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| DRAMA JOURNAL - FEB 14 2003 Click here to go home THESE ARE MY THOUGHTS ON THINGS... KEEP IN MIND I WRITE WHAT I FEEL AND THINK AND I WRITE IT LIKE A PRIVATE JOURNAL - NOTHING IS TONED DOWN EVEN THOUGH IT WILL BE VIEWED BY OTHER PEOPLE... I don't know where to start when I want to sum up the past few weeks of Drama. It was one hell of an adventure last year - I'm still trying to get over the fact that we weren't involved in the highlights night or the fact that we weren't on the receiving end of the Encouragement "Sorry We Had To Screw You" Award. Anyway, the first few days of drama were quite different. Starting 2003 off with a melodrama was -what I at least would call- a fun activity. We had lots of laughs, especially with Nick and myself sharing a group with Tiffany and Mel. I guess it was somewhat of an initiation for Tiffany who seemed to handle it quite well. The second time round, we had to alter our performance, nothing really seemed to change. Oh well. It doesn't matter - it was a warm up to the rollercoaster ride we should have in drama this year. Second period of the subject, and already the drama train had pulled into the ritual station. Designing rituals, like the Japanese Tea Tree Blossom or whatever the hell it was called was our task, and we had a period to do it. Our group - Mel, Rachel, Lisa and myself performed a "ritual" (and I use that term lightly) of blessing a newborn child. Quite confidently, we pulled it off. Then, came the third lesson, a study period. Study periods mean some serious work is ahead, and thats just what it meant in this instance, too. Starting the next lesson off with yoga, we had to create a ritual of the same culture as those that we studied in the previous lesson. Overall we did great and my group (Gemma, Craig and I) performed what I thought was a very symbolic and almost realistic ritual, that of the coronation of a new tribal chief. Now, the following two lessons were the last two, not including the first of the coming Thursday's double period, to polish up on the final rituals. Come Thursday, or yesterday, as I am writing this, our performances were due to take place. Period 4 (or the second period of the double) was 'it' - the showdown, in a way. When the bell rang at 11:48am that day, it was then when Benney herded us together like sheep and asked us if we were ready to do our performances. From what I could tell, most of us were as ready as we'd ever be. First off James' group - James, Tiffany, Ellyce and Wade. I'll be dead honest about what I say here or anywhere in my entries for that matter, so please don't take this as ass-kissing or anything. Anyway, James' group. What can I say? They did their research, they had music, dialogue and candles for God's sake, and pulled off a bloody fantastic piece of theatre. And I'm not kidding when I say that this group was great. They really were - give them a good set, and this would've looked somewhat like Hollywood quality. Overstatement, maybe a little but it certainly was great. And knowing James, the perfectionist as he is, I'm sure he was proud of his performance as an individual and as a group. If you ever get the chance to read this James, I have to be honest with you: of all the pieces I've seen you do in Drama over the years, this has to be your best (not individually, but as the motivating force behind your group) so far. And the way Tiffany and Ellyce were synchronized - that was excellent too. Onto the group that got Rachel from the then-defunct Aztec group, the Aboriginal group. Kylie, Mel, Ashkaan, Rachel and Matt. Jeezaloo, this was another great performance - the movements and the music really appealed to me - Ashkaan unearthed a hidden talent - his ability to "play" a didgeridoo. That and the rythm sticks were effective. The animal like movements were good, but the highlight and almost a stamp-of-authenticity was the tempo and speed of the rythm sticks as the hunter got closer and closer to killing the kangaroo. The end bit, too where the tribe painted their experience(s) on the rocks was also a highlight, with the redlit silhouete doing wonders for the effect. Finally onto my group. We got Nick from the Aztec group. Me and Nick - a recipe for anarchy. Anyway, Gemma (obviously God's way of getting the group of three idiots organized) brought costumes and "corn pouches" to help the effectivenss of our ritual. Appart from a few juvenile comments Nick and mysel mad about the similarity between the pouch and a scrotum, we managed to get on just fine. Eventually after much practice (and stupid behaviour) we got our act together. With music and co-ordination, our piece was effective in my view. Almost real, some would say but I have to admit getting the "pouch" off was a little difficult afterwards. Anyway, the dim lighting I think helped our concentration and for me, the performance delivered somewhat of a relaxation effect. I don't know why. Nor do I know why I write so much. Friday (today), after moving on to Immigration, we were to find pairs to create a roleplay of two immigrants going to Australia. Benney thought that the instructions "No sterotypes, no accents and above all no humour" were clear and understood. Oh, how wrong she was. Two pairs - Ashkaan/Nick and Ellyce/Tiffany were considered serious and the only ones deemed as fulfilling the set criteria. The rest of us -well I guess we could sum it up with the following: my mistake ("This is a hold up - no, it's not...it's a hijacking"), James' "We're from another country", Gemma and Mel's dead bodies floating in the water and Wade's "Bummer"... Well...it didn't go exactly to plan. We did however have a good laugh - and that's the most important thing - although we failed miserably like we'd gone to university to get a degree in failing just for this exercise, we still managed to withdraw from the stresses of our daily lives. And that's good. In closing I have to say that as a neutral, I am most surprised with Tiffany who continues to do really good work, and I think James' creative juices have burst through the holiday blockage and created a tidal wave of ideas - I mean the guy is practically oozing with good ideas. The person that I am least impressed with (and this is usually the case) is myself as I think I haven't been able to perform to my highest ability but maybe that's down the path somewhere in the not-too-distant future. Seeing I've just about got arthritis from typing this, and you are halfway to getting cataracts from reading this, I'll finish up now. -Bob [END OF PAGE] All material on this website is (c) 2003 Bob Productions Inc., on behalf of the Curiosity Killed The Cat Team and Maroondah Secondary College. Don't copy anything without permission or a lawsuit will be coming your way. |
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