Linda Li Love is Complicated Blog Progress Reflection

Linda Li
Ms. Guarino
IB HL Theater
19 December 2018
Love Is Complicated Write Up
Love is Complicated is actually the first play that I created with my partners. Started from bring an object, a picture, or an letter as a stimulus from one scene, we got to the point where the whole play was plotted out in front of us. The process was long, confused, difficult, and has many challenges and errors in it, however, all of us were so happy and creative when we were plotting each scene and acting them out to put ourselves in to the characters’ shoes. Let me walk you through our whole process of plotting and finally acting of the whole play, Love Is Complicated.
Let’s talk about out stimulus first. Our stimulus is a painting named The Hole on The Wall, which has a person who has a whole that is covered by a piece of wood on him or her reaching out his or her arm and hand to catch a heart-shaped balloon that is flying away from him or her. For us, the stimulus definitely has a sense of sadness, lost, breaking out, desperation, betrayal and so forth negative emotion and energy in it. We depicted the balloon as love or a person that was loved by the person that is reaching out to it in the picture, therefore, we have decided that out collaboration project themes are going to be the longing of love, heartbreak, unfaithfulness, betrayal, devotion, sadness, desperation, and regret. After that we have decided that the whole play is made up of only four characters Steve, who acted out by Ray Dong, Sara, who is acted out by Linda Li, Marcus, who is acted out by Willjam, and Natalie, who is acted out by Olivia. Steve and Sara are married, and Marcus and Natalie are also husband and wife. The audience are going to be members of Cheshire Academy. The places where the scenes would take place in are home of Marcus and Natalie, home of Steve and Sara, a Bar that Natalie works at, and a diner. We split the whole play into five scenes, and each scene ends with an important turning point of the story.
For the first scene, where takes place in Steve and Sara’s house. We have used some techniques such as setting the scene in two different settings but in the same scene, the lighting should help reflect this idea. When Sara and Steve are talking in their house, Marcus and Natalie will be on the stage but under no lights in the dark to show that they are in a different setting. What is going to happen with Steve and Sara is happening at the same as Marcus and Natalie. Also the lines will overlap and intertwine with each other between the characters conversation. In this scene, Sara and Steve would be arguing about Sara’s affair with Marcus, and Natalie and Marcus would be under a weird and unpleasant atmosphere because Natalie found out that Marcus, her husband, is cheating on her.
For the second scene, it is about Sara frantically calls Marcus, and the setting is that they are both in their own homes. The stage direction is lights go first on Sara on one side of the stage and as she is calling Marcus, and when Marcus answers, lighting would appear on the other side of the stage indicating two people are in different places. This scene is mainly about Sara calling Marcus because she did not know what to do with her husband.
For the third scene, it is about Steve meeting Sara in the bar. For stage direction, Steve would go to the bar to have a drink and reflect on what has just recently happened, and Natalie coule realize that they were in the somehow similar situation. As they were talking and exchanging their feelings, they start acting more than just friends.
In the forth scene, Sara would be sitting home alone being concerned about her husband often coming home very late, and the lights on the stage are dim to show it is night and a lamp is more of the lighting in this scene. Then Sara would received a call from Marcus talking with her about her feelings. Marcus ends up suggesting that they would hang out at the bar tonight, and Sara agrees.
In the fifth scene, which is the last scene, Sara and Marcus and Steve and Natalie would confront each other in the bar. The highlight is the last part where Steve leaves Sara alone in the bar, and Sara would still be in the pose from the picture and says in a sorrowful tone “Love...is...Complicated.” Steve would responds in an exhaustive manner, “Let’s not love”.
Here is what we have so far about plotting and acting of the play. This play is very important for us because it is another way for us to display reality of relationships through fictional acting and scenes. All of the feelings and thinking we have in the play could hardly be explicitly displayed in reality. Lighting, props, physical actions, sounds effects and so forth would cooperate with each other to highlight the themes of the play.

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