Drama devising

Wed, July 24 2019

For drama devising, Angelo and I completed an interview for a job application. We used one of the convention cards. Angelo was John Wick applying for the role of store person at Pak n Save and I was the rude bully manager that was not keen on hiring him for the role. We performed this little skit to the class as an example for the convention.       

Monday, July 29 

Today we used basal masks and acted out the story from the book 'The Island' by Armin Greder.  'When the people of an island find a man sitting on their shore, they immediately reject him because he is different. Fearful to the point of delusional paranoia, the islanders lock him in a goat pen, refuse him work, and feed him scraps they would normally feed a pig. As their fears progress into hatred, they force him into the sea.'  

Wed, July 31 

Today we were looking at roles and their relationship to the audience and where they would be, we went upstairs in the auditorium and exampled different use of space and interacted with the audience below. 

Mon, Aug 5

Political?  How do we use text?

Dialogue, Monologue 

Classics

Hercules

Hercules, the son of Zeus and Alcmene was born in Thebes. He was named after Hera, Zeus wife who hated him because he was not her child and a reminder of Zeus’s infidelity. Hercules was a very skilled man as he was taught many skills such as chariot driving, archery, boxing, and wrestling as well as music and literature. Hercules led the Theban army to victory against Orchomenus, and in gratitude, King Creon of Thebes gave Hercules his eldest daughter, Megara and they bore many children. Hera, who was not happy about Hercules being happy, put a brief fit of madness on him, during which Hercules killed his wife and children. Once Hercules recovered, at the advice of a priestess of Apollo at Delphi, he went to Tiryns, the city with Zeus has intended him to rule and serve Eurystheus for twelve years, carrying out all the tasks the king would put upon. Zeus assured him that if he successfully completed the tasks he would be compensated with immortality.

Resources: Classical Mythology by Marion Findlay

Reading log #5

Reading log #5

Title: Alphabetical Destiny from ' Tomorrow all will be beautiful ' 

Text type: Short story

Author: Brigid Lowry

Alphabetical destiny is one of the short texts in Brigid Lowry's book 'Tomorrow all will be beautiful'. Alphabetical destiny is written as an anonymous letter from a girl to someone she admired most: her best friend. 

The letter focus's on a photograph the girl stole from her best friend. The girl looks at it fondly , to her it is the only photograph of that time that they both looked lovely. " We look good. We're laughing. World's out oyster, sky's the limit, best of friends. " She also speaks of how it was deceiving. " What cannot be seen: Our crumpled childhoods, our Scarred Wrists  , How we hated our bodies, How we tried , Hour needle marks , My envy. " I think by this she means that at first glance they seemed happy , but if you really think about it there was so much going on that wasn't happy at all.

I felt this short text had a theme of Envy. We see this as in the letter the girl speaks about her  friend so beautifully " You wore silk nightgowns. Stole decent perfume from flash department stores. Summertime crime. You were bad and daring. Your legs were brown and muscular. Your hair was like the movies. I always wanted to be like you" but when I read the authors own description of herself then , she came off as really disappointed with her self "My daggy flannel nightgowns, my loneliness, my collection of wonderful hats that I was too shy to wear. Me with all those unsuitable boyfriends. those clumsy strangers. Me reading till morning. Me getting by." The author of the letter even wrote " I wanted so many things. Mainly to be you. Right from the day we meet." But as the author turns from a teenager into a women , she accepted who she is "I've stopped trying to be you and I don't need to steal from you anymore."

While reading this , I thought of a quote I once read 'Another women's beauty doesn't mean the absence of your own' and I think if she thought of herself in a more positive light , she would see that she too is beautiful. Which she finally did as an adult.

I thought this was a interesting letter to an old friend , like a goodbye love letter.

Reading log #3

Reading log #3

Title: Train to Busan

Text: Visual text

Director: Yeon Sang-ho

'Train to Busan' is a South Korean action thriller directed by Yeon Sang-ho, that follows a group of frantic passengers fighting for survival through a countrywide outbreak that turns people in zombies while trapped on a train on it's way to Busan. 

I was excited throughout this movie from start to finish. It had a great theme of 'Morality', and gets me thinking about what I would've done in a situation where zombie's are infecting New Zealand. All of the characters were terrified and desperate to survive, which in any situation like that everyone would instinctively want to live. Seok-woo , the main character told his daughter Su-an ' At a time like this , only watch out for yourself' but we see multiple scenes in the film where he risks his life to help other passengers on the train , even as desperate as he is to keep himself and his daughter alive.Because he knows the only way to survive is for people to look out for each other.  However , a business man name Yong-suk was the complete opposite of this. He risked the lives of so many people , and got so many people infected in his attempt to only look out for himself which I found frustrating , but again in a situation like that I understand the desperation. I think it showed peoples response to a panicked situation accurately.

This film is also focused on the relationship of Seok-Woo , an overworked worker has with his daughter, Su-an. He doesn't spend much time with her , and even got her a birthday present that he already bought for her on children's day. Su-an  had a recital where she was singing a song , but stopped halfway through, Seok-woo watched this on a video recording. Later , Su-an tells her father " I practised that song for you , that's why I couldn't sing , Because I didn't see you. " And asks him to stay with her , which show's them coming together in a difficult time. I think their relationship was an excellent choice to portray in the film as it made me attached to the characters more.

Overall , I really liked how this film touched on mortality and how it showed Seok-woo's love for his daughter. I think it show's characters accurately and had me anxious throughout the whole film. I would suggest this everyone. 

Reading log #2

Reading log #2

Title: The Truth about Alice

Text: Extended Text

Author: Jennifer Mathieu 

The Truth about Alice is a book by Jennifer Mathieu told from four different perspectives. alternating between the past and present events , it tells the story of the events that led to Alice Franklin becoming the girl no one wanted to be associated with.

The truth about Alice is a book that sends a strong message about how distorted rumors can be. Brandon Fitzsimmons created a lie that he ' did ' her , after  Tommy (another character) did  because she refused his advances and he didn't like the rejection. I hated how the truth of this is never really told to the people , because Tommy had left for college , Brandon died and Alice was silent on the mater, which I think encouraged the people in the town to believe these false rumors. And a lot of people would go on the talk about how much of a great guy Brandon was , when actually he was a complete jerk. So many people built up this lie after Brandon died , even his best friend told the lie that he crashed his car which killed him because he was distracted by Alice sexting him. I really hated this injustice , these rumors were very damaging to  Alice's reputation and she became a target of vicious bullying and being slut shamed from an entire town , except of course Kent. 

From the descriptions of Alice the characters had given , she was a confident girl, who didn't seem like the type to initially come off as a doormat and " Who always has raspberry-colored lipstick and wears pencil skirts." So I think these rumors must of really hurt her and made her feel powerless , and changed who she was for her to began wearing hoodies to hide herself and not speak to anyone. I was rooting for her to fight , but at the same time I can understand why she isolated herself as she did. In the final chapter we finally could get something from her point of view, she described the pain like "It was a million paper cuts on my heart, because it was slow and not all at once. " because people slowly distanced themselves from her , so they wouldn't feel like they're the bad guys.

The truth about Alice is a book I think every young people needs to read , to get a better understanding of how damaging rumors can be , especially when they spiral so far out of control like they did for Alice. 

Reading log #1

Reading log #1 

Title: Before I fall

Text: Extended text

Author: Lauren Oliver

Before I fall is a book written by Lauren Oliver that follows from the perspective of Samantha Kingston , a popular high school student. She has a 'happy' relationship with her boyfriend Rob, and four of the best friends a girl could want. Sam is very unsympathetic and quite a dis-likable person , she is open about how it is ' It's a good feeling knowing you can basically do whatever you want and there won't be any consequences ' In before I fall.  After a car crash , and she begins to repeat Friday over and over , she comes to the conclusion that she must be lying in a hospital somewhere comatose. And the book describes Sams journey of reliving that one day perfectly, so that she can finally wake up. This has her hopeful throughout the book.

Before I Fall  has a theme of change. We see this as Sam learns more about herself and begins to see things from new perspectives. I really enjoyed her character development. From the beginning Sam is very hostile and there are often moments that had me cringing , like because Sams popular and she knows it she looked down on her peers and her old best friend Kent because they're 'unpopular'. As each time the day repeats , she is very emotional and wonders why this is happening to her of all people , she only did what any other popular person would do , stuck in conformity. But the more she sees people and really looks at herself and others she cares more and more about people she wouldn't of given a second glance before. She realizes that she isn't the only important person on this planet and that she isn't that much better than anyone else. She tries so hard to change and she notices how much of an impact one small detail or change can have. My favorite quote from her about this was

"It amazes me how easy it is for things to change, how easy it is to start off down the same road you always take and wind up somewhere new. Just one false step, one pause, one detour, and you end up with new friends or a bad reputation or a boyfriend or a breakup. It's never occurred to me before; I've never been able to see it. And it makes me feel, weirdly, like maybe all of these different possibilities exist at the same time, like each moment we live has a thousand other moments layered underneath it that look different.” 

 Sam takes a thoughtful look at herself and her friends , she realizes that they are so wrong about everyone and everything. Sam really begins to appreciate the people around her , and tries her best to finish the day with as many good deeds as she can for everyone , proving that people can change. 

I felt like I could relate to Sam with this. There have been times where I reflect on what kind of person I have been and wanted to make a change.  And as I learn more about myself  ,it doesn't seem like such a scary idea. We don't always recognize when change is needed , it often takes some big event or epiphany but what we have to remember is that we can still do anything. We can change , we can start again if we need to. It is so easy to make a change , to say it's too late is so wrong.
Even a change of something so small can have a butterfly affect, whether it's for the good or not. So I admired Sam for recognizing that and her character gives me hope. 

I thought Sam and her friends Lindsey , Elody and Ally had an interesting friendship. Although they weren't perfect people , and they bullied Juliet Skies just cause they could, they really did care about each other. In the book Sam says " A good friend keeps your secrets for you. A best friend helps you keep your own secrets. " And it made me think about how they avoided certain truths to protect each other because they couldn't handle it. Like that Ally has issues with food and that Lindsey was date raped while visiting her brother in New York. I had hoped they would address these serious issues a lot more , although this book is fiction, I  think this is  actually believable,the decisions these girls make aren't perfect but realistic. 

In conclusion , I think this is a very enjoyable book about change and I would recommend it to other teenagers as well. 

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Chapter 5 “Incident of The Letter”

1.. What does Jekyll say in response to Utterson’s inquiry regarding Hyde’s whereabouts?

2. Why does Jekyll want Utterson to have the letter?

So the Utterson thinks Dr Jekyll is done with Mr Hyde. 

3. Who is it from and what does it say?
Mr Hyde sent the letter do tell Jekyll that he is escaping and that Jekyll shouldn't worry. He also calls himself unworthy of Dr Jekyll

4.  How can Poole be so positive that no messenger delivered the letter?

Poole insisted that nothing had come by post  '' and only circulars by that ''

5. Who is Mr. Guest?

A trusted clerk that compares the handwriting

6. Utterson says, “There was no man from whom he kept fewer secrets than Mr. Guest; and he was not always sure that he kept as many as he meant.” What does this mean about the relationship between Guest and Utterson?

7. What special ability does Guest have?

Expert at hand writing

8. How does Guest have an opportunity to compare the handwriting of Jekyll and Hyde?

He has a dinner invitation that he compares the letter to
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