Drama nerd NOT GEEK

Drama drama drama. That is what this week is all about!

So far:
Year 11 Showcase (Ensemble and solo) on Monday DONE
SAC on Analysis of Solo and Ensemble on Tuesday DONE
Drama Exam on Thursday SOON

Our showcase was a fantastic night except for the stress and the nerves before our solos. I was so nervous but as soon as I got up and onto that stage I was absolutely fine. I thought the worst part would be waiting for Cashy’s little spiel before our solo but I was pumped and ready to go! Solo went okay I guess, except I wrecked my second line and that nearly screwed up my focus but I just took a breath and kept going.

Ensemble I wasn’t nervous about at all. Odd considering this was the task that we would be marked on, on that night. I think it went well and we only had a few minor glitches (Jess saying tattoo, me nearly forgetting to move the boom box out of the way) but no major stuff ups. My voice was screwed at the end of the night because even before solos it had been playing up but I managed to push through.

It was really good that we had our SAC today, straight after completing our ensembles and solos. The showcase refreshed our memories (in the case of our solos) and was perfect timing for our ensembles. Not sure how I went, my hand was dead afterwards.

Drama Unit 2. I cannot wait!!!! Unit 1 was great and I was definetly pushed outside my comfort zone as the unit focused on comic acting but it was definetly necessary as now I know exactly what my strengths and weaknesses are for Year 12. Hopefully there will be a dramatic solo as an option for next semester Unit 2?

Well there are only two days to go till our Year 11 showcase! I remember writing this date down in my diary all those months ago thinking ‘Oh, that’s ages’, but it has come up extremely quickly! But that is okay because I am now feeling okay with our ensemble and my solo. We had an after school rehersal yesterday afternoon for solo practice but as a group we decided for half of it that we would do a few ensemble rehersals. Which was fantastic for our confidence. For the last part, we did practice after practice of our solos in the corner and then watched each others etc.

I’ve changed my solo a bit - I’ve cut the scene where I receive a phone call of Albert getting the scholarship and instead I am going to begin with my receiving the scholarship after I’ve won the maths competitions. This is because I never liked the telephone scene because it was too messy . I’ve also added a scene where Albert’s dad is sick in hospital with cancer and how that spurs him on to find cure. I did this so the audience realise that it is actually Albert’s dad who has influenced his research. It’s much shorter, it’ll probably go for around 6-6:30.

It’s going to be a drama week next week - showcase on Monday, SAC on tuesday and exam on thursday. Pretty full on! Oh and boxy is coming over Sunday to paint placards

Next time I write showcase will be done!

I thought that I would never say this but our ensemble is finally completed! All scenes done. Today we created a 1970s scene (based on the arcade game Pong), altered 80s scene, practiced with 90s scene, added a final scene and then managed one run through start to finish. We still need to work out props, placards, extra editing and making scene transitions slick and making sure our lines don’t drag.

We need to check Bunjil tomorrow afternoon and see how the lights switch off. Our scene ends with the lights off so we have to see if they flicker, take a couple of seconds to realise they have to shut down etc. It will be really helpful having that extra practice for our ensemble tomorrow afternoon because our group still needs to feel confident in creating believable characters, remembering lines and knowing what scene follows the next!

Wow lots has happened with drama since my last post! I’ll start with Friday’s lesson. There is definetly tension in our performance. I.e tension amongst our group. I think everyone is very tired/stressed out/angry but we are getting there! This lesson was much better as we definetly communicated with each other and managed to practice our ensemble up to the 1960s scene. Which is good! Scene are getting there, just the 1970s to go! And we also have to alter later scenes in the next few lessons. Unfortunately we will lose Thursday’s lesson due to the GAT but we will catch up with Wednesday and Friday after school rehersals next week.

Solowise - Last weekend I tried to remember most of my solo and I did that fairly easily. I actually altered the beginning of the performance slightly but I don’t want to change the solo too much because of the limited amount of time and practice time in the drama rooms. I am still not happy with how my solo finishes and I want it to finish on a bang but instead it finishes awkwardly. Hopefully on Friday rehersals I can alter/change some of these things.

TOP ACTS - Was amazing. I can’t believe that it is over already! A group of us caught the train into the city straight after school with only a few dramas (i.e Michelle and Frances leaving their tickets in the car and me, stupidly, bringing a creative arts ticket). We then had dinner and met up with the group in the Arts Centre. I luckily managed to get away with the Creative Arts ticket by just walking through with the Avila crowd The Gossip was amusing but considering I had seen him at Top Class and I knew his jokes he was not as funny. Although it was hilarious when he began his solo in the audience asking for people’s jackets etc. I still believe that Genelle’s solo was more witty and better portrayed. I got the sense from his solo that he actually improvised a lot of his movements and words but it was still hilarious. Mary Mallon I think had something wrong with her voice or her throat because her diction was not as good as it was in Top Class. Without this change in voice, her character lost a bit of the tension that was created when she was escaping from the officials. Dr Jekl and Mr Hyde, again, was an excellent performance and I loved the use of symbol by divinding the two sides of the mirror: animal and man. I was talking to some of the music girls and they were very confused by this performance, obviously considering they had not researched the character. Maybe he could have shown better the character transitions between Dr Jekl and Mr Hyde because even though I had seen the performance before and understood what would happen, it was still confusing to see the contrast of characters. It should be more obvious. Finally, the pirate. I loved this portrayl and he had a clever and witty script that was both humorous and completely in character. Especially when he linked ‘pirated movies’ at the end and claimed ‘parler’. Fantastic!

It was really good to listen to the top music, dance and theatre studies performances. Hallelujah was amazing (but I think it’s the song). One of the theatre studies girls performed a monologue from Oscar Wilde’s ‘Importance of being Earnest’. Jess P and I did the exact same monologue as her last year! It was good to see.

 One week to go till showcase….

Finally it seems our ensemble is going somewhere! We decided to work from the start and it has definetly helped us. We had an afterschool rehersal on Wednesday which really helped us. This new dramatic ensemble is exactly what we needed as ideas are coming from everyone! This is definetly a learning curb for all of us for next year as now we know exactly what our strengths and weaknesses are and I am sure all of us will use that to our advantage. Personally, I prefer meaningful drama with a message. That is why I enjoyed the performance style of Bertolt Brecht last year because while not making it too deep, I would like the audience to come away from it and actually think about it.

 So we have come up in a matter of a week, a 1900 scene, 1920 scene, 1930 scene, 1940 scene, adjusted 1960 scene. All we need now are our 1950 and 70 scene plus alterations to our other scenes.

I am going to go scriptwrite a few scenes. Top Acts tomorrow night! Very excited. Looking forward to 18th June (our showcase) but it’s going to be a tight time scale considering we still need to practice our solos and finish our ensemble. Hopefully we can finish our entire ensemble by tomorrow’s lesson. Possible? Not sure! Then we can have the remaining lessons to alter/cut/add/fix/smooth out certain scenes.