Review of Fools written by Neil Simon and directed by Rebecca Morrison On Friday 4th of November I went to watch the second showing of the highschool play Fools directed by Ms. Morrison staring students from 9th to 11th grade. Once I got to the theater there were very little people and my expectations were very low having heard from the crew about the many flaws that they had had. As me and my friends waited outside we joked about the lack of people, comparing it to the Broadway like productions of past years. I wasn’t knowledgeable of the content of the play except that it was a comedy and before the beginning the director came up to me and asked me to laugh really hard at the beginning so that the actors got comfortable with their comedy. The ushers directed us to sit down and so we sat in the nearly half full theater. And so the play began, Sebastian Pope walked in through the audience into a town of stupid people. Rapidly our low expectations were shocked by such funny characters and a plot that kept allowing all the actors to show their talent and physicality. All actors delivered laughs but in particular the duo of David Levy and Andrea Claux showed us parents proud of their “smart child” who was actually near retardation played by Fiorella Garcia. With his yelps and her lowering of the voice both parents made the crowd laugh hysterically. Not knowing how the play unraveled I was actually always engaged thinking about how Pope was going to relive this town of its curse. The play didn’t attempt to be too profound instead juts to entertain the audience in a normal high school production style. The lights didn’t work too well and there were clear production flaws but the actors gave it their best effort and made us laugh which was the goal of the production. In conclusion, mission complete!

stock characters

Very helpful video, but doesn't include all characters.

Beginning Commedia dell'arte

After presenting my monologue on monday and after watching other presentations which i found some to be very powerful, we began to work on our new unit: Commedia dell'arte. My initial reaction was that it was very childish but after we talked a bit about it, i realized that, yes it was "childish" and but it was childish because through being like that many important characteristics about humans and human relationships can be highlighted. I also learnt that it was very relevant to movies, as you know i like film a lot, so i began drawing lines between much of what we learned about the character Zanni and characters in movies. When we were told to act like Zanni it took us a while to get into the character without feeling foolish, but after a while we started to pick up on how fun it was to play this character. In the first class we weren't able to do very good Zanni characters, but in the second class which we repeated much of what was done in the first we understood more and were able to do better. It wasnt until the Lovers that I really felt more comfortable with the character. The activity was to be "in love" with love and having a more concrete way of acting and being less scandolous than the Zanni we were able to pick it up. Acting like a Lover the goal was much more clear and the way in which we could get to it also, it was all about loving another person and since we have already seen this represented so many times in the media and in everyday life we understood how to do it. It was all about wanting to seduce and since that is automatically funny, one doesn't have to try so hard for it to be funny so it comes out much more natural. We ended up working very well as a class, when everyone felt like they were doing a good job everything worked better.

Monologue Presentation

This Monday I presented my Monologue. I really get nervous when I present and after not getting to the GIN thing i really felt like i had to do well. I practiced a lot, i thought out the motions well i thought about all of the aspects of my character. But in the moment of presenting, even though i feel very safe around the class, i got very nervous and stopped thinking about doing it well, instead just doing it. I really can't reflect on my performance that much because i was so distant of the whole presentation that i felt like i didn't even do it. I think that since i've never been up on stage much it will only take more tries to become more confident in front of a crowd (especially alone in front of a crowd). It was very hard for me, but i did feel very good of myself after preforming because of the rush and because i really liked the monologue that i had written.

GIN Drama Presentation (FAIL)

This is not an excuse, I'm just bored and I like writing.

I was ready to be at school for the drama presentation on Friday and went home to be back at school no later than 2 in the afternoon. I got home ate and told my mother (as i had already told her many times over the week that she had to take me to school) she said that she had forgotten and that she had to eat with her sister that had just come from Chile and so she couln't take me with the only car that we have. I begged for a while I got on facebook to see who could take me and there was nobody. I had no choice but to go on a taxi and since I didn't have enough money I had to go on a Micro. I had gone on micros many times in my life, but never on a friday afternoon, I got on and after 10 minutes i was only 10 blocks from my house, by this time it was 1:45. I started to bbm with Rios and narrated to him my whole journey from one side of Lima to the other. The micro had to stop at every block from San Isidro to Camacho even when the micro was so packed, I was sure that nobody could get in. Finally after about half an hour I was dropped of at the UNI. Lima, from there I had to run across the bridge over Javier Prado, and make a quick stop at McDonalds to use the bathroom. From there I got on to the crapiest Taxi which transported me 3 blocks to the gate of the school, he dropped me off I threw 2 soles at him and entered the school scribbling my signature at the door. I ran the whole school and as I got to the Center Stage... "I want Cake!" It was one of the final lines, I hadn't got there on time, in fact precisely late and I had been unfaithful to the class. I was mad at my mom for not driving me, but I knew that it was really only my fault. So in conclusion... i feel bad, but i went on a crappy micro, ran and went on a taxi/rapecar.

Final Monologue (for now)

I went to get some water for my family today. I walked many miles. And while I walked I thought. I thought about why I had to walk for miles. Why I had to burn my feet. My back. Why my eyes had to burn. Why my mouth had to dry. Why my brother had to die. Why my son was back home, thirsty and sad. Why death had to roam like a cloud. And not clouds of water. Not clouds of happiness. Clouds of family. Clouds of life. Clouds for me. At least a cloud for my son, so he could feel something more than the sun. the sun that takes his childhood away. I finally got to the well, and there, no longer did I think because my life is easier if I just don’t.

Requiem for a Dream - Ellen Burstyn's Monologue

Ezekiel 25:17 Pulp Fiction

New Monologue

I finished writing my own monologue after researching more about monologues. I used the theme of my previous monologue but changed it completely. My monologue is about a man who doesn't have water for his family and so has to walk very far in order to get it. While he walks he thinks about his situation and all of his thoughts make up the monologue. It isn't in very sophisticated language because I used the register I felt a man in poverty would speak in. The monologue narrates his walk and so has a beginning, middle and end which makes it more attractive for the audience. Also, in order for it to be more attractive, it is very emotional and in some way poetic. This allows the impact of the monologue to be more profound. I bettered my monologue by reading others and catching what makes them so useful.

Monologue Research and Rewrite

Today I researched Monologue writing and learnt many things that have been useful for my own monologue. I realized that it is important to take into consideration the way the character talks and moves because by understanding this I am able to become more personal with the character and be more emotional. A more emtional character allows me to further the profoundity of the message.

Human rights violations

-It is not uncommon for you to hear human rights this human rights that on CNN, BBC, Canal N, etc. but what we don’t realize is the consistency with which you are present at human right violations in your daily lives. I have been hungry. This may seem like a small violation. But ask yourself, have you ever been really hungry? So hungry that your belly makes noises far more petrifying than those of a dying antelope? So hungry that taking a step forward is like lifting an elephant with your mind? So hungry that theft from an old lady would seem reasonable? I guess not. I guess not. This, this is a violation to my right and my families right, to live.

Class Reflection: Finishing Lysistrata

Last class we finished the play Lysistrata by Aristophones. I felt that this play was a very good way to start the year because it demonstrates the fun, the power and depth that theater has. Lysistrata is a comedy about women who refuse to have sex in order to end the Peloponnesian war in Greece in the 400's BC. This play demostrates the power of sex, the role of women and the stupidity of war. I like the play a lot because it redefined Greek Theater for us students, since Greek Theater is usually portrayed as dull and boring, but in the case of this play we saw that it can be much more lively, sexual and therefore more relevant to our lives. Now we have been given the task to adapt and preform a section of the play. My group chose the initial scenes when Lysistrata persuades the women to chose chastity in order to finalize the war. I feel that it would be interesting if the scene is very apocalyptic and dark but funny. If the women act like if it where the end of the world to stop having sex it would further the argument that sex is such a vital part of our lives and at the same time increasing its comical value because of the exagerations.