Let's Talk

I have been remiss in blogging lately, but it's been busy, what with the end of the semester, auditions for "For My Name is Will" and report cards coming up, etc.  (Excuses, excuses, my mother would say.  Today would be her 103rd birthday!  )

We talked a bit the other day about the "Let's Talk" day and I read that one in five Canadians suffer from some sort of mental illness, so as we said, most of us (probably all) will be touched by mental illness in our lives.  It is a terrifying thing and the "let's talk" day is a good way to open up the dialogue and possibly make it less terrifying and help us think of things we can do to make it easier for people to find help.

I found this list on the CBC of books about mental illness.  I think I might reread Crime and Punishment after I finish all the stuff I'm reading now (biographies of Shakespeare and Camilla Lackberg mysteries mostly) -- that's a classic novel about mental illness that I read when I was not much older than many of you.

12 Canadian books that explore mental illness
NONFICTION
Fir​ewater by Harold R. Johnson
How Can I Help? A Week in My Life as a Psy​chiatrist by David Goldbloom and Pier Bryden Invisib​le North by Alexandra Shimo
Open Heart, O​pen Mind by Clara Hughes
Waiting for​ First Light by Romeo Dallaire
W​ hite Walls by Judy Batalion
FICTION
13 Ways of Looki​ng at Fat Girl by Mona Awad A​ Secret Music by Susan Doherty Hannaford
​ Medicine Walk by Richard Wagamese
Sch​ ool of Velocity by Eric Beck Rubin
The Ever After​ of Ashwin Rao by Padma Viswanathan The​ Mercy Journals by Claudia Casper

I would like to take this chance to thank all of you for a great semester.  I enjoyed our work together so much and learned a lot from you.  As I was saying to the 11s and 12s, now that I'm sixty (!), I am thinking more of retirement, but I can't imagine what I would do without the excitement and fun of drama class!  To many of you, it seems chaotic, I think, but art is chaotic sometimes -- creativity is chaotic.  You can't expect everything to fit into a little box.  (And you don't want it to.)  So even though I'm an abstract-sequential person (that surprises a lot of people), I embrace the chaos that is the source of great things and say "bring it on"!  Best of luck in the next semester!  And Grade 12's -- don't be strangers!

Work for the weekend!

Everyone!  Finish your journals!!  This can make a letter grade difference in your mark.

Directing/Scriptwriting:  Edit your original play!

Acting 11/12:  Learn your lines for "On the Waterfront"!

Theatre Production:  Get ready to present your sound and light shows.

Drama 8:  You have "show and tell" on Monday and Tuesday.  You need a two minute speech that is engaging for the audience.  Make sure you project your voice and speak clearly!

Memorize your lines for the Aesop plays!

We have a week left until the end of the semester ):

Walk in someone else's shoes

Good work on the extended role play today, everyone.  If you're like me, your character took on a life of her own and did what she wanted, unbidden by you.  January was a bit whiny, I found (although I did not imagine her to be like that at all) and a bit hopeful and a bit child-like.  I was so happy when people spoke to me, because I hoped that meant that I wasn't the "new girl" any more.  I think that's January's main hope.

It is so interesting to see the transformation that some of you are capable of.  I was very impressed by how you had thought about your character and dressed like you thought she or he would dress and behaved like you thought the character might.  If you feel like you didn't do anything differently, try again tomorrow and take some more risks in taking on the persona of another person.  If you don't, you don't get the full impact of the exercise.

Drama 9 - 12:  Write about the successes you experienced in playing the role play.  Describe your view of the character, whether or not the character turned out the way you imagined, and what you did to create someone different from yourself.  It is helpful to me if you write about interactions you had with other students, because I would not be aware of them otherwise.

Drama 8:  Which of the Aesop lessons do you need to learn?  Explain why.  (A favourite lesson is "Beware of the insincere friend" because it seems like students who arrive at high school often experience the end of an elementary school friendship -- you grow apart and then the person you liked and trusted in Grade 7 sometimes betrays you.  Unfortunate, but I guess it's a learning experience.)

Oops! Characters for role plays

Drama 9/10, Theatre Production, Directing/Scriptwriting, and Acting 11, 12:

Write about your character and how you will create the character in the extended role play on Thursday and Friday of this week.

Here's my Canada?

Drama 9/10 and Acting 11/12/ ; Theatre Production 11/12:

What does Canada mean to you?  (Write a paragraph.  It doesn't have to be all good!)

Drama 8:

What have you thought about speaking about for your "show and tell" speech.  What will you talk about?  Why do you think it's a good choice?

Journals for January 6, 2017

Try to get all your journals done by January 25!  If you have missed any, look at the topics and resolve to catch up!!

Drama 8:  Describe the rehearsal process for your "Creation of the World" group.  Write a short scene of your rehearsal as if it were a play.

Drama 9/10:  Why did you choose the section of "Customs" that you and your partner chose?  Describe your character (age, gender, personality traits, life situation) and what your character wants and the obstacles she/he faces.

Theatre Production 11/12:  What is your concept for your sound and light show?  Describe your thoughts at this point in the project.  Remember your prop is due on Wednesday next week (Jan. 11, 2017)

Directing/Scriptwriting 12:  What is the scenario for your original script?  (Give a plot summary.)  What inspired you to write it?

Acting 11/12:  Write a 1/2 page monologue from the point of view of a character you would like to play.

Instructions for "Show and Tell" -- grade 8's

Drama 8:

Here are your instructions for the "Show and Tell" presentation.  We will be presenting these speeches in the last week of January.

1.  Choose an item that is able to generate two minutes of engaging, interesting material.  Tell a story that relates to the item (something like when you tell stories for the question of the day).  The story should be something that the audience can relate to.  If you are interested and enthusiastic about the item, the audience will catch your enthusiasm and enjoy your speech.  Any item that is acceptable at school is fine for your speech.  If you would like to speak about a pet or about something valuable and you don't feel comfortable bringing it to school, a photograph or a drawing is fine.

2.  Start with a question ("Have you ever been lost in a foreign city?") or a quote ("neither a borrower nor a lender be") or a joke ("when a frog's car breaks down, it gets 'toad' away") to get the audience's attention.  End with a conclusion -- this is the lesson you learned, or why you decided to share the story, or what you would like the audience to take away from your speech.  Do not start your speech with "so".  Do not end with "yeah".  You don't need to introduce yourself.  We know you.

3.  When you are planning and practicing your speech, make sure you have two minutes of material.  It should not be less than two minutes and should not be a lot longer than two minutes.

4.  When you are practicing, make sure you speak clearly and project your voice.  Ask someone to listen to your speech and tell you honestly if they can hear and understand you.  Do not speak too quickly and think about being still -- do not move unless you have planned it.  Pacing and repetitive gestures can be distracting to your audience.

5.  When you are presenting your speech, be sure to make eye contact with the audience.  It is fine to have notes or cue cards to help you stay on track, but you need to look at the people in the crowd from time to time to make them feel like you are sharing something important to them.  Let us see that you are enjoying telling us your story.

Any questions?  Let me know.  Kristian can really help you, too.

Will in us is over-rul'd by fate. . . . Christopher Marlowe

Our holidays are coming to a close.  I hope you had lots of fun and got outside and played in the snow and ate all sorts of tasty things and read a book and watched a movie and listened to some music and visited nice people.

Now, I guess it's time for New Year's resolutions.  Many people resolve to eat healthy foods and exercise, but I think I try to do that anyway.  I think last year I resolved to blog more and I don't know if I kept that resolution.  Sometimes, life gets in the way (see the wise saw from Christopher Marlowe above).  This year, I resolve to finish my play by the end of January.  I am going to read all of Christopher Marlowe's plays and a few of Shakespeare's that I have read but don't remember at all -- Love's Labour's Lost being one of them.  These seem to me to be good resolutions that I might have the power to keep!  I think I will resolve to try to think positively.  I received a message from one of the many activist websites which has my name somehow and it listed all the positive things that happened last year (even though most of us are thinking about the upcoming inauguration of Donald Trump, which, to me, is NOT POSITIVE), for example -- the number of tigers is now on the upswing and the countries of the world have created the world's largest marine reserve in Antarctica.  I do try to do my part by donating money to good causes and even participating in local good works (like removing ivy along Shoreline Park in Port Moody and doing the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup) but it is easy to feel like the world is going to hell in a handbasket when you read the news.  But I have faith in people of good will.  I do.  I really do.  (Methinks I doth protest too much.)

I did read something interesting about weight loss.  You probably remember that television show that was on not that long ago called "The Biggest Loser".  Well, they did some research about whether the people who lost a great deal of weight were able to keep it off and none of them were!  The researchers wondered why and discovered that the people's bodies compensated for the lack of calories (because the people were dieting) by lowering the person's metabolic rate and also increasing the person's appetite!  It was quite horrifying, really, because it demonstrated that the person was virtually helpless in taking command of something that we assume is under their control.  (Of course, an old determinist like me doesn't believe we're really in control of anything.)

It is quite cold today and rather windy, so if you do go out for one last hurrah, make sure you bundle up.  I am thinking it might be fun to take my toboggan up onto Burnaby Mountain and slide down the hill.  I will alert you if I break my hip!