spelling tree

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is a long one-act musical comedy conceived by Rebecca Feldman with music and lyrics by William Finn, a book by Rachel Sheinkin and additional material by Jay Reiss. The show centers on a fictional spelling bee set in a geographically ambiguous Putnam Valley Middle School. Six quirky adolescents compete in the Bee, run by three equally quirky grown-ups.

The 2005 Broadway production, directed by James Lapine and produced by David Stone, James L. Nederlander, Barbara Whitman, Patrick Catullo, Barrington Stage Company and Second Stage Theater, earned good reviews and box-office success and was nominated for six Tony Awards, winning two, including Best Book. The show has spawned various other productions in the U.S., including a national tour with performances in Canada, and Australian productions.

An unusual aspect of the show is that four real audience members are invited on stage to compete in the spelling bee alongside the six young characters. During the 2005 Tony Awards, former Presidential candidate Al Sharpton competed. Another amusing aspect of the show is that the official pronouncer, usually an improv comedian, provides ridiculous usage-in-a-sentence examples when asked to use words in a sentence. For instance, for the word "palaestra", he says, "Euripides said, 'What happens at the palaestra stays at the palaestra.'"[1] At some shows, adult-only audiences (over age 16) are invited for "Parent-Teacher Conferences," also known as "adult night at the Bee." These performances are peppered with sexual references and profanity inspired by R-rated ad-libs made during rehearsals.

The Broadway cast album was released on May 31, 2005 and is available from Ghostlight Records, an imprint of Sh-K-Boom Records. The original Broadway cast recording was nominated for a Grammy Award.

Lyrics

"The Hanging Tree"
(with James Newton Howard)

Are you, are you
Coming to the tree?
They strung up a man
They say who murdered three.
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met at midnight
In the hanging tree.

Are you, are you
Coming to the tree?
Where dead man called out
For his love to flee.
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met at midnight
In the hanging tree.

Are you, are you
Coming to the tree?
Where I told you to run,
So we'd both be free.
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met at midnight
In the hanging tree.

Are you, are you
Coming to the tree?
[Movie line:] Wear a necklace of rope,
[Soundtrack line:] Wear a necklace of hope,
Side by side with me.
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met at midnight
In the hanging tree.

Are you, are you
Coming to the tree?
Where I told you to run,
So we'd both be free.
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met at midnight
In the hanging tree.

Are you, are you
Coming to the tree?
They strung up a man
They say who murdered three.
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met at midnight
In the hanging tree.

Are you, are you
Coming to the tree?
Where dead man called out
For his love to flee.
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met at midnight
In the hanging tree.

language replacement activity

Gregory, the Cat

I have an amusing gray Persian cat called Gregory. He has pride and grace. He usually pale slowly and lowers each paw as a capable dancer. However, he doesn’t pride of his appearance, he gets fat fast by staying inside and watching television, which is his favorite activity. TV commercials called Meow Mix and 9 lives seemed to be the best in his mind. His picky and selective that he only wants the most expansive cat food. As the same critical choosing of the food, he chooses his visitors carefully. He does have some human friends. But when he meets someone that he doesn’t like, he may snuggle up against his ankle, begging to be petted, or he seems to be wicked and bite you. Gregory didn’t establish his territory by overawe others as many cat experts think, but to humiliate me because the jealous of my friends. When my guests left my home, I look at the adorable old fleabag snoozing and smiling to himself in front of the TV; I couldn’t keep blaming him for the obnoxious, but funny behavior of him.

Timed writing class

As a high school student, students all know that there are field trips that related to the courses during class time. I’ve never been to a field trip before, but I look forward it a lot. However, Cheshire Academy has considered if the school needs to cancel all field trips to eliminate the tuition fees. By asking my friends that have been to those field trips, I knew that it’s a good chance for people to experience what they have learned and to have a much clear sense of what they are learning about. In my perspective, school shouldn’t cancel the field trips by giving students some real examples to study, giving them a better experience, and cancelling field trip might cause a big dissatisfied among the students.

First of all, it’s hard for students to understand all of their courses information and people need some real examples. When there are many field trips at the school. Thus, students who have nutrient class might go to the supermarket to see the food with their nutrient combinations. The people in performance class might go to some plays to see the true performance. Meanwhile, the students in history class might go to some museums to see what the history truly is. The variety field trips give people some great experience of understanding their works. Thus, canceling the field trips would give students a lot of difficulties to study their projects perfectly.

On the other hand, some of the field trips are great experience in students’ lives. For instance, students could join the model union. That’s a field trip that people go to other places to act as people in a country and argued with other countries. They stayed together to fix the problems among countries and to have speeches between each country. This experience can help the students a lot when they get to college; it might give student confident to express their ideas and to listen the other’s ideas. At least it would be a great banquet for the students to enjoy their lives. As a result, field trip would be the experience to help students grow and learn.

After that, if the school still decide to cancel the field trip, the students will be in a huge dissatisfied with the school. Last year, my English class was working on a book called, “Wicked”. My teacher promise us that she would bring us to a field trip to see the play related to the book. Then, the whole class was in a great happiness. However, until the end of the semester, we still hadn’t gone yet. It might cause by the snow days or the short spring season. However, the reasons weren’t important for the students, who looked forward the play so much. We were kind of angry and unsatisfied. Also, the result was I cannot focus well in the later class and did a worse job in the exams. So, even though it’s not a big deal for the school, cancelling the field trips might cause a serious result to the students who want to have field trips.

To conclude, having field trips are good for both people’s study and social experience but cancelling them could cause many bad results. So why would the school like to cancel them? The command of eliminating tuition fee is a problem, but if the parents know the advantages of having the field trips, they will pay the fees with willingness. Admittedly, the school should remain having the field trips and helping students doing better works in their lives.

On one little space of my dresser, a funny toy clown sits on a tiny unicycle which I received from my friend last Christmas. The clown's short yellow hair is made of yarn, which covers its ears. The black surrounds the blue eyes make it a lake and slender eyelashes around it act as trees. Cherry-red cheeks, nose, lips and a sweet smile constructed the clown's face. He wears red and blue costume with a white scarf covering its neck. The light blue on the left side and the red on right side, which forms a line separates the whole costume in to two, makes it more vivid. The white spokes on the wheel of the unicycle sit in the center and spread to the black tire so that the wheel transfers to the inner half of a grapefruit. Looking at the clown gives me a visual pleasant. The smiling clown reminds me of the rainbow, as the best gift I received from my friend which I like the most.

The stories I like

For last two weeks, my classmates in the writing class and I were working on some interesting short stories. All the stories were about a page and had a surprised ending. Then, we should record them and make a video. In my perspective, three of them are the most excellent ones among these stories.

The one I liked the best was Amanda’s video, called “The witch”. Witches were mostly scary in fairy tales, but not that much in this story. Amanda woke up at one o’clock weirdly, and she saw a witch, which made her terrified extremely. Actually, it was just her coat on the chair. I liked her descriptive language. For example, when she implied how afraid she was, she said, “I muffled my mouth to keep myself from shouting out loud.” She had clear imaginations, such as ”The blurry face reminded me of the witch in medieval time”. The pictures in the video were also in a black mode. They seemed so dark that give the audiences the same feeling of coldness and timidity. Those things combined and gave people a great version of her story. However, the only weakness was her voice is not apropos enough in the story.

The second one I like was Nancy’s “The Blur”. Her story was totally different from mine and the others’ stories. She told about a foggy day in China and that’s the weather she liked the most. However, when she rushed to the window and breathed, she only found the smell of air pollution. It funny and made me remind the experience when I was at home. I’m sure that everybody might have the same experience, especially in China. The ending is dramatically. Also, I liked the part that she talked with her mom. When she first smell the fog, she said, “The air came into my throat immediately, and made me want to puke! It almost smothered me!” And she soon told her mom that, “Remember to take a respirator with you when you go outside mom, because there is serious haze pollution outside.” It’s a big contrast between the forwardness that she wanted to breathe in the fog and the disgust when she found the fog was pollution.

Lastly, I like Sophia’s story, called “Biological Father”. It’s a strange name, but implied her story moderately. The plot was normal, but she told the story in a unusual way. Sophia and her father were outside in a cold weather but Sophia wore a little. She thought his father would take off his sweater and give it to her, but after a long time, he just zipped the zip more tightly. I can’t imagine that I would feel so funny when somebody expect something so much but they just got disappointed totally until I listen Sophia’s story. She humorous and described the whole event in a interesting way. She also have a good ending which supported her topic, “At last, I look at my biological father with a heart of glass in the signer, which is madly mocking at me.”

All the stories were nice and I hope we would all study things during this projects. Also, I hope people would write more stories, so I can read them all.

Mistaken identity

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHQo1ut_I-E&feature=youtu.be

Mistaken identity - final

“Hey! Jane” I wave my hands and shout to a dark shadow far away from me. The shadow there seems to be my friend. However the person is ambiguous. It’s already past the appointed time, and I finally see her. “Jane, is that you?” even though I has started asking, I already verify that the person must be her. No one else would walk to a lonely street in the early morning, which the sun has just risen. She seems silent and calm, and her face is not turning towards me. 

I dash to her, loudly calling for my dear friend, and waving exaggerated. Why she doesn't notice me yet? I feel confused and feel a little bit aggrieved. Her late arrival and her indifferent attitude make me consider if she cares about me. She looks like a quiet machine, which would never respond my passion. Did I do anything wrong? Why does she ignore me? I definitely feel extremely disappointed and heartbroken. 

I hear the noise of people's step and stop walking. Then, a gust of wind comes to my back. “What?” I’m been frightened. “What are you looking for dude? I’m here, and sorry for being late.” I look back, and see a familiar face with warm smile. That's my friend. So what is that shadow? I ask myself. However, it doesn’t matter, and I would never tell her about my mistaken identity.