Day 1 - January 21, 2015

It's Drama Time!!!!

This is a community theatre production I was a part of in HS.  I wasn't here for this photo sadly.

This first picture, while random, is here to show you guys a little bit of my history with drama (I'll post 1 per week/reflection).  This was a production of the WWI play All Quiet on the Western Front.

I like art, not just visual arts, but I adore the blanket term of arts.  I play some instruments and I absolutely LOVE drama.  It probably has to do something with how I was when I was a kid and not being comfortable in my own skin but nowadays one of my favourite things in the world is to play around, to explore a character, to have fun being someone else.  That being said, I was a little bummed when at the beginning of the class Kari-Lynn explained the difference between Drama and Theatre.  I was only bummed because Drama and Theatre had always been interchangeable for me, so I expected some more improv games, character works and more theatrical things.  However at the end of the 6 weeks, I understood the difference, and that understanding started today.

We started off the class by playing some ice-breaker games.  We played a game called sharky-fin where the "shark" must try to approach and touch a player in the circle before the lifeguard saved them.  I love games like this, I have worked at summer camps for years so I have played games very similar to this one and this was a great game that I will absolutely be bringing back to camp with me.

We did some position mapping which is where you make stance on a topic using your body and the proximity to a chair.  On day 1 the position mapping was about how comfortable you were with drama.  I was basically standing on the chair because as stated, I love drama.

Drama and I are homies.

There is something that was introduced the class that I thought was awesome, the right to pass.  I would never use the right to pass for myself because I love getting into a character and I love any dramatic challenge thrown my way.  However, I am an anomaly.  People generally arent as comfortbale with being loud, silly, and out there like I can be.  For those people I believe the right to pass to be an incredibly important aspect of drama.  It makes drama safe, and the best way to be dramatic is if you know you are in a safe place.  

The last thing I'd like to mention is the theory mentioned in this class.  This theory basically describes how people internalize and learn from information.  It was very cool learning about this theory because one of my high school teachers taught us this as she felt it was very important to understand this in order to undertake drama in the best possible way.

Dwyer's Theory of Learning

I was excited to start drama, definitely more excited than music/art simply because I adore being dramatic, silly, and over the top.  I am very excited for what comes next.

Kim and I worked together for the ice-breaker activity called "gimme 5" where you had to share 5 new things with a partner.  Kim and I have grown to know each other alot in the past year, so probably not the best choice for this activity as finding new things to talk about wasnt easy!