On Thursday, we spent our drama lesson doing one activity:
I call it the power game.
We had to pair up with one person from a different group. The members from the "Abuse" performance group were supposed to follow, using their faces, the palms of the "War" performance piece. Whatever it is, they cannot break out or resist the control by the other group. They can only say the words "no you cant!" as a form of resistance.
I first paired up with Prakash and we experimented with different ways of moving and just played with movement for awhile.
Then Mrs Kamal got us to swap partners and I paired with Sofihah. This time, we were to supress our partners with the power of our hands.
Hang on, i'm going to stop discribing as i need to reflect as well.
After the activity, we had to go into our own corners and reflect on the activity with nothing but a pen and a piece of paper. my reflection (complete with horrid handwriting) is here:
i basically tried to link power to the performance. which is not difficult seeing as my character is the president who is power hungry and power loving. This activity will serve as muscle memory for me when i flaunt my power, possibly during the president's scene. This performance also gave me an idea on how to depict the president.
A scene showing the president doing this power game with a few people who try to overthrow him would be key in showing how this president is just perverted and loves war. There could be an interrogation to show whatever that happens and can further develop the character of diavolo.
As i mentioned, metaphorically, during drama class. Diavolo is like a fish, without power, he would be like out of water, lacking oxygen and eventualy dying.
The actor froze at 8:33 PM
Yatta! I'm finally up to date with my journals! (congratulates myself)
This is the most current post.
The past two days we stayed back after school and after lessons to polish and refine the family scenes. The group of us made great progress and roughly forged out the skeleton of the performance! Now all that's left is to put the muscles and flesh into the skeleton to form one wholesome performance!
Firstly, Yesterday.
We played a "game", as i would call it. We acted as our characters and did a SIMS computer game style of devising. We just acted as a family and interracted with each other on a day to day basis, forging stronger characters and at the same time, developing the storyline. After some time, we got clearer and clearer stories and eventually stopped the "game" to craft out the performance properly.
The introduction would be done by Mars. She will be reading a script to the screen(television) which requires her to introduce her family. When she comes to the point about her father, Diavolo enters the stage as the president and makes the announcement that war will soon be declared to the country. This is the scene which needs working on the most. That interview must be done as soon as possible.
It will then move on to the family scene. This was the section that was crafted today. Pluto would go around and, being very inquisitive, ask many questions about life and war to show her ignorance to the matter and hence, give the sense that there is hope for mankind, however, her siblings and even ber mother would shun her. That would represent society blatantly rejecting the hope that they have, to be once again, thinking individuals.
Diavolo will come home and immediately spends time with Pluto, loving her as a father would. He then gives Suzy numerical value which sparks off questions by Suzy. The couple reminisce about how they met and what happened and Diavolo realizes that Suzy doesnt remember. Venus then comes and provokes Diavolo who leaves the home. This then sparks the President's response to order that every household sends one member to participate in the war.
Back to yesterday's crafting, the family, without Diavolo, will vote for someone to go for war. They will do it in a Survivor Tribal Council style which evidently shows the back to basics with modernization theme. Hence, Pluto is sent for war. this shows that the hope for mankind is condamned by the family. Suzy is unable to vote as she feels for her children. She, under the influence of Diavolo, shows some form of thinking. This is queer as the people of their society doesnt think. This increases the audience's suspicion to Diavolo.
When Diavolo announces that Pluto is to be sent for war, He rushes back home. The president is heard running in the dark and Diavolo comes home. This further creates suspicion in Diavolo. The family then reacts to Pluto's being sent for war. Diavolo is devastated. Pluto asks her father to send her to the teleportation pod to the warfront. That would be her last time seeing her father.
Tomorrow, more crafting and ideas will surface!
The actor froze at 4:17 AM
Today I had my improvisation assesment.
It was followed with the completion of my worksheet to be handed up for the assesment itself.
Okay granted i only completed the worksheet today(as in, actually today) in class as it slipped my mind, i still managed to think of the questions.
I felt that for Diavolo, the most interesting concept would be death.
For a character who has caused so much death and misery, i wanted to explore how he would die.
First, I had to think of the causes and the time at which this took place.
It was already decided that Pluto would go for war.
I hence decided that Guerra lost the war, shockingly and Pluto was killed in the war as the context of my monologue.
Hence, the scene starts with Diavolo entering hell. With the walk which he was so familiar with, he walks through the gates of hell to announce that he was president of Guerra. He would then proceed to recount the day he died, how he was giving an account for the lives lost during the war and overcame with guilt, he blew himself, as well as the whole country of Guerra up.
This ties back to one of our theme of modernization: the more you modernize, the more back to basics you become. Set in the future almost 6decades away from now, our current suicide bombers would be considered history in their time. Hence I decided to let Diavolo die in an ancient tactic of the old.
Afterthought:
Diavolo seems to be developing very interestingly as a character. It will give him even more depth when he actually shows emotions to his family.
The actor froze at 8:09 AM
Today, I've developed my character fully to prepare for the improvisation assesment coming up.
The name of the president will be Diavolo which actually means Devil in Itallian. The name of the country formerly known as WTC will be Guerra which means war.
Naming the character is the first step in preparing for a role.
The next would be his distinguishing feature.
For Diavolo, his feature would be the cloak which he hides himself in. This creates a sense of suspense and fear as to what is under the cloak and is significant of the president's loner and selfish personality.
The feature has already determined the personality!
What is the character like? His traits will come into play next.
To help with the crafting, I shall simply list 10 points about him.
1) He is very intelligent
2) He is selfish
3) He is power hungry
4) He loves Pluto and Suzy alot.
5) He doesnt really care about the rest of his family
6) He is passionate about his job
7) He wants to retain his presidentship for as long as he can.
8) He doesnt want to be the equal of another
9) He is actually a coward
10) He is extremely 2 faced.
These points would be sufficient for the improvisation tomorrow. From there, i would be able to find more infomation about him
The actor froze at 8:03 AM
Today we stayed back to do some devising and compilling of infomation.
We began with the cause of war.
Since the performance is situated in the future, we wanted the cause of the war to be special and something that is not bothered or fought about now.
Hence we brain stormed about the possible causes and derived the cause: trees.
The War Torn Country (WTC) would go for war against Goleckgostan (GG) because of trees.
The idea of trees is a symbol.
Due to the photosynthetic ability of trees, they provide oxygen for all living things to sustain life.
WTC, being modernized and urbanized, has gotten rid of all the trees to build their homes and machinery. Hence they lack trees and the country is suffering from a lack of oxygen and everyone is relying on ventilators to breathe. Such ventilators will not last last and a solution must come fast. Hence the idea to invade GG and steal their resources.
Trees also signify being rooted to the ground. The wanting of trees shows that WTC has modernized more than it should and has lost its roots with the basic human nature, behavior and traditions.
Other than deciding on the cause of war, we also brainstormed about the theme. The results are as follows:
We began with the cause of war.
Since the performance is situated in the future, we wanted the cause of the war to be special and something that is not bothered or fought about now.
Hence we brain stormed about the possible causes and derived the cause: trees.
The War Torn Country (WTC) would go for war against Goleckgostan (GG) because of trees.
The idea of trees is a symbol.
Due to the photosynthetic ability of trees, they provide oxygen for all living things to sustain life.
WTC, being modernized and urbanized, has gotten rid of all the trees to build their homes and machinery. Hence they lack trees and the country is suffering from a lack of oxygen and everyone is relying on ventilators to breathe. Such ventilators will not last last and a solution must come fast. Hence the idea to invade GG and steal their resources.
Trees also signify being rooted to the ground. The wanting of trees shows that WTC has modernized more than it should and has lost its roots with the basic human nature, behavior and traditions.
Other than deciding on the cause of war, we also brainstormed about the theme. The results are as follows:
The actor froze at 7:13 AM
The next few days after we decided to renew our performance to take on a separate, more human involved approach, we did not meet up or discuss much about the performance.
We began by saying we would want a narrative introduction with a Goddess and the President competing for the support of the people. This would then show the struggle between modernization and religion there and then. However, this idea was scrapped as it was relatively boring and there could be more interesting aspects to look at. Moreover, the excessive characterization and involving another theme would make the performance even more complicated.
Most of our talks were present during our corridor conversations and talking whilst lessons were going on about our performance.
With the hope of putting up a better performance, i decided to build the foundation of the performance on the background of it all. Hence I started to find causes and reasons for the situation that was occuring - war. As well as the background of the family.
Following that, I planned an interview with my social studies and the school's history teacher (HOD for humanities) to understand the concept of war even better.
I also dedicated my free time to finding a link between the president and the family as well as the background of the family.
The interview has not yet occurred, however, the backgrounds are clarifying.
The president would be a two faced man.
He would be the father of Pluto, Suzy's family's youngest daughter.
He met Suzy when he lost his previous wife and was looking for a grave for her.
Hence he would be the father figure in the family and yet the evil president as well.
Suzy's family would be more complex. She has lost 3 husbands to war and the president is the longest husband she has had.
This would be the basis on which we would further investigate the relationships between the family.
As for the reason for war, it was still not clear and we couldnt think of anything yet.
One thing's for sure. The President is no longer the short, stubby and squeaky old man he used to be. Now, he is evil and two faced. A new character has surfaced.
The actor froze at 6:48 AM
(Inserted into 31st Jan)
We've left the realms of textwork and moved into devising!
Ahhh, remember the good ol' war piece.
For the lesson a few weeks ago (at the time this entry would be considered punctual)
we tried acting out our previous piece on "why war?"
Naturally, a few lines were forgotten and the focus and energy level was not there at all.
However, following the performance, we relatively reviewed what we did and hence concluded:
1) The storyline was too long
2) Many points that we wanted to make were repeated in scenes
3) The performance was too comic to be taken seriously
Hence, with aid from Mrs Kamal, we wrote out the scaffold for our performance.
We listed down the scenes and the point we wanted to make.
From there, we managed to merge the scenes and from 7 scenes, we developed 3 parts.
They would be: President, Family and War.
Mrs. Kamal did make a note, as we also realized later, that the only human context was found in the family scene and that could really be developed further.
We then ended the sessions by formulating a to-do-list by which we would revisit the scenes and rework the family scene as well.
We've left the realms of textwork and moved into devising!
Ahhh, remember the good ol' war piece.
For the lesson a few weeks ago (at the time this entry would be considered punctual)
we tried acting out our previous piece on "why war?"
Naturally, a few lines were forgotten and the focus and energy level was not there at all.
However, following the performance, we relatively reviewed what we did and hence concluded:
1) The storyline was too long
2) Many points that we wanted to make were repeated in scenes
3) The performance was too comic to be taken seriously
Hence, with aid from Mrs Kamal, we wrote out the scaffold for our performance.
We listed down the scenes and the point we wanted to make.
From there, we managed to merge the scenes and from 7 scenes, we developed 3 parts.
They would be: President, Family and War.
Mrs. Kamal did make a note, as we also realized later, that the only human context was found in the family scene and that could really be developed further.
We then ended the sessions by formulating a to-do-list by which we would revisit the scenes and rework the family scene as well.
The actor froze at 5:40 AM