I am the Director

Superglue - Adil and Kareem

Need props like a watch, books, lesson plan, superglue.

Directions: enter from CSL > CS during main conversation > CSR > DSL when running to teacher's room.

Dresscode Violation - Kalani and Poya

Need to move around more. Start on CS > stand up and walk around USR > back to CS.

Need to show more emotion and project voices.

Props: detention slips, phones, laces

Tattletale - Grace and Rami

Come in from DSR > CS > CSL.

Project voices, face audience.

Props: English paper, car keys, seat for girl to sit in.

Progress Report - Pranav and Alberto

UL > CS > DSL.

Act it out properly when passing the papers.

Props: Papers, pens, seats and tables.

Not the Next Cheerleader - Prerna and Ekaterina

Ekaterina needs to be louder.

Move around more. Enter from USL > CS > Maybe DS > exit from DSR.

I.O.U - Omar and Moody

Moody needs to be louder.

Both need to memorise lines.

Props: chair, desk, phone, paper, pen.

Omar enters from CSL while Moody sits on DSR > Omar exits from DSL.

Vote for me - Marcia and Mariam

Need to be louder.

Mariam can carry books and Marcia can be holding up a poster saying 'vote for me!'.

Mariam enters from CSR while Marcia is on CS > scene ends while Mariam is on CS while Marcia exits through CSL.

Tardy - Frederik and Gustav

Need to project voices and memorise lines.

Props: slips, school bag, pen.

Frederik enters from CSR while Gustav is in CS > CS > CSL.

MYP Reflection - Term 1

Soft Copy of Reflection

Stage Geography

Below is a diagram showing the stage geography at a typical theater. There are several parts to the stage. It is divided into upstage, centerstage and downstage. The names for the areas are self explanatory. The audience sits in front of the stage to view the ongoing performance while the actors perform on one of the mentioned areas.

Narration

What is Narration?

Narration is the commentary describing and following the events happening in a story for the audience to understand better.

How was the narration used in our scene?

In our group we are planning to perform a play about a family of refugees that were forced to flee their home that has become a war-zone and are being escorted by a foreign military to safety. Our story starts with the narrator, who is also acting out the role of a confused child, writing down the events happening to him in a diary while walking behind his parents. We can hear him reading "the war has begun 4 days ago and we were forced to make a journey with my parents to the rescue plane". He continues to narrate the events that happen after the group of refugees reach the plane shortly after, goes on to describe how the family feels and how it is on the plane until he closes his diary.

What effect did you want the narration to have on your audience?

We wanted to make it seem like the kid walking in the desert really is the narrator but grown up now and the performance is of his memories. The story and the voice accompanying it is a flashback the kid is having as he reads what he wrote down on that day when he was journeying away from the war-zone.

How did the narration work in your performance? Was it successful?

The narrator in our group was Moody, who was also portraying the child nagging behind the refugee group. The kid was behind because he was busy writing down the events that forced him to flee his home, which he reads out to make the scene feel like a flashback. Moody pretended to scribble in his big notebook while trailing towards the rescue plane with his family. It was successful and we managed to make creative use of narration in our performance.

Video of Performance

Cross-Cutting

What is cross-cutting?

A technique used on stage where actors act out different scenes in a story that are going on at the same time but in different places.

Moment from the scene:

Our short play was about a bully trying to cover up the fact that he is bullying and and a victim of the bully. The bully comes into his dad's room with his friend (who is also a bully) while the victim is sat curled in a ball in front of a mirror at home, crying. The bully pretends that he is a victim and he only bullies because his classmates bully him. In the moment before the cross-cut, the friend of the bully whispers to him, "aren't we just doing this for fun?". Then hear see the victim asking herself, "do they really think it's fun and games?" which suggests that she is taking this as a very serious matter. We can see that the bully does not fully realise how much he is hurting his victim but does know there is a consequence and tries to deceive his way out of the situation. We used different levels when the audience could see the victim sat in a ball, representing how small and powerless she feels against the size of the bully and his friend who is standing full height on the other side of the room. 

Improvements

What we could have done better in our scene is creating a clear scene so the audience knows exactly what is going on in the play. The fact that the bully was telling his dad that he was being bullied and the victim not projecting her voice enough, there was confusion as to who was who in the play. It is understandable that the victim would be whispering into the mirror but the audience needs to know what is going on through her head. The bully wasn't able to be audible enough for everyone to hear and his crying was quite unrealistic. My group didn't have a clear script in mind and we improvised some parts. We could have made use of the skill of projection that practiced through vocal exercises in the past lessons.

Thought Tracking - Plane Crash

During this task, the class was to split into groups consisting of 4 people to act out the thought processes of assigned characters and their reactions to the Malaysian airline plane crash. The following is the rough script of what each member of my group had to say:

Journalist (Gabor): Oh yes, this is going to make for a great story! What a find! The boss will probably even give me a raise for this! But... The story is quite saddening.
Pilot's family member (Omar): I absolutely do not believe he could have done what they accuse him of! He isn't like that...
Search team members (Kalani and Ulan): We will search day and night to find the missing flight, however we are the top search team around and there is so much pressure and so many expectations on us! We can't afford to lose sight of the plane. We must find the passengers.
Wife of passenger (Ekaterina): I can't believe this happened... Now it's just me and the kids. I don't know how we will go on...

I think the most believable actor out of the 5 of us was Ekaterina as she managed to envision how her person would feel and act in this situation. She sobbed and put a dramatic pause in between her sentences. She also pretended to cry quite realistically which emphasised her sadness.

Why do Actors Need to Be Able to Control Their Breathing?

Actors may need to be able to control their breathing because they need to be in character. For example if they are acting as if they just went on a sprinting marathon they need to act like they are gasping for air at the end of the scene, or if they have a long speech during a scene they need to take breaths carefully in between so it doesn’t look sloppy and they don’t have to keep stopping to catch their breath.

Vocal exercises:

1.     -  Lie down flat on your back and hum a low steady rhythm. Stand up or roll to the side while trying to keep the same hum.

2.    -   Do a Siren exercise and hit the low and high notes while saying “eeeeeee”. Alternate the octaves.

Source: http://www.business2community.com/travel-leisure/10-warming-up-exercises-voice-actors-must-include-in-their-routines-0280069#piBWikygLHFIIWEy.97

Monologue Reflections

KALANI

A (K&U): 1/8 Barely understood what he was doing

B (DS): 1/8 Showed no emotion

C (CT): 1/8 Very creative expressions

Teacher grade: 1/8

MARIAM

A (K&U): 6/8 Good insight as to how the character might act

B (DS): 7/8 Frequently changed expressions and varied arm movement.

C (CT): 5/8 Moved around and was into character

Teacher grade: 6/8

GUSTAV

A (K&U): 3/8 Forgot what to say halfway through

B (DS): 4/8

C (CT): 3/8

Teacher grade: 2/8

MOODY

A (K&U): 5/8 More or less knew what he was saying

B (DS): 5/8 Talked quietly but was condident

C (CT): 3/8 Not much creative content

Teacher grade: 4/8

ALBERTO

A (K&U): 4/8 Mostly read from the book

B (DS): 5/8 Changed tone of voice and used some arm movements

C (CT): 4/8 Was sort of into character

Teacher grade: 4/8

SELF REFLECTION (ULAN)

A (K&U): 6/8 Knew what to say

B (DS): 6/8 Used arm movements, changed tone and facial expressions

C (CT): 6/8 Mimicked being hit by a brick at the end of monologue

Teacher grade: 6/8

Devising from Stimuli

MYP: Devising from Stimuli

Key Concepts: Creativity and Perspectives

Related Concepts: Audience and Structure

Global Contexts: Personal and Cultural

Statement of Inquiry: Drama can help a community and individuals to find a voice and communicate in a powerful way.

Inquiry Question: (CONCEPTUAL) Can we use drama to communicate across cultures?

Brazil Play

The Tree Hugger

Introduction:

There are many rainforests in Brazil and thus the issues of deforestation are quite significant in the country. In this small scene we are representing how some environmental activists are taking extreme actions to protect the rainforest and its inhabitants. The scene will also be representing how this effects the people working in the logging business and how there is tension between the two different groups.

Cast:

Gabor - Main tree hugger
Moody - Secondary tree hugger
Ulan - Construction worker
Omar - Tree cutter
Adil - Construction boss
Alberto - Police man

Script:

Ulan: Good morning boss, where do you want the materials?
Adil: Hey, just leave them there *points finger *

[Adil calls customer to inform them that everything is going well with construction and the festival will happen]

Omar: Boss I'm sorry to interrupt but we have a problem here!

Adil: What?
Omar: Look *points at tree*

Adil: Hey! What are you kids doing!?

Moody: *shouts in Portuguese*
Gabor: We are sick of seeing deforestation of our rainforests. You are destroying nature!

Adil: Go back to work, I will handle this (to Omar).

Moody: *continues angrily shouting in Portugese*

Adil: Listen here, you are in a restricted area so you better leave now or I'm calling the police!

Ulan: *sees what is happening on his way back to fetch new materials and finds a policeman* hey sir, we have a problem here. These kids are disturbing construction for the festival area, please do something about it!

Alberto: Let me see

[Alberto arrests Gabor and Moody]

[End of act]

Reflection:
My group decided to act out a play that concerns the issue of mass deforestation in the Amazon Rain-forest in Brazil. The play and the characters involved would be believable since this is a real issue that is happening at the moment and there are many activist parties that create movement against this problem. In the play we had construction workers clearing out an area for a festival to take place on. We had two environmental activists that tried to protest and protect the rainforest and a policeman that arrested the activists for interrupting the construction. 
As can be seen in the script, the construction workers casually go through their routine and notice the activists circling and hugging a tree, preventing it from being cut down. They shout angrily about the importance of wildlife and the forest and how cutting it down is morally wrong. The construction boss threatens to call the police and does so in the end. As the activists are arrested they struggle to free themselves and continue angrily protesting.
My role was to be a construction worker transporting materials to the site. I continue to do my job but ask a nearby policeman (who refuses to come at first) to come and help when the situation heats up between the workers and protesters. We did not plan for it but I helped the policeman catch an activist that tried to run off.
The play went well since all the members of the group memorised our lines and managed to effectively portray the individual characters. I feel that my little bit of improvisation helped my character stand out since my role was supporting in this scene and I only had to help create the atmosphere of a construction site by delivering materials to and fro. I have nothing to say about the other members of my group except that they performed very well. They were loud enough to hear, used body language to emphasise their emotions and managed to tell the story clearly enough for the audience to understand.

P.S: I apologise for what I did and I didn't mean any disrespect, Miss Ruiz.

Train Surfing Play

Freeze Frame

In the image below, my group acts out a play in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. It is a custom for gangs in Brazil to compete for respect by train surfing. A seasoned train surfer and a rookie climb aboard to surf a train until the next stop, however the rookie fails to jump off in time. He is seen by a group of policemen and soon another patrol on the other side of the train is on the scene. A policeman tries to climb onto the train to catch and arrest the offender but only causes the boy to panic and threaten to grab the power lines above, electrocuting him to death. The boy grabs the wire and plunges to the ground, dead. In the picture below, the boy (Omar) is being checked for signs of life by 3 policemen (Adil, Gabor, Ulan) while one (Alberto) calls an ambulance. The other train surfer (Moody) is arrested in the distance.

During our performance we used props such as a bench and acted as it if was a train, orange highlighter as a cigarette for one of the policemen and a phone for a policeman to call the ambulance. We thought of using a skipping rope to mimic the boy grabbing a power-line but someone would have to hold it up and that's a waste of actors. When the patrol noticed the train surfer, we assumed angry expressions and yelled loudly from all around the 'train' to create tension in the scene. This is the peak of tension in our scene where the boy is supposed to be arrested but is in fact killed, falls off a train and the policemen are in a rush to try and save his life. In this shot we are bent over the body of the boy, using body language to portray sadness with one of the policemen closing his eyes.

If we were to redo our performance, we would shout louder and wave at the train surfer frantically, thus using body language and enhancing the atmosphere of tension. We could also have 2 policemen bending over the body while one goes off to catch the other train surfer in the distance as people might not understand what is happening in the back of the shot. The policeman that is calling for an ambulance should either portray some signs of anxiety or sorrow to make his character more believable in this scene.

Brazil Streets Performances

Peer Reflection

Group 1 (Adil's group) 7/8: This was probably my favourite act of all. This group started with ambient sounds of street performers, the tourist did not come into the scene straight away, they even attempted to sing and talk in Portuguese. It was very believable except for the part where their imaginary prop (musical instruments) disappear.

Group 2 (Poya's group) 5/8: This group showed both sides of people in Brazil, rich and poor. The only ambient sound the group had throughout the whole performance was the rumbling of a car made by one person. Some people in the audience had difficulty understanding what was going on as the actors drove by merchants in their car. Their merchants who tries to sell the rich people items seemed believable to what they may be like in Brazil.

Group 3 (Karim's group) 6/8: The setting and what was going on during the scene was very clear, portraying a busy Brazilian market. Their play was very clear and well acted out as their group was focused and did not come out of character. They were all believable but they also lacked the ambient sounds. I think that otherwise they portrayed Brazil realistically but were missing the chaos they were trying to act out. They could improve by creating the hectic ambient sounds of a fish market to make the atmosphere more believable.

Self Reflection 5/8: It seemed we would do well as each member of our group had a clear understanding of the main idea and the role we play, but when it came to acting it out in front of everyone we became uncoordinated leading to confusion of the audience. We could improve by adding in ambient sounds of the environment and make our characters more believable by acting out roles more confidently.

Story of Sandro Rosa do Nascimento and Migration

Sandro Rosa and the Incident of Bus 174

1) Sandro Rosa do Nascimento was a struggling man who took to crime and one day boarded the public bus 174 on June 12th, 2000, in Jardim Botanico, Rio de Janeiro with the intention of robbing the passengers. The situation got heated fast when the bus driver escaped and the vehicle was blocked by a passing by military police car. TV crews, civillians and more officers flocked to the scene as Sandro Rosa took the passengers hostage. He demanded weapons and a new driver. If his demands weren't sated threatened to kill all of the passengers by 6 PM, he however had no intention of doing so. By 6 he faked shooting one of the passengers Janaina Lopes Neves and unsuccessfully attempted to exit the bus at 7 while using school teacher Geisa Firmo Goncalves as a meatshield. A police officer opened fire on Sandro who in panic accidentally killed the hostage along with the officer who missed his target and hit Goncalves. The whole event was aired live through the country. Sandro died while being taken to custody by the police.

2) What Sandro Rosa did was wrong but he was driven to commit his acts because he originates from the poor Favelas of Brazil. As a young child he grew up in a broken home with only his mother whose murder he later witnessed before his own eyes. Depressed and scarred Sandro survived by himself and under pressure of circumstances turned to desperate measures.

3) What Sandro Rosa did was wrong but he could have had found other (possibly less effective) ways to express his concerns. He could have discussed his thoughts and concerns with his friends or other activists that could have helped him accomplish his goals in a peaceful manner.

Migration

Rural:  An area that is in the countryside, secluded from cities and town. People make their own food to go by. Eg: A farm

Urban: An densely populated area with access to modern machinery, technology, entertainment, housing and apartments. Eg: A city

Migration: Moving from one place to another in accordance to your needs with certain push factors driving you from a place you want to leave and pull factors that you like in your destination.

Rural to urban migration: The process of moving from the countryside to a city or town.

Push factor: An aspect of where you are that makes you feel uncomfortable and pushes you away such as crime or pollution.

Pull factor: An aspect of your destination that you like that pulls you towards it, like better healthcare or a higher wage.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandro_Rosa_do_Nascimento

P.S: I did not copy from the blog gaboredelmayer10druiz.blogspot.ae if you might think so, we did the work together.

Train Surfing

MYP: Train Surfing
Key Concepts: Creativity, Cultures and Perspectives
Related Concepts:Narrative, Presentation and Role.
Global Contexts: Identities and Relationships
Statement of Inquiry: Through understanding a theme deeply, we can use drama as a tool to represent those marginalised by society.
Inquiry Question: (DEBATABLE) How can drama be used to right the wrongs of society?

Introduction

My name is Ulan Aimagambetov and this is my MYP Arts Process Journal. On this blog you will find documental evidence of my learning in drama. I chose this specification because it appealed to me the most out of the 3 from music and visual arts. During the MYP course I hope to gain confidence and communicating/public speaking skills.