First Day of Presentations

Well I'm sure we all had high expectations of the group presentations on Tuesday, however, like all the group presentations I have seen in Sexson's classes, these met those expectations and surpassed them.

Group 1 performed a dramatic skit involving Nabokov, his characters, and the blurred lines between "reality" and a dream state. James played Nabokov, at work on creating his iconic characters. Lolita, Kinbote, Shade, Humbert Humbert, etc. all hovered around him, acting out scenes from the novels and even interacting with one another at times. The group used several desk lights to set the stage between scenes, and as one scene came to a close, the audience would be plunged into darkness only to be lit up again by the light of Nabokov's genius. Parker did an excellent job playing John Shade, even incorporating his love of drink into the role. As he read lines from his poem, this Parker Shade would slur a word or two or drink surreptitiously from a flask in his coat pocket.It was exciting to see Janna playing two characters, one being Kinbote, in this play stealing the words from Nabokov himself, and "Dickers", a play off Emily Dickerson whose work was also stolen and modified.

The most exciting part of this group's presentation for me was not only watching the characters come to life and interact with one another, but also what they were saying about the creative process. Nabokov interacts with his characters, takes from them, gives to them, lives through them, all of these things encompassed in a single pen stroke. The creative process is shown as something fluid and cyclical, not as a strictly linear progression or sterile act. It was nice to see that idea adressed so well in so short a play.

The genius of Group 2 was their dedication to portraying Nabokov's characters in the flesh. The context for this was a tv talk show, the "Vivian Darkbloom Show". Lee, books in hand, played Vivian Darkbloom interviewing some of Nabokov's major characters. Quilty was there, seemingly unfocused but his famous playwright whit could be seen in several lines, delivered laughingly almost to himself. "Yes, I have many pets at home." Lolita was there, bored with the proceedings and would poke fun at Humbert Humbert saying she wanted to go see a movie instead. H.H. was, as always, self-contained and well-dressed and would periodically lean over to Lolita saying things like "Darling, don't talk to strangers". Of course we can't forget Kinbote in all of this. Stroking "his" beard the entire time, he would interrupt Vivian and ramble on about himself in the most hilarious manner. And who could forget Hazel Shade, hair dripping in front of her face, ghostly palor about her cheeks. She was truly brought to life, almost as an anime character in a three-dimensional world. Periodically she would scream something at the others or shrink back into herself.

All in all, Group 2 simply blew me away with their performances. Some details to remember: Each character was compared to a figure from Greek mythology. Lolita was Venus or Persephone. Quilty was Pan. Hazel Shade was Mania. (The associations for Kinbote and Humbert Humbert escape me at the moment...). Group 2 also talked about how Quilty is called the "Proteus of the Road". Proteus was a Greek god, a shapeshifter. Also important to remember for the test are several palindromes Hazel Shade wrote on the board. Here are the one's I wrote down: CAIN: A MANIAC. A MAN A PLAN A CANAL: PANAMA. LIVED ON DECAF: FACED NO DEVIL. SENILE FELINES. CIGAR? TOSS IT IN A CAN IT IS SO TRAGIC.

Group 3 played a game with the class, splitting us up into two teams to guess at charades and other games. James really got into things, yelling out answers over the class. But their side was not prepared for our secret weapon. We had Sexson. =) Here are some of the answers to the game: Icharus, The three tenses, Enchanted Hunters, Ramsdale class list, Ornithology, Lemniscate, Princedom by the sea, (Picnic, Lightning), Doppelgangers, Emerald and Gradus, You person (Hugh Person), Lepidoptery, and Waterproof.

All in all, it was fun to see everyone put so much effort into presentations that were certainly informative and definitely entertaining. My group goes on Tuesday; I can't wait to see what you all think of our efforts. (I won't give anything away; you will just have to come see it). ;) Good luck to everyone with the last presentations! I'm sure they will surprise us yet again.