Just adding in my final work

Journal 6:

Today we performed our information to the class, and I think that we did quite well. To be completely honest, I had almost no practice going into the class and I was very not nervous at all. However I had been thinking about the fact that, since all of us was going to be presenting the same thing, how could I make my presentation stand out?

I decided to improvise a last second skit just to help people understand what I was talking about. I just gave Jack a little queue to pass me the mask. I think I did alright due to the laughs I got when I broke down silently on stage. I enjoyed my performance.

Journal 7:

Today Mr. Ledbetter gave us our final assignment. We had a vote on whether we should get an image/word /scenario to inspire us. I voted for freedom, because I personally love freedom and improvisation.

Sadly the rest of the class did not think the same and we were told that we would be given 3 words to choose from and be inspired from, along with that we would be allowed and required to use our mask and an extra prop. At first I was a bit confused on what I was supposed to do but after further explanations I was clear headed and ready to take on the challenge.

When I found out what the 3 words were, I wanted to strangle Mr. Ledbetter. Those were the 3 worst words I could have possibly been given. I knew I had to think of something, and fast. Risk was not an option because it drew up a blank in my mind. Terminal seemed like a good idea but the idea I had did not seem original. I decide to do luck instead. Now I knew I couldn’t do the lottery because that’s what most of the people in the class would pick. So I decided to do my lucky hat routine. It looks really good now so I hope it will look just as good in practice.

Journal 8:

Today we finally performed or final pieces. I did not think I did as well as I could have. The problem with presenting neutral mask is that you know what is going on. You think the actions you are ding make sense. Others don’t. The first problem I encountered was my mask. As I brought a new one and it did not have any straps so I had to hold it up. The first thing I was supposed to do was to walk down a street and dodge a few cars that almost hit me. When I acted this out I could see looks of confusion in everyone. This was really hard to explain so I just went along with it and that people would understand what I was doing by my next action. After that I would find my lucky hat. This helped me because it would hold up the mask allowing for more movement from me. The first thing I would do after finding my lucky hat, would be to find money and shake people’s hands. Some people finally understood what I was doing and I managed to finish my presentation alright. I did not think that I did that well in this presentation. This was possibly due to the fact that I could not speak. I usually do better when I speak. If I could have another chance I would practice more and show my presentation to some friends so they can judge it.

One of the masks that was used by the Greeks. The mouth is very big so as the voice is more amplified.

Info on the Greeks!

The Ancient Greeks and Mask Theater

The ancient Greeks were one of the first people ever to record what they had done in terms of drama. They were really the foundation of all known drama today. The ancient Greeks were also the first people to record the use of masks in their theater. There were a few recorded cases of neutral masks but the masks were mainly used so that the audience could see who the character was and what emotions they are feeling. For instance an angry god would be portrayed by a man wearing a mask resembling Zeus and the mask would have a very angry expression on it's face.

The areas where the Greeks preformed their plays were usually very large and so the actors had to project their voice out a lot. This however was very difficult. The Greeks devised an ingenious way of fixing this problem. They developed masks that were quite big and extravagantly painted. These masks were big so that the Greeks could fit pipes inside them. This meant that the actors voices could be head with great clarity and without hurting the actors lungs.
I found this to be the most interesting aspect of the work the Greeks did with their masks. It interests me personally because I quite like engineering and this was a very smart idea which involved engineering.

Emotions

With normal drama, your face is exposed and with minimal movement you can show what kind of emotion we are feeling. With a mask to make realistic anger or sadness seem serious would involve very little body movement. How could one achieve this? You could give a little sob or something. What about if it was silent? Well then that would be a bit more difficult. I may have to look into this and incorporate it into my final performance. This idea came into my head when I was really angry and sad at the same time but I had to put on a neutral expression so as not to cause suspicion about how sad and angry I really was.....

Just a though

What if, for my final performance, I walk up to the mask, put it on and immediately music starts playing. Once I take it off it stops. Perhaps I could also get background Images and act out what would happen when my character moves through them, lite the last performance we did. I may have to play around with that concept.
While I am writing I may as well talk about the lesson we had yesterday. I remember doing the exercise involving te music and movement once before. I can't remember when though. When I first did it, I was up on my feet like crazy. This time I wanted to watch other people. I have noticed that once all the embarrassment and judgment goes away you can see people for who they really are. I guess the mask is the opposite to that exercise. The mask is like a shield against judgment, you can do what you like without feeling the glares from people who think that what you are doing is wrong. I can't really describe what I mean because I don't really know either. It was a fun lesson, nonetheless.

Damn, I just realized. I can't post a journal here and say I thought of it on an earlier day. What if I have a tough week and I didn't have time to think about Drama at all? This might get interesting.

Hello everybody.

My name is Max and I'm a Grade 9 Drama student. I decided to start this blog because of a recommendation made to me by my teacher in a very degrading comment about my work. Here goes! First I'm going to post my daily journal that I have been keeping in a word doc.

August 25^th:

Well I just did my first Drama performance of the school year! I’m actually quite pleased with the performance even though we improvised all of it. I was put into my new group and given a new task today. I will try to not start thinking about it at the last minute but that sounds like something with not a very good chance of happening.

August 27^th:

I was thinking about what we could do for our scene and I had a few ideas come to my head. The Sahara desert for instance would be an interesting one to do. Or maybe something more close to home? I don’t know I’ll have to get the teams opinion on this.

August 30^th:

We talked about it and decided to do a scene about the Sahara desert but when we found out another group was doing the same thing we changed our idea to mount Everest. I will most likely be a funny scene but I’m not sure at this point because I don’t know how well Ben and Anna can improvise humour.

September 1^st :

We did our performance today. II think we did OK but I noticed that ben kept putting his back to the audience. I tried to inform him but I did not want to break character. We also got our masks today, I named my mask Neil!

At this point I was going to post the work I had so far, but I've been told that it is Completely horrible so I shall post a better version later. Until then.