Madama Butterfly

As watching Madama Butterfly you can feel the emotion through the music and characters, especially the woman as a rag doll. It starts with her and a sailor laying together making passionate love to one another. It wasn’t long after till the man takes off just leaving behind his hat and music box, as the female waits for his return. The sky gets very grey with wind blowing and no sun. As you look at the dreary sky you can feel her emotion; she misses her man. As time goes on you see a fish through glass breaking, hearing it cry and seeing it squirm. You know it’s representing a birth of a child and becomes happy and attached to her new born daughter. As her daughter grows and days passed by, finally you see the ship with her love coming home to her. Unexpectedly, you would of never of guessed, he found another women. Ken and Barbie show up in a convertible with kids of their own and take her daughter from her; just ripping apart the umbilical cord. Yes that’s his kid too but you see her heart breaking into pieces as he hands their daughter over to her new mother now. The female couldn’t handle the depression, she rips apart her face and body where a skeleton is what’s left. Her life was ruined I assumed she felt, grabbing a screw driver and then ripping apart the rest of her body. All but pieces were left and carried off by the wind where you see a butterfly is formed and appears on the females back, assuming she is in heaven now feeling peaceful inside.

Josephine Baker

Josephine Baker was sensational everybody loved her. To see how she came from less than nothing and watch her grow as a performer and become one of the most famous people was astonishing. At the age of 15 she started out as a street dancer where people noticed her talent; her high spirits and energy. Knowing she couldn’t make it in America she decided to take her career all the way to Europe to find freedom where she performed in shows, stared in movies, and even opened her own night club. Showing off her beautiful body wearing only small pieces of clothing, such as the banana girdle, she was never a victim of stereotypes she had laughter and attitude on stage which sold her performance to the audience.

Tragedy did not stop her from doing what she loved. She was hospitalized more than once with heart attacks and strokes and illnesses but she still kept performing. Even though she was in debt and had to perform all the way up till she died, I think she loved the theater and being on stage. She accomplished a lot throughout her time and is still memorable till this day!

Minstrel Shows

It all started in the 1840s, when white performers applied grease paint or burnt cork to their faces for showbiz. Being in the time we are now, probably almost everybody who would see this would feel horrified that back then this was considered entertainment. I know I did.  

Northern white performers imitated songs - or at least tried to- that they heard blacks’ singing. Performers added a heavy southern accent to the song along with the black face. But eventually whites had to change their show when they couldn’t compete with the African Americans when they opened up their own minstrel company. It became known as “Blacks and Vaudeville”.  

I thought segregation was a sad time. Blacks were not allowed anywhere white people were really. Even if black people wanted to perform they still had rules, such as they could only sing about their racial context or it at least had to be shown in their act (fruit or crops) and there was only allowed one black act per show. What caught my eye the most was when towards the end of the minstrel days it was revealed that black performers wore burnt cork on their faces themselves, it was a shock to everybody. I think African Americans did that because it was the only way to show off their talent.