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.