Recently in Tessa Plakidas Category

            We are a week away from the drama festival and I am really trying not to think about the fact that in four days we are having out last dress rehearsal. I am very happy with how the scenes are coming along and everyone is doing a great job. I still have to work on lines, especially in the Sarah and Helen scene. But I am somewhat confident that I know what to do.

The part I enjoyed the most was learning about my characters and I really like what Mr. Newman and I have decided to do. When Mr. Newman said he wants us to try new things that will challenge us a little he wasn't kidding. I have to flirt with Jacob as the agent while still trying to sell him the house; I have to play a conservative teenager and a sixteen-year-old girl who might be seeing her father for the last time. First of all I am not only terrible at flirting but I am also terrible at persuading people and I can definitely not call myself conservative. In the Standish scene I really have to be well mannered but I also have to be serious and that is almost impossible around Jeff.

In the Standish scene Jacob is my brother, I am an only child so in the beginning I wasn't sure how to make it look real to the audience that Jacob and I are in fact brother and sister. I was more than happy when Robin told us that we really act as if we are siblings. I think this is due to the fact that Jacob and I joke around a lot when Lizzie and Jeff are talking about the incident at the club. I even call Jacob David sometimes when I see him in the hallway or at the tuck shop.

The scene I enjoy the most is Standish and I think it's because it's in a way the most complex. But really what is there not to love about this scene, it's also hilarious watching Jeff and Lizzie pretending to be married and kiss, watching Bertha limp across the stage and Jeff freaking out. It also gave me a chance to work in a group I wouldn't otherwise pick to work in.

I would like to find something unique about my character and try to share it with the audience; I've looked at my characters in every angle possible trying to find something new. Unfortunately because the scenes are so short it doesn't really allow for the characters to expand.

Overall I am really excited to go to the drama festival we are almost ready to perform and I think that people will really like it. I am also hoping to learn new stuff and hopefully meet some new cool drama people while we are in Toronto.

For the drama festival I have three parts, the agent, Helen and Claire. The first scene I have is the opening scene and I am the agent. This scene is part of the play purely to introduce the dinning room but I like what we decided to do with it. We make it funny yet awkward, although there isn't really a lot of information we get from this scene about my character we can assume she is single because she is openly flirting with the client we can't exactly pin point her age but I would assume she is between 30 and 45 years old. We could also assume that she uses flirting to do most of her sales but she knows when to back off. Once the client mentions his wife she becomes more professional and concentrates on the sale rather than flirting.

The other part I have is Helen, I find it a little ironic how Gabi and I got picked for this scene but I think we can do a good job. Sarah and Helen are both teenagers and seem comfortable around each other; I would say they are good friends. In the beginning I thought she was a very simple character but as I was thinking about how to execute the scene and a question came up, why is Helen so fascinated with the dining room? Maybe she used to have a dining room table too and something happened and they had to move or maybe a conflict in her family caused them not to use the dining room anymore. Helen also seems to get pushed around a little by Sarah, she doesn't really stand up to her, let's her pick the drink. Sarah seems to be the one in control.

My third and last part is Claire, she is a teenager and she has a brother David. In the beginning and for most of the scene she is the typical teenage girl, impatient with attitude. But once the crisis arises she is match more serious. She is definitely afraid that something might happen to her father and when he is about to leave we see that that's her weak spot. The way we have decided to do the scene she has a good relationship with her brother. At some points of the scene they will look at each other to get an answer or an explanation to something they didn't understand. This is my favourite scene from the once I have to do. I really like the relationships between the characters, Emily and Bertha, Claire and David. I also like the way we are doing the scene. Everyone has a telepathic relationship and I think it will be a funny scene. 

Scene Work

Before we picked our scenes I was really excited because I really wanted to be one of the Italian characters (even though they are both men). Unfortunately I can't play a man so I got Catherine's part. I am doing the scene where Catherine and Beatrice's are discussing about Catherine's future and her marriage with Rodolpho. Of course the challenge was to memorize the lines but now the biggest difficulty I'm having is figuring out how I'm going to say my lines. I slowly started to realize that I could act it out in many ways; my first approach was playing them in a way that suggests that I had no idea about my uncle's secret love for me. But then I thought to my self maybe through this conversation with my aunt I should show some sing that I am slowly becoming aware of it. Another thing Lizzie and I need to wok on is the set up of the scene and the movement. As it is now it's a little awkward because I am supposed to be coming into the room with Rodolpho but we are trying different ways of doing it and hopefully we will find one that works. We are slowing identifying parts in the scene where we can have some movement. Working with Lizzie has been a lot of fun even though she has a more serious character to play. In many ways it fits her personality if I was in a situation like that she would have the same argument as Beatrice.

Original Reaction of the play A View from the Bridge

Originally I was excited with the play especially when I found out that some of the characters were Italian. The play has an interesting story but I have to admit the first read through wasn't as exciting as I expected. Once I thought about what was happening in the play and the reactions of character in situations it somehow became much more interesting and I wanted to see what would happen next. The play took a path I didn't expect, I never thought that Eddie would be in love with Catherine and Beatrice would know about it. I also liked how in the play we see the aspect of an unwanted marriage, it makes it exciting to see if Rodolpho and Catherine will get married or not. Along with this we also have the anxiety of finding out if Rodolpho and Marco will get caught and be sent back to Italy. Something I didn't like about the play is it's ending. Killing someone in a play or movie to me just seems like an easy way to end the story. It would be interesting to see if Eddie would go to the marriage or maybe they didn't get married because Catherine thought it wasn't right. Over all I really like it and I am excited to act out a part of the play and I'm hoping ill get Rodolphos or Marcos part.

Ghosts is a play by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. Our drama class saw it at the Soulpepper Theater. There were only five actors and small set. It featured Diego Matamoros, as Jacob Engstrand, Michelle Monteith, as Regina Engstrand, Nancy Palk, as Mrs. Helene Alving, Gregory Prest, as Oswald Alving, and Joseph Ziegler, as Pastor Manders. First let's start with a synopsis.

The play takes place in fall in the house of Mrs. Alving. Her son, Oswald, who is an artist has returned to his mothers house from Paris. During the play we also meet Regina who is the maid of the house along with her father Mr. Engstrand and Pastor Manders who is Mrs. Alving spiritual advisor.

 Mrs. Alving is the owner of the house Regita works in, she feels responsible for her and she mentions how she took her under her wind. Next we follow a conversation by Mrs. Alving and Pastor Manders. At first they discuss the orphanage Mrs. Alving wants to build. Later on they talk about her marriage with Captain Alving and as it turns out they didn't have the perfect marriage everyone thought they had. Mrs. Alving reveals that Captain Alving had affairs with multiple women and one day even had an affair with the former maid of the house. She also pointed out that there were consequences, but it is not revealed yet what Mrs. Alving means. Oswald and Regita in the next room interrupt Mrs. Alving and Pastor Manders conversation. It is then that ghost first come up in the play, Mrs. Alving says that she can hear ghosts but actually we then realize that she is having a déjà vu. Mrs. Alving then has to make the decision of whether to tell Regita and Oswald that they are siblings.  Before Mrs. Alving has time to decide what to do Oswald announces that he wants to marry Regina at which point Mrs. Alving is forced to tell them the truth. Regita is distraught and decides to leave Mrs. Alving house and start a new life. Mrs. Alving and Oswald are left alone in the house, Oswald is suffering from inherited syphilis and reveals to his mother that his condition is only going to get worse. He then suggests that if his illness gets out of hand she should put him down. The play ends with Mrs. Alving having to decide whether or not to euthanize Oswald. We never find out her decision.

            The play had an interesting plot that was confusing at times, especially in the beginning of the play. But by the end of the first part of the play the plot unfolded and it became much clearer. During the conversation between Mrs. Alving and Mastor Manders in the first part of the play it was getting a little tiring because the audience wasn't gaining much from that conversation. Once Mrs. Alving reveals to Pastor Manders that her marriage with Captain Laving wasn't that great and that there were consequences I knew that the play was going to take a whole new direction of what I thought it would be. During the break I was anxious to get back to my seat and find out what Mrs. Alving meant by consequences. The second half of the play was full of surprises. First the orphanage burned down and then Oswald proposed to Regina. But these two things weren't the only surprises; I expected Regina's reaction to be different when she found out that she was a half sister with Oswald. I thought that she would have stayed or maybe even had married Oswald, but instead she left. Previously in the play we find out that Oswald is ill which at the time I didn't think would play a big role in the play but at the end of the play Mrs. Alving is left to decide if she is going to euthanize her son as he has requested.

            Over all the play was excellent. The acting was really good; you could see that they had put a lot of time and effort into this production of the play. At times the movement of the actors in the room wasn't as natural as expected you could tell that they had to think about were to go. Also at times the actors wouldn't be in a good angle so it was hard to see their face so you were also unable to see their expression. This was really important because at times they wouldn't have any lines so in order to get their reaction you would have to see their face.

The setting was simple but suited the atmosphere and the time that the play took place in. The furniture was beautiful and had a goth feel to it. The colors went well with this idea too, they weren't bright happy colors but more sad and settle.

I have to say the play wasn't what I expected it to be. I'm not talking about the quality of the play but the actual story. Soulpepper always has amazing productions and I didn't doubt even for a second that this production would meet standards. The plot however surprised me, I was expecting the play to be about ghosts and possibly see a story of someone who was haunted by one. The actual word ghosts only comes up once during the play when we can hear Oswald and Regina in the kitchen. But the idea of ghosts follows us through out the rest of the play. Instead the play was more about how memories haunt us and how we have to deal with things from the past. How decisions from that past even ones that we didn't make or things that we didn't expect to happen affect our lives today. I also liked the idea of a dilemma in the play. Specifically the first conflict is Mrs. Alving having to decide whether to tell Oswald and Regina that they are siblings and risks loosing one of them or even both of them, or not telling them and risking them getting married and having children. The other dilemma is Mrs. Alving decision of killing her son or having to live with him knowing that he will never be the same boy she knew. The play definitely has a deeper meaning, how decisions affect us and how sometimes we have to make decisions that aren't pleasant. When ever you have to make a decision remember that it might haunt you in the future and think about the other that might have to deal with the consequences of your actions.

Improve has really been a great experience so far. I am really enjoying it, it's loads of fun and I find my self-looking forward to drama class more and more. In the beginning I was hesitant about improve but it was love at first sight. I expected that I would be good at it because my whole life I had to make up excuses for my self or make up stories to get out of sticky situations but I was wrong. I am still enjoying it but I am not as good as I thought I would be. I think the reason I am enjoying improve so much isn't because I get to improvise but because I get to laugh at people during our exercises. I laugh even harder when I get to make some of my classmates say a funny line or act something bizarre out. The only reason I am righting this journal on a Tuesday night when I have other more urgent work to do is because I would rather do improve on Friday then have to work on this journal. I'm really excited to see what other activities we are going to do and I hope we get to watch some more episodes of "Who's Line is that Anyway".

Remembrance Day Performance

Today our grade 10 drama class students performed two poems for Remembrance Day. I feel that it went well for sure everyone was nervous. I mean it's hard to perform in front of such a big audience and not feel somewhat nervous. I know I was definitely nervous I could feel my legs shaking. Over all I'm happy with the performance there is always room for improvement but for the time we had we put together I good performance. I feel that I could have spoken up at my individual parts and when reading the letter it would have been nice if my paper weren't shaking out of control. I did hear some people say lines they aren't supposed to but I don't think it affected the performance. Over all I am very happy with how the performance went and I think it is a great opportunity for grade tens to get out there and get them more comfortable with performing in front of a crowd.

Monologues

The drama monologues were very well executed. It is amazing to see that in such a small school we have so many talented actors. I was very surprised by the quality of the monologues. Everyone jumped right into the role and gave it all they had. It is hard to perform in front of a crowd and I have to say that everyone looked comfortable. It was hard to follow along some monologues  because of the speed of their speech or because they weren't talking clearly enough but because the expressions and movements were so clear it made up for it.  I think that in some monologues it would be useful to have some more information about the monologues for me to be able to understand them.

 I enjoy the warm up, it gives me time to wind down and relax something that we don't get to do during the day because we have such a busy schedule. I feel that it is beneficial because it allows me to stretch out and concentrate on me. It is hard at times to focus only on yourself because there is so much movement around you but it is possible. I also find that it is hard to focus because you want to keep up with the senior who is leading. Something that I don't like about the warm up is that it doesn't stretch out my legs enough as I would like. I usually zone out during the warm ups so I guess that is one reason why I like it. I can think about things and relax at the same time. It is interesting to watch other people warm up, to see how they concentrate and what part of their body they pay more attention to.