As you can see in the title, we had another Blue Sky exhibition. Normally we would just do the same old thing, but this time it was completely different. Instead of making our own project by ourselves and making something that will have prototypes and all that, we decided to make a play/walk through that is sort of interactive. It’s hard to exactly explain what we actually did becuase it was a massive production with many different moving parts. The only way we could do this is by working together in one big group, so our whole class of 18 people got together to complete this massive task.
Our teachers told us very little but the main thing we had to focus on was by linking a book that we read the Crucible, which is about the Salem which trials, we linked that to the 1950’s and how communism was effecting the world, to today. It seems like a lot, and it is, but I thought we could handle it. We started brainstorming all of the basic things, which was our story. We had to think what were going to be the most effective ways of getting across all of the information we wanted to. We thought that the guides touring everybody around should be communist spy’s, without the touring group knowing. The first scene was a Eisenhower speech, as it represented and explained what the state of the U.S. was in. They then would move on to a typical family home, to reinforce the time period and also add extra information that was needed. The third scene was a communism rally where two people are trying to get the crowd to become communists. Right after that they would move on to my scene. This scene showed two people in the army walking up to a house where they knocked on the door and informed an army WWII veteran that he was going to have to go back to war. He would eventually give in but then the guide would try and prevent this from happening and that would start a heated arguement with many acccusations. The scene after mine was a play in Hollywood where they talked about the McCarthy trials and how many stars were being accused of being a communist. A police officer barges into the scene and arrests the guide. That leads to the next scene where Joseph McCarthy has the guide on the trial and he talks about all of the things that guide did that made him look like a communist.
That was the basis of what we were doing. We then listened everything that we had to do including: building everything for sets, writing a detailed script for each scene, and making costumes. I was tasked on being a part of set design. I was happy to be working there as I felt I fit better there rather than anywhere else. We first had to figure out how big the gym was so we used a massive measuring tape. We then thought about all of the materials we were going to need for the basic props, the most commonly said thing was “bring cardboard”. Forgot to say this earlier but the teachers are doing almost nothing at this point except for reminding us of certain objectives and checking in on our ideas. Once we got the materials we started building everything. A lot of it was just painting, and I a lot of it, I actually still have paint on a pair of shoes, a shirt and a couple pairs of pants. It took a long time and I started to get worried we weren’t going to be able finish everything.
Finally came the day of the Exhibiton, we started building right after school. Almost as soon as we started building something went wrong, one of the few things we needed desperately wasn’t working. It was a movable wall that would seperate the gym in half perfectly. It was not moving at all, so we decided that we would take some curtains and jerry rig them across the whole gym. That was very stressful and I was freaking out while trying to fix a massive problem. In the end I think it looked better than the wall would. Everything was set up fine after that but then I had to get dressed, this was the worst part of the night. Everything was to small in every area, I was wearing boots that were 3 sizes too small. The pants were tight and so was everything else. I was in so much pain with every movement I made especially walking.
That was really all that happened that night, and it was a lot more fun and less stressful than I thought it was going to be. I learned a lot in this expierience. Normally I have a hard time retaining all of the information. This was different I think because of the way we learned, I think that helped me learn everything in a new way, and it is a way that made it so I won’t forget the important facts and information I learned. It was definitely one of the best learning expierences I have ever had, and here is our production.