OK folks, I know this is poetry forum, but I am again in need of your help....I have to act out a scene from a drama, with 2 characters in the scene. (I have to play both characters). Since I am female, I think I would prefer 2 females. I havn't had a chance to sort through my anthologies and stuff yet, but was just wondering if anything came to you minds or if you knew of any sites I could check out. By the way, I get extra credit if it was written by a minority or written before 1900. (stupid politically correct university stuff).
Would love to hear what you would pick!
Talia,
Go to the drama section of any large bookstore and there will be books of SCENES organized by number and sex of characters. You may even find books of "scenes for two women."
If you can pin down what kind of scene you feel like doing (dramatic? funny? sentimenal?) I'll try to think of a specific scene for you, but there are so many! Here's one that I happen to like -- which DOESN'T mean that it will be right for you: Meg and Babe in the almost-last scene of Beth Henley's CRIMES OF THE HEART. They are sisters, but one is young and so odd that some people think she's retarded, while the other is worldly and suave, so they don't "sound" the same.
Thank you for the advice. I checked the web and found a few but they seemed a bit too umm, I should I put it ...stupid. I live too far from a city big enough with a Barnes and Noble and libraries are closed this weekend, but I did find one in an old "Intro to Lit" book called "Death Comes Knocking". 2 characters: Death and a man named Nat. I think I can pull it off. It was written by Woody Allen. Have you heard of it? It's got both humor, and a little real life leasson, if you play close enough attention.
Thanks for you help. If it wasn't such a condensed and intense summer class I would have time to find something I really really loved.
Yes, the Woody Allen sketch is good. I think that's the one where Nat says, "You're Death? Really?" and Death says, "See the robe? See the scythe? Is it Halloween?"
Somehow Jews, Italians, and Irish ceased being ethnic groups and we're all "White Guys" now.
Seriously, I wasn't allowed to sit behind John Kerry because I didnt look the part.
And 'written before 1900' should mean that you can choose something from our boy Bill.
pam
Very good...you know your stuff...that's the one!
( a big long sigh on that one....just don't feel up to, but yea...good suggestion.) I've got poetry one coming up next, one of them has to be a sonnet...should be able to find a sonnet written before 1900.
Sonnet before 1900, no problem. Shakespeare wrote 150+ and Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "Sonnets from the Portuguese" are some of the most beloved of all time.
Les
Oh yeah? Which EBB sonnet do you like best?
By the way....I was stupendous last night! Knocked the nerves right out of me...the worst is over.
Just because she's browning doesn't make her a minority
Congrats! Speaking in public does get easier- you just have to keep doing it. I hope that this professor didn't have any ideas about musical accompaniment.
pam
Talia, here's one of Browning's sonnets that I like. There are many here and elsewhere on the net. Next time you get a spare hour, or so read through some. I'm sure at least one will capture your imagination.
Sonnet XXXIV
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
With the same heart, I said, I'll answer thee
As those, when thou shalt call me by my name--
Lo, the vain promise is the same, the same,
Perplexed and ruffled by life's strategy!
When called before, I told how hastily
I dropped my flowers or brake off from a game,
To run and answer with the smile that came
At play last moment, and went on with me
Through my obedience. When I answer now,
I drop a grave thought, break from solitude;
Yet still my heart goes to thee--ponder how--
Not as to a single good, but all my good !
Lay thy hand on it, best one, and allow
That no child's foot could run fast as this blood.
Les
Yikes....so many sonnets I'm dizzy and they all sound alike!
[www.sonnets.org]
Sonnetized for your protection !
Talia, they are not all created equal. You probably recall these two:
William Shakespeare
XVIII
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
How Do I Love Thee?
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, -- I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! -- and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
Les
This is one of my faves, along with the one about how his girl isn't beautiful.
Sonnet XXIX
by William Shakespeare
When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state
And trouble deal heaven with my bootless cries
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
Talia, Hugh pointed out that there's an e.e. cummings poem that's a sneaky sonnet.
pam
This one Pam?
e.e. cummings
I THANK YOU GOD FOR MOST THIS AMAZING
i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
wich is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth
day of life and love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any-lifted from the no
of all nothing-human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
Les
Post Edited (06-02-04 23:06)
I really like that one, Les, thanks.