Lesson for May 28 -- Learning at a Distance

Question of the Day:
Are you being scrupulous about social distancing?  (I am.)  If someone gets close to you, what do you do?  (I back away.  I feel annoyed when people do it, but I don't get nasty about it or anything.  I felt annoyed at the grocery store the other day.  They make you stay behind the plexiglas and don't want you to put your groceries in the cart yourself, so I did that -- that's fine.  But then the cashier wouldn't put the groceries in the cart either!  What was I supposed to do?)

Warm-up:
Drama 9/10:  More stretching!  Sit at the end of your chair.  Stretch your hands behind your back and interlace your fingers.  Try to keep your palms together and roll your shoulders in circles.  Try to lift up your chest.  To extend the stretch, try to lift your arms.  Hold the stretch for about five seconds.

Still sitting on the end of your chair, make sure your feet are flat on the floor and your hands on your knees.  When you breathe in, push out your chest.  When you exhale, tuck your chin into your chest and roll your shoulders forward.  When you breathe in, your chest goes out, and when you exhale, roll your shoulders forward and tuck in your chin.

Stretching helps to relax you.

Theatre Production 11:  Send me your ideas about "light after lockdown" (by Friday).

Art 8:  Go outside and pick a flower or a leaf or a stem.  Bring it into the house and put in between two pieces of paper or into a book and then put heavy books on top and leave the plant there (it might take a week or two to dry out and flatten out).

Lesson:
Drama 9/10:  Practice your monologue (out loud is the only way to memorize it).  Think of the character you are playing.  You might want to think about how your character would dress.  You will be expected to perform your monologue on June 1.  You can film yourself and send me the video or you can perform it live on Zoom.
Art 8:  Yesterday, you prepared a wash by wetting paper thoroughly, then stroking across the page with the brush with paint, and then dabbing at the paint with a crumpled piece of paper.  Now that it has dried, look carefully at the wash you've made.  What shapes were made by the dabbing of crumpled paper?  Use a black sharpie or felt marker or dark pencil to outline the shapes you see.  You might see realistic shapes, like flowers or mountains or a forest.  Or it might look like abstract shapes like triangles, polygons, random shapes.  Either way, outline some of the shapes with your marker.  I'll show you my examples tomorrow at the Zoom meeting. "Shape" is another element of art (along with line, texture, value and colour).  Remember -- "Something Happened" is due now!
Theatre Production 11:  Work on your theatre history project.

I watched a play online this morning.  It was a one-man show called "Sea Wall" and performed by Andrew Scott, who played Moriarty in "Sherlock".  He is a wonderful actor.  It is a great performance (a monologue, something like what you're doing in Drama 9/10, but this performance is 34 minutes long) and there are all sorts of great supporting films in which Andrew Scott talks about his process in creating a character, telling the truth onstage (the emotional truth), using empathy and even learning lines.  Just a warning -- if you decide to watch the film, it does have some swearing in it.  Here is the link to the film on Youtube:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j01kVmBoJW0

Zoom meetings:
C Block -- tomorrow (Thursday) at 12:30
B Block -- Friday at 12:30