I NEED TO SEE THE DR !!!!!!

In the beginning (as shown in my last blog) I was a little frustrated with my role, but after having a chat with Macey I am very glad that I have recieved what I have. It gives me a chance to show the moderator my ability to develop very different characters from one-another.
I was having a lot of trouble developing my GP character (kinda still am) but I now have some ground info on her. I am going to try base my character on Cameron from House, despite the fact that she is a Dr and knows that she has to be distant from her patients she still feels like she is connected in some way. This is how I have to feel when communicating with the Girl. I am considering the fact that my character would have once had a body issue whether it was bulimia or just purely thought that she was fat and heard a voice that reassured her that she was (just like the Girl).
We finally started to do my GP scene and it helped alot to actually get to act it out rather than just reading it to myself. I learn lines and cues much better and faster when I am actually acting it out. I knew it was going to be hard to ignore Maddy because she is there and talking but I under-estimated HOW hard it would be. Over time with more rehearsals I will be able to ignore her (sorry Maddy :'( lol)
It has really started to hit that we really don't have very long left before we have to perform and we haven't done very much. We are still putting the seating together which we need to do the seating plan which needs to be done to do the tickets. Everything is connected in someway. I am looking forward to seeing everything up and looking like a circus tent and especially getting the costumes all together.

:'( ThOuGhTs N fEeLiNgS :)

It's been a while since I last posted, I was just too busy over the holidays...whoops !
hmm where to start, oh our final cast list;

When we received our final cast list we were separated into 2 groups, some people were taken out into the hall and the others were left in the classroom. Everyone inside knew that the people out in the hall were getting the main parts, it was kinda obvious. After a long time of waiting we were all starting to get impatient and started to think that it was very rude to tell them first and leave us out. We knew it wasn't their fault but we were still rather angry. Our suspicions were shown to be true when all of the people from the hall came in with smiles on their faces. We were then told to all go and sit in our own little spots with a pen and paper because all of the rolls were going to be told to the class, and we needed to write down what we thought about the final cast list.
I had already made a mock cast list in my head and to my surprise I was pretty much right. I knew Jenna would get the girl, even though I really wanted that role, I am glad she got it because she was very good in her audition. I am very glad Luke got he ringmaster because he will be excellent.
However when I found out that I was the GP I was rather upset, especially because I already knew that Ally had already been offered that role and turned it down to be costume designer.
Acouple of days after we got our roles I came to terms with having that and many other little characters. I'm ok with it now, because I have my own challenge at making each of the characters that I was given believable and different from one-another.

Yesterday in class I spoke to Ally about what she thought the GP would wear. It is professional yet stylish.
Pin-stripped suit pants, pointy black heels, a (white) 3/4 sleeve shirt and either a tight cardigan or suit blazer, I have also encorporated really little reading glasses and a stethescope. I am very lucky to have all of these already except the glasses and the stethescope, but they wont be hard to get my hands on.

Ok thats all I have for now
kisses
Kiah

&#&#~Character~#&#&

After the class's short run through of the play so far I was thinking about the characters that I would like to be considered for.

~The Voice - I believe that I could bring a good interpretation of what I see the Voice as into the character. I can move my body to make the Voice seem sinister or friendly depending on the scene.
~The Girl - After reading about anorexia and visiting the pro-ana sites I feel that I would love to take on the challenge of having to put myself in the mindset of the Girl.
or
~One of the clowns (I can't remember their names at this moment) - I'm not sure which one is which but I reckon that being one of the clowns would be really fun. They get to move around alot and their actions are really over-exaggerated and depending on how the character is developed the costume would be fun and bright or a little bit weird.

I hope that I have shown myself enough in class to be considered for one of these roles.

xxx
Kiah

o0o0o~Mirror*Mirror~o0o0o

I have a few ideas for what I could see done with our interpretation of 'Mirror, Mirror' ...

Have brightly coloured materials hanging from the ceiling, creating the feeling of a circus tent

Our promotional posters could be in the form of a circus poster, with a group tableau (character tableau), as the front picture

I see the 'Voice' as a strong character, who is heard only by the girl despite the fact that she is always on stage.

In the scenes where the 'Voice' is yelling rudely at the 'Girl', I see her being right up in her face and when the 'Voice' is abusing the mum I see her being really close to her aswell, this will be a challenge for the girl that plays the mum because she will need great restraint to ignore the 'Voice'

In the interval it would be really good to have all of the circus people and the ringmaster serving the people things that you can find at a circus eg. Popcorn, Fairyfloss, choc-top ice creams (?) and other things that are associated with circus'

The Ballet Dancer could be in a brightly coloured tu-tu with shiny shoes, the Ringmaster could have a large black top-hat and a long red jacket, wearing trousers and a white shirt, oh and don't forget the black boots!

The 'Voice' could be wearing very stereotypical clothes that you see 'popular' , skinny girls (in the movies) wearing. And the 'Girl' could contrast this by trying to wear bits and pieces of these clothing but also wearing larger items to cover up her body.

These are just a few ideas that I hav thought of, if you like them or have any more that I could included please comment.

????Jet`of `Blood????

"This Experience will Change your Life"

Yes the question marks in the title are required, because that is the feeling you have while you are leaving this play, (unlike miss mace who was just thinking "Oh My God I just landed on a guy") "what the hell just happened?" .. "why is the baby now humping the priest?" .. "why did the nanny/nurse slap the dude with the phone?" .. "was that staged?" ... however even with all these questions rushing through your mind the overwhelming thought of "THAT WAS FANTASTIC" comes forward. I can't tell you why it was fantastic because it really is a play that would would need to see with your very own eyes to even get the slightest concept of of it was about.

When Miss Mace explained what she had seen she greatly underplayed the 'sex scene' they were a hell of a lot closer than she said. They were touching ... well the girl had her legs on the BABY'S (yes the baby's) shoulders and he was 'fisting' her with the hand that he happened to have the cheese greater on (OUCH!!!!).

The sound that was used was amazing, we still don't know whether the characters were miced in different places on there bodies, or whether different props were miced, or whether microphones were placed in different spots on the floor with very good pick up or whether they just had FANTASTIC cues and the echos of the voices and the different noises that were made were all on cd (pre-recorded).

The music that was used in conjunction to what was happening on stage was excellent. It was very eerie and VERY loud. Blood curdling screams were a popular sound that was played and at one point it was soo loud that Bec covered her ears and I grimaced my face up cause it hurt my poor ears (didn't help that were very close to the speakers lol).

There were so many things that happened that no-one was expecting, like the dolls dropping from the ceiling right in front of where me, bec and holly were sitting and then the apricots (i think) on the poor man. Oh and lets not forget the most scary part !!! Half way through the play all the play ALL the house lights came on and the man that played Death stepped out of the stage and started to stare through the audience and guess where he happened to STOP looking .. AT ME AND BEC. I have never sat so tense in my seat in my whole life. He was staring straight at us and then he began to walk forward towards us, by the way we were in the second row with no-one in front of us basically making us front row!!! But thank god before he made it to touching distance the 'wife' screamed and he whipped around ... I think the faces on mine and becs faces would have been priceless.

Ok well i think this blog is long enough so i'm gonna stop writing here. I hope this gave you some idea of this play, despite the fact that you really need to have seen it to truely understand and gain a full appreciation of absurdist plays. I know that I now have a better appreciation of them and believe that you need to be very confident to be apart of one .. because not many people would want to scrape baked beans on toast over their feet ..

"I Love You, and Everything is Beautiful"
Kiah

```Pro-Ana```

I thought I'd give 'Pro-Ana' sites a look too see if there were still any accessible on Google .. and guess what I found http://www.43things.com/things/entries/834926?start_at=21 and http://community.livejournal.com/proanorexia/ ... when I read this, I was horrified at how many girls were righting in complaining about their weight, asking about fasting tips and saying that they were fat.
I would never be able to do what they are doing, I like food too much.

They all talk about the 2468 diet, I tried to look it up but every site re-directs me to forums where girls are talking about being on it. If any 1 looks it up and finds it let me know .. (don't worry i don't want to go on it)

The girls that are commenting are in such a mind set that they are continually telling themselves that they are fat and that no1 will ever like them because of their weight. They believe this completely, many of them talk about having friends trying to help them out but they say that they don't need the help cause they are doing the right thing however they ask each other for help cause they have 'constant hunger pains, or cravings'.

Reading these sites has given me a greater understanding of what a person with anorexia/bulimia thinks about and how they feel about their bodies. I believe this has helped me with 'Mirror, Mirror'.

/~\ JeT oF BlooD /~\

~~~Jet of Blood~~~

A young man falls asleep and wakes to find himself in the surreal landscape of his subconscious. In this sometimes nightmarish world he embarks on a quest for the unknowable, meeting a procession of eccentric characters along the way who confront him with his deepest fears. Jet of Blood is the story of Everyman's journey towards self-realisation.

This Sunday Holly, Bec, Phoebe and myself are going to see 'Jet of Blood', the play that Miss Mace got FREE tickets to go and see. When she returned to school after seeing it she was amazed at how bizarre it was yet how amazing it was with the use of lighting, set and physical theatre.

I have discussed with them to see if they were going to review it, I would like to because we were told that it would be a great play to review however, it is also really hard to take notes on (apparently), this serves as a problem. Despite this I am going to take a note pad, at risk of looking like an idiot amongst people who are just watching it for fun and TRY to write what I can.

I am disappointed that Ally cannot attend with us, she was really interested in going with us.

Desepite this I CAN"T WAIT !!!! I haven't seen a proper play for a long time (not with school).

~*KiAh*~

<~*MimE & MoveMenT*~>

This week we have been focusing on movement. 'Mirror, Mirror' has a very big focal point on movement, because the setting is the inside of a circus the characters have to be able to move their bodies in different ways.

We were separated in pairs and were asked to mirror each others movements. You needed a great deal of focus to complete this task successfully. We needed to use our peripheral vision to watch what our partner was doing but also needed to mirror their movements at the same time. This was difficult to do especially if the partners were of different heights. We were then spilt off into different sex partners and were played music, we were asked to 'go with the music' and move to how it made us feel, we were also given colours and had to change our movements to the different colours and how they made us feel. This was interesting because when you looked around you could see that every group was almost doing the same movement, especially for red, grey and magenta.
We then moved into larger groups and were played the music once again. It was eerie, confusing music and everyone that was in my group all had similar ideas. We were all pulling at our hair and scraping at the floor. We then watched each of the groups dance. I thought that this was a really good thing to watch because it showed us how different people interpreted different things within the music.

Mirror, Mirror sounds like it has alot of movement within it, like the voice, that character has to move around mysteriously and in lots of different positions, on the floor (creeping), stretched out etc.


I can't wait until we get the books so that we can start reading through it as a class and then get cast, even though I am very nervous about the casting!


kisses
Kiah

SyNoPsIs

I have managed to find a synopsis for the three potential yr 12 Drama plays.

Mirror, Mirror

'Mirror, mirror on the wall…’ What is it like not to trust your own reflection?
Mirror, Mirror explores the inner life of a girl with an eating disorder and the impact this has on those around her. This thought-provoking play tackles a sensitive issue in a theatrically dynamic way. It invites audiences into the topsy-turvy world of a circus where everything is smoke and mirrors and nothing is as it seems. The play is full of strong visual images and powerful dialogue, as well as moments of comedy.It incorporates a wide range of performance, dance and music styles – from clowning to soliloquies, from ballet to belly dancing and from pop to tribal drumming.

Cloudstreet
A sprawling stage adaptation of Tim Winton's enormously successful novel of the same name. A huge success at the 1998 Sydney & Perth festivals, the story follows the fluctuating fortunes of two families who inhabit a rambling old house in Perth. Both the novel and stage adaptation have proven to be major works and have each left an indelible mark on the Australian arts scene.

Rhinoceros
Berenger - an average citizen in a nameless French city - is not interested in the fact that rhinoceros are on the loose. This causes him to quarrel with his friend Jean and his attractive secretary Daisy outside a grocer's shop. The argument continues with many locals joining in - these include the grocer and his wife, a waitress and a housewife, a cafe owner, an old gentleman, a waitress and a logician. The group try to reason the events that are happening around them. The results are understandably chaotic. In the local government office where Berenger works he witnesses that the staff are gradually turning into rhinoceros. Eventually Berenger finds out that Daisy and he are the only human beings left. To his surprise Daisy then too turns into a rhinoceros. Berenger concludes he will then fight against all the rhinoceros...

I feel that 'Mirror, Mirror' would be a far better play to do, with all of the colours of the circus and the messages that we can portray could make people think about eating disorders in more depth, that there is someone behind the mask that is portray by someone that has an eating disorder. I was very much for 'Cloudstreet' when we only had the two to choose from however when Miss Mace mentioned this I immediately changed my mind. It sounded fantastic, it has strong messages, characters that sound interesting and that we could develop historys and personalitys for and ti encorporated the fairytale aspect that many of us wanted.

I am hoping that this will be the play chosen.

However I am very worried about the fact that we are being cast and do not have an opportunity to audition. This means that we have to over-contribute in class if we want to be considered for a bigger role. As Ally said if we are not very good at improv it will be harder to show our ability because our performance will not be as strong in improv whereas we might do really well with structure, script and may be able to develop a very clear character.

I can't wait to find out what play we are doing and what I get.

Kiah

xoxo

~*StaRtInG jAcK dAvIs*~

During the last week we were meant to read both 'Dreamers' and 'Honeyspot'. We all found it very hard to read 'Dreamers' because of the difficulty in understanding the Aboriginal terms that are used, plus it was very hard to get into (boring)!!! 'Honeyspot' on the other-hand was a lovely story about overcoming racism and forming new friendships, also it was easy to read because the English translation was written next to the Aboriginal words.


However we started to act out 'Dreamers' the other day, and it now makes more sense. I can't speak for other people but I know that I am enjoying atually watching it get performed (even if it is performed pretty badly). FLAGON. (sorry couldn't resist). We are all working hard writing notes down to help us with our essay (which i'm not looking forward to doing - but i'll do it don't worry). We are working better as a group now that we have a focus task of performing 'Dreamers' it is good to see everyone working together.
p.s Kyle is a great Worru. Delivers the lines excellenty

talk to you's later

kisses

Kiah

xoxo

FiRsT wEeK oF dRaMa

Hey, guess wat! you've found your way to the fabulous ~*kiah*~ page *woot* hope you hav fun reading about my time and of course my fellow class mates time during 2007 Drama Studies.

Being the first week of Drama in year 12 I think our new group was a bit aprehensive to completely mingle. We all had our own little groups which we had made from last year, but once we started some team building games *Zip, Zap, Zop* we began to talk.
However I feel that there was a person that excluded themselves from thegroup and chose to do their own thing rather than work as a group.

I am really excited about this blog idea, it is a fun adaption to the drama journal. Seeing as most of the students spend quite alot of their time on the internet it will be more tempting to write a blog then open a book and write.

I also can't wait to find out what Ms. Mace decides to choose for our yr 12 production. I hope it will be as good as 'Alice in Wonderland' was. Even though I am going to be very busy this year with the musical, tafe and general yr 12 I can't wait to get started.

kisses

Kiah

xoxox