Life's Angles

forum theatre #4

2010-02-01T00:51:00.000-08:00

same day.

we had SO much fun today.
love the games

game #1
stand in a circle and one in the middle. middle person runs to a friend and says their name. they go in the middle. continue and play with 2 ppl in the middle. random but awesome.

game #2
standing in the same circle......we do the same thing, except run at a person saying something about them but if the thing is not true, then just stay.

game #3
sitting down now in a circle, person in the middle has to shout out at issue and if that issue is agreeable with u, then run up and change ur seat.
awesomeeeee

game #4
the piece of paper game. HAHA so lame. get on the piece of paper. step on. get off. step off. get off the carpet. step on the paper. in the end. when there was no paper. trym said. hey. lets jump. jen says: you should have just done that earlier.
us all =_= oh yea...

game #5
re-did the standing on specific body parts. this time one back and 2 hands. mark the victim. tilly and michelle riding on his legs. trym on his hands and i'm on trym. NICEEEE

game #6
THE ISSUE. we discuss an issue faced by all of us, create a tableau. at claps we create a series of tabelau's and then join the tableau's together. then she does something so awesome. she freezes us and taps on our shoulder and we have to do a monologue of our brain. its abit of rambling and trym is very random but.....wow, it really helps you get into character. I LIKE.

thats all. sweated so much. but it was a fun drama class :)

today during drama mr.moss does something cool too. the hand-crossing game. we sit close, and just follow the flow. twice claps mean reverse the direction, once is normal. then it was that awfully confusing game of "this is nick" "who?" game. i don't even wanna mention it....

lastly, we did tableau's of the relationship between our characters in our scene study. :D nyeh nyeh me and tilly did it rightttt!!! i locked my jaw and tensed my shoulders but i still had to show myself wanting to be near tilly because i needed a job from her!!! gahhhhh :D

liking drama more and more ;)

Forum theatre #3

2010-02-01T00:45:00.000-08:00

280210

meeting during lunch we get assigned with parts and immediately get to work.
it is soooo good this experience. it feels great! and....so fresh and new. got a chance to improve on improvising as well.

parents: tilly + connor
SUBJECT : sashi + bryce
Friends : Alice, courtney and kelly
shopkeeper : ME :)

i have no idea how to do this. I AM SO SCARED. what do i act as? i have nv bought/sold alcohol ever ever EVER in my entire life. this is freaking me out. HELP.
but we go into the scene and....i don't really want to tell you how my brain just thought of things but.....it just did. works well under pressure i guess? ;)

1. read out what the card he hands me says. I.S.P Uplands. :P dob 1994
2. you look like you need 5 bottles.
3. friend out there looks small.
4. give you combo - and then start blabbering about deals.
5. typo in school id? ya i know uplands got alot of typo.

i had to speak so CHINESE-Y and like a hooligan. but but but. it was worth it ;)
the best fun was at night when the parents, horsface, cadman joined it. parents ideas seems so much more.....VALUABLE.

o well. the experience was great. was sweating and roasting in the drama room but....it was all cool B)

Forum theatre #2

2010-02-01T00:41:00.001-08:00

same day. in the afternoon me and tilly got called back to present a little somethin somethin for the years 9 and 10 assembly tmr.

we got into groups. and worked on the issue of alcohol. and what are the issues? peer pressure? overuse of it? drinking behind parents back?

first we had to create a tableau from it.
then we created a sketch about it

the first groups was obvious.
peer pressure
and i like the way the girls under peer pressure tensed up their shoulders. looked very uncomfortable.

meeting time again tmr during lunch.

Forum Theatre workshop #1

2010-02-01T00:27:00.000-08:00

250110

Dr. Jennifer Hartley.

Game #1:
the 1,2,3 game when there are two people i say 1, you say 2, i say 3, you say 1......in a loop, that sorta thing. next step. replace the numbers with random noises and actions. did this at TAPS. hmmmmmm

Game #2
follow the hand. something that i did with katharine in my contemporary dance workshop. All you do is, one guy follows the hand, and one guy leads with the hand. your face has to be a particular distance with the hand. Thats all. average game. Just got messed up when it was me + michelle + tilly doing it together.

Game #3
forming a picture with a word. She says a word, we discuss (supposedly) the image we form and make a tableau from it. Apparently it shows that we aren't really united in this game because we never got around to discussing any bits.

Game#4
carrying each other. We can only stand using the number of body parts she says. We got 2 hands 2 feet and it was soooo hard. I was on trym's back and we tried to ask mark to do a handstand so we carry his legs? NO. didn't work out. :P

Game #4
This game was so.....hahahah...weird. we have to have a piece of paper between us at our foreheads and drop it till it was caught between our ankles. Then we had to get it up again. the getting up part was difficult.

Game #5
Lined up in a row with a paper between each of us. had to move without dropping the paper.

Game #6
Lined up in a row doing game #2

Game #7
I LOVE THIS GAME! high ratings ding ding ding ding! each person has a number. walk random about the room. She calls out the number. The person in possession of the number has to drop dead. the others rescue. AWESOMEEEE

P/S: The games listed are in random order.

ok. so here is forum theatre and theatre of the oppressed. it uses a series of games to bring out the best in people. playing games to allow us to get more comfortable with each other and then bringing in scripts and stuff. Dr. Jennifer Hartley does this working with kids with AIDS, HIV, post war, refuge camps.....all good stuff. Its just quite a difficult sort of theatre.

O Henry

2009-08-27T06:27:00.001-07:00

plays by him that are REALLY GOOD.

The Green Door
http://www.literaturecollection.com/a/o_henry/38/

The Gift Of The Magi
http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/ohenry/bl-ohenry-giftmagi.htm

The Last Leaf
http://www.literaturecollection.com/a/o_henry/226/

we chose The green door as our devised piece because it was somewhat a happier story as compared to the other 2.

We cracked our heads on how to stage it, begin it bla bla bla~ and Mr.Moss pops in with this humongous idea! but first......he has to tell a story first.....

AND it is confidential....i'm not gonna tell it here. hehe but i'm definitely gonna rmb it :P the point is, there are in situations, stories that you will tell over and over again, to your kids, to your friends and to your family. and THE GREEN DOOR is one of them. and its a love story. hehe. DUH.

so here's Mr.Moss's point, stage it in a way it is a girl/guy at a bar called the GREEN DOOR and she has flashbacks. and the story goes on.....read it and you'll find out. HEHEHEHHEHEHE.

but its amazing and I hope we can do it well :S

The Invisible Man

2009-08-27T06:09:00.000-07:00

260809

HA HA HA HA HA.

this piece was hilarious. and stupid. but fun. oh so fun.

Mr.Moss told us we were gonna do something fun, and sure enough, he delivered. He turned to Tilly. Tilly, in this hand is invisible, and in this hand is wax. CHOOSE.

Mark : Wax wax wax.
Tilly : INVISIBLE.
Mr.Moss : Good choice.

So we were given details on the piece.

Dr. Wells - The doc who turns invisible = Trym
Rosemary - Doc's secretary = Michelle
Stuart - Guy friend of Rosemary who wants to be a boyfriend = Mark
Mrs. Green - Cleaning lady = Tilly
Mr. Pill - Chemist = Me

we looked at the piece and thought, how do we go about doing this?
AND soemtimes i think our ideas are just quite lame. We went through it, and michelle and mark started out the first scene. We all knew something was wrong about it, but we all didn't know how to change it....properly.

So our lame play started off as mark and michelle walking in, chatting, talking about Dr.Well's absence, then Trym comes in, tickles her, tilly goes on, tickle tickle tickle, annoy annoy annoy, I walk in, FULL ANNOYANCE and end.

It was plainly boring and not funny. Here's how Mr.Moss modified it.

It starts off with trym mixing around with his chemicals, checks his books and drinks his mixture. *SPASM* He becomes invisible and checks himself out in the mirror behind which is mimed. Michelle : "Dr.Wells!!! Dr.......wells?" She checks herself in the mirror, pats hair adjusts skirt and sits at her secretary desk. Mark looks around the room to make sure no one but michelle is in and : "So.....have you seen Dr.Wells?" They're conversation goes on and Mark walks suavely around to the mirror : " And I wonder if you enjoyed last night as much as I did" while he runs his fingers through his hair. mirror again. while both characters and back to back trym comes and so does the tickle. Michelle "Not right now stuart!" Mark :" what?" He stares blankly at this girl before him, accusing him of doing something he obviously did not do. PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFTTT trym blows at Michelle's hair while she still has her back facing mark. Michelle :" I SAID NOT IN THE OFFICE." Before Mark can speak Tilly walks in, puts a chair in place and wipes the mirror. Checks teeth. Has something stuck in it? tries cleaning using tongue. oh it doesn't get out? use fingers and check in the mirror again. Mark : " Have you seen Dr.Wells?" "No. No. Haven't seen him at all today." She turns to dust a window nearby and trym pats Tilly on the butt. Tilly flips over and slyly slips her arm around Mark :" Oh stuart.........." Mark attempts to wriggle away while I stomp in. "WHERE IS DR.WELLS?!!!!! He owes me...i mean the chemist lab a whole sum of money! I tell you what this so called DOCTOR is a scam, he is a lizard, a fly on the wall an ant.....!" While i am saying this i am waving my hand up and down and trym just "helps" me in doing it. getting more and more vigorous. Soon I realise that my hand moves without my muscles working and I scramble to get it by my side. By then trym has walked over to tilly and slapped her on the butt again, tilly, thinking it was mark slaps mark who flips over and gets slapped by michelle who thinks HE slapped her but. IN ACTUAL FACT, it was all Dr.Wells, THE INVISIBLE MAN. "IS ANY OF YOU PAYING ATTENTION TO ME?!" I yell and suddenly the wooden laden in my hand is snatched up. we all turn to look at it and we all scream "DR WELLS!" Trym looks back at the mirror and BAM he is visible again. OOPS. he drops the laden and we all take one BIG step towards him. We all turn and tadaa....! the play ends.

short

sweet

amusing.

HAH

The cop and The Anthem - O. Henry

2009-08-25T00:39:00.000-07:00

250809

Today was interesting. we read this piece out loud in class, tilly, me, michelle and mark. Struggling through the words and Mr.Moss asked us to present a PPP on it as a group. okie dokie. to work! first day at school. KONON.

When we were about to sit down and actually think of stuff ourselves, wonderful Mr.Moss said, lets do it together.

EVEN BETTER. GOOOOOODY

1st question.
what should we have in mind?

Mark : The targeted audience?

At least he had ideas. my mind was blank. but no. it wasn't about that. it was about what kind of story this was.

Hui Ern : About not getting what you want when you want it?
Mark : Being unfortunate
Mr.Moss : Sum this up in one word.
Mark : Ironic.

YES! Mark is quite smart sometimes......SOMETIMES.

so we have the kind of genre this production is based on and we discuss the audience. We thought about it and somehow I thought only adults would like it but then Mr.Moss goes, don't you think little kids would like it too? to see this HOBO steal an umbrella only to find that the person who owns it didn't really own it in the first place? IN SHORT. he was saying that even kids, though they might not understand, but love the comical sense to it. it is after all, a comedy based ironic piece.

Next he asked, what do you want your audience to take away from your production?

SILENCE.

SILENCE.

.....and more silence.

MR.Moss: you are such great students! THEY IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING YOU CAN GET OUT OF THIS PIECE. don't need to think! its just a comedy! how can comedies be *and sarcastic voice comes* FILLED WITH DEEPER MEANINGS.

sometimes drama surprises me. :D

Then he says, ok, lets think of the structural pieces of the play. what are the points of the play? or something like that....i forgot what he said exactly. *BLANK* what? Until now, its still a blur to me, but what i get is that is the important bits of the play. "The hobo decides to go to jail" and that is one. ahhhhh i get it. abit.... ._.

Then he asks more about the structure of the play. what what WHAT?! Something happens, conversation and we get NARRATION. Mr.Moss says there is narration in Noh Theatre, in Kabuki. application! then we close our eyes or turn to not face him and picture the hobo's outfit. We describe it to him and the class ends.

TADAA

first day of school. *monotone* yippee
here's for those who want to read
THE COP AND THE ANTHEM by O. HENRY
http://www.literaturecollection.com/a/o_henry/32/

Wayang Wong or I think that is how its spelled.

2009-05-29T03:30:00.000-07:00

290509

Aida came and did Citra. SHE WAS SO GOOD. and there were so many things to this form of theatre you had to think about at the same time. Feet, the toes, the jerky movements, the angular or spiral movements, the hands, the fingers, not using so much facial expression but the eyes. and not using so much hip. its tough, and good exercise.

CHARACTER DIFFERENTIATION
1. Keras - Signifying strong and can be used by both protagonis and antagonis.
2. Gagah - Used for warriors that are ranked below heroes
3. Halus - Only GOOD characters.

MALE
male characters walk with an open legged bend, heel first with heel lifted before each step. The softer the movement, the more prone to good you are. EG: evil raises heel VERY high while heroes movement are swift.

FEMALE
Like walking on water, like chinese people shuffling their people. ON TOES. Occasionally heels are used to turn or hasten movements.

LAWAK
This commical character jumps around alot and walks as if he is marching

MOVEMENTS
always move in one way, spiral eight with a certain rhythm. palms up, curve inwards to palms up again with hands arched at the wrist. then reverse motion. It basically like that. The guanyiing motion signifies unity and love. For males, everthing is ANGULAR, arms are raised at right angles to show strength and rigidity while females are more spiral and like figures of eight. Body moves as if in a box to the four corners. There were jerks in the movement to mirror wayang kulit and its like taking little snapshots of the character. Toes always fly up.

The use of facial expression is little because in the beginning masks were used, hence little or none facial expression. Fingers are bend backward like Thai

Break Out Play

2009-05-29T03:02:00.000-07:00

280509

The play was awesome! it was about 5 prisoners, escaping from prison but encounters a book that make you dance. I think the book is just an excuse to add in the dancing bit, but the scene changes were so good BECAUSE of the book and maybe yea, the book wasn't so bad.

Lets talk drama:
1. LIGHTING
the lights were good, the way they manipulated the lights in the beginning, using spotlights to snapshot characters as a way of introduction, the red downward spotlights making it look like the prison area, and red to symbolize love at the begin bits. The lights were worked really well with the sound effects as well. Oh yes, the lightning was emphasized using lights as prisoners were trying to dig their way out of prison.

2. MUSIC
suitable music sound effects brought out scenes, while they were working, the raining bit, the hospital, the romance scene, the church scene played with music ALOT. the beach scene's music was warm.

3. LANGUAGE
they used english! they used very little dialogue, which was good because it might hav turned out bad if too much was used, with very SIMPLE style of english, monosyllable words that were straight to the point.

4. COSTUME
Costumes suited characters very well,
Lump - torn and tattered to show strength
Trickly - tatoo-ed like sleeve to show sneakiness
(the charming guy) - tighter fitting to show profile of body
(the old) - looser outfit to show age and malnutrition maybe?
Joker - Normal. He was the clumsy everyday likeable character
Gundog - police outfits were POLICEOUTFITS
Nurses - All white. universally recognised
SWAT - Alike real swat teams you see on TV
Nuns - Like nuns.
-----THE COSTUMES USED WERE VERY GENERALLY RECOGNISED AS WHAT THEY WERE-------

5. SCENE/PROP
Maneuvered very well using the "running away" act. The puppet theme was a very create idea and they didn't mind showing slight costume change in that one. Props were smoothly introduced in and scenes were changed by the "large book" displayed behind.

6. ENSEMBLE
they worked SO WELL together as a group. especially in the beginning when they were "working out" with the police, their timing was perfect, when the police turned his back, the others made faces behind him and so on.......THAT timing had to be ACCURATE. alot of trust in the group. and the part where two guys were playing the role of one patient on a bed in the hosp. TALK ABOUT COLLABORATION!

7. INTERACTION WITH AUDIENCE
ALOT of this. they even had a "hostage" to come up being strapped with dynamite and an audience member was flung a shirt. They also thanked the audience verbally which i feel went a little unappropriate, sorry but the guy shouldn't talk to much. Also, the referring to one of the audience as a FROG was funny.

8. FACIAL EXPRESSION/PHYSICAL MOVEMENT
since there were few dialogue most of the communication with the audience was using actions and facial expression. They did this really well, esp during the "slow-mo" parts. Hence, the facial expressions were really obvious as well during the slow mo parts. During the last snippet in the church scenes, the facial expression had to be prominent because the snippets were short and the msg to the audience had to be precise. The physical movement was ALOT, during the exercise scene, the chasing around in the hosp, the SWAT, the dancing, the everything.....had alot of well defined movement.

9. CHARACTER
these were well defined. Lump in the first part where he hammers down the car with a large hammer, and he has the most brains. The old guy is swift and this was shown during the scene running in the prison away form the spotlights. No doubt Joker was clumsy and totally opposite from everyone. Tricky was indeed perverted by squeezing everyone's butt and The Flirt always showed stomach during poses.

10. The only problem.
whats with the book?! and the love scene?!

Hepatitis Performance

2009-05-17T05:44:00.000-07:00

170509

UHOH.
heres my little assesment on our hepatitis performance.
WAS AWKWARD.

ProblemS:
1. I totally missed my cue on phumi's "unprotected sex" shadow play scene.
2. We could actually continue it but trym decided to cut it short. Not his fault, I made him freak out.
3. Tilly seemed uncomfortable.
4. Microphones were weird.
5. Needs improvement on my pronounciation.
6. Was I supposed to look lost when going on stage?
7. We didn't do the "realistic" volunteering thing we planned to do.

UpS:
1. People were actually amused by the shadow play, and besides the sex scene, everything was cool. b^_^d
2. Dr.Ding really added alot of information to our project.
3. We actually hit the nail on the head with the criterias we used. Unprotected sex, tatoo's (needle's), seafood, unclean ice. What we could have added was NOT WASHED HANDS + ACUPUNCTURE. this is what I caught.
4. I thought that Mark actually looked like he was a doctor.

Here's what it looked like:

Actors Journal #21 - ACTUALLY dressed up

2009-03-16T06:07:00.000-07:00

130309

FINALLY. everyone has brought their costumes.

GIRL - Red dress. Black heels. Little black bag. Black belt. Black cardigan.
GUY - Red button down shirt and black suit.

Louis - Black shirt and white vest. Checkered hat.
Melanie - White flowy dress.
Ken - Dusty grey suit.
Mark - Styrofoam and duct tape.
Mary - White top and pink silky skirt.
Pearl - Green top and corset and short black skirt.
Tod - T-Shirt on backwards and short khakis
Sophie - Shower cap, fake glasses, lose saggy top and long flowing skirt.
Brandon - Long sleeved cotton Tee and jeans.
Linda - Funky hairband, multi-coloured maxi dress over dusty grey vest, black tights and black shiny boots.
Manny - UNSEEN.
Mimi - All black attire.

It was awwwweeesomee.....costumes bring characters to life! Even during the acting I felt that energy.

Even tried the parts with Mr.Moss as ken and brandon. He just flows with the character. its amazing how he does it. Ms. Marshall did an amazing job with the mime. One look that she gave after the "its rude to bring your job on a date" made me realise that she IS a great actress. I have more respect for her now......

OH NO. I'm getting bored with my part.....that is a bad thing. I don't like to do that.....AND. props still not yet up! even tilly has her music....

oh well.

NEXT WEEK.
PERFORMANCE WEEK. *shivers with excitement*

Actors Journal #20 - Dressed up

2009-03-16T05:39:00.000-07:00

100309

NO ONE BROUGHT THEIR COSTUMES TODAY. oh except Mark. And he's wearing red and black! Like me! We match and it is really really awesome. :D :D so glad I chose red and black.

Anyway, the stage is set up and abit awkward. The tables are too low for the chairs and there are no music, lights or props. And seriously....are the chairs the ones we are using for performance day? But whatever, its the acting that counts.

So we start and I can feel my energy sapping. Its like....a drain, or a toilet, and i'm being flushed down it. No one is in the mood or has one bit of excitement for what is yet to come exactly 7 days from today. I'm thinking it is replaced with anxiety? hmmmm.....oh well. all i can say is today felt terrible. Even my laughter scene with phumi felt awkward and uncomfortable.

Michelle is getting to be REALLY REALLY good at Louis. She is loud and obnoxious, and when Mr.Moss said "don't mind what she's doing." Michelle actually ignored me and went on blabbering her script and it WORKED SO WELL!!! She has to remember that feeling.......oh man.....

next. Phumi is getting better! AT BOTH ken AND brandon. He's really bringing it each time we practice. So i'm getting more and more comfortable in my scenes with him. Trym. I stil feel a bit uneasy about Tod. Sometimes he just gives me that blank look and I just feel lik giving it back too.....but, i have to be embarassed to be seen with him and try to get him to get that I don't want him near me. So i talk. Somehow.....my rambling works a teeny bit. :P

I have to be more fluent in my lines with Tilly.

BUMPING scene with Mark needs work! I don't bump into him correctly and it is WEIRD. with capital ALL letters. ARGH. blocking blocking blocking! The blocking is so hard to do!!!!! But oh well, it'll work out eventually......

I WANNA SEE EVERYONE'S COSTUMES......
AND. they all like my outfit. yay :D

BIG PROBLEM=My mood effects my acting. How to get over thaaaaat?!

Actors Journal #19 - With an audience

2009-03-09T03:26:00.000-07:00

060309

Today we acted all the scenes with everyone else that weren't acting as an audience. After that, wow's & what if's were given. SCARY. but very constructive. lets begin!

First scene - GIRL & LOUIS
It was ok. Comments were.......I have to be more aware of the audience, show my face more, turn my body towards them...Mr.Moss :"I don't mean to discriminate....but the asian face makes it hard for you to act. You don't leak! so whatever you're doing now....you gotta amplify it by 100000 times honey" Yes sir. I have to work on how to disengage with Louis. How to cut in better, how to finally break out with that line "ORRRR we could just end the date right here, because you're the biggest tool I have ever met." Ms.Marshall :"you have to show more what you're thinking...."

Second Scene - GIRL & KEN
Lisa :"you nailed it!" Mr.Moss :"You just made the biggest mistake. you just showed us that you can do it." good or bad? May-Li :"ending pose is awkward?" YES. I AGREE. need to work on how the ending pose can work for both of us and shows ENERGY. FIRE. PASSION! woohooo......hahahhaa. andddd....right before the ending pose, Phumi needs to do something more disgusting to me before i jump and scream :"DOES THIS CRAP EVER WORK?!" to his face.

Third Scene - GIRL & TOD
Interact more with the audience. I actually thought I did.....I glanced at the audience. Doing that "what on earth am i here with a 5 year old for?!" look. butttttt.....i need to exaggerate more. make it obvious. yea.

Fourth Scene - GIRL & BRANDON
I did a head flick! hahahahaa. and I honestly don't know why i did that. but it worked! even mr.moss laughed! whoaaaa....so i have to remember to do that head flick at my longest line.

Time ran out. we only did to that spot. THIS IS AN AWESOME ACTIVITY. Constructive critisim at its best!

Actors Journal #18 - ITS GETTING CLOSER

2009-03-09T03:16:00.000-07:00

050309

ITS GETTING CLOSER. I CAN FEEL IT. THE PERFORMANCE DAY IS GETTING TO BE SO CLOSE. IT IS SCARING ME.

Today we did more individual practices. Walking around running lines through with people we need to run lines with. It was comfortable. AND....i found out! Trym is doing Louis, Mr.Moss is doing Ken and Brandon while Ms.Marshall is doing Sophie when Michelle and Phumi is off in singapore.

So, basically we ran through everrrrything again. I did scene's with Mr.Moss. GOSH! he's hilarious! he wore this pink shirt, and white shades and a malay hat. HAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHA. soooo ECCENTRIC. BUT. his lines are a little messed up and he expects me to cover for him. argh. it was frustrating, but i learn how to improvise :) phumi is getting better! i look at him and i am thinking "yea, i could be on a date with this guy..." and yea, feeling very very at ease acting with him. YAY! Now i'm moving around more.....getting more facial expressions.....its all working towards a better play! yesss! BUT. Trym? still problems with the lines! COME ON TRYM! and tilly. WHOA just realised that I haven't been practising much with her?! its gone bad. so that day, we did lines until I remembered them again :D. yay. Its good to know where we need to work on. MICHELLE IS JUST ON FIRE! she is getting bolder and you can see the confidence she has in her lines. its awesome. :):):):)

Overall. It was quite a productive day. Acting with Mr.Moss is a tad intimidating. How to act like you're in love with ur TEACHER?! *faint*

Actors Journal #17 - FINALLY!

2009-03-09T02:05:00.000-07:00

030309

FINALLY! we started working on Check, Please! yes yes yes yes yessss!
but class started off with BAD NEWS. *dramatic music* Phumi and Michelle have to go on an MUN (models united nation) trip to singapore the day we have a night performance for parents. =O. to make a long story short. They're taking a night flight and they will miss the performances only after that night one.

Next, Mr.Moss sat us down, and asked us to evaluate ourselves. What was Good and what was Bad. Once again.........I was first. it gets annoying that i'm always first. Why can't Mark be first? But oh well, because i'm a student in IB, i voice out opinions without hesitation. So I honestly searched through my brain for a moment when I felt was most comfortable and said it out loud "my laughing scene with phumi" honestly. that was it. never had i felt so succesful in my acting parts. anddddd....the bad part - Louis and the Girl's scene. It felt really weak. weak weak weak weak. and i didn't know how to help it. ARGH. but oh well. thoughts out. time to work on it.

Mr.Moss then told us all about what we all suck at. VOLUME. we aren't loud because we just don't use the diaphragm to speak. I know how to use it.....but sometimes, i forget. so. REMINDER #1 - use diaphragm to speak.

So we run through all the parts. MICHELLE WORKED SO HARD! AND PULLED THROUGH! she sounded SOOOOO much more confident this time and I was really into the script. Being a good actor, you can't just rely on yourself, well at least in my case. There has to be support from each supporting role. Thats why they are called that. supporting actors. So michelle done. Phumi. He's still concious and not over exaggerating enough! argh. but he's getting there, i can tell. :)
Lines with Trym are just messed uppppp....and it makes me so frustrated because i really don't know how to help him rmb what he has to say next. I try things lik drop hints....but he doesn't get it. I stall by blabbering on and on.....but he just lets me! OH SO FRUSTRATING. but *sigh* All i can do is hope he'll nail the lines by thursday. Phumi again. WHOA.so much better. I love the Brandon scene. I feel so comfortable with it. IT IS AWESOME. all because it starts with that laughing scene. hee hee! Next is....Tilly. it was.....ok. nothing special. I didn't feel it was funny. no ups and downs. no dynamics that I can work on with facial expression. nadaa. nil. zip. Hope things will get smoother thurs. NO "CHEMISTRY" with GUY(mark) .....am i THAT repulsive?

ARGH.

Actors Journal #16 - None at all.....AGAIN

2009-03-01T05:28:00.000-08:00

270209

Today we didn't touch Check, Please AT ALL. I'm getting frantic.

Instead we work on our PPP. We were given a stimulus, a poem, in this case, and asked to write down the words that come into your head when right after you hear it. like the acid test in TAPS. I admit. I SUCK AT THIS. and it was really scary for me. Everyone seems to be like, coming up with awesome ideas, like, savouring the journey, not the destination.

Next, we take 5 minutes to construct a play from what little stimulus we have, and from that idea, try to sell it to a producer. sell it. USING 15 seconds. tell me how impossible that is! argh. once again, my mind went blank. i seriously didn't have any idea about what my production was.....and you're asking me to SELL IT?! madness. But we attempt anyway, bravery and confidence covers over other thoughts and emotion like fear, nervous-ness, TREPIDATION. well, at least it smothers it abit. but yet again, I sucked. its tough for me, i don't know why, and I really want to be good at this.....I just don't get inspiration that easily. ARGH. nevermind. next challenge. which again seems tough for me. we sell a production we have been involved in before. and mine is LOVE PERHAPS. OH DEAR ME. Mr.Moss thinks the play sucks, so how am I going to sell it?! *brrrrriiiinnnnggg* the bell rings and we're off to hear this singaporean guy speak and SELL La Salle, a school for the arts. selling. how ironic. it was boring.

Actors Journal #16 - IPP + Check, Please

2009-03-01T05:01:00.000-08:00

260209

We spent the first period running yet another IB requirement. seems like we have endless writing assignments AND one teacher even commented that IB drama has more written assesment projects than IB english. WHAT?!
Anyway, overall again. Number #1, which is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT. it is only your Portfolio that is being assesed. Not your objectives and how you achieved it. Not your success in your task. But the PORTFOLIO. meaning, you set a goal, yet at the end of the day, you fail to achieve, but the process of failure is well documentated then.......you may pass with flying colours for your IPP. First of all, when we have the IPP in mind, we have to set objective(s) that we intend to achieve through the independent project we are carrying out. The portfolio is actually about the preparation, finding out what we need to do to achieve the goals, what we actually DO to achieve those goals and how we determine we have achieved our goals aka SUCCESS! hee hee. simple. its the process, what the production does FOR you, instead of what it does TO you.
In an IP, we have to have at least have a fusion of two of the main elements in theatre, Theatre in The Making, Theatre in The World, and Theatre in Performance. The IP must result in an actual performance of some sort. Also, EVERYTHING in the introduction, body, conclusion and tribulation is to be considered in the word count of 2000 words. Textboxes are not considered.
Sorry if the information seems random, I just write them down as i go and how my memory serves me right.

Now to the other half of the lesson that contributed to me as an actor. Check, Please!

We did the scene again, through and through anddddd.....I'm beginning to feel a little bored with check please. I feel that we keep making the same mistakes! Sorry Michelle....but I sometimes don't feel like we click. Sometimes (well, maybe most of the time) it might be me, feeling tired and not in character. but bottom line, things just don't click. BIG PROBLEM. Phumi forgets to do stuff, anddddd yet again, is still so self concious. Trym....I can say he's awesome though! his energy. wow. i love it. I look at him and i REALLY REALLY think - 5 year old kid? hehe. he's great to work with Phumi again, haha. SO GAY-ISH. ESPECIALLY when he says "oh my god, the most hetro-sexual dating experience....STELLLLLAAAAAAAA!" hahaha. phumi. gotta work on that. oh but Ms.Marshall told me i need working on gaining more intensity in the dates. like work towards the climax when phumi calls me teri. HOW?! i need to look like i'm in love with phumi more! yesssss....i shall work on looking LUSTFULLY at phumi. haha. I think I need more action and movement when Mr.Moss gives me this most AWESOME part to play. I stand up, thinking of maybe punching phumi or something when i see the glass of water, examine it for a little while, then slowly yet surely pour it over his head. NICE. With Tilly......i'm supposed to act bored right?

Time ran short, and we couldn't finished it. Mr.Moss commented on some but he didn't get to me. I NEED THAT FEEDBACK or not i'll never really actually learn! heeeellllpppp

Actors Journal #15 - TPPP

2009-03-01T03:59:00.000-08:00

240209

Spent the day going through our IB requirements again. which is good.....but, Check, Please is coming soon! and i'm freaking out for my part, THE GIRL, to me still seems to have a dull character, and needs to have more facial expression, needs to be able to build climax more, needs to have good body positioning on stage, needs character internalizing, needs more VOLUME, needs to have nice hairdo's every night. AND THE LIST GOES ON. accesories, acting, acting WITH PARTNER. right now, the only person I feel i really connect with is Trym. He feels my frustration.....i think.

Anyway, for our Theatre Performance and Production Presentation, Mr.Moss said that it was good if we divided it into 6 categories :
1. Inspiration & Influences
2. Theatre in the Making Experiences - script is IMPORTANT
3. Experiences as an Audience - how what you watch affects you as an actor
4. Resources - workshops, books, media, teachers, DVD's, internet, movies
5. Traditions (Theatre in the World)
6. Pratices - I have yet to determine but one eg. Comedia

Here's a little cap on what Mr.Moss touched on.

- TPPP is actually a reflection on your reflections. CONTRIBUTION BY TILLY! she cracks me up.
- It is not a history of what we have done, but WHO WE ARE AS A THEATRE PERSON.
- only 1 or 2 productions may be mentioned.
- Theatre in the Making is before an audience is present.
- Theatre in Performance is when an audience is present.

For standard level (me) we have to talk for 20 minutes using 5-7 images
For higher level (all the rest) they have to talk for 30 minutes using 7-10 images

mine actually sounds harder..............

Love Perhaps - Day 3

2009-02-15T06:41:00.000-08:00

140209

VALENTINE'S DAY! Another day to watch Love Perhaps, just in the shoes of a director.
I think I was pretty lucky to choose this day as the role of a director, because today, the sound system got messed up.

Blind Date
I realise that even during performances, directors don't get to relax. I saw Ms. Joelle standing backstage, script in hand, ready to give cues to the actors incase they forgot their lines. Directors have to be on their toes at all times, so maybe being a perfectionist is not such a bad thing for a director. At the start of the show, the sound system went bad. The voices of the actors couldn't be picked up and it was just hard to get sound across the stage, let alone the whole ballroom. Lucky Ms.Joelle was innovative. She wrote on pieces of paper "Mikes not working, speak louder" and delivered it through the actor who went on and off stage. Even directors have to be quick-thinking. But, I might have directed the actors in "blind date" different. The guy needed abit of work on his expression and character internalizing. He was just stiff and chinese-like. Not much difference in tones and body language, but maybe that was just how the character was supposed to be portrayed. I'm not sure. I would have liked to see more reaction to the sound effects of the waitress in the kitchen and the surrounding sounds, or maybe, a more exaggerated respond. But for the waitress, there was nothing I would have changed. :)

Calling It Quits
Brilliant. Nothing much I could to change this play. Although the waitress in this play could have been more natural. The use of space around the cafeteria by the waitress could also have been played with abit more and the gradual build up of the conversation between the waitress and Matt could have done with a lot more of a variety of movement. Maybe he could have squirmed more, shifted weight more and she could have walked around the place more, since it is, after all, her territory and a place of familiarity. Other than that, Mary standing while showing her numbness after handing Matt the divorce papers. WOW. very nice. could feel the intensity in that.

Inconvenient People
VERY good use of postition on the stage, the way the props were placed and the movement of the maid, the lawyer and the murderer. I have nothing much to say about this play just that the actors really need to clearly pronounce their words. Ms. Lucille did that but Mr.Kerr didn't. Westerners always mumble abit, and I still don't get why. I really liked the way the actors related to the background music abit, or so it seemed. That last image of Ms.Lucille looking back and cackling is just engraved in my mind! Its as if the music was made for her postition not the other way round. Bravo!

they did a great job and I'm so happy I had the oppurtunity to work as a backstage crew :)

Love Perhaps - Day 2

2009-02-15T06:06:00.000-08:00

130209

Show night! As Mr.Moss suggested, tonight I viewed Love Perhaps from an actors point of view. As an actor, how can my study of the technique used by other actors help me in my acting? I learned alot.

Blind Date
Actually, it was only after I got home, after my chat with Ms. Leong that I saw what I actually learned. She just put it into words that I couldn't describe. TIMING. although the lines were read well, feeling and expression. That natural timing that everyone has when they respond to any sort of conversation was certainly lacking. Maya pulled it off pretty well, her facial expression VERY clearly read and positions well suited for her lines but still, the timing between both the characters I feel didn't really bring out the reality in the plot. As for Fadzrina, I really admire her for being able to do her french accent and succesfully REMEMBERING when to do them. She was good. And I noticed one thing about her. Before she actually stepped on stage, she would get into character a few moments before. I think thats really good. I think doing that helps with feeling more comfortable on stage. They did make good use of the props though, I really like the beginning part when Maya was thrown into her seat and Eric pushed into his. They had to have at least some trust in each other to be able to do that amazingly well! I thought it looked exactly like those kind of cartoon clips. perfect. Then at moments, eric and maya had to recite lines at the same time. Once again, trust and that particular feeling in the play is essential (haha! the thing I learned in TAPS is being applied! remember the walking and stopping bit?) It was good. well rehearsed. but needed to be more at ease with the lines. Personalising every bit of the play. not that i can do it. its hard.

Calling It Quits
Mary was AMAZING. you could tell that she was IN character the whole time. Her expression check, body positioning check, volume check, tone of voice check, FEELING check. She was fabulous! And it was just so real. That natural timing came in so right! People probably wouldn't have known that they were struggling with a few lines only the night before. But here comes the best part, IMPROVISATION. there was this part where Matt stepped off on the wrong side of the stage. Instead of going stage right, he went left. SHE WAS BRILLIANT. she screamed "If you haven't forgotten, the loo is that way!" wow. I wouldn't have known what to do honestly if I was in her shoes. But she was so quick to think on her feet! I felt like applauding just then. WOW. and the intensity in her voice in every line she delivers. WOW. just so good. She got all the tones right, and places in her lines that required pauses. Its not easy to identify them, and they might even come out wrong if you make some feeble attempt to make a stab in the dark. I don't know how to praise her more! she is just one of the actors ANYONE can look up to. Oh yes, Matt was great too, he really made himself up as a middle-class working man. scruffy, boots, tools. COSTUME IS VERY IMPORTANT. and he did alot of actions that made him appear as if he weren't in the upper class group. Like wiping his hands on his jeans. Sitting in an open-legged position, not caring that he was seen zipping his pants up in the cafeteria, or having a pair of pliers sticking out of his pants. Some actions you just have to exaggerate to make the play funnier and .....yea, funnier.

Inconvenient People
This play was VERY witty, The lines were really really good! Especially Mr.Kerr's. But at some lines, he mumbled, and so people coudn't really hear those funny lines. Some of the words he spoke clearly, some he kind of ate up, so it came out as only a few words being heard, abit awkward but still funny all the same. Pronounciation is important. Thats the big difference about live theatre and movies. If you can't catch the line means you probably never will, as for movies, thats what the rewind buttons are for. :P One more thing, because of the funny lines, there are simply places where you have to pause for audiences to laugh. Hmm....its abit hard to determine these pauses because you wouldn't know just how the audience would react to a line. Would they laugh at this or that? It depends on the line it is, how you deliver the line, and also on the type of audience listening. There are places where laughter among the audience can be anticipated, but what if it goes wrong? once again, improvisation and acting on the spot. Actors have to be adaptable creatures that are smart, quick and precise. Once you go for something, do it. because there'll never be a chance when you get to do it again. So again, its the timing, but not between actors, between actor and audience.

Tomorrow i'm going to do a director~

Love Perhaps - Day 1

2009-02-15T05:39:00.000-08:00

120209

We set off today knowing nothing of what we are supposed to do. Yes we help backstage but what?! Anyway, we get there and its dress rehearsal so we watch as Mr.Moss and Mr.Colin Lamb (we call him Mr.Colin) set up the lights, the props and do a sound check. Honestly, the Malaysian sound system seems to be a little whack, first here was humming, then it there was no sound at all. Hmm?

So basically, what I learned, overall from this activity was how backstage helpers work. How they can't get KNOW where to place the props, but to understand why the props are placed where and what. Firstly, we had to somehow remember the placement of all the props. The basic need-to-know of being a backstge helper. But soon, after you know why the props are placed where they are, memorising it seems pretty redundant. I wrote down all the things required ON PAPER only to find out that I could remember them just by imagining the plot of the play. Being a backstage helper, you get to see alot, know alot and realise alot. We get to see just how nervous actors are before they go on stage. We get to see how they get INTO the role before even stepping onto the stage. We know they're parts (because Ms.Joelle had the script in her hands, ready to give them their cue) and when the actors mess up. But we always see just how they cover for each other, helping the lines get through easily. I realise that actors doing live performances do alot of IMPROVISATION and IMPROMTU changes in the script. It was like being backstage you view the stage from a whole different angle. It further opened my understanding about drama. It is an amazing art, and everyone involved in it, the stage crew, director, lighting crew, sound crew, set-up and prop design crew and actors all are ESSENTIAL in a succesful play. without one, the rest cannot function well. There's so much to learn, so much perspective to change depending on whose shoes you're in, but so much good solid knowledge to gain. Its amazing. I really thrive in these experiences.

Can't wait for tomorrow's show.

Actors Journal #14 - Costumes designers

2009-02-15T04:40:00.000-08:00

130209

Today was abit of a RUSH OF EMOTIONS day for me. I, yes, I can say that I wasn't at all prepared for the discussion today, and that I was just blaberring all that nonsense over the top of my head.

Let me start from the beginning. Today the IB drama class was supposed to go to lunch to discuss costumes for our characters in the play. I thought it was a discussion! that no outfit would have been fully thought through. Something like "oh, what about this?" or "A skirt would be nice" or "a dress is DEFINITELY the way to go" But no, i started first and I was really supposed to know what to wear. Sorry Mr.Moss, I feel like i let you down. Em, one thing that I feel wasn't right, was, when Mr.Moss questioned me about my costume, it was just me talking. Futher along lunch, when people were explaining their costumes, ideas were just FLYING around the table. thats not fair! they were suggesting SANITARY SPRAY for Tilly's phobia guy, V-neck sweater for Phumi's gay/straight guy, and colours for everyone else. How come I didn't get that? but oh well, Mark didn't either, so, yea, maybe its fair, I'm just abit unsure of what to do with the outfit, seeing that my character really doesn't have any distinct characteristics, I just don't know how to narrow down that BIG choice of possibilities into 1 outfit. ARGH. But still, here's my little something after I started to actually think thoroughly about it. hehe

Costume Deisgn - GIRL
Type - Knee-length dress. Preferrably something silky and flowy.
Colour - RED. (may change though)
Design - Something exotic and eye catching. Not too striking, but attrative. Nothing too provocative. Formal. NEW YORK-ish.
Bag - A black little bag.
Shoes - Black wedges.
Accesories - Simple necklace that changes every scene.
Hair - Many different types. Pulled back, tied in half, hairband, clip by the side, clipped and twisted down the middle, nothing.

I chose a dress because this is NEW YORK people! Have to be chic. Something silky, flowly with exotic design to show her sensuality and girly side. The colour of her dress, be it Red or any other has to draw attention. This is because she is desperate! She wants to fill that void deep down in her with a compatible male partner, and so she dresses to impress and to make that first impression a deep and memorable one. However, she does not dress provocatively, partly because she is already a mature working-class woman, partly because she doesn't want the secret of her desperation to let leak. She wants to come off as mature, loving and a woman who is ready for a steady relationship. The dainty black bag reflects her delicate personality. The black shoes shows off her legs and manicured toes, indicating her care in detailed appearance and possibly care in cleanliness as a housewife too? Her accessories differ each scene. Each item of jewellery reflects her feeling at the very moment. Big chunky necklaces to show her bold mood and delicate ones to show herself as timid and shy. The way her hair is done also portrays her current emotions. Firstly, she goes that extra mile to style her hair, putting it up in a cute bun or something. Slowly, she gets discouraged because by the quality of dates she's had and cares less about her hair. However, she may remain optimistic and attempt to style it by adding a clip or two here and there. At the last scene though, she is frustrated to her limit and doesn't even care about her hair anymore. She arrives for dinner letting her hair down with only the slightest evidence of it being brushed.

I think I do better after a days of thinking. Now to head off to Love Perhaps set. :)

EDITED :
change in plans. no changes of jewellery and hair in every scene. Too complicated and I can still be seen during Marks's scenes. Best to keep still. There are pics though :)

Actors Journal #13 - Nothing much

2009-02-15T04:29:00.000-08:00

120209

yup. we literally did nothing much in the area of acting but Mr.Moss went through our IB program with us and the requirements needed to secure us as certified drama students.

Mr. Moss did a brilliant job of out lining the important bits of the program, ie. DEADLINES. with have to do a Research Investigation (RI), Independent Project Portfolio (IPP), Theatre Performance and Production Presentation (TPPP) and a Practical Performance Proposal (PPP). Many P's = many problems. We have to do alot of writing and documentation. Ah well, this sucks NOW but will be better for us in the future. :)

Everything i need to know is on the booklet he gave us.
and thats gonna be my drama guidelines for the year *phew*

Actors Journal #12 - On our own

2009-02-10T03:38:00.000-08:00

100209

ok. today, we were somewhat on our own. Ms. Marshall had classes and Mr. Moss had to work with the year 13's about something. I never knew just how important teachers were and today, i finally see that without them, there is relatively no motivation to do work. oh my. Lucky he checks on us from time to time and got mad so we started work.

I wanted to do the last scene, well, because honestly we don't do it much, or....lets see, NOT AT ALL. the last scene is the most important! and although our ways may not be so effective, some of our ideas are brilliant. We do it like once or twice but end up starting from the beginning anyway. ARGH. i really honestly think we've done that enough! i'm getting bored of the Louis and Girl scene. and being bored of a scene isn't really good for me. that makes my acting sooooo bad and boring and stale. Its not exactly the best scene in the world and somehow me and Michelle really do not connect. The way she talks is a little bit, lazy and slurred. Em, not at all like the confident, self-magnified character she's supposed to play. However, it really isn't in my place to tell her that, and somehow, other people don't seem to feel the way i do, so, its up to the director, if he thinks its cool, ITS COOL.

Once again, phumi is still so AWARE of himself, and he doesn't know his lines. ARGH. Trym is nice to work with though, and Tilly today was unsure about her lines. She was sick, so, I guess that explains the lack of enthusiasm. Sorry that I'm being so critical today but, this is what I do every now and then :)
Mark is still being a boring character and he's just as soft as I am. honestly the only character I really like right now is Trym's. Haha. I'm thinking maybe he's such so good at what he does because he IS like that in the first place.

The ending was so horrible. Mr.Moss said that we were disgusting. and honestly? I think we were. We got off to a really SLOW and SLUGGISH start and while a certain scene was going on, the others were just watching. oh how we waste our precious time~
i'm not saying that I realised this. I did, but only after Mr.Moss said it. I really need to focus on getting work done on a whole. Well at least today I got a clearer idea on how to work my way up to the ending for Louis's part, Phumi is slowly but steadlily coming out of his shell anddd the ending we did quite a bit. Not bad, could be better, but not bad. :)

GOAL FOR NEXT CLASS : TOTAL MAXIMISATION OF TIME. volume. physical action. lines. COSTUMES. phumi scene's.

TAPS - Day 3

2009-02-10T03:34:00.000-08:00

070209

this was a teeny bit confusing day for me. I didn't go for the Comedia master class cause i was in church, so i only came in after lunch at one :D

we started doing things i REALLY didn't understand. it all had to do with stand-up comedy that i didn't see the night before. em, a bit awkward for me but people don't judge. so i don't mind. apparently she said things that really touched them all. about revealing your inner demons and so. wow. people cried. thats a hard thing to achieve and yet SO MANY OF THEM FELT THE SAME WAY. oh well. my caregroup seems to need me more :D

Anyway, we stood around in circles and immitated movements that we saw that make a HUGE impact on us. Something like the acid test. Then it was sounds. I could do neither since i obviously don't know what was happening so.....yea, I didn't do it.

Next though, we worked on our comedia/stand-up comedy stimulus. WHAT?! my partner was marie and I really really honestly didn't want to use the story of my dad swimming again....embarassing for me....and ESPECIALLY my dad. haha. we tried out Kathy's cat story, then moved onto cat and dog show competition? hahaha...we were WAYYYY over the place and ended up asking Jo if we could just sit out this performance. She let us. :D surprisingly. in local surroundings they would just force you. I don't remember much about everyone's performances but I know that Vardaan's group did an Indian shop flick. Angela's group did somewhat a talkshow kind of thing? Girl's entering reality shows to get husbands. Girl's of different nationalities. It was interesting. The rest, i think i forgot? sorry people.

Last but not least, Jo asked us to get together in groups again and talk about the greatest thing that we learned during this workshop. The joining of each one of our presentations though had to have something we learned during the workshop. Ours was simple, we do actions flowing on to one another. The transition a little boring I admit. I did SPACE. because even in ballet, teacher priscilla used to say my movements were restricted. So now, i'm learning how to deal with SPACE. Vardaan's group was like a mini talkshow! SO HILARIOUS! coming from none other than VARDAAN. liked his group's the best. He was with Phil too! no fair. all the funnny ones are with him.....next, Tilly's group apparent misinterpreted the "assignment" and it turned out to suck. haha. I thought it was interesting....they stood in a row and did everything together. TOGETHERNES. it was serene :D

we ended it then headed to the beach for the ending! nothing much happened here. we ate, had the quiz. people losing items. it was annoying and depressing...but.....get over it. yea?

OVERALL - TAPS made me realise drama is harder than I thought. :S

TAPS - Day 2

2009-02-10T02:21:00.000-08:00

060209

TODAY IS STAGE COMBAT DAY. YESSSSS! i've always wanted to know the answers to all that fake stage acting. AND NOW I KNOW. ahhahaha. plus! Mr.Moss is teaching, and he's an awesome teacher :)

so anyway, we start off by doing a trust game. one thing i learnt in drama OVERALL is, the trust between the actors have to be there, you have to learn lines so fluently that you know each others and they know yours. So yea, ESPECIALLY in stage combat, trust is number 1. This activity we have a person leaning back, putting all weight on the person supporting him/her behind. So the person supporting can drop or push the person as they please. catch - as the person who is BEING supported, you have to trust your partner COMPLETELY for this to work well. i worked with Felicia.....and apparently she doesn't trust me :( oh well. just don't fight with her on stage. HEE HEE.

Now there are rules to stage combat
1. WE DO IT FOR THE AUDIENCE TO SEE. - its all fake, and made dramatic for THEM
2. If anyone gets hurt, and its because of you. IT IS YOUR FAULT.
3. Never fall on your head, shoulders, neck, elbows, knees and butt.

the butt has a teeny bone called the tail bone, and haha. the way Mr.Moss put it was so funny! "you should take to you butt bone, and if people ask you what you're doing, just say - oh just talkin to my butt bone" he is one funny teacher. :D

The 3 stages in stage combat
1. Projection
2. Knap
3. Reaction

Projection is how you prepare for the combat to occur, ie. hand positions, energy in hand...etc. knap is the sound made, and reaction is.....reaction. DUH. like flinging your head and hair after a blow, wincing in pain, shouting, screaming.....bla bla bla.....lol. so we work on all of those and.

4 types of combat we learnt
1. smack
2. punch
3. hair pulling
4. throwing

3 ways to produce a knap in smacking is, the victim placing his hand in front of the face, the smackER hit the hand (not the face) makes the sound and the victim does a realistic reaction. DONE. 2nd method still lies on the victim. but this time, there is no contact between the 2 actors. Smacker swings, victim slap his own hand at the right time, make the sound and clutches cheek (or place of injury) as if it hurts. Last one, the smackER makes the sound by slapping his own leg or something. cool. punching is about the same, just that its not skin on skin contact, but skin on cloth, to make the sound more......punch-like. :P

Mr.Moss also asks us to carry out the action in slow motion before goin into all the smacking, knapping and reaction-ing. really make contact with the victim's head, so that the victim will know how exactly the body reacts to an impact and for the smacker, the same. Hands on is very important. Later, Mr. Moss also says that different kinds of smacking will produce different kinds of reactions. slapping with ur backhand, slapping with an upward motion, direction of slapping. LOL some ppl just react in the wrong direction. this is all just to make it more realistic.

So anyway, Mr. Moss asks us to get into pairs to work on a scene that ends with a slap based on prejudice. I work with Vardaan and we're both like.....prejudice? WHAT THE HELL IS THAT? so we get definitions from people around us. so we sit down and start working on our storyline. TADAA. Mr. Moss comes in and suddenly bursts out saying he's so proud of us. apparently some ppl don't work out y the slapping occurs but just goes into it? wow. we're so good :) hahahha. so anwyay, i think we overhear ppl talking about speaking in chinese, so Vardaan goes, ok, i assume u're chinese and doesn't know how to speak english, you curse and swear at me and you slap me, walk away and i tap u shoulder thn i slap u. ahhh....a little boring storyline. but i got nothing in my head. so. here we go~ we did it anddd...Mr. Moss was actually impressed :):):):) oh wait, but Ed's and Kenzie's one was good too. sooooo goood. i was convinced and SO impressed
Mr.Moss : there was absolutely nothing i would change from that scene. BRAVO
alright!
Davina and amrit went too, and i gotta say Amrit is a good actor, he does accents and is REALLY REALLY convincing. sadly, the plot wasn't so interesting and.......yea, the slap was ok tho. :)
We all get to have a say in all that, profess our opinions because Mr. Moss asked us to look at it from either an actor or director's point of view. Opinions in the form of Wow's and What if's. AWESOME

now to punching. requirement:have a scene with 4 punches. not all from the same person. I pair up with Kenzie! hahaha. Vardaan's and Felicia's bit was so funny because not only was it an absurd storyline but...the way Vardaan acts. YEA. comedy is definitely his thing. they are in a super market and naturally, the woman reaches for that LAST CAN of beans. He runs up saying : miss miss, can i please have that last one? i'm having a dinner party and i desperately need it. no hope man. ladies don't give up easily. and out of the blue, he punches her (HAHAHAHA. this part was so funny) and says sorry. like he can't control his limbs. hehe. they struggle, he knocks her out andddd.....he takes the can of beans from her trolley Man:thank you. LOL. he has one heck of a library full of comedian ideas. Lisa and hmm....ryan was it? went also. they acted as if they were playing a vid game, entered into virtual realiy and PLAYED the vid game. it was like street fighter era all over again! awesome! hahahah. THE LAST PUNCH WAS THE BEST! everyone saw it and knew it. wheeeee. a room full of actors. :D

WHOA. the next thing Mr. Moss does is just so coooool. he grabs May-Li by the hair, and pulls her out the door dragging her on her butt. WOW. it looked really really real ok. but turns out, its fake! damn! so he's pulling her hair, but she's got her hands around his hand that is pulling her hair and so he's actually pulling her along by the arms. WHAT THE- i should have caught that. but anyway, now i know the secrets ;D shit n i just revealed it to u. argh.

last for stage combat, THROWING. ok. i didn't dare try this one cause of my knee.....but i so wanted to try iitttt!!! he says its easy, and the people watching? WOW. its looks unbelievable from that POV. he says its just a front roll! what on earth is a front roll?! HAHAH. people do it, andddd.....some do it quite funnily. HEE HEE. won't mention who :P

= LUNCH TIME =
went to 7 11 to get grub with felicia and vardaan. ahh....relaxing 2 hours. NICE. but power got cut off and we walked from 8th floor to 17th floor. WA LIEUW.

After coming back, its so obvious that people are tired out and abit bored it gather? so Jo does this amazingly calming exercise. She makes us shut up, not talk and lie down on the floor, tensing muscles, releasing them, basically just loosening it all up so we can get waarmed up. then when she asks us to sit up. GROAN. hahaha. u can FEEL the reluctancy even before you open your eyes. and yea, i think some ppl went to sleep. like DAVINA. hahahha. *pokes* so next we get partners again, people we don't work much with and.....play a dancing game. with eyes closed, one person stands behind the other and the one infront shuts his eyes. the behind person touches a part of the body eg. finger and the finger has to do all the dancing. remember, this is with eyes closed soo......embarassment was much avoided. :D lucky the music was cool. hehe. Next we were asked to choose a body part, SHOW OFF the body part or yes, make it obvious that you even HAVE that part of your body. Next hide it and then use that part of the body to lead in your walk. HAHA. Vardaan's was a jawline and he was sticking it out the whole time! this i think was a small intro into my character in Comedia, the lovers, where they walk with their hearts leading them :)

Hidden around the room was tons of info on the characters that we got (mine=The Lovers) and I found it, did notes and stuff. wait, i'll write it here too.

Lovers - Male//Female
socially high
stance - trying to float, on tip toes like ballet
peacock/swan-like
instable, walking with heart leading
VAIN - use of handkerchief/flower/mirror
use courtly words
soft, musical tone
self absorbed
love the thought of being in love
requires a servant or third party to be present
occasionally flirts with audience
plays to audience for sympathy
underneath they lack confidence
they live in their own world but come together after learning about love which show the potential for human happiness

next we line up in two rows, making a space in the middle like a runway ramp and we're supposed to use the information we used from the notes we have (research) to interpret our role according to our knowledge on it. some do it REALLY funnily. but this was normal. NEXT we work in pairs again to act out a scene IN CHARACTER according to these papers Jo hands to us. they have stupid stuff like milk a cow, drive a car, amputate a leg.....and so on. I have Tilly as a partner and we get the amputate leg thing.OH OH OH. and this is only an act for one of us. The other directs, luccccky for me. Tilly choose to act. And I direct. this is the first time i'm doing this and....gosh. it feels great! i get Tilly to be dreaming of hunger first, eating food, relishing it when suddenly someone snatches it away! u sit up, thinking its just reachable and i can get it but aiya, its just a dream. I look down, dejected, whenn....i see....my leg....ah? my leg. juicy leg that is plump and fat. i chew chew chew and eat, try to cut it, but decide to nibble it off anyway, Tilly does an awesome thing by chewing until the falls backwards and tadaa! i just directed a scene. AWESOME. LOL. once again, Vardaan's one was HUMONGOUSLY funny, he was the doctor, pompous and proud, hanging a painting that means NOTHING, gosh, this was really really funny and he picked on me! LOL. about my glasses. damn i was shocked but it was all in good fun. another funny one was Phil conducting a band, talking about a TOTALLY different stuff like a shoe with the name Wellesly on it, how the shoe IS the baton, and how the smell of the shoe defines the quality of a "baton". phil is really really funny. i must say. then there was tiffany, and her milking cow HAHHAHAHHAHAH. hilarious!

=half hour break=
AHHHHH....we need these....it gets tiring doing all work and no play :P

WE START WITH THIS REALLY AWESOME GAME. where we all are sitting on chairs and there is one chair empty. we call it the "US versus YOU" game. hahaha. i will definitely remember this one! will use it to make everyone ENERGIZED! then we arrange ourselves into one single row, and arrange again in alphabetical order according to our first names. then, EXAGGERATION. haha. like that one. first one starts with a smile ends with roling on the floor. u should get what i mean.

then we work on comedy stimulus. OH SHIT. we really honestly DON'T KNOW. i pair with merrie and we are so blur. >_< shyte. i thought we didn't have to actually DO it. so we just left it hanging as it was. nothing. LOL. discussed abit about how to handle the stimulus -adapt-adopt-address- and then the differences on Comedia and Stand-up Comedy.

Comedia :
- has specific characters
- rigid

stand-up comedy
- in a 3rd party stand point
- no character at all
- narrative

i think we also went thru techniques used in stand-up comedy.
- accents
- stereotypes
- opical allusions
- repetition
- role playing.

and there's tons more. i just am not sure. didn't get to see Sherri's performance. but thats all right. God is my priority. :)

TAPS - Day 1

2009-02-07T18:24:00.000-08:00

050209

First of all, I would like to say that if you ever want to speed learn your way through drama, actively USE your drama skills, EXHAUST your drama skills and make tons of new friends, TAPS is the way to go. :D. It was loads of fun and the learning was soooooooooooooooooo good. People here know how to build from one small activity and lead it to another. It was awesome and totally inspiring. I would do it all again, in a BETTER way, if I could, not that the way it DID happen wasn't awesome, but so much was going on, you forget to remember the rest that you learned. I might have missed out ALOT of activities we did if my memory is like how it was a few days ago, so forgive me if i leave anything out. Most importantly, I learnt. I lived. and now....I reflect *huff + puff* haha

Ok. first of all, we start by all gathering in this conference room in Copthorne. As usual we enter noisily but Mr. Moss immediately shuts us up and uses hand signals to get us to follow him. Ok. this is a workshop. so follow! he did mostly streches and warm-up exercise which I notice they do ALL the time, they make sure the body is in good condition. awesome! So we strecth and do weird things like make stupid sounds and slap ur ass (typical Mr. Moss) but it was all in good fun. Ms. Jo, my ensemble leader took over next and this is cute dance/song, it was fun Kum-ba-yah-kum-ba-yah-kum-ba-la-vista, OHHHHH-oh-oh-oh-oh-la-vista, Kilameeni-desameeni-awalawalameeni, OOO skilliyada-ayada-ayada-OO. this is how it goes, i spell wrong, but i sing right. haha. once again, impression writing, i'll never really get it right anyway. next was the "enlightened being"game. CUTE. STUPID and so totally random. Come to think of it, i think this was an intro to acting, as little acting was involved in this. we start as eggs and make sounds as eggs, we then go find other eggs and play rock,scissor, paper with them. winner evolves, loser go find other egg to ATTEMPT to evolve. haha. after the egg is the chicken! easy sounds to make. but after that is the dinosaur, haha. was tempted to start acting like a friend I know that looks like a dino? but emm....ya, drama workshop. hee hee. So evolving continues to cave man, humanoid and then an enlighted being, that sits on the floor, in a lotus position, and is like in a trance, hummmmmming and all. meditating, yea thats the word. I evolve quite fast actually! woohoo! were part of the beginning few that sat down and started humming. poor ppl who were last. pitiful! LOL. not really. anyway, advancing on to next game! It was educational, inspiring and self-searching. It was done by Sherri, the x & y game is what I'm gonna call it. X being your interest in a certain area of activity and Y being proof and evidence to support how much you love it and are good at it. She asked many questions, and people mostly grouped together, writing, acting, directing, costume designing, made me realise, my knowledge in theatre is EXTREMELY shallow. People there are REALLY REALLY into all these stuff, and I'm just in it for fun? oooo. Last game, i think? Head-to-head game. First we find people we don't know -easily, they come in like room fulls- ask their name, and start! haha. head to head, literally means head to head. you touch head to head with a person u know NOTHING about. there were knee to knee, elbow to elbow, shoulder to shoulder, toe to toe, NOSE TO NOSE (haha. I was laughing for the poor pairs of male & female- how awkward) and eyebrow to eyebrow. LOL. i did that with Ed. He's a cool guy so, it was ok :)thenn...PEOPLE TO PEOPLE! and we change partners. fast and quick way to get to know people. interesting! i know! well thats TAPS.

Next up, splitting into emsemble groups. We start off again by REALLY introducing ourselves, The Ball Game. Throw the ball, say your name and remember the name of the person who threw it to you. This begins randomwly, starting with Jo throwing it to Amrit, then he throwing it to another girl, and on and on. Slowly, names register in your head. then she asks us to reverse the order, as in start al over again, remember who you threw it to and throw it again according to sequence. Em, whoa oh, i forgot who i threw it to >_< until now i still dunno for sure her name, but I call her Mary :). so we throw, and then Jo picks up four more balls. five balls flying in the air is just amusing and fun. well, that was the icebreaker for the day, cute fun simple. then we did another game, first we start by looking down on the floor, then look up and LOOK into the eyes of someone else. if the person is looking back, sit down. This was to practice "clocking" a thing I learnt about grabbing people's attention and just LOOKING at something. its cool. so that was the next game.annnnd next we had the 1,2,3 game. Its a game between 2 people. Say I am A and my friend is B. I say 1. B says 2. I say 3. B says 1. and so on. It was abit confusing cause, uneven number against even number? yikes. but we got it down, me and Mary. oh yeaaaaa. Next we had to substitute number 1 for a word, number 2 for a sound and number 3 for an action. HA HA HA HA HA. what a hilarious sight! i ended up doing the action for everything i said. LOL. The again, we did another round of head-to-head, BUT this time we had finger buddies, knee buddies, elbow buddies and leg buddies. It was funny cause, we started out simple, only 1 buddy needed then Jo asked us to find our knee AND finger buddy a the same time. HAHHAHAHHA. we were a tangled clump in the middle of the room. cuteeee. very cute.

OH I LIKE THE NEXT ONE. we formed a circle in the room, and imagined having a map right in the circle. She asked us first where we were born, haha! so happy to walk over to the UK. Then the question about what country we were researching on. Lucky Ms. Marshall gave us this topic (phew!) and I did vietnam. water puppets~ other people were doing really AWESOME stuff, like the death drama stuff? and the doll house? OH DAMN. niiiice! Then she asked us about asking questions. The open questions and the closed questions. open being questions subject to opinion and closed being questions with only 1 answer. Eg. What did you think about the last play you saw? - open q. What play did you last see? - closed q. So we once again, we got partners and started the questions! wheeeee. the asking wasn't really such an impact on me, but this one guy i met, Vardaan, actually i didn't have to ASK him at all! he was like- oh i'll just tell you about it ya?- LOL. I soon found out how much he really loves himself. Em, so yea, through that exercise, we learned more on how to ge indepth learning on our Research Investigation (RI) its like a project we gotta do for drama. Well thats ok, since researching means online time. HEE HEE. Next one was interesting, we had to walk, focus on an empty space we would like to fill and walk towards it. When Jo says stop, we have to stop and......yea stop. freeze. There is music, so the walking isn't boring. Then after many rounds of that, she asks us to not stop immediately, but slow down our movements and be aware of others and STOP at the same time. As hard as this sounds, its really easy because of the feeling and intensity in the room. You just somehow KNOW yea? they we start. Soon, Jo tells us that she isn't gonna tell us at all when to stop, just slow down and stop when we feel like it. oooo. again, that feeling that makes you just stop. and I felt like i had to be aware of my surroundings and learn to trust people around me. Thats all about acting, being aware and trusting. So tiny exercise cultivated that feeling, hmmmm...good feeling :D we also continue by ALL of us freezing, and only a few moving.LOL. this was amusing because, how are we gonna choose who moves? once again, FEELING & trust. whoooaaa. nice, we start with one. then slowly two, then three and so on and so forth. Totally fun and lost of earning in this little simple exercise. ME LIKEY ALOT. We also walk then when Jo says stop, we close our eyes, Jo says a name and we point in the direction the person is at or so we think. This is to test for aware you are of your surroundings and yea, i got none right. Gotta work on that observing skills yea?. after that, we switched from stopping to clocking. walk walk walk - CLOCK - walk walk walk again - CLOCK. haha. i love to clock other people. its fun. especially vardaan who clocks as if he's burning holes in your eyes. haha. he's very funny. Oh wait, this might be in random order, but we also did the City Experience tour. How nice, my project with Tilly and Mark is on now!

So we go on the buses and it is scorching hot. AND people realise this. We walk, its boring, my group loses half of it, me on one side Mark, Tilly AND Mr. Moss on the other. I FREAK OUT. lucky Mr.Moss comes to save :D so we walk through little India, they get Henna (indian tattoo) and we eat at Kapitan's. Yeaaa...pretty much it. it was boring! and the people thought so too. SIGHS. but but but! we find out one thing! ^_^ actually Mr. Moss did but anyway, I found out I will never ever be a tour guide. LOL. list of ocupation getting shorter here. oh yeaaa. hahaha. well, had quite a good time with them in Little India, eating, talking to Vardaan, Felicia, Katya and Lisa. They are good company :D

Now we get back, we are tired, exhausted and basically ran over-time. stupid Little India and my no-sense-of-direction-ness XP. After getting back, i think we did this activity on Birth. first acting activity so we are SO full of energy. I pair up with......Mark, Felicia and Vardaan. its supposed to be about birth! but we do birth of a model. AHAAHAHHA. we just want to be different. ish. or was that only Vardaan? It was cool, the way we made it happen. Felicia was the model, and I was the kind-est judge. heeheheheh. Em....that covers most of it. You had to be there. THEN after that, we had to take a piece of movement (eg. -isms impresionism, creationism, realism.....) and apply it to our piece. pitch it, act it, then rationalize it. We did ok. and Vardaan is really good at being funny. LOL. Me and Mark pretend to have 2 models we hate, we fire them, they go to the opposite firms (my client goes to Mark etc.) and we actually like them althought their characters are so extreme. once again, tons of fun acting. I like screaming, and I don't know how to curse on stage! argh. other groups did - Ritual like thing from......uh, i forgot. Cool charlies-angel-like thing from angela and divida +++. Tilly and phil also +++ did ritual a cute birth cycle from Kathy, tiffany, ed and +. lol. Mark, Me, Vardaan and Felicia were the models, and.....i think thats it

We do this really fun thing, its kind of like goal dertemining but in a cool way. first Jo hands us tiny orange slips of paper. We write what we want to get out of the program and stick it on the wall. We do that and I realise my goal sounds obscene >_< "Body Positioning" haha. Felicia doesn't know it yet, but she laughed at mine.....hahahha. thats ok, i think its funny too :P Anyway, then, Jo asks us to make a still picture about what we want to achieve, I do calm-ness in like a yoga position. and....everyone else does what they want. then we combined with many other people. there were 5 in my group. and yea, these are just notes i'm taking, i'll rmb whatever the other groups did. We did a a shape of an M. and.....yea, those are the higlights. i feel abit achy now sitting here in front of the com typing all this down :S

one more thing. we find a spot on the carpet. A SPECIFIC SPOT. and make sure we can identify that spot again. This game was more of a energising activity, we seemed so sleepy then. So after finding that spot, Jo says out 3 things, like touch something red, lie on the floor, hug a person of the opposite sex.....etc we finish that then done! hop back onto the spot tha is yours. haha. learning tons of games from TAPS. sweeeet!

and hey! i think thats it!!!!
overall. FUN DAY. loving TAPS. and.........they have tiny hashed browns for breakfast. I WANT. ish

Actor's Journal #11 - Total Run Thru

2009-02-03T06:58:00.000-08:00

030209

It was like ripping a plaster off an open wound. Quick, painless and quite frankly enjoyable :D Unfortunately, I had to reposition myself. All these times I have been rehearsing with the rest of the actors with me sitting on the right, now I realise that I have to be seated back to back with Mark, which means I am now on the left. I am stage right and so right is no longer where I sit now. Ahh well, it was no big deal for me. I have to learn how to be versatile ya? And...i didn't prove to be a problem either, so I'm just happy to have coped with that.

So we start with my scene with Michelle (Louis) it goes ok, she walks in, I fake my interest in him/her and Mr.Moss asks us to go right to the end. Quickand painless? Yes it was. Then it was Mark's scene. I actually never seen any scenes of Mark's so this interested me. Em, Mark doesn't realise this but, his acting is all the same. He's a funny guy, active and all, but when he acts, his tone of voice is same throughout. AIYA. But anyway, Mr. Moss noticed this in the end and gave him some heat about it. woohoo?

Anyway, among Mark's (GUY) scenes, I love his and Mary's scene the best!!! Tilly is playing that part and yea, they work well together. She's perfect at playing it though, i think thats what makes it THEIR scene, but all the same......I like it! I kind of like May Li's scene too? But....hmm....Tilly's one is just the best :D LISA DOESN'T PRACTICE AT HOME. just an observation :P

About my scenes, it was....em, ok. Phumi is still aware of himself, (let lose you!)although i think i can connect with Trym more, he's so cute and actually DOES act like a kid outside his character.I actualy think me and Phumi did quite well on the "fake-laughing-conversation" thing, although, we stick too much on the lines.....i improvise a little bit, and Phumi STICKS TO THE LINES. how to laugh like thaaaaaat?! argh. gotta talk to phumi about that. Tilly once again as Manny is great. :D she's an awesome actress. And last point of this very short reflection. HOW TO SHARE A MOMENT OF CHEMISTRY WITH MARK?! Hmmmmm......have to do intense research oh thaaaat. ;D

So the play is coming together. yesss!
TAPS only 2 days away! so excited!

ernie

Actor's Journal #10 - grinding metal into a needle

2009-02-01T04:54:00.000-08:00

300109

No we didn't do MANNY's scene today. Instead we split up (guys scenes & girls scene) into 2 rooms. Mr. Moss and Ms. Marshall. Everyone involved in the scene with the Guy went with Mr. Moss and all the rest in Ms. Marshall's room. Splitting up and working like this gets alot done I think, and me, I get to absorb more knowledge from two very experienced, creative and informative teachers. However, the contrast between Mr. Moss and Ms. Marshall is HUMONGOUS.....AND both of them know it. haha. that's why I like them, they know they're weaknesses and manage to work around it. So when we all gathered in Ms. marshall's room, she came right out and told us that she was not at all like Mr. Moss, she did not like exaggeration, outward movements and BODY LANGUAGE. I think she really goes by her motto "Less is More". Its kind of hard to juggle both styles together, especially if I feel more comfortable with one in particular, but I learned ASSIMILATION. Explanations for physical movements and internalizing thoughts.

Ms. Marshall I noticed likes us to act on what we think, which makes great progress as we act. Thinking and feeling whatever we feel, our reactions seem so much more natural, and lines are SO much easier to learn, they just come naturally if we think like how our character thinks. Ms. Marshall actually made Phuminat do this OUT LOUD. haha. because I think he isn't quite comfortable with his part yet (the super romantic, suave Ken) so he doesn't know how to feel and respond to being on a date. One thing puzzled me though, Ms. Marshall says she doesn't like physical activity much, but she was actually encouraging Phuminat to pick me up, twirl me around and do tons and tons of MOVEMENT. I guess when she realises the need for movement, she does add it here and there. She's flexible and open to discussion about acting. I like that alot.

About mine and Michelle's scene, I admit that I wasn't focusing at all. The feeling really wasn't there, not until Ms. Marshall asked me to LISTEN to Michelle and respond as a person to her conversation. I have to be attentive, want to listen and somehow be annoyed. I'm abit confused about this part because after I realise that Louis is ignoring me and blabbing non-stop about him and him alone, I have to cut in constantly as if I am interested in striking conversation with him. Am I really that desperate or so kind as to attempt conversation with this stranger that obviously doesn't want to talk WITH me? An issue to be cleared with the teachers.

Next was the baby guy, Trym. Oh. we had a little bump in the process on that one debating Trym's initial position, how he was going supposed to think, then act on that thought and tons more. I agree though,his beginning is very awkward for me. Initially I couldn't see how him sitting like a frog on the chair could make me believe he was as childish as he was. But we're on the way to working it out, I can feel it :) AND. one more thing. Trym doesn't stick to the script. I mean he makes me totally miss out on like lines that are important that is something that MAKES his scene....but he doesn't help me lead to it. =_=. I know i shouldn't be angry, I know I shouldn't care because impromptu only makes the acting more realistic....but READ THE SCRIPT WHITE BOY! Phew, ok I got that out, but somehow, even though all that frustration, we get through the scene.......NEXT!

Oh, a little something we confirmed in my role as the Girl is, every time before a date, I have to identify a particular "waiting position" that signifies my preparation for a date. Eg. Knees together, on tip toes maybe, hands entwined together and constantly checking watch. Stuff like that, but as I go through each date I get more and more discouraged, and that must show in my facial expression, posture, energy level etc. WOW. GOOD INPUT. My brain is going to burst with all this information!

While we are halfway through my next scene with Phuminat, the gay/straight guy, I think time is almost up and Mr. Moss calls us back in. DAMN. he has so many good ideas. He asks us to all line up at the back of the room, and walk up to him, say hi IN CHARACTER. OH NO..... toughie for me who isn't sure how normal girls act. Mark goes first and seems like he aces it. I go next >_< but he makes me say HI again. lifting up his shit infested slipper. OK. I GET IT. I HAVE TO BE LOUD. So i go do it again....but I walk before I say it, can't i say it to his face?! And oh nO! he throws his slipper at me.....T_T and it hits me in parts you don't wanna know or guess. >_< sighs. how brutal. But this is a strengthening exercise for me! making me more thick skinned! YES! I finally do it with the help of Michelle. Thank yo Michelle, you're the best! and yes, about 5/6 times later, he asks me to pull up a seat. *breath of relief*

So that ends the day, and a satisfying day it is. I love drama now because it feels good to get out of my skin and get myself into the arts. Oh. not that i didn't love drama in the beginning yes? :P

NEXT LESSON GOALS : MAINTAIN volume. Respond to Michelle's conversation. work out confusion with reaction of Girl. Get comfortable being Girl.

Actor's Journal #9 - actions speak louder than words

2009-01-29T06:34:00.001-08:00

290109

The preparation for the upcoming TAPS program took up most of our time. Mr.Moss filled us in on details of responsibility and worse-case scenarios, all part and parcel of our roles as the host of this ISTA program. I guess from this I didn't learn much as an actor, but from another point of view, you learn alot about responsibility and the hardwork it takes to host a program. OO.

So anyway, after all the briefing, we work on Check, Please. I was hoping to do the scene with the phobic guy and the overly romantic guy and thats what we did today! AWESOME. So while the others were working with Mr. Moss in the drama studio, me and Tilly ran through our parts outside, getting familiar with it, knowing it and learning to be comfortable saying it. I admit, during the weekend, I read thru it tons of times, and this time, I was actually listening to what Tilly was saying and it made things alot easier. FAMILIARITY. Thats a good thing.

Now after that, we got called in to do the part of Ken (phuminat) and Girl (me). OOOO. now this was exciting. Mr.Moss isn't like your everyday teacher, he is TOTALLY and THOROUGHLY into acting. he is good and he does what he does well. One thing I admire about him is the way he does things to make the scene more something that people would want to see. Its the way he overdoes things that catch my attention. Thats exactly what I want to do! But as the "girl" I don't get much exaggerating done. *sighs* But I'm working hard on this, trying my best to be comfortable with the part opposite mine, listening, hearing, and reacting naturally. I just love this scene! It is so natural yet exaggerated at the same time. I admit, its the first time I actually felt really comfortable in my part, doing stuff with my hands and body that felt right, and all that. BUT. one thing Mr.Moss said that made an impact, Asians find it hard to act using FACIAL EXPRESSION. yes. very true, I am SURE my face looked rigid and the same throughout the whole time. I used to do TONS with my facial expression, just cause I loved to feel the muscles in my face working, but today? Well, maybe I was just lazy. But now I know, FACIAL EXPRESSION. I must be aware of that. Ooops, and volume again >_< Mr. Moss said he'll make me lick his shit-stepped-in slipper if he couldn't hear me again. YA. gotta practice that.

Mr. Moss did change a line in my part though, making it funnier! *last line - Does this crap ever work?!* I think I learned about body movement through actual thoughts in my head. At the end part, I have to feel RAGE, and my body has to react to that to make it natural. And the positioning on stage is critical. I have to stop poking my ass in everyone's face and use upstage positions. Another good point for me to learn. But overall, I WISH I COULD DO PHUMI'S PART! its so fun. so much exaggeration, so much movement and FAKENESS. I AM SO ENVIOUS. I would be able to do that well. But since the aim of me going into drama is to learn things of the unfamiliar, I will do my part and I will do it well. The learning process is hard but one that is well worth its effort.

GOAL FOR TOMORROW : Volume. Stage position. Facial expression. comfortable-ness. Probable scene rehearsal - MANNY.

Actor's Journal #8 - and the tough gets going

2009-01-24T20:07:00.000-08:00

230109

Today's rehearsal was different. Mr. Moss was directing and his style of teaching is in a whole new dimension from Mrs. Marshall. Different it is, but I can say I learn a lot from both of them.

I was expecting to do the scene with either Michelle or Phuminat. But, Phumi didn't come so we did the scene with Trym aka Tod. Before we talk about my experiences under the direction of Mr. Moss, I want to talk about the problems I'm having with my part. Well, my character is a pretty normal-girl-next-door person. She has nothing special about her that I can portray, nothing quite outstanding about her, and nothing in the script that actually makes her a striking person. Just a normal person. How do we do that? Yes I agree that playing a person closer to what your personality is like is easy, but for me, doing that is just the opposite. I LOVE exaggeration, natural just isn't my thing. Well, this will help me improve my acting SO MUCH. Ok then, off to the director. Mr. Moss is brilliant! He starts by setting us in the mood and feeling of the character. Like for example, he makes Trym say his alphabets in his character and makes him jump up and down like a 8 year old kid. He makes us ALL do this, and now I feel like I wanna be Tod too. IT IS WAY EASIER TO BE SOMEONE YOU'RE NOT THEN SOMEONE YOU ARE IN ACTING. So being Tod should be easy peasy. When we do start acting, I really honestly do not know how to be an actual normal person. Weird isn't it? And my volume is too small! Oh no. This is making it even harder for me. How to sound feminine, natural, and normal at an audio level of 1000000000000000000 decibels (or maybe just at a louder sound. hehe)? But I can sort of do it because of my previous singing experience? Still, its tough.

ANOTHER THING. once we got into the rhythm of actually speaking our parts and running through the scene. Mr. Moss asks us to DROP THE SCRIPT. =O shocking. I was not prepared but this honestly helped me BE myself, think and react as a person not just as an actor reading off a script. It was for once, natural. Surprisingly, I actually knew some parts of it. Yes, this is good training for not only my memory, but natural response and quick thinking on my feet. Overall, it was an invigorating rehearsal. I look forward to being directed by both Mr. Moss & Mrs. Marshall, they both provide VERY VERY high quality input that renews me as an actor. I learn so much, and by combining both their views, my learning experiences increase ten-fold.

GOALS FOR NEXT LESSON :
Get that high decibel volume from the diaphragm. React naturally. BE my character. Listen to my "blind date". No overdoing the actions. Be aware of the setting (in a restaurant) and how my character would respond to the "blind date" being the way he is (namely Trym's character. haha)

Thats all for now.
productivity at its best!

Ernie

Actor's Journal #7 - Let open the flood gates

2009-01-22T06:35:00.000-08:00

220109

I was not at all prepared for what was about to come today. Today was scary, today was stressful, today was INTIMIDATING. But I will overcome, because it is me.

I came in for rehearsal today feeling somewhat prepared maybe? Prepared to enjoy rehearsal, to learn more about my character and lines. Sadly mistaken, because when we came in, Mr. Moss literally let open the flood gates of due dates and assignments. I'm not going to go into detail about what he said, just an overall summary.

Me & Michelle -
LOVE PERHAPS
Stage helper (set + lights)
12th - 14th Feb 2009
Night
Dorsett Hotel

Trym, Tilly, Mark & Poo -
CHECK, PLEASE
Prop design, set design, lights design, sound design.
17th, 19th, 20th March and maybe one at night on the 18th/19th
11:30am
duration:40 minutes

Due Dates
13th Feb - Class discussion over lunch about costumes
24th Feb - Off book rehearsals aka lines to be memorized
10th March - Completion of costumes, hand props, set, lights & sounds
12th, 13th March - Dress rehearsals
18th/19th March - Possible night show
17th. 19th. 20th March - SHOW DAY 1130am
20th March - Research presentation (vietnam)
25th March - Rehearsal journals due

SO MANY THINGS TO DO. plus there we will be assistants to the year 13s in directing Chicken Bones for the Teenage Soup, helping out Cats production by the Primary kids and costume design. WOW. COMMITMENT.

After the flood of information. We finally get down to work on Check, Please. I really really did bad. >_< and because I admit, I didn't really analyze my character, didn't internalize her, didn't know how she felt or what she was thinking. I was basically being me. BAD MOVE. We started out feeling VERY awkward. I was uncomfortable and so was Michelle (Louis). It was just all wrong. I wasn't IN my part at all, and that just made every action I took seem on the surface. Like any random Malaysian acting, it seemed fake. I was trying too hard, I needed to be relaxed, I needed to KNOW MY PART. I needed to react as if this is exactly how I would react given me in the situation. What Mrs. Marshall said was really really helpful. My gestures where too exaggerated and I was looking more to the audience than my "blind date". The tips she gave me on body language, stillness yet intense, less being more really really made sense. But somehow I just didn't pull it off. It needs work, and later on, Michelle and I did work on it :) Its a teeny bit better now. hehe. Doing it over and over again, you just know what is going to happen next, and when you know what is happening, the nerves don't spike, when the nerves don't spike, you actually listen to what the opposite party is saying, which makes it more natural, and therefore NOT fake. For me, the only way that can happen is if i read it again and again until I know it like the back of my hand.

I go back home to re-analyse my character.

Who am I?
I am a girl. A girl so frustrated of being alone and envious of couples that I decide to overcome that by throwing myself into blind date after blind date until I meet THE ONE. I'm in my late 20's (26/27) you see and thinking that maybe I should be prepared to settle down by now. I work in a bank where male and female interact frequently. But no, this has no advantage for me because most of my colleagues are in couples, and even the single ones have blossoming love lives outside work.

What do I want?
Pretty obvious, I want to get a boyfriend that suits my NEEDS. sweet, thoughtful, considerate, hardworking, romantic, successful, responsible.....and the list goes on.

What's in my way?
Weird characters that take me out to dinner, which makes my life even more frustrating as I go from date to date. I may possibly expect less and less from each date, thinking maybe I set my standards at an unreachable height.

What do I do to get what I want?
I'm open when we're on the date. I am ready to think that maybe the guy I'm on the date with is THE ONE, I try to appear funny, get the conversation flowing smoothly. My goal is to get a boyfriend. So, all my questions are aimed at more personal information, but still to a certain extent. There has to be laughter then trust will follow soon. I get dressed up well, hoping to have a better first impression, and maybe search on the internet about body language and how to appear open and comfortable. DESPERATION AT ITS MAXIMUM. I maybe practice facial expression in front of the mirror and prepare conversational topics to keep the awkwardness to a minimum. Basically get a crash course on "Dating Language For Dummies".

GOALS FOR NEXT REHEARSAL :
Knowing exactly how to react, yet make it natural. Do not overdo actions (which I really tend to do A LOT) yet make some of them obvious. Be a different person on stage then the one I am in real life. I am her. She is not me. Look at Michelle and think : GUY

I am psyched for tomorrow's rehearsal :D
Ernie

Actor's Journal #6 - The Reading

2009-01-21T05:32:00.000-08:00

200109

Walking in again to drama class and......I was feeling like a blank page. I wasn't worried about the tabloid performance thing, but i wasn't so confident about it either. Oh well, either way, we did not present it. haha! Did Mr. Moss forget about it? I kind of hope so, because I KNOW that I have yet to perfect it. This week has been awfully busy.

Anyway, I walk in to find everyone there already. Phuminat hands me a form, something about TAPS. I read through it again and realise : Oh hey! I AM excited about TAPS. Its like real life exposure to ACTORS from around the world. And if the teachers are anything LIKE Mr. Moss. woohoo!

Details of TAPS
Date : 5th - 7th Feb

em....thats it. HAHA. I miss 2 days of school but will still go to church on friday evening and saturday morning. ITS MY CHOICE, DON'T ARGUE WITH ME ABOUT IT.

So anyway, brief explanation about what we are going to do during TAPS and ASSIGNMENT***! NEW ASSIGNMENT. again?! But this one is a fun one....kinda, what we are supposed to do is act as tour guides to the TAPS members for thursday afternoon. We start at the Jetty, head along Armenian Street, pass through Little India and Chinatown (does Penang even have one?!) in 3 hours. A measely 3 hours with has lunch included. Tough job. We're just going to have to pinpoint awesome places for them to go and sight see. Now here's the tricky part, among the places that we pinpoint, MOST of them have to be stimuli for the beginning & development of a drama/play. That can be anything! ARGH this is hard, but lucky we're doing this in groups and I'm with Tilly & Mark. Poo gets Michelle and Trym. Lucky bastards. I want Michelle & Poo.

Next up, we read the play
WE READ THE PLAY! yippee! Now we're talking.

PLAY ESSENTIALS
Title : Check, Please
Creator : Jonathan Rand
Genre : Comedy
Characters : Guy, Girl, Louis, Melanie, Ken, Mary, Mark, Pearl, Tod, Sophie, Brandon, Linda, Manny, Mimi.

I'm the girl! Which is the main character. SOOOO excited.

Ok. All I know is this play is AWESOME. first time reading through it and i'm already hooked! It is so funny, so cute and soooo hilarious! But during the reading, I think I didn't portray the girl wonderfully, I thought yes, maybe Michelle (who was originally supposed to do it) should play the part, but it is fun! AND this would really develop some skills of mine that I never knew before. I have to learn to be natural yet exaggerating the important bits, learn to flow with the story and gain MUCH trust with the rest of the actors. Its tough but an exciting challenge! Thank you Mr.Moss for choosing me! I feel closer to the character already as I am a girl, in school, and also eager to seek a life partner. ahhh....I'm just so excited to read it some more and the rehearsals! YES!

Goal : To know what the GIRL expects from every date and how she feels at the end.

Now to look for the 9 questions I have to answer about my character! go!

Ernie

Actor's Journal #5 - Presentation Day

2009-01-18T03:54:00.000-08:00

160109

PRESENTATION DAY. The title says it all. Today is the day filled with nerves, emotions, and nail-bitings.....for me. The rest seem calm and confident. DAMN. and my character is supposed to BE confident. DAMN. So nevermind. I walk in class knowing what i want to do and what i want to be. CONFIDENT. It starts out well, I was really really looking forward to drama......but somehow, year 13 has joined us....and nerves spike again. *sighs* when will it stop spiking? DAMN

Anyway, Poo goes first. And his act is GOOD. He chose a 6, so its like, write out a speech, act totally nervous yet come in comfortably, referring script almost all the time. Yea he did a good job, but I really really wasn't paying much attention because well, WHEN WAS IT GOIN TO BE MY TURN?! yea those ideas were clouding my concentration. sorry Poo - u know I love u. haha.

Next was Tilly, she did.....good. Chatty, confident, happy to be presenting her speech but somehow got mixed up with her own personality along the way, AND Mr. Moss noticed it. haha. he's awesome, and Tilly is too!

Next was.....Michelle. GOONESS. She is an awesome actress. She had it to a T AND Mr. Moss said so! WOW. her act was totally convincing, shuffling feet, saying the "sorry" under her breath, constantly glancing down. WOWEE. pressure to be better? YEA

ME. Argh, yea, I think i overdid it. I went out, literally BOUNCING on stage, and accidentally slammed down my book on the "podium" hahaha...yea. that wasn't supposed to happen. But it did. I was really nervous, and I don't know why.....>_< I shot through everything and the comments were : It was a little threatening. Maybe a 9? ahhh....I tend to overdo things? So maybe I should tone it down ALOT for the next performance.

Trym. AWWWWW.....his was such a cute act. All shy and stuttering, only saying something BARELY audible then fleeing the stage. AWWWW.....yea, plus he's white. They naturally look cuter. :D

After that, we exercised more on our tabloids. Honestly I think me and Poo did a good job on it. Tonss of credit to Poo. His indeas? AWESOME. We praticed it more, and Mrs. Marshall showed us how to get more flow from what we were wanting to present. Start from head, down to body, down to tapping, then whole body ENGAGING into the rythm BURSTING within us. I LIKE. I like alot. Thank you Mrs. Marshall. So now, i'm more confident about that performance :)
And can't wait till Tuesday! Cya peeps!

Ernie

Actor's Journal #4 - Growing Together

2009-01-15T03:15:00.000-08:00

150109

I'm feeling more and more comfortable with the class now, but today a tad bit nervous. We're expected to do our speech on our most inspiring person and I still don't know how to be confident without shaking just a teeny wee bit. Somehow, because of unexpected circumstances, we never even get to the acting and just sit around discussing characters, history and feelings. The words extroverts and introverts were flying around the class......ALOT. But anyway, today for me felt like we were bonding as a family, ahhh....that warm and fuzzy feeling. :D

First we go in, then Mr. Moss starts talking about what number we chose. I chose 8 and I told him that. I explained all about my character history, why my character is at a confidence level of 8 and so and so. Here are my points. Supportive family, success was celebrated, failure was accepted and exposure to just about anything. Mrs. Marshall actually complemented me on my points but em.....honestly? I was just describing myself in more extreme terms. Haha. So you see? this was easy for me.

Next we talk about Poo who chose a number 6. His points were just about like mine - family and I don't really blame him, cause what is the center of our world other than family? He explains a little more about how he wasn't really supported in everything he did, so there was confidence with a slight tinge of subservient-ness. There was a little I didn't understand about the little argument they were having concerning Poo's characters history but in the end it seemed to resolve to a satisfying conclusion. *ahhhh*

Next Mr Moss looked for a more extreme number. Trym to the rescue with his 3! He is a DRAMA KING. He starts off his character by killing off his dad in a robbery even before he was born. WOW. Mom gets traumatised by the loss and becomes over-protective over son. She home schools him and literally shileds him from the outside world. Yea, this definitely WOULD NOT be a confident/dominant child. BUT, then Mrs. Marshall says something that really makes you click. The fathers death occured when the child was not even born correct? Yes. And how old is the child now? 17/18. So, throughout the 17 years, the child did not move on one bit? *silence* I start to think about where she is goin with this question. It is possible for a child to get over the trauma of losing a loved one. ESPECIALLY after a long period of 17 years. So here we are, debating whether or not it was plausible. Then Mr. Moss jumps in and says that, when he was young, he had a burn on his face, he had to wear a PLASTIC bad over his head to protect it from getting infected and now he has a slight phobia towards wearing masks. I get what he means, eventhough there might be the slightless doubt that the child could not turn out the way he has, the fact that it is possible cannot be ignored either. This is the complexity of the human mind and their behaviour. ANYTHING can be possible, just as long as you can have the slightest argument about it. People do react in different ways after all.

Michelle's number 4 was next. Hers was the family didn't want her in the first place. *ouch* that is harsh. I imagine the parents probably being young and reckless, during this and that, OUTCOME=baby wanting to have it aborted but doesn't have the financial capability to do so. This I feel really hurts a child. She is constantly suppressed due to the hatred from her parents and find herself being compelled to apologize for her mere existence. This is what was running though my mind when she said it. Perfect set up for a 4 i think. go michelle!

Mark apparently really didn't get the assignment eventhough he acted like he did. His most inspiring character was David Beckham, yet when he said his number 5 and described his history, he was describing Beckham. I AM SO HAPPY I ASKED MICHELLE BEFOREHAND ABOUT THE ASSIGNNMENT. or not I would be as equally blur.

Tilly was kind of abit worse. She was describing this awesome person, oh and her number was a 7, confident, mother actress, dad a fireman, became a model. You could see the impressed look on Mr. Moss on such detailed information! LOL. turns out she was describing a real person. *sighs* So that took time explaining the assignment and how it REALLY was supposed to be.

INFORMATION :
speech - no more than 30 seconds
tabloid - no more than 30 seconds.

wow. I wrote a pretty long speech. looks like it needs cutting down. Yet again another productive, cozy, relaxing day. NO REGRETS IN TAKING DRAMA.

Ernie

Actor's Journal #3 - The going gets tough

2009-01-13T03:42:00.000-08:00

130109

SO HAPPY THAT ITS DRAMA. Had like 2 periods of physics. 2 periods of economics. TIME TO GET THOSE CREATIVE JUICES FLOWING and have some fun! moving those limbs and not over working the brain. Yes, I love drama!

Today -
Everyone gets confused with our assignments. Supposedly, today we were going to make speeches on our most inspiring character/person. Em....I actually did DO it, but I just didn't write down the speech. So when Mr.Moss asks me if I'm prepared. I say no. Sorry Mr.Moss......Lucky Mr. Moss is nice, and says that all is well! He'll just switch the activities planned on thursday with the activities planned today. So thats it.

REMINDER : THURS - Speech assignment.

Ok. Then we start off by breaking up into 3 groups. Not really groups, considering the number of pupils in the class, but pairs more like. I'm with Poo (love his name!:P) Michelle with Trym (I finally know how to spell his name) and Mark with Tilly. We're given a task, think about 3 issues that effects YOU and convey it to us using tabloids (its like a frozen in time piece). So I am stuck, WHAT ISSUES?! Poo comes up with war & poverty, and I still and speechless.....issues?! Haha. I'm slow, I know, gotta work on the understanding bit. So last one, I say drugs. So here we have our 3 issues that we're gonna convey through these frozen in time pieces.

Issues :
- Poverty
- War
- Drugs & Alcohol
Poo starts scribbling in my book how exactly we position ourselves in the tabloids and here's how it looks like this.......

Thank you Poo for making my book no messier than it already is *forced smile*

Poverty.
Haha. So anywway, we try it out, but then the feeling is different and I feel lik different dimensions are needed. Poo suggested that for poverty, we sit back to back, begging for money. Yea thats ok....but I like DRAMA, action and surprise. So I think up something. I take a coin (5 cents! haha) place in on the ground, throw myself ON the ground to and reach out for the coin in desperation! I need the coin, as measly as a 5 cent coin might be I need it! It is MONEY. And nothing is what I have. Ooooo....emotion! Thats what I like. So poverty is settled. different dimensions. NICE

War.
This one....not so interesting for me, I'm a woman, pretending to be clutching a baby in my arms, while Poo attacks me with a gun. Boring, expected, and conventional. But still, I can't think of anythign else to spice it up. EXCEPT. move on.

Drugs & Alcohol.
Once again, we're back to back and we have to look like we're high. Basically look like we're dumb and without a care in the world. can't change much of that can I? Settled.

Presentations:
First up is......Mark and Tilly. They're issues where poverty, drugs & Bad academic concentration. Nice, They're first one was cute. I thought it was really cute. Like she was crouching down and he had his wallet open, as if emptying it into her hands but its empty in the first place. Cute ok?! But Mr. Moss doesn't think so...>_< size="5">Ernie

Actor's Journal #2 - something different

2009-01-10T18:15:00.000-08:00

090109

Walk in today to drama feeling more brave. Teachers know my name, I'm SUPPOSED to be there and classmates seem nice enough to feel less awkward.

FEELINGS : Not awkward. Nice. Happy. Learning new stuff. Interesting.

WRONG. Today was just another nervous day. Nervous but comfortable though, might I add.

Well today I guess I'm happy because I'm not the last one to enter class. YES. Things like that make me uneasy in new environments. Not in my old school or places I am familiar with. But new places, like Uplands, my NEW school. So happily I await the new knowledge I am about to absorb and obtain from these interesting teachers of mine, Mr. Moss & Ms. Marshall (she's from Cambodia! cool!) We start off by doing quick revision on yesterdays work. Physical character? determined by history & choice. We sit on the floor doing this quick activity when Mr. Moss asks us to look at the back of the room. There is an annoying piece of furniture infront of me. The table. I start to move it when Mr. Moss says "ah ah. nono. that is part of the setup." Then I knew. Oopsy, that is the stage, and we're acting today. *heartdrops* I like to act yes, BUT ACTING IS NOT SOMETHING I'M EXTREMELY GOOD AT. Thats why I went for theatre arts. To be good at it! My gooooshes.

So Mr. Moss explains the set-up. It is a classroom, and we, NEW STUDENTS (hahaha. not like I need to act yes?) are entering it for the FIRST TIME. act that out, while everyone else watches. *heart thumping* ok. I can do it. Its natural, the nervousness kicks in rreal well. Lucky I'm the last to go, cause if not. I would definitely mess it up more than I already did. So after each one of us took turns acting it out (I acted scared btw, Michelle did an awesome comical one!! go michelle!!) Mr. Moss asks us : Do you know what dominant and subservient people are?

Subservient. Hmmm.....heard of it. Never bothered to check its meaning. GUESS : opposite of dominant? (lol. that is quite obvious)

So he starts handing out papers with a list of numbers (2-10) describing people's character on the level of confidence. 2 being extremely subservient and 10 being extremely dominant. I looked at the paper and KNEW we had to act at least one out. Next thing I knew, we were all drawing numbers from this tupperware. The numbers picked we were supposed to act out. Not sharing the knowledge of whatever number we got, we act it out, people will watch and an appointed person will guess the number we are acting while giving comments and thoughts. I got 7! which is cool but hard cause confidence kind of goes against that nervousness that is ALWAYS there heck! everytime I do things infront of foreign people. Tilly is up first with Michelle guessing. To me she acts skitterish. Being excited constantly and jumpy a little. For me I wouldn't say its confidence, but then again, do people act like that in a new class on the first day of school? Nono. So I guess a substantial amount of confidence will definitely be needed to actually go up and say hi to people. Michelle actually guess correctly! An 8! bravo! So Michelle is up next, with ME commenting. oooOOOOoo....butterflies. She acts comfortable. So thats a 6 and above. She acknowledges people. DEFINITE 7 and above. Not much nerves. No trepidation. Gotta be a 7. But wait, I'm 7!!! I guess a 9. and it is correct. Luck. pure luck. I wasn't even SURE of my answer. *sighs* maybe next lesson then.

THEN its MY turn. >_< I walk on set. shaking off those nerves. shake shake shake. okk....obviously not that easy to shake. but I begin anyway. *thinking* poise. arrogance. confidence. bravery. confidence. With all the thoughts in mind. I walk, letting the energy fill me. But then I feel stiff, I wave at people, I acknowledge them. check. I make eye contact. Check. Limited eye contact? My eyes flicker over the teacher when he looks at me. Was that correct? I don't know. Then I slither to the lone chair and desk in the "room" sit down once again, arrogantly, and wait. Mark guesses a 6. HAHA WRONG. but oh wait. people are supposed to guess correctly. SHIT. But he said he was contemplating between a 7 and a 6. DAMMIT WHY DIDN'T U SAY A 6?! but oh well.....lesson learnt. CONFIDENT PPL DO NOT SLITHER. they refuse slight eye contact but STILL the confidence is there. *sighs* acting makes me timid sometimes. Well, basically the rest did good. I like a little bit of everything from everyone. I like Mark's shuffling of feet. I like Poo's overall act. I like Trim's (is that his name?) tense feet when he sat down on the chair and I LOVE Lucy's ACTING. she has already graduated....but that doesn't mean I cant love her acting can i?

So once again, I learn tons. I love that feeling, like a sponge plunging into a bucket of soapy water. Just soaking in all that, now all I wait to do is use the soap and water inside me to clean SOMETHING. I wanna be productive! I wanna show them I learnt something. Thats why....I wanna do my best in my speech thats gonna be presented on Tues. Dear God, help me not screw it up because when I chose the number that I thought I would find difficulty in portraying, I chose 8. SHITHECKDAMNPOOP.

Assignment:
Choose a number that you find difficulty in portraying.
Now make a speech entitled "My most inspiring character/person" in the character of the number you chose.

AHHA. challenge. I will not give up. Yes I will do it. Now let me go find my inspiration.........

ciaoz
Bug

Actor's Journal #1 - FINDING OUT

2009-01-10T05:20:00.000-08:00

080109

2nd day of school and I was honestly feeling very discouraged. The workload. The RANDOM arrangement of classes. The workload again *sighs*. The catching up. THE UNSTOPPABLE RUSH OF COLORADO-RIVER-LIKE INFORMATION SQUEEZING AND HURDLING ITS WAY DOWN THE NARROW AND ONLY PATHWAY INTO MY BRAIN OF LIMITED SIZE AND CAPACITY.

yes school. the wonderful glories of school. Refreshing for those who have been sloppy during the holidays, but still, for me it was like a cold bucket of water straight to the face on a day that should be full of relaxation. Then SOMETHING happened. I stepped into Theatre Arts.

It was refreshing. VERY. And this time I mean it in a LITERAL sense. As I gingerly placed each foot infront of each other, a little intimidated by the number of students in the class (6), OOO I felt weird. Lucky Michelle was there! She's always there for me, explaining CAS to me, rushing off to guide me to class, eating lunch. I LOVE HER. SHE IS A PERSON WITH THE BIGGEST HEART AND THE MOST GORGEOUS SMILE AND PERSONALITY IN THE WORLD. But still, I'm there, new again, teaching people how to pronounce my name and feeling awkward.

Somehow, THIS teacher doesn't make me feel awkward. Mr.Moss if not wrong. I love Americans for this, they make you feel at EASE. dammit I wish I could have that kind of talent. But I don't. acceptance *pause* peace of mind *pause + deep breaths* DONE. i'm over it. Over that jealousy....... or admiration if jealousy is a too harsh word :P. Anyway, first thing we do, we jump right too it! No dilly dally. Straight to work. I likey~

Task #1:
What are the first things that you (should) do when a script arives in the post, and it is right there in your hands.

whoa. is this something I should have studied for?
Hui Ern : Are we actually supposed to know the answers??
Mr. Moss : Yes.
Hui Ern's mind : SHIIIIIIT. should not have let wei yun convince me to join!! $@%$#%$!!!!
Mark : Are they like....real REAL answers.
Mr.Moss : No.
Hui Ern's mind : phew

Hui Ern's hand staats to write though.
1. Read thru the script. (like duuuhhhh......haha. but I got it right! yesssss! *fists pumping in air*
2. Imagine story - or basically know the plot.
3. Find out rest of the cast. I obviously DO NOT KNOW A THING ABOUT DRAMA
4. Memorize part. (ahhh.....apprently this is wrong. Lesson learnt and noted.)
5. Act out part with someone.
6. Research story. I'm obviously desperate
7. Call director/producer for pointers. And here I am being insane.

So we discuss about it. Lucky I didn't read anything out! cause well you know.....my thoughts SUCK. yuck. I always knew....but like...THIS MUCH?! haha. anyway....moving on.

Interpretation of what I think are the answers
1. Read thru script.
2. Know story plot.
3. Know your ROLE. oh yaaaa.....your ROLE
4. Internalize and analyse CHARACTER. why didn't I think of this?
5. LEARN part. Do you see the difference? LEARN not memorize.

ONE. Character Analysis. Physical & emotional.
Factors affecting physical character
: history & choice
This is actually quite complex. I never really thought being an actor required such hard thought, research and dedication. I thought it was talent! haha. silly me.

History
Why are people the way they are? Why do they act the way they act? Why do they feel the way they do? Why do they avoid certain people/places/things?
WHY. history. what happened in the past. Things that made behavioural actions HABITS. constant repetition since young. This explains why babies who were dangled from the toe at level 88 of their apartment are afraid of heights. Why victims of abuse are tend to be more loving, understanding yet introverts. and basically, why people are the way they are. Hmmm....logical.

Choice
This was a good one. Mr Moss says, "I lost 30 pounds in one day" or so he claims :P But he actually didn't, he just sat up straighter, sucked that tummy in and walked with poise. So he changed the way he carried himself. He changed HIMSELF. So this makes a person, or in this case, a character.

Next we learnt about the acting bit. What is essential between actors? Or do you just do YOUR thing. Act YOUR part. Finish YOUR scene. End YOUR day. And come back to do YOUR acting again together. Sounds selfish and it is. Acting isn't about acting. Its about trust between two actors of the same scene. That bond that makes acting natural, that faith in each other that the words just leave our mouth naturally. TRUST=essential. The comfortable-ness that makes it all real. We were also taught that before walking into rehearsals, you have to have a goal. Its like life, you don't just wander around aimlessly. You make a path for yourself. A path with direction and purpose. It applies everywhere, anytime, any place. And this place is drama rehearsals. LESSON #INFINTY - walk into rehearsals knowing what you should work on. what needs help to be corrected. do it. finish it. find more to work on.

I have learnt alot.

Next assignment was pretty simple. RESEARCH. The origins of threatre.
My mind seems to have expected this and I don't know why. We're researching on South East Asian culture! So for me a Malaysian, its more of a familiar territory. *hmmmmMMMMMmmm* I feel all warm inside. haha. here it is.

Assignment
Research traditional threatre in the Southeast Asian region.
Select one dance form and one mask or puppet tradition.

Story source and (if possible) an example of a story
Objective of performance and audience
Staging venues
Stock characters (good/evil) and how they are represented.
Performance elements (Costume, backdrop, music, dialogue)

Laos
Cambodia (Khmer)
Indonesia
Phillipines
Veitnam
Thailand
Myanmar (Burma)

I got Vietnam. :D

This is actually a homework assignment itself. Say hello to my Actor's Journal which will be graded on. You are reading HOMEWORK. which is personal and means alot. Thanks for eyeballing it.

Till I do my homework again
Ernie