I want these videos on my computer but I'm not smart enough to work out how to get them there. Until then I'll just leave the links here. Hello
Days Like These
The Chariot
The Rhythm
The Car Song

I have my sheet so I can answer the stuff properly now. Unfortunately I just typed up this entire journal entry again and it got deleted because my computer turned off. So now this is the third attempt at typing this journal entry. Anyway, moving on...

Last week, our group developed our play by establishing what kind of tone the play would have, what themes we're going to concentrate on and how we're going to do it. We're going to try to keep the original humour of the play but make it a satire of modern day politics. We'll use audio/visual techniques to make comparisons to things in the play and the kind of things that have shown up in the news a lot. This is to make the audience think about the issues and also to make us all look a lot smarter and sensitive to current issues.
We also want to concentrate on the power structure in the play and we'll use elevation on the stage to symbolise power and also things like proximity and extreme proximity to highlight or isolate certain characters.

I haven't had a huge affect on the development of the play myself, though I do try to get involved in all the discussions and let people know what I think. But it's really up to the director and props/settings/consumes guys to decide what to do with the play because they're the guys that make it happen.

I'm not sure if we'd actually had a real rehearsal session that week but when we do read through the script we go very slowly because we want to work out exactly what we're doing for every part of the play. So, overall, our rehearsals move very slowly but we look into the actions in lots of detail, so that's good. I think I need to learn my lines faster because I always hesitate before I say my lines and I don't think I pay enough attention to my character because I'm watching the others most of the time. So if I could be more committed to acting than watching everyone else it would probably help.

I have done very little in the publicity department but I'm going to try to talk to the other publicity guys next lesson and work out all the joint publicity we're going to be doing. I think the program and posters should be done together to make it simpler and to simply cost less and use less paper. I need to type up a program draft and a synopsis of the play by the end of the week. I'll also try to do that tomorrow.

Okay, I lost my sheet that tells me what I'm supposed to write so I'm just gonna generally recap what we've done in the last week.

We finally decided what themes we're gonna use. We'll be changing te setting of the play to a more modern one and make references to modern politics and use a projector to make the comparisons without interrupting the flow of the play.

We're going to use physical elevation to symbolise power and the more powerful characters will usually be higher on the stage. And my character will move up and down depending on how much authority he's asserting.

As far as publicity goes I'm not doing too much, the publicity guys from all the groups have had a talk and we're going to look at advertising as one big group, which will make it easier and a lot less confusing for everyone. I'm also going to try to make a little film clip to show at school assembly for our play but I'll need to talk to Oscar about costumes to wear in the video first. And once that's done we can start putting posters up and selling tickets.

My character is a fairly weak character that just obeys orders and picks on whoever he can. Even though I'm afraid of the colonel I follow him around because of his authority and power. My character also adds comic relief but since the whole play is a comedy that's pretty obvious.

So now we're learning our lines and we've started blocking and everything's comming together.

I’ve decided to resurrect my blog to use as my journal for my drama classes. It makes learning fun!

Our group in the class as now become a “production company” for this term with different members of the group taking on different production roles as well as playing parts in the play. The play we’ve chosen is a play called “Clevinger’s Trial” and is based on a scene in the book “Catch 22”. It’s a comedy and it’s all about, as the name would suggest, Clevinger’s trial. In this play, the perfectly innocent Clevinger is bullied and interrogated by the colonel in charge of the trial until he’s finally found guilty and sentenced to 157 penalty tours. It’s really funny anyway but I can’t be bothered explaining it all…

Anyway, it’s interesting and I’m looking forward to it. Now I’m gonna start writing what I’m supposed to be writing for my journal.

According to this sheet I’m supposed to “comment on my assigned production role” so I better do what it says. I’ve been put in charge of publicity now, which I’m not too excited about but I’ll see what I can do with it. It basically involves making posters and putting them up around the school and stuff. I also have to make the program for the audience to read so they know what’s going on and who all the actors are. Should be fun.

Now I’m supposed to say how I feel about the play we’ve chosen. Like I said before, I like it and I think it’s really funny. It has some deeper messages and stuff that we’re going to try to bring across as strongly as we can. I think this is the best play we could have chosen. It has the right number of parts for the people in our group. Everyone seems happy with their roles and everything too and now we’re just fine tuning what we’re going to do with the play. So in short… I feel good about it.

Now, group dynamics. The group is working very well. Everyone’s pretty open-minded and everyone has a chance to express their opinions. So far we’ve had a few good discussions and we’re getting the work done. Also, everyone’s started to fit into their roles in the group and we’re already way ahead of the other groups in our class. Our group is called Team Amigo or Amigos inc. or something like that and it rocks.

It says here “Outline and discuss the directorial vision for the play”. I’m not so sure that I can do that yet since we’re still tweaking things and having new ideas and stuff so our idea of the play might change by tomorrow and then it’ll be all wrong. But the idea we have so far are:
· We’re going to try to highlight the issues of power and oppression expressed in the play.
· We think we’ll have a fairly simple to leave the location and time open to interpretation so it can be applied to any war.
· We’re not too concerned about detail and more interested in the message the play gives.
· We want to entertain people and make them laugh but at the same time we want them to think about some of the issues.
· We want to use things like elevation and lighting to show how Clevinger is being singled out and to make the colonel look more intimidating.

That's about all I've got. Interesting eh?

I KNOW I haven't blogged in forever. And I bet anyone that stll reads this is getting rather annoyed but it's not my fault. Well, I guess it is. But my camera's broken so I don't feel like blogging. *Shut up! You can't make me* Anyway. I'm going to try to force some creativity out of me. First off, Caz and I are going out even though we haven't actually seen eachother since we started. (it still counts. shut up). Anyway, that's really great. Hurrah. Drama's getting really intriguing and that's going great. I've regained my understanding of mathamatical concepts which is also good, considering I'm doing three unit (extension) maths. My plans for riding to school has failed miserably due to my acute laziness but I'm hoping I'll be able to re-motivate myself. And that's all from me today.

K, I haven't bloggedages I know. And so much has happened, yes. But I'm just lazy okay? Drama is really fun school is fun. Life is fun. So much fun. Ummm.. I'll write something relative later, I'm too tired. I got bashed in judo today though. I was hurting in so many places! But it was pretty interesting to see how a good fighter moves. Even if it meant being in a lot of pain. Anyway, till next time.

So far. I'm having fun, there's a way bigger work load and a lot more responsibilities but it's actually really fun. I got over all my issues durning the holiday and now I'm being a much lesser tool and generally enjoying myself. Anyway.. onto the day. We did all the boring stuff and all the meetings ont the first day and then moved onto some classes. iI have some really good teachers and I have four teachers for drama, which should be interesting. I have no idea how I'm going to cope with all of this work when i couldn't even do it last year. But something is telling me that I'm going to pull through.

Anyway, as *someone* pointed out, I have lost a few friends this holiday.. but on the bright side, I've made heaps of new friends and they're all really great, the kinda people you really love talking to. And I can;t wait to get to know them better. Also, I start Judo again tomorrow and it'll be a nice start to the year as I have a nice trophy waiting for me, so I'll be happy and we're also starting on kata which should be really interesting, a pain in the arse, but interesting.

I'm also gonna find myself with a lot more money to spend very soon so that will make my life generally better I assume. I have no idea what I'm gonna spend it on. But my current phone is quite suckie so I might do something about that.

Anyway, I haven't done a new year's reselution so I might as well do that now. There are some things that I don't think I should put on a site that my parents can access so I'll keep it tame. Okay..

First, get good grades and perform well in school. (That seems obvious.)

Get P plates. (I have no need to but I might as well.)

Become a new better person. (I already feel stronger. And I want to feel this more.)

Buy the entire Buffy series. (well duh)

Don't you just love pink?

Anyway,  here is my new wonderful bike. It is bigger, lighter, cooler and generally superior to my old bike. I'm going to be sing it for riding to school every day which should be really fun. I just don't know what I'm gonna do when it's raining. But I've riden home in the rain before so I'm sure I'll survive. Anyway, I have finally managed to get a picture of it and if I keep talking I'll start *really* rambling so without further ado..

The pics

 

Look it's some pictures, they are way to big but my computer screws up every time I try to do anything. So until I finish it, this will just be a really ugly mess. Cute koalas though.

Right.. first of all, I'm at an internet cafe with a very slow computer and much uselessness.. I have no USB cable to connect my camera with and I can't stick my picture card anywhere and even if I could I don't think it would help, so forgive me for not making this entry very interesting.

Now to get on with the entry.. This holiday has been great. Unfortunatly a girl who was coming to sleep over cancelled and went to the Gold Coast instead, which kinda sucks because now I have a big hole in my schedule which is probably why I'm here and not somewhere else. The past couple of weeks have consisted of theme parks, pools, beaches and enough diet coke to drown an average sized house hold pet. I think we have spent more money than we actually have but it should all work out in the end.

Anyway, I went to Dreamworld 3 times and Movie World once, Movie World was too crowded so we decided not to go again. I have been on the Giant Drop so many times that it simply isn't scary anymore. I got a few really cute pictures from the zoo, unfortunatly my camer ran out of power so I only had enough power for 5 pictures which really sucked because there was an adorable koala and I couldn't film it. It was the cutest thing I have ever seen and my camera would't record it it was very distressing. I managed to get one picture of the baby and the mum together so it wasn't a total loss.

I went surfing too which was fun, I picked it up faster than I expected. I haven't really gotten around to tricks or big waves or anything but I can stand up and all the basic stuff which is cool.