Scene Analysis

Structure:

1. Exposition: Jacquimo introduces himself to the audience and tells them how Thumbelina and her Mother came to be together.

2. Inciting Incident: “Are there any stories about little people?” Thumbelina becomes lonely and seeks companionship of people her size.

3. Rising action and crises: Thumbelina meets Cornelius and they fall in love. Beetle hears her voice and decides to take her to sing at the Beetle Ball. Cornelius promises to come see her the next day but she is kidnapped by Beetle who takes her to the outside world. Before she meets him, they are interrupted by Jacquimo and the Jitterbugs and Beetle hides. Jacquimo decides to find the Vale of the Fairies and Cornelius and the Jitterbugs come with Thumbelina to find her home and Mother. Cornelius discovers Thumbelina missing and asks his parents to delay the frost as he searches for her. Beetle surprises Thumbelina and the Jitterbugs and takes her away to the Beetle Ball. She is humiliated once the other insects learn that she isn’t an insect and Beetle abandons her. Jacquimo finds and helps her renew hope then they both continue on their quests to find Cornelius and Thumbelina’s home. While searching as the frost begins, Jacquimo gets a thorn in his wing, Cornelius freezes, and Thumbelina is rescued from freezing by Ms. Fieldmouse. Ms. Fieldmouse informs her of Cornelius’ death and introduces her to Mr. Mole who shows her Jacquimo whom he believes to be dead. Thumbelina discovers he is barely alive and Mr. Mole asks Ms. Fieldmouse to persuade Thumbelina to marry him which she succeeds in doing. Thumbelina nurses Jacquimo who has not heard of Cornelius’ death and he resumes his search. Thumbelina decides to marry Mr. Mole but chooses not to during the ceremony and runs away back into the outside world. Jacquimo takes her to a weed patch which he claims is the Vale of the Fairies and asks her to sing.

4. Climax: As Thumbelina sings, she unfreezes the world (including Cornelius) bringing Spring, and she gains her own wings.

5. Resolution or Falling Action: Jacquimo says goodbye to the audience and informs them that they lived happily ever after.

Action:

Jacquimo introduces the story of Thumbelina- a girl no bigger than your thumb. Soon after her Mother tells her about the existence of fairies her size, Thumbelina meets and falls in love with the fairy prince Cornelius. Thumbelina is separated from Cornelius by Beetle and Cornelius and Thumbelina, with the help of Jacquimo, set out to find each other again. When it appears that the winter has killed Cornelius, Thumbelina decides to marry Mr. Mole. Changing her mind and rushing away from the ceremony, Jacquimo takes Thumbelina to Cornelius’ home where, remembering the love she once had, her song invokes Spring and brings back the frozen Cornelius. She gains wings and lives happily ever after.

Major Characters:

Thumbelina is a tiny young girl who has grown up in a world she wishes to be a part of but that towers over her, literally and metaphorically. She is kind, loyal, and cherishes connections with other people. Much like the gigantic world around her, problems can overwhelm her but she is unafraid to ask for help because she is equally willing to help those around her. She shares a deep bond with her Mother but feels lonely, especially when it comes to love. When she finds Cornelius, she finds someone as giving as herself who loves and values her for who she is and who she might become. She loves him and will do anything to find him again but she’s also a realist. If she believes that something is impossible, she will go with the next best option rather than keep striving for an unattainable ideal. She also feels deeply. This can be a source of her greatest joy (with Cornelius and Mother), sadness (with the Beetle and his friends), motivation (with Jacquimo), and manipulation (with Ms. Fieldmouse). She finds in Jacquimo a kindred spirit who cares about and is as willing to help others as her. They develop a fast, strong, and devoted friendship and she trusts and appreciates him. He can inspire and comfort her when no one else can but likewise hurts her more than anyone else over the subject of Cornelius’ death with his refusal to accept it.

Cornelius is the young prince of the fairies and, in contrast to Thumbelina, has towered over the world around him when he wants to be a part of it. Thumbelina sees him for who he is rather than his title and wants to share a life beside him- not below him as a fawning subject or above him as an instructor trying to govern what he should be- whatever the circumstance. He is giving, excited, and brave. He understands limitations but will try to work around and through them or die trying. Something real is something precious and should be nurtured and fought for, not suffocated or discarded.

Jacquimo is an unselfish, energetic, romantic, kind swallow. He will do anything to help the less fortunate and accepts help when others offer it in turn. He is filled with love and passion for the world and people around him. He is the epitome of an optimist- his greatest strength and weakness. While this quality nearly kills him when he decides to keep flying with a pierced wing instead of waiting longer to find the prince while it heals, it also allows strengthens, comforts, and lifts those around him. Thumbelina is very important to him and he easily forgives and helps her as well as turns to her to her in his time of need. To him, helping her is not a favor; a person simply does everything they can for the people they love.

Description:

1. Why have you selected this project to produce? In other words, what is the story you are telling and why have you chosen to tell this story to this audience at this time in your life? What is your passion for this story?

a. Honestly, there are lots of messy and sporadic reasons I wanted to do this play but I’ll mention the reasons I stuck to it and how it is important to me. I’ve found in theatre that happy-ending plays are often written off as shallow, overly-simplistic, and less important. I definitely think we need plays of all kinds, but I want to remind people that good guys can fall and still triumph, song can spark magic, and imperfect people can create wonder. Which brings me to my next point. I’m under no delusions that my mask club won’t end up a hot mess. I’m taking this class to learn things that only experience and likely failure will teach. I want the experience of figuring out solutions to difficult problems as a production team so I chose a play with heavy design elements and problems that have not yet been solved. I think this story about someone overwhelmed by a world falling apart and crashing into her and then emerging from it even better through supporting others and allowing herself to be supported by them speaks to us at any time in life- perhaps even more so now.

2. What questions are you asking with this production? More importantly, what do you want your audience to experience or perceive as a result of engaging in this performance?

a. How can others depend on us while we depend on others? I want them to experience the rush of finding an even better resolution than what was originally anticipated after a period of hopelessness. I also want them to reflect on the people who lift and are lifted by them.

3. As you think about your story, what ideas are the most influential?

a. The characters need each other and, though they can do much on their own, they can do so much more together. Symbolically, I see Thumbelina as water and Cornelius as sun. Without sun, water transforms the earth to ice, winter, emptiness. Without water, sun transforms the earth to desert, standstill, barrenness. Together water and sun create life. Those who lift others have wings (even Beetle imitates lifting Thumbelina but more on that in his character description) and when Thumbelina unfreezes the earth, she gains wings of her own.

4. In your opinion, how might your play be relevant, appropriate and/or meaningful for your audience?

a. Most of the people watching this production are young adults, like the main characters, struggling with new challenges they never anticipated. Many are likely, especially during 2020, uncertain about what the future holds and could use some reassurance that light comes after dark.

5. What is your current big idea, production concept, or vision of how you are going to perform you project?

a. If we are able to work out the technical aspects, I want people to disappear when they are not in scenes, be live when they are present, and have a present but altered (no/ limited visual) when there is a special circumstance.

6. What are the laws or rules of the world of the story as you see it?

a. Fairies (and others when necessary) govern and are able to alter the seasons. It is important for them to maintain the flow of the seasons but they can control how and when the seasons change. Wings are usually something someone is born with but can be earned through a deed that helps others. Fairies, talking animals, magical beings, and tiny people exist and communicate.

7. How do you intend to use the resources of the stage to manifest the life of the play?

a. Zoom can provide us the opportunity to direct an audience’s eye to a specific character and space. It can also give place more importance on specific designs and moments rather than them getting lost in the space of a stage.

8. What form is your production going to take as you strive to engage your audience?

a. The audience will be viewing the events the same way the performers are. They are participating in a similar way to a forest creature, ball attendee, or wedding guest.

9. Write a one-page inventory of your sensory reactions to the play.

a. The first part of the play is golden and thins into wisps that transform into an icy, biting blue.

Jacquimo’s book room tastes like sweet ink and feathered paper. It is squishy, happy, filled with a natural light, and smells of healthy, twinkling dust.

Home and her Mother are warm, like pine scented firewood, cold soft cobbles under the feet, and a song that constantly, quietly hums inside of you.

The forest feels shaded but alive. There’s so much that can’t be seen or guessed but there’s an energy, good or bad, ready to burst around every corner. It reminds me of a sapphire- lots of different potential colors, sharp sides, shapes, earthy and heavenly at the same time, beautiful all the while. A slight breeze blows through the fingers that urges you on but carries warning. The air is cool and refreshing on the skin but is humid around the face. It condenses as you breathe it in into tiny water droplets with a slightly minty or woody taste.

The Beetle Ball is cloaked in darkness but blinds you with light. It zips into your senses, turns your heartbeat into a drum that pounds along, and seeps into your veins. The air is heavy, humid, and drags you into its flow. You can taste the fake laughter and sense the shifting eyes of the ignored, hidden-in-plain-sight undercurrent.

Ms. Fieldmouse’s house is neither dry nor humid, just warm and comforting. It smells of baked goods and large spaces. You always feel inescapable pounds of dirt on top of you. It’s a good thing that you don’t want to leave because you wouldn’t be able to.

In Mr. Mole’s house and tunnel, your footsteps are a constant reminder of your small size as they echo through the caverns of immovable gems. You are reminded of all that can be lost, including yourself. It smells of rock and dust from cracks that can never all be found. The air feels dry and slightly cold. A chill runs down you that never quite goes away even when bundled up in the richest furs.

The Vale of the Fairies has a quiet song that, unless you’re still, is imperceivable until it grows into a sweet, lovely melody. It is clean, not sanitized, just clean and soft, even in snow. When it blooms, the colors, whether bright, rich, or budding, are soft on your eyes; the sweet scent plays with you like the wind; and the sunshine lifts you up and makes you float on air.

10. Identify a metaphor or metaphors for your production.

a. Ignoring the watermark (no pun intended), this is a story about emerging from the darkness into the sun, about drowning and then drawing breath.