I went to see Beauty and the Beast from broadway when it was here at Ball State. Because this was one of my favorite Disney movies as a child, I was very excited to go see it. Fortunately, it completely lived up to my expectations. The actors in the play actually sounded like the characters in the movie. It was kind of weird but completely awesome at the same time. I thought that they did a really nice job with the set. I was not sure how they were going to condense a Broadway set to Ball State's stage, but they managed. I liked how they really had different backdrops and props for each setting. Having never seen anything close to a Broadway play, I was thoroughly impressed with the stage. I loved the costuming as well. Like everything else, it followed the movie to a tee. I could actually envision the people as the inanimate objects that they were supposed to be. Gaston's outfit looked exactly like the one in the movie, which I thought was really cool. Belle's famous yellow dress was absolutely breath-taking, in my opinion. I was not how they were going to create that dress simply because of how famous it is. I am pretty sure that every girl has dreamt about wearing that dress, or one like it, at some point in her life. When I saw Belle come out in that dress, I was amazed. It was poofy and yellow and gorgeous just like in the movie. It even flowed when she and the Beast danced; I was completely jealous. The actors also did a phenomenol job portraying the characters. I thought that Belle was spot on. She had a flawless voice, and she captured the essence of Belle in its entirety. I was very impressed with her performance. However, the portrayal of Gaston was even better. He was completely and totally Gaston: handsome, egotistcal, and rude. It was incredible how he was exactly like the Gaston in the movie that we all had grown up with. He was probably my favorite character because he did such a tremendous job. The Beast, on the other hand, was not as good as Belle and Gaston. To his credit, The Beast is probably the hardest character to play. He was a little too extreme; he was either really angry and scary or really nice. In the movie, The Beast is more of a middle ground between the two with glimpses of the extremes every once in awhile. Other than that though, The Beast did do a really good job. The songs were also amazing. My two favorite songs were "Gaston" and "Be Our Guest". I think that "Gaston" was one of my favorites because of the portrayal of Gaston. However, the choreography for the song was also really neat. I liked how they used the mugs and worked it into the beat. I also loved "Be Our Guest". It was another thing that I was not really sure how they were going to work into the production because it is such an iconic song. However, they did a fabulous job. I thought that they were really creative with recreating some of the moves form the movie, like the plates and forks dancing an such. I completely enjoyed it and might have even been singing along in my seat as well. All of the other songs were really good as well. I liked "Something There Before" too. I thought it was really cute and Belle and The Beast played off each other really well in that particular scene. I also thought Chip was THE cutest thing in the entire world. My friend and I freaked out every time he came on stage. I had pretty much decided by the end of the the play that I am going to name my son Chip because he was absolutely adorable. Some girls that were sitting in front of me left at the intermission, and I just did not understand how they could leave. They had not even sang "Be Our Guest" yet. Overall, I enjoyed going to see this production. I was completely blown away by it, and I could not really sleep that night because I wa so excited about it. I am thankful that it did come to Ball State and that I was able to see it for free. At a lot of other colleges, people still had to pay for tickets.
Cultural Event #1
I went to see author Jeanette Walls when she came to Ball State on September 21. She is the author of The Glass Castle, which was our summer reader. I enjoyed reading the book this summer because I thought that it was really interesting, especially since she grew up so differently from the way that I did. She is a great writer! I found myself engulfed in the story and not even questioning some of the decisions her parents made or the situations her family were in. I found that I had to almost remove myself in order to get an objective view of what was actually happening. I had to consciously think about how her childhood was very different from what is considered a "normal" childhood in today's society. Since I had enjoyed the book so much, I was very interested to see what she had to say about it and her upbringing. When she first came out onto the stage, it was kind of weird. I felt as though I was seeing a celebrity, but I also felt as though I already knew her because I had read about so much of her life. My friend and I kept saying, "I can't believe she's actually here" to each other the whole time. It was really really neat that she came to speak to us. Her speech was very good. She was hilarious as well. She repeated some of the stories that were told in the book, but I thought that that was good because the audience already connected with the story, so it was interesting to see if you had interpreted it the way that she was telling it. Trying to see if I had gotten the meaning right was probably the most interesting thing for me to do because a book can be very different depending on how you choose to look at it. Obviously, I wanted to know her point of view because it was her book and her life story. It was also cool to hear some of the different reactions that she has gotten after writing the book and the different things that have happened to her because of writing the book. For instance, she was able to reconnect with her little sister after writing the book. The one thing that she told us that surprised me the most was that she does not regret growing up that way and she is not bitter toward her parents about it. I'm pretty sure if I found out that my mom had had a million dollars worth of land at the same time that I was starving, I would be mad at her. However, Jeanette isn't. She said that she had to learn how to accept her mom because she wasn't going to be able to change her. I thought that was pretty neat. I just do not think that I would be able to be ok with growing up that way if I knew that my parents could have changed the situation. She also said that she was not angry with her dad, which surprised me as well. I generally liked her dad up until he started letting his drinking come before everything else in his life. He actually stole from his own children and single-handedly ruined Christmas. However, she said that he was a genius and that she never held anything against him. I definitely admire her for that because I genuinely do not think that I could have done that. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing Jeanette speak, and I am very glad that she came to Ball State. I found her intriguing, hilarious, and informative. I was very interested in getting to know her perspective and she was very open about everything. I would definitely go see her speak again.
I went to see Beauty and the Beast from broadway when it was here at Ball State. Because this was one of my favorite Disney movies as a child, I was very excited to go see it. Fortunately, it completely lived up to my expectations. The actors in the play actually sounded like the characters in the movie. It was kind of weird but completely awesome at the same time. I thought that they did a really nice job with the set. I was not sure how they were going to condense a Broadway set to Ball State's stage, but they managed. I liked how they really had different backdrops and props for each setting. Having never seen anything close to a Broadway play, I was thoroughly impressed with the stage. I loved the costuming as well. Like everything else, it followed the movie to a tee. I could actually envision the people as the inanimate objects that they were supposed to be. Gaston's outfit looked exactly like the one in the movie, which I thought was really cool. Belle's famous yellow dress was absolutely breath-taking, in my opinion. I was not how they were going to create that dress simply because of how famous it is. I am pretty sure that every girl has dreamt about wearing that dress, or one like it, at some point in her life. When I saw Belle come out in that dress, I was amazed. It was poofy and yellow and gorgeous just like in the movie. It even flowed when she and the Beast danced; I was completely jealous. The actors also did a phenomenol job portraying the characters. I thought that Belle was spot on. She had a flawless voice, and she captured the essence of Belle in its entirety. I was very impressed with her performance. However, the portrayal of Gaston was even better. He was completely and totally Gaston: handsome, egotistcal, and rude. It was incredible how he was exactly like the Gaston in the movie that we all had grown up with. He was probably my favorite character because he did such a tremendous job. The Beast, on the other hand, was not as good as Belle and Gaston. To his credit, The Beast is probably the hardest character to play. He was a little too extreme; he was either really angry and scary or really nice. In the movie, The Beast is more of a middle ground between the two with glimpses of the extremes every once in awhile. Other than that though, The Beast did do a really good job. The songs were also amazing. My two favorite songs were "Gaston" and "Be Our Guest". I think that "Gaston" was one of my favorites because of the portrayal of Gaston. However, the choreography for the song was also really neat. I liked how they used the mugs and worked it into the beat. I also loved "Be Our Guest". It was another thing that I was not really sure how they were going to work into the production because it is such an iconic song. However, they did a fabulous job. I thought that they were really creative with recreating some of the moves form the movie, like the plates and forks dancing an such. I completely enjoyed it and might have even been singing along in my seat as well. All of the other songs were really good as well. I liked "Something There Before" too. I thought it was really cute and Belle and The Beast played off each other really well in that particular scene. I also thought Chip was THE cutest thing in the entire world. My friend and I freaked out every time he came on stage. I had pretty much decided by the end of the the play that I am going to name my son Chip because he was absolutely adorable. Some girls that were sitting in front of me left at the intermission, and I just did not understand how they could leave. They had not even sang "Be Our Guest" yet. Overall, I enjoyed going to see this production. I was completely blown away by it, and I could not really sleep that night because I wa so excited about it. I am thankful that it did come to Ball State and that I was able to see it for free. At a lot of other colleges, people still had to pay for tickets.
Cultural Event #1
I went to see author Jeanette Walls when she came to Ball State on September 21. She is the author of The Glass Castle, which was our summer reader. I enjoyed reading the book this summer because I thought that it was really interesting, especially since she grew up so differently from the way that I did. She is a great writer! I found myself engulfed in the story and not even questioning some of the decisions her parents made or the situations her family were in. I found that I had to almost remove myself in order to get an objective view of what was actually happening. I had to consciously think about how her childhood was very different from what is considered a "normal" childhood in today's society. Since I had enjoyed the book so much, I was very interested to see what she had to say about it and her upbringing. When she first came out onto the stage, it was kind of weird. I felt as though I was seeing a celebrity, but I also felt as though I already knew her because I had read about so much of her life. My friend and I kept saying, "I can't believe she's actually here" to each other the whole time. It was really really neat that she came to speak to us. Her speech was very good. She was hilarious as well. She repeated some of the stories that were told in the book, but I thought that that was good because the audience already connected with the story, so it was interesting to see if you had interpreted it the way that she was telling it. Trying to see if I had gotten the meaning right was probably the most interesting thing for me to do because a book can be very different depending on how you choose to look at it. Obviously, I wanted to know her point of view because it was her book and her life story. It was also cool to hear some of the different reactions that she has gotten after writing the book and the different things that have happened to her because of writing the book. For instance, she was able to reconnect with her little sister after writing the book. The one thing that she told us that surprised me the most was that she does not regret growing up that way and she is not bitter toward her parents about it. I'm pretty sure if I found out that my mom had had a million dollars worth of land at the same time that I was starving, I would be mad at her. However, Jeanette isn't. She said that she had to learn how to accept her mom because she wasn't going to be able to change her. I thought that was pretty neat. I just do not think that I would be able to be ok with growing up that way if I knew that my parents could have changed the situation. She also said that she was not angry with her dad, which surprised me as well. I generally liked her dad up until he started letting his drinking come before everything else in his life. He actually stole from his own children and single-handedly ruined Christmas. However, she said that he was a genius and that she never held anything against him. I definitely admire her for that because I genuinely do not think that I could have done that. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing Jeanette speak, and I am very glad that she came to Ball State. I found her intriguing, hilarious, and informative. I was very interested in getting to know her perspective and she was very open about everything. I would definitely go see her speak again.