Good Life Performance The Divine- a play for sarah bernhardt -Xiao Zhang

Spatial Experience

It was my first time in the Constans Theatre. I was struck by the fact that it's a really clean and high-grade looking place. I was excited to see the actual layout of the theatre, and when I entered the auditorium, I found that the temperature wasn't too cold or too hot, but at a very comfortable temperature. I sat in the center of the first few rows and could see the stage pretty clearly. I felt very excited and eager to know what was going to be performed because before the lights were dimmed, there was a snow effect shown on the back of the stage, which I thought was very pretty. Furthermore, the stage props; consisting of a few beds in the middle of the stage, made me very curious about the play. The size of the auditorium is very big and creates a very comfortable atmosphere for us to enjoy the play. I'm sitting in a pretty good seat and I'm so close that I can actually shake hands with the actors when they come out on the stage. In this case, the role of place in the good life was to boost my ability to enjoying a wonderful play in a wonderful environment, which made me very satisfied with my Friday night!

Social Experience

I attended the play with my best friend, Me and my best friend were both dressed up for the play and came to the Reitz Union almost 30 minutes early! I was very excited to watch this play with my best friend, because he knows so much about American Society and culture. He always explained the message to me when I was confused, which made the play more interesting because we can exchange ideas between two different cultures and backgrounds. The role of shared experiences in a Good life is that we can share both happiness and learning new materials together.

The cultural and Intellectual Experience

This play take time around the late 1800's in Quebec. As we can tell from the play, the church had a very important and influential role in that society, and a position in the church brought both money and a good reputation. I believe the central issue addressed in the performance is the choice between truth and an easy way out. In this play, our protagonist is pressured to accept nice living conditions and money and hide the scandal within the church which affected him directly. I didn't really know anything about the play beforehand, but by just looking at the cover, the look in the woman's eye in the cover made me believe that it was going to be a meaningful and deep play which made me even more excited about the performance. This plays leaves me wondering what's the balance between the truth and a better life; what should we give up and what should be defended. I found little connection between me and the characters in this as I came to this country only a few years ago, and my parents are so insecure because of the language barriers, so they stress me out so much to achieve something they need. I'm pressured to get straight "A"'s without any native-English ability and am compared with other good students who were born speaking English. I had to give up everything I loved before such as playing the piano and fun times to achieve their wants and ideal image, their "good life"

The Emotional Experience

I believe everyone has different opinions and values and different ways of being happy. The phrase "Coming clean" is often intended to mean " being honest" but sometimes, the truth is actually quite dirty. People often ignore the facts and focus on the outcome, even if that outcome is entirely an illusion. For some people, preserving what they believe is more important than the "Katharsis" that comes with the truth. Great examples would be money and power, and the privileges they allow. In this play, one of the characters knows a terrible truth but is given the choice of either telling the truth or hiding it for the good of his family. At end of the play, he chooses to keep the incident a secret, rather than "Coming Clean", and it was up to his friend to expose the ugly truth. Through his trials, our protagonist gained a life long best friend even though they ended up parting ways, having both changed each other's lives for the better. I believe the main component needed to be human and to be happy is to latch on to and preserve certain key values and ethics which really matter to you, and to pursue your dream or wants in life, as long as they leave you fulfilled.

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