8C Drama: Persuasive Speeches from YIS Arts on Vimeo.

Impromptu Speech not posted on Vimeo.

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My best speech was the persuasive speech because I think I was able to backup my opinions with many facts and also other’s opinion about the topic. I also had decent modulation during the speech. I felt like I was able to do well with volume and pace. Physically, I was able to maintain posture and even add some hand gestures in places.

I should improve on emphasis because if there is no emphasis in my speech, the speech will sound monotonous.

Choose another student’s video which appealed to you, embed it also and answer this question focussing on the key aspect that was appealing:

8C Drama: Persuasive Speeches from YIS Arts on Vimeo.

Another speech which was captivating was May’s persuasive speech because she used visual aids to help herself support her idea, and as a result I was persuaded to believe her statement. It was also simply entertaining to listen to a speech with enjoyable visuals.

It seems like our class did a character formative performance sometime during the unit of characterization. Since I was absent on that day when we performed, I will write a reflection about another activity we did during this unit. Please note that the performance from this activity was not taken by a camera. And the activity we did was the experimentation of exaggerated eye contact and no eye contact.

What is the skill that I used?
The skill I used is eye contact in general. By having able to make varieties of eye contacts towards other characters, I will have larger repertoire of characters with different personality I can act as. The task was to act out two versions of a scene; one with exaggerated eye contact towards others and another with no eye contact towards others at all. So, this task specifically required concentration and quick change of the characteristic of my character.

How did I approach creating the character?
The first thing I thought of was the personality a person with exaggerated eye contact or no eye contact have. As you also might have a clue, a person with exaggerated eye contact is usually strong-willed. On the other hand, a person with no eye contact is usually really shy and cannot take action by himself/herself. So, as I was acting as a shop assistant at the register counter, I would act big towards the customer acted by Marshall if setting said that my character had exaggerated eye contact. And vice versa for when my character had no eye contact.

Was it successful – if so how? What needed improvement? Make a suggestion?
I think our performance was successful. It was entertaining and we heard laugher from the audience. I think that was because we were very concentrated and were able to get into to character quickly. If I were to make a suggestion or an improvement to the performance, honestly the only thing I can think of is the projection. By projecting more, I think the audience would have heard more of our conversation. And if they find that conversation entertaining, I think the performance will be much better.

How can I use these skills in a performance?
As said in the first question, by having various eye contacts, we can easily form characters even if other elements were missing such as vocal expression and posture. By looking at the eyes of characters, we can guess what kind of personality the character have. So, overall I think eye contact is a critical element in characterization and it will be great if I can learn to quickly and momentarily decide what kind of eye contact I want to use depending on the character I am acting as.

The video below is a performance by me and Marshall. In this specific task, we wanted to emphasize the difference in the statuses of two characters. The setting was in an army school. I acted as a student and on the other hand Marshall acted as a teacher. You will probably notice that while I am acting really lazy on the floor, Marshall is always sounding furious and angry. In this scene, Marshall absolutely takes over me status-wise, and by that he keeps forcing me to do something for him.

8C Drama: Status from YIS Arts on Vimeo.

What techniques did I use to approach this skill?
First of all, I think the skills I used for my this performance was the emphasis of my character’s laziness and weakness. By speaking colloquial language with lifeless voice and posturing myself into weird form (curved body line), I was able to express the laziness that the character held. Especially, the curved body line indicated the weakness of the character very well.

How effective was my status and reversal of status?
I would say that our statuses were quite effective because it was completely noticeable that Marshall had a higher status than me, just by watching the video. It seemed like I had the higher status at first in the beginning from the relaxed expression on my face but, the moment he came in my facial expression changed completely. That messaged the audience that he actually had the higher status. The fact he forcibly made me work brought much stronger image of him having a completely opposite status as me (in a meaning of him having a higher status than me). We unfortunately did not perform the reversal of the statuses.

How did I perform?
I think I performed fairly well throughout the three performances. I was somehow able to express out my characters and I think I was successful at completely changing the character from the original one (meaning myself). I also was able to cooperate with my teammates very well, and the whole process from the beginning went extremely smooth. Overall the performances were all very great.

Which was my best performance and why?
I think my best performance was the second one in the 1S classroom. I think so because we never had to struggle while the performance and we were smoothly going on without stopping until the end. There were definitely improvements made between the first and the second. We were able to be confident with ourselves and keep trying our best. Also I saw most audiences smile and laugh at the end with my second performance. I think that means they have enjoyed the performance.

What were some difficulties? Are there solutions for them?
There were also certainly things to improve on. The biggest difficulty was how short the time was for me to put on and take off props. Sometimes I was not able to change in time and it just looked weird from the audience. This is obviously not a good thing. So as a solution, if I was to use props, I will choose small ones – ones that will be easy for me to wear in a short amount of time.

What were some achievements?
My greatest achievement was the fact that I was able to maintain courage and eager to make the audience happy. I think this is important as an actor because if you forget to keep some sorts of feeling in yourself, that tells me that your act will have no feelings in it and it will be extremely boring. So I consider keeping feelings inside yourself while acting is important.

Which group was successful and why?
I think Jake, Oliver, and Harrison‘s group was successful because it was entertaining and I was able to really laugh from my heart. This group’s performance was very extraordinary. Great job for them!

A myth is a traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining a natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events.
I have been learning Greek myths during 6th grade, so I think I am okay with myths, but I am not sure (-_-)… One of the Greek myths, such as ‘the Face in the Pool’ (Echo and Narcissus) is a great example of a myth. Go to the following link for the actual myth: http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/students/mmarassa/mythology/echo.html

A legend is a traditional story sometimes popularly regarded as historical but unauthenticated.
For legend, I am not really sure with the difference between with a myth, but according to the Internet, it seems like these are all legends (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legend#Examples_of_famous_legends):

• Atlantis
• The founding of Tenochtitlan, Aztec Capital
• Big Foot
• Cenodoxus, or the Damnation of the Good Doctor of Paris, told as an event justifying the sanctification of St. Bruno
• Celtic Legends
• El Dorado
• Fountain of Youth
• Helen of Troy and the Trojan War
• King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table
• Legends of Africa
• Odysseus
• Philosopher’s stone
• Robin Hood
• Romulus and Remus and the founding of Rome
• Shangri-La
• Táin Bó Flidhais
• Vlad the Impaler; stories of his cruelty have attained legendary status, most likely spread after his death by his enemies.
• William Tell

A folktale is a story originating in popular culture, typically passed on by word of mouth.
I hope everybody know Hansel and Gretel. This story is absolutely a folktale, it perfectly matches the definition.

Definition reference from http://oxforddictionaries.com/

This is my choice  of Japan’s folktale:
Momotaro - Here is how to story goes on:

A LONG long time ago there lived an old man and an old woman. One day the old man went to the mountains to cut grass; and the old woman went to the river to wash clothes. While she was washing a great thing came tumbling and splashing down the stream. When the old woman saw it she was very glad, and pulled it to her with a piece of bamboo that lay near by. When she took it up and looked at it she saw that it was a very large peach. She then quickly finished her washing and returned home intending to give the peach to her old man to eat.

When she cut the peach in two, out came a child from the large kernel. Seeing this the old couple rejoiced, and named the child Momotaro, or Little Peachling, because he came out of a peach. As both the old people took good care of him, he grew and became strong and enterprising. So the old couple had their expectations raised, and bestowed still more care on his education.

Momotaro finding that he excelled everybody in strength, determined to cross over to the island of the devils, take their riches, and come back. He at once consulted with the old man and the old woman about the matter, and got them to make him some dumplings. These he put in his pouch. Besides this he made every kind of preparation for his journey to the island of the devils and set out.

Then first a dog came to the side of the way and said, “Momotaro! What have you there hanging at your belt ?” He replied, “I have some of the very best Japanese millet dumplings.” “Give me one and I will go with you,” said the dog. So Momotaro took a dumpling out of his pouch and gave it to the dog. Then a monkey came and got one the same way. A pheasant also came flying and said, “Give me a dumpling too, and I will go along with you.” So all three went along with him. In no time they arrived at the island of the devils, and at once broke through the front gate; Momotaro first; then his three followers. Here they met a great multitude of the devils’ retainers who showed fight, but they pressed still inwards, and at last encountered the chief of the devils, called Akandoji. Then came the tug of war. Akandoji hit at Momotaro with an iron club, but Momotaro was ready for him, and dodged him adroitly. At last they grappled each other, and without difficulty Momotaro just crushed down Akandoji and tied him with a rope so tightly that he could not even move. All this was done in a fair fight.

After this Akandoji the chief of the devils said he would surrender all his riches. “Out with your riches then,” said Momotaro laughing. Having collected and ranged in order a great pile of precious things, Momotaro took them, and set out for his home, rejoicing, as he marched bravely back, that, with the help of his three companions, to whom he attributed all his success, he had been able so easily to accomplish his end.

Great was the joy of the old man and the old woman when Momotaro came back. He feasted everybody bountifully, told many stories of his adventure, displayed his riches, and at last became a leading man, a man of influence, very rich and honorable; a man to be very much congratulated indeed!

Before winter break, we had a summative assessment of our three minutes speeches on drama. Unfortunately, my speech video is secured with password, so I cannot embed the video in this post, but at least I can have the link below.

Kazuki’s Three Minutes Speech

7B Drama 3 min Speech from YIS Academics on Vimeo.

Now I would like to reflect upon my own speech:

I think I improved most criteria (eight from the last reflection volume, projection, pace, pitch, pause, emphasis, and inflection) except for pause, emphasis, and inflection. Volume and projection was much better, looking at the video it seems like I was able to breathe deeply and use my stomach properly to project my voice. Pitch was satisfactory, though sometimes I sounded like a robot. I also asked my friend, how my pace was. They said that the speed was alright, and just the pause that made the speech sound low-paced. I think the long pauses were all caused by some nervousness but also lack of practice. If I practice speaking I will have more confidence on what I am saying which results on less time thinking what to say. Also this means I will have to say less filling words (uh, umm). Emphasis and inflection are really hard to master. My head just does not think about those two when speaking in front of twenty students. Looking back at my speech, I now think that I could have for example emphasized the word ‘best’ that I said a couple of times in my speech. Also in the first few sentences, I asked a rhetorical question, ‘have you ever heard of a day when you can just be freed from everything, like schoolwork, and just show your spirit?’. I think I could have inflected the last part of that question.
In addition to this, I have also assessed myself in another three criteria, posture, eye contact, and use of palm cards. First, my posture was not that bad comparing to last time; my body was rocking a bit but not as much as the one minute speech. Secondly, my eye contact was like 50% looking at the audience and another 50% looking at my palm card. So it will be much better if I can rise the percentage of the time I am looking at the audience to about 80%. Lastly, I think the use of palm cards was not bad at all, my palm cards did not distract the audience. Overall, my speech better than last time and I hope I can improve more with my pauses.

Please enjoy my speech if you know the password!!!

7B 1 min Speeches from YIS Academics on Vimeo.

This is me giving a short one minute about my passion and I have decided to present about playing the piano. You can have a look at it if you want to. And… the following is my reflection.

How do I think I did on my speech?
Through my speech, I think my volume was alright. I was able to hear my voice. I can maybe speak a bit louder if I can so it can be heard by the audience more clearly. My projection should have been better. My voice did not really reach to the audience, so I can improve this by maybe taking a deeper breath. The pace was alright though some times I was too slow that made the audience bored. For my pitch, I think maybe I could have varied them more precisely. And of course the pause was not good at all, I had to stop and say filling words (like ‘um’ and ‘uh’) for many times repeatedly. This was one of my weakest points when giving a speech. Posture was also not good as I expected as well. I was rocking sideways which obviously was not a good thing to do when presenting. And lastly, my eye contact was alright, probably a bit more looking at the camera and of course at the audience. Overall, I think I am still in a process of developing and improving delivering speeches. I probably need to try more hard to get these problem solved.

During the past few weeks we were working with a mime unit. We needed to make a short scene within our groups. Here is my reflection upon this unit.

What did I explore today? In this unit?

Mime is a theatrical technique of suggesting action, character, or emotion without words, using only gesture, expression, and movement. In this mime unit, I continuously tried exploring how I can express my feeling within mime without no sound or noise. Mime is really important since body language without words is the most common way to express our feelings in our daily lives.

What did I learn?

In mime, it is important to first sink into your character completely. Then it makes you more easier to act and express your feelings. The next thing that is really important to over-express. Since there will be no talking you will need to over-express in order to convey your messages.

How can I use this in performance?

Mime is a really creative way to present performances, at the same time can be really funny if the presenter is good at miming. If I practice a lot of miming, someday I can make a funny scene using mime.

What did I know?

I barely knew anything before, I probably just knew that mime consists of no sound or noise. I have never seen a mime scene or never learnt about mime intensively, before this unit .

What do I want to know?

I am still not quite proficient on over expressing which is really crucial in miming, so I want to learn some techniques for over-expressing. Looking at my teacher’s example, it seems that freed body movements and rich facial expressions help over-expressing in a large scale.

7B Mimes from YIS Academics on Vimeo.

Today in Drama class, we watched a video of Gene Kelly dancing and singing in the rain.

From our teacher, we were asked to write a reflection about our opinions of this video. And I thought of showing you my opinion about this video on my blog so, if you have some interests, you are welcome to have a quick look at this.

Well, I think this dancing was fantastic. Why? That’s because he was using the things around him (props) effectively. He used umbrella to make various sounds, to make the dance beautiful. Also I think he wore tap shoes and used the rain (water on the ground) to make a creative sound. Also, I really thought it was quite funny where he used other people in the video smartly. It made me laugh in the last part when he passed the umbrella to the old man who was walking in the rain. One more thing, what I thought about Gene Kelly’s dance is that it was really… natural. What I mean here is that, you know that it would be so weird when someone dances and sings in the rain, smiling. But when Gene Kelly does that, it just looks natural, looks like it’s just a regular thing to happen. There is no doubt that Gene Kelly has some kind of miracle power. I just can’t forget that light and tripping steps he took, while dancing…

Overall, GENE KELLY IS AN AWESOME DANCER!!!

YES YES YES!!! I finished my LAMDA exam! I’m just happy that I’m able to end my exam without any accidents. And also I just can’t forget the nervous feeling when I had just 1 minute before the exam starts. I want to recall the feeling I had from 9:00.

First I walled into my homeroom and at that moment the big waves of tensions arrived. I screamed and screamed that I did not want to take the test. But the time has past fast it is already the time for first period which is science. At this science class, we had a test which largely affects our grades. So anyways the test started busily. 10 minutes later the time for the LAMDA exam came (it is still during the test!). So I went to the annex and was preparing for my speech. At that time my heart was going to explode. Then I heard the bell. LING LING. The examiner was calling me. I really wanted to faint but it can’t be helped so I went to the exam room. I opened the door. (sound of door opening) And a person I saw there was a old man. So, I started talking to him but he…. was really easy to talk with! I had a great speech and conversation with him and I really enjoyed this exam.

I am really excited to take this exam next year too! But I’m still not sure with the score which is tickling me. I hope that I could get ‘distinction’ which is over 80 points out of 100 points. This is all for today. Have a great day friends!