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