MID+TERM+RESULTS!

SUCCESS! Students watched a You Tube Clip of the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem at this link. They were then given an assignment to critique the scene, looking for Biblical references and allusions. I have posted the essays so you can see the different opinions and interpretations. One small problem is that the students were shown this "cold" and I did not give the names of the characters. Some had to make their own assumptions and mistakenly thought the pharisee was Herod or Pilate. It was not important to be correct about that or who the mysterious woman was.

Today the students gave me permission to post their work using initials - not their names. I hope the parents watch the clip and then enjoy the writing. I did.

Some of the formatting became irregular in the cutting and pasting....

[|Jesus Christ Superstar] Here is one....DJ code 3-23-10 Bible

Midterm There are many comparisons between ?Jesus Christ Superstar? and the actual story form the Bible. The scene taking place is Jesus? triumphal entry into Jerusalem. In the Bible it states that Jesus traveled into Jerusalem on a donkey but in the play ?Jesus Christ Superstar? the people carry Him into town. They originally wave palm branches in the Bible but in the play they have flyers and banners of Jesus everywhere. The characters in the scene of the musical play represented those in the Bible. The two men on the balcony are Pharisees who criticize the crowd for worshipping Jesus. Judas at one point is up on the balcony in the play and Jesus comes up to see him along with Jesus? mother, Mary. The crowd is representing those in Jerusalem and possibly referring to tax collectors and the general public. There are a few allusions to the Bible when the people sing ?will you die for me?. This was obviously referring to the death upon the cross. Also, when they are singing some of the other lines could have been referring to miracles or letting the children come to Him. As in our government and politics, the people decide. They do so here by deciding they want to praise Jesus. The Pharisees or ?political leaders? can disagree but it is ultimately the decision of the people. Some when Pilot gives the people the decision to release Barabas or Jesus. That?s when they choose Jesus. Overall, if you did not know anything about the Bible, you might have just thought that Jesus was a good person but nothing about the events in his life. They praised Him just the same nut they were not as direct as the Bible. They knew that they wanted Him and the Pharisees disagreed. ?Jesus Christ Superstar? and the triumphal entry into Jerusalem in the Bible are nearly the same.

And another....R.B.
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code In the broadway play Jesus Christ superstar The scene of Jesus' entry, The author is using visual, audio, and the characters. The author is using these three elements to show Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. The author also uses a creative license" in some of the scenes. The visual scenes in the play are when the people carry Jesus into the town. The author uses a creative license in that scene, because instead of using a donkey to carry Jesus he uses the people, too. Jesus is being lifted in the air by the crowd of people. Also, instead of leaves welcoming Jesus there are signs. The signs in the play represent palm tree leaves. The signs say on them that Jesus rules this is references to that Jesus is the ruler of all people. The  audio scenes of the play is when Jesus says  The kingdom shall be theirs". This making a references that Jesus is telling the people they are welcome in the Heaven with God. Also, that heaven is a place that belongs to those people. Another audio scene is when King Herald says " Be quiet down there, there shall be a riot". This is referencing to when the people later on have a riot to crucify Jesus. The characters of the play that were in the crowd appear to be happy to see Jesus. The characters in the crowd were depressed in colorful clothes. This must represent the lower class people. The characters that appear to be against Jesus were dressed in black leather. This must represent King Herald's crowd. Also, the characters against Jesus were looking at him angrily. In one of the scenes Jesus goes on the balcony and gets confronted by a man. Jesus gives the man a look of horror. This man or character represents Judas. This references to when Judas betrays Jesus in the Bible. Also, there is a woman in this scene who stands right next to Jesus in the some scene. This woman represents Mary Magdalene in the Bible. I thought overall the author of the play did a good job of this scene in the Bible. I am glad I know the Bible pretty well and the stories to point out what is happening. This class has really taught me to have a deeper knowledge of things from the Bible, than what a casual observer would have. #3 MB       After watching a clip from Jesus Christ Superstar multiple times, I was able to catch something new each time. The more I found, the more I looked the next time around. Knowing the story really helped me figure out what it was exactly that I was looking for. In the next few paragraphs I will explain what I noticed. The first thing that popped into my mind was the setting. In Jesus Christ Superstar, the setting was a crowd of people singing and cheering on Jesus with signs that said “Jesus Rules”. This reminded me of when Jesus enters Jerusalem but on a donkey. Both were stories of Jesus entering Jerusalem. Although this particular part of the scene made me think about the verse in the Bible, the scene is much different, of course, and more modern. The second thing I noticed was when the crowd was singing lyrics that went something like “Won’t you smile for me, fight for me, die for me”. This reminded me of the many miracles granted to people by Jesus, and how much he had done for them. It almost seems like these people only believe in Christ when they see a miracle performed. For the characters I obviously knew that the man carried around was Jesus. He had a glow to him, long hair, and a big smile. Next to him was Mary, who was at his feet, (Another verse from the Bible!) and to his other side was Judas who wasn’t singing or praising Jesus, but watching from a distance with a very sour look on his face. The crowd was big, and very loud and tied in with politics a little how they were able to choose to follow Jesus. Also there were two Pharisees who were scolding the crowd demanding them to stop with their shouting, because they were fools. There were many illusions in the lyrics as well. The crowd as I said before was shouting for Jesus and singing “won’t you die for me”. Now, I have read the Bible and know this means when he is crucified, but others may not know this. Also Jesus sings “There’s not one of you who can’t win the kingdom” and by this he means there is not one of you who can’t get to Heaven. For me, this ways instantly a clue, but for others who don’t know the story, they might get confused or think it means something else. In conclusion, without reading the Bible and the verses that went with the scene, I probably wouldn’t have picked up so many clues and wouldn’t have understood what some parts of the scene meant. It really helped to read first, this way I know more information.

In this essay I will be talking about the controversial “Jesus Christ Super Star”. I will be describing and talking about the different aspects of this movie. The three aspects I will be talking about are the characters, politics and actions of the opera. The characters were fairly typical; Jesus was shown as having long, curly hair and plain clothes. Pilate looked like a standard antagonist, he had a bald head, well trimmed facial hair and a harsh black leather out-fit. The “crowd” was also typical, they were loud, roughty, and held signs.
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Next, I will be talking about actions. There were several actions that I found interesting. First, Jesus is standing on the shoulders of the crowd as if he is their hero. He also climbs up to the balcony, almost as if to show up Pilate. If you look at Pilate, he acts angry and demoralized. Finally, I will be talking about the politics. There are two main political allusions in “Jesus Christ Super Star”; the first is the actions of Plate. He does not agree with the crowd, he tries (and fails) to silence them, If he did agree, he would have tried to make them more roughty. The other political allusion I saw was the crowd. The crowd was anti-establishment; they were siding with Jesus, against the establishment (Pilate and cronies). In conclusion, I feel that “Jesus Christ Super Star” was sacrilegious, it did not portrait Jesus like he really was. After reviewing the clip, almost everything was different from the Bible. I talked about politics. Actions and characters and they were all different! 
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In the musical “Jesus Christ Superstar”, the scene of Jesus’ triumphal entrance into Jerusalem is shown as a joyous occasion, but a hint of uneasiness is also in the air. The writer in this play seemed to want to include elements in this scene that are difficult to find without any Bible knowledge. Some of these elements that I saw were the portrayal of characters, foreshadowing of events to come, and also the symbols that expressed the expectations of the crowd. Using these elements in this play enriched this version of the last days of Jesus by deepening the value of a scene that could have easily been presented as simple. The first tool of enhancement that I noticed was the interpretation of the characters. Many of the crowd peoples were dressed in gothic or punk-rock clothing. Others acted as if they had homosexual tendencies. Still others in the crowd were unsteady older men and women and little scrawny children. These people represent the rejects, the losers, the time-consumers, the poor, the unintelligent, and the unwanted in society; those who we honestly steer clear of. They have been looked down upon by “religious” persons and treated as lowly as dirt. Many of us run from these people now, and the high-up Jewish men ran from them then. Despite the strong objections the Pharisees and leaders had to these people, Jesus took them up in his arms and loved them, and they in turn embraced him. Another device I observed in the scene to Jerusalem was the foreshadowing of events that had not yet happened. In the lyrics of the celebratory song, there lie the words “Won’t you smile for me? Won’t you fight for me? Won’t you die for me?” These words symbolize the way Jesus would show love to the people by fighting to give them the ultimate gift of life and that he would have to die for them to be able to receive this gift. Therefore, the lyrics show what Jesus would do and foreshadowed his upcoming death. The other instance of foreshadowing was seen at the end of the scene when Judas Iscariot entered. The people were cheering, and Jesus had gone up to a balcony where Judas was standing. Judas was wearing a queer look of disgust on his face, and when Jesus reached his hand out to him, Judas stepped back shaking his head. This scene showed how Judas no longer wanted anything to do with this “Superstar” Jesus and foreshadowed Judas’ desertion and betrayal of Jesus. The last element I saw were the symbols that represented the expectations of the crowd of who Jesus would become. These beliefs were clearly expressed in the scene by the banners and flyers with the words “Jesus rules!” written on them. The people didn’t just think Jesus rules; they thought Jesus was going to rule! They thought that Jesus was going to become the king and free them from Roman rule. This idea was also evident in Jesus’ nickname “Superstar”. The people had built up in their minds who they thought Jesus was. They believed that Jesus was someone that he wasn’t. In the same way, we look at superstars however we want to and dismiss the things they do and say so that they are exactly who we want them to be. In the end, Jesus’ nickname fit him, but not because he was corrupted by his fame. When watching plays or movies for enjoyment we often times miss the layer that lies underneath the surface material. This layer is made up of foreshadowing, symbolism, subtle hints and so on. These elements are what deepen the value of plays and movies and are what make them truly great. They not only ask you to recall what you know, but they also ask you to apply what you know so that you can truly comprehend the whole of the movie or play. Without elements such as these, what we watched would be a bunch of cotton candy; nice and good tasting, but dissolves quickly and leaves nothing of sustenance behind. The play “Jesus Christ Superstar” certainly utilizes all of the aforementioned elements in the scene of Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem and applies them to create a multi-layered masterpiece.
 * “Jesus Christ Superstar”**