Think, when we talk of horses . . .

Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them
Printing their proud hooves i' th' receiving earth;
For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings,
Carry them here and there, jumping o'er times,
Turning the accomplishment of many years
Into an hourglass; for the which supply,
Admit me chorus to this history,
Who, prologue-like, your humble patience pray
Gently to hear, kindly to judge our play.

Grade 9/10 class:  Be prepared to recite this selection in a dramatic way on Tuesday when we come back to school  Say it to your friends and family.  Everyone is impressed when someone knows a little Shakespeare!

Senior Drama:  Actors:  You should be working on your movie scenes.   Writers:  Finish your first draft of your short (less than ten pages or so, if possible)  script.  Theatre Production:  Finish your sketches of the "Fawlty Towers" script.  Use colour and give as much detail as possible.

What a rainy night!  I love an evening with nothing in it (no practices, no sports for my children, no social obligations for me) -- I am going to watch an episode of "The Nature of Things" about Stonehenge.  Then I am going to reread the Fawlty Towers scripts and figure out how to cast it.  We have so many talented actors, it will be hard to choose who gets to play what.
 

Show and tell!

On October 20, the grade eights will be presenting their show and tell speeches.  Your speech should be two minutes long (one minute is too short, and three minutes is too long!)  You should bring something from home about which you can speak in an interesting way for two minutes.  (It could be a souvenir you acquired on holiday, or something you won, or a piece of art you created, or a special gift you received, or a toy you like when you were little or anything!  Whatever would make an interesting story.)  Prepare your speech - it might help to write it down and then practice saying it.  I expect that when you deliver it, you will speak clearly and project your voice.  You will stand comfortably at center stage and not fidget or pace.

Your speech should take this form.

1.  Tell us what the item is.  You could describe it briefly.  (For example, these are the Mickey Mouse ears I got at Disneyland.  When my parents told me we were going to California, I dreamed that I would be able to come home with this hat!)

2.  Tell how you acquired the item.  (For example, you could describe the experience of training and preparing to play a certain sport, and then give us a description of the "big game" and how you played and the circumstances that resulted in you receiving the medal or the item you are showing.)

3.  You can conclude with what you learned from the experience or what the rest of us could take away from your speech (perhaps that you should listen to your parents and then you won't get lost at Disneyland or that if you keep trying, you will succeed).

If you want to ask me any questions about this, please feel free to do so!

We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures. (Thornton Wilder)

Thornton Wilder was an American playwright who wrote the great play, "Our Town", with which you might be familiar.  It will be important for all of us to try to become "conscious of our treasure" over this weekend, which is dedicated to being thankful for the bounty of autumn and all the silver linings in our clouds. My mother has instilled in me the idea that no matter how dark things look, you can always think about what wonders are around you and how lucky you are to be alive in such a beautiful and remarkable world.

I have been SO BUSY these last few weeks, that I have neglected my blog.  Next week the play I'm acting in will open and so we are in a mad rush to get things ready.  If you haven't read about it here before, it is called "Momma Won't Fly" and it is coming together, although the theatre company lost its rehearsal space and we have all been hauling our props and costumes around in our cars (very cumbersome).  This Sunday, we get to move into the theatre which will be a great relief.  I am looking forward to opening night (next Thursday) and I hope the show will be a great success.   Our director is endlessly inventive and all of the backstage people are very well organized and we actors are doing our best to keep plugging away at our characters.  I like "Norleen Sprunt".  She's got lots of spunk and energy and she never gives up, no matter how terrible things look.  (We could all learn from her.)

We have been auditioning for "Fawlty Towers" here at school with today and tomorrow as the last chance for anyone who wants to perform.  It will be hard to choose who gets to play what.  We have so many talented people and there have been some very impressive auditions from a couple of grade 8's (always a hopeful sign!)

Here are your journals for the week (some of you are saying "at last" -- Ms. Kosar sure likes to write! {I do}).

Grade 8's:  Write about the process in which you engaged to produce your fairy tale mime.  Who emerged as a leader?  What difficulties did your group encounter as you worked?  How did you solve the difficulties?  Did anyone present particular problems for the group?  Please be specific and provide details.

Grade 9/10:  Write about a comic performance you've enjoyed.  (My example could be Jim Parsons as "Sheldon Cooper" in "The Big Bang Theory".)  What about the performance do you think makes it funny?  Describe the character portrayed.  Is it inherently funny?  What can you learn from the actor?
(I believe the character of Sheldon is written really well, although if you described the character, you might not think it was inherently funny -- a socially awkward theoretical physicist who is highly intelligent.  I think Jim Parsons does bring a lot to the role, although I have wondered what it would be like if Johnny Galecki (who plays Leonard) and he switched roles.  Could they do it?  I think the voice Jim Parsons uses helps a lot -- it has a robotic quality that makes the material funnier.  He is quite precise physically -- he stands very straight and uses his hands and his face and his whole body in a small rather detailed way that brings to mind someone who is "too much in his head".  Apparently, the producers of the show thought that he was too similar to Sheldon to cast, but ultimately they realized he would be the best actor in the part.  He has done a lot of Shakespeare (that would be fun to see) and I think one thing I can learn from him is to invest myself fully in the character -- body and soul, so to speak.

Senior Drama: 

Actors:  What emotion did you portray in the "emotional memory" scenes?  What memory of your own did you invoke?  What emotion do you find difficult to play?  Why do you find it difficult?  What memory could you use to make that emotion easier to find?

Directors/Scriptwriters:  Whose emotional memory scene was most memorable?  Which performance did you like the best?  Explain why.

Theatre production:  Read through "A Touch of Class" again.  Make a list of props (things the actors use or carry) you need for the scene.  How might you acquire these props?  (Think of at least three ways, and keep in mind that, in the theatre, we are always searching for the cheapest way!)  Think about Lord Melbury -- what prop might he bring with him that would help him create a character?

The new phonebook's here!

We're talking about comedy and that's one of my favourite lines from a really funny movie called "The Jerk" with Steve Martin.  Since we were talking about comedy and how it can tackle difficult subjects, I looked up a list of people's choices for the 100 greatest comedies of all time.  It is surprising how many are about subjects that you might not think were good sources for laughs.   Here are some that stood out for me:

Bananas (about a revolution in a South American country)
Shaun of the Dead (zombies)
Dr. Strangelove (the atomic bomb)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (about King Arthur and his knights)
The Life of Brian (about a prophet in the time of Jesus)
Mean Girls (bullying)
The Great Dictator (Adolf Hitler)
Arthur (alcoholism)
Young Frankenstein (based on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, sort of)
Start the Revolution without Me (about the French Revolution)

I haven't seen a few of these movies, but they were chosen by vote, so the list is a bit skewed for more modern films, but a lot of people find the violence in movies with "The Three Stooges" to be hilarious as well.  It just goes to show that creative people can find comedy in all sorts of difficult and challenging places.  I think that is a testament to human nature, that we try to survive in even the most impossible situations and that comedy can help us do just that.

Journals this week:

Senior Drama:  Comment on your "Top of the Form" performance (your own group).  Was it funny?  Why or why not?  What went well about your performance?  What could have been improved?  How could you improve it?

Drama 9/10:  Write about the news story you chose to perform.  What do you know about it?  (If you know nothing, find out some details.)  How can you make it funny?  If your first performance was funny, why did it turn out that way?  (It shouldn't have been.)

Drama 8:  What fairy tale did you choose?  Tell the plot in five sentences.  Who are you playing?  How will you create a character (think of facial expressions, body language, plot points, reactions to others)? What is the climax of the story?

Journals are due on Tuesday.

Don't forget it's "Meet the Teacher" night tonight.  I'd love to meet you and your family.

First Journals!

Grade 8:  What should Ms. Kosar know about you?  You could include past performance experience, drama classes you've taken, whether you have stage fright, what you are expecting to learn in Drama and anything else you think might help me teach you!

Grades 9/10:  What are five things you can keep in mind when you work in a group?  When we looked at the poster about "Learning Together", what did you think of the five rules?  Comment on at least one rule in detail.

Make sure you bring a pen and paper tomorrow for journals!  Write complete answers and make sure you respond to all the questions, if there are more than one.

Top of the Form!

Senior Drama:

As we discussed in class, we have a chance to go to the Vancouver International Film Festival to see a Canadian/Japanese film called "The Vancouver Asahi" about a baseball team in the 1930's.  We would go on October 10 and miss D Block.  (We would leave during our class in C Block.)  We would take a school bus to downtown Vancouver and then return by public transit.  The tickets for the film would be $7.00 and there would be a small charge for the bus as well, but as I said, if you cannot afford it, please just let me know and we will make sure you can attend.

Please let me know if this is something you would be able to attend.  I would like to be able to book a.s.a.p. so try to let me know by tomorrow!

Journals for Senior Drama:

Actors:  How can an actor create a character who only has two lines?  Think of what you can do to make a character like that memorable and funny.

Stagecraft:  Draw a sketch of what the set for "Top of the Form" would look like.  What music would work for the theme of the show?  (Try to bring an example for Monday.)  How will you accomplish the end of the play?  (It doesn't have to be exactly what is described in the script.)

Directors/Writers:  How would you cast this sketch if you had the power (from the actors in our class)?  What makes something a comedy?  Our question of the day was about our most embarrassing moments.  Embarrassment can be a source of comedy -- think about a comedy sketch you could write based on one of the embarrassing moments someone other than yourself described.

Journals are due on Tuesday.

comedy isn't easy

When you watch a comedian doing a standup routine, or watch actors performing in comedies, a lot of times it looks very natural and unrehearsed, but that is part of the trick.  Comedy is really challenging and lots of actors take it very seriously (ironically enough).  Look at the "Talking Funny" discussion with Jerry Seinfled, Chris Rock, Ricky Gervais and Louis CK (you can find it on Youtube).  They discuss how much practice it takes to seem as if you're just casually talking to an audience. 

Michael Richards, the actor who played Kramer on "Seinfeld", was a "method" actor.  (The "method" is an acting technique developed by directors and acting teachers, like Konstantin Stanislavsky and Lee Strasberg, in which an actor tries to get inside the head of the character he plays and grapple with the real emotion that the character is experiencing.  It can help an actor create an astonishingly real performance, but it can lead to excess as well, like Robert de Niro gaining sixty pounds to perform in the movie, "Raging Bull" or actors taking hours to "get into character" and even taking their performances home with them).  Michael Richards would spend long hours developing comic bits for Kramer to do and then when the other actors didn't do what he expected or wanted them to do, he would become quite angry.  He found if they weren't able to stay in character, that it was a terrible distraction to him and very unprofessional.  (He was right, in this respect.)  "Kramer" is a timeless character which Michael Richards created with a great deal of thought.  He didn't just show up on the set and hope that something would happen.  It is interesting to listen to him talk about his thought process when creating the aspects of Kramer we might take for granted:  the crazy hair, the little sounds, the vintage clothes, his entrances into Jerry's apartment.

We can learn from actors and comedians like this.  I am preparing to perform in a play called "Momma Won't Fly" and there are a lot of parts of the play that I know are supposed to be comic bits and I am really thinking about how I can get laughs out of them.  I am not inventive like Michael Richards is, and it is a daunting prospect to know that in three weeks you'll be going out on stage and the audience will be wanting to laugh, but if you don't deliver, they won't.  I keep going over this one part of the play and wondering how Michael Richards (or Lucille Ball or someone like that -- one of these really amazing comic performers) would do it.  I know they'd be funny but I can't guarantee the same will be true of me.  I'll let you know if I come up with something.