Drama nerd NOT GEEK

Solo performances are now officially over. A bit longer than expected but there have been a few missed lessons, SAC preparation and lessons and lessons that we NEEDED for practice.

Jacqui: Another hilarious performance. Your facial expressions were definetly the key to your performance. Every gesture, movement and piece of dialogue was timed perfectly creating the comic effect. Although it was hilarious, it also showed the darker side of ‘new mums’ and how they toil day by day for their children. Well done!

Chloe: Another nerd! Although we chose the same sub-culture, and I did notice a few similar things about our performance, we both interpreted the character different. Which is good! I liked how you focused on the emotional side that a nerd must go through. You had excellent contrast between your primary and secondary characters…The nerd and her sister. Good job!

 We found out that our marks range from a B to a C. I’m happy about this because what’s the point of getting A’s in year 11 if you have nothing to strive and work for? It will just make me work harder in year 12 and I’m sure a lot of the other girls would feel this way too

Looking forward to Ensemble Performance! I much prefer the three smaller groups over the one big Ensemble class group. Easier to work out.

First of all, Top Class on Friday and Saturday morning was amazing! The amount of effort and determination that has gone into all the Top Class performances is something to be commended. After watching Top Class I am only just beginning to realise all the criteria that MUST be included. As it was mentioned, if you leave out something then that’s 11 marks that you have lost for that one point in the assessment criteria. It’s very overwhelming! We must all not overlook our criteria sheet and focus heavily on doing exactly what it says. Of course we have to add our own flair to it But criteria must come first. It’s good for performers who love structure but bad for performers who love creativity. But I’m sure the assessors cater for both types.

Although I am quite sick of the character ‘Mary Mallon’ and ‘Dr Jekl and Mr Hyde’, I am glad that I got to watch each of these portrayls as it shows the different options that a performer may wish to take for their solo. Although each performer based their character on the same criteria sheet each one had a complete different interpretation of their solo. Also, the use of different props and costumes added to the individuality of the performance (while keeping it simple and non-naturalistic).

Genelle was fantastic on the day. She connected with the audience and her focus of steel was outstanding. Even when the audience were clapping mid-way for her hilarious script and gestures she managed to stay in character and not lose her rhythm. I really do hope she will get into Top Acts!

While I was watching the performances I noticed how stylised each gesture, each movement was across the stage. It was perfectly timed to create tension, mood and rhythm throughout the performance. This is why they got into Top Class because they dedicated the hours of practice to get each gesture correct, accent perfect and movement flawless. If you weren’t naturally a focused student it would be difficult to obtain the diligence required for a solo performance.

Okay so now to solo performances last Tuesday…

Tara - I really enjoyed your light-hearted script (haha feeding a kid brussel sprouts instead of maccas) You had excellent facial expressions throughout your performance especially when you were changing characters when you were trying to order the meat and veg meal without the meat. I liked it!

Felicity - Excellent use of stagecraft. You had really good props and costume! Good on you for using a soundtrack too in your performance! When you put the guitar against the rostrum block it was about to fall and I was praying that it wouldn’t! Phew! At the start when you were protesting it was quite moving with the soundtrack in the background. The only problem with the music was the sun-flower part - I couldn’t hear what you were saying! Otherwise well done!

Laura- I loved your character. It showed the loyalty that is present among the people living on the streets. Tension was really good - I felt like yelling: Give the poor street urchin some money! But that might have disrupted your focus Your accent was fantastic too! How did you learn that so fast???

Adriana- Your solo length was the same as mine last year It’s hard to contain so much information in a time limit that is so small isn’t it? I loved your gesture movements! So like a band geek - fidgety, picking at this and that, making sure everything is perfect. Your one-man band rocked too Albert might join it if that’s okay? He likes making new friends.

Looking forward to seeing Jacqui and Chloe’s solo performances on Friday!

Half the class performed the solo performances today that we have been working on for over the past six to seven weeks. The standard was excellent!

Jess P - The brave one who went first! I think if a herd of elephants stomped into the room it wouldn’t have broken your focus of steel. It was funny while adding the deep and meaningful element into your performance. Fantastic!

Box - Light-hearted and comedic Your character is very frustrating and I really think she needs to sort out some of her priorities majorly! But you have amazing facial expressions! Especially when you were dancing!

Nadia - It was obvious from your performance that you had thoroughly researched ‘Greasers’ as your solo accurately portrayed their style, thoughts and how they were different and persecuted in society for being that. I really enjoyed it!!

Leah - Haha I think your best performance that I had seen was during that lesson! It was smooth, hilarious and well timed. You didn’t lose focus and made improvising a few scenes look stylised and meant to happen (the locker scene :P) I liked it!

Jess M - Wow you must have had a sore voice afterwards! Even though you used your ‘bogan’ accent your diction and projection was fantastic. I loved your script and your sense of timing to gain comedy elements in scenes was fantastic.

Heather - Another actress with focus of steel! Seriously, no one or nothing could break that! Your slick character changes and the projection of your voice created a complex yet deep performance.

 As for me, I lost focus. I need to work on that. Usually I am okay with focus (i.e last year) but this year I was all over the place! Albert-tizzle mucked me up big time. My character transitions weren’t as good as I had practiced and I said ‘theatrical’ instead of ‘quadratic’ damn it! But I am happy it’s over!

Luckily, Cashy agreed to give us a few extra days rather than perform our solo on the first day of school. We explained that we could not possibly mark well on ‘use of space’ as we were not used to practicing in the drama rooms. (I could perform it in my bedroom :)) We had prepared for our solos as much as possible and it wasn’t a case of coming to class ‘unprepared’. We all knew our solos, we were just not comfortable in our environment.

So that lesson was fantastic for our confidence in our solo. We formed a group of four (Jess B, Leah, Heather and I) and performed our solo for each other. I volunteered to go first and it was quite nerve-racking as I had not shown anyone yet! I knew that I understood my solo but maybe others would not. It was great to hear some feedback and ideas. Thankfully, they understood it!

So performance is tomorrow! Hopefully I can get first period (just a study) off and practice my solo for a further 80 minutes tomorrow morning. That would definetly help my confidence even further! I’m not as nervous as I was on Monday. If that’s a good or bad thing, we’ll have to find out!

Three days till performance. I am hoping that Cashy will give us a few run throughs first before we perform because at the moment I am accustomed to performing in my bedroom and not in our Drama classroom! I have my costume (stagecraft element 1) which consists of multicoloured suspenders (they have an elephant on them), blue shorts pulled to the waist and a tee shirt! And of course my number one accessory, calcy!

My solo is also too long. It’s hard parting with certain areas of the script. Tomorrow hopefully I will do a full dress rehersal and time my performance. Five minutes is so hard! I’m still not happy with the tension in the performance. It’s too short and too quick. But I guess tension is supposed to be temporary…As for Albert’s decision on whether he will choose the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Course or the party on Saturday I still am not entirely certain on which choice he will make I am partial to one of those choice’s though and you will have to find out when you watch it!

I’ve taken a whole week off! Now this week is going to be all about drama drama drama. I’m feeling very relaxed but nervous about our upcoming solo performance first week back. I am facing a few problems though as I have just realised after doing three or four run throughs in my solo. Lack of tension and a very very long solo!

Tension? What tension? My solo has none! I am actually getting quite anxious about it…My mind is going over drive trying to figure some ways of including it into the plot but I hate just plonking something in the middle of it. Yes, I am a perfectionist unfortunately. A quick run through of my plot…basically Albert (my character) gets a phone call of his acceptance into a chemical and biomolecular engineering course. Albert begins to change and he starts realising the taunts of other people. He is invited to a party that everyone who is anyone is going to which is at the same time as the chemical and biomolecular engineering course induction. If he doesn’t go to this induction he loses his place. If he doesn’t go to this party he loses his place in society. Ooh bit of contrast there Any ideas anyone? Please! Need tension!

 As usual, like my last solo, it is fairly lengthy. But this time I am actually going to try and reach the time limit of five minutes. FIVE MINUTES IS NOTHING! My solo would have to be ten minutes long at least…

Best be off. Lots of soloing practice to do. Oh and another problem…need to figure out my costume. I’m borrowing some of my friend’s suspenders (no she does not own them…they are her dads) and I am thinking of getting an old t-shirt and writing ‘Chewbacca’s Pal’ on the front (Chewbacca from Star Wars) and tuck it into some shorts. If anyone owns glasses could you please let me know?