Thursday, June 19, 2008
"Don't Look Back"
Don't Look Back is scheduled to be filming from August 21,2008-Graduation 2009. It is a documentary about the Seniors in Boonsboro. I'm looking for people willing to be videotaped and people willing to appear and do various segments on the film. It will be edited next summer and hopefully released to DVD in August 2009.
Monday, June 2, 2008
Drama
It is June 2, 2008 meaning that in 2 days the 2007-2008 school year is coming to an abrupt halt. The School year isn't the only thing ending. I not only lose my Junior year but I also lose Drama for at least 2 months. Drama class has possibly been in my 12 years of being in school, the funnest class and best character wise I have ever taken. The point prooves in a book I am currently writing entitled, Drama:Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Stage.
The class itself has taught me a lot of things. One thing it taught me was the sense of teamwork. The sense had always been in my mindset but never really in me. The production of The Good Woman of Setzuan showed me the emphasis on the term "teamwork". If one small part of the show wasn't working then the show itself would be doomed for failure.
An example of this is lines. If someone doesn't get their lines right then there would be a major issue to the point where we experience awkward phrases, dialouge, and pauses. Miscues could also occur causing the show to have complete failure. Imagine if during the fight scene that Jacob and Tom accidently fell back and destroyed the fake wall not only would they be in major trouble but it exposes the backstage showing the stage crew and literally killing the visual effects of the show. The show would therefore be ruined and thus become a bit of trainwreck.
Drama can teach character not just being a character but also being of one of good character. However, at the same time it can bring out a nasty side to people. Shows can be stressing very stressing if one isn't doing a good job or one thing itself isn't complete. During The Good Woman of Setzuan I experienced tension between myself and some of the cast members even spewing into a bit of an argument. Most times it was a misunderstanding but others was just my ego showing.
As much as I loved portraying "The Old Man", each day I grew impatient with people to the point where it would show when I walked off the stage. My impatience and stress stemmed initially from an incident that occured the previous month at my church but it was my boredom with sitting backstage but as the production continued I learned patience. Overall, Drama has been one of my favorite experiences of my life and I cannot wait til Drama II next semester.
Theatre has been around since the beginning of time. It is people appearing on stage and pretending to be something they're not or in Matt Johnson's case in The Good Woman of Setzuan portraying themselves ;)(j/k). However, there are three different eras of Theatre: Classic, Medieval, and Post-Modern. In Drama, we read six plays from those time periods: Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Hairy Ape, and Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung you in the Closet and I'm So Sad. All six of these plays represented their era well.
Oedipus Rex was a Greek play written in B.C. times. The play is the story is that years ago the King was murdered and years later the people of the kingdom the King ruled are paying for it. The character, Oedipus is now King and fears that an old prophecy saying he would kill his dad and marry his mother. Oedipus begins to recall a murder he committed years ago in the same area the King was murdered. At the end, Oedipus realizes he killed his father and gouges his eyes out because he was "blind" to the truth and leaves the Kingdom.
Oedipus Rex is an example of Classical Theatre because its main character, Oedipus is basically disrespectful towards the Gods and it is his selfishness that leads to his ultimate downfall. Another example is the chorus which was very prominant in Greek times for the Chorus always spoke and praised the Gods. A Midsummer Summer Night's Dream is an example of Medieval Theatre because it involved sexual themes which was common in plays at the time because in the Dark Ages they were forbidden to display it. The Hairy Ape was a demonstration of a modern play because it demonstrates modern elements to a play such as a realistic plot and use of many characters.
While all of these are normal plays Oh Dad, Poor Dad was the case of something completely different. Oh Dad, Poor Dad was an example of a post-modern play in the sense that it was something completely different. We call this the Absurdist Movement. The absurdist movement began in the late-50's and was an example of destroying realistic theatre. Oh Dad, Poor Dad did just that with its bizarre plot involving a mother who keeps her son under locks and dead husband in the closet just as the title says.
The absurdist movement mission was to destroy realistic theatre and this story did just that as moments in the play such as Jonathan's awkward studdering and the seduction scene with Rosalie and the details of use of Plants and Fish as actual characters. These are the plays and waht they represent
The class itself has taught me a lot of things. One thing it taught me was the sense of teamwork. The sense had always been in my mindset but never really in me. The production of The Good Woman of Setzuan showed me the emphasis on the term "teamwork". If one small part of the show wasn't working then the show itself would be doomed for failure.
An example of this is lines. If someone doesn't get their lines right then there would be a major issue to the point where we experience awkward phrases, dialouge, and pauses. Miscues could also occur causing the show to have complete failure. Imagine if during the fight scene that Jacob and Tom accidently fell back and destroyed the fake wall not only would they be in major trouble but it exposes the backstage showing the stage crew and literally killing the visual effects of the show. The show would therefore be ruined and thus become a bit of trainwreck.
Drama can teach character not just being a character but also being of one of good character. However, at the same time it can bring out a nasty side to people. Shows can be stressing very stressing if one isn't doing a good job or one thing itself isn't complete. During The Good Woman of Setzuan I experienced tension between myself and some of the cast members even spewing into a bit of an argument. Most times it was a misunderstanding but others was just my ego showing.
As much as I loved portraying "The Old Man", each day I grew impatient with people to the point where it would show when I walked off the stage. My impatience and stress stemmed initially from an incident that occured the previous month at my church but it was my boredom with sitting backstage but as the production continued I learned patience. Overall, Drama has been one of my favorite experiences of my life and I cannot wait til Drama II next semester.
Theatre has been around since the beginning of time. It is people appearing on stage and pretending to be something they're not or in Matt Johnson's case in The Good Woman of Setzuan portraying themselves ;)(j/k). However, there are three different eras of Theatre: Classic, Medieval, and Post-Modern. In Drama, we read six plays from those time periods: Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Hairy Ape, and Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung you in the Closet and I'm So Sad. All six of these plays represented their era well.
Oedipus Rex was a Greek play written in B.C. times. The play is the story is that years ago the King was murdered and years later the people of the kingdom the King ruled are paying for it. The character, Oedipus is now King and fears that an old prophecy saying he would kill his dad and marry his mother. Oedipus begins to recall a murder he committed years ago in the same area the King was murdered. At the end, Oedipus realizes he killed his father and gouges his eyes out because he was "blind" to the truth and leaves the Kingdom.
Oedipus Rex is an example of Classical Theatre because its main character, Oedipus is basically disrespectful towards the Gods and it is his selfishness that leads to his ultimate downfall. Another example is the chorus which was very prominant in Greek times for the Chorus always spoke and praised the Gods. A Midsummer Summer Night's Dream is an example of Medieval Theatre because it involved sexual themes which was common in plays at the time because in the Dark Ages they were forbidden to display it. The Hairy Ape was a demonstration of a modern play because it demonstrates modern elements to a play such as a realistic plot and use of many characters.
While all of these are normal plays Oh Dad, Poor Dad was the case of something completely different. Oh Dad, Poor Dad was an example of a post-modern play in the sense that it was something completely different. We call this the Absurdist Movement. The absurdist movement began in the late-50's and was an example of destroying realistic theatre. Oh Dad, Poor Dad did just that with its bizarre plot involving a mother who keeps her son under locks and dead husband in the closet just as the title says.
The absurdist movement mission was to destroy realistic theatre and this story did just that as moments in the play such as Jonathan's awkward studdering and the seduction scene with Rosalie and the details of use of Plants and Fish as actual characters. These are the plays and waht they represent
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