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- Reading responses must be AT LEAST 200 words.
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- Reading responses are due by midnight on the night PRIOR to our discussion of the required reading.
“The chocolate affair”, what don’t I have to say about this play. As bizarre as it is, I can say that the weird mental struggle Beverly was going through was interesting, and having two separate characters argue about her addiction was “kind of” heart wrenching since she is only really arguing wth herself the whole time. There was something that I found in her interview though that I thought could relate to the play. Walker mentions near the beginning of her interview “We couldn't let ourselves off the hook. It was time to really tell the truth and get to the root of the problem.”(Walker) This stuck out to me in an instant, and made me question as to whether Walker was using this feeling of her own admit to failure( during her foreclosure) to create the play “The Chocolate Affair. “ Since Beverly had to admit to herself that she can’t indulge her sweet tooth. I’m not really sure, but sometimes authors tend to emulate real life, and if not the scenario of foreclose, then at least the feeling of self doubt and the struggle to better ones self.
ReplyDeleteThe last thing I liked about “The chocolate Affair” was the use of the chocolate candy as personified characters within the play. As if Walker was playing with the notion of how chocolate can be bitter and sweet (just like the M&M, and Mr Goodbar character).
-Kathleen m. Salinas
“The Chocolate Affair” hit me hard, yes cliché I know but that is as accurately as I can describe the sensation that flooded me when I read it. Why, well because as dramatized as it was with the personification of the candy and the discourse that takes place between Beverly and the two entities, the entire situation is one that I think is quite prevalent in modern America. Weight has an unfortunate central role in the way we view beauty or success when talking about others, and often more harshly ourselves. I’ll use myself as an example, few people realize right away when they see me that I have lost more than 100lbs, even to many friends I am just the one in the group who eats “healthy” and exercises regularly. However, the truth can become so much more complex, such as Beverly’s inner turmoil manifests itself. On a psychological level, at least in my own experience, that “fat on the inside” mentality that our character M&M so eloquently pointed out is a very real phenomenon, i.e. the simple act of eating a candy bar can in some instances cause some distress. So, for me Walker’s writing is real and it gets to the heart of human complexity. In fact, her interview reflected this for me; Walker talks about her experience with foreclosure, rejection in writing, and the idea of “owning it”. Finally, on Spencer, I would propose that the action in this play is Beverly’s want, or perhaps need, to feed that inner self and keep her daughter away from the fate she was subjected to as a child. Though it can likewise be said that these were all deflections and in the end her true action was to avoid the reality of who she was/is.
ReplyDelete-Joaquin Castillo Jr
Spencer said, “Dramatic action is not doing something. It is not physical activity. It is not characters moving around the stage, gesturing and performing business. It is not fight scenes, or dances, or behaving like large dogs, or preparing and then eating a meal. Characters on stage may do all these things with great exertion and extraordinary polish, but it will bring them no closer to dramatic action unless the fact of their wanting something drives them to do so. Action is what a character wants.” The Chocolate Affair by Stephanie Alison Walker did this in a way I can’t say I’ve seen, or read before. At first I was kind of weirded out by her taking to candy but after a while I was intrigued by the conflict and personification of the candy. My favorite part was when Beverly says her daughter isn’t allowed to eat candy and that she’s eating the candy for her daughter’s own good, because she’s chubby, and then the candy catches her in a lie. The play had my attention the whole time because even though there was no physical conflict or action, the dialogue and conversations between Beverly and the candy were interesting and intense enough to cause a sensation of action.
ReplyDelete-Starleen Rendon
In the Spencer’s chapter on “What Is Action?” he goes on to say that, “action is what a character wants. It is the wanting itself.” I find this statement to be true and see in the “Chocolate Affair,” as we see Beverly in a hotel room eating chocolate and talking to a life-size Mr. Goodbar and an M&M. As Spencer mentioned that actions itself are not what makes a play entertaining but it is the audience seeing the character act to get what they need or desire. In this case, we see Beverly battling in her past and inner “fat-girl” as she binge eats her daughter’s Halloween candy. I absolutely loved the script because Beverly was confronted by the life size candy. It appeared to me that it was like she was fighting her shoulder angel and demon. Her inner desire to eat unhealthy and even her confession of secretly eating peanut butter showed beverly’s action or motives clearly. Lastly, in the Walker Interview we get to hear the writing process of blogger and play writer of Allison Walker who writes about her and her husband’s experience of the foreclosure of their house. Walker reveals in the interview that her “action” was to have an outlet for others to have a sort of silver lining during such a dark period of their life. Her desire was not only use it as a “therapy tool” but also to write about something no one had written about yet.
ReplyDelete-Joy Perez
Action seems to be the main point to all three of these readings. In Spencer’s book that is what is talked most about from different literary geniuses. Which speak of action as knowledge and this is what brings the reader to want to read more. A lot of the times we don’t act to further ourselves. As Stephanie Walker writes in “The Chocolate Affair” the main character is split between her two selves the one she is now and the one she was years ago. Even when she is speaking to the Halloween candy that she stole from her daughter. The candy convinces her to leave it be, and she acts within her life and leaves the past behind without letting it consume her. As well as the interview with the writer herself, she didn’t let the fact that her husband and she were losing their home. She acted and let the world know what was happening, in a positive way, accepting the mistakes her husband and she had. This type of action got the attention and support within a community that got her to house sit for two years from a stranger whom read about her loss. Action is a key point in any writing even plays, just like conflict is.
ReplyDelete-Christina Velasquez
Much of what is described in "The Chocolate Affair" is imparted from much of Walker's issues that she talks about in her interview. When coming up with plays and creating characters many times these characteristics are taken from real life inspiration. In this way you can say that much of the literary devices used to write a good non-fiction essay or memoir can be used to write a good play as well. The inherit struggle against overeating is certainly an issue that will resonate with much of the audience including myself whom also has a severe sweet tooth. Spencer describes action as "What a character wants". This is an anti-thesis of what conflict is which is something preventing that character from getting what they want. It forms the basic template in plays that build it up, from the beginning, to rising tension and then ultimately to a climax and resolution (though the last may not always be the case). It is through the clashing of these two literary devices in playwriting that forms the basis of a play and which draws us into the characters. This can go back to Walker's Chocolate Affair as she is attempting to take action in order to help curb her sweet tooth. You can almost say that the two voices are the literary devices themselves, one voice representing action and the other representing conflict.
ReplyDelete-Eutimio Longoria
Spencer talks about having action in your playwriting and how action is what the character wants and how action is important. How without action stories can seem have all the characteristics of an interesting story and yet in reality bore you. The play, “Chocolate Affair” Beverly wants the chocolate. The chocolate means so many things in this play. It means frustration, pleasure, sadness, restraint and hidden emotions. Weight is something that affects everyone differently, it’s a subject that is hard to discuss. I like how the candies became humans and appeared before her to nock some sense into her. Almost like her angel and her devil. One saying, “Go ahead enjoy” and the other saying, “No don’t.” I could relate to this reading because I love sweets and I have to remind myself that I can’t have them all the time. I also really enjoyed the interview because it allowed us to see a side of the writer that we didn’t know about. She seems like a really positive person. I mean especially when she writes about other people that were going through what she was going through and how they ended up killing themselves or their families.
ReplyDeleteAlejandra Rodriguez
The Spencer section of the reading talks about action and how to give use it with characters in a play. The Chocolate Affair uses actions with all of it’s unique characters. I did not find the Walker interview, but I read some people comments on it. In “The Chocolate Affair”, I kept thinking it was going to be a horror play, like something terrifying was going to happen. For some reason, an M&M came to life, I thought it was going to kill Beverly. Half way through the play I realized Mr Goodbar was also a candy come to life. Beverly has some psychological issues with eating bad. There must have been some kind of illegal substances inside the bag of candy Beverly stole from her daughter, since she started hallucinating. During the play I spotted some actions. The scene where Bev gets the candy and eats it, after fighting for it with an M&M. Another action took place with the M&M, it asks Mr. Goodbar to grab the candy bag from Bev. Even a piece of candy, had something to do in the play besides just talking. I enjoyed the play, it was different from the others one I’ve read this semester. It did not get me hungry, since I hate candy.
ReplyDeleteDanny Olivarez
"The Chocolate Affair" turned out to be something far more different than what I originally expected it to be. The word affair led me to believe the play was going to be about an ongoing forbidden love affair and I thought the word chocolate was a reference to a dark skinned individual (like how in the movie "White Chicks" they describe one of the characters as "a beautiful chocolate man"), in which they were involved in the actual affair. Turns out I was completely off base. The main character, Beverly, has an affair with chocolate candy in a seedy motel room because she is ashamed of eating it around her family and others due to her body issues.
ReplyDeleteIn chapter two, Spencer focuses on what action is and how it can it be applied within a play. On page 41, he states "...neither physical activity nor language alone is action. Words and movement are there for a larger purpose: to serve the action, to reveal it, to convey it to the audience. Action is what the character wants. It is the wanting itself." Both words and movement were presented in the play and I think they definitely served the action which is Beverly wants to eat the candy. She shouldn't, but she wants to and that's where Mr. Goodbar and M&M come in, to help establish the mood and characterizations within the play.
Karla Olvera
Isaac J McCoy
ReplyDeletePlay was well written, theme was well presented with plenty of room for actors to improvise. I am really confused, though, how a mental character (e.g. mr.goodbar and m&m) can physically exist and interact with Bev. It makes sense if they're just hallucinations but when Bev physically assaulted one, it kind of broke the barrier between sane and crazy. So while i personally did not like that in there, i think it also works well for presenting Bev's psychosis to the audience.
I was not sure what Spencer was trying to get at in the reading. It seemed like he was trying to say that good plays are plays that copy themselves off of something in real life. While I find this true in most cases, I think it is possible for a genius to come up with something entirely original apart from human history and make it into a good play. what exactly woul this be about? I have no idea, but i dislike the idea of any one person saying that something must be a certain way. Perhaps this arrogance of the human condition?
"Action is what the character wants", as said in Spencer's chapter. "The Chocolate Affair", M&M is all of us! I can come to understand the meaning of this story through a different perspective. The only time I fully enjoyed a piece of candy was when I was nine years old when I ended up in the hospital because I am highly allergic to high fructose corn syrup... The fact that I am allergic to a substance that almost every food item sold on the market contains, has obligated me to submit to a healthy and sad lifestyle. I only consume organic food that has not been genetically modified or processed. While other youngsters my age devour all the yummy stuff, all I am able to devour are fruits which in my world are considered the sweets... Now in regards to the story- because I am only able to eat healthy foods, my lifestyle has taught me that everything in moderation is healthy. There is absolutely nothing wrong with cheating by eating a hershey bar every now and then. And just because our genetics have such a toll in our physical being that people who have obese parents are more likely to be obese themselves, meaning that they are to take care of themselves a lot more than the average young person who does not struggle with high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity in general. This story connects with reality on a unique level, beauty in our current society is beginning to break the stereotype belief that only slim people are beautiful. The belief that every life is valuable; that beauty reflects through the character and personality, the fact that confidence in ourselves is what determines beauty is taking over our society and tromping on the stereotype that Victoria Secret models and the "beautiful". The current trend now are plus size models who exhibit a refreshing encounter and image in the world of lingerie. "Action is what the character wants. It is wanting itself", we see this in the story and theres no denying it in real life. As humans we "want" anything that makes us feel good, even if that means sacrificing our image- but theres no denying science when it proves that eating chocolate releases endorphins, which basically means that your body responds to the consumption of chocolate the same way it responds to falling in love. Who would've known chocolate is actually healthy! But too much of its consumption can lead to health problems. Just like the excess consumption of many other pleasures. Everything in moderation is healthy, once we accept this then we can continue to believe that action is what the character wants with absolutely no shame.
ReplyDelete-Andrea Castaneda
Spencer makes yet another great point on an issue I see in class: action. I hear "there's not enough action", "I wanted more to happen", but using Spencer's view of action, it's clear that action is present in a lot of the plays we read (and hate). Action "doesn't mean a physical action. He means an internal, psychological need...'what a character wants'" (p.37). In regards to this concept, we should realign our ideas and expectations of writing when analyzing plays so that we don't try to fit them to a fiction or even film rubric. That being said, The Chocolate Affair was a bit lacking in conflict and action even with this new definition. I did enjoy the dialogue immensely; it has humor and was entertaining to a point, but the internal struggle Bev faces is not very interesting. The musings about her past and possible psychological issues are the only things that gave this play depth, but not everything needs to fulfil my expectations, so it was an otherwise well written play. I know people will argue about parentheticals, but that’s what made reading it the most interesting, and when you direct/perform the play, you can choose to ignore them or whatever, so they don’t hurt the play at all. The Walker interview was not very interesting to me; it seemed like a typical interview about balancing life and writing. I related to Walker’s motivation for writing her blog, though. I’ve written some of my best work after finding a lack of the material I wanted to see, and I think that can be a good motivator for anyone.
ReplyDeleteMayanin Rosa
Spencer boils down to action as what a character does in relation to what they truly want. It isn’t necessarily what a character does but what compels them to do so and it is here where true “dramatic action” takes place. To reiterate those actions are defined by what the character wants and what they do to get it. In the play “The Chocolate Affair” by Stephanie Walker, the main character Beverly seems to desire chocolate, which is her guilty pleasure. In the play, literal chocolates are personified in Mr. Goodbar and M&M. Beverly really seems to have this forbidden love for chocolate and though it is bizarre that chocolate would come to life in a sense to communicate with her, it seems to play a role of inner conscious. In a sense Mr. Goodbar is the part of herself that seeks to provide some comfort in what she is doing while M&M is the part of her that is upfront and does not hold back. M&M was the one to confront her on the candy she stole, while Goodbar was a bit more understanding and nurturing to the situation. As the play progresses I think what Beverly really wanted was some sort of freedom from the life she lives, an escape but at the same time she feels guilt in it because of her past in which she struggled with weight. She steals, rents out a motel room just to eat chocolate, it shows the extremes she takes to experience that escape.
ReplyDeleteMark A Peña
In regards to Spencer, this chapter somewhat reminds me of the conflict chapter that we have previously read. From what I understand, too much or too less of something can be deemed negative to have in a play. For example, in the conflict chapter, if characters are yelling at each other, then the exchange isn’t as powerful as if they spoke normally. It’s essentially the same with action, having too much of action or not enough will not bring forth the “wants” in our characters. In addition, after reading “A Streetcar Named Desire” last semester, I vividly recall the paper boy scene. It didn’t even occur to me that he had his own action or “want” and that was to collect the fee. I mean he was a minor character and even he had action. Thought this instance was enlightening.
ReplyDeleteWith regards to the play, as I was reading it, it seemed a bit bizarre to me, but then I decided to just give it a chance, I mean there has to be a reason why this play was chosen. And, after a couple of reads, I can see why this is placed in the action section of our course. So, essentially, there isn’t much physical action as in fighting, but there is a “want” that is present in Beverley. More so, the action is with Beverley succumbing to eating the candy that she desperately tries not to consume in front of others. When she spills her heart out, we see that she is infatuated with physical appearance since she leaves food on the plate and tries not to let anyone catch her “pigging out”. Thus, I see the theme of physical beauty is a lingering presence in the mind of women since it seems that they are immediately judged based on how they look.
In her interview, I thought it was admirable that Walker and her husband toughened it out together in a financial crisis. One, it shows that people can be there for you, and two, these type of experiences can bring forth your best writing, in my opinion. As a result, she wrote about her struggles and turned it into a published work. I mean, in my writing, I wouldn’t strictly talk about me, but I will create a composite character and write about certain things that happened to me with a twist that is not only interesting, but meaningful to whoever reads.
Patricio Hernandez (P.J.)
The Chocolate affair was well written. More on the funny side I imagine. As a piece of writing alone it works very well. The exchange between characters and the setting, after Halloween sets the mood. The visual realization of the candy is such a good move to incorporate in a play. Sometimes we tend to stick on the modern realistic side, but we must not forget that we can do little things like this to break the norm. Overall, I enjoyed the play very much. There is a deeper side to the story too, a lot of subtext that makes the story wider.
ReplyDeleteIn the interview, hearing Walkers experience as an adult touch me. I can’t possibly imagine such loss. I have my own experiences, and everybody has theirs, but Walker was able to overcome this enormous tragedy. I believe part of her journey to keeping the happiness was writing. Releasing emotion through writing maybe? She states several times that she kept constantly writing, whether it was through blog format or play. If I’m to take anything away from the interview, its that writing can help us realize our problems and face them, because they are only problems, and we are writers, we write solutions.
The chapter speaks of action, which is another key concept in writing. No matter what we are writing, our characters need to want something. Without a want, there is no drive for the character, if there is no drive, there is no purpose. If there is no purpose, then it doesn’t matter, and don’t we want our writing to matter, don’t we want our writing to say something. Therefore whether the author wants to say something, or wants our character to demonstrate something, our characters must have action. They must want and feel, but most importantly, they must WANT! How else will we define purpose in the world, in our being. How else can we make a statement if not through want?
Mykle Angelo