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