Blog 4: Stage Performance; an Actor for a Day

A drama or a play can be either open or closed. As a play text is mostly comprises of dialogue, it is up to us, the readers to imagine who the characters are, where they were at the time of the conversation, how they speak, what is their relationship with each other and so on. When you are working with an open text, you can interpret the text freely as the open text permits ambiguous stage directions. This is because the play writer gives little or no stage direction unlike in closed text where the stage directions are abundant and sometimes it is impossible not to follow them.

During the previous class, we were required to act out a play entitled ‘Bingo’ by Edward Bond. The play is an open text, so we are free to interpret what the play is all about. It is surprising on how many versions of the play that we can come out with despite its short text (only 10 lines!). Some of us interprets that the characters in the text were two strangers in a bar and another version told of kindergarten children who were eager to know what one of their friends was doing. Based on the characters that we have chosen, we consider the two most important elements in acting out a play which are the body gestures and the tone of voice. We did use a lot of our imagination to make the activity a success.

Blog 3: Different People Perceive Life Differently

Different people perceive life differently. The theme of life is common in poems and plays. Among the poets and play writers that use this theme in their works are William Butler Yeats, William Shakespeare and Sophocles.

In Shakespeare’s two famous plays; Macbeth and As You Like It, the characters in both of the plays perceive life quite differently. Macbeth feels that life is meaningless. He gives up on life. He sees life as a ‘walking shadow’ and a ‘tale’ that signifies nothing while in As You like It, Jacques compares the stage or the theatre to the whole life of man (seven ‘ages’ altogether). Although Jacques’ view on life is quite similar to Macbeth, he merely tells about the development of a man’s life while Macbeth perceives life as a ‘poor player’; a more negative statement than what Jacques perceives life is.

In Yeats’ Supernatural Songs, he perceives life as full of conflicts; Man must first ‘fight’ his body, then ‘struggled’ with his heart before struggling with his mind and finally he must ‘struggled’ with his faith in God. In Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, life seems to be lead by fate. Oedipus tries to escape from his fate but he did not succeed as it finally turns out that everything that had happened to him is his fate all along just like what the prophecy told; he will kill his father and wed his own mother. Both of the works by Sophocles and Yeats are similar to each other. This is because both characters of the two works endure suffering throughout their lives.

Based on all the examples given, it is true that different people have different views about life. Life should be celebrated even though it is full of challenges. Live life to the fullest!

Blog 2: Reflection of the Handout of Drama

In the second class, the lecture was based on the handout given to each of the students. To me, the handout really helps a lot because it serves as a guide for me. The handout is about the essential elements in drama. Although it is only comprises of main points, I still prefer the notes because without it, I will not be able to follow what the lecturer taught us that day. Furthermore, I will be having difficulties in spelling certain terms in drama such as ‘farce’, ‘catharsis’, ‘harmatia’, ‘hubris’ etc. These terms are alien to me. Let’s say that our lecturer did not provide the notes for us; it will be no problem if he spelled the terms for us but are we expecting him to spell all those alien terms for us? Not really! All in all, the handouts given are really helpful. It is not to say that we are too tired or too lazy to take down notes but as I said earlier, they serve as a guide and also as an aid in learning drama.

Blog 1: Reflection of the Test on Point of View (Narration)

Wow! This is the first time I’m writing a blog. How cool is that? I never really imagine myself writing a blog but here I am, WRITING A BLOG! Okay, let’s proceed to the core business.

I’m writing this blog as a requirement for the subject of EDU 3217: Teaching the Language of Drama that I’m taking this semester. During the first class session, we were required to answer several questions on ‘point of view’ (narration). I got really stunned and shocked because I don’t expect our lecturer will give us a test on our first day of class. Furthermore, I kind of get short-circuited on receiving the question paper. This is the result that you get when you study or revise just to pass your exams. Serves me right! I am quite grateful though because after several minutes of pondering, I managed to recall some bits and pieces on what point of view or narration is about. Although I did not manage to recall all of them, I am still able to answer the questions given. This test made me realize that I’m not suppose to study or do my revision for exam purposes only, but I need to learn anything (especially literature) by heart so that I will not easily forget.