Being An Outsider Analysis

The first two tasks we were given were to create a still image of an outsider with a sickness standing in public and to show a scene with thought tracking of people seeing the outsider for the first time. In the first task, Rabia and I tried to show an outsider sitting and trying to walk.
In the second task, we were in a group of six people. There was a police man interpreted by Sifanur and her thought was, “I have to kill this monster.” There was the thought of a beggar, Flora, which was, “I thought I had the worst life,” which was meant to show that there are always other people having a worst life than you. There was the thought of Rabia, a rich woman, “I though only cleaning ladies can be this dirty.” There was also the mind of a curious
child played by Zehra saying, “Mommy, I want to see what these people are staring at.” And there was the thought of a protective mom saying, “Don’t go near that thing,” played by me. We tried to have a diversity of thoughts to make the scene more interesting.
I believe that some positive aspects of our still image would be that we showed that the outsider didn’t want to have any eye-contact with the audience, she was crouched over, she was trying to hide her disabled hand and her feet were turned inward to show that she was insecure. She was crouched to show she has been beaten so many times that she couldn’t stand straight and people could see part of her everyday life. They can see that she is living a hard life because of multiple reasons not only because she was laughed at. Also one of her hands was hidden because she didn’t want others to see it. She didn’t want to make people feel disgusted or laugh at her even more because she had a disabled hand. She was standing on one leg to show that the other leg was longer. A negative would be that we could have shown the insecurity better by having a hoodie or a sweater hiding her whole body to show that she didn’t want to show her problems.
In our thought tracking scene we had different people have different opinions about the outsider. Positives were that we showed a variety of thoughts of people because the audience would see what people are capable of thinking. I also think it was good that we also had a child who was curious and wanted to see why people were staring at the outsider. I think that was good because from that scene we could have continued it and make it a play.
Some negatives would be that we could have had a person that would feel sympathy for the outsider, that way the scene wouldn’t have been so negative.
I didn’t quite like the line, “I have to kill that monster.” Instead of that we could have had a person that would feel sympathy. I thought that line was too cruel and it was a line that was asking for a laugh it didn’t get and the audience would have reacted in a bad way. Another way we could improve would be that instead of Gid being the outsider, we could have made the outsider an imaginary character and have Gid be the person that would feel sympathy for him or her. Another negative would be that Gid, playing the outsider, didn’t have a thought. She could have said, “I shouldn’t have come to the city, I knew it was a bad idea.” Through this she could show that she had thought before of going to the city, but she hadn’t had the courage to do it. When she finally went out, she regretted that and she wished he hadn’t done that. This would also show that her character is a strong one willing to take
risks.
What another group did was that they had the outsider be a beggar and people would avoid him. Ayhan was the outsider and at the same time the beggar, Amir was pretending to be disabled, Berkay was a man walking on the street just like Alex and Raluca with Anda were two friends walking on the street. From their play what I thought was a big positive was that Amir had a small punch line but with a big effect. His line was, “I am never again going to pretend I am disabled.” It was a great line because it made the audience be interested in what was going to happen further on. I felt very sorry for the outsider, Ayhan, since he was asking for money but nobody was giving him any. I also thought that Anda and Raluca’s parts were really good. Anda said, “Give him money,” but Raluca replied, “No, he could rape me right now.” I like the effect it created. It showed two innocent girls wanting to help a person but being too afraid to do that.
However, Raluca’s line was asking for a laugh it didn’t get. People would think how could he rape you when he can barely walk? It wasn’t a well-placed line and that moment could have been better if she would have said, “I am afraid to give him the money,” or, “I’ll give you the money but you give it to him.” Through these lines, her fright could be seen even better. The fact that Berkay and Alex had the same line, “what a freak!” ruined the scene a bit. Another suggestion would be that one of them would feel sympathy for him but would be afraid to show that by saying, “I wish I could help him but I’m afraid my friends are going to laugh at me.” Also I thought that the movement from side to side was too stereotyped. Maybe instead of that they could have been in a metro and the outsider would walk in trying to beg for money so it wouldn’t be hard to focus on who is talking.
The second task we were given was to show an interview on T.V. based on a show about a disabled boy. We had to be in groups of three people, we had to have an interviewer, an angry parent and the producer of the show, ‘I am the elephant boy.’ The mother was angry because her child was afraid since he/she saw the trailer of the show or because they were making a show based on a real story. The producer had to defend himself/herself for why they had to broadcast that show. The interviewer had to come up with questions to see both sides of the story and to calm the others if they were getting angry at each other.
Shreya and I had a calm and serious performance. Shreya said, “Why should we see a Chinese boy?” which showed she was racist. Through one line the audience was able to see what interested her and why she was willing to cut the T.V. show. However, the producer felt a lot of sympathy for the boy and did this show to show others that their problems are not that bad and that they should be thankful for what they have. Also the body language was well done since both of us were willing to fight for our point.
The negative part was that our play was really long and the points were repeated. Maybe the producer could have had more confidence and could have fought more for her point to protect the little boy.
Another group was formed of Zehra, Teodora and Deniz. They had an angry parent, Deniz, and interviewer that only cared about her show and the money, Zehra, and a producer that didn’t care about what the parent had to say and that only wanted the money made from the show, Teodora.
The two characters, producer and interviewer, did a good job of showing that they did not care about what the parent had to say. The producer, Teodora, because of her body language and her way of speech clearly showed indifference. She sat lousily on her chair, swinging her leg, looking at her nails and not directly at the person. The parent, Deniz, showed that she was angry and that she didn’t want that show to be streamed anymore. The interviewer just listened to what they had to say and ended the show.
Deniz could have shown even more anger by raising her voice and asking the producer to look at her. Instead of sitting with her legs crossed and a bit crouched, she could have sat straight and looked proud that way she would look more convincing and she might have more chances of having the producer’s attention. Also maybe through the mom’s sadness, the interviewer might start to feel sympathy for her ad turn against the producer. That way, her character would be more developed ad there would be a twist to the plot.
The third task we were given was to make up rumors about a girl in the village according to our roles.
Each character made up a rumor about the girl and we had to share them with others. The most effective rumors were that she had a bed for four people, she ate only rice, she had a pond full of human sweat, she had a round roof with studs, she dressed inappropriately in church and nobody saw her parents. Ayhan went to fix a shelf in her room and he saw the big bed. Amir went to Almina and said she had a bed that could fit four people and that she never cleans her pond. Then Almina went to somebody else and said that the girl had a bed for four people and that the pond is full of human sweat. That way the rumors changed into gossip and accusations to the
girl.
The last task was forum theatre. Different students went to the front of the class, acted as the accused girl and the teacher acted as the interviewer. There were some good responses that would go against the gossip. For example Raluca told the interviewer, “How can you talk about witches when you don’t know anything about them?” That proved that people are speaking without knowledge. On the other hand, Shreya tried to make the girl admit she is a witch by annoying her. Shreya kept mispronouncing her name on purpose. The audience suggested that maybe Raluca, instead of actually being a witch, she could be simply a normal girl that is different from others. At the end, the witch came out guilty since there were too many accusations and since others kept supporting their point. Other good line were, “What do you consider being normal?” asked by the interviewer to try to catch the girl guilty. A good method to catch the girl was when the interviewer asked a question he/she already knew the answer to. A lot of the interviewers were arrogant to try to scare the girl and to admit she was different even though she wasn’t. The girl was not given a chance to talk and to say what the truth was.
The different strategies we used helped us see that if we give a chance for people to speak, we could see that they are innocent. Through these methods we were able to see how people become outsiders and how much power the majority can have on one individual and how mistreated so called outsiders can be.