Recently in Bella Lumley Category
When we were told that we would be doing scenes from The Crucible, I will admit that I was a little disappointed. I am not usually a fan of tragedy, and as I said in my previous journal, I am not a big fan of The Crucible as a play. But when scenes were given out, and groups were formed, I began to get a little more excited about my scene.
It took me a little longer than everybody else to memorize my lines (due to neglect) but when I finally did, I found that our scene ran quite smoothly. We are still in the rehearsal process and trying to work out the staging for our scene. It is much more difficult than I imagined. I appreciate what Mr. Newman does ever year for the play. It is certainly hard. Anyways, while we were in the midst of practicing, Mr. Newman decided to mark us based on our lines rehearsal as opposed to regular line tests that he usually does (which are terrifying). I liked the idea, but at the same time I felt that he came in to watch only the scene where I had a million lines, and where I was still a little foggy on my exact lines. I guess he knew which scene he needed to watch. But anyway, as a result I did quite poorly on my line test. Which means that My overall Drama average will be quite low. But I think I know how I can improve it....
I think that I will be able to improve my Drama Mark in two areas: rehearsal and performance. We have been fairly focused during rehearsals (thank you Jessica) and I think that if I really work on my lines and get absorbed into the character of Elizabeth that I could do quite well.
I cant wait to perform. It will be great!
Drama class has been very interesting for the past few weeks. Filled with rehearsal and read-throughs of a very widely known Arthur Miller play (you really enjoy his plays, don't you Mr. Newman?). The Crucible is slightly disturbing, both in its story and in its characters. Arthur Miller is very good at making his characters out to be realistic, and their interactions are very believable.
In The Crucible, I find that the majority of the characters are fairly unlikable, and at many points within the play, I wanted to stop reading. This goes back to my issues as a child when I would not be able to sit through Disney films such as the Lion King and Snow White because I couldn't take the conflict. This play is literally chalked full of conflict. To the brim. That is why while doing a read through, I couldn't help but hate what was happening to the characters, hate the ignorance of the townspeople and hate the evil intentions of Abigail. There are a lot of antagonists in this play. Between the evil characters of Danforth, Hale and Abigail this play was very upsetting.
Some nice things about the Crucible are its excellent plot (however upsetting it may be) and its dynamic characters. I didn't like what the characters were doing, but based on their backgrounds I could understand why they were doing it. I also liked the way that although there was a sad ending, John Proctor didn't die in vain, and seemed to die a somewhat heroic death.
Over all, In the Crucible Arthur Miller weaves a detailed web making some interesting insights into human nature. This play is the result of a genius playwright and I did somewhat enjoy it ( even though I had a hard time with all the conflict). I cant wait to see how my rendition of Elizabeth Proctor will turn out.
The play. Oh boy.
When Mr. Newman announced that we were doing the play in term one this year, I knew that it was going to be insane. We auditioned the second week back from school, and the cast list was posted soon afterwards. I found out that I had several different roles in this year's play, which scared me. A lot. I went from last year- where I had one appearance with three lines in the play- to this year where I had paragraphs of lines and six different roles. I can say, now that the experience is over that I enjoyed it very much and found it rewarding in so many ways.
Let me begin with the play in itself. What is Metamorphoses? Well I didn't really get it at first. A lot of words were tossed around like "myth, pool, and Greek." I soon found out that it was a collection of Greek myths as told by narrators, taking place around a pool. When I heard this, I was a little opposed to the concept of the play at first. But then we then started to rehearse. I'm a little oblivious and I don't catch on to things quickly- I didn't realize that the play takes place around a pool of water until October, which was two weeks into rehearsal.
Rehearsal is something that is obviously necessary for a production, and because we did the play in term one, we had a very limited amount of rehearsal time. I made the problem worse by doing two things: Being really sick with Bronchitis, and going to Saskatchewan. I missed a lot of rehearsal time, and didn't have a lot of my lines memorized. On top of those things, because of my bad organizational skills, I didn't look at the schedule on the weekends and would often come to rehearsal an hour late, after being texted by Emma saying "GET DOWN HERE! WHERE ARE YOU? MR NEWMAN IS GOING TO KILL YOU! HE IS PISSED!" As you can imagine, after getting those lovely messages I was very eager to hop into my car and head on over to play practice and be yelled at. But all joking aside, I messed up a little with rehearsal this year, and I am very sorry Mr. Newman. But it all came together at the performance (I hope).
The performance was an amazing experience. It is always lovely to see what the play looks like with all the costume, set, lighting, sound queues, and what happens when you run through the play in its entirety. I love the last days before you present because it is a bonding experience with all the actors within the play. You spend literally every waking hour at the play. The performance is a great experience, and it is lovely to see everybody's reaction to your work. The best part is when you get to entertain people, it's a great experience and I loved it, and hopefully I can be a part of the play again next year! (Hopefully I will be allowed back in the play after the rehearsal fiasco-again sorry!)
MONOLOGUE (DRAMA JOURNAL # TROIS)
During this past unit I have enjoyed working on my monologue. At first I was a little worried about undertaking so many lines, but I feel that the experience has improved me overall as an actor, mostly in the realm of memorization and character development. I have been working on my play lines at the same time as my monologue and I have found that I can easily memorize my lines in a small amount of time. This experience has made me realize that acting is a skill, and as with any skill, the more time that you devote to it, the more that you will succeed in it.
When I first joined drama, I was a mess. I had never really acted before, and I found it very difficult to memorize lines. In fact during play last year, it took me almost a month to memorize my THREE lines. Of course Shakespeare wrote them, but still a month for three little lines is ridiculous. This is because I was inexperienced, and had never had to memorize lines before. This is how actors manage to memorize the script for a television show in a short amount of time, because they have experience.
My Monologue is very exciting this year, and I feel very proud to present it. I spent 30 minutes flipping through the monologue book, until I finally settled on this one. The reason that I did this was because I this was one of the weirdest passages of text that I have ever come over. It is quirky and funny, which is well, right up my alley. The basic idea of this monologue is quite ridiculous, which is what makes it so good. It begins when a young maid finds a man who has just killed himself in a hotel room. She speaks to him in a casual tone as if he is alive, and hilarity ensues. I did know that this scene would be a challenge, and require me to really put myself into a very strange position. This did prove to be a challenge, but I feel as if I am a better actor for it.
"This year, we seem to be heavily focusing
on the warm-up aspect of drama class. I can't say that I am enjoying warm-up,
but I understand that it is an "absolutely necessary thing that must be done." It
does get me focused on the task at hand, so it performs its necessary task, but
I just don't enjoy it. The problem is that I can't recommend anything that we
could do to improve the overall experience for me. Possibly make it
shorter? Hopefully once I know it
really well, I will be able to get through it quickly. I remember last year's
drama class, where Emma and I would joke through the whole warm-up, and it
certainly was not a focused affair. But we did have fun. I guess that I will
just have to give this year's warm-up a try and focus completely."
Okay so I wrote the above paragraph when we were just starting to do warm-up in class. I feel a little differently now that it has become a regular part of class. I can't say that my heart skips a beat out of excitement as soon as I hear that we are going to do warm-up, but I do appreciate its benefits. In our daily lives, at school we are constantly stressed out and on the move. Doing a warm-up allows us to extract those daily stresses and focus on drama completely. For this reason, I am going to try my hardest to be focused during drama class, and especially during warm up.
-Bella Lumley
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