Final Performances

Today was a really interesting day. I felt like all the groups did a recap of the entire semester. Each group did their performance to touch on issues that we all dealt with from the beginning up until a couple of weeks ago. What stood out to me with Doug, Amy, and Gerry's group was cultural issues that were addressed throughout the semester, but they also incorporated performance with the Butoh and African dances. The sense of cultural idenity was a big issue in their group. I really enjoyed the fact of them all being in white faced masks, and representing each cultural. It was also a great thing to see them use not only blog posts from our class, but from other websites and cultures that do blog posts as well.

Me, Tiffany G, Tiffany L, Sarah and Dealdon centered our entire performance around the original question of what are the effects of blending cultures. That is a question I think has several answers and I think we only touched on a few options. The most memorable moment for me throughout that performance was the classroom scene of No Saco De La Escuela. I think we often times forget how foreigners are treated within our country when it comes to learning in a westernized culture. I don't think it's as rough as this particular scene, but people always have a certain stereotype of what they think other culture's educational levels are, not to forget the racial slurs.

The last group with Erik, Janelle, and Mary was just a fun time. I learned of the stereotypes of the cultures as well, but it was a performance that allowed me to engage myself in the process. I thought is was a great recreation of the Couple and the Cage. It was definately more dynamic, but I almost found myself getting into this role of being a tourist in a theme park, and at times picking on these exihibits, but feeling sympathy for them as well at times.

I thought all of the performances was a great wrap up of the semester and I really enjoyed being in this class with all of the grad students as well as Amy Steiger as my instructor.