve the mystery of his birth. Jocasta really doesn't want him to search for his parents but he refuses to let it go. After telling a servant to go get the herdsman he then tells him to,

"Leave her to glory in her royal birth." - referring to Jocasta

Jocasta got aggravated and shot back saying,

"Man of agony-

that is the only name I have for you,

that, no other-ever, ever, ever!"

She then stormed out of the room but it doesn't even faze Oedipus at all. He was to focused on finding out who his birth parents were. He met the shepherd that gave him to the messenger. The shepherd didn't want to tell Oedipus anything but Oedipus started to violently threaten the old man. He admitted to giving the messenger the baby and he also said,

"I wish to god I'd died that day."

After more threats to harm the old shepherd he told them that the child came from the house of Laius. Then he finally said,

"All right! His son, they say it was-his son!"

[No participation grade this is a make up blog]

Oedipus The King Pages 166-170 [10/04/2011]

Today I read pages 166-170 of Oedipus The King. Oedipus believes that he indeed killed the previous King Laius, but he also has a witness that he didn't question yet and he sees this witness as his last hope. If the witness's story matched Jocasta's, he can't be the killer, because she said 'thieves'. However, if the witness only mentions one killer, Oedipus is clearly guilty. Jocasta, Oedipus's wife, went to the temples of the gods with her branch and incense in hand. She starts to beg Apollo to cleanse her and Oedipus and to set them free of defilement. Jocasta's life changed in the blink of an eye. She even compared it to a plane crashing.

"Look at us, passengers in the grip of fear,

watching the pilot of the vessel go to pieces."

A messenger from Corinth comes to King Oedipus's palace and tells Jocasta that Polybus is dead and Corinth now wants Oedipus to be their king. Jocasta remembered that this is the same man Oedipus fled not to kill and thought to herself,

"-and now he's dead,

quite by chance, a normal, natural death,

not murdered by his son."

She finds out soon after though that Polybus died of sickness and old age. The death of his father seemed to lift a huge weight off of Oedipus's shoulders.

"But now, all those prophecies I feared-Polybus

packs them off to sleep with him in hell!

They're nothing, worthless."

[No participation grade this is a make up blog]

Oedipus The King Pages 162-165 [10/03/2011]

Today I read pages 162-165 of Oedipus The King. Jocasta, Oedipus's wife, told Oedipus the story of King Laius's death. Oedipus found out that Laius was cut down where three roads meet. It was a place called Phocis. It had two branching roads, one from Daulia, and one from Delphi, they all came together and formed a crossroads. As he learnt more about the previous king, Oedipus starts getting worried. He even said,

"I think I've just called down a dreadful curse

upon myself-I simply didn't know!"

Then Oedipus told Jocasta about the time he went to Delphi with his parents not knowing. Apollo denied Oedipus the facts that he had came for. Apollo started to cry in pain, terror, and disaster,

"You are fated to couple with your mother, you will bring

a breed of children into the light no man can bear to see-

you will kill your own father, the one who gave you life!"

After hearing that, Oedipus ran away, far away to a place where these things wouldn't happen. Thats when he reached the same crossroads where King Laius was murdered. As Oedipus walked through the crossroads he saw a man that looked just like Jocasta's description of King Laius. This stranger and another old man were about to thrust Oedipus off the road and that when he strikes this man who may have been King Laius. At the end of the story he tells Jocasta,

"I killed them all-every mother's son!"

[No participation grade this is a make up blog]

Oedipus The King Pages 157-161 [9/30/2011]

Today I read pages 157-161 of Oedipus The King. Creon felt really bad about the charges that Oedipus publicly gave to him. Creon really wanted a chance to talk to Oedipus but Oedipus didn't really want to listen to anything he had to say and just kept on yelling at him and insisting that Creon really was trying to kill him and become king.

"You-here? You have the gall

to show your face before the palace gates?

You, plotting to kill me, kill the king-

I see it all, the marauding thief himself

scheming to steal my crown and power!"

Creon even tells Oedipus that he should go to Delphi himself and see if he really went there and if he reported the message he gave him word for word. If he hadn't, he told Oedipus that he can go ahead and arrest him or execute him. Creon was trying to keep Oedipus from ruling unjustly because Oedipus wants to charge him but he has no facts to prove that he did what Oedipus said he did. Oedipus is just using what he thinks and what he came up with himself to make a ruling which isn't fair at all.

[No participation grade this is a make up blog]

Oedipus The King Pages 153-156 [9/29/2011]

Tiresias the blind prophet shows up and everyone expects him to know everything. Oedipus asks him to help find the killer and Tiresias refuses to say what he knows. Oedipus then accuses Tiresias of being the killer and Tiresias responded by saying that Oedipus is the curse and the Corruption of the land.

[No participation grade this is a make up blog]

Oedipus The King Pages 148-152 [9/28/2011]

The chorus was calling on all of the gods to destroy the god of death. I really like how Sophocles described death on page 200.

"Like seabirds winging west, outracing the day's fire

down the horizon, irresistibly

Streaking on the shores of evening

Death

So many deaths, numberless deaths on deaths, no end-"

I found that description to be really deep and while reading it I was able to visualize everything.

Oedipus knows exactly what he has to do to save his town and knows that praying to the gods wont help which is why he says,

"You pray to the gods? Let me grant your prayers."

He then tells them about the killer that they have to find and tells them to banish him.

"Drive him out, each of you, from every home.

He is the plague, the heart of our corruption-"

[No participation grade this is a make up blog]

Oedipus The King Pages 146-148 [9/27/2011]

Today I read pages 146-148 of Oedipus The King. Oedipus's brother in law, Creon, came back from Delphi after finding out how to save Thebes. The gods told him that murder sets the plague-storm on the city and there was a previous king, Laius who was murdered. Appolo is now commanded Oedipus to,

"Pay the killers back-whoever is responsible."

That is the only way to save their city so they have to search for the killer.

[No participation grade this is a make up blog]

Oedipus The King Pages 143-145 [9/26/2011]

Today I read pages 143-145 of Oedipus The King. Oedipus is being approached by his people and they all huddle around his alter and begin to pray. He sees the priest and asks him to explain why they are doing this. The priest tells Oedipus that Thebes is dying and everyone believes that if anyone can fix things its Oedipus.

"Act now-we beg you, best of men, raise up our city!"

Oedipus had a response that I wasn't expecting. He basically told his people that he understands they are all in pain but he's in more pain then they are.

"But sick as you are, not one is sick as I.

Your pain strikes each of you alone, each

in the confines of himself, no other. but my spirit

grieves for the city, for myself and all of you."

[No participation grade this is a make up blog]

Lysistrata Pages 220-224 [9/23/2011]

Today I finished reading Lysistrata. It had a very simple ending. The Athenians and Spartans made peace and the wives were allowed to have sex with there husbands again.

[No participation grade this is a make up blog]

Lysistrata Pages 215-219 [9/22/2011]

Today I read pages 215-219 of Lysistrata. On page 215 you can tell that the men are getting very sexually frustrated. After Myrrhine leaves her husband, Kinesias, after teasing him and not getting him off, Kinesias says,

"Now what shall I do? Whom shall I screw?

The mens leader then responds with,

"What kidney could bear it,

what soul, what balls,

what loins, what crotch,

thus stretched on the rack

and deprived of a morning fuck?"

Kinesias even goes on to say that he wants there to be a huge tornado that sweeps Myrrhine up, twirls her into the sky, and then lets go of her, and as she falls back down to earth Kinesias wants her to land right on his penis.

The men are all getting very sexually frustrated. On the bottom of page 215, Herald, who is a Spartan, enters and asks Kinesias where the Senate of Athens or the Prytanies are. At first Kinesias thought the Spartan was hiding a spear in his clothes. He soon finds out that the Spartan women are also not having sex with there husbands and Herald was actually trying to hide his hard-on.

The Athenians and the Spartans both arranged for ambassadors to negotiate a treaty. They invite lysistrata to there meeting because they know that she's the one in control of everything. Lysistrata talked to the Athenians and Spartans and basically said, how could you be at war when both of you have helped each other out in a huge way? You have no reason to fight.

[No participation grade this is a make up blog]

Lysistrata Pages 211-214 [9/21/2011]

Today I read pages 211-214 of Lysistrata. A husband actually came to where all of the women were staying and asked for his wife to speak with him. Lysistrata actually sent Myrrhine, his wife, to go and tease him. You could tell that Kinesias was very sexually frustrates. He was willing to do it anywhere he just wanted it right away. At this point I think Lysistrata's plan was really beginning to work.

[No participation grade this is a make up blog]

Lysistrata Pages 206-210 [9/20/2011]

Today I read pages 206-2010 of Lysistrata. All of the women were really starting to break, they all wanted to go home and have sex with there husbands. Lysistrata kept them locked up and refused to let them give up and go back on their vow. They were making up all kinds of outrageous excuses. One women even pretended to be going into labor yet she wasn't pregnant the day before.

[No participation grade this is a make up blog]

Lysistrata Pages 201-205 [9/19/2011]

Today I read pages 201-205 of Lysistrata. One thing I found really interesting was an argument that Lysistrata had with magistrate. Lysistrata was telling him that the women will handle everything. Magistrate got upset because as a man he feels that he should be the one handling things and taking care of everything.

[No participation grade this is a make up blog]

Lysistrata Pages 197-201 [9/16/2011]

The men try to gain control over the women that are now rebelling. My favorite part is the back and forth between the women's leader and the men's leader. The witty comments that both make are fast. The men always turn to violence while the women are always able to come up with something smart to say in return.
[No participation grade this is a make up blog]

Lysistrata Pages 194-197 [9/15/2011]

Lysistrata told the women her plan to stop the war. Her plan is for all the women to dress really slutty around their husbands all the time but deny them sex. All the women swear over a bowl of wine to not have sex with their husbands until the war is brought to an end.
[No participation grade this is a make up blog]

Lysistrata Pages 191-193 [9/14/2011]

Today I started reading Lysistrata. This play takes place back when women were only seen as house wives and sexual objects. The play begins with Lysistrata, a strong minded feminist, gathering all women to tell them her idea on how to end the war. Lysistrata seems to think shes a better women then everyone else and that shes smarter and above all.

[No participation grade this is a make up blog]

First Post Ever 9/13/2011

Participation Grade: 100

So this is my first blog post and I'm not sure if I'm doing this right or not but whatever. To be 100% honest, the first day we did meisner I was scared shitless. I grew up as a commercial baby, where your smile and laugh get you the job. We did these acting exercises and all of a sudden I'm actually allowed to not be so cheesy and I have the ability to access all of my emotions and actual thoughts. Even a week into school and I still crack jokes when I'm supposed to be focused during the acting techniques. I have a mind set that if I make someone laugh or if I look really cute than I did a good job. Even though I know that commercials look great on a resume, I'm honestly sick and tired of playing the same damn teenage girl role over and over. I got to test the waters of a more in depth role when I worked on The Meth Project with Darron Aronofsky, and it was the first time I actually felt like a real actress. I also feel like I got a different level of respect from the ADs and the rest of the crew then I usually do. I actually worked with one of the ADs before on another commercial for a little toy microphone and he was so mean then. I remember he yelled at me for going to the bathroom after I had asked him two minuets earlier if I could. But when I was on set for The Meth Project, he treated me like a princess, whatever I wanted he went out of his way to get it for me. This class really takes me out of my element and makes me feel so uncomfortable but I'm starting to notice that I have to let myself feel uncomfortable and let myself mess up and get embarrassed and push myself to try and act like I'm not trying to sell something. If I don't I'm never going to book the roles that I desperately want to book and I'm going to be stuck in commercials for the rest of my life and that's my biggest fear.