Sunday, July 13, 2008
First class of EDU 3034 =)
Sunday, April 20, 2008
THE LITTLE THREE TEARS
The route to major performance was the longest and the most “windy” since along the journey from the beginning of the semester to the night of the performance, many things happens that actually created the unforgettable memories which comprises of both sad and happy moments. Yet to actually cherish all the reminiscences, I would say that it was the most precious and valuable experiences of all. I do learn a lot of things and thus it leads me from the passage of innocence to experience.
When the semester started, this first assignment was the major performance script which due on the second week. During the one month holiday, the group leader, Hidayah had told us to seek on ideas on good plays. We gathered and each and every one of us contributed our ideas. Most of us suggested that we wanted to come out with something comedy and hilarious so that people will have the enjoyment in watching the play.
After few times of meetings and quite a long discussion, we agreed to adapt our script from the children tales; The Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel and Rapunzel. We have a lot of ideas during the discussions, yet on the day of writing the script, everyone was so stress out and I can barely think of good lines and in fact the script was devastating for me. I could not express it since everyone agreed to use this story and apart, the storyline of the script was so lame. I can’t see the theme and the issues tried to be raised in the story. Anyhow, silence was the best way since I was the only members who opposed the story.
I was waiting for Pn. Ju to reject the script and yes, our script was rejected. When Pn Ju said that our script was not challenging, and I purposely added in front of our group that it was very appropriate for the children’s play. Later, I admitted that we need to be far more serious and ignored the comedy that we stressed on earlier.
Later, we had different ideas to come out with gravely “crafted” script. My ideas was a story of a half British and sophisticated girl returned to a small village to find her roots. She encountered a lot of problems due to be accustomed to the surroundings and to win the heart of her grandmother who hate her return since she can’t accept the fact that her daughter got married to the British, the generations of the conqueror. So, we were thinking that the twist and turns will be depicted in terms of the action. We then asked for Pn. Ju’s opinion. She didn’t to be interested in the ideas yet she gave some way for us at looking at same issues raised in the story yet depicted in different way. We did try to follow but it seems that it was so hard for us.
A week before the due for the final script need to be submitted, we then created another story which so common yet done through our own point of view with different perspectives. The story could be say as the adaptation of the popular story of “Bawang Merah, Bawang Putih” exposing the stereotypical label of stepmother which are evils and full of greed. During the writing of the script, a few of us said she even wanted to cry while writing the script and I said that’s very good since they can feel the emotion while writing it what more to be in the characters and acted that out. And we depends on the most strong advice from Pn. Ju where she said that not everything need to be acted out, but those meaningful things can also be spoken out through lines of the characters; It did give us a smooth flow in writing the script.
Pn. Ju was satisfied with the script and we started to choose the suitable characters for each one of us. The selections of the characters were not that hard since the characters that we have created seem to match each of us. Later, we made quite numbers of alteration by adding scenes and lines since few characters didn’t have that much lines and it seemed to be imbalanced.
A lot of practices had been done before the actual performance where we do the stage directions, the props and the music. We had the chance to practice at the Engineering Auditorium for three times. The second time of the practice at the auditorium was so important since we learn on the lighting and we thus settled the matter regarding the lighting.
On the first night, I was so nervous eventhough my turn was a day after, I was trembling seeing Alex’s group performing on stage and I kept saying to myself that “This is the moment that we had been waiting for” and I was so excited. I was there watching each and every performance and gave them round of applauses and cheers for them as a token of support for the other groups and I was in charged with the lighting for my buddy whose performing as the third group. Eventually, everything went on smoothly.
On day of our performance, we went to our final rehearsal and then all of us started the make up after the Maghrib prayer assisted by our buddy group. I felt like crying seeing my face with a huge mole beside my nose, I look so awful with the fake mole but the make up was nice. We actually have the chance to watch the second group and just a little bit from the first group. We went at the back of the stage once the third group starts to perform and we were so anxious and nervous and undoubtedly we were trembling. I then, conduct the doa’ recitation for my group then we feel a bit calm and at ease.
During the performance, I could feel that everything run flawlessly. I felt good about this and I myself noticed that my voice was so loud (since I had to scream a lot and after watching the video I feel so embarrassing, maybe because I have never done that before). We did do a lot of additional lines during the performance and it seems to fit with the situations. I even use some vulgar which I never uttered before such as “fucking” and “degenerate bastard”. Huh, indeed, it was a change in me. During the last scene, Munirah was so energetic and so into the character and she was accidentally kick my feet and it was so painful, luckily I didn’t laugh. J
From the character that I played, Rika Suparjo, I would to quote from the portfolio:
“The stereotype character of stepmother is depicted in the character of Rika Suparjo. I never thought of playing such strong and serious character since this role demands for some solemness and definitely very loud voice projection. The first time I play this role I found that it was so exciting that I can yell at other people and plus letting go of the stress inside of me. Well, not bad at the first attempt, yet according to Pn Ju, I just need to have the so-called “attitude” of the evil stepmother. As we had the practices, I try to improvise and making some adjustments of how evil and wicked Rika Suparjo is.” ~SHAYDA~
Lastly, I would like to thank everyone who involved in this performance especially Pn. Ju, my group members (you guys are a great team), the buddy group and all of the TESLians. All of the hardships were paid happily. I gravely and strongly believe that “verily with every difficulty, there’s a relief” and plus, this subject has actually brings out a “new” me deep inside of myself. And I’ll be keeping this memory as a priceless moments that happens only once in a life time.
\ (^_^) /
TRIBAL DANCE
Tribal dance!!! --The last minor performance of the subject. Before we got any ideas of what to perform, six of us were watching the seniors’ videos on tribal dance and we can’t stop ourself to laugh since they were so entertaining and extraordinary where their creativity were beyond our mind. After watching five videos, I suddenly had this idea of demon tribe.
We were really wanted to get rid of the stereotypical label of our group, “fun and cheerful” and we were hope that the idea of demon will reflect on serious and solemn matter that will show to Pn. Ju that we were no more on the surface level, on the contrary, trying to explore on something uncommon. So basically, our story line was; there was a demonish tribe who were in the belief of demonism. One day, a member fell sick and the rest of the members help to cure the sick member by a healing ritual leads by a leader of the tribe. Then, we discussed on the equipments that can be used to make sound during the ritual from the natural sources and not forgetting the costumes.
We were having a bad time since on the day of making the mask at Astaka Seni, everyone was enjoying doing the mask using the cornstarch and balloons while we were so frustrated to use the paper plate to form the mask since it didn’t come out like what we expected. So, everyone in my group seems to be so grumpy and moody. Later, Pn Ju comes out with a funny lines “Kiranya ku tahu….”-implying that if we know using the paper plate wasn’t practical, we might consider to use the sticky cornstarch and balloons.
After the class, we went to buy the cornstarch and balloons. We started to do the masks at 5 p.m. and finished around 10 o’clock. We decided to use the red colour for the entire masks just to be uniform and the red colour did actually represent the evilness. Later, we had a practice on the dances while using our natural musical instruments; bottles, cans and rocks. It was quite tiring.
Before the actual performance, we did the last touch up on the masks using the traditional herbs where the leaders have more on the masks. We agreed to wear the black garbage bag for our tribe’s attire and unashamedly I asked them from a “makcik cleaner” in my college and she generously gave quite few to me.
On the actual performance day, we were the ninth group and we were in our costume earlier since it was a tedious task to wear the garbage-bag shirt and its skirt with a belt made out of dried leaves. It was so hot since the sweat can’t evaporate through the plastic. We were using our own language where every word was added with prefix “wuwu” where I become “Wuwuda”. During the performance I was laughing alone and luckily it was covered with the mask. I just can’t help it since seeing my friends who were so energetic and full of determination in doing the ritual. The last part was my favourite part where we danced the “grateful” dance (after the sick member cured) by using the tones of “We will rock you.” It was so nice and full of fun. After the performance my face was so itchy because of the mask.
Well, Pn. Ju said that she felt entertained and likes our performance and said that we were far improved from the last performance. And not forgetting, she was linguistically enhanced. J
BLYTHE SPIRIT
Blythe spirit—the concentrations exercise. This was the most non-favorable performance of all. I didn’t really enjoy performing this task.
The script was given on the first day of the class. So, once I know that we need to practice on this task, I was looking for it quite few times then only I found the script. I was doing this performance with Mastura and Hidayah. We then discussed on the roles. Hidayah said she wanted a different role where she insisted to be a man, Charles. I wanted to be Elvira since the lines were short and simple so I didn’t have to memorize too much on the script. However, as we were discussing, it rang a bell that Pn. Ju said that Elvira is a seducer and she needs to have those pertinent characteristics and attitude. Later, it made me think twice and I refuse to be Elvira since I hate to wear costumes that depict a seducer (well, I think at this time, I still have that thick ego boundary as I am so overtly conscious of myself). As a result, I have to endure to memorize the long lines of Ruth.
The performance day was quite disappointing since there were a lot of inappropriate improvisation done accidentally due to the “loss” of lines. I made up a lot of new lines which was not really suit with the real scripts due to help my friends who totally forgotten her lines. That made me so nervous and I started whispering to my other friend to go here and there, skipped to another parts of the conversations and started move away too far from the script and I would admit that it wasn’t effective at all. I even do stupid things, searching something from the bag while acting and I actually don’t know what I was searching for. Pn. Ju was quite disappointed with our “disastrous” performance and said that there are a lot to be improved and we need a lot of amendments in terms of the acting.
DIALOGUE
I was doing this assignment with my non-biological twin, Hidayah. We were discussing about what kind of conflict that we were going to bring about. So we agreed that we need to think of it individually and discussed the idea later.
At first, I was thinking to have conflict between lawyer and the client because it was kind of different and I sturdily believe that there will be a lot people doing on couples. So, we were discussing on that particular idea and Hidayah seemed not really interested with my idea and all of sudden, out of nowhere, TING! This thought abruptly came to my mind and I said to Hidayah, “What if we create a conflict between a popular singer with a fan?” she was screaming and agreed with the idea. We then excitedly brainstormed the ideas and it did sound nice.
Eventhough we were drowning with ideas of what to do, it happens that we took this for granted and actually finish writing the script on the day of the performance itself, precisely an hour before the performance. It was quite chaotic and the practices were quite a mess since both of us forgot our lines. We were rehearsing in the bus on the way to the class. During others performing, we were practicing at the back.
The script of our dialogue was quite dramatic but when it came to the actions and uttering the dialogue, the others went on laughing out and loud. But, we just go on with the flow, and hopefully that it was a good indication that ours wouldn’t bring boredom to them. During the performance, there were a lot of undeliberate improvisations done since we forgot our lines.
My biggest mistake was that I can stop smiling and giggling to see Hidayah aka Miss Dayah Friday annoyingly did such vain and shallow attitude. Indeed, I can’t concentrate to the sadness that I was supposed to portray during the performance.
Once the performance was done, I sighed with a relief. Pn. Ju said that I was lacking of the facial expressions, and she was intensely hoping that we can explore more on the different emotions since both of us were merely discover the surface level of characters and Pn. Ju did tell us that she wish to see something that will challenge us in terms of the serious characterization since the characters of this performance were not challenging enough. Well, the most significant effect of this performance; starting from that day, Hidayah was no longer known as Dayah Jumat, but Dayah Friday. J
MONOLOGUE
Wow! Okay, there are a lot of things to talk about on this performance. First, I’ll start with my personal feelings once I know that we were assigned to actually talk alone, not in the class but outside the class. Can you imagine talking alone at public places and what did I expect from doing that for the first time in my entire life? I kept telling my friend that it would be a total embarrassment on me. I was not really sure why such mind setting seems to emerge in my head yet I was so scared of talking alone. Maybe I was too conscious of what people might say to me. Well, I thought that Pn. Ju was right that this minor performance will actually swept away (maybe not all) our feeling of ashamed talking in front of people and yet helping us in strengthening our self-confidence regardless of people saying “Gila ke? Sakit ke tu?” seeing us talking alone.
Well, I took this a platform to build my confidence. I always wanted to talk in front people anyhow, I was lacking with the confidence to do so. So, I said to myself and believe that I can do it well. To do things well, I really need to talk on something which have a very deep and tight connection and meaningful to me. I’d decided to be my ownself and undoubtedly chose to talk about my enduring long-lasting enthusiasm;
However, I encountered some difficulties of what to talk about since there so many things to be told and to be shown. I was ‘suffocated’ with abundance of ideas. Later, I’d drafted what to talk and I put in lines that I kept uttering to my friends depicting how significant those lines are that actually reflect on my own exact inner feelings towards Ireland; “The Ireland’s thing is in me, in my soul! It runs through my veins!”J Later, I also added on my favourite poem by William Butler Yeats, The Lake Isle of Innesfree. Then, I started practicing with the pronunciations, intonations and the styles of saying things accordingly.
During my performance, I used few suitable props that really help me in conveying my true honest feeling on
Well, end of my performance, Pn. Ju said that I didn’t have the eye contact with the audience since I kept looking beyond them, maybe I’m too scared and nervous as it was the first time I was talking alone at public places anyhow, due to my favourite matter (Ireland), it did lower my anxiety level since I was talking with tonnes of buoyancy in my heart, uhh.. How bliss!
RHYTHM AND MOVEMENT
After Pn Ju gave briefing on the minor performance, I was so anxious this performance. To be very honest, I’m not into dancing at all, and moreover I can’t even dance at all. I can tolerate acting and singing (though it may be pretty disastrous to others listening to my singing), but surely not dancing since I believed that I don’t have the kinesthetic intelligence in me.
On the first meeting at “bilik tayangan”, we were discussing on the songs and materials to use, the uniform attire to wear and the theme to convey. I didn’t really involve in the selection of songs since I did not have any idea at all how to use the song and to actually move the body according to the song. This was the first time I involved in dancing.
At first, my group discussed on the material to use during the performance, they had selected ribbons, caps, paper fans and scarf. Later, all of us listen to songs that we have in mind that relate to our theme from slow music to a happy music depicting the slow movement of serious mood to happier movement of cheerful mood. In addition, I had suggested the costume to wear; black shirt and trousers with pink scarf to show the feminine side of us. Our meeting ended after selecting the songs. Hidayah voluntarily wanted to come out with steps and all of us agreed and confident with her since she is a good dancer.
For our next meeting, we were asked to bring 2 white scarfs and we started our first practice. The major difficulties that our group faced was to relate the beat to with the movement as most of our group members did not have the background or experience in dancing. It was difficult to remember the steps for the dance as it is our first dance practice. We spend some time to listen to the rhythm of the music to overcome this problem and we can’t actually hear and differentiate when certain beats changed and made it so difficult for us to move and follow the rhythm.
During the first part of practices all of us seem to be so fatigue and honestly, we were yawning and yawning as the practices went on. During the second part of the meeting, all of us seem to be different since we laughed and energetically practice using the second song, now that we realized the different song actually led us to dissimilar mood. That’s the power of music. The first song used was “Matsuri” by Kitaro and the second song (Korean song entitled “Never Say Goodbye”) was hip-hop and full of raps-that did strike us more! So, the practices went on about 4 and half hour.
During our second last meeting, we have come with a sudden plan since our songs that we choose is too short and didn’t fit required time which was 7 minutes. Later, I suggested to my group to use the “Three Bears Song” which I know how to dance according to the song (this is the only dance I know). So, we were doing this many time since it was so easy though it may looked childish, yet the practice was so nice and full of fun. We were laughing our heart aloud, happily did the dance and to be able to see the smiling faces of my group was so rewarding that we actually find something that we love rather than the first meetings where everyone seems to be in moody conditions.
Here it was, the day of the performance! Honestly, I was so scared and my heart pounding with beats and it couldn’t stop. We were nervously waiting for our turn and thus, in overcoming the anxiety, we snapped photos. Yup, I felt quite relief.
Well, I would say that the starting went smoothly and it goes very well as we had polished the movement during the practices, I was so concern with my movement and try not make any mistake at ball. Anyhow, at the end of the first song, I was waving the red long material at the back and I just waved and waved until the song faded. At that moment I heard that other people were laughing, but I ignored them and keep on waving the red cloth. The second song went okay and so does the third song. For the third song I was doing it very freely and I could feel the joy and happiness doing such dance runs in me. It was so gratifying to see other people did dance the “three bears’ movement” with us and also give a very loud cheers for us J
I was sweating and tired after the performance. Then, Pn. Ju asked us on the relevancy of choosing those songs. Pn. Ju did comment that some of us are lacking of expression which was just so true because we were concentrating hard on memorizing the steps until we forgot to put smiles on our faces. In fact, she also emphasis that we have to try something new for our performances perhaps something serious because we should not be staying in our safety shell forever by doing something fun and childish. Indeed, it was true, we will never get the chance to explore new thing inside of us if we choose to always be in comfort zone and undeniably, theatre is all about exploring new side of our own self!