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TUESDAY 22 APRIL 2008
We're in class today, all the groups, and of all the groups here, ours is the only one with a working script. YAY! Pritina was so excited by the idea that we were way ahead of the other groups by way of preparation... i don't understand why they didn't utilize the mid-semester break to do some work like we did. I'm just glad that we can use the coming weeks to work on our blocking and memorising our lines.
We started work on our first scene, trying to work out some of the blocking issues, like how we enter on stage and how we introduce our characters. Pritina explained every step to us and she encouraged us to work out for ourselves how our characters should act in space.
We couldn't do much because the other groups had to do some work in space too so we lef it off to continue tomorrow.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Humpty Dumpty
Thursday 10 April 2008
Well, what I had forgotten to mention in my previous entry was the two exercises that Apete took us through in order to prepare us for our work on Story Theatre. The first exercise was on how to work as a group. The monologue was a solitary piece, where we worked on our own with our respective directors; story theatre on the other hand was group work and it required us to work together as a group. No matter how easy that sounds its one of the most difficult things for us to do as peers of roughly the same age.
The first exercise was a machine game. We were broken up into groups and then each group had to work out how to better represent a machine. My group was given the task of acting out a “Drive-Through Car Wash”. It was fairly simple; we only had to work out who was going to act out the different cycles of the machine, i.e. Wash, Soap, Rinse, Dry and Wax. Me? I was the car.
When each group was ready, we acted out our individual machines and the other groups had to guess what the machine was. You could say that ours was fairly obvious. But that was just the first round, the next round we got back into our groups and had to work out another machine that requires everyone working together as one. So we came up with a train. Each of us made up a segment of the train and then we had to move together as one. Siteri and I made up the end bit of the train while the others made up the rest of the train body and we all moved together with a chug and a toot!
We had a pretty good train going but Apete said that we had stuff working against us, like why was Ellen in the front of the train when the train controller sits in the middle, not hanging out front of the machine. That was a fairly good point and even though Pritina fought the issue, I decided to concede the point. I understood what Apete was saying; if you’re gonna act out a machine, you have to do it right and make sure that its understandable, especially when you’re working in Story theatre where an actor may be asked to become a prop like a chair, or an inanimate object like a tree, and in the most extreme cases if the play demands it, a complex machine.
The second exercise was one where we had to act out a nursery rhyme. Arin, Koushal, Lauren, Judy and I were grouped together to do Humpty Dumpty. First we had to recite the rhyme as a chorus, and then from there, act it out while reciting it. It was pretty good. The next part of the exercise was for us to work out a story to the rhyme. Why did Humpty want to get on the wall? How did Humpty get on the wall? What made him fall off? What were the Kings Soldiers and Horses doing there?
This is a general idea of our story:
In a Kingdom far, far away, a special day was arriving; it was the Spring Festival! It was the biggest festival in the entire land with a circus and even a parade of all the Kings Horses and Men.
Humpty Dumpty was a jolly egg man who loved festivals; the spring festival he loved most of all. He was truly excited by all the preparations happening all over the land. The only problem was that he always missed the parade because he was too short to see above the people’s heads; he desperately wanted to watch the parade.
He saw a tall wall, newly built and strong. He tried to climb up the wall but still he was too short to reach up and grab a handhold. Just then a bunch of knights on their horses came by and saw Humpty’s plight. They offered to give him a lift up to the wall so he could watch the parade and afterwards bring him down again. Humpty agreed and they hoisted him up onto the wall. Humpty Dumpty was so happy and excited by what he could see from on top the wall; he could see the whole Kingdom! The parade began and Humpty watched the whole thing from his perch on the wall. Once things started getting exciting, Humpty started to stand on the wall and move about so he could get a better look of the parade, but he craned out too far and fell off the wall with a sickening crack! He was an egg after all.
The Kings men saw what had happened and immediately tried to piece Humpty back together again but it didn’t work; he was too broken up to be fixed. So they buried him and on his tombstone were written the words of the rhyme:
Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall
All the Kings horses
And all the Kings men
Couldn’t put Humpty back together again
R.I.P
Yeah, so that’s how our story turned out and I have to say I was pretty proud of our feat, because Ian and Apete agreed that it was a good story with all the elements of a good story.
All in all the two exercises put me in the right frame of mind on what we could do for our story theatre. It has to be a group initiative with good chorus work and most of all, we have to tell a story.
Well, what I had forgotten to mention in my previous entry was the two exercises that Apete took us through in order to prepare us for our work on Story Theatre. The first exercise was on how to work as a group. The monologue was a solitary piece, where we worked on our own with our respective directors; story theatre on the other hand was group work and it required us to work together as a group. No matter how easy that sounds its one of the most difficult things for us to do as peers of roughly the same age.
The first exercise was a machine game. We were broken up into groups and then each group had to work out how to better represent a machine. My group was given the task of acting out a “Drive-Through Car Wash”. It was fairly simple; we only had to work out who was going to act out the different cycles of the machine, i.e. Wash, Soap, Rinse, Dry and Wax. Me? I was the car.
When each group was ready, we acted out our individual machines and the other groups had to guess what the machine was. You could say that ours was fairly obvious. But that was just the first round, the next round we got back into our groups and had to work out another machine that requires everyone working together as one. So we came up with a train. Each of us made up a segment of the train and then we had to move together as one. Siteri and I made up the end bit of the train while the others made up the rest of the train body and we all moved together with a chug and a toot!
We had a pretty good train going but Apete said that we had stuff working against us, like why was Ellen in the front of the train when the train controller sits in the middle, not hanging out front of the machine. That was a fairly good point and even though Pritina fought the issue, I decided to concede the point. I understood what Apete was saying; if you’re gonna act out a machine, you have to do it right and make sure that its understandable, especially when you’re working in Story theatre where an actor may be asked to become a prop like a chair, or an inanimate object like a tree, and in the most extreme cases if the play demands it, a complex machine.
The second exercise was one where we had to act out a nursery rhyme. Arin, Koushal, Lauren, Judy and I were grouped together to do Humpty Dumpty. First we had to recite the rhyme as a chorus, and then from there, act it out while reciting it. It was pretty good. The next part of the exercise was for us to work out a story to the rhyme. Why did Humpty want to get on the wall? How did Humpty get on the wall? What made him fall off? What were the Kings Soldiers and Horses doing there?
This is a general idea of our story:
In a Kingdom far, far away, a special day was arriving; it was the Spring Festival! It was the biggest festival in the entire land with a circus and even a parade of all the Kings Horses and Men.
Humpty Dumpty was a jolly egg man who loved festivals; the spring festival he loved most of all. He was truly excited by all the preparations happening all over the land. The only problem was that he always missed the parade because he was too short to see above the people’s heads; he desperately wanted to watch the parade.
He saw a tall wall, newly built and strong. He tried to climb up the wall but still he was too short to reach up and grab a handhold. Just then a bunch of knights on their horses came by and saw Humpty’s plight. They offered to give him a lift up to the wall so he could watch the parade and afterwards bring him down again. Humpty agreed and they hoisted him up onto the wall. Humpty Dumpty was so happy and excited by what he could see from on top the wall; he could see the whole Kingdom! The parade began and Humpty watched the whole thing from his perch on the wall. Once things started getting exciting, Humpty started to stand on the wall and move about so he could get a better look of the parade, but he craned out too far and fell off the wall with a sickening crack! He was an egg after all.
The Kings men saw what had happened and immediately tried to piece Humpty back together again but it didn’t work; he was too broken up to be fixed. So they buried him and on his tombstone were written the words of the rhyme:
Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall
All the Kings horses
And all the Kings men
Couldn’t put Humpty back together again
R.I.P
Yeah, so that’s how our story turned out and I have to say I was pretty proud of our feat, because Ian and Apete agreed that it was a good story with all the elements of a good story.
All in all the two exercises put me in the right frame of mind on what we could do for our story theatre. It has to be a group initiative with good chorus work and most of all, we have to tell a story.
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