12/23/10

Mr. Flowers

Brandon Flowers has once again left an impression on me. He's the renown lead vocalist for The Killers but to me he's an advocate of joy. I bring him up because he is one of my muses for this project. The Greeks used to think the Muses were a source of inspiration, a guide towards achievement. Brandon Flowers is this to me. When he sings, you can feel his passion. He does this very well in his solo album Flamingo . In particular I really, really like this song called Playing With Fire because to my judgment it's speaking to everyone who has ever felt lost or just out of place.

Rollin' River of Truth, can you spare me a sip?
The holy fountain of youth has been reduced to a drip.
I've got this burning belief in salvation and love
This notion may be naive, but when push comes to shove
I will till this ground

This is what I want to achieve with my project. I want to engrave an image in the audiences head and make them seek what their heart desires. The messages behind his songs aren't always so convoluted however though you start wondering where does he get this energy to just keep singing what he does? This musician is amazing and he [unknowingly] will help me shape a story that's my own heart's desire, my salvation and belief in love. Thank you, thank you Brandon Flowers for you're truly the advocate for joy.

12/21/10

Great News & More!

Okay, so I've convinced a student at Rice University to join my panel[awesomeness]! I did this because I realized that everyone in my panel was above the age of 30 and the whole point of my project is to engage audiences from different ages. His name is Graham West, a junior, who is majoring in Political Science. We've only met once but he struck me as the kind of person who spent most of their time reading fantasy books. I'm not saying he does because I don't know him but yes, that was the impression. Anyways, he's going to help me by giving me feedback on the material itself. I want to make this play of mine as down to earth as possible but not too much that you've another Alice In Wonderland.

Speaking of Alice In Wonderland. It occurred to me during a dream that was where I was heading with this story. I like the whole going getting lost in another world theme but maybe my story is already in this "other world". Why not say it took place in Andalucia instead of New York, New York in apartment four? Yes, it sounds a little nicer and it shows how descriptive I can be but I really just want to tell a story. I don't care much for symbolism but I do care how it makes the audience feel. The recent Alice In Wonderland movie didn't move me one bit. I did like hearing Avril Lavigne sing once more though. The story is the same just a different theme. Main point I'm trying to get across though is this; my story is not going to be anything like Lewis Carroll's masterpiece.

Furthermore, I'd like to announce that I've already made a few changes to my screenplay. Firstly, the title, is currently Las aventuras de rosa pastel[The Advenures of Princess Cake] and like the English title suggests, the protagonist is a princess. Cliche? Maybe but I think we can all conclude this will drive younger audiences crazy.

12/14/10

1. What's my project's sentence?
She created a bit of craziness for the whole world to see.

For so long I've kept a lot of things to myself, especially who I am as a person. And so I hope to achieve something remarkable by writing this screenplay for you, me and the rest of the world who are willing to inquire about it.

12/14/10

Update

I've been offered a position as part of the A-Team's Alley Theatre and will be going daily to meetings. For those of you who don't know the A-Teams purpose is to provide a better understanding of professional theatre. I will be volunteering as a usher during the winter break and hope to learn more about play writing through the guest speakers they have come to talk with us. In addition to that I've begun to write the actual script for my play though the end is still vague, how will this story end?

Also, I've decided to ask the following to be a part of my panel: Liz Thornton, Leon Payne, Rochelle Sanders and Cory Anglin. All these people will help me individually in some aspect to improve my project. Liz Thornton will help me with any grammatical issues and point out if anything I write sounds awkward. My mentor, Leon, is a visual person who could help me with stage directions if I intended on having the play performed. Rochelle Sanders works directly with the Alley Theatre and she was once a writer for the threatre. Mr. Cory Anglin will measure my creativeness and hopefully criticize my work like any critic.

I definitely need to take more time to do research on how to write in a playwright format for I tend to forget the story is not an ongoing conversation. Each time a character speaks something important follows it and and so on. So definitely need advice from a current writer on how to approach this problem. Also, I need to start hunting down for a place that could potentially hold the stage performance. Someone had suggested to me Lee College.

12/1/10

Creation

Q: Is your story about your experiences?

A: Yes and No. The whole idea came from my beloved sister who means the world to me.She specifically asked me to name the protagonist after her favorite song " Rosa Pastel". It's my sister's experiences that I will be portraying in my screen play.

Q: Is it easy being able to write what you like?

A: No. I often write more than one draft of the same scene! It drives me a little crazy but what I do with the different drafts is take something from each one and put it all together. My best writing though comes when I'm inspired.

Q: What is the theme of your story?

A: Friendship. Some call it a brotherhood/sisterhood but to best fit all types of relationships would be friendship. All relationships could not be if it didn't start in friendship.


Q: Who is Rosa Pastel?

A: Rosa Pastel is an adventurer. She goes to people houses at all hours of the day, eats with families she doesn't know well and loves to ride her blue bike. She's what my mother would call a street person. However she does have a feminine side. Most people don't see it but Rosa loves to wear pretty sunglasses and plain dresses made of cotton. Her most prized possession is a pair of earrings she receives from a distant relative of hers for her 15th birthday.


Q: Are you an actor?

A: No but I did take Drama in my sophomore year of high school. It was there I took an interest in screenplays and inner workings of professional theatre.

11/11/10

Is it just fiction?

Most people believe, books found in the Fiction section are not primarily real. I hate to differ this comment but my position is that all books, stories, essays hold a hint of truth in them.

One the best examples I think of is C.S. Lewis's Chronicles Of Narnia. In the Last Battle, you have a particular chapter where it's revealed to a Calormene soldier he has been following Alsan, the lion, all along. You're probably thinking, what? How is this real?

Look past what's is unreal and start thinking, okay Calormen = Man as Aslan = Jesus Christ.The chapter is a reference to faith, salvation. If we are not faithful to one thing or another, the truth will never be reveal to us as it was for the Calormene soldier.

This is the "hint" of truth. In today's world, cultures around the world tell their people that in order to find purpose in life they must be true to themselves, have faith, find God. This is the truth.

So, the next time you pick up a fictional book look past the cover and start reading.

11/1/10

Hey Guys,

I thought about sharing this story I found a while back which kind of inspired me to write a fantasy-type story mixed with reality. The Secret of Kells by Tomm Moore is a beautiful story that inspires young Brendan to expand his view on art, beauty and imagination. The biggest dilemma the hero faces is his uncle who seeks to keep Brendan away from the outside world: everything he will be exposed to by meeting Aisling, the Wolf Spirit.

This story is similar to my own in the sense both protagonists have to find the confidence to stand up to those who don't want them to live a happy life. My heroine, Rosa Pastel, doesn't think herself to be a pretty girl because she's slightly overweight. The result of this lowers her self-esteem but on the day her sister is kidnapped she begins to understand who she must become. Facing each of her demons at a time, she sheds a layer, becoming more lovelier and confident. At the end she's hardly recognized by her own sister who asks, " Who are you?".

10/16/10

Research

I've have taken the initiative to apply for a theatre program. This will be my chance to learn more about writing, acting and all the other work that goes in producing a live performance.

Connection. Amulya, the new intern, has put me in contact with a woman from the Hobby Center who allowed my class and a couple of others to sit in and watch "Hairspray" for free. Also, I have a good friend at Rice University who took theater courses last year and is more than willing to share information.

I am going to approach my project by first writing the entire story down; which is almost complete. Then I am going to extract parts of it that deem worthy to be performed into a play. This is how most plays start out: a story. William Shakespeare didn't just writing the parts out for Romeo, Juliet; he had to have the story written all out first before anything. Second, the play needs a theme. What's mine? It's quite simple; The theme is beauty. It's the beauty every girl processes even if they can't see it themselves. My sister grew up being teased because she was always "slightly overweight" and it led to her to be an anorexic all throughout highs school until she met "a special someone" who liked her for her and not her looks.

Thank you.

9/29/10

The Art Of Story-Telling



There's something about a story that draws us to it, whether it be the characters or the setting there's always one person that "likes" the story. I find myself attracted to stories written from foreigners in foreign settings because they give me a chance to visualize people, places I've never been before. Let's take for example J.K Rowling and The Harry Potter Series: Ms. Rowling currently lives in Scotland and a lot of the books takes place in Scotland where Harry lives boards for school, flies a mythical creature across a beautiful lake, discovers the "real" traitor Peter Pettigrew and defeats the most dangerous dark wizard, Voldemort, a crazy mad man who believes only people of pure blood deserve to practice magic. Aside from the foreign setting, it takes a lot of imagination, different perspectives to make a story that is both entertaining and teaching readers things such as how bullying isn't nice and how
people are affected by it.

This is what my play should be like. It should both entertain and inform my audience.
I want my audience to be able to connect to the characters in my stories but not assume their characteristics. So don't think it's cool to sneak away from the dorms because Harry, Ron and Hermione do so in every book. Instead think of the friendship those three have and how they balance off one another: Harry wouldn't have been able to defeat Voldemort if he Ron and Hermione hadn't helped and stuck with him all the way. They gave him purpose to keep fighting and for that reason he ultimately overcame the dark wizards's power. I know for my part, that when Harry's mentor died, I cried because I too came to love the character and how they were willing to keep Harry safe from all costs.

So, emotion plays a crucial part too. In a good play, most people cry or are too overjoyed that the lovers finally get together because of the hardships they've had to face while separate. It's sappy but romantic plays, films are among the most talked about but yes it does create a false image as to what Love is. And so, with all this said, I think this Ted Talk does a really good explaining how people perceive people of different origins through stories, novels and not just that but how authors themselves kind of put themselves in it.

9/12/10

Looking through my classmates personal blogs, I found that many of them are ambitious projects that make feel like I have to step up to the plate. How will I write and produce a theatrical performance in less than nine months? Most people who write plays for a living take a year or two to finish one.

I shouldn't put myself down though, this is the beginning of my career as a genuine writer, poet, playwright and romantic. Mistakes are bound to happen, but I've learned that's how many pick themselves up and become better at what they're trying to accomplish. I know this for a fact because of Mr. Duncan's math class, I'm not the best person to ask help for when it comes to math but I do my best to show how I came up with an answer. So you see, there is more than one way to complete a task.

To my classmates, I hope we all finish these projects having accomplished something we can call our own.

9/3/10

Plot/Story


Finally, I have the story planned out. Here is how it goes...


Rosa Pastel has self-esteem issues. She's slightly overweight
and everyone at school teases her because of it, even her mother
tells her she needs to lose weight.

On her 16th birthday, she receives a pair of earrings from
her estrange grandfather. She looks at them more closely,
they're strawberry shaped earrings! That same night,
Rosa's younger sibling, Diamante, is kidnapped by a
mysterious figure who claims to be " pure evil ".

Rosa undertakes the quest in saving her sister and comes to discover the
purpose of her earrings.


And That's the story so far.

8/3/10

To Begin with


I got the second draft of my proposal today, and received a solid B. The reason being is because I want to do too much but overall my proposal is very well liked. So now you might be asking yourself,"What's your big idea?" and I will tell you it's going to be the most,loved story next to the Harry Potter series. Yes, I'm writing a story in form of a play like the great William Shakespeare.

The idea(s) for this story came to me one day while I was working at the Children's Museum, fidgeting with a key-shape charm. The story is about a girl who comes to believe in magic through a quest: saving her younger sibling and protecting the key. The key is in shape of a pair of strawberry shape earrings. In the end, the young girl must make a choice: save the world from destruction or save her sister and give the earrings up to the forces of evil.

Once the play is written, revised and ready to be read, I would like to have an end of the year performance. There would be an audition and from there everyone involved will help with costume and set design.