Year8 unit 2

Reflection on the performance in overall Drama

The pictures posted below are my reflection sheets for rotation 1, Drama

STAGE COMBAT CHOREOGRAPHYReflection for Drama and Stage Combat assessment:

In my stage combat performance, I think I did do okay. We made a few cues to each other so that we know , when each movement is coming. However, I noticed I was panicked during my performance which I will have to figure out a way not to. Because of this, I skipped some lines (changed them), and had a delay on the actions. In our choreography, we used slaps (one to be ducked, one blocked, one hit, one back and force), shoves (twice), stomach punch (twice), choking, and hair pull. I found the stomach punch quite hard, since I have never done one before. We could have improved on the timing of the actions, since we could not perform in the best timing although we used some cues to tell each other. After I finished the last lesson of the 12 weeks of drama, I have noticed that the topic we did this term was connected. Melodrama was all about over reacting, and Stage Combat was reacting to something that is not actually occurring. In both topics, I had to over react, to let the audience enjoy or know what was going on. I have learned something interesting in this drama session, which I definitely would not learn if I was not in the school. The slaps, punches, chokes, shoves, killing, eye poke...... They were hard for me since my personality did not fit the topic, but at the end, I finished my drama sessions having fun. I would like to thank all my classmates and my teacher who taught us something quite interesting an fun!! I would like to utilise what I have learnt in drama onto Visual Art and Music which I am going to have in the future. 

This is the video for my stage combat performance

Stage combat Production Notes

Who is she/he?

Person A;
name: Ashley
description: Ashley is the sidekick for Monica and is always with Monica and does whatever Monica said. She was a nerd and was called as Looser Ashley before she became th sidekick of Monica

Person B;
name: Monica
description: Monica is the queen bee of the school. She has a bossy personality and is mean to everyone is meets. Her man sidekick is Ashley and she judges everyone and always makes mean comments about people's outfit, hairstyle, make up and style.

Why are you fighting?

We are fighting because Monica makes mean comments about Aria's hairstyle, when Ashley is friends with her. Ashley feels offended about how Monica talked about Aria. Then she starts to talk about how she was like when she was a looser and nerd before she started to hang out with Monica, who changed her completely. Ashley gets mad and tells Monica, that she is done hanging out with her and she shoves Monica and then they both starts to fight. 

How do you think the stage combat will go?

I am actually very anxious about this project. Both me and Samia are not good with this topic, because we have never really been violent (like slaps, punches, upper cut in the face) before. Plus my personality are not sufficient for this topic since at least I don't know how to be confident when I come in front of people and perform something that I am not good a . That's why we would like to practice outside lessons, to improve our skills on stage combat to take this opportunity in learning how to become over the fear of making mistakes when performing something you are not very good at. 

REFLECTION ON STAGE SLAP

For this stage slap task, I paired up with Maanya. The situation was that I am a worker, who works for the boss which is Maanya. However, we had to create a situation where we create a plot so that it ends up to me slapping the boss. We created the plot which is something like this;

I try to talk to the boss about what I have done so far

She does not listen because she is busy with doing nail polish

I start to get angry and again try to talk to her

Boss gets annoyed and say 'I FIRE YOU!'

Then I say 'YOU FIRE ME, I QUIT!'

Right after I say this, I slap her in the face. 

I think the successful point in this task was that both of us memorised the lines and knew what is to happen next during our performance. I felt really embarrassed when my grade coordinator came into my class when I was about to fake slap her. From my point of view, I felt this task was quite hard, since I have never done things such as slapping someone before. Maanya was very skilful in this, however, I caused her a lot of trouble, since my facial expression looked like as if I was smiling (although I was not) and the slapping hand was too weak. I thought we were not as successful, but not quite unsuccessful either. Let me mention why I think so. I felt like this because we both knew our roles and what we will do next, but our timing wasn't great, and in the first try, I panicked which lead me to slapping her before stopping for my teacher to take a picture (shown above). By the next time I perform, I will have to learn how to not to panic when performing in front of people, which I think I can utilise in other subjects too. 

INTRODUCTION

MYP: Stage Combat
Key concept: communication
Related concept: audience, expression, interpretation, and presentation
Global context: personal and cultural expression?
Statement of inquiry: Combatants use safe and choreographed stage combat, communicating personal and       cultural expressions for the benefit of an audience.
Inquiry question: Factual -why is safety, eye contact and cuing important during stage combat?
                           Conceptual-what is stage combat? Why will actors engage in stage combat? How do you communicate as combatants on stage?
                           Conceptual- How do we mask the audience to create the illusion of contact in stage combat, reflecting conflict in a real life situation?
                           Debatable-how realistic is stage combat in different movies? How do they create sound: today snaps or prerecorded sound effects?