Weekend update - good intentions!

Drama Club:  Good work, everyone, on the set!  Mr. Price has done a great job and it looks great.  We still have some things to do, but the focus for the cast needs to be on learning your lines and cues.  You all need to project, project, project.  You can't be softly spoken on stage.  The audience needs to sit back, relax and enjoy it, not strain to hear you.  Any crew members, make sure Rachel has your first and last names for the program.

Senior Drama:  Theatre production -- you guys can really help with the set.  We will need to paint next week, too, so make sure you bring clothes that you aren't worried about getting painty.  Actors:  I was really impressed with your back story plays.  We'll see the rest on Monday.  Directors:  This is an important part of getting a true performance from actors.  You need to think about what went on before the play started, what the subtext is in the scene and the things the actors say.  Actors will do this with any role -- ask themselves what motivates their character.  You don't have to tell them, but you should have an idea.  Remember your theme day is on Monday.

Drama 9/10:  What great comedia plays we saw on Thursday!  I was so impressed.  You have drawn the many components together to create cohesive, interesting and entertaining performances and I was thoroughly captivated by the two performances we saw.  I hope the other groups are as terrific.

Grade 8:  You will start leading the class next week.  I am looking forward to learning some new warmup activities from you.  Remember that you are expected to ask the "question of the day" and explain why your activity is good for drama.  We will be continuing to work on mime next week.

I had to lead an activity on our professional day yesterday.  I decided on the theme of "trust" and we talked about the value of students feeling that they will be treated with care and respect in their classrooms and how a student is more likely to take intellectual risks, if they have confidence that their efforts will be appreciated, and not denigrated.  When people think of trust in a drama classroom, they always think of those physical trust exercises, when someone falls backwards off a table into the arms of their classmates, but I think it is harder to trust that people will not betray your emotional risks.  When you try a wacky or emotional character on stage, your classmates will appreciate your effort and not sneer at your shortcomings.  That is my goal in all our classes -- that you will all learn to appreciate the good intentions of others.

Wecome to Drama!

Welcome to all the new Grade 8 drama students!  It is great to meet you all.  Here is the piece you will be learning for a vocal warmup:

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely player;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts.

We will practice this piece every day and recite individually in a couple of weeks when you feel comfortable with the words.  Practice speaking with a clear strong voice.  You need to take a good breath to support your sound and use your mouth to enunciate the words.  When you recite, I expect to be able to hear every word clearly!  Public speaking is a big component of drama.

Grade 9/10:  If you want Elisha to help you with lighting, be sure you give her a detailed script.  We will perform our comedia del'arte plays starting tomorrow.

Senior Drama:  Today we will see the second director's play.  Actors, you need to memorize your lines for the final presentation in about a week's time.  Theatre production:  you need to be sure you are comfortable with sound and light cues and curtains, set and costumes.  The actors should help you in this regard.

Opening night of "Fawlty Towers" is fast approaching.  Learn your lines.  Bring any costume ideas you have for your characters to the dress rehearsal on Friday.

The end of days

Tomorrow is the last day for Drama for the Grade 8's.  Please remember to look at the blog to see if you've missed any journals.  You may hand them in tomorrow in order to have me add them to your mark.  I will also add your Aesop plays to your mark.  I was very pleased with how well most of you spoke your lines so clearly and with such good diction. 

I will not assign a journal for this week for any of you.  I did not mark last week's journals (except for the grade 8's) because I was working on your report cards.  Last week's journals will be included in the next report period.

Grade 8's -- I would like to thank you all for your hard work, enthusiasm and creativity over the last nine weeks.  It has gone very quickly and I hope you all had as much fun as I did.  Best of luck to all of you in Art!  I hope to see many of you next year in Drama 9!

Last minute advice

Everyone!  Report card time is fast approaching!  Make sure you've handed in all your journals.  Check with the blog to see if you've done all of them.

Grade 8's: 

Learn your lines for tomorrow.  You have a responsibility to the others in your group to do the best job you can.

Make sure you wear something that fits with your group's plan.  If you don't have anything suitable, look in the prop room for something that might work.

Tomorrow -- speak loudly and clearly and cheat to the audience.  Remember to stage your performance at centre stage as close to the audience as you can be.

Check to make sure you've done all your journals!

Drama Club:

Check the list to see if you have any of the things we need for the play.  If you do, bring them in and check them off the list in the prop room!  Crew, if you have spare time, come into the prop room and check out the list.

Learn your lines and write down your cues!  At this point, we shouldn't have to read the script to you and we shouldn't have to tell you when to come in and where to go.  We should be able to start working out comic bits that you've thought of and enjoying the little things you're doing on stage to create a character.

Prop list for "Fawlty Towers"

Someone in my grade 9/10 class suggested I post this list of things we need for the play and so I am doing it.  If you have any of the following, please let me know.

Four white tablecloths (small)
Plastic flowers
Ladies' purses
Suitcases
A box that looks like a coin collection
Glasses
A set of dishes
Fake food
Hospital gear (a gurney, especially)
Wheelchair
Men's slippers
the novel, Never Love a Stranger
Keys
Police officer outfit (including hat)
Billy club (for officer)
Empty chocolate box
Thermometer
Walker for an elderly person
Cutlery
Fake fire extinguisher (that can spray in someone's face, but not hurt them!)

Time is the longest distance between two places. (Tennessee Williams)

Senior Drama:

Everyone:  Tennessee Williams says that "Time is the longest distance between two places" and he says that "The Glass Menagerie" is a memory play.  What do you think he means by this? 

Directors:  Whose monologue impressed you the most?  Explain why.  Provide details.

Actors:  In your monologues, both Tom and Laura are speaking to their mother.  How does the person to whom your characters speak influence what you do in your monologue?  Would you ever speak the way Tom and Laura speak to your own mother?   Is there anything in Tom's or Laura's situation with which you can identify?   Why do Tom and Laura tell their mother what they tell her?  How do they expect their mother to react?

Theatre production:  The playwright of "The Glass Menagerie" says the play is not expected to be realistic.  He suggests that, in some scenes, the lighting should focus on a character who is not talking rather than one who is.  Why would he want the lighting designer to do this?  What could you do as a set designer to create the impression that the play is set in "memory" rather than reality?

The character, Laura, collects glass animals and her collection appears on stage.  What might the glass animals represent?  Her favourite animal is a unicorn.  What does that tell us about Laura?

Drama 9/10:  Read the rubric about the rehearsal process.  Where do you fit in?  Describe yourself.

Drama 8:  How did your group decide on your framework idea?  How did you choose which stories you are performing?  How would you rate your first performances?  How can you improve for the final presentation?

Some Desperate Glory

DULCE ET DECORUM EST

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots 
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime . . .
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud 
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest 
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.

This is a wonderful war poem by the First World War poet, Wilfred Owen, who died right at the end of the war.  Apparently, just as his mother opened the door to hear the church bells ringing joyfully to announce the Armistice, she received the telegram which brought the news of his death.   It gives such magnificent and shocking images of the weariness of the men and the horror of the gas attack. Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori means "it is sweet and right to die for your country" but Wilfred Owen tells us that is an "old lie".  In The Catcher in the Rye, Mr. Antolini tells Holden "the mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, but the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one."

We had a very nice Remembrance Day ceremony today at school and I would like to thank everyone who helped make it meaningful and put so much thought and effort into it.  All the speeches were powerful and I enjoyed the music and the visual images as well.  Tomorrow many of us will go to our local cenotaph to pay our respects to the people in the community who have risked everything in armed conflicts.  I wonder if people will ever figure out how to solve their differences without trying to kill each other.   We appear to have made some progress with elections and courts and the legal system, but it is shocking how quickly those institutions can be lost when we aren't vigilant.  It is interesting that we are embroiled in an election right now in our cities and towns.  The turnout for municipal elections is shamefully small and, when you think of it, our civic government is really the one that has the most influence on our day to day lives, so any of you who are 18 should find out about the issues and vote and if you aren't old enough, encourage your parents to do the same.  I have been poring over the newspaper and the candidates' webpages trying to figure out who would be the best mayor, councillors and school board trustees for Port Moody.  It is a big responsibility to be a voter, but also a big opportunity and no one should take it lightly. 

Things to remember for Monday, November 10!

Remember your donation for the poppy fund!  Any little bit helps.

Grade 8's:  Choose an Aesop fable to perform on Monday.  You should know your lines!

Watching ourselves

I think I've mentioned to all of you on multiple occasions that it is important for you to be a good audience.  Our Remembrance Day observation will take place on Monday (and some of you will take part in the official Remembrance Day ceremony at the cenotaph on Tuesday, November 11 at 11 a.m.).  Obviously, there are different expectations of you as a member of the audience for a solemn ceremony like Remembrance Day and for a comic performance by your classmates or for a performance of a play like "Macbeth" or "Fawlty Towers", but the basic philosophy of the audience is the same.  The word "audience" comes from the Latin word "audire", to hear, so obviously listening plays a big part of being a good member of the audience.  It isn't time for you to talk or goof around or look at your ipod or get up and go to the washroom.  It is time for you to pay attention to what is happening on stage.

Paying attention requires more of you than just listening, of course.  You have to actively listen, which means you keep your eyes on the performance.  You have to be completely present and be willing to respond to the intentions of the people on stage.  In class, if we're doing scenes from comedia del'arte, you should be ready and willing to laugh.  Don't be satisfied with a snicker either.  If you have ever performed in a comedy, you know how gratifying it is to hear people laughing when you're performing.  If you laugh out loud, it can inspire the performers on stage to heights of comic creativity!  In contrast, if you are attending the Remembrance Day ceremony, you need to focus your attention on the solemnity of the event.  It is a time to think about the past, about the young people who have risked everything to protect our way of life.  It is a time to reflect on the nature of human beings, how brave we can be, how selfless we can be, how some of us are willing to risk our lives for others.  We all understand that the people who are involved in the ceremony have the best intentions and we know it is serious and we must approach the ceremony with the intention of being serious and listening and responding in the way the presenters expect.  Other people in the audience expect you to be on your very best behavior.  We will have guests from outside the school at the assembly and they want to know that young people appreciate the sacrifices our veterans have made.  As I told you, my father served in the Canadian army during World War II.  I always think of him on Remembrance Day.  He was a young, innocent prairie boy when he fought in France and my uncle told us that when my dad came home from the war, he was a changed man.  He hardly spoke and would wake up screaming in the night.  He was able to come through those terrible days, but I always wonder what it was like for him.  When I am thinking about him and his companions, I don't want to see any of you giggling or plugged into your smart phones or chatting to your neighbour.   

The journal this week is the same for all of you.  I want you to think about your own behavior as an audience member.  How would you rate yourself?  (Look at the rubric on the bulletin board if you want a detailed description of the scale.)  Describe yourself as an audience member.  Think of your best audience behavior.  What about your worst?  As you know, I evaluate your audience behavior.  This is a chance for you to advocate for yourself.

Nobody looks stupid when they are having fun. - Amy Poehler

Amy Poehler is an actor and a comedian and writer who performed on "Saturday Night Live" and then on her own sitcom, "Parks and Recreation".  She and Tina Fey have performed together a lot (and she calls Tina Fey her comic wife) and now Amy Poehler has a book out called Yes, Please and it is apparently quite funny and insightful.  I read Tina Fey's book, Bossypants a few years ago and really enjoyed it.  There is a certain suggestion (one of you pointed this out to me, as you know -- I just don't like to name you, because perhaps you don't want me to blurt out your name to the world on my blog) that women can't be funny and of course, just because two women (or ten or one hundred) are funny doesn't actually give the lie to the suggestion, because perhaps they are the "exceptions that prove the rule".  The theory is that women have not evolved to entertain men in this vein and that men have developed their ability to be funny in order to attract women.  I'm not sure if I can buy that.  Women certainly have to use all the tools in their basket in order to attract an appropriate mate!  Anyway, I thought the above quote was good simple philosophy that we could learn from.  It is so important to get past this idea that other people will sneer at you if you show enthusiasm or if you try something new or wear something outlandish or take a risk or do anything even slightly out of the ordinary.  You'll never accomplish anything if you let fear lead you.

We had lots of fun at school on Hallowe'en and there were lots of good creative ideas in costumes.  The Fine and Performing Arts department went as the Village People (the people who wrote and performed the song "YMCA" among others.)  I went as the leather man, and I was quite pleased with my costume.  (I wish I could remember how to post a picture of it because it really transformed me and I think I looked quite a lot like the guy I was portraying.)  The other people in the department were the construction worker, the cop, the cowboy and the Indian (we decided it wasn't cultural appropriation, since the Village People themselves said they wanted to explode stereotypes).  I think we really caught the spirit of the group and it is always fun to dress up.  Good for everyone who dressed up!  It was really great to see the two Czechoslovakian brothers (characters from the old Saturday Night Live played by Dan Ackroyd and Steve Martin).  They are great characters and are so funny and I hadn't thought of them for such a long time -- it's nice to think that characters like them can live on long past their brief time on television.