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.