Here's some pictures of me and a few other cast members in the musical.
I really like the Amish Literacy Article we read. In turn, I could actually relate to it. This is just a recap of what I said in class the other day:
During last summer I played an Amish women. The writer spent over a year researching and observing Amish men and women. He wrote notes whenever he could about what he saw and learned. He then ended up writing a feature length musical! When I was first asked to do this I was a bit skeptical. After I thought about it and accepted the role I couldn't believe I was playing an Amish women who was going through rumpspringa. Better yet an Amish women singing and dancing. All laughs aside I learned from the experience. It is that experience that has helped me to relate to the article. Though Fishman doesn't really touch on the personality aspect of Amish, they do all have unique personalities that define them.
Amish women do not live by just the confines of their strict household. In the musical, my character Esther, had experiences people might not assert to Amish. Esther shaved her legs, read magazines, and fell in love. It was interesting at the end of the musical because my character stayed with the Amish even though the audience was lead to believe she was going to leave. I think when the Amish experience rumspringa it's a chance for them to step outside of their uniform and structured life and let loose and be free!
Does anyone else think differently about the Amish now than they did? (also in regards to the video we watched today as well).
3 comments:
Yes, I do think differently now after watching the video. I had no idea that many Amish leave the culture and move to places like Missouri. It was shocking to me that they didn’t even have a social security number once they left!
I was thinking about what I would do if I was Amish and had the choice to leave or not. At first I just assumed I’d leave; no way would I choose to live without electricity or running water! But after thinking more about it, I probably wouldn’t leave after all, like your character in the play chose. I wouldn’t want to leave my family and everything I’d known my whole life and be shunned from my community. I don’t think I’m strong enough to do that.
When we're bored in college, we go to Walmart to walk around and pass the time (no seriously... http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/tilted-humor/102757-50-things-do-wal-mart-when-youre-bored.html) If living as Amish means that going to Walmart is as exciting as it seemed in that video, I've certainly had the wrong idea about the Amish all this time.
I agree with Kelsi though. If my family and community was my whole life while growing up, I would probably make the choice to stay with such a large group of people who have cared about me for so long.
I also agree with Kelsi. Given the same situation I'm not sure I would be able to leave everything and everyone I had known for the first sixteen years of my life. It really struck a chord with me when the one boy in the video we watched in class said that deciding to join the Ex-Amish community was like standing at the edge of a cliff with nothing but darkness below, yet knowing that you were going to jump. That's some pretty scary stuff.
But at the same time I can understand why some young Amish teens choose to do so. I've known people who have up and moved out of their parents' houses and halfway across the country as soon as they turned 18 to pursue careers or dreams. Regardless, ours is a big world full of opportunities, opportunities that often take extreme strength and bravery to follow.
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