work sheet ! "Turn Red the Sea"

FACTS ABOUT THE PLAY

Title: TURN RED THE SEA

Author (playwright): WILFREDO O. NOLLEDO

When Published: It was published year 1963

Type of play/genre: DRAMA (ONE-ACT-PLAY) TRAGEDY

CONTENT

1.The setting of the story is not mentioned in the play.

2.   The play was set in late in the morning where the father and the mother are worried on the eclipse”.

3.   The drama “Turn Red the Sea” is a story of a son named Leon who takes rebellion with his family because of the misconception that his father doesn’t love him and ignores him when it is abroad. He also creates propagandas against his father who is currently the University President. The worst that he does is when he told his father that he wrote a letter to the Board of Regents that is totally a filthy a lie because he is just mad of his father that he want him to suffer. After his father took a rest, his mother’s questions made him realize that he, himself is also guilty of what is happening because he doesn’t care about his family. He just thinks of himself and not opens to hear any explanations. He is angry because his father comes with another woman and he thinks that his father doesn’t love him and never wrote him a letter. His mother explains everything to him but still he doesn’t care about it. Until his father comes down the stairs and asks his wife to get her shawl for them to go and have a picnic but suddenly they heard a shoot and when they see it, it is his husband who takes suicide. At the end the mother kills his son.

4.   Characters:

Juanito (father) – he is the father of Leon who killed himself at the end because he is afraid of what is going to happen to him after the board receive the letter from Leon

          Strong, unfaithful, full of pride

Eliza (mother) – the mother who tried to convince her son not to send the letter and explained everything to Leon for him to realize that his father loves him

          Martyr, loveable, caring

Leon (son) – took rebellion from his family and made actions that can harm his family because of he is angry and mad

5. Message: We should think of our actions hundred times because if we did not, we may suffer at the end and hurt other people especially family.

LANGUAGE

          We should love our family at the extent that we should not let anybody hurt them. We should learn how to listen to our parents and made them realize that you can do it and they should be proud of you. If they did something wrong, learn how to forgive that they are also persons.

OPINION

1.   Tragic. That a life has to be ended just because of misunderstanding. Unhappy and sad.

2.   If I am going to be the director of this play, I want it to be simple yet elegant. The costumes are the typical dress of the Filipinos in their home. The scenery is an old house made of bamboo but elegant. And I want to be just an ordinary production but give the audience the impact and the message the play want to portray.

3.   Yes for it is a great play that can make the audience realize the value of having a family with an open communication.

4.   No. It is the first time I read this kind of play

stylistic analysis of "the dancers"

Introduction

          The play is a portrayal of the real life situation of a poor a family that suffered and sacrifice everything for their family.

          February 26, 2011 was the final and last day for each class to compete for the title “best play” in the 10^th annual drama festival or simply “dramafest” hosted by the LiFe area of De La Salle Lipa. The said competition serves as the final requirement of a class taking up lifForm. For me, I really had a great time watching the performances of the classes especially the actors and the actresses because they were the center of attraction in the whole play. But there’s one play that caught my attention and influenced me to review it. And that was “The Dancers” by Alberto S. Florentino.

          The play “The Dancers” is about a family suffering from poverty because of the man who is supposed to work for the family but he was so lazy and he always complains of his weak body and pretends that he cannot afford to work anymore. He forced his children to work for the family and earn a living, for his eldest son Tony; he was working as a jeepney driver and getsthe money he earned from him to but liquor and in going in a bar. While Rita, the eldest daughter was forced to work as a dancer in a bar for his family and earn some money for her father. But surprisingly, at the latter part of the play, Mang Tomas asked her daughter Nenita, a sixteen year old teenager was forced to work by her father as a dancer in the bar together with her sister Rita and her mother was not able to stop his husband to his decision but to cry.

          The success of the play is because the actors and the actresses portrayed the role of the family. The girl who played the role of the mother won the “best actress” because she was so effective in the role and she was able to give justice to the role. The father, Mang Tomas won the “best actor” because he was able to deliver and show the emotions that needed in the play. They were able to deliver the message of the play that was clear and understandable for the audience. The gestures together with the tone of their voice added to the effectiveness of the characters and made the play believable.

          Simplicity is beauty. This quotation / saying were shown in the play. The simple house used in the play brought the setting of the play to be realistic and appropriate to the theme of the play which is poverty. It was not exaggerated and not costly. There are limited props / materials used that are why there are big space to move in and used by the actors and actresses. But maybe because of too much nervousness, other character forgot that he should not used the side of the house as an exit that’s why the audience where able to laugh at him.

          The play was not that fantastic like other plays. The light effects were simply manipulated and highlighted scenes showed in the entire play. The sounds were clear and made the played lively and realistic that the actors and actresses were well rehearsed and they knew where to dance, where to talk and where to stop.

          The pace of the play was smooth and relaxing that the audience were not able to saw too much dead air and they knew where they need to go and deliver their lines. They seemed to be comfortable with their co actors or co actresses that they were relaxed in delivering the lines and their gestures were not stiff. And it made the play consistent to the flow and the scenes were spontaneous.

          Maybe for the play to be more efficient, they can use lapel for them to be heard well by the people on the back. They can also make the flow of the story a little bit slower so that the lines will be delivered more clearly and for the audience to feel the emotions better.

          For me, the play was really good and enjoying because the characters were so effective and they did a good job in delivering and feeling the emotions asked by their roles. They were able to cry and laugh, they asked and they give. But still, there are more instructions in the play that were not followed. But for an amateur class to deliver and show a play like that, compete with almost 21 other sections, the stand out and showed perseverance and patience in practicing and they gave their full cooperation for the play.

          “Dramafest”, is a good way to give students opportunities to be creative, show their talents and skills, and learn how to listen to one another, follow to the commands and instructions and give opinions for the play to be successful. And through this activity, the students learned how to be resourceful and reflect to the realities that might be anchored to the stories.

a tale of two chances

Introduction
A tale of to chances deals with the story of a family who suffered and given a second chance to live and take care   each other.

The article “A Tale of Two Chances” was written on one Friday, February 4, 2011 at 10:22am when he, Paulo Bedonia Masangcay was abroad, working as an OFW. In his article, he narrated and described the pains his father experienced when he suffered from dementia and rushed to the hospital because of coughing terribly. He told and shared to the readers how he felt when he received the news of what happened to his old father that was suffering from illness and he was not there to take good care of. He also mentioned in the article that after God had given his father a chance to live, it is also a chance for him to show his love for his father like what he showed for his mother and he promised to take good care of him when he returns home on summer of this year.

STYLISTIC ANALYSIS

For syntax:

The author/writer made use of two different tenses: past tense and future tense. For the first part of the article, he made used of the past tense of the verbs that shows that he wrote the details from the past maybe not really that old but it shows that it happened in the past. Examples of these are the following sentences and paragraph.

Examples: The news that my father was rushed to the hospital I learned via the most widely-used social networking site in the world – friendster! Kidding. Of course, facebook! It was my brother in Kazakhstan who posted it on my wall; but instead of pounding my keyboard to ask him for the details, I grabbed my cell phone and in a span of one minute, I was able to send my inquiries to the rest of my family. Seconds of waiting for their replies seemed a lifetime. I was restless. I guess it’s typical of my discretion to have some gloomy thoughts, taken into consideration my father’s old age and his present health condition (he is suffering from dementia). Simultaneously, I was painfully thinking of the possibility of losing him and praying to God to prolong his life, while my eyes were glued to the cell phone lying about 1-foot away from me. For the very first time in my life as an OFW, I felt alienated from my phone. It wasn’t like before when I would always be excited to read messages from the Philippines – those sort of texts ranging from my mother’s news about domestic stuff (like having newly hatched, wiggling chicks in the backyard, or how my favorite dog, Fulgoso, scared the hell out of our neighbors’ dogs after he snapped his chain and stormed into the open) to my siblings’ proud recollection of my nephews’ and nieces’ outstanding academic performance during the previous week. That Sunday was totally different. An utter apprehension was written all over my face as I anticipated hearing my cp’s text alert tone. And the messages came in one after another. The first one made me even more fretful because the sender (my eldest sister) was telling me to ask our nurse sister about what really happened. After reading all my folks’ replies, I had a clear picture of what actually transpired that day back home.

Underlined verbs in the given paragraph example showed that the writer shared an event in him and his family’s live that almost caused his father’s death.

While at the latter part of the article, the writer made use of future tense of the verb that shows that he is looking forward of the day he will come back to The Philippines and take good care of his father and show his love for him that he never did before and he promised it to himself after realizing the worth of the chance God had given to him and his family.

Example: For now, let me enjoy my gift until the day I go back home come summer of this year. Let me wash my guilt as I promise to pick those young pomelo leaves and have their aroma mixed with the lukewarm water I will personally prepare for my old man’s morning bath. Let me be there and make the most of my being there for him. Let me play my part in this amazing chance I shouldn’t miss.

Underlined words and phrases showed the he is looking forward to the day when he can show the love and use the chance that God had given.

As I read the article for many times, I also noticed that the writer made used of adjectives that added to the long second/minute of time he waited for the replies of his siblings that used to be there beside their father when he was rushed into the hospital. It shows that he impatiently waited for the news and the details he asked for using technology like cell phone.

Example: Seconds of waiting for their replies seemed a lifetime. I was restless. I guess it’s typical of my discretion to have some gloomy thoughts, taken into consideration my father’s old age and his present health condition (he is suffering from dementia). Simultaneously, I was painfully thinking of the possibility of losing him and praying to God to prolong his life, while my eyes were glued to the cell phone lying about 1-foot away from me. For the very first time in my life as an OFW, I felt alienated from my phone. It wasn’t like before when I would always be excited to read messages from the Philippines.

Less than thirty minutes of painful travel elapsed, and soon they made it to the hospital.

          The adjectives or words used added to the intensity of impatience of the author in waiting. And the effect these was that he was able to think of the negative things that might happen to his father and it just made him worry more because he cannot do anything but to wait for every update from his siblings.

For semantics:

The author used words familiar to him that emphasized the message of the article and the message of the article stronger.

Example: God is amazing.  This description of the Almighty has been said and used a million times, and somehow, it has lost its meaning (talk about “used-upness” of something). descriptive word – amazing. Yes, He is amazing that sometimes I feel undeserving of His continuous favors. He is amazing that even though I’ve got a number of shortcomings, still, He is unselfishly ever ready to give a second, third, fourth – or perhaps even an infinite number of chances!

Out of despair, my nurse sister was literally jumping like a lunatic (her own description), for the flimsy hope of survival seemed to waver even more.

Conclusion

          As I finish my analysis for the article, syntactic features and semantic features made a big impact in delivering the message the writer is trying to communicate. It made the story stronger and more believable. It added the sympathy the readers felt after reading the article. The author also made use of simple words that help the readers understand easily the story and the message the writer wanted to share. And probably, this article will be very inspiring for those who experienced the same thing that happened to Paulo Bedonia Masangcay and do the same thing after given a new CHANCE.