The Recognition of Sakuntala

After having read the first ten pages of Kalidasa's The Recognition of Sakuntala, I was completely confused as to what was occurring in the plot. So I used the same method as when we were instructed to read Oedipus: I read a brief plot summary for The Recognition of Sakuntala in order to have an idea of the storyline before I continued reading. So I realized that the play is focused around a hermit girl named Sakuntala who is cursed by an old sage so that her lover King Dushyanta forgets that she exists. Sakuntala's only evidence for Dushyanta to remember her is this ring, but the ring slips off her finger as she is crossing the river. Dushyanta realizes that Sakuntala is his wife, but he is too late. He goes to heaven and returns to the earth years later to find both his wife Sakuntala and their son.

We discussed various elements which made this play last through the years. We thought that the use of the prose among the dialogue helped to set the scene in an artful way. So the dialogue was the language used for people to understand the play's events and the prose was to further the dialogue by providing more details. Even though Kalidasa preceded Shakespere, we felt that they both utilized the idea of universal themes in their plays. This is evident as both Kalidasa and Shakespere deal with characters who fall in love but are separated usually by fate. This idea is evident in Shakepere's Romeo and Juliet when Romeo and Juliet are separated from birth because of their families. In Kalidasa's The Recognition of Sakuntala, Sakuntala is cursed by a sage that causes her husband to forget her. It just so happens that she loses the ring, the only token that can bond them together. Although Kalidasa's works are from the 4th to 7th centuries, we can still read and understand the meanings today because of such universal themes that link the literature of the past and present.

Sanskrit Lit

Sanskrit literature started with the Vedas and continued to the Sanskrit epics of the Iron Age of India. More specifically, the Vedas date from 1500 to 600 BC and is the basis of Hinduism. The four different types of Vedas are rig, yajur, sama, and atharva. The main Vedic literature period is from the 9th to 7th centuries. The golden age of Sanskrit literature is in late Antinquity which dates from the 3rd to 8th centuries AD. Sanskrit literature is very important in Indian culture because it is used in both Hindu religious literature and philosophical literature. In addition to religious literature, many modern Indian languages have been influenced by Sanskrit.

The classical period of Sanskrit literature is from the Gupta period from the 3rd to 8th centuries CE. Drama in Sanskrit literature is influenced by Vedic mythology and by Hellenistic drama. Drama reached its peak between the 4th and 7th centuries before it declined with Sanskrit literature as a whole. Two well-known classical Sanskrit dramatists are Shudraka and Kalidasa. Kalidasa is the dramatist who wrote The Recognition of Sakuntala, the play that we've been reading. Kalidasa deals mostly with famous Hindu legends and themes. In Indian poetry poets show their skill with word games such as stanzas that read the same forwards and backwards, words that split in different ways to make different meanings, or sophisticated metaphors. Beyond the 11th century Sanskrit literature declined for general literature in India. This occurred because literature began to appear in the vernacular Indian languages.

Performing Our Objectives

After we performed the objectives and obstacles that we created, we were critiqued for not being able to completely portray our characters. Because we did not utilize any props or motions aside from the swings, it was difficult for the audience to discern what was occurring. Since we all had a set script and could not alter the dialogue, we had to portray our objectives through the tone of our voice or through the use of props. Our audience was able to determine our age and setting, but the objective and obstacles were a bit unclear.

The group that was successful with this activity was Kermeka and Shivani's performance. Their relationship was a taxi driver and client. The taxi driver (Kermeka) was talking to someone else through her Bluetooth but the client (Shivani) didn't realize that the taxi driver had a Bluetooth. Because Kermeka couldn't hear the other person on the line she was asking questions such as "What?" or "Huh?" but Shivani thought that Kermeka was talking to her and was completely confused about what was occurring. They really portrayed their setting of a taxi cab and the Bluetooth so the audience easily realized their objectives and obstacles.

Objective
Kermeka: Trying to understand the person on the other line.
Shivani: Trying to understand what Kermeka is saying.

Obstacle
Kermeka: Bad reception.
Shivani: She can't seem to get Kermeka's attention.

Character Bio

In order to further develop our characters for our objective and obstacle exercise, we were to create a brief biography for our characters. We were to treat this assignment as if we were creating a "Myspace" video for our characters to introduce ourselves. Since I was a 13 year old girl, I tried to use language that typical 13 year old girls would use. And as I was practicing my script, I used a high, pippy voice to embody a teenager who is enthused about life and is excited to run for class president. Since 13 year old girls have just entered middle school, they feel that they are older than most kids because they are no longer in elementary school. So I tried to speak as if I saw myself as being closer in age to an adult. A classmate was to portray the typical smart, studious student or the nerd. In order to portray this image, she consistently pantomimed that she was pushing up her glasses. This was an effective detail that really helped the audience identify her character.

So...Setting?

The second component in our objective and obstacle exercise was to create the setting for our performance. Because our characters were two 13 year old girls, we decided that the setting would be somewhere at school. We first thought of having the performance take place on the school benches but it seemed like an ordinary, uninteresting setting. As we were discussing various options, another classmate suggested that we could be on a swing set at the school playground. This ended up being our setting because with a swing set, we could incorporate motion into our performance rather than merely sitting throughout the entire performance. In order to pantomime swings we rocked our chairs to imitate the motions of swings.

Twelfth Night

William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night is mainly a love story between two different couples: Cesario and Lady Olivia and Orsino and Viola. This play deals with mistaken identities which result in mistaken love. In Twelfth Night, Viola falls in love with Duke Orsino while he yearns for Lady Olivia. Duke Orsino tries to attain Olivia's love but since she is mourning over her dead brother she declines his love. Viola then disguises herself as Cesario in order to work for Olivia and Olivia falls for Cesario in the process. At the same time, Viola finds herself in love with Orsino who is still infatuated with Olivia. So Olivia has fallen for another woman disguised as a man which tends to become confusing.

In arriving at Wilson High School's theatre, I was surprised by the theatre's small size because I have been accustomed to our large theatre. The theatre was dim and evidently not as professional as the one at our school. It did not utilize a proscenium stage but rather it looked more like a box. The production's lack of microphones made it difficult to understand the actor's speech. At times it was unclear what they were saying because their dialogue was jumbled together and they did not have clear diction. Some actors also stuttered over their lines maybe due to nerves. The stuttering was not a major issue but it did take away from the actor's portrayal of the character.

The production also had a minimal use of props which focused the audience more on the actor's. This was a good idea on the director's part but wasn't necessarily executed well. Because the props were so minimal, it was difficult to discern the setting because the same props were used throughout the entire production which gave the pretense that the play focused around only one setting. In my opinion, I think that had they used a few more props that really defined the setting, it would have given the audience a better understanding of where they were.

The costumes didn't seem to quite fit the time period because one of the servants was wearing modern-looking jeans rather than the slacks or tights that would have been worn in those times. The costumes were also sloppily put together because some of the actor's had un-tucked shirts and pants that didn't fit (too long). This looked seemed to work for Sir Toby Belch because he portrayed a drunken character, but it appeared not well put together for the other characters. Aside from these details, the production was pretty good. The play at first was difficult to understand, but after the intermission it had greatly improved. I advise that people should read a brief synopsis of the play before attending the production so that they can better understand the production.

Not-So-Subtle Politics

Today I found out that I've been casted to be a pretty major character/role in one of the senior projects (Kermeka, Anna, Karina, and DJ). I was completely surprised when I had learned that I was casted to be Danielle (the donkey), the Democratic candidate. Throughout these months in theatre I have never demonstrated a brilliant performance nor have I impressed my classmates. And so it was a complete shock finding out that I was casted as a main character. At the same time I was extremely excited that our director had faith and promise in my potential to portray this character.

As I read through the script, it was evident that the play focused around political satire. So certain scenes represented specific events in the history of politics. I think that one scene with the hens running about in their contraption represents the events of 9/11. And when the hens run from the Republican to the Democratic candidate, it shows how uninformed modern citizens are in terms of politics and how we seem to take everything at face value. After one read-through of the script, I am excited to perform this play because I believe that its humor will bode well with the audience.

Making History

In order to better ourselves in our acting skills our teacher decided to give us a crash course in creating objectives and obstacles for our characters. By creating objectives and obstacles, we'll be able to have a better picture of how our character is supposed to act in order to better embody the character so that we're really acting. So an objective is something that can be accomplished within the scope of the performance. For example, if I were to set an objective for having something accomplished by 9 PM, it could be having already eaten dinner. Any obstacles for this objective could be having the time to prepare dinner because I have seventh period. The first step in this process is to create the history for the characters.

When we first got the script it was difficult to determine the situation for our characters. The dialogue seemed very interrogative and somewhat combative as if the two characters were unsure of what the other was saying. And so Noelia and I decided that the relationship between these two would be longtime best friends who hadn't spoken for about two years because of a misunderstanding. Noelia played the role of Piper and I played the role of Cindy. Piper and Cindy had been childhood friends because their mothers were best friends. They enjoyed the same activities and were inseparable until the sixth grade when they both decided to run for class president. They were both equally popular and so Piper had considered sabotaging Cindy's chances of winning by rigging the votes. Piper discussed this with her other friends Sarah and Tammy, but she never actually went through with it. However, Sarah told Cindy about Piper's intentions. At the same time, Tammy rigged the votes and when Piper had received a landslide victory, Cindy assumed that Piper had cheated. As a result, Piper and Cindy's relationship had turned to hatred. So now we come to the present when they finally confronted each other and Piper revealed that she had never followed through with her plans and now wants to be friends again with Cindy.

So here were our objectives and obstacles:
Objectives
Piper: To be friends with Cindy again.
Cindy: To question Piper's motives.

Obstacles
Piper: Piper has two years of pent-up hatred.
Cindy: Cindy doesn't believe Piper.