The Performance

The countdown is finally finished.  Our performance's are done!  Happy day, happy day! Kidding!!  They actually went really well and despite a few mix ups that I think only I spotted (because I did them!!! haha), ours went down without a hitch! 

I've really enjoyed Drama 101 and I really wish I was returning for 149 next semester.  Oh well, I guess it just wasn't meant to be.  I'll just have to resist the urge to pop into the BB randomly. 

For the last time,

                                                                                                                                             Peace and Love

                                                                                                                                                   Cynthia

Eleventh Class - Novmeber 22, 2011

Today was our final meeting with Jeremy to work on our poem.  All of us met at 10:10 and the rehearsal went alright.  I almost had my lines memorized, but kept on messing up at a few key parts.  I could never remember the first stanza I say after Ashley is finished.  I was frustrated, but I knew it wouldn't take much more memorization to get it down.  Jeremy helped me with my vocalization of the words.  He told me that I needed to slow down and savor what I was saying.  In all honestly, that probably the best advice I've ever gotten because in my actual life, I talk way to fast and often make no sense at all.  We tweaked a few more things with how Tamara and I interacted and then our 20 minutes was up.  I think it was a good final practice and I can't wait for the PERFORMANCE!!!!  Yay!

                                                                                                                                             Peace and Love

                                                                                                                                                       Cynthia

Tenth Class - November 15, 2011

Today was a catch up day.  To start off, most of us went to the computer lab to do an evaluation.  I didn't go because I had already completely mine early.  (Just a hint: I had no complaints and thought Drama was wonderful!!!!)  Afterwards, we were back in Rm 1115 and did some of the regular housekeeping like ticket talk and how to critique a play.  

Back in the BB, the nerves began to settle in.  We were all doing a run through of our dramatizations.  These were my thoughts: HOLY CRAP!!!  WE DON'T ACTUALLY HAVE A POEM TO DO!!!!!!  I was freaking out... but only a little.  In the end, my group didn't have to perform because, DUH Cynthia, we don't have a poem.  Sometimes I marvel at myself.  I think we all did pretty well considering and Riley kinda smoked us all with his memorization.  

After class was done, our group met with Jeremy and we discussed our new poem, On Loneliness.  Tamara and I had rustled up some ideas during the other performances, but none of them really fit.  Ashley also joined our group after being tossed around in two others.  We welcomed her with open arms!  It didn't take us long to figure out how we wanted to portray the poem and I think the whole effect is rather eerie.  

                                                                                                                                            Peace and Love

                                                                                                                                                       Cynthia

Ninth Class - November 8, 2011

This class consisted of us discussing our final projects with Jeremy.  Can I just say that ours was kind of a bust?  My group had decided to present a dramatized version of Maya Angelou's poem "Phenomenal Woman".  I can't even describe what went down during our session.  Tamara and I sat there with our mouths open pretty much the whole time while Tracy and Jeremy duked it out.  And by 'duked it out', I mean that they fought (or should I say discussed) what the poem actually represented.  In the end we decided on finding a new poem, which Tracy did.  I think it will much easier to understand.  Wow, my head hurts even thinking about last class.  Ugh.  

                                                                                                                                                Peace and Love

                                                                                                                                                        Cynthia

Eighth Class – November 1, 2011

            Warm-up: Physical – levels/extensions (owa, oh, ah, shim, bubba bubba)

            Hour 1: STAGE FIGHTING

                                    -victim (person being hit)

                                    -aggressor (person doing the hitting)

                                    -knapp

                                    -Learned how to do The Hair Pull and The Slap at 75% speed

Break

Quiz on Theatre Design – think I got a 93%

Did some housekeeping.  Talked about blog updates.  Talked about final project page.  My group is meeting 8:30 next Tuesday for rehearsal. 

Tracy, Tamara and I are doing the poem “Phenomenal Woman” by Maya Angelou.

Thoughts: I know this blog isn’t very original compared to my previous ones, but unfortunately I have a short attention span and new things lose their shininess quickly with me.  The stage fighting was very fun and interesting!  I tried to remember if I had ever learned it in my drama class in high school, but I’m pretty sure we didn’t cover that.  Drama was pretty lax in high school.  Still loved it. 

                                                                                                                             Peace and Love

                                                                                                                                                      Cynthia

Seventh Class - October 25, 2011

I didn't attend class today because I wasn't feeling well.  I hate winter... even the start of it makes me sick.  Hopefully I will be better by next week!

                                  Peace and Love

Cynthia

Sixth Class – Tuesday 18, 2011

            We all dragged ourselves out of bed today, so it took us a while to wake up.  We did the usual range of stretches to get our bodies warmed up, but no vocal exercises again.  I kind of want to sing again!  We played big booty and I’m pretty sure we only had one or two rounds of A--MEN, A--MEN, A---MEN, AMEN, AMEN, which means we’re getting better!  We played Captain on Deck and Jeremy decided to up the stakes by giving whoever won the elimination round 5 extra marks on a test.  (I think it was five…)  I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before, but I SUCK AT THAT GAME!  No, honestly.  I’m eliminated in the first round almost every time!  Even when I try to cheat and stay with a person so we’ll be together at the end, I get ditched and end up all alone.  I’m not proud of trying to cheat, but I mean, COME ON!!!  We played a little bit of pass the number, but Jeremy could tell that we were not into it. 

            We were supposed to do some stage fighting, but the class just wanted to get the quiz over with.  We headed to Rm 1115 and did our “Actor” quiz.  I did really well on the quiz with a 29/30.  There was a lot of debate about a few of the questions and which answer was right.  It was a big downer and I wish we wouldn’t have even discussed it.  The question was either right or wrong.  I wouldn’t have gotten the 29 if we hadn’t discussed it, but I just didn’t like how some student’s opinions were taken into account and others weren’t.  Fortunately, that class is gone and we can move on to a better one!  Hopefully with stage fighting!  (wink, wink, nudge, nudge)

            Back in the Black Box, we did a really, I guess, ‘pretty’ activity.  It was choreographed movements with music.  To get used to it, we started with Jeremy getting us into three lines and then he stood in the front and we copied what he was saying and his motions.  We began with ‘through the forest’ where moved our arms to break through the trees, ‘over the log’ we stepped with our right leg, ‘over the rock’ we stepped with our left leg, ‘into the water’ we bent down to gather water, ‘throw the water’ we threw our hands high into the air, ‘hug the tree’ we bent over and wrapped our arms around a fake tree, ‘stab your heart’ we pushed our hands against our chest in pain, ‘fireball’ we threw our hands out sideways and turned. We would do it again from that side and then again and again.  It sounds very complicated, but we definitely got the hang of it after the first couple of rotations.

            We were then put into groups of 3 or 4 and we had to make our own choreography.  My group was myself, Ashley, Nicole and Rayleen.  Ashley thought of our theme: a man with no arms.  It was hard to think of movements, but apparently our group did really well.  We messed up during the execution, but nobody really noticed.  Jeremy told us to never just walk away, no matter what happened during the performance.  You have to be proud of what you did.  We actually had to do it again, this time moved up so we were all in the light. Lighting is important... who knew?  Haha.  Each activity we do in Drama is more fun and exciting than the last!  Just typing about it makes me want to… DANCE or something!        

            It was another, mostly, successful class.

                                                                                                                          Peace and love

                                                                                                                                Cynthia

Fifth Class – October 11, 2011

            This class was probably was one of the most fun classes to date.  We started out with our regular physical stretching, making sure to shake out all of our limbs.  We didn’t sing: la la la la la la la, but headed straight into some games.  First we played Captain on Deck for a few seconds and then a quick game of BANG.  I think most of us are getting each other’s names down, but I think the key to it, is actually caring enough to remember.  This time when we attempted Big Booty, after a few calls of A—men, A---men, A---men, Amen, Amen, we did managed to get a pretty good rhythm going.  The last game we played was the ball game where we stood in a circle and had to catch a hacky sack if it was thrown to us.  Before the game had even started, Lauren made a wicked catch with a randomly thrown hacky sack.  It was like the freakin’ Matrix.

         We also all sat down and Jeremy gave us the low down about what it really means to be an ensemble.  As a drama class we have to support each other in the crazy things that we do.  We shouldn’t have snarky comments, snicker if someone does something weird or just be plain rude.  It’s all about support.  Jeremy asked if any of us had ever experienced a particular bad bout of this and I think at this age, everyone has.  For me, it was my grade 12 class.  Particularly, the boys.  I know what you’re thinking; this is just going to be just another rant about a girl who was completely annoyed at boys.  You’d be right, but that doesn’t make the boys I grew up with any less mean.  I used to say that they broke me, but I’ve grown up since then.  There’s no point in bringing up the past, it’s in the past for a reason.  They’re in my past for a reason.

            We headed into Rm 1115 for some quick housekeeping and then a POWERPOINT!!! I feel really sorry for the people who have never blogged before. It’s like it’s the hardest thing ever apparently, which sucks!  We use up a lot of our time talking about the blogs. Not that I mind really, I would never stop someone from learning about a form of writing.  Writing is what I do.  If I didn’t write, I wouldn’t be me.

We had a short presentation about: The Art of the Actor and we’ll have a quiz on it next week.  For some reason my other notes talk about me being a Scorpio and so you’ll have to forgive my sarcasm.  I guess that’s just a heads up.  Here’s the usual picture.

               

Back in the Black Box we did two activities: Walk the Walk and Deep Thoughts.  For Walk the Walk I was paired up with Nate Brown and I knew whatever we had to do was going to be hilarious.  Nate is like 10 feet taller than me!  OK, that’s an exaggeration, but still.  So, this activity made us copy each other’s walks.  All of us walked in a circle and had to focus on the person in front of us.  We had to imitate their walk by seeing how they moved different parts of their body. For example we had to take note of how they held their head, moved their arms, if they had any bounce or rhythm, or any other characteristics that were uniquely them.  I think Nate and I did a pretty good job of copying each other’s walks and it gave people a good laugh.  This was a good exercise and I think we all got some good tips out of it.

The last activity, Deep Thoughts, was pretty hilarious.  We were all handed a piece of paper with a supposedly deep thought on it.  We then had to present it to the class.  Here’s how it went: lights dim, walk from either stage right or left onto center, plant feet, clear throat, totally deadpan some ridiculously worded statement, walk away.  I think we all did better than expected because barely any of us burst into laughter.  These were my two statements:

Broken promises don’t upset me.  I just think, why did they believe me?

and

If a kid asks where rain comes from, I think a cute thing to tell them is, “God is crying.”  And if he asked why God is crying, another cute thing to tell him is, “Probably because of something you did.”

            After the class was over, I actually asked Jeremy for the rest of the papers because I thought the sayings were perfect Facebook status material.  Some of the other kids even gave me theirs.  My nerdiness knows no bounds.

            Looks like this class was another success.

                                                                                                Peace and Love

                                                                                                          Cynthia

Fourth Class – October 4, 2011

Four classes down.  Getting to know people a lot better.  Still exhausted every morning.

We did all the usual stretching today which always wakes me up and gets me excited to do whatever Jeremy has planned for us.  Maybe it’s the fact that I’m watching The Matrix right now, or the fact that I’m super sleepy, but I just don’t want to write about the physical and vocal stretches.  Don’t worry though, I do enjoy doing them. 

We played a quick game of ABC’s 123’s, which is always a good time.  We then broke out into three new games.  Enemies and Allies is a cool little game where you have to pick out an ally and an enemy from the other students.  During the game you have to keep your ally between you and your enemy.  Jeannette was my ally, but no one picked me as his or her ally.  Can you really blame them though?  I mean, look at me!!  Lauren was my enemy and it was really weird because she picked me as her enemy as well!  We also played Big Booty, which does sound kind of weird, but the game just helped us work on our rhythm and timing.  Every actor does need to master those aspects.  We snapped our fingers in time and then called out a number and the person who corresponded with that number had to repeat it and then call out a new number.  The last game that we played was Wink Murder.  Jeremy picked out two murderers when we had our eyes closed and then he welcomed us to the party.  We had to walk around and meet people and chitchat.  We played it two times, the first time I died pretty must instantly, but the second time I almost made it to the end.  The best part of the game was dying dramatically at someone’s feet.  I went to greet Kacie and then just keeled over.  Good times.

We had a quick break and then met in Rm 1115.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t for a power point, but rather a… dun, dun, dun… QUIZ!  I pulled a 94% out of thin air.  Kidding, I studied the night before. 

Back in the black box we did 10 Second Scenes.  We got into groups of three: one director and two actors.  I was with Kacie and Quentin and we did Scene 9.

A:  It is finished.

B: It can’t be.

A: It cannot last forever.

B: My mom warned me about you.

            Quentin and I were the actors and Kacie directed us.  I was, A, the unfeeling girl who was breaking up with the boy.  Quentin was B, the clingy boy who didn’t want the relationship to be over.  Kacie thought up the idea and gave us good direction.  My favorite part was when Quentin was on his knees, begging.  Jeremy said we did well.  Everyone else’s scenes were really good and it made me excited to do some more acting!

                                                                                                            Peace,

                                                                                                               Cynthia

Third Class – September 27, 2011

            I don’t speak French.  Sometimes it’s even hard for me to speak English.  If you were in Drama on Tuesday, this will be hilarious to you.

            It was the usual routine in Drama, but apparently there was a lack of energy and some cruel remarks?  I don’t remember this.  I guess this means I should pay better attention to my surroundings.  My dreams of being like Patrick Jane off of the Mentalist are shattered.   I guess it’s easy to see why there may be some snide remarks or whatever happened because it’s a drama class.  It’s a combination of being completely out of your comfort zone and excessive emotions; it’s hard to not say something.  Oh well, maybe we need to do more stretches?  Make us forget all the bad things outside by 100x. 

            For stretches we did Over the Mountain, which makes us all act like dorks, so it’s a pretty easy stretch for me to do!  We also did the Olympic Dive, which was where we laid on our backs and then proceeded to climb the ladder, walk to the end of the board and then DIVE.  We didn’t do any vocal exercises.  For the warm-up games we did a mixture of ABC’s 123’s and Captain on Deck.  We also learned about stage directions, which was just a refresher for me.  One thing that was funny about the stage directions was that the reason that the actors use THEIR left and right for the directions is because of the three rules of drama.

#1. LOOK AT ME

#2. LOOK AT ME

#3. LOOK AT ME

            We then played some name games to get us better familiarized with each other.  We stood in a circle and went around saying our names.  After we would say our name, everyone else would say, “We love you, Cynthia.”  I’m so used to negative comments in my general life that positive comments just don’t sit well with me.  Yeah, yeah.  Boo hoo, right?  With that awkward moment out of the way, the next game we played was good old BANG.  It’s weird how every time I get to go in the middle, I have to spin twice because I either mess up and don’t point at a person directly or people say the names exactly and there’s no clear winner! 

            Oh, power point time!  Before that though, we talked a bit about our blogs again and then about the quiz on next Tuesday.  The power point was pretty short since it was just a continuation of the previous Theatre History lecture.  Here’s my picture of whatever I gathered.  I think it’s a step up from last week. 

            When we were back in the black box we played some games that helped us with our communication.  We all stood in circle and got a number, then we had to walk around the room and catch a ball.  The person with the number below had to pass to you and then you passed to the number above.  It was pretty easy until he added four more balls.  We finally did get all of the balls going though, so that game was a success.  Another one of the games we played was “Pass the Number”, which was where we had to stare at a person in the circle and then they would say a number.  It was incredibly difficult for me to not laugh and that in turn caused people to laugh at me.  Honestly, it was pretty funny.

            The last and possible the funniest game I have ever played was called, “The Invasion of the Body Snatchers.”  It was based, obviously, off the movie, which I haven’t seen, but now I kind of want to.  Wow, that was a long, awkward sentence.  Did I even phrase it right?  Anyway, Jeremy had us lie down on our stomachs while he explained what kind of emotion we needed to portray.  He also picked a “human” during this time.  The rest of us were “replicas” and we all had to act like whichever emotion we were given, like lost, hot or in love.  We had to shake hands to make sure we were all replicas and the “human” had to go around and squeeze someone’s hand to make them human as well.  If a “human” was caught either squeezing someone’s hand or acting out of character, then all the replicas would point at them and make an awesome screeching noise.  The game was really fun to play and I hope we get to try it again sometime.

            That’s all for this weeks Drama class.  Hopefully next week I’ll be more awake.

                                                                                                            Peace,

                                                                                                                  Cynthia

Second Class - Tuesday Sept. 20, 2011

All right, second class down and Drama is pretty much becoming my favorite class.  We started off with our warm up that included doing some physical and vocal stretching.  Nothing especially awesome happened during the stretching; I’m still as flexible as I was on Monday.  The vocal exercises seem to bring everyone out of their shell and bring us all together.  I’ve never tried to put my face in a tea cup, but now I can say that it’s probably one of the toughest things I’ve ever tried to do… considering the fact that the tea cup was just my hand and I was imagining the whole thing.  Our second vocal exercise involved us sticking our tongues and counting to five, but it was more like mumble, mumble, mumble, mum, mu, and mumble.

            To get us moving, Jeremy made us swim around the room and wait for his instructions.  This exercise was a mixture of: ABC’s, 123’s and Captain on Deck.  My notes say it included Velciraption, but I honestly don’t remember what that is.  My bad.  Or, it might not be my bad as we never actually got to that and then I’m terribly sorry for not playing complete attention and for not getting this blog up sooner.  (I just checked on someone else’s blog…. And it’s not my bad)

            Driving the Bus deserves it’s own paragraph.  It was a very enlightening game and it managed to prove that the problem with the world is a lack of communication.  First we got into two circles, one inside of the other.  The person in the outer circle became the driver and the person in the inner circle became the bus.  The buses had to close their eyes while the driver’s had to perform simple movements, like tapping constantly on their head and shoulders or placing a palm on their back, to get the buses to move.  The drivers had to maneuver the buses across the room and then back without crashing into any other buses.  The first run went pretty smoothly, I think, as I don’t remember any huge crashes, but the second run was a different story.  The buses had to join together to create a bus made up of three people and one driver.  What does one driver + three sets of closed eyes + some majorly delayed reaction time =?  TWO MAJOR COLLISIONS!  Don’t worry though; no students were harmed during the course of the second Drama 101 class. 

            The next stop on the Drama roller coaster was Classroom 1115 and you know what that means: POWER POINT!  In this little lecture we talked about the history of theatre and its Greek, Roman and Italian connections.  I took Classics 110 last year, so I already knew about Greece and Rome, so that, coupled with my inability to take notes, lead to this picture: 

If you look closely, I do actually have some important words from the power point, so I think that it’s actually a step up from the usual.  After that, we talked a bit about these wonderful blogs and how to set them up and what they need to include.  You may notice that there is nothing about the blogs in the above picture, so yes, I many have zoned out just a bit.

            We got back into the black box and started a neat activity called Picturization.  We were all sorted into groups of four or five and then preceded to tell each other about embarrassing stories about people or ourselves.  My group didn’t get to perform, but hopefully we still remember how to party…… :P

            And so, the second drama class came to a close.  I think I remember nearly everyone’s names and it’s pretty awesome how we’re all slowly realizing that there is a method behind the madness that is Jeremy.

  

                                                                                  Catch you next week,

                                                                                                Cynthia

The First Class

            Drama 101.  Tuesday.  Let’s begin.

I had never been in the Black Box before, so I have to admit, it kind of creeped me out.  First of all, Room 1105 has NO DOOR HANDLE!  I wasn’t sure what Lakeland was playing at, but I thought that maybe my first lesson in Drama was going to be how to teleport from the hallway to the classroom.  That definitely would have made my second year awesome.  When Tuesday rolled around, the door was magically open and it did dampen my spirits a bit that there wasn’t going to be a lesson in teleporting.  All of the sci-fi movies and televisions shows I watch have made me too hopeful.  Second of all, well I really don’t have a second of all.

            The first thing we had to do was take off our shoes and it was then that I knew Drama and I were going to get along just fine.  Shoes are evil.  Our professor, Jeremy, led the class through a warm-up, which included us stretching, warming up our voices and jumping up and down shouting: I AM AN ACTOR.  The last one occurred throughout the class every time someone crossed their arms because Jeremy thought they were mad at him.  The idea does have potential; I bet no one would cross his or her arms at me if I did that all day.  I like to stretch; it’s relaxing and makes time go fast.  The fact that a good stretch feels wonderful helps as well.  It wasn’t weird stretching in Drama because Drama almost feels like a sport and I’ve participated in sports pretty much all my life.  It was actually comforting because it was like falling into an old, familiar routine.  Vocal exercises are always fun.  It is always a good time when people are making funny faces and struggling through tongue twisters. 

            After we got all warmed up, we headed into a new classroom, room 1115, for a power point.  Power points are my best friend.  Whenever a professor uses them, I always do a little dance inside my head because they are such good study tools.  My love of them could also stem from the fact that I am very lazy and don’t like taking notes.  The power point was all about what was going to happen through the course of Drama 101.  It talked about what we were going to write in our journals or now, blogs.  The whole concept confused me a little, but that’s probably because I’m not very good at keeping blogs or journals.  The fact that this blog will count for part of my grade will help me keep it going.  If only I had had that kind of stimulation for my other lonely journals.  The power point also informed us that our final presentation was going to be acting out dramatic poetry.  Now, I’m all over that.  I love poetry and I love to act, so you could say that I’m kind of excited. 

            With the power point done, we went back to the black box to play some games.  We played two games: one introduced us to each other and the other was just plain silliness.  The name game was incredibly helpful and it actually helped me remember people’s names days after the class was done.  (I had accidently hit a guy in the head with my foot while playing the other game and when explaining this to my friends, this was how I remembered the guy’s name.) 

The other game we played was called Captain on Deck.  The game had the whole class running around like chickens with their heads cut off, or was that just me?  Anyway, the basis of the game is kind of like Simon Says.  The person in charge, or Jeremy, calls out certain commands that the actual players of the game have to follow.  The commands all had to do with ships.  When he called out: CAPTAIN ON DECK, we all had to salute.   When LIFE JACKET was called, it meant that we had to find another person and link arms with our backs to each other.  There were a few others, but the gist of the game is there.  The first few rounds we played were just so we could get the hang of the commands and remember what they meant.  The last round we played was elimination and if you were the last person to accomplish a command, then you had to sit out.  Needless to say, I didn’t win.  For some reason, I just can’t win when everyone in the class is taller than me and I just get tossed around in the chaos.  The game was really enjoyable though and it was still fun to watch from the sidelines.

            My first encounter with Drama 101 was, I think, a success.  I’m looking forward for the next one even though 8:30 in the morning is not my best friend.  I guess that’s all I have to say for this blog. 

                                                                                    Catch you next week,

                                                                                            Cynthia