Reflection

A Strong End For The Year
It's been a long year full of laughters and endless work. I started from a person who knew a little about drama to an actor who can even create a play by himself. The experience is stressful but also attractive. I work with different people and learn from the play I saw. I can proudly say that I am a good actor now and I can’t way to work in the theater next year. By using this blog post, I want to sum up the wonderful experience I had in this class and talk about how it helps me to finish my final project.
I still remember the first project I had for literature and performance. I acted as Juliet and James acted as Romeo. We mostly copied the script from the book and modernized the language. I am 100 percent sure that I will never forget the time when I was standing at the top of the ladder, James looked at me soulfully and said:” Yo she is so hot!” That is my first interact with drama and I got attracted by how diverse it can be that you can change the form of it whatever you want. From then on I know I found a place for my overflowing imagination.
The second project I worked with Julie to perform the last scene of Romeo and Juliet. This experience really helped me a lot on improving my acting skills. I focus on using different facial expressions for different dialogues such As a painful and twisted face while I am drinking the potion but then looking at Juliet and die with smile on my face. After this project I think I can call myself as an actor.
The third project I had is based on my own interpretation of the story My Love My Love. I experienced the feeling of being a director; find the fittest position for each actor. For example, Olivia fit Ti Moune better than Cherrie because she is a more energetic and outgoing person. I also learned how to write a totally new script and the way of setting up the stage and using different sound effects to make the play more entertaining. Nonetheless, my skill for evil laugh improved. Hahahahaha!
Finally, I am facing my final test which is my FINAL project. I pick a book which I believe is interesting to put on the stage Slumdog Millionaire. I use the skills I learned before to write the script, to set up the stage, and to act as a bad guy, and to find the fittest position for my group mates. I think I did it well especially my evil laugh part. However, after I finished the final project for the class, I felt void. I know that my acting skills will always stay with me accompany me and I need to use them to fulfilled my desire of creating new staff and use up my endless imagination. I will see you soon next year in drama. I believe that I belong to there!
Writing in JFK airport on the way back to China...11:48 6/8 2016

Bloggg last

Here Comes The Music

As the music rises, actors step into the stage. Why does his eyes pump out? Why does he falls on his kneel stiffly like a rock? Oh the sound of shot comes, but wait this character seem to be died 30 seconds ago. Oh, is the music which comes too late. Our group has just  finished the record of our first draft.

Accompany with this video, we received a long list of things need to be improved. Therefore, I think our group is a step forward then halfly prepared. We need better cooperation on light effects and sound effects, and there should be some little changes on our scripts and staging. For example, by accepting the advice given by teacher and classmates we need to add signs like sound effect to show audience that a flashback is taking place. However, these frustrate problems won’t knocked our will of improving ourselves. I can feel the energy hiding inside the actors. They are waiting and waiting for someone like me to recall them back from their burrow.

One of the things I think our group is doing well is that we have enough emotion to build up the character we act. The reason of that is because we find the character that fit us most. I have the experience to act well as a bad guy with my talented evil laugh. Joseph enjoy to pointing gun towards people and his keen on acting as a gangster. Ben is good at acting as a innocent indian boy with indian english accent. However, we are still facing some serious problems. For example, the unversed skill of reciting scripts limit actor's acting skills which make it harder for them to act with emotion when they are thinking about their next lines. By improving that, out group will make the play more vivid and realistic with emotional expression instead of acting like a dead person.

In my opinion, watching others performance a very helpful thing to do. One of the things I learn from the Little Prince group is how they always stage their group in the center of the stage. I think our group act most of our scenes in the up stage which is not a smart choice. We should move ourselves to the down stage letting audience to see our facial expression clearly. Also, I think julie and james act well as couples( Because they are couple in the reality…). However, it is not always a good idea to watch other group’s acting(just kidding). I got catched by james and drag me into his group to become the background settings in the play.

All in all, I think our group is doing a good job. More rehearsal and learn from other is always a good thing to do to improve ourselves. I believe we will draw a perfect end for the end of our literature and performance class and we are all working hard to achieve this goal. Go Cats! Finish this year with smile on your face! Let’s dance with the delayed music!

Blogg post

Tonight avec Comedy

Time act like a naughty kids take my days away from me like a candies in the jar. We are now at the tail of spring which is also almost the end the school year. If you ask me what is the most interesting thing about spring. I will tell you that it is the symphony formed by birds and crickets at night or the a glimpse of fishtail near the pond, but not the spring drama show. However, my stubborn mind get changed after I went to the show and I can tell that I learn a lot from it.

The blackout between each show is a little bit long, but it has music between blackout which reduce the vapidness for audience during waiting time, and it also connect each scenes in  some way by create a curiosity feeling to audience. Audience may wonder whether the next theme is going to relate to the music. I think I can adapt this idea to my final project, because my play also has a long blackout during each scenes.

The part that interested me most is how actors present the morning meeting in cheshire academy in a dramatic way. I think that actors perfectly fit the character they act. John’s voice sounds like Mr. Dikemen and William has the right size of the belly as Mr. Porter. They catched the most significant part of teachers which make this show become more realistic and funny to audience.

The most surprise for me is the part that John sang the song. I never know that he can sing that well… at least better than his chinese song.

To sum up, I really enjoy the show it gives me tons of fun. I almost laugh my tears out during the show. However, I want to ask a question. Where is the small shop for snacks and drinks?

Prop lists costume lists light effects

Props:
Gun
Water bottle
Two chairs
One table
100 dollars
A paycheck of 100000000rupies

Costume:
The suit for compere Hindi
The black cloth for badguy
Two pair of normal clothes for Jamal and Salim, one of them for Salim is black represent his job of being a gangster

Light effects:
Two spot light during the Trivia show
Three spot light at the end of the show
Blackout during stage change
Light twinkle during the scene Salim killed the badguy
Normal bright light during flashback.

Sound effect at Ben's blog

Script

Hindi: Welcome to the show <Who wants to be a millionaire>! I am your compere Hindi. Are you ready?

Jamal: Yes I am ready.

Hindi: Where are the applauses? Stage direction

Okay, smile Jamal. Can you introduce yourself to the audiences please?

Jamal: Umm.. I work in a call - center, and serving for tea.

Hindi: Oh a chaiwala (tea server)!  A chaiwala! Oh it is brave for you to attend the show!

Okay, let’s begin with our first question for 10000 Rupees.

Are you ready?

Jamal: Yes, I am ready.

Hindi：Smile boy you will be fine.

Jamal forced a smile

Hindi: The song <Darshan Do Ghanshyam>  was written by which famous Indian poet?

1. Surdas
2. Tulsidas
3. Mira Bai
4. Kabir   

Flash back

Bad guy: Listen kid, it’s time for you to make decision. I saved you from picking garbages and starving on the streets, be a warrior like me, I bet you do not want to be a slumdog for the whole life! Now, go and call your brother Jamal here.

Salim: Yes sir I want to be a warrior like you!

The bad guy is pouring Sulfuric Acid to a little boy’s eyes.

Salim saw it and throw out.

Salim: That’s not the warrior I want to be..   Talk to himself

Jamal: Brother we are going to make big money right? Am I going to be a famous singer?

Salim: Listen Jamal, when I tell you to run, run away with me!

Jamal: Wait, brother what are you talking about..

Jamal and Salim enter the house.

Bad guy: Come here Jamal. Sing the song that you always practise to me.

Jamal: I am a great singer now. 50 rupees. I am professional now, what can I do?

Bad guy: What ? Okay (Sarcastic)

Jamal start to sing.

Salim: Here you go ! Throw the Sulfuric Acid to the bad guy

Run Jamal ! He wants to burn your eyes!

They start to run in a circle in the center stage

Jamal: But why? I am about to become a great singer!

Salim: Wake up Jamal! He told me that only blind kids can beg for more money.

Bad guy: Come back you damn kids! I will catch you!

Back to the show

Hindi: Are you awake Jamal? Time is flying by. You have 15 seconds.

Jamal: I think I get the answer. It’s Surdas.

Hindi: Are you sure? Is that the final answer?

Jamal: Yes. It is.

Hindi: Guess what? Stop for a second You are correct!

Okay, Jamal. The second question is coming.

On an American 100 dollar bill, there’s a portrait of which American statesman?

1. George Washington
2. Franklin Roosevelt
3. Benjamin Franklin
4. Abraham Lincoln

Pay or play, Jamal? You decide!

Oh he is looking at the camera. He has no clue. Get a lot of 100 dollars bills for your work Jamal?

Jamal: A minimum tip for my services.

Hindi:I finally know why my telephone bills are so high, because they tip 100 dollar bills to chaiwalla. HAHAHA

Jamal: I ...I choose...C

Flashback

Jamal: Brother why are we leaving. There are lots of foreigners on this street. They are generous. I heard that they even tip 100 dollars to a guide like us!

Salim: Hush! I saw that man who train us to beg for money when we are little kids.

Jamal: Run brother! His coming for us!

Salim: (Nervous and breathe deeply) Calm down brother. I stole the gun from gangster we can protect ourselves.

Jamal: Wait what! You promise me you are not going to be a thief or gangster. We are going to become guide aren’t we?

Salim: Whisper Guide makes no money...

Bad guy: wo wo wo Look who we got here. Salim, Jamal. long time no see. I have never forget you guys.

Touching the scar

I won’t let you run away this time.

Salim: Continue sir. Hands shaking pointing the gun towards Bad guy.

Bay guy: Wait wait wait. Calm down salim. You don’t what are you doing. Heavy isn’t it, give it to me.

Salim: On your knees down and give the money to me!

Bad guy: You can take the money. And we will forget about these right? If you kill me my man will chase after you that’s no good for you right?

Salim: You never forget us, I can’t take that risk, sorry! shoot

Jamal: Wait Salim! What what are you doing? You can not kill him. You will get caught! We are in a big trouble!

Salim: Is me not you. Take the money and leave. I will attend gangsterdom. That’s only way to protect us. To be stronger and make other people afraid of you!

Jamal: Salim no, that’s too dangerous. You will get killed. Let’s run away! They won’t find us.

Salim: Shut up! Go with me or not?

Jamal: No I can’t!

Salim: Go become your slumdog forever! Run away

Jamal: Where are you brother?

Hindi: What are you talking about? Is that your final answer?

Jamal: yes

Hindi: Computer locking the answer! You’re right! Unbelieveable a chaiwalla. You have win 1000000 rupees! Do you want to continue. That is a lot of money. Never seen that much money for your whole life right chaiwalla HHHHH. If I am you I will get the money and leave. Remember! If you lose you lose anything!

Jamal: I will continue( breathe)

Hindi look at Jamal in the eye

Well well well (breathe) I think is the tie for advertisement we will be back in three minutes! Waving to audience

Hindi: listen I can’t let this goes on. He need to lose in the final question. A chaiwalla wins the final prize. Hhn that will make us a joke! This is my show!

Crew: Yes sir, but what should we do? We can’t stop the show.

Hindi: go and give him the wrong answer.

Crew( pretend to be one of the audience): Jamal! Listen I can help you to win the show. You are my idol. You prove to people that slumdog is no less than others. The answer for last question is B.

Jamal: I don’t like to rely on other people but thank you for helping.

Hindi: Welcome back to who want to be a millionaire? Jamal wants to continue to fight for the final prize and let’s see how will it go. Welcome chaiwalla Jamal!

Applause

Here is the question! Which cricketer has scored the most first class centuries in history?

A Sachin Tendulkar

B Ricky Ponting

C Michael Slater

D Jack hobbs

Jamal: I'll use a lifeline. Fifty-fifty.

Hindi: ok.

Computer, take away the two wrong answers please.

B: Ricky Ponting or D: Jack Hobbs.

What do you think?

Decision time. For 10 million rupees.

B: Ricky Ponting

or D: Jack Hobbs.

Jamal: D.

Hindi: Not B?

The Ricky Ponting, the Australian great cricketer?

Jamal: D, Jack Hobbs.

Hindi: You know?

So it could be B, Ricky Ponting?

Or D, Jack Hobbs.

Jamal: The final answer, D. My experience tell me to rely on myself but not the help from doubtfully people.

Hindi: Computer (speaks Hindi) D.

(Speaks Hindi) D.

With 197 first class centuries, the answer is...

D, Jack Hobbs!

Jamal Malik! Millionaire!

Do the dance! Come on!

Well done! Well done.

Bloog

Moving Forward with Energy

Summer holiday is coming, I can already feel the joy blowing into my room with the warm breeze. However, as I reaching closer to the end of school year, the amount of work I need to do increase correspondingly. Teachers are unwearied of hanging up more and more assignment to the portal to get enough grades for students. My final project was born in this awkward situation. Nonetheless, these challenges won’t beat me but encouraging me and giving me energy to work even harder. (really? I want to take a nap...)

I missed a class causing by the chemistry IB exam which slows down our group’s process on making the scripts, but my group mates are all eager to jump to the stage and start to show off their acting skills. And I think each of us find the fittest character for ourselves. I act as the compere Hindi and the bad guys in the play. The reason I choose these characters because I already have the experience of acting Papa Ge which is the bad guy in the story of My Love My Love, and I think I become a master of evil laugh. Joseph acts as Salim because he enjoys killing people with guns and died as a hero. Ben acts as Jamal because he looks like Jamal a lot (I think so), and I think he is good at play the fool (Don’t hit me Ben!). The play with start with a Trivia show, but I am a little bit concerned with the lighting effects, because I am not sure if it can create three spot lights on the stage as the same time as I want.

All in all, I can wait to start to rehearsal the play, and I think it is going to be a great show. I promise I will moving forward with energy!  

Stage design

Who Want To Become A Millionaire

Our play is going to start with spot lights in the middle and crazy applauses. In the middle f the stage is two chairs and a table forming a stage for the trivia show. After the compere asked question, our main character Jamal will be caught in the memories. The stage will blackout and a flashback will occur. (quick setting changes) Explaining the reason why Jamal knows the answer by the hardship he been through to audience. There will be only a table in the middle of the stage for the first flashback scene and the lights will switch from spotlight to normal. There will be different sound effects playing to differ the reality and flashback. For example in reality there will be audience noise as background sound and applause after Jamal answered the correct answer. In the flashback scene there will be music at the part they are running away from the bad guy, or kill the bad guy as revenge to exaggerate how intense the situation is and gives audience a nervous feeling. The play will end with sing and dancing on the stage and the stage will be divided into three parts. Jamal holding paychecks laughing. Salim dying in the bathtub and the compere Hindi angry about the truth that tea server wins the final price on the Trivia show. The stage will separate by three spot light.

Proposal

The Millionaire Story

The literature I am going to choose is the book Q&A which is also named as Slumdog Millionaire which is a story about how a poor indian boy who was born in slumdog wins a million dollars on a Trivia Show. The book is written by Vikas Swarup who is an indian diplomatist. I want to use dramatic and comical ways of acting to highlight the main proposal of the book which is how the experience gained from hardship can be a treasure to people. Although, the play will be funny and laughable, it will let audience think about how poor people is suffering in the reality and let them learn from their misery experience.

To adapt this literature to a drama piece I need 3 to 4 actors and the characters I will have in the play are Jamal who is the main character in the book, Latika who is the girl who Jamal loved, Jamal’s brother, the compere for the Trivia Show, and some supporting characters. People can act as several actors, so everybody can have the same amount of lines to say. The story will start with a Trivia Show. During the time that Jamal think about answer for the Trivia question, it will be a flashback to the past explaining how Jamal know the answer of the question. The play is formed by these flashbacks which is a series of stories connected by the Trivia Show. The play will focus on creating the dramatic contrast between a poor uneducated boy and the Trivia Show that hundreds of intelligent people can’t win. For example, one of the scenes that I am going to talk  about is the one how Jamal and his brother get caught by the beggars. They trained kids and let them beg money for them. While Jamal is singing songs to attract the head of beggars attention, Jamal’s brother pour the sulfuric acid to those beggars and escape with jamal. Also, I will pick the scene about how Jamal and his brother survive on the trains by stealing and deceiving. By using the sounding effects like the sound of train and some props like chairs, I can form different settings and change it during blackout. The way how Jamal and his brother survive is suffering and hardship, but I will made these experiences interesting and laughable by using funny dialogues and some singing and dancings. There will be sing and dancing at the end of the play. In that case after the laughing which will also extrude the hardship those people had and let audience have a deeper understanding about the crucial part of the reality. However, the play will have a positive ending which is Jamal win the million dollars and married with Latika, because I want to show that hardship can be turned into wealth and it will not always accompany with you.

To sum up, the main idea of my is play is how hardship make people stronger and using dramatic elements to exaggerate the crucial of the reality.

Oh IB exam!

IBing

The IB exam starts with a train of heavy and complicated introductions which made my eyelids fall to the bottom only leaving a ray of space for me to look at the examination room. It is always hard for me to keep myself awake all the time, especially in a chilly morning in May.  The extra 45 minutes in the morning not only extend my time for sleeping but also let the sandman to stay with me for a little bit longer. But what should I do? The hypnotic voice with the accompany of the rain create a melody of the cradlesong. “no!” That’s the last word I said before I lost conscious, although I know talking is not allowed right now.

The first thing I saw after I open my eyes is the phone laying beside my pillows with alarm ringing like saying “You need to wake up...You need to wake up…” “Thank God! Is only a dream!” I whispered to myself. On the other side of the room my roommate is snoring like a troll. Is May third and I am going to go to my second but not last IB exam of my life which is about poetry. I am quite confident about this one because I always have a feeling that I should be a troubadour in the ancient time. There is no specific reason to explain where this kind of feeling comes from, but I think it can be attribute to the optimistic and mysterious confidence personalities I have. Holding the pen on my hand like a knight going to a duel I walk into the test room. Solemnity and holy is what you can see on my face. Yes! I am surely well prepared. “Sir you can not entering the room from the window!” “Oh! Sorry! I am getting down. Just one second! Let me clear up my emotions. No! I am definitely not too nervous!

Notes

5. Patterns, aimed at the mind, the heart or the ear of the reader, are used by poets to

achieve their purposes. In the work of at least two poets you have studied, examine various

patterns and their effects.

Hope--Emily Dickinson: the way how she rhyme, repetition, traditional, meter. The endings of the poem similar leave questions. The length of the lines, shape, verse, syllables, stanza and lines.

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -

Yet - never - in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me.

Grandmother in the stars--Naomi Shihab: the connections, plot in the poem, free verse, how she end sentence in the middle. Shape, character. THe endings

It is possible we will not meet again

on earth. To think this fills my throat

with dust. Then there is only the sky

tying the universe together.

Just now the neighbor’s horse must be standing

patiently, hoof on stone, waiting for his day

to open. What you think of him,

and the village’s one heroic cow,

is the knowledge I wish to gather.

I bow to your rugged feet,

the moth-eaten scarves that knot your hair.

Where we live in the world

is never one place. Our hearts,

those dogged mirrors, keep flashing us

moons before we are ready for them.

You and I on a roof at sunset,

our two languages adrift,

heart saying, Take this home with you,

never again,

and only memory making us rich.