Project

A Sad Story - https://youtu.be/E-vO7PtEt9Y

In-class writing

1. My vision for this project was trying to make it look as close to real life as possible, considering my yet limited directing skills and a little variety of surroundings to choose from.
2. I maintained a few original story elements in my new modernised project - husband's "fake" death and wife dying at the end.
3. I made it modern in terms of small details - airplane instead of the train, TV news instead of the telegraph; I also removed the wife's friends so now she finds out about the accident on her own; Also the wife does not have any health issues and she truly loves her husband.
4. The climax is the wife killing herself and husband opening the front door a few seconds later.
5. The strongest part of my project so far is the pictures - I took all of them and they are in the correct order.
6. The weakest part is the captions as I have not come up with them yet.
7. This project helped me realise that there are way more steps to creating stories than I thought; I also learnt about the different parts of the stories that make them interesting (climax etc.).
8. I learnt more about how the theatre works thanks to this project - I got to actually stage the pictures trying to make them as realistic as possible; I also realised how hard it is to work with the actors sometimes and trying to express the ideas in my head correctly.

First project draft

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-Pm8P9kN8EnXIptFSM7UZ3xzf_7iFicE6JuT7JtJzL8

Ideas

Genre 

• Romance/drama

Characters

• Both main characters are in their 30s
• Husband John
• Wife Kate
• No other characters

Setting

• Takes place in the 2000s
• Happens at home (living room -- kitchen)

Plot

• Husband "dies" in an airplane crash due to weather conditions
• Wife (at home) founds out via TV news
• She tries to call him but he's not answering (PM)
• Sits still for a long time, remembering all happy moments they lived through (PM)
• Goes into the kitchen to get a knife (PM)

Climax

• She kills herself the second her husband opens the door

Resolution

• Husband comes in, sees his wife dying, comes up to her
• Sits by her side till her last second of life

Pictures

1. Wife is reading a book on a sofa, while TV is on
2. News program with an airplane crash comes up
3. She puts the book away, looking at the screen
4. Takes the phone with fear on her face
5. Calls her husband multiple times, walking around the living room
6. After multiple calls and no answer she sits one the sofa with a still blank face
7. Random happy events with her husband flash in her mind
8. Stands up, starts calmly walking towards the kitchen
9. Opens the drawer and takes a knife
10. Looks at it for a second
11. Takes it with two hands and cuts herself right in the middle of the stomach
12. Husband opens the front door with a worried face
13. He notices his wife and rushes to her
14. Tries to calm her down, hugging her
15. Sits by her side
16. Black screen

Presentation

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1FlXPhb3EjK7URXuHb-kK2DpBqywRakqMbwhMft2bByw/edit?usp=sharing

Modern play

• The husband's airplane crashed due to weather conditions
• No data so he couldn't send a text
• She looks out the window and sees skyscrapers
• Tv news talking about the airplane incident

Curious incident review

Play review
By Dasha Ialovega
11/19/19
Lit and Performance IB

Tiny being in a huge world

     In this piece of writing I will be reviewing the play "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time" written by Mark Haddon. The play took place on Friday, November the 15th, and it was performed in Cheshire Academy's black box theatre.
     The play is about an autistic 15-year-old boy named Christopher, who is trying to solve a mystery behind the murder of his neighbor's dog called Wellington. At the beginning of the play, Christopher's father, Ed, tells him that his mother, Judy, died due a heart attack, but during Christopher's investigation into Wellington's murder, he finds the letters his mother wrote to him in his father's bedroom, which would then open Christopher's eyes on the situation. Later on, he runs away to London, where Judy lives with her new partner, Roger.
     The choices on the staging made by the production were extremely effective. For example, the scene where Christopher was on his way to London and he had to enter the train, Amelia (the actress) stepped over the LED lights line to the "outer area" of the stage. The entire space was used thoroughly and every character's positioning was thought through very carefully. The actors were not standing in the same place the entire time but were moving around and using the space wisely.
     The color scheme selected for the performance was kind of dark and pale. Most actors were wearing clothes that were mostly cold colores, which did not create a happy and friendly atmosphere in the play but instead, it helped set the most suitable mood for a dramatic play. Besides, each actor wore a costume that represented their character and helped the audience distinguish between the characters better. For example, Christopher's father wore heavy boots and denim jeans which helped the viewers understand that it was Ed, and this selection of clothes also helped create the correct image of the character. The carefully controlled lightning helped to identify the key character of each scene.
     The most important characters - Christopher, Judy, Ed, and Shiovan - were easy to recognize due to their elements of clothing and also their positioning on the stage, as they were usually the ones the audience could see the most.
     The directors' intention for this piece was to make it feel more realistic and in some way relatable to the viewers. However, the darkness of the play was also emphasized by the directors in order to make the performance more "extreme" and therefore more interesting and unusual.
     The most memorable moment to me was when Christopher found the letters from his mother hidden in Ed's room. This is because the emotion he felt at that moment was very clear and it felt real due to Amelia's acting. It was a turning point in the play and I empathized with the main character the most in this exact scene due to extreme emotion.
     The best actor in the play was Willjam Lemping who played Christopher's dad, Ed. He felt very natural and therefore believable. First of all, he looked older than other actors and his physical features like height made him more suitable for this role as well. Furthermore, his acting skills were remarkable. He used his voice effectively which helped him seem very emotional. An example of this was when Ed was telling his son to stop investigating the incident and he lost control over his emotions, yelling at Christopher. Also, his gestures were highly appropriate and felt quite realistic. Therefore, Willjam was my favorite actor in Friday's play.
     In conclusion, I wouldn't say that I liked the performance, but it was not terrible either. I do not enjoy any kind of drama whether it is a play or a movie, but looking at the acting side of this play I can say that it was extremely good for a high school play. The audience seemed to enjoy it as I could hear gasps at tense moments and laughter when there was a joke. Finally, this play opened my eyes to how imperfect our world is, but no matter what we keep on going, hoping for a better future.

Curious incident performance

https://youtu.be/xZRudVOJ38c

Drama notes pt2

• The end of the play
• Ed tries to say sorry but Christopher is negative about it
• Ed buys his son a puppy (Sandy) to apologize
• Christopher solved the mystery behind the dog's murder and found his mom
• Turned his book into a play
• Christopher wants to tell how he solved the math problem but Siobhan doesn't let him before the curtains are closed
• Christopher now lives with his mother in a "room" (dormitory)
• Siobhan refuses Christopher's request to live with her

Drama notes

1. Characters

Christopher

• A controversial character
• Says mean things unintentionally due to autism
• Thinks very logically

Policeman

• Follows the rules 
• Christopher's behavior seemed arrogant due to not knowing about his autism
• Patient in the beginning and loses his temper towards the end of conversation

Mrs. Alexander 

• A very nice lady
• Old and deaf
• Doesn't act any different with Christopher although he is autistic

Ed (father)

• Patient
• Tells Christopher that his mother is dead (she is not)
  

Judy (mother)

• Is thought to be dead in the beginning but then it appears she is not
• Writes letters to Christopher
• Inpatient
• Thinks she is a bad mother

2. Theme

Pretty dark with a bit of humor. A lot of moments where the viewers feel mental pressure.

3. Plot 

 The story is about an autistic teenager trying to solve the mystery of a dog's murder. It shows many sides of life from the perspective of an autistic kid and his daily interactions with others (mostly adults).

4. Staging 

The play takes place in a black box so that the audience feels more close to the actors and they emphasize with the characters more.

Poetry unit beginning

9/23

Introduction to poetry

• The idea of the personalized poem is unusual and therefore interesting
• Talks about the poem being an object that you can feel and touch
• The line "or walk inside the poem’s room and feel the walls for a light switch." caught my eye
• The emotion of the poem is calmness

Carpe Diem

• The idea of the poem being written for the author's daughter and the author herself is very unique
• The author is writing the poem as a reminder of self-care and remembering their ancestors
• The line that caught my attention is "there is little lasting joy in things done
  only for gold or fame"
• The emotion of the poem is caring, calmness

"Quiz"

Poem performances reflection
By Dasha Ialovega
01/11/19
Lit and Performance IB

The first poem performance I have chosen is Mother to Son by Amy, Cole, and Percy. The group decided to include every single word of the poem in the performance, so the main focus was representing the words and their meaning in real-life action. Therefore, there was no big difference from the original poem. They emphasized acting out the lyrics, as viewing the poem, rather than just reading it, has a much stronger effect on the audience. The poem is about a mother talking to her son about how difficult life is, but no matter how hard it is, he should never give up. The group had a narrator that was reading the poem out loud, and a mother and a son acting out the poem's meaning. This triggered a stronger viewers' emotion compared to the emotion they felt just by seeing the poem on the screen, so in this case, the group was quite successful.

The second poem performance I have selected is I, Too by Abraham, Johnathan, and Zach. At the beginning of the poem, the author seemed to be angry and upset about their position in society and how African-Americans were treated. Although the poet was frustrated, they still had hope and believed that one day the African-Americans would be accepted and welcomed by society. Towards the end of the poem the acceptance they sought started appearing, to finally result in them being treated equally and the author speaking with relief about being welcomed in society. The actors included all the lyrics in the poem in their performance, and therefore they decided to emphasize the sign-language in order to link their actions with the words and strengthen the influence of the lyrics on the audience. The handshake they did implies the way different races started viewing each other, in this case, it is everyone being equal. They did a live-action of the poem so there was nothing extremely different from the text, but seeing the lyrics in the real world had a way stronger effect on the viewers.

Poem performance on music

https://youtu.be/c0jj0UApimQ
Dasha, Mike

Class performance preparation

• We are talking about music creation and how it creates us. The reason we are doing this is to emphasize the importance of it in our lives.
• We will highlight the most important lines in the poem, excluding unnecessary detail.

Pom responce

Chosen poem response
By Dasha Ialovega
10/26/19Lit and Performance IB

When I first read the poem The Everyday Enchantment of Music I thought it was just another ordinary poem talking about one's tragic heartbreak. I was a bit surprised about the fact that there is only one big stanza in this poem and I also did not expect to encounter so many metaphors in such a short piece of writing, but there was nothing else so special about it. Or so I thought.

To be honest, I did not understand the meaning and the purpose of this poem at very first sight, but after reading it over and over again and trying to understand the real meaning I realized that the poem had much more to it than just a dull "heartbreak story". What I understood in the process of digging into the meaning, was that there is a full story being told in just one paragraph. The main character of the poem is music, however, there are multiple figures other than music appearing in the text. Also, I noticed that the author talks about how music takes an important part in our lives.

What I like about this poem is that it tells a whole story in just one short stanza. It doesn't take up loads of pages filled with unnecessary detail, but it tells what has to be told using different metaphors. I would rather read something short but meaningful and not spend a lot of time reading each and every tiny detail in a long poem, so this writing was pleasant to read. Also, I love the author's idea of "summarising" his story. The way he links different and in some way random events together shows that he thought through every word before putting it on paper.

There are several questions that I would like to ask the poet: 

What made you write the poem in the chosen style, putting all the thoughts in just one stanza?

Why did you focus on using metaphors and describing something that was happening on the other side of the city, rather than something that was happening right in front of you at that time?

What influenced your choice of transforming your ideas into long sentences, but not short and in somewhat way more effective short sentences?

Why did you decide to express your feelings in such an abstract way?

Poem notes

1st poem is I, Too by Langston Hughes

• The poem talks about how a black person is discriminated but in the end, racism is broken
• The tone is the "strength"
• Repetition of "I am America"

2nd poem is Eating poetry 

• Kind of dark
• Unusual
• Repetition of "I" and "The"

3rd poem is The Everyday Enchantment of Music

• Talks about heartbreak
• Metaphors, personalization
• Only one stanza

Figurative language

• Simile
  My twin runs just like Usain Bolt
• Metaphor
  The first twin stood up 
• Personification
  The sock’s twin disappeared from the box
• Hyperbole Her twin is as tall as the Eiffel tower
• Onomatopoeia
  The twins’ laughter sounds like barking
• Alliteration The twin tossed the tangled thread to the teacher
• Assonance
• Consonance

Final draft reflection

• I think my final draft turned out to be better than I expected, but I still feel like I could've done even better.
• I worked more on adding detail to the analysis, and also putting in more quotes to make the text more interesting.
• The easy part was finding the "hidden meaning" in-between the lines, but the difficulty of this assignment was actually trying to explain what the poem is trying to tell the readers by those "hidden meanings".
• My strengths in this essay are the great use of detail and complete explanation of the poem's under-surface meanings, but the weakness is that it appears to be a bit repetitive.
• If I had more time, I would totally spend it on improving my essay.
• I think I will get the top points on 1) Paragraphs, 2) Word count, and 3) Song title in quotation marks
• I feel like I will lose points on 1) Original ideas, 2) Essay clarity, and 3) Sentence lengths variety.

Final draft

Poem analysis final draft
By Dasha Ialovega
10/11/19
Lit and Performance IB

Heartbreak acceptance

      The poem "Supermarket Flowers" by Ed Sheeran combines two completely different feelings in it. At a very first glance, it seems like the whole text is about sadness brought by the loss of an important person, but if you take a better look at it and read in between the lines, the whole new meaning of the words opens up.
      Ask anyone in the entire universe, how would they feel if their loved one died, and they would give you an answer without hesitation: extremely sad or even depressed. Not so many people can handle such an unbearable situation properly, but the writer proves to us that he is different from others. 
      "A heart that's broken is the heart that's been loved". Just by reading this line, you can sense the pure strength in his spirit. This is because far not everyone can say such a meaningful thing when their heart is torn apart, but he is facing the tragic truth with his head held high, and this appears to be the reason why he is able to say this deep sentence filled with strong emotion. Personally, I am not so sure I would be able to say anything like that if I was him, and this is just because the only thing I would probably do is cry my eyes out.  
      The line "And when God takes you back we'll say Hallelujah" suggests that he has no sorrows about the past and that now he is finally ready to let his mom go up into the sky. In this case acceptance of the fact that the dearest person in the author's life is gone goes well along with the expressed sadness. It seems like the two feelings are conflicting, but the poem proves different.
      In addition, the line "I fluffed the pillows, made the bed, stuck the chairs up" shows how much he cared for his mother, suggesting that the loss hurt him way more than anyone else in this situation. Further in the poem, he mentions that the tear rolled from his eye, and this clearly shows that the mental pain triggered by the death of the closest person in the world cannot be avoided by anyone, even by such a strong person like him. 
       Although he is feeling down, he has accepted the fact that his precious parent no longer exists in this world. "Spread your wings as you go" - this is what the writer says to his beloved mother, implying that she was a great woman that deserves to be an angel and live in Heaven. Furthermore, such respect and love towards someone show that she was truly a marvelous person, as not all parents are considered to be saint by their children. 
      Finally, the line "I'll sing Hallelujah" proves that although the poet is truly sad, he accepted the brutal reality. In conclusion, the hidden meaning inside the poem is that the love towards his parent will never be gone and that he appreciates everything his mother has done for him. 

Poem analysis 1st draft

The poem "Supermarket flowers" by Ed Sheeran combines two different feelings in it. At a first glance, it seems that the whole text is about sadness brought by the loss of an important person, but if you take a better look at it and read in between the lines, the whole new meaning of the words opens up.

Ask anyone how would they feel if their loved one died, and they would give you an answer without hesitation: sad or depressed. Not many people are able to handle such heartbreaking situation properly, but the author shows us that he is different. Only by reading the poem, you can feel how strong his soul is.

Although he is feeling down, he accepted the fact that his mother no longer exists in this world. It seems like the two feelings are almost opposite, but the poem proves different. 

Song/poem reflection

The overall tone of the poem is acceptance and sadness. It makes me emotional. This poem’s overall message is that the author’s mother was a great woman and he loved her, but now she is gone.

The few most important lines in the poem are “You were an angel in the shape of my mum”, “Spread your wings as you go” and “And I know that when God took you back he said Hallelujah”. I like this poem because it feels very honest and deep, and my favourite lines are “And I know that when God took you back he said Hallelujah”, “A life with love is a life that's been lived” and “A heart that's broken is a heart that's been loved”.

A song with an interesting meaning

Supermarket flowers

I took the supermarket flowers from the windowsill

I threw the day old tea from the cup

Packed up the photo album Matthew had made

Memories of a life that's been loved

Took the get well soon cards and stuffed animals

Poured the old ginger beer down the sink

Dad always told me, "don't you cry when you're down"

But mum, there's a tear every time that I blink

Oh I'm in pieces, it's tearing me up, but I know

A heart that's broken is a heart that's been loved

So I'll sing Hallelujah

You were an angel in the shape of my mum

When I fell down you'd be there holding me up

Spread your wings as you go

And when God takes you back we'll say Hallelujah

You're home

I fluffed the pillows, made the beds, stacked the chairs up

Folded your nightgowns neatly in a case

John says he'd drive then put his hand on my cheek

And wiped a tear from the side of my face

I hope that I see the world as you did cause I know

A life with love is a life that's been lived

So I'll sing Hallelujah

You were an angel in the shape of my mum

When I fell down you'd be there holding me up

Spread your wings as you go

And when God takes you back we'll say Hallelujah

You're home

Hallelujah

You were an angel in the shape of my mum

You got to see the person that I have become

Spread your wings

And I know that when God took you back he said Hallelujah

You're home

Final poem performance

https://youtu.be/wM1LQiyziXc - the link

Personally, the lines were quite easy to memorise as we've read and heard them many times in the class, so I didn't mess up any of the lines during the performance.

Our group performance was interesting to watch because the music and our emotions created an atmosphere where the audience could easily sympathise with our feelings.

Overall, the class did a great job at planning and performing (except for one group ((: ).

Poem performance

https://youtu.be/YuZ6T_X2hIo

(1st draft)

In-class Blog Post

The first line that I've chosen is "enter the world refreshed by the hope". I've chosen this exact piece of the poem because I think the advise within it is pretty useful in the everyday life.
One of the best and most influencing sentences is "Remember, there is a little lasting joy in things done for gold or fame". This phrase is very relatable and encouraging.
Then goes "Without love your spirit will be a flower picked without purpose and thrown on the ground to be trampled by anyone." This line is my favourite as it has a deep meaning to it.

Class notes on poems

- Emotion

- “Deeper meaning”

- Rhyme/pattern/repetition

- Short/description of smt(or event)

- “Snapshot” -- capture a moment

- Rhythm/beat/meter

- 5 senses - visualise/feeling (show instead of tell/be in moment)

- MUSIC

- Pre-written language -- oral tradition - family, tradition, culture, history -- easier to remember

My first monologue

https://youtu.be/TubcVUMUlh8 - my monologue

- I had a good eye contact with the camera:) And I also didn't move around the stage a lot.
- I need to work more on my stage voice and controlling my emotions.
- Others' performances were great due to their acting skills, high confidence and good stage voice.
- In my opinion we need to work on boosting our confidence and improving our acting skills/

Test

I’ve had tea and a granola bar for breakfast:)