Pages Selected: Pages 4~9

Characters/Actors:

• Kouka: Marge
• Nick: Evelyn
• Me: Diana

Title of Scene: His Name is Wayne

Given Circumstances:

1. Where am I? In my (Diana’s) house.
2. What time is it? 3:02 pm, (it says at the beginning of the script that it was 3:00 pm and every page takes about a minute)
3. What season is this? Autumn, because they have coats on, however it doesn’t seem to be snowing outside.
4. Who is there with me? Evelyn and Marge.
5. Why am I here? It’s my house and there are guests coming for a small get-together.

Objective in the scene:

How will I approach characterization? (Voice, mannerisms, posture, walk)

Diana’s character is very motherly and caring, and very interested in whatever someone says. That is why I want to use a soft yet excited voice. Diana is also a very proper woman, probably the most proper woman in the room at the beginning, and that is why Diana should sit straight in chairs and dress properly. Her posture should be straight and strict, as she is strict to herself, and her walk should be very careful and ladylike.

On the fifth page, in act one of Absent Friends, Diana has a fairly long monologue. In this monologue, Diana is accusing Evelyn of sleeping with her husband in a discreet way. Diana talks about her relationship with her husband, and how she doesn’t mind if the woman her husband is cheating with, or her husband told her the truth. A good dramatic strategy for this monologue would be thought tracking. Thought tracking is when a character speaks their thoughts out loud, and this is exactly what Diana is doing. Another dramatic strategy that could be used is improvisation. Improvisation is when someone is spontaneous about his or her lines. With the monologue in act one, improvisation can be done easily, as the lines in the monologue are very talkative and can be changed.

This week Neil and Tim, from Nose2Nose, came to visit our Drama classes. On our first drama class together, Tuesday, we started off by introducing the new people, since we already knew each other from last year. We then stood in a circle and did some warm ups. The warm ups included eye contact with the person opposite to you and trying to get through the circle while everyone else had to at the same time. This exercise brings out your focus because you are multi-tasking by looking at one person while moving on without trying to break the eye contact. We did some more focus exercises including walking around the room and stopping at the same time. We then moved on to vocal warm-ups where we trained our voices to be stronger. We first stood in a circle, where one person leaves the circle singing a note powerfully, and using eye contact to show the next person to leave the circle, and so on. We also did an exercise where we got into twos and one copied the other with the voice. We needed a lot of power for this, so it was very tiring. We then sat down in a circle while Tim performed two characters from his one-man-show, a very strong officer, and a very weak mother. He was very believable, and it was very impressive how he switched from those two very different characters in a snap. We were also asked to imitate his two characters, and without knowing it, we all had made our own types of the strong officer and the weak mother. We then were asked to sit back down in a circle and discussed about our homework, to come up with two very different characters for next class. We stood up, still in a circle, and played a game where we had to use the two characters Tim made and make a scene in the middle of the circle. 10 minutes into the game, it was time to go.

On Thursday we had our second drama class with Neil and Tim. We went straight to standing in a circle and doing vocal exercises. We did the same vocal exercises as Tuesday, where we ran to a person in the circle with eye contact while singing/saying a note. After about 10 minutes of looking like people from an insane asylum, we stood still in an enclosed circle, and Neil started of with singing a note, while we each, individually, joined in to harmonize. The harmonizing was pretty bad, as many of us were off tune, but the point wasn’t to sound good together as a choir, but to make our own voices sound good. Neil then started to make a pattern with his voice, and one by one, each of us joined to make it sound like a tribal chant, which was pretty amazing to listen to. We then moved on to physical exercises, where we walked around the room, pushing each other away from themselves. Every time it got a little more violent, and at the end we were basically dancing and wrestling with each other to get them out of our way. After a few minutes of this exhausting exercise, we were asked to stand in a circle. We were then asked to come up with a sound and movement, after we got our numbers. I had six, which means I was sixth. We went around the circle, and as I panicked about mine, I decided to imagine that something or someone was on the floor and I was laughing at it. We then were asked to walk around the room and do the ten sound and movements when Neil clapped. Neil loved our piece and told us to do it in the showcase on Friday, and called it “You like” after Nick’s sound and movement example. We practiced this a few times, from acting completely bizarre to normally working around with just one clap. We were then released at 4:03 pm.

Right after lunch, on Friday, we, all drama students from high school, were asked to go to the auditorium for the drama showcase, where our audience will be eighth graders, choosing to whether join drama next year or not. For about 30 minutes Neil explained the order of our pieces, what we were going to do and much more. When the eighth graders came in, we sat all around the auditorium, in the character we came up with ourselves. I was a paranoid person who believed that everyone worked for the devil. Tim was up first, and he showed the audience one of his characters. After he was done talking to the audience in his character, we all stood up and walked around the stage in our characters. Then it was Tim again, acting as one of his characters. After a lot of laughter, we had some dramatic exercises, like the hot seat, where people ran to the hot seat and acted as a character while the audience asked them questions. Every drama strategy turned out really funny, and in our grade, Nick went on the most, which I think was very brave of him. After the ninth graders performed their piece, us, tenth graders performed our “You like” piece, and I must say, the audience loved it. After our piece, we were asked to choose one character from what we’ve seen today. I chose a very shy and scared little boy that Tim showed in one of his one-man acts. After a while we were asked to stand up in a semi circle, towards the audience, while Neil thanked them for coming. Then we had to return to our usual classes. This was a very fun experience, and I hope this made the eighth graders want to join Drama next year.

Exams I took:

• English
• Science
• Math
• History
• Drama
• Japanese

I mainly didn’t have much time to study for my examinations, so to improve my grades, I think I should start studying a little earlier than I did for the mocks. I mostly have to improve my Mathematics, Science, and History examinations because I feel like I did not do very well on them. To improve my Mathematical skills, I think I should study on practice papers and my weak points. For each of my sciences I think I should look back on my notes and study on practice papers. To improve my History I should re-read my notes, read the information on our textbooks, and tell the stories to someone else

In this drama lesson we walked to the auditorium and continued with our IGCSE devised piece. Since my group got to use the whole stage last time, it was the other group’s turn to use the stage. My group and I tried to perform it in the other half, the other way around, but it was too confusing.  Since we had a whole class to fill, we decided to polish on our staging and lightings. For example, we decided to have a different color of light for some scenes to show the mood of the scene. For example in the last scene we’re planning to use the light that is red to show the intensity of what is happening. For another dramatic touch, we decided to have a white cloth hung in front of us with a light shining from the back, while we pretend to beat up Tadashi, so only silhouettes of us is seen, making the audience believe that what is happening is real. By the time we were throwing ideas at each other, it was time to go.

The next lesson we walked to the auditorium again and worked on our devised piece. My group got to go first and the first thing we did was work on the scenes we have polished in the last class. We worked on the scene where Tadashi gets beaten up with the idea of silhouettes. We also changed the stage settings a little bit, for example, we brought the piano into the scene where the parents scene. We decided to have Sam slam on the piano keys when Tadashi (as Johnny) confesses that he’s gay. This ads a dramatic effect because it shows that the parents are in shock without them actually mentioning it. We also decided to have Sam use the piano on the freeze frame when Kouka hits Tadashi. This also added another dramatic effect because the sound was showing the horrible mother. 45 minutes had already passed when we got to polish those two scenes, and it was the other group’s turn. While the other group was working on their devised piece, my group and I thought of some more ideas  we could work on the next time.

Questions:

1. How did I approach my performance? What process did I take?
2. What dramatic techniques/elements did we use? How did we use them in our performance?
3. What are the strengths and weaknesses in my own performance?
4. Was my performance successful? Why or why not?
5. What could I do to further improve my artistic process?

Answers:

1. I practiced harder and analyzed my character in my free time, so that I knew my character well. When I was unsure about some things about what my character would do, I built up her personality in my mind as scenes went on. I gave her a personality that was caring, strong believing, warm hearted, yet weak on the outside. Knowing these little details helped me with getting into my character, which helped me well during my performance.
2. Well my group used quite a few dramatic elements. We first started off with Tadashi lying on the floor, dead, while the other four of us, stood in the background with a white curtain draped in front of us, where shadows would show our character. Once the light settled, our shadows came into life, and we all walked out of the curtains, one by one. The next dramatic element we used was when Tadashi (Johnny) told his best friend that he was gay. What we used was mime, and the boys created a great dramatic scene. We also used the light as flashes, where there would be an image for every move. This was used when Kouka (the mother) hit Tadashi (Johnny). We also added the piano to make it even more dramatic. At the end we used the black out in the scene where Tadashi kills himself. He shoots himself; the one spotlight that shines on him turns red, representing blood.
3. My weaknesses were that sometimes I was a little too quiet, and I needed to project my voice a little more. There were also times where my movements would look unnatural and rather planned. My strength in my performance was that I managed to show my emotions.
4. Overall I think my performance was successful because I concentrated on my character well. I spent well enough time analyzing my character and creating a real person out of her. I stayed in character in all the scenes I was in and made sure I didn’t lose it. I was a little quiet on stage and I should project my voice more, but I’m happy about my performance.
5. I should first of all find a way to forget about my fear when it’s time to perform. I need to learn how to speak up on stage, and also I need to improve my movements on stage to make it look natural. If I had more time, I would have probably been able to become my character a little bit more.

November 12^th 2011

This week we finally got to go to the auditorium to practice our devised piece for IGCSE. My group had the opportunity to go first, and so we first set up our stage. This was hard because the auditorium was bigger than we had thought and we had to make sure that we put the objects in the right spot and angle. We rearranged and changed things and some scenes didn’t go the way we planned. We had a lot of problems because we had two stages where we would switch scenes to, and so we had to make sure that the actors had a way to fluently go from one scene to the other. We had to think of more dramatic elements and get rid of some dialogue. It was quite hard and before we knew it, it was time for us to go home.

The next lesson we analyzed Vicki’s monologue in the play “Heroine lies”. We talked about how she was talking to herself and how she changed from one subject to the other and being completely carried away. We also saw that she had a few mood swings in her thoughts while she was talking to herself:

She first stated off complaining about her looks, showing that she isn’t confident in her skin, but later on talks about girls who do too much to cover up their flaws, which could show her jealousy towards the flawless Linda Johnson. She then wonders why she puts so much make up on, showing uncertainty, which leads to her latest ‘love-of-her-life’, which obviously shows that she is in love. At the end when Vicki talks about her future husband, she says “… or with another woman” showing how hopeless in love she really is.

And that is how we change our thoughts so quickly, and yet so unnoticeable. This was an important task because it showed us what should really be in a monologue.

On November 11^th I did not take place in drama because I had to go to the AISA festival for Choir and had to miss out on school the whole day.

The first lesson on this week, after coming back from Field studies and break, we were told to get back to our groups and work on our skit for the IGCSE examinations. It took us a little time to remember what we exactly did but we managed to work hard and change some things. After a while Mr. Meiklejohn wanted to see our skit. He gave us some good advice and ideas on how to make the skit a little more dramatic and powerful. We cut out some bits and added some others bits, however, before we knew it, it was time to go.

The next lesson, Mr. Meiklejohn mentioned about story telling to be a part of drama. We were first standing in a circle and played a game where we would say one word and pass the ball to a random person to create a story. Our stories turned out interestingly odd and amusing. We were then told to get a partner, choose a letter, A or B, and tell a story while the other partner says a random word. The random word then has to be used in a sentence in the story. My partner was Kouka, and she started off. Our stories were really interesting and funny to think about. This exercise is important for improvisation while telling stories because it helps you train your mind to use words without any trouble. We also played a game where there were 3 or 4 people standing in line while one person is the conductor. The conductor chooses a title, and points randomly at the people standing to continue the story. The person who must continue cannot repeat what the last person said and cannot stutter through their words. If they do any of these then they have to act like they are dying dramatically and they’re out of the game. This is important too, as it helps us improvise without sounding bad. The rest of the class we played these games and had a lot of fun.

Normal. If you’re not normal, then you won’t survive- that is what a lot of people think. Truth is, there is no normal. We are all unique in our own ways. Even so, there are people convinced that they are different from everybody else and that that is a bad thing, which can lead to horrible things. That’s what our skit is all about. It is about a boy who realized that he was different, that he was gay. When he tells his best mate, the best mate backstabs him and tells everyone in school. The next day, the poor boy has gone from the popular soccer player to the school to the most hated for being different. He tries to tell his parents, but his mother is unsupportive of his situation. His teacher tries to help him by talking to him and to his parents, however at the end was hopeless. He gets beaten up and one of the bullies throws him a gun. At the end he picks up the gun and kills himself to get himself out of the pain.

It took us some time but we finally got a reasonable story. We also figured out who would play which roles:

• Tadashi- gay guy
• Young Suk- Best mate
• Sam- Friend of the gay guy/ Father of the gay guy
• Kouka- Friend of the gay guy/ Mother of the gay guy
• Me- The teacher who tries to help

We started practicing a little but we still have a lot to improve, for example our timing and our transitions.

The next few lessons, before we left to our field studies, we were practicing all the time. We improved it a little every time and tried different ways to have it make more sense. Our transitions are all different and well made in my opinion. We will be having two stages set up in the auditorium to make it a little easier to go from one scene to the other.

Today Mr. Meiklejohn mentioned about the project for our IGCSE examinations. He explained everything we had to do. We had to get into a group and make a little play about any kind of issue. We all pulled out names from a hat and split them into two groups. I was in Group 1 with:

• Kouka
• Tadashi
• Young Suk
• Sam

Since Kouka and Sam weren’t there that day, we had a little trouble looking for a good issue, but we spent the whole lesson trying to find some ideas.

(I was sick on one of the lessons that week, so I have no entry for this lesson)

The next lesson we were all back into our groups deciding on what to do when Mr. Meiklejohn decided to show us what the class from last year did for their IGCSE examinations. It was really well put together and I was impressed by the dramatic elements they used. They also used a variety of showing the scenes, for example mime, or talking to themselves. The lighting and staging was well done and their transitions were very dramatic, for example when they used blackouts. With a mind full of wonder on how to make ours as good as theirs, we were sent back to our groups. My group looked for an issue and we came up with a few. At the end we decided to use the issue of boys that are gay in public high schools, who are mostly teased by others. This is an issue because some teasing of the boys has led to depression and suicide. Unfortunately this is all we had time for today.