Douglas-fir Archives

Well, I was planning on posting on my blog at least once a week, but this week has been so incredibly busy that I've hardly had time! Classes and schoolwork keep me well occupied. Course work for this first month has consisted mainly of grammar review, conversation, and cultural studies. And, although some of it is review, this is an intensive language course, and I've found myself challenged. And of course, simply being out and about gives one ample opportunities to practice.

One of the optional activities available to us was to participate in a literature reading and discussion, after which we would write a play to preform for the group. Wade led this group, and everyone had a lot of fun. We read a short story by Hermann Hesse called Flötentraum, or Flute-dream, the parable of a young man who goes out to make his way in the world, unaware of the sorrows and disappointments the world can bring, and that there is no path that leads back to lost innocence and missed opportunities. The group of us doing the theater project met on a sunny afternoon by the River Neckar and hammered out a play version. Abandoning the more serious tone of the story, we produced a parody to last about 15 minutes. Everyone contributed ideas. In the original story, the young man is given a flute by his father, who tells him to play the flute to people he meets, although the young man doesn't know how to play. We changed the flute motif into dancing. This seemed appropriate, since I was to play the part of the young man, and I can't dance. Later in the original story, the young man sings a song for a girl he meets. On the urging of the other members of the group, this was changed into a rap song. Since we had no costumes, we used our ordinary clothes for the play. Based on these and other modern elements in our text, and the fact that we had not yet chosen a title, I jokingly suggested to Wade a couple days before the play that it should be called "Flötentraum: Die moderne Fassung" (Flötentraum: the Modern Version). The next day, to my half-surprise, flyers were passed out to all the students advertising our play, with the title "Flötentraum: Die moderne Fassung, oder Caleb geht in die Welt" (Flötentraum: the Modern Version, or 'Caleb goes into the World')!

We performed the play on 20 Sept, and it was a smashing success. We pulled it off well, and we got a lot of positive feedback. I'm very glad that I had the chance to be in the theater group. It was so much fun for everyone involved. Wade had to return to the States this morning, and we were all very sad to see him go.

There was no official photographer to document the opening night, but thankfully, Justin took some good photos that he let me copy to post here. Here's a smattering:














< Left to right: Silvia Kunze-Ritter, the resident director of the Oregon programs in Germany; me; Payson; Wade; Courtney; Holly; Jessica; Shannon. >