Drama

REFLECTION:😔 (honest)

Hala, Ava and I were put into a group in drama to create a scene that had some chorus in it, which is exciting and all but we are friends. You know what happens when you put friends with friends it just doesn't work out. We get distracted and never do work or we do the work and not put effort into it. We did work but the chorus part didn't work at all. Hala was acting and Ava and I were doing something completely different or it was the other way around. I was surprised when miss gave us 2 claps and not half a clap. What we did was not our best. The lesson that I learned was to use my time wisely and take things more seriously. Final thoughts: We could do better and we need to focus.

Greek Theatre 

Reference: http://www.ancientgreece.com/s/Theatre/       https://www.pbs.org/empires/thegreeks/background/24c.html

Why did Greek Theatre Begin?

Greek Theatre began in the year 532 BC.Greek Theatre began with festivals honouring and worshipping their gods and goddesses. 

Festival of Dionysus:

A god named Dionysus was honoured with a festival called "City Dionysus"  In Athens, During the festival men use to perform songs to welcome Dionysus plays were only performed in the festival od Dionysus 

Styles:

• Comedy: The first comedies were mainly satirical and mocked men in power for their vanity and foolishness.
• Tragedies: tragedies were mainly about love, loss, pride the abuse of power and the relationships between men and gods. 
• Satyr Plays: These short plays were performed between the acts of tragedies and made fun of the problems of the characters in tragedy plays.

Greek Amphitheatre Sections

Costumes and props: (Oedipus and Sphinx)

• Greek Traditional closing: 
• Pros-Wearing the traditional attire during a Greek theatre act will give it more character and will help the audience understand and imagine the play. It would look more interesting and visually appealing. It will engage the audience. 
• Cons- It might slow down the performance due to the change of clothing and characters in every scene. It might be hard for the actors to put on their costume fast.
• Props:  
• Pros- It would help the audience understand the act because they would have some knowledge on the setting an where the story is based. E.g If the act is little red riding hood they would have a forest setting with trees and a cottage to symbolize the grandmas' house.
• Cons- It will hinder the performance because moving around big and small props takes a long time. Also, the planning for where the props go takes a long time once again.
• How- We could build an image in the audiences head with some props symbolizing a castle and a forest and a town. For Oedipus and the Sphinx. 

• Costumes:

1. King: Red cape and crown (to symbolize a king and to show how powerful and important he is)
2. Queen: Red dress and tiara (to symbolize a queen and to show her beauty and how important she is)
3. Shepherd/helpers: Brown robe with a stick (to symbolize a shepherd and the stick is used for walking and controlling  the animals) 
4. Oedipus:  Blue cape and sword ( to symbolize a warrior and show he is strong and brave)
5. Oracle: Robe, stick and crystal ball (to symbolize a fortune teller and the crystal ball is not really necessary but shows that the oracle is looking into Oedipus's future)
6. Sphinx: Wings and headdress (needs wings to symbolize the sphinx bird parts and a face to show the human parts.)

Reference-http://people.howstuffworks.com/culture-traditions/national-traditions/greek-tradition2.htm
http://www.primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/greece/clothes.htm




Oedipus and the Sphinx:

Reflection: (Oedipus and the Sphinx)

6) Did you enjoy learning about Oedipus and Sphinx? WHY or WHY not? 
7) What have you learned so far about Greek Theatre?

Our Group

In scene 1 our chorus work was when Adam said: "we will name the baby" we all said "OEDIPUS!" together. In scene 2 our chorus work was the oracle all of us except Oedipus we said: "you will mary your mother and kill your father" and we made dramatic sounds together. In scene 3 the chorus work was the people of the said together "help us, help us" and "thank you Oedipus for freeing us" and the spine which was me and Joseph we said " what walks on 4 legs in the morning, 2 legs in the afternoon and 3 legs in the night" and we also said "NO" together. Finally scene 4 the people of the city said together "all hail king Oedipus, All hail king Oedipus, All hail king Oedipus" and all of us said"hooray" together. The chorus work was not that successful due to the fact sometimes we weren't always together and sometimes one person would forget to do it.

Other Groups
Halas group was successful because they worked together to create a beautiful performance, were creative with their acts and props, their facial expressions were good because it impacted the performance, the vocal changes were strong and powerful and their body language was great. Albina's group was also successful with their actions because they worked as a team, they were creative with their props and expressions and their body language was good. The groups were successful because teamwork, creativity and the effort they put into it and. I think Hala and Albina's group were the most creative because they used everything available, added more words to say and made it more interesting and enjoyable.

Final Thoughts 

Honestly, I really enjoyed learning about Oedipus and the Sphinx because it was a very interesting and a weird story. The scenes in the story were unearthly and the whole idea of the son marrying the mother and killing his father is abnormal. I have learned in Greek theatre that being in unison (being synchronized) is one of the main components in the act, expressing your feelings/emotions and using body language is also a very important aspect of Greek theatre.

Scenes from Orpheus and Eurydice 

1st scene: Orpheus is playing the 
guitar to the love of his life Eurydice, 
and people are charmed by his talent.

 

2nd scene: Eurydice tragically dies and Orpheus was devastated by the loss of his loved one, and everyone around him are traumatized.   





3rd scene: Orpheus charms the 3 headed dog (Cerberus) with his guitar playing and enters the underworld.



4th scene: Hades promises to let Eurydice go if Orpheus doesn't look back, but Orpheus looks back and Eurydice is gone forever.

Orpheus and Eurydice (modernized)

Characters: Brian (Orpheus) (Race car driver)  Rachel (Eurydice) (girlfriend)  

Parents of Rachel (Hades) Security Guards (3 headed dogs) Doctors

Setting: The city 

Scene 1:  Eddy is a Formula 1 race car driver since he is famous he thinks the rules don't apply to him and that he can do anything his heart desires like over speed and not follow the traffic laws. One day he was driving with his girlfriend Rachel. Rachel was begging him to slow down and to follow the rules. Due to his fame, his ego and confidence overshadowed him and he didn't listen.

Scene 2: Eddy lost control of the car and the steering wheel and with a blink of an eye the car crashed the lamp post in front of him. Eddy wasn't as hurt as his girlfriend Rachel who sadly went into a coma. All eddy could remember and hear was people crying the colours and sound of sirens from the ambulance.   

Scene 3: As soon as Eddy could he rushed his way to the hospital. Guarding the hospital was 3 security guards. They didn't let him enter because Rachel's parents requested for the security guards to not let Eddy in the hospital. Eddy bribed and threatened the security guards with his fame and they let him in. 

Scene 4: Eddy reached Rachel's room but her parents wouldn't let him in because they were angry at him for letting their daughter get into a coma. He asked the parents what he could do just to see Rachel one more time. The parents discussed among themselves and finally decided. They told Eddy that "if you want to see Rachel one more time you will have to break up with her right after she comes back from a coma because we don't want someone dangerous like you to be around her." Eddy agreed and entered Rachel's room. 

Scene 5: Eddy doesn't keep the [promise he promised Rachel's parents and didn't break up with Rachel. Rachel didn't know about the promise because she was in the coma but Rachel's parents did. Rachel's parents gradually found out and banned Rachel from ever seeing Eddy again. So they broke up.

Chorus Work

1st scene: The chorus work will be, all of the people will lean back then forward and scream. The chorus work is used to emphasize the car crash the characters had. The second chorus work will be everyone except Rachel making siren noises symbolizing an ambulance and all acting shocked. Rachel isn't part of this because she is in a coma due to the car crash.

2nd scene: The chorus work in the second scene is all of the characters raising their hand while shouting stop. The chorus work is used to indicate that someone should stop.

3rd scene: The chorus work in the third scene is everyone acting shocked when the doctors say she is in a coma. The second chorus work in this scene is when Rachels parents tell Eddy you have to break up with Rachel when she comes out of her coma and everyone makes a dramatic sound (dun dun DAAAAAAAN!!!!!)

4th scene: This scene happens two to 4 weeks later when Rachel comes out of her coma. Eddy and Rachel go on a date which means Eddy broke his promise. The parents run in and everyone points and screams "why are you here!". The second chorus work is when the parents pull the couple away from each other they scream and point  "NOOOOOOOOO!"

Props and costumes

• Props:
• Medals: This prop is for Eddy because in one scene he shows the security guards how famous he is. It also shows he is an F1 racer. 
• Steering wheels: This prop is used in the first scene when everyone is driving a car.
• Fabric: This prop will be used when Rachel is in the hospital bed.
• Clipboard: This prop will be used when the doctors show Rachels results.
• Food: When they go on a date.
• Costumes:
• Doctors outfit: This prop is used for the doctors 
• Dress: For Rachel during most of the scenes.
• Racer outfit: To show that Eddy is an F1 racer
• Security guard hats: To show that the 3 headed dog in the modernized version is security guards.

My thoughts on props and costumes:

Props and costumes will enhance the performance because it can really help the audience to know which location each scene is set. It can also help build on the character's performance and identity. Costumes will improve the performance positively because it is visually appealing and it helps symbolize the characters staus and role. Props and costumes have a negative impact on the play because the transitions will take longer and the costumes will take a long period of time to put on.

What is comedy?

• Slapstick: Comedy based on people intentionally doing clumsy actions and ridiculously embarrassing situations  
• Exaggeration: When you overemphasize a situation or something as better or worse than it really is.
• Juxtaposition: It is when two objects are placed together and their meanings contrast
• Puns: A joke that uses a word which sounds alike but has the same sound but different meaning (eg. I don't want to taco about it)
• Satire: The use of humor, exaggeration, and criticism in the context of recent politics and other recent issues.
• Mimicry: To imitate someone or something, especially for entertainment
• Double- entendres: A word or phrase that can have different interpretations 
• Black/gallows humor: a funny way of looking at something that is serious or sad
• Stand-up comedy: It is when a comedian performs in front of a large audience directly
• 
  

Let's Define some more!

Gag: A comic effect that is visual instead of words (e.g. banana peel moment)
Plot: The main event of the story/scene or a secret plan made by a group of people.

(e.g. when the evil queen planned to kill snow white with the poisoned apple)
Subplot: A part of the story of a play, scene, etc that happens separately from the story.

(e.g. the drama between the three fairies in sleeping beauty)
Comical Anecdote: a short funny story about something someone has done ( I remember that time, Grandpa stepped into my room........)
Jokes: a thing that someone says that makes people laugh. (Q: Is Google male or female?  A: Female, because it doesn't let you finish a sentence before making a suggestion.)
Narrative: a spoken or written explanation of connected events. (e.g. a story)
Physicalism: express yourself by physical means ("physicalizing your anger can help release tension")
Narrator: a person who describes a scene  (e.g. lemony Snicket was narrating the story in the series of unfortunate events) 
Characters: A person in a story or someone acting in a movie or play. ( Belle was a character in beauty and the beast)
Funny: something that causes laughter and amusement ( e.g. a joke is funny)
Credibility: The quality of being trusted. (e.g. When the chef trusted the rat to cook for him "in Ratatouille"
Physicality: A physical aspect or quality (e.g. the way someone looks)
Cross-Cutting: An editing technique which is used to show action occurring at the same time. (The scene in mean girls when they are talking on the phone)

What is funny to YOU?

Why is Full House funny: Full house is funny to me because the show is filled with awkward and unique moments (e.g. When D.J. was in eighth grade and unknowingly got married to a Greek boy because she walked around the kitchen table with him.) and there are very relatable family moments on the show (e.g. When the family pull a prank on each other) 

How is Full House funny: The actors in Full house use their voice to make people laugh (e.g. when they imitate each other or when Joey plays with his puppet) they also use their body to make people laugh (e.g. to act awkward or when they are happy)

Physicality in Full House: You can find Physicality in most of the episodes when Joey Gladstone uses his puppet (woodchuck) to make funny faces, mime and changes his gestures and emotions and he starts clowning around. 

What have you learned about humor?

What have you learned about humor?

I learned that humor is to cause laughter and amusement, I also learned that although it looks easy it is really hard. I learned you could be humorous or comedic through different types of actions and styles (e.g. juxtaposition:  It is when two objects are placed together and their meanings contrast). I also learned that humor and comedy can differ depending on what you believe or your culture. (e.g. what can be funny to an American may not be funny to an Arab) 

What do you find funny/unfunny that others don’t/do?
I find it funny when (Dalya) tells a joke or says something funny but doesn't make it seem like she is trying too hard. I don't find it funny when (Dalya) says a joke and it seems like she is trying to hard. Another example, I found Zein and Filippo's performance funny (when A stole something from B) because Zeins comments when Filippo kept asking her where his phone was, were subtle and funny and it was also funny when Filippo acted confused and he expressed that through his body movement. I didn't really find it funny when Sultan and Abdullahi were always going out of character and laughing throughout their performance.

How did your improvisation explore that?

When we had to improvise our acts, it was hard because many comedic scenes are planned whereas, when you're improvising it's not planned and it doesn't seem natural. When you are acting a scene (not improvising) many of the stunts and jokes are planned so it seemed natural but when you are improvising many scenes are unnatural and sometimes seems forced.

What drama techniques did you use?

During our drama lesson, we had to act 2 scenes ( 1 scene: A tries to talk his/her way out of stealing something of B's and not giving it back.) (2 scene:  A greedily steals some of B's chocolate without him/her knowing and acts revolting and disgusting). In both scenes, we used comical anecdote, gags, physicalism, exaggeration, and physicality.

How would you improve the scene given more time?
We could have improved our scenes by making them longer because they were very short and hard to understand, making them more natural because many scenes seemed planned and forced, stay in character because many scenes the people were going out of character, laughing and changing voices and we could exaggerate more and use facial expressions (e.g. if someone was sad they could cry and change their voices and body position or if someone was angry they could change their tone of voice and become more stiff and violent)

Criterion D: Reflection on class performances

Is physical theatre useful in other drama scenarios? 
I think physical theatre is useful because it emphasizes the person's emotions and feelings (e.g. If I was angry I would show I'm angry by stomping my feet and acting overwhelmed 

Karol and I: (Trying to wake someone up)

Our scene was about trying to wake someone up but they don't want to and you keep getting hurt trying. The scene was starting to become a bit humorous when Karol kept and pushing a kicking me because she didn't want to wake up. I think we could have improved if we didn't laugh and we stayed in character and if Karol and I used more body language and facial expressions (e.g. Karol would show that she is tired by moving slowly and looked like she just woke up.) I didn't really play to my strength when I was acting because I didn't show that I was getting hurt and Karol didn't really play to her strength because she didn't really put effort when it came to the acting part and so did I. Yes the physical theatre work was one of the main parts for peoples laughter because we needed to use physical theatre work to show I am getting pushed and the show Karol is tired. The sound effects did show that I was entering the room but I didn't add any comedy because it wasn't funny when I was opening the door. 

Ava & Joseph: (cooking sabotage)
Ava and Joesph's scene was about a cooking competition and throughout the competition, they would sabotage each other's meal (e.g. Ava would put a lot of salt and pepper and maybe Joseph would swap the bowls so he would have Avas and Ava would have his.) The scene was humorous in some parts and in others not so much. The humorous part was when Joseph and Ava would have a strong facial expression when they tasted their meals and throughout the scene (e.g. Ava and Joseph had a disgusted facial expression when they tasted their meals and Joseph had a mad facial expression when he saw Ava playing and messing with his meal). I think the acting could have improved because in some parts it didn't look like they were cooking and in some parts it did. Joseph played to his strength because he stayed in character and had strong and meaningful facial expressions but Ava laughed quite a bit and didn't stay in character in some parts. 

Adam & Mohammed Ali: (cheating on the test)

Adam and Ali's scene was about a test and throughout the test, Adam used many methods for cheating that were funny (e.g. Adam would go under the table and find a way to look at the paper or he would sneak around Ali to look at his paper). The scene the stage hitting each other it wasn't funny because no one knew what was happening. They were funny when Adam was trying to cheat but they could have improved the scene by finding more ways to cheat in the test (e.g. Adam could have distracted him and then looked at his paper). In my opinion, I don't think they played to their strengths because the didn't stay in character and they weren't really trying their best when they were acting. I don't think that the sound effects played a big role in their act. 

Harry Potter in the 21st century (VIDEO 
PLAN)
Link to Video

Group:

Albina

Arabella

Dalya

Noor

The idea:
To modernize Harry Potter and make it more entertaining and amusing for the audience. 

scene 1: introducing the main (we will introduce each character and explain their personality, and introduce the setting)

Scene 2: sorting hat (we will put the sorting hat on each students head and will place them in each house)

Scene 3: Introducing the mean girls (We will introduce the mean/popular girls and let them have a conversation) 

Scene 4: Wand scene (We will let someone do a magic spell and someone who is apparently smart will correct them and get it wrong)

Scene 5: Quidditch fighting slow-mo (someone will start the fight and each pair will have a funny fighting scene in slow motion)

Scene 6: Voldemort scene (Harry will find Voldemort and have a funny fighting scene, and a dumb girl will come and kill Voldemort in 2 seconds while harry potter tried for 8 movies)

Scene 7: credits 

Characters:                       
Voldemort
Harry Potter
Professor Feisty
Luna Lovegood
Hermione
Dumbledore

Props: 
Wands
Clock
Ball
Sorting Hat
Chair
Table

REFLECTION

I think overall we performed great but personally, I don't think we performed with passion, it was more like a forced performance. Our acting was not the best but what had the largest effect on the viewer's reaction were the sound effects and the editing. We honestly depended on the editing rather than our personal performance.  The story that we created to be the base of our performance was very unique and different which I liked because it was very unexpected and very unanticipated. It was hard to modernize and make Harry Potter funny & humorous, so it took time to get everything sorted out. I think we did get the reactions we wanted, people did laugh at the time we purposely anticipated for people to laugh.(e.g. when we did the slow-motion effect for when I flew in the air and added a song to compliment it). If we would have performed live rather than put together an edited video we wouldn't have had the same reactions like we did with the video. I honestly think we relied on the sound effects to make people laugh somewhat not our acting. If we were more organized with the filming it would have increased the laughter and the engagement of the viewers/audience. We weren't as organized as we hoped so, we left most everything to the last minute (e.g. the idea/ story of the performance and the filming). Ava and Zeins performance was overall good. Their idea for the performance was good (It was a dance competition) but it was quite confusing. I think it was mostly confusing because zein played 2 characters and it was a dance competition but they were dancing together. It was really brave of them to perform live and the reactions and laughs were purely based off of their acting unlike my group, where we used editing and added sound effects. Honestly, if they had more time and direction their performance would have elevated to a whole other level.(in a good way)