Project: Make Way, It’s the Haroun and the Sea of Stories Student Play!

“Haroun: You’re a girl?! / Blabbermouth: (Choking Haroun) If you tell anyone I’ll kill you! / Haroun: I think I’m in love.” – Excerpt from Student Project regarding Haroun and the Sea of Stories

The end of Haroun and the Sea of Stories came and passed like the constant revolutions of the moon. As per GHEnglish tradition, the class finished up their reading with an all-encompassing reflective project. Projects were done in our lens groups [Monomyth for myself and the three others] and had one objective: How do we teach students our view of Haroun?

We begun the project by listing different ideas with one another. What did we enjoy doing? What did we think would be effective to convey our message? While some groups took quite a long time to find a balance between their contributors, our group made the choice efficiently. We wanted to show different stages of the novel along with different levels of art we enjoyed. Thus began the idea of the Haroun and the Sea of Stories brief play.

A play, or series of skits, has limitless room to play with. It’s essential values are inherently artistic through acting, performance, and action. We critically decided that two subjects could be in charge of a sectioned script, one to contribute to sound and music, one to create background environments, and one to throw together a dance. It was fantastic, and most importantly, fun. No one felt pressured, annoyed, or disappointed in themselves or what they had to offer. Everyone found a unique niche and poured their heart into it.

The effects of our heartfelt efforts were to show the chapter-like path of monomyth. The group chose seven segments of the Monomyth [Ordinary World / Call to Adventure / Friends, Tests, Allies / Love Interest / First Failure / Seize the Sword / The Road Back] that the class often referred to in whole discussions or were prominent plot points in Haroun and the Sea of Stories. We wanted to make it relatable to the specific audience of the classroom, putting in little jokes and references to what we had talked about to tie together concepts as well.

Performing a play for the final reflection of Haroun and the Sea of Stories was enlightening. Personally, I learned that while the monomyth is admittedly cliche, and predictable, it can be fun to joke about. Monomyth is an important product of the storytelling animal that is humanity. It’s an irreplaceable tradition, perhaps nature, of those who tell stories. But the best part of people, development, and change is that we can poke fun at ourselves and our strange behaviors.

In projects such as these, personal opinions are not the sole contributor. Such as other projects from this blog, the GHEnglish class followed the ‘Design Specs Rubric.’ The standards of the project include: Beauty, Relevance, Poignancy, and Uniqueness. The Haroun and the Sea of Stories project meets all of these requirements. It’s beauty lay in the background art, music, props, and theatrics. Relevance could have been stronger, however for the class audience the project played on prevalent topics and a basis of understanding for those who already read the novel. The emotional poignancy occurred in our humor, even earning a few laughs from the audience during the skits. Uniqueness was therefore no problem with these factors. The combination of hand-made art, scripts, and acting matched no other.

Other groups also featured wonderful projects that were equally informational and highly graded. The allusion group tied in imagery from other stories through artistic portrayals and awe-inspiring beauty. The project proved humans learn from one another and have an interconnected nature much like the people who tell them. The satire group used hilarious videos and posters to play off of campaign advertisements for characters in the novel, illustrating character traits and commenting on Rushdie’s political situation. Viewers learned that, sometimes, the world needs to use a bit of humor to be less afraid. The lens of allegory used puppets of Salman Rushdie’s personal life and pointed out their reflections in personal character’s ‘shadows.’ Every lens was important for their own unique attributes and lessons and I could not imagine a more sincere piece of work for each individual.

So what is the point of telling stories that aren’t even true? For monomyth, it’s tradition and understanding. The hero’s journey is ever-popular throughout history and for some readers, it’s predictability is safe and secure. For our group, though, the point of telling untrue stories is for creativity and fun. Stories provide a good laugh or escape for people that need them, and for no other reason is a story so loved.

If you would like to see the project and it’s contributions, please check the following links. Thank you for reading!

• The Entire Play
• The Art of the Play [My portion of the project]
• Other Students Involved