Hey, check out this post from another teacher's blog. I hope I'm doing this link the right way.
http://jtspencer.blogspot.com/2010/08/thought-provoking-video.html
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
What to do with this blog?
Now that the theater grant with Toby has ended, I'm stuck with this blog. I really don't know what to do with it. Should I try at humor? My personal life? That seems boring and overly done. Also, I'm really not sure if anyone is actually reading this thing anyway. Just in case anyone is, I would appreciate your suggestions.
Here are some things I've thought about including on my blog:
-stories about studying abroad in St. Andrews
-stories about living in Brazil
-trying to learn Portuguese
-teaching (there's a ton to talk about here, including funny, sad, mundane, pedagogical stuff)
-running the 5k in October (I'm not a runner....yet)
-stories about my wacky (to put it nicely) family and pets
If you have any ideas or suggestions for me, leave some comments!
Here are some things I've thought about including on my blog:
-stories about studying abroad in St. Andrews
-stories about living in Brazil
-trying to learn Portuguese
-teaching (there's a ton to talk about here, including funny, sad, mundane, pedagogical stuff)
-running the 5k in October (I'm not a runner....yet)
-stories about my wacky (to put it nicely) family and pets
If you have any ideas or suggestions for me, leave some comments!
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
100 Saints You Should Know
We saw our final show a few months ago, 100 Saints You Should Know, and I was completely blown away by it. Finally, we had an original piece that was written for the stage. No adaptations from books, short stories, or interviews. This was what I had been waiting for- an enjoyable, straightforward play.
When I studied abroad in St. Andrews, I would see the weekly student shows for free. Some were certainly better than others, but going to the shows was something fun to do with my friends. It was free and only a mile walk into town (we also had plenty of time since taking two classes was considered to be a full course). After I came back to the states, I hadn't been to any plays until Toby started this project. I suppose it was because I was too lazy to look up shows in Atlanta and couldn't have really afforded them anyway.
One of the questions that Toby asked us when we first began if it was important to cultivate theater audiences, and I'm not quite sure what the answer is to that. Overall, I had fun going to these multiple shows and seeing some plays that I would not have seen on my own. I think I probably will see more shows in the future. In fact, I saw Kristin's awesome play a little while ago, and I head on NPR that Rita Dove's new play just opened. I'm still not sure if cultivating theater audiences is a noble, worthwhile goal, but I will be paying more attention to Atlanta's theater scene.
When I studied abroad in St. Andrews, I would see the weekly student shows for free. Some were certainly better than others, but going to the shows was something fun to do with my friends. It was free and only a mile walk into town (we also had plenty of time since taking two classes was considered to be a full course). After I came back to the states, I hadn't been to any plays until Toby started this project. I suppose it was because I was too lazy to look up shows in Atlanta and couldn't have really afforded them anyway.
One of the questions that Toby asked us when we first began if it was important to cultivate theater audiences, and I'm not quite sure what the answer is to that. Overall, I had fun going to these multiple shows and seeing some plays that I would not have seen on my own. I think I probably will see more shows in the future. In fact, I saw Kristin's awesome play a little while ago, and I head on NPR that Rita Dove's new play just opened. I'm still not sure if cultivating theater audiences is a noble, worthwhile goal, but I will be paying more attention to Atlanta's theater scene.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Women + War
What an awful show. Truly, horribly, awful. In my first post, I tried to reserve criticism of Around the World in Eighty Days, a mediocre show, but I cannot hold back on Women + War.
I was excited to see the show (it's based on interviews from Atlanta-area women who have had experiences in various wars). I was expecting a thoughtfully produced play, something akin to The Vagina Monologues, but what we got was confusing and laughable. There were a few powerful moments in the handful of monologues, but the rest of the play was composed of choral readings, interpretive dancing, and black rocks being passed from actor to actor. It's not the actors' faults; I'm sure they were only following what the director told them to do. However, I do have to wonder what the director was thinking. Why put in superfluous "artistic" touches to stories that are already powerful enough on their own?
I'm reminded of a student I had who would write long, nonsensical sentences with vocabulary straight from the thesaurus. When I asked him why he did this, he admitted that he didn't know what he was trying to say either, but he thought it sounded good. He hadn't thought that his readers might be equally confused and frustrated; he just thought they would be impressed.
Directors, high school students, and everyone in between, aim for clarity in your artistic endeavors.
I was excited to see the show (it's based on interviews from Atlanta-area women who have had experiences in various wars). I was expecting a thoughtfully produced play, something akin to The Vagina Monologues, but what we got was confusing and laughable. There were a few powerful moments in the handful of monologues, but the rest of the play was composed of choral readings, interpretive dancing, and black rocks being passed from actor to actor. It's not the actors' faults; I'm sure they were only following what the director told them to do. However, I do have to wonder what the director was thinking. Why put in superfluous "artistic" touches to stories that are already powerful enough on their own?
I'm reminded of a student I had who would write long, nonsensical sentences with vocabulary straight from the thesaurus. When I asked him why he did this, he admitted that he didn't know what he was trying to say either, but he thought it sounded good. He hadn't thought that his readers might be equally confused and frustrated; he just thought they would be impressed.
Directors, high school students, and everyone in between, aim for clarity in your artistic endeavors.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Edgar Allan Poe
Our class recently saw the Tales of Edgar Allan Poe performed at the Center for Puppetry Arts. Now, I'll admit my love for puppets. I've been a lifelong Muppets fan, and I often put on my own puppet plays from the staircase balcony in my childhood home. However, my views of puppetry were very limited. I was excited to see the show, but I was expecting something along the lines of hand puppets or marionettes moving about a tiny stage with the actors hidden behind a piece of scenery. How wrong I was.
Rather than hiding, the actors moved freely about the stage along with their puppets. I never once, however, felt like the actors were overshadowing the puppets. The show was so incredibly seamless, and the actors became an extension of their puppets. It was a very clever way of performing Poe's works, many of which contain little dialogue. The actors became the narrators while the puppets performed the actions of the stories.
I also liked that they used several of Poe's short stories and poems and blended them into one longer performance. It became a riveting mash-up of his works. Mash-ups are quite popular these days in music, and the T.V. show Glee uses them frequently. It would be a fun and exciting exercise to have my own students create a mash-up of their own and perform it for the class. The students would have to find common themes or ideas that tie the various works together, and this would give them a chance to see how the same author, or different authors from the same movement, have common threads that run through their works. I could easily see taking several Harlem Renaissance poems or Flannery O'Connor short stories and creating a longer work to perform in front of the class.
I might even make them use puppets.
Rather than hiding, the actors moved freely about the stage along with their puppets. I never once, however, felt like the actors were overshadowing the puppets. The show was so incredibly seamless, and the actors became an extension of their puppets. It was a very clever way of performing Poe's works, many of which contain little dialogue. The actors became the narrators while the puppets performed the actions of the stories.
I also liked that they used several of Poe's short stories and poems and blended them into one longer performance. It became a riveting mash-up of his works. Mash-ups are quite popular these days in music, and the T.V. show Glee uses them frequently. It would be a fun and exciting exercise to have my own students create a mash-up of their own and perform it for the class. The students would have to find common themes or ideas that tie the various works together, and this would give them a chance to see how the same author, or different authors from the same movement, have common threads that run through their works. I could easily see taking several Harlem Renaissance poems or Flannery O'Connor short stories and creating a longer work to perform in front of the class.
I might even make them use puppets.
The Canterbury Tales
After our class workshop, Toby took us all down to see the Canterbury Tales at the Shakespeare Tavern. I had been to the Tavern before and enjoyed their production of Romeo and Juliet, so I was looking forward to the Canterbury Tales.
What we saw didn't disappoint me; the play was funny, energetic, and well produced. Some of the tales were more enjoyable than others, but overall I enjoyed myself. What really stood out about the play, however, was that fact that they took several of the tales and updated them into various modern settings.
The idea of adaptation fascinates me. I'm not one of those purists who deplore the idea setting Romeo and Juliet in modern L.A. or turning Julius Caesar into a Western (Harold Bloom, I'm looking at you). I think it's perfectly fine to allow directors their creative licenses, and changing the setting of a familiar story often brings a new understanding to the work. The version of The Canterbury Tales was interesting to watch. I like the disconnect between the Middle English coming out of the actor's mouths while they wore business suits or carried a machine gun because it forced me to think about the tales in a new way and see the connections these older stories have with more contemporary books, movies, and plays.
Updating and and adapting a story into a new setting can be incredibly helpful for our students, allowing them to deepen their understanding of the play. Reading a play can be incredibly difficult, especially Shakespeare. With only dialogue and a few stage directions, the students often have trouble visualizing and comprehending the action of the play. It's perfectly fine for students to act out Caesar's death with foam swords if the purpose is to give the students the chance to see how Caesar is killed and the betrayal of realizing Brutus is there. It is not a "dumbing down" of Shakespeare (again, Harold Bloom, I'm looking at you). Likewise, seeing a familiar play in a new setting forces the audience to re-think their perception of the play and make new connections and understandings of the material. It's Intertextuality at it's finest.
What we saw didn't disappoint me; the play was funny, energetic, and well produced. Some of the tales were more enjoyable than others, but overall I enjoyed myself. What really stood out about the play, however, was that fact that they took several of the tales and updated them into various modern settings.
The idea of adaptation fascinates me. I'm not one of those purists who deplore the idea setting Romeo and Juliet in modern L.A. or turning Julius Caesar into a Western (Harold Bloom, I'm looking at you). I think it's perfectly fine to allow directors their creative licenses, and changing the setting of a familiar story often brings a new understanding to the work. The version of The Canterbury Tales was interesting to watch. I like the disconnect between the Middle English coming out of the actor's mouths while they wore business suits or carried a machine gun because it forced me to think about the tales in a new way and see the connections these older stories have with more contemporary books, movies, and plays.
Updating and and adapting a story into a new setting can be incredibly helpful for our students, allowing them to deepen their understanding of the play. Reading a play can be incredibly difficult, especially Shakespeare. With only dialogue and a few stage directions, the students often have trouble visualizing and comprehending the action of the play. It's perfectly fine for students to act out Caesar's death with foam swords if the purpose is to give the students the chance to see how Caesar is killed and the betrayal of realizing Brutus is there. It is not a "dumbing down" of Shakespeare (again, Harold Bloom, I'm looking at you). Likewise, seeing a familiar play in a new setting forces the audience to re-think their perception of the play and make new connections and understandings of the material. It's Intertextuality at it's finest.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Improv
We recently saw a show at the Alliance Theatre from the Second City acting group. It had an extremely long title (something about peaches dropping and rolling everywhere), but I'm not going to bother with that right now. Part of the show was scripted and part was all improv. Although the show was overall very enjoyable, the best part was definitely the improv. It was fun to see the actors make up hilarious situations on the spot.
The whole point of the grant Toby got is to figure out how to use what we are seeing in the theater in our own classrooms. Naturally, I had no idea what to do. I thought about using improv techniques to teach indirect characterization or to have students imagine a character from a book in a new situation while still retaining the character's traits.
Both of these ideas seemed profoundly lame.
Today, however, Randy from Dad's Garage came and spoke to us while we workshopped at ASC today, and he gave us several, useful ways we can incorporate improv in our classrooms. The one I'm most excited about is the story telling one word at a time. Here is an example:
Person 1: The
Person 2: cat
Person 1: ate
Person 2: some
Person 1: Doritos
Person 2: and
Person 1: then
Person 2: barfed
Person 1: it
Person 2: all
Person 1: up.
As you can see, it's not exactly great or intellectual story-telling, but it can help students think creatively and get them to think critically about how stories are told (and incorporate exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution in their own works). I'm leaving today hopeful and excited about using improv techniques in my own classroom.
The whole point of the grant Toby got is to figure out how to use what we are seeing in the theater in our own classrooms. Naturally, I had no idea what to do. I thought about using improv techniques to teach indirect characterization or to have students imagine a character from a book in a new situation while still retaining the character's traits.
Both of these ideas seemed profoundly lame.
Today, however, Randy from Dad's Garage came and spoke to us while we workshopped at ASC today, and he gave us several, useful ways we can incorporate improv in our classrooms. The one I'm most excited about is the story telling one word at a time. Here is an example:
Person 1: The
Person 2: cat
Person 1: ate
Person 2: some
Person 1: Doritos
Person 2: and
Person 1: then
Person 2: barfed
Person 1: it
Person 2: all
Person 1: up.
As you can see, it's not exactly great or intellectual story-telling, but it can help students think creatively and get them to think critically about how stories are told (and incorporate exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution in their own works). I'm leaving today hopeful and excited about using improv techniques in my own classroom.
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