The End Game!

Throwback to my junior year, when I first switched my English class from Language&literature to literature&performance, I still remember the first class I had; Ms.Guarino gave me the book ‘Fences’ (their summer reading book), and told me to memorise a scene and perform the next day. Though it was not the first year that I took drama related course, I felt nervous and excited. I asked around my classmates about why they chose this course, and the answers were different: some said they want to improve their acting skill, some said they want to gain more confidence…’ The moment that I walked into the black box and saw people talking happily and smiling, I knew that this class will be fun for the next two years. 
Throughout the two years, one of the things that I learned would be time management. I remember when I first started this course I always waited until the last minute and finish the homework, which was both tiring and low quality. Then, I realised that there will be no way for me to continue to do this and still maintain a good grade. Therefore, I started to change, I would spend some time prepare for every homework and make sure every sentence makes senses, and then post it on my blog. The change influenced me dramatically; my grade started to go up, and because I spread the work into separate days, I had more free time. To sum up, time management would be the first thing that I learned in the class. And speaking of blog post, throughout these two years, I found out that it can be a powerful tool to write my ideas and thoughts, and I believe that writing blog may be a long-term habit for me. 
The process of creating a piece of drama was always fun. Ms.Guarino would always give us enough time to create our piece and time to rehearse. Lots of people would think that the process of creating drama would be difficult and boring. In contrast, it was fun and much easier with correct teamwork. As we were creating, there were always laughters and smiling, because we were not even classmates, but also friends. But along with happiness and laughter, frustration also has played a key part of the process of creating drama; when there are more than one group member come up with ideas, there is always conflict of choosing idea to use since all ideas are good. Therefore, I learned how to compromise and listen to others; by taking advise from others, I’ve learned so much! What excites me the most would be the moment spot light is on me and perform in front of others- the moment that I feel the adrenaline pumping up and start to sweat, which is both exciting and breath-taking. 
‘what is literature?’ and ‘what is performance?’, these are the questions Ms.Guarino asked us in the first day of class. After two years of exploration, my understanding is that performance is a way of showing the literature context, and literature is a form of displaying a performance. In this course, these two components are dependent on each other, which is the key reason that makes this course so interesting. While designing the performance, we can see this as a process of review the literature knowledge again, but from a different perspective- the characters’ perspectives; while reading the literature, we can understand the background setup and characters’ emotions through performers’ views, which provides us more vision of how to explore and analyse characters. Overall, performance and literature enhance each other by providing multiple perspectives. 

Lastly, I would like to thank Ms.Guarino. Throughout the last two years, you have been an awesome teacher. You always listen to our voices and come up with solutions that can make us happy. You always give me thoughtful suggestions of how to improve my acting and writing skills, which brought my drama and writing skill to another level. I truly appreciate the extra time you spent with us at night to help us revise. I will keep using your advise in my future education!!! 










Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

4 poems notes

1. I'm nobody! Who are you?: There are two stanzas, a relatively short poem. There are four lines in each stanza. Because of her anti-social personality, this poem reflects her own feelings of being unnoticed. The rhyme scheme is AABC DEFE. There is a contrast between Somebody and Nobody. The important words are capitalized. 2. Hope is the thing with feather There are three stanzas four lines for each stanza The simile used to describe hope as a bird all positive about hope. 3. Tell all the truth but tell it slant  There is only one stanza There are eight lines in this stanza. She criticizes how people are not willing to tell the actual truth Slant means that people need to indirectly face the truth. 4. A bird, came down a walk Five stanzas four lines in each stanza It describes how the poet sees a bird. Throughout the poem, the poet describes the bird's movement and details. All positive and vivid.
Read more

sample question

While some poems focus exclusively on a personal or private experience, others reflect on the place of the individual in the larger human community. In the work of at least two poets, explore the ways in which poems have conveyed the poet’s sense of the world beyond the private sphere.  As an Arabic who is born in the United States and have a diverse family with a heavy sense of culture environment, Naomi Shihab Nye has lots of experiences that can reflect the idea that though people have different identities, they are still all humans no matter what. More specifically, in her poems ‘My father and the Fig Tree’ and ‘The words under the words’, she expresses the idea that all humans try to adapt to different environment, even though it can be difficult.  In the poem ‘The words under the words’ Naomi has a detailed description of her grandmother’s life in the U.S. After reading this poem, it appears to me that Naomi tries to emphasise the idea that humans can adapt in a...
Read more

MLML reading notes Chapter 3-5

Continue from the previous chapter, Desiree eventually finds a young man who is injured from the accident, whose name is Daniel. She sees a broken car, which at that time she had no idea what it is. To comfort Daniel, Desiree sings a song and then other peasants from the village appear. They bring Daniel back to their place and look after him. At the meantime, Desiree thinks that all this is fate, it is the will of God that brought this man to their place. Apparently, Daniel is from the wealthy part, but he does not tell them what his specific identity is. Peasants send M.J and M.B to the city to find someone. After a few days, M.J and M.B come back. There is a storm. Mama Euralie has a mental breakdown and starts to curse at God about her life; she also worries that one-day Desiree will leave the village and never comes back. There are also lots of praying going on. Daniel's father comes to the village in a helicopter, which is something peasants have never seen befo...
Read more