Forum Theatre workshop #1

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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: