Reflection, ZER0 H0UR

The final moment approaches. 3 days until final performance.

Personal:

Right now I am feeling a mixture of Dread and Excitment. The Dread that we arent prepared and all this work will go terribly wrong. And the Excitement that this will go amazingly and that we will finally perform. We have put so much time, effort and money into this project, i would be so sad if it went wrong. But in my experience of theater, no matter what happens on stage, the performance always ends with applause and smiles. I know on performance night I will be smiling and happy that this work and emotion has all come to a finish.

Proffessionally:

I am stressed. I do not believe we are anywhere near ready. We haven't done a single, continuous no stop, run through with full costume or makeup. This all seems very dependent on luck.
Lights, they haven't even arrived yet, which means i have one day to set up lights and make sure they work. I will finish the task, but i do not know if it will be up to my personal standards.
The cast is way behind on learning its lines...... as am I, but only time will tell if all our efforts are worth it.

Final Thought:

Where did the time go.....

Journal Assignment, One More

What skills did you acquire or develop during the rehearsal? (These could be specifically drama related OR beyond – such as collaboration/organization etc.)

During rehearsal, I don’t feel any major skills are being learned, though I do think I am practicing many skills. The main skills are coordination and management. Coordination along the lines of making sure everybody knows their duties as well as that they all know where to be and when. This alone is a nightmare and I am very happy that I have classmates to help me with it. That brings me to the other skill, management. For the play to succeed everybody needs to know where to be and what to do, this requires management skills. I feel that I am exercising my management skills by organizing actors and making sure (at least for my responsibilities) that we are on track.

What activities did you enjoy or find useful in the learning process? What activities did you not enjoy or not find so useful?

Out of the whole production, so far, The most enjoyable part was the brainstorming. The fact that we didn’t have any limitation and that everything was up in the air, kept reality from coming into perspective. This of course mean that our imaginations could wander and grandeur visions could fill our head. The worst part of the production (again so far) has been the cold hard reality of daily practices and the little things that need to get fixed. Such as having to learn lines, making stage movements work, and most of all making sure actors are there for practice.

I do think though, that the best part of the production for me will be the final day. The day we open the curtain, because I will know all this work went for something.

Comment please on the amount of homework, the deadlines, and the type of homework that was set. Was it fair? Useful? Did it assist in your learning and understanding?

The amount of Homework has been fair, and I believe that all deadlines are reasonable and well planned. The homework that was/is assigned is obviously related to drama and our coursework, and seems to be following IB curriculum. The homework has allowed me to see more to drama then just physical acts, there is also a huge research background as well as a lot of self-reflection.

What new knowledge and understanding have you acquired during this term? Please be as specific as possible.

During this term specifically, I imagine I have learned a lot less than others, because of my late joining. But I feel Like I have learned a lot. I have learned about different types of theater, including some I had never heard of before. Such as Kathakali and Kyogen, I have learned that you can make a play from scratch and all it needs is your own vision and emotion. Most of all, this term I have learned that drama class is a fun learning environment, where I never have to be afraid to speak my mind.

Refleciton

Again I have fallen behind on my drama reflections. 

The play is coming along well, but a bit stressed. Yesterday I learned that the play last year had been done within a similar time frame, which raised my confidence slightly. Our Director, Collette has been working fantastically and so has Jessica and Malika. Other members of the group are starting to fall behind and I am beginning to feel that they are letting us down on their commitment.

Stage Manager Wise, I continue to conference with Mr. Lawrence about the technical aspect of the play (which makes me very happy, considering that is the aspect that interests me most about play productions at this time.). We have worked out basic set movement (how the set will be changed throughout the play) and some basics for the lighting. We have been given ten park end lights (which honestly is a terrible set of equipment but none the less a set of lights J ) and using those we will arrange thema round the stage so that different levels can create different textures and meanings. Also I have been participating in the blocking of the play (the stage movement) and am really excited about production day coming along, though I still hold the belief this will either go really well or really bad.

I am looking forward to the technical rehearsals coming up, and most of all looking forward to checking another item off of my to do list.

Reflection

Dream On, is no longer Dream On

We have changed the name of the show to, "That 70's Show"

This is inpart due to our 70's theme, as well as the fact that we have replaced almost every song with 70's hits and classics.
The main reason for this is our time constraint. the sad fact is that we do not have enough time to do a full production, so we have cut out almost all the singing and will be adlibing to the hits. Yes this does cut away fromt he actors glory, but improves the production on a whole, which is what I have to be worried about.

Stage Manager,
As stage manager I have started to mess aorund with the lighting and have created a rough draft of the lighting angles I will need to achieve. Tomorrow I will confer with mr lawrence and see what his opinion is. Also Me and Jed (props manager) have been working together to get a scroll prop together. Tomorrow i will go through the props list with him and double check everything is in place.

Hopefully soon I will be able to choreograph the tango scene, between theseus and hippolyta. But theseus is out of town for visa purposes. Hopefully he will be abck soon.

Now I feel a small measure of control over the play, and think we are heading in the right direction.

Improv Workshop Refleciton

Italic text are my post workshop comments

So, Soon I have my Improv Workshop

To prepare for this workshop, I created a basic lesson Plan. It follows this.

-Start out with a Basic introduction to Improv
Such as the type of people that perform improv, how improv is beneficial to the mind, the origins of improv and some of the concepts that improv is founded on.
This went well, but a bit faster then I expected, none the less I had the class interested.

-Some Games
We will then play some games, to break the ice and get the mood right. The games would include,
One Word, a game where you create a story using one word inputs from each person in a circle.
Last Letter Roll, Where i say Aardvark, and the next person would say Kansas, and the next could say Sofa and so on.
The games went amazingly and really broke the ice around the workshop. It allowed the class to become more genuine and forwarded the notion that improv can be fun, and that it requires genuine actions to make it believable.

-Basic Improv Idea's
Then we will discuss, and practice the most fundamental part of improv, character creation.
To me, character creation is really the foundation of Improv. I will explain this to the class and hopefully help them create some characters.
It seems most of the class had their own characters preprogrammed, but i encouraged them to break out from that and make a new character on the spot, to enhance the genuine surprise that they could show during class.

-Practice the Characters
Next I'll have the class spend about a minute or two getting into their characters and developing them.This will prepare them for their next task, which is to have a 1 minute monologue/bit where they (while in character) talk about themselves or present a scene.
It seemed that one minute was not enough and i ended up allotting five minutes for character creation, but ti worked better. If you rush the students, it seems that the characters can become flawed. The presentations went well, as well, due tot he extra allotted time.

-Refine the Characters
Now, they will spend another 1-2 minutes refining their characters, and editing the personalities.
 I found out that this section

is best done in solitude, so that the actors can introspect.

-Test those characters
To finalize their characters, I will have them pair up and be given a controversial topic to debate over. This will hopefully put them in a situation they had not prepared for, and make their characters responses more genuine, and less pre-scripted.
 This went amazingly, and was by far the best part of the whole workshop. Watching people fight over such topics as same-sex marriage and racism, while in character was spectacular. especially when you realize that these characters were created no more than 20-30 minutes ago.

-Wrap It Up
 Go over what they have learned, and what they will use it for.
Every student admitted they learned something from the workshop, and that they enjoyed it. I had a blast with the workshop on the whole, and wouldn't change a thing (except for the time allotted of course). I loved the workshop, and am already thinking about doing another. Also here are some photos that were taken during the workshop.

Pre Workshop Thoughts

So, Soon I have my Improv Workshop

To prepare for this workshop, I created a basic lesson Plan. It follows this.

-Start out with a Basic introduction to Improv
Such as the type of people that perform improv, how improv is beneficial to the mind, the origins of improv and some of the concepts that improv is founded on.

-Some Games
We will then play some games, to break the ice and get the mood right. The games would include,
One Word, a game where you create a story using one word inputs from each person in a circle.
Last Letter Roll, Where i say Ardvark, and the next person would say Kansas, and the next could say Sofa and so on.

-Basic Improv Idea's
Then we will discuss, and practice the most fudnamental part of improv, character creation.
To me, character creation is really the foundation of Improv. I will explain this to the class and hopefully help them create some characters.

-Practice the Characters
Next I'll have the class spend about a minute or two getting into their characters and developing them.This will prepare them for their next task, which is to have a 1 minute monologue/bit where they (while in character) talk about themselves or present a scene.

-Refine the Characters
Now, they will spend another 1-2 minutes refining their chracters, and editing the personalities.

-Test those characters
To finalize their characters, I will have them pair up and be given a controversial topic to debate over. This will hopefully put them in a situation they had not prepared for, and make their characters responses more genuine, and less prescripted.

-Wrap It Up
 Go over what they have learned, and what they will use it for.

Reflection

I have been a bit behind in my drama reflections, so now I am going to start up.

so far our production has taken alot of twists and turns.

but my role hasn't changed drastically.

I am the stage manager, and am playing a small role on stage. 

As I am do stage managing with a classmate, I have decided to take responsibility for the backstage and technical aspects of the play, while my collague focuses on onstage and actors. 

my responsibilities have been,

managing the backstage crew,

preparing the technical equipment and aspects

working with costume and props, to provide the right material.

I have been doing well so fa,r but the pressure is starting to come down hard. with time extremely limited to production, we have to get into overdrive. I think I am ready.