The Followspot

Monday, May 26, 2008

Today in drama class, we sat in a circle and gave each other feedback on our performances.
All my fellow classmates are either doing textwork or undecided on what to do.

I gave a report on my performance, the themes and the concept. It was met with a good response from my classmates and they said it seemed sound. The symbol of the toy car that I used in my performance was strong and they said it sounded interesting.

With this analysis, I can safely write my script draft one for Mrs. Kamal to see. This boosted my morale and confidence in my devising skills and encouraged me to try my best with this idea.

I felt this part of the module is key in our development as by talking through our performances, we are able to think through what we like and what we wanted to perform and hence become able to clarify our thoughts about the performance itself. This is important as the feedback from our fellow classmates is ideal as they would be looking at it, not from the perspective of an actor but of an audience member. They will hence be able to tell you what is interesting and what is not interesting to see on stage.

Hence I feel that this lesson was very successful in helping me to think about my concept. Honestly, I never felt more clear about my idea than when i explained it to the class. This enabled me to think through my idea and clarify my own thoughts on the spot. This was a very worthwhile activity for me to invest my time in and i certainly benefitted from it.

The actor froze at 1:10 PM

In this meeting I gave Mrs. Kamal my report on what work i've done since the previous meeting.
Basically I interviewed a school cleaner and got a new concept of the dreams of a cleaner.

She thought it sounded interesting but felt that there were too many themes to be woven into one 5 minute performance. She asked me a few questions and I felt like a piece of tuna being grilled on a bbq.

She mentioned a few things about who i interviewed, as the cleaner was a female. Mrs. Kamal said that the female perspective is different from the male one. This brings out a whole new dimention of inspiration and thoughts which will differ and probably affect the performance as a whole.

Moreover, the cleaner was an old lady. She mentioned that it would be difficult for me to get into the psyche of a cleaner and asked me to think more about it.

As follow up, she asked me to think through my concepts and give her a proper proposal with a backup text in case my devising process does not work. Therefore I wrote a proposal about the theme of Time Burning Away the Dreams of an Old Cleaner. As a backup, I used THE COFFIN IS TOO BIG FOR THE HOLE.

Hopefully things would work out with the devising.

The actor froze at 11:48 AM

Today I met with Mrs. Kamal to convince her about my interest in devised work with a proper concept.

I spoke with her about the concept of the occupational beggar and how I felt that the folks down at the underpasses and at the coffeeshops could be fakes and doing this just for a living rather than because they were in dire need of the money.

Mrs Kamal seemed interested in the idea and asked more. However, the idea got more or less rejected when she asked if i had the resources and the emotional and mascular memory for the devising process. The pool of resources I have for such a performance is very limited and unless i'm able to go through the process of interviewing such a person to get into their psyche, it will be extremely difficult for me to do a strong performance.

Reflecting on what Mrs Kamal said, i felt that the purpose of the meeting was not met. I did not manage to convince Mrs Kamal i was capable of doing devised work. However I gained more insight about the requirements of devising. Even if the meeting felt awkward and unpleasant, I felt that the message of the meeting was brought across as I now realize what more I need to do.

After much thinking, with the difficulty of doing a piece on the life of a beggar, i looked around for more inspiration for my devising process. On taking a walk around the school, I saw a cleaner toiling about in her daily chores. I was inspired by the fact that the cleaner was working very hard for our benefit. I told Mrs Kamal in a rather post-script manner about cleaners and she agreed with the idea. Now I need to work hard at getting my ideas out.

I plan to interview a cleaner.

The actor froze at 11:14 AM

Today Mrs. Kamal gave out a few scripts to each of us, recommending what she thinks we should do for text work. We had 2 external teaches coming to observe our dramatized reading of the performance and the focus of the day was to get us exposed to more varieties of texts. The guys were given THE COFFIN IS TOO BIG FOR THE HOLE, NO PARKING ON ODD DAYS and THE BLOOD KNOT. I was given the... awkward honour of reading the blood knot.

After preparing for my dramatized reading, i had a good look at the other 2 monologues as well. Personally I've read THE COFFIN IS TOO BIG FOR THE HOLE before prior to this as I did my research on the playwright Kuo Pao Kun in my Secondary 1 Literature Class. I enjoyed the hiliarity of the script and found it amusing at certain parts. It was my first time reading NO PARKING ON ODD DAYS and I too found it rather enjoyable. However, THE BLOOD KNOT had almost nothing I enjoyed. The slang and the content were not captivating at all.

I've done a performance of Kuo Pao Kun before and I must admit, I rather like his works. Hence I decided; as Mrs. Kamal wanted me to have a back-up in case my devising fails, that I would choose THE COFFIN IS TOO BIG FOR THE HOLE as it is something I am familiar with and am comfortable doing. The dark humour seems captivating and I can almost envision myself performing that script. Hence I decided to take it up as plan B.

The Dramatized reading was helpful as it exposed me to these plays which I never thought I would consider doing if I would go out and look for performances myself. They helped me to see the meanings and the social sattire behind the plays and understand the context better. Apart from the marvelling at my classmate's wonderful dramatization skills, they also helped me to pick a better monologue as a backup. The activity was a huge success for me.

The actor froze at 11:03 AM

Today during drama we were encouraged to tell Mrs. Kamal about our thoughts for the next assessment which is the individual monologue for the GCE O level.

It was a short meeting and I spoke up saying I wanted to do devised work in place of text work.

I personally am able to feel more for the pieces i devise rather than the pieces i analyse. Perhaps it is due to my own want of a more personal feel in the words I say or the things I put on stage. I am always able to interject my own feelings and put my heart and soul into the performance which always works to my advantage when I perform.

Moreover, I have a keen interest in script writing. This began probably in primary 5 when I first began writing scripts. However, the processes of devising are tiring and will consume alot of time. I am willing to do so as it gives me a better control over my performance and boosts my confidence. And as we all know, a more confident actor is a better improved one.

As for text work, I have a fair bit of literature skills which will be handy for the work. However, the process of analysing and figuring out a huge chunk of words which probably have layers and layers of hidden meaning does not appeal to me as much as the researching for devise work. Perhaps that is another reason why I prefer devised work.

I'm more or less sure that my devised work will be stronger than my text work.

The actor froze at 7:44 AM