Video Link

https://youtu.be/TU2JLh7f66c

Post Project Questions

1. What was your vision as a director/creator for this project?

My vision as a director/creator for this project was to keep the general idea of the story similar but add a few different twists of my own to make it interesting.

2. What elements of the original story did you maintain in your project?

The only element from the original story that I maintained in my project was the idea of a wife finding out her husband is dead.

3. What did you change about the original story in your project?

In my project the husband does not actually die and the wife ends up killing her husband when she finds out he's alive.

4. What is the twist or climax of your adaptation?

My story has 2 twists. The first twist is the wife being told her husband is dead but he really isn't. The second twist is when the husband gets home from work the wife ends up killing him.

5. What is the strongest part of your project so far?

I think my twists are the strongest part so far, I think they make the story very interesting and it keeps the viewers entertained.

6. What is the weakest part of your project so far?

I think my captions for some of my pictures can defiantly be improved and is the weakest part of my project right now.

7. How has this project helped you learn about how stories work?

This project taught me how to represent a story with just pictures and a few words describing the picture.

8. How has this project helped you learn how theater works?

This project helped me learn how many different thoughts can go into just one scene or in my case a picture. It showed me that there are many different ways to picture something.

3-4 Pictures

 Elizaveta Dracko answers phone and is told there was an explosion at the nuclear plant her husband works at. She is told he is missing and is most likely died in the explosion.

 Elizaveta hated her husband so she was very excited to find out he was dead.

Elizaveta Dracko went to her room, sat on her bed and thought about what she would do with her freedom of being single.

Modernized Adaptation

Idea: Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster: Man works at Chernobyl and is there the day of explosion. He was on lunch break during the explosion so he wasn't there. When he was not found after the explosion he was presumed dead and everyone figured he had been blown up in the explosion. Even though he actually wasn't. Wife gets call later in day telling her that her husband is missing and cannot be found at the explosion sight, and that he probably died in the explosion. She quickly hung up and started celebrated because she hated him. Later that night the husband comes home, wife is super surprised and mad because she had now lost her freedom of being single. She kills husband because she is so mad.
Genre: Drama
characters: Ivan Dracko(husband), Elizaveta Dracko(wife),
setting: Chernobyl in Russia
plot: Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster: Man works at Chernobyl and is there the day of explosion. He was on lunch break during the explosion so he wasn't there. When he was not found after the explosion he was presumed dead and everyone figured he had been blown up in the explosion. Even though he actually wasn't. Wife gets call later in day telling her that her husband is missing and cannot be found at the explosion sight, and that he probably died in the explosion. She quickly hung up and started celebrated because she hated him. Later that night the husband comes home, wife is super surprised and mad because she had now lost her freedom of being single. She kills husband because she is so mad.
pivotal moments: Husband leaves work for lunch break, nuclear plant explodes, husband is presumed dead, wife gets called to tell her he is missing and probably passed away in the explosion,
climax: When husband comes up
resolution: wife kills husband

Modernizing the Story

- change some of the wording/ just reading it, it sounds old
- base it in a modern society, like a college
- change the characters to two teenagers dating and the boyfriend is on the train
-

Play Review

Ryan Purdy

IB Lit and Performance

I saw the play “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time” on November 15th in Cheshire Academy’s black box. “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time” was written by Simon Stephons. The play begins with a young boy finding a dead dog in his neighbor's yard, he is blamed for killing the dog and then makes it his journey to find the real killer. The play then tells the life of the autistic boy after he found the dog. It shows the struggles of raising an autistic child and the struggles the austic boy faces in life. The main themes of the play are “raising an autistic child”, “life of autistic children and the struggles they face”, and “raising a child as a single parent”.

Cheshire Academy’s play was very good in my opinion. The lighting was very interesting how it would focus on whoever was on the stage and talking. I also like how all actors who were not in a scene would sit on the side of the stage in the dark but yet still visible. I thought that having the people on the side was very unique. In my opinion the characters that CA’s play focused on were Christopher, Ed, and Siobhann because they were on the stage the most. During the transitions I really liked how their was music that was played in between scenes because it kept the transitions interesting. One more thing about the staging I really liked was all the writing on the walls that related to the play.   

When watching Cheshire Academy’s version of the play there were a few moments that were very memorable and stuck out to me. One moment during the play that was most memorable to me was when Roger went into Christopher’s room very drunk and tried to beat him. This moment was very memorable because in the play when Roger came onto the scene very drunk I thought it was pretty funny. I also think the actor did a really good job impersonating a drunk person. This moment also stuck out to me because of how loud the actor playing Christopher yelled when Roger tried to grab him and beat him. I think this scene was portrayed very well by the two actors making it also very memorable. I responded to this scene by being a little frightened by the screams made by Christopher’s actor but I was also very intrigued because it was a very interesting scene with a lot of commotion.

The actor that was my favorite and acted the best was Willjam. Willjam acted out Ed Christopher’s father. I liked Willjam the best because of how intense and into the play he was. He made the scenes seem not like acting and so realistic because of how well he acted and how intense he was. As an actor Willjam was funny, realistic, believable, natural, and emotional. I thought he did a very good job acting out Ed and he truly made the play unique with his acting. An example during the play when Willjam was very intense and that I liked a lot was when Ed was fighting with Judy over who Christopher should be living with. He was very emotional and spoke with a loud voice. He made me a little scared because of how real he made it seem.

I really enjoyed Cheshire Academy’s version of the play because it really brought the play to life for me. It gave me in image of all the characters and how their acting would look like. It was much better than just reading the play. Yes, I thought the rest of the audience seemed to enjoy the play. One thing I learned about theater is that acting is not just memorizing the lines and putting on a costume, theater is literally being that person and living out the life of the character you are acting out.

Links for CI presentation

https://youtu.be/fNjmUNAFKAM (Second Part)

https://youtu.be/plTSTCH4aAI (First Part)

CI Notes

Characters:

Ed: Christopher's dad, trying to talk to Christopher has present for him

Christopher: Ed's son,  is upset and doesn't want to talk to Ed, his rat died and he doesn't think he did well on his math test even though he ended up getting an A

Siobhan: Chris's teacher and seems to be in two scenes at once?

Judy: Ed's wife, Chris's mom, makes Chris tell Ed he doesn't think he did well on his math exam.

Sandy: Christopher's new golden retriever 

- 

- Christopher talks to Siobhan about his dreams of going to a university after getting an A on math test

Plot:

Conflict is between Ed and son Christopher. Christopher won't talk to Ed. Ed gets Christopher a golden retriever to make it up to him.

CI Notes

Character:
Christopher: is Ed's son, has autism, was at scene with dead dog, accused of killing the dead dog.
Mrs. Shears: owner of dead dog, very angry because her dog is dead, is the one accusing Christopher
Policeman: questioning Christopher about what happened to the dog, he doesn't know about Chris having autism and arrests him for assaulting him.
Ed: father of Christopher, he tells Christopher to no search for the killer of the dog, husband of a dead wife.
Siobhan: some kind of mentor or teacher for Christopher, seems like he is inside of Christophers head?

Plot:
- Mrs. Shears finds Christopher standing next to her dead dog in her garden
- Calls the cops and Christopher gets arrested

Staging:
In the first scene Christopher and Siobhan are both on stage and talking at the same but about things even though they are sharing the stage.
It is like there is 2 scenes going on but one stage.

Theme: A boy struggling with autism who is facing troubles

Poem Response

In Lili and Amy’s performance they emphasize a couple of things from the original poem. In their performance the white chickens and red wheelbarrow were emphasized from the original poem. I believe they chose to emphasize these two things because they were the most important subjects in the poem. I think that Lili’s and Amy’s performance makes me think a lot differently about the poem because when I first read the poem I did not really understand it all. After seeing Lili’s and Amy’s performance I now have a picture and story of what the poem means and what it represents. Lili’s and Amy’s performance accomplished a lot by bringing it to the stage. One big thing they accomplished was giving the viewers an image of the poem. Another thing their performance accomplished was giving the viewers an inspiring story about a young girl who grew up on a farm from just a 16 word poem. 

In Connor, Lauren, and Mia’s performance they emphasize the dark brother who is being forced to eat in the kitchen. They also emphasized the dark brothers confidence. I believe they chose to emphasize the dark brother because he is the main character in the poem. I think they chose to emphasize the dark brothers confidence because the brothers confidence is the most important factor in the poem and Their group performance made me think differently about the poem because the performance shows you to stick up for yourself and the poem shows that confidence is key to getting what you want. Their performance did not accomplish a lot by bringing the poem to the stage because the poem was exactly like the performance. Their performance did accomplish bringing the poem to life and giving the viewers an image of what the poem might look like if performed.

Poem Response

What are you doing and why? What aspect of the poem will you highlight in your performance?

In my group we are going to have a son who is very upset about not doing well in college, a mom with inspiring advice, and a narrator to read the inspiring poem the mom leaves for the son. The son will come home from college and tell his mom he is struggling in college and wants to drop out. The mom will give some advice and write a inspiring poem for the son to read after she leaves. We are gonna really show the mother-son relationship in the poem and we are also showing the whole poem by having the narrator read the whole poem when the mom writes the inspiring poem for the son.

Three Poems

Eating Poetry:

• I think this poem is about someone in a library whos is literally eating books and poems. When the librarians see him she is sad and surprised. And then dogs come up from the basement and the man starts acting like a dog himself. I think the poem is trying to convey that poems are meant to be eaten?
• There is no rhyme scheme
• “There is no happiness like mine” is a simile 
• “and she walks with her hands in her dress.” is an alliteration
• The sounds of the poem is quiet because it takes place in a library
• The tone of the poem seems kinda sad or lonely

Boy and Egg:

• The poem is about a boy who wants to walk a trail that leads to the house where the hens stay. The author mentions that the boy himself could also make a bed in hay. The author says that the eggs the boy grabbed yesterday was so fresh and warm he pressed it against his ear and all the other children laughed and ran away from him. The boy became very sad. 
• There is no rhyme scheme in the poem.
• “Yesterday the egg so fresh it felt hot in his hand” is a metaphor.
• The sound of the poem is kids running through trials and going to a chicken coop
• The tone of the poem is sad or depressing 
• The theme of the poem is bullying
• The context of the poem is
• The meaning of the poem is to teach you not to laugh at someone.

Mother to Son:

• This poem is about a mom talking to son. She is giving an inspirational speech saying how her life hasn’t been very easy and she struggled in life. She said even though she was having a hard life she kept going and don’t turn back and give up keep going in life and never stop.
• There is no rhyme scheme.
• “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.” is a metaphor.
• The sound of the poem is a conversation between a mom and son
• The tone of the poem is inspirational but also sad
• The contrast of the poem is 
• The theme of the poem is Never Give Up
• The meaning of the poem is trying to teach others that life is gonna be hard and you are gonna go through some hard times, but what’s important is you don’t give up and push through the hard times.

Poem Response

Ryan Purdy

Poem Response

IB Lit and Performance

The poem “Eating Poetry” is written by Mark Strand. The poem takes place in a library and is about a man who is eating poetry. The poem starts off with the man who is very happily eating the poems, then the librarian sees him and the dogs start coming up from the basement. After the dogs came up the man began acting like a dog himself. My first impression of the poem I was a little confused. I was confused because the poem is about eating poems, and it starts by saying how the is ink dripping down from the corner of his mouth because he has been eating poems. Although my first impression was confusing after reading the poem a couple times it began to make more sense. After I read it over many times I realized that at the end of the poem when the man begins acting like a happy dog, that this was probably due to him eating the poems in the first place. Although I found this poem a little confusing I did like how the man started acting like a dog himself after he ate the poems. I think this added a comedic affect because all I could picture was a man in a library eating poems and acting like a dog. I really liked this part because throughout most of the of the poem I was confused and did not really enjoy it. But when I read the man started acting like a dog himself it just made me laugh. There are many questions I would like to ask the poet because of how weird or confusing the poem was. 4 questions I would ask the author is “what does the man eating the poems signify or mean?”, “why did dogs come up from the basement, in a library?”, “why is the man eating poetry in the first place?”, and “why does the man begin acting like a dog at the end of the poem?”

Figurative Language

Lauren looks like Reese and Katie today

Lauren is greener than a golf course

The two trees opened their arms and hugged each other on twin day

My twin shot a gun and it went bang

The twin taps  on their tippy toes

The twin wins a pin

The twins talked through their tussle.

Final Draft Reflection

Ryan Purdy

1. I think my final draft turned out well, I think my introduction sentences in the body paragraphs could have been much stronger.
2. I worked on beefing up my body paragraphs, adding another body paragraph and a conclusion.
3. Overall I thought it was difficult figuring out what the lines of my poem really meant. Overall I thought it was pretty easy coming up with a thesis statement.
4. Overall I thought my strengths were the body paragraphs and my weakness was the introduction
5. If I had more time on this essay I would work on making my introduction better and making the first sentences of each body paragraph better.

3 things I will get points on is turning it in on time, having 500-600 words, and having a creative title.

3 things I will lose points on is my essay having grammar errors, not having strong body paragraph introduction sentences, my conclusion leaving the readers something to think about.

Final Draft

Ryan Purdy
Poetic Analysis
                                                         Dream of Better Things

The poem “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” was written by Israel Kamakawiwoʻole. In my opinion this poem is very inspiring because it made me want to help someone who was sad. The poem also inspired me to stay strong when I am sad because I know things will get better. I think that the poem is especially inspiring for sad viewers because it relates to the viewers because it is a sad poem that has a positive message for its viewers. The poem relates to sad readers to show them that things will get better.

The poem relates to it's sad viewers and gives them hope that it will get better through the lyrics. One line that shows this is “And the dreams that you dream of. Dreams really do come true”. This line shows that if they dream it will come true, this gives them inspiration to be better. This line made me want to go dream of better things, which is exactly what the poem wants us to do because dreaming can help people when they are in a sad situation in life.

In the poem another line that inspires its viewers is "Someday, I wish upon a star

Wake up where the clouds are far behind me, Where troubles melt like lemon drops”. This line gives it's readers hope that things will get better because it shows that if you wish for things then the bad will be left behind you. I believe the star is a metaphor for happiness and the clouds is for sad or bad things. I think the second part of the line “where troubles melt like drops” is trying to show the readers that all the troubles will go away when you wish for better things. This also shows the readers to leave the sad times(clouds) behind you or in the past and move onto better things. The poem is trying to tell its viewers to wish and think of happy/better things and you will get past the sad and bad things. 

One last line that shows its viewers when they are in a sad situation things will getter better is “The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky, And also on the faces of people passing by, I see friends shaking hands saying, How do you do? They're really saying I, I love you”. This line gives the viewers hope because it shows them that they will always have someone there for them, you just have to find them. I think the author is trying to say that there are people that care for you and love you. I think that in this line the friends stand for someone who will be there for you saying they love you showing the viewers that in sad times it will get better  if your have someone there for you.

Throughout the poem “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” the author uses inspiring lines to give the readers hope when they are in a sad situation that things will get better. The author uses metaphors to show the viewers ways that help the viewers get better or inspire them to dream for better things. For example the author tells the readers to “wish upon a star and wake up where the clouds are far behind me” to show them to dream of better happier things and the bad things like the clouds will be left behind you in the past.

Poetic Analysis Draft 2

Ryan Purdy


The poem “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” was written by Israel Kamakawiwoʻole. In my opinion this poem is very inspiring because it made me want to help someone who was sad. I think that the poem is especially inspiring for sad viewers because it relates to the viewers because it is a sad poem that has a positive message for its viewers. The poem relates to sad readers to show them that things will get better.

The poem relates to it's sad viewers and gives them hope that it will get better through the lyrics. One line that shows this is “And the dreams that you dream of. Dreams really do come true”. This line shows that if they dream it will come true, this gives them hope and inspires the viewers. This line made me realize that we need to follow our dreams to become happier and a better person.

In the poem another line that inspires its viewers is "Someday, I wish upon a star

Wake up where the clouds are far behind me". This line gives it's readers hope that things will get better because it shows that if you wish for things then the bad will be left behind you. I think the star is a metaphor for happiness and the clouds is for sad or bad things. The poem is trying to tell its viewers to wish and think of happy/better things and you will get past the sad and bad things.

Poetic Analysis

Ryan Purdy

Poetic Analysis

IB Lit&Performance
Mrs. Guarino

The poem “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” was written by Israel Kamakawiwoʻole. The poem is about dreaming of better things. The poem has a sad theme but is inspiring which is why I chose this poem. It is especially inspiring to sad viewers because it relates to sad readers or listeners. This poem relates to sad readers to inspire and show that even when you are in a sad situation things will get better if you dream for it.

The poem “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” relates and shows its sad viewers that if you are in a sad situation it will get better by dreaming.The line “And the dreams that you dream of

Dreams really do come true” shows this. This shows the poem is trying to teach its sad readers that dreaming can help. Another line in the poem that shows the readers that dreaming can help them is. 
Dreaming can help a person in a sad situation because it would create a picture in their head of a good or happy situation in life. This would make the viewer want to be happy, this would cause them to start working for it. That's how the poem “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” shows it’s said viewers if they are in a sad situation life will get better if your dream for it.

In conclusion the poem inspires its viewers that if you are in a said situation in life dreaming can help make it better. This poem showed me that even if I'm in a sad situation it will get better, which is why I enjoyed this poem so much. The poem is very inspiring to its readers.

Poem Anylizing

Ooh, ooh, ooh

Ooh, ooh

Somewhere over the rainbow

Way up high

And the dreams that you dream of

Once in a lullaby

Somewhere over the rainbow

Bluebirds fly

And the dreams that you dream of

Dreams really do come true

Someday, I wish upon a star

Wake up where the clouds are far behind me

Where trouble melts like lemon drops

High above the chimney top

That's where you'll find me

Somewhere over the rainbow

Bluebirds fly

And the dreams that you dare to

Oh why, oh why can't I?

Well, I see trees of green and red roses too

I'll watch them bloom for me and you

And I think to myself

What a wonderful world

Well, I see skies of blue and I see clouds of white

And the brightness of day

I like the dark

And I think to myself what a wonderful world

The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky

And also on the faces of people passing by

I see friends shaking hands saying

How do you do?

They're really saying I, I love you

I hear babies cry and I watch them grow

They'll learn much more then we'll know

And I think to myself what a wonderful world

World

Someday I wish upon a star

Wake up where the clouds are far behind me

Where trouble melts like lemon drops

High above the chimney top

That's where you'll find me

Oh, somewhere over the rainbow

Way up high

And the dreams that you dare to

Why oh, why can't I?

Ooh, ooh

Ooh, ooh

5) The overall tone to the poem is hope.

6) The poem makes me feel hopeful about life because it has a lot of inspiring hopeful sayings.

7)The poems overall message is when your in a sad or bad place in life it”ll get better.

8)Important lines:

 Somewhere over the rainbow

Where trouble melts like lemon drops

And the dreams that you dare to

9)I like this song because it is very hopeful and inspiring.

10)Favorite lines: Somewhere over the rainbow

Way up high

And the dreams that you dream of

Once in a lullaby

11)The theme is about things getting better.

12)The story is that even when things are sad or bad they will get better.

13:If this poem were a thing it would be a rainbow because it talks about rainbows a lot and things being better. I feel that rainbows make things better. So this song would be a rainbow.