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Ferris Wheel by Mary Miller was surprisingly one of my favorite plays we have read so far, but not because of the rom-com esque plot, but because of the clever combined use of character actions and well written dialogue that made the idea of them being on a ferris wheel ride, all the more believable. Just the action of having them hold their hands out in front of them was simple enough for the actors to convey, and useful enough to portray the ferris wheel ride as being real.
ReplyDeleteRegarding Spenser’s chapter, it wasn’t really as interesting, but I could see how the play could relate to it in general. As Spencer puts it, a play is a journey for both audience and writer alike. And in order for a play to be a functional and effective ‘journey’, it has to have a plot, and suspense of some kind, which the play did have effective uses of both in my opinion.
In the end I liked the play in all, and though I didn’t enjoy reading Spencer’s chapter all that much, I at least learned to keep an eye on working with my plot correctly in the play, instead of spending to much time on character drama.
-Kathleen m. Salinas
As always Spencer’s Chapter 11 “The Journey of the Play” describes in like a rollercoaster or a carnival ride that we must keep the audience to hold on tight to the ride and that is how we must take our readers on a journey of the play as the chapter is named. Keeping the audience occupied on what the play is about. The dialogue is interesting, the characters are interesting, action and everything else along with the play is something that anyone would want to go watch on a Friday or Saturday night. As is the play “Ferris Wheel” where Mary Miller takes on a “Ferris Wheel” and the characters are their own age and the story is fun to read and watch as well. It funny, gripping and touching makes the reader want to know what happens to Dorie and John once they left, or if they even come back a year later. Miller took us on a journey of her play.
ReplyDelete-Christina Velasquez
I really enjoyed Ferris Wheel, well for the most part that is. I found both characters relatable in some sense and found their dialogue fluid, natural, and realistic. Beyond that I appreciate the subtext that the play has, while we aren’t immediately told that Dorie has a fear associated with the fact that she is on a Ferris wheel we get a glimpse of it through having the character clutch onto the bar until their knuckles are white. Linking this to the Spencer readings, I was drawn to the final section on suspense, which this play used well. When the ride broke down, it added this element, each time John reached for the pocket with the cigarettes I was on the edge of my seat so to speak as to whether he would smoke or not, and finally when John went in for a kiss I wanted to know where it would lead. Finally, as a writer that appreciates horror fiction more than most other genres suspense has always played a role in my own writing. How can I make my protagonist questionable through suspense, what actions can be shown to the reader to add to this hesitation of trusting the character but nevertheless wanting to know more about them? In this sense, I find suspense a valuable tool and thus it was the part of the reading that I enjoyed most.
ReplyDelete- Joaquin Castillo Jr
So Spencer’s idea that a play is a journey makes a lot of sense. In many ways a play has a beginning that immediately starts with the playwright, the rest of the passengers to come on board are the playwright’s collaborators and the final ones to “board” are the audience. As the playwright it makes a lot of sense that you are steering where the journey goes but the audience is the one who seeks some sort of change or as Spencer puts “some new place” (p 205) That point is what stuck out the most to me, is that a journey most often results in a change. His example of Lear and whether he knows of Cordelia’s fate was a good point, whether he knew or not the fact remained was that cared. His points on story and plot were also helpful in discerning the two, and enlightening because it gives me a frame of mind when approaching a play or story. “Ferris Wheel” by Mary Miller was a good example of the sort of change that can happen in a play. It starts with what I can only assume are complete strangers. Dorie with her fear of heights find herself on the eponymous ferris wheel with John a smoker who seeks to break his habit. In some ways they learn a lot about themselves plus each other and at the end of the ride they are decidedly different. Dorie leaves flustered from John’s ambiguous advances but at more ease from her phobia it seems while John feels this sort of divine intervention that prevents him from taking the cigarette he so desperately was waiting for. It was an interesting story though not as profound as one might expect.
ReplyDelete-Mark Peña
This week's Spencer reading contained a lot of information. I miss the his cup examples from the previous chapters. Spencer talked about how a plot unfolds within a play. He also mentions that a play’s plot can be set in a random order. I like the example he gave about the man who leaves a briefcase in a coffee shop. The forgotten suitcase triggers suspense to the the audience. I found it suspenseful. Spencer further adds to the suspense by adding a new scene where it shows the man preparing a bomb in the briefcase. These examples would be in any order. I'd prefer the the setting of the bomb second. But Spencer points out how the audience can get confused easily if you're not clear. I enjoyed “Ferris Wheel”, I like the idea of using an actual ferris wheel for a play. It helped broaden my ideas for a play. The best part of the play happened when both Dorrie and John talked at the same time. They each had their own monologue. Joe talked about his grandma's black purse. While Dorrie brought up the time when she got a TV during JFK’s assassination. I also liked the conflict with John wanting to get a cigarette and Dorrie would stop him.
ReplyDelete-Danny Olivarez
In my opinion, I felt that Spencer started off the chapter fairly strong. You want the play to be a journey and you want your audience to feel that they underwent one by the end of the play. On a side note, that’s one of the reasons why writing stories is special to me, I’ve always want people to laugh, cry, and more with my characters. I want them to see themselves in the figures I compose. In regards to the chapter, I found it unique when Spencer stated that characters need to listen to one another. This reminded me on one of the earlier chapters where we discussed central characters. He states that characters can’t block each other out and ignore what others are saying. This relates to the central character portion of the book because I can vividly remember that passive central characters are just moseying on through the story but are not active in anyway. Characters should be able to bounce off one another in order for it to be organic interactions. The reason being is he then goes into detail on how the dialogue should flow between the characters, such as one line reflects the next line because they are listening to one another. The reason why this is so critical to me is because the two characters that I crafted are close. However, I’m still trying to figure out how to complement one another to make the relationship believable and their conversations fluid.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to “Ferris Wheel”, although I’m not the biggest romantic, sometimes I feel I lack any romantic bone in my body, I felt that in regards to the conversation and dialogue between the two characters, it was unique. It’s similar to what Spencer states, the characters need to listen to one another and in a sense, bounce their lines from character to character. In my opinion, I thought it was fascinating that even though the characters never met, they both establish themselves as nervous wrecks when they are stuck on the wheel. Pages 171 to 172 stood out to me the most because here we see that they start to ease up in each other’s presence and start talking about their past a bit. For example, the “I used to be thin” line. In addition, on 172, John is sly by stating, “The prettiest girl doesn’t always win.” So, the journey here is from the first page of the play, they started with short responses to opening up about themselves and created something beautiful, a relationship.
Patricio Hernandez (P.J.)
"Ferris Wheel" by Mary Miller was an interesting play; I thought the characters interaction with one another was quite cute for the most part. I wasn't particularly fond of them having separate monologues while sitting right next to one another and then chiming in on the others conversation and continuing the story from there. It's not that Miller wrote the instances badly, in fact they flowed together rather nicely, but I just feel like it's not very realistic. What I really liked the most was having the actors create the motion of the Ferris wheel through movement and miming the safety bar in front of them, just like one that would be found on an actual Ferris wheel. I think it ties in nicely to what we discussed in class- how we will more than likely have limited resources to stage the setting of our plays and we will need to use creative to bring those settings to life.
ReplyDeleteOn page 212, Spencer says "for a play to be dramatic, characters must change not just once at the end of a play, but many times, in many subtle ways throughout its course." I feel this quote rings true in the play, not in the case of Dorie, but for John. He used to ride the Ferris wheel alone since he was a kid and now he decides to ride together with Dorie. Then after hearing Dorie talk about watching a mock human lung disintegrating after smoking a cigarette makes him decide to quit smoking after all this time. And after they part ways, John puts a cigarette in mouth, hears a thunder clap which reminds him of the story that Dorie told him earlier and decides not risk it. His character definitely embodies what Spencer mentions here in the chapter.
Karla Olvera
Right off the bat, I really liked Spencer's take on how a play is a journey for both the writer and the audience. I believe that as the writer comes up with his tale, he goes on an adventure of self-discovery too. He tinkers and experiments with ideas and hypothesis. He cobbles together elements and tries to come up with his own unique take on the story. Like a jigsaw puzzle, the writer might be hard at work trying to complete a penguin puzzle when he misplaces a piece and finds out that it kinda looks like a butterfly. The journey is one of change. The audiences's role isn't solely as the watchers but also as judges and, on some cases, the executioners. The audience's journey is one of discovery and experimentation. They go to a play to be entertained but also to discover something about themselves. Maybe they didn't like the play that much, maybe they loved it. They could had hated some parts but praised some others. The audience's role is closely tied to the writer's in that the writer needs the critics to improve upon himself while the audience's wants and needs might bring about better quality from the writer.
ReplyDeleteThe Ferris Wheel was also a fun and interesting story. I can relate to Dorie being on top of the ferris wheel while being afraid of heights. Just reading about that part made me have a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach and made my hands just a tad bit sweaty. John's struggles to break his smoking habits made me feel sorry for him since addictions can be really difficult to control and keep in check. Ultimately, I feel like the meeting between these two strangers symbolizes the everyday people that influence us in some way without us noticing. I could have my very own Dorie or John and I would be none the wiser. Heck, I could be someone's Dorie without me knowing it. It makes me appreciate life more, knowing there's accidental guardian angels everywhere.
-Maria Romero
In the dialogue entitled “Ferris Wheel” we see two strangers ride a ferris wheel together and they develop a chemistry and get to know each other while being stuck on the ride. I really enjoyed the dialogue because even though the actors seemed a bit stiff, they each had their individual personalities and seemed like strangers to me. It was very believable and I thought even humorous at times especially when she rants on about why she doesn’t smoke. I didn’t like the ending very much. I guess a part of me wanted them to go eat after or maybe set up a future date, but a part of me knew that next year they will both be there again.
ReplyDelete-Joy Perez
Isaac J McCoy
ReplyDeleteI disagree with Spencer that the the single most powerful moment in a play is the main part of the play. Personally, though I think this may be my bias as a fiction writer, I believe that the gradual development of the play's protagonist is what grips an audience to their sits and has them glued to the stage, not the "action" of the big reveals or the plays' twists. Also, the idea that a play must have a plot is preference, just like my preference for plays and stories are that they have a message for the audience. A lot of what Spencer is saying this semester so far, I am finding to be his opinion or preference concerning plays, not how all plays should be written. Ultimately, all of these details depend upon the intent of the playwright, why they are writing and producing the play. In our case, for this class, we are, presumably, either trying to challenge ourselves or trying to get a high grade. This intent behind our actions drives the play in the direction it is heading, not whether we are trying to make a good play or not.
For the play, I like the idea of playing off the fear of a character, or potentially multiple characters. Fear is something that most everyone has in common, not necessarily the same fear, but having a fear of something, regardless of what it is, creates a bond within reality and fiction, crossing bridges between person and character when anyone faces their fear, whether voluntarily or involuntarily. I enjoyed this play.
The Spencer reading this time around did not offer much use to me as the explanations of plot and story were not clear and it is already obvious that suspense can add to the effect of the play. However, I did take away that my scenes should be connected and driven by the events that happen in each, so they should have a “cause and effect” throughout the play, if possible. In other words, the sequence of events should be deliberate and make sense only in the order that I’ve written. This idea of cause and effect is exemplified in “Ferris Wheel” as every action of exchange of words a character creates leads to the next action. Overall, I enjoyed the play. The motivations and personalities of the characters were clear, there was suspense and humor, and the writing works well in that it can be manipulated by directors to have different effects depending on how they work with it. There are almost no parantheticals and that works well with this piece as it gives the audience, if it’s being read, or the director complete control to decide if the two genuinely like each other and will meet again or not.
ReplyDeleteMayanin Rosa