Away Again!

Sorry if you are trying to meet with me -- best to email, if you can, as I won't be at school until Monday.

Away again

Sorry if you came to see me, but I have to be away again today.  If you have work to hand in, please give it to one of the ladies in the office, and they will make sure I see it.  I am not sure if I will be in tomorrow, either, but I will announce it here, if I will not be at school.

Another alternative is to send me the work you have done by email.  If it is a project, you could photograph it and send it.  That way I would get it before the deadline (which, I believe, is today -- although I think the office will be flexible with me, since I can't be at school).

Away today

If you come in today to drop off late assignments, you won't find me in the theatre -- Jessie Wowk's classes are putting on a year-end play and I am at the doctor's office!  Just leave your work in the office and I will get it later.  Or you can pop in and see me tomorrow.

Sorry I missed you, if I did.

"Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road"

There was no journal this week because we are so close to the end of the semester.  If you still have journals to complete, get them done AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.  Remember, I still need to mark them so you have to give me time.

Convocation Day was today and all our grade 12's looked terrific in their caps and gowns.  It was a stirring ceremony with a lovely, funny, inspirational speech by our valedictorian (I try not to use names in this blog, but you all know who I mean).  I am very proud of all our drama kids who crossed the floor.  Every year, we have to bid goodbye to our stars and it is very sad and we will miss your energy and senses of humour and willingness to throw yourselves into your roles, but the Drama Club will march on because art lives.  By that, I mean it is a living thing, but unlike us, it goes on, even without us.

Here's a nice way of looking at our lives by a great, if little known Canadian, William Mulock:

I'm still at work with my hand to the plough and my face to the future.  The shadows of evening . . . lengthen about me but morning is in my heart.  The testimony I bear is this:  that the castle of enchantment is not yet behind me, it is before me still and daily I catch glimpses of its battlements and towers.  The best of life is always further on.  The real lure is hidden from our eyes, somewhere behind the hills of time.

Two Days of "Out of body" experiences!

Thanks to those of you who threw yourselves into your characters over the last two days in the extended role play.  If you had trouble getting into character, try to figure out why.  Did you really try to internalize the personality of the character you were assigned?  I know that it is difficult to play someone who is quite different from yourself, but that is what actors do all the time.  My favourite actor's break out role was a character he detested.  (I'm talking about Marlon Brando playing Stanley Kowalski in "Streetcar Named Desire".)  Brando said, "I was the antithesis of Stanley Kowalski.  I was sensitive by nature and he was coarse, a man with unerring animal instincts and intuition."  He didn't like him, but it was one of those great confluences of actor and role -- some people think there will never be another Stanley Kowalski that comes close to Brando's.  (You can see the film of his performance with the great Vivian Leigh as Blanche -- it is one of the iconic performances that changed the way we saw the world.)

I do appreciate those of you who were willing to take on the teacher role, which is essential for the thing to work the way it does.  I took over a bit too much in B Block, but I was just trying to "help".  (Hard for the actual teacher to stand by when everyone is running around like chickens with their heads cut off.)  We're back to normal (whatever that is) on Monday.  Don't forget to write your journals -- we're quickly approaching the end of the semester and I am going to have to come up with report cards for all of you and you know the influence the journals have on your mark!

On Friday morning, while I was walking Daisy, I found an injured flicker.  He couldn't fly and looked like he was having trouble even standing up.  He flopped away from us and sometimes flipped over on his back and couldn't right himself.  I couldn't catch him with Daisy there -- he was too scared.  So I took Daisy home and returned with a towel and a box to put him in.  He gave up pretty quickly without Daisy there to threaten him and I wrapped him in the towel and put him in the box (it was a large laundry hamper with a lid so he could still breathe).  I took him to Wildlife Rescue at Burnaby Lake -- they will take in any injured bird or animal and try to help them back to health and then release them where they were found (if you've ever seen the tv show, "Hope for Wildlife", it's a place like that).  They do such good work and if you're looking for a charity to donate to, they are an excellent choice. They took my lovely little friend into the clinic and did their best to help him, but he was too far gone and he died.  I am so sorry that he wasn't able to survive, but Nature is a hard mistress, as we all know, and I am comforting myself with the idea that I did my best to help and that I saved him from suffering in the cold and wet, hungry and unable to protect himself.

Journal Day! Internalize that character!

Well, it's that time again -- your favourite time of the week!  Journal Day!

Grade 8's:  Write about your Creation performance as if it's a review in the newspaper.  Give it a catchy title that makes me want to read it (for example, "Actors 'Create' a New World" or something like that).  Then write about what was good about it and what could have been improved.

Everyone else:  Write about the character you are playing in the role play.  What are you doing to make it real?  Has anything surprised you about how you played it or what happened to you?  (I am always surprised when I play a quiet character, because I hear so much more than I do when I'm always talking -- hey, many of us could stand to learn that lesson.) Have you had an interaction with anyone who has impressed you?  Describe it in detail.

Twin Day tomorrow!

Don't forget "fun day" tomorrow!  I bet if you haven't arranged a twin, if you wear a Steveston-London shirt tomorrow, you'll find you have a lot of them!  I'll give you a hint.  I always find "Twin Day" a problem, because I don't hang out with any teachers during the day.  I have sometimes brought a stuffed animal and dressed up like it and made it my twin.  That's what I will do tomorrow.

Here are your journals for the day!

Grade 8's:  How do you think the world was created?  Would you be able to make a play about it?  In the myth you are performing, which character will you play?  Explain how you will do it.

Grad 9/10:  Do you enjoy seeing violence in movies and plays?  Why do you think you answer the way you do?  Why do you suppose violence is so popular?  Do you think people are inherently violent?  Explain your answer.

Theatre Production:  What period of theatre history did you choose for your project?  Why did you choose it.  Have you even seen a production in the style you've chosen?  What do you already know about it?

Directors/Scriptwriters:  How are rehearsals going?  What problems are you facing?  How can you solve them?

Acting 11/12:  What character are you playing in Thomas or Ryan's plays?  (Describe the character.)  What does the character want?  (If you don't know, figure out something.)  What obstacles does the character face?  How does the character work to surmount the obstacles and get what he/she wants?  (Think of the tactics the character uses.)