Annual Play of FJU English Department: Every Student

Derrick---the director!



The poster of the annual play 2007.

After the performance, the four actresses and the director have a Q&A time with the audience.
The four actresses from left to right are Diane, Rose, Tiffany, and Sharon. The man on the left side is the cool and handsome director, Derrick.


I spent this Sunday afternoon to see the annual play” Every Student", and I am glad that I did! The main idea of this play is what I had been troubled and thinking about recently. I have been tired of pleasing others by following others' words and without caring about how I felt and how I thought. I guess the main idea is try to arouse students' self-awareness and help them care about the voice of their heart "What they really want to say" intsead of always caring about "The teacher says", "the mother says", and "my dad says".

"Every Student" is a story about four girls. Their life experiences and stories are intertwined and told in the play through collective improvisations. Their life experiences are not particular, but typical.
The topic of this play is about Taiwan education.
In this play, four girls tell their several educators which are important to their life through examining their life lines. An educator is the general meaning of a teacher. I meant, a teacher can be included in the section of educators, but it does not mean that a teacher equal a educator. Tiff talked about her high school friends and her dad while examine the educators in her life. Diane played a role which represents a perfect version of her. I think she did a good job by conveying the sadness of being perfect. The girl she played is an ABC girl who came back Taiwan to study, which is one type of Taiwanese's favorite. Many Taiwanese worship blindly ABC girls or boys from America even though what they said and think doesn't make a lot sense. When this ABC girl enjoyed being worshiped like God by Taiwanese boys, she is restrained by her family in some ways. Her family kept telling what she is expected to do and not to do. One day, she wants to escape away because she is so tired of everything. She brings coke, dough nut, and i-pod flying to a unknown planet. At first, she is so happy because she doesn't have to care about what others think! In the end, she breaks out and cries hardly because nobody can give her clapping while nobody can restrain her by expectations. So, she goes back to the earth again. I thought it's a tragedy because Diane surrenders herself, but I don't why it's turned out to be an happy ending when Diane said she know how to play with the environment after going back the earth. I guess this part needs to be more elaborated, but the annual play just reach an end today.


What I said above may not make a lot of sense, because I did not have a thinking shock during seeing this play although I had a great time. The reason is that I did think through clearly and carefully about my past and new problems and I guess the idea which the play provides is an old idea to me. (It won’t give me a new idea to help me examine my current life.)(What the four girls experienced in the play is what I had went through instead what I am going through.) I wished I could I see this play in my freshman year, so it would help me a lot. .

I love how the four girls say their story so openly.
I love the ideas of this annual play because it can be related to my past experience.
I love how the director brings out the idea through improvisations. Through his direction, this play did talk to its audience. I can see his philosophy of the function of stage/play achieving in this play . The play did take a message, relfect actors themselves, and bring its care to the audience!!!

But........
I think the ideas of the play should be dealt with in details. Somehow, I feel the play is a little rough and have a gap, so that it’s hard for me to connect the former part with the later part.


Anyway, it's still a good play because just like the director said, "this annual play is just a starting point" for the audience to explore themselves. We cannot expect a short play to change our whole way of life and values. We can't find the whole answers of our problems in a short play, but it did provide an opportunity for those who haven't being aware of the relationship between their lives and the beings of themselves to examine and explore themselves!


Btw, I am sorry that I missed the Q&A time of the play yesterday because Denise, my best friend, said it was cool!! The theme of this played was deeply discussed by Professor Kate Liu and the director yesterday. In today’s Q&A time, I found it’s a pity that I could not find further satisfying explanation of the play. Although the director did try to explain, the talk time allowed the director is too little. Most of the time, the four actresses share their opinions. They all agree the time in English department is the best time that they have ever had. +_+! I want to know more than this. I guess I am just too eager to know the answer of the meaning of life. (Claire, calm down. Life is a process!) :)

How I wish I can hear more ideas about this play from the director because he is very smart and his way of thinking is quite clear. I love communicate my ideas with this kind of people because they try listen to what I really wanna ask and say, respect the importance of my questions and opinions, and try to answer my question in a way that I can be satisfied. When I talk to this kind people, it feels like a hear-to-heart talk instead of mouth-to-mouth careless talk. I love heart-to-heart talk although I like jokes sometimes. +_+!

ohohohoho yeah, there's one more thing that I want to add.Thanks to this play, I wonder what my life line would look like. (It's very similar to the the spiritual memorials that Vikie's sermon talked about at the 2nd church last Sunday. )

Here's my life line so far, and it goes on. And what's yours?