Monday, 5 June 2006

 ‘Theatre is alive… theatre is continually growing…’ [1]

 A wonderful first performance, however some minor hiccups. I missed a cue, and appeared on stage a little late. It was a simple mistake, and hardly noticed, but still a mistake. I also stumbled over a couple of lines, but used the buzzing to hide the errors. All in all it was a great night, with great feedback and an impressive crowd.

 The first thing to improve for the rest of the week would be to pay attention. Basic cues missed by myself and others slow down the production, and created an unprofessional product. It was, however, a great night, with brilliant audience reactions and interaction. Just in case you’re wondering, this is why I’m doing this unit again!!! The rewarding nature of the audience and the unit is such a buzz.

 

[1] Kevin Spacey on Parkinson, broadcast on the Australian Broadcast Corporation, on the 22^nd of April, 2006

 

 

 

Tuesday, 6 June 2006

 Pierrot’s got a gun!

 The first two school performances went off fairly well today. The intensity of the audience’s interaction and laughter shifted from each performance, and is impossible to predict. One thing that The Arts can offer is an arena for learning by doing, reading or viewing. It really does make it an unusual area to assess its impact on a students learning, but it is there. Students may not register a response to seeing the play at all, others may discuss it straight away and the rest are somewhere in-between. The Arts enables students to think beyond what they know, and indeed, how to think.

 Once again, perhaps why I have some basic issues with exams. If viewing Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences (1993), an English exam (for example) only tests Linguistic Intelligence, and perhaps some basic Logical Intelligences could be met. Drama is great because it meets so much more. One activity such as an improvisational performance meets both Verbal and Logic Intelligences, but in addition, can also meet Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, Body-Kinesthetic, and Rhythmic Intelligences. As opposed to one exam, one drama activity can achieve three times the variety of learning modes, and therefore could achieve a greater depth of learning.

 

 

 

Wednesday, 7 June 2006

 ‘The power of the imagination as a practiced skill must not be overlooked or lost in learning. The arts, as a teaching methodology, enable students to practice those skills’ [1]

 It’s time to display my kids drawings for this year. This is one of my favourite activities to do with the kids, namely, asking them to predict what some of the characters may look like on the stage based on basic semiotic interpretations of words. This year is perhaps the most complex approach to this particular activity, however the kids seemed to love it, as this was the lead up to their third consecutive Children’s Theatre production. Furthermore, each year my kids drawing abilities and thought processes are visibly improving, and as a result, their responses are well thought through.

 As with all activities that I’ve repeated this year, the kids drawings are connected with educational outcomes. The activity is directly linked to Arts Response, this approach however is asking them to predict the costumes, presentation and overall look of characters based on simple verbal cues (e.g. an Aussie fly). Using a Bloom’s Taxonomy approach, the kids were asked to draw how they believed a fairy and a goblin(s) would look in the play. Then I combined concepts together such as a cricket band, and an Aussie fly; which by the way, all the kids knew this was going to be my character. They were then asked to draw a scene that showed the insects (consisting of a Mother bee, her son, a ladybird and the daughter of the Aussie fly) and then a scene of circus creatures (consisting of a ringmaster, a fortune teller, a trapeze artist, a sad clown, a talented performer and a circus performer in love).  Finally, the kids were enticed with a mystery drawing, where they were asked to complete a picture based on one word… Snottygobble! What is it?

 Firstly, I started with my best friend’s son, Thomas, who is eight years old. For his fairies, Thomas’ picture emphasises their wings and the objects that they carry; in this case a wand and magic dust. The goblin is all warty, and the red pencil mark is the blood from the last human he just finished eating… yeah! For the cricket band, a consistency of costumes, but a variation on properties seemed rather important. Thomas found each cricket needed to look the same but hold a different instrument. For the Aussie fly, Thomas based his drawing of a fly on the image that he recently saw in a book; therefore it is based more on the fly as opposed to how it would look on stage. The stubble in this example is Thomas’ identification of the ‘Australianness’ of the character. When asked to draw how he though I would look on stage, Thomas drew a similar ‘flying’ character, however he emphasised the human body, and again repeated the stubble on the chin. An additional drawing from Thomas asked him to draw an Aussie fairy, for this the importance was, as he calls it, the ‘ausie bush’. The setting, as highlighted through Lindsay Lloyd’s backdrops, not only creates an environment for the character to exist in, but from Thomas’ correct prediction, the setting will connote information about who they are.

 

 

For the group scenes, Thomas looked at the individual insects, as opposed to how they worked together. The bees are carrying honey pots and buzzing, however the three young characters are grouped together. The circus scene is perhaps the cleverest of Thomas’ drawings as he has included each of the characters in the scene and even explained their relationships with each other based on the small amount of detail given. The performer is ‘in love’ because they have ‘fallen’ for the trapeze artist, and the clown is sad because the fortune teller has predicted that they will die in a ‘hit and run’ car accident (he truly has a great imagination, albeit slightly sadistic). Thomas has combined all the characters together to collectively tell a story. Thomas’ Snottygobble lives in a swamp, has different colours of skin all over and has blue hair. Perhaps, like the Aussie fairy, Thomas believes that a Snottygobble will be appropriately defined by their environment.

 

Bella is Thomas’ sister, she is six years old. Bella’s fairy was very simple, but lovely. A pretty dress and love hearts on wings being the vital parts of her costume. The goblin was of course opposite to this, requiring a slimy looking face, big ears and warts all over. Ugly eels and the word ‘evil’ also accompany the picture. For the cricket band, Bella’s emphasis was on the ‘dome’ stage, and then the crickets themselves. Each cricket appears to be similar, yet like Thomas’, plays different instruments. For the Aussie fly, the focus of Bella’s picture was on the wings and body to connote the fly, and the Australian flag was included to communicate ‘Aussie’.  Bella also completed an Aussie fairy, and like Thomas, communicated a need to combine the character and their ‘Aussie’ environment. In addition, Bella completed a Queen and King fairy picture, which in her example did not communicate their setting, rather their costumes (crowns) and relationships with others (the King, Queen, Prince and Princess)

 

 

Bella’s insects are all of the same size, yet demonstrate characteristics of both the insect and what the actor may look like when they wear the costume. The daughter fly, for instance, focuses on a full length body suit that includes arms and legs, but also displays the female actor’s face and hair. For the circus people, Bella drew most of the characters separately, yet highlighted a similarity of the ‘group’ as all characters were dressed the same way. To finish on, Bella’s Snottygobble ‘uncannily’ wears rags and is dirty. Like her Aussie fairy, the Snottygobble is identified by their environment, the swamp.

 

My daughter Jessica, is only three, but is making some great leaps in her drawing talent and understanding of concepts. Her fairy picture shows the importance of wings to define a character, and her goblin has ‘scary’ long fingers. Jessica’s ladybird, while not exactly resembling the insect, rather communicated her understanding that an actor would be playing the part, an understanding that I thought was quite complex. Her bee had to have a ‘sting’ and her Snottygobble (for some reason) was on the bus.

 

Finally to my son Hayden, who is the same age as Thomas. For most of Hayden’s pictures, he has used a bubble to communicate the name of the character, and in some cases, where they were. Hayden’s fairy relies on the image of wings that are clearly properties, as the wings are held on with straps, and the fairy holds a colourful wand. His goblin is defined by warts and blackened pieces of flesh, as well as the environment in which they exist. The cricket band is slightly different from the other kids drawings as Hayden has made the crickets all look the same, however cleverly understands that crickets makes their own ‘music’. Besides emphasising their stage, Hayden’s musical crickets are connoted as a result of rubbing their wings to make noise. Hayden’s Aussie fly is a masterpiece, relying on the image of myself as a fly, set in front of the Australian flag… very cool.

 

 

For the insects, the relationship of size is an important factor. All the younger insects are grouped together, with mother bee above. Once again, Hayden has created the whole scene like Thomas’ drawing, and has even created interactions between characters that connote particular traits given. Finally, Hayden’s Snottygobble is an ugly creature that has fiery red hair, claws on his hands and feet, is dirty and farts (sigh!) He also yells ‘Shnawalac’. All of the kids created great drawings based on the information provided to them. They were able to make predictions that actually were not that far from fact, but more importantly, communicated their understanding of the actor in the role, as opposed to the character being suggested. They were asked to predict what they would see on Saturday, and a lot of the costume ideas, set construction, properties used, and basic character presentations will actually correspond with their expectations.

 

[1] M. Goldberg (2006) Integrating the Arts: An Approach to Teaching and Learning in Multicultural and Multilingual Settings, Pearson Education: Boston, Third Edition. p. 5.

 

 

 

Thursday, 8 June 2006

 ‘What do you call a fly without wings? A walk.

 Today it was more, what do you call a fly without legs? Bluey! In the first performance today, I entered into my first scene, however slipped on stage and landed flat on my side. Such a huge stuff-up on stage has never occurred to me… EVER! I have always had back up plans for stuffed lines, or missed dialogue, but never something like this. In my head I could not stop laughing, however externally I kept full control. Apparently, which I can’t remember, I screamed out ‘Crikey’ when I hit the floor.

 I was very proud of my performance today, especially as I kept on going, even in severe pain. To not slow up the scene, I had to deliver my first line to Sarki on the floor, after that I eventually moved over to the group. As an actor it is important to have a back up plan, if there is not one in place… stay in character. I avoided ‘corpsing’ today, something I could have so easily done. The only reason I believe I continued in the scene was because (in my head) I believed the ‘accident’ happened to Bluey, and therefore he had to continue. I’m still sore now, and believe I’ll feel sore for the rest of the week.

 

Friday, 9 June 2006

 ‘…there would be no delay so he was calling on principals to say what extra resources their staff needed to smooth OBE implementation’  [1]

 At the moment, the cast and crew are maintaining focus, however it is just occurring. Eleven shows in a row are difficult, however ever year, the Friday show is the worst. On Saturday, everyone becomes revitalized at the prospect of family and friends in the audience, and also the knowledge that these are the last performances. It is a sombre note to bring up however it must be communicated that tomorrow will be the last time that these exact characters will ever exist again. Tomorrow our characters will be… I guess… dead! Not that bad really, but that’s why theatre is so great. For the whole semester we have created characters and an environment that will never exist again.

 OBE in the paper…again…however it was yesterday’s paper, I only noticed it after I reviewed the photos I took yesterday, early this morning. Who would have realised that three goblins holding up a paper were more observant than me! The front page read that ‘Teachers plot new attack on OBE’,[2] however the Alston cartoon was the most glaring for me. ‘The Holy OBE Grail’ mirrored a scene from Monty Python, where the teacher/student/parent/media army attacks the OBE’s Carpenter and Ravlich soldiers. A legless and armless Carpenter retorts to the army to ‘come back, you gutless wonders… it’s only a flesh wound’.[3]

 

[1] ‘Teachers plot new attack on OBE’, in The Western Australian, Wednesday, June 8, 2006, Front Page.

[2] ‘Teachers plot new attack on OBE’, in The Western Australian, Wednesday, June 8, 2006, Front Page.

[3] Alston’s ‘Apologies to Monty Python (and the Holy OBE Grail…)’, in The Western Australian, Wednesday, June 8, 2006, p. 20.

 

 

 

Saturday, 10 June 2006

 ‘Promoting a love affair between the student and his or her work is one of our schools’ most important aims’ [1]

 The final two performances were a great way to end the semester. Children’s Theatre offers so much to the audience, and the cast and crew. It is a real joy to everyone who takes part. Each year at Children’s Theatre has given me something new. My first year reminded me that I could act again, as well as highlighted the importance of an ensemble. Year two allowed me to develop my performance skills, as well as technological skills through the website’s construction. I think it also highlighted that my first year was not just a fluke.

 This year was all about education, specifically how I was going to teach. My aim was to understand, yet more importantly look at what I need to effectively educate and assess students. I believe, to a degree, that I still don’t know a lot about the new Outcomes Based system that I (perhaps) could have found out, however I was specifically interested in the Outcomes and Standards Framework. As a means of justifying my research this semester, my aim was to look at how I could use the OSF, not necessarily to research what it is. If the OSF is the structure that my teaching revolves around, I felt this was the more important, and valid area of research. Although I did not look into the new courses of study within this research, I feel what I investigated was still legitimate, as it was the Outcomes I was specifically focused on this semester.

 

Explore the societal fear and anxiety towards the newly introduced Outcomes and Standards Framework (OSF), and in turn, suggest and advocate the advantages of the new system. (Through workshop observations and research, I will explore, investigate and theorise suggested reasons for the societal fear towards the Outcomes and Standards Framework (OSF)).  There may not have been as much research into this area as I may have wanted, however I believe I have done a fairly good job. Initial research from websites and the library found a lot of views, as well as my most often offender (or debater’s), The Western Australian. I believe I was able to express most of the societal fears, as well as suggest (and reference) possible improvements.

Develop approaches and pedagogies for integrating drama and the new OSF. (I will construct an educational pack, detailing, exploring and suggesting approaches to meet specific outcomes and expectations presented in the OSF. In addition, I will also present proposed drafts, and construct possible lesson plans, approaches, ideas and pedagogies that, I believe, will met the requirements of the framework and could, in turn, be inaugurated in a future classroom situation).  This is (I believe) my most successful area this semester. I created many ideas, and was also able to put them into some initial drafts and plans. The concepts that I created specifically dealt with developing the language located within the OSF, and in turn, I created viable approaches with meaning and purpose. The most visible example was, of course, the Ed Pack as it demonstrated an understanding, as well as an enhancement of ideas for possible classroom use.

Extend these approaches to performing, presenting (and eventually) teaching Drama with the outcomes and expectations stated in the OSF. (I will offer both a written critique of my investigations, possible classroom deployment and my own practical/performative interpretation). It took me a while, but I finally got there. In approaching my performance, I specifically looked at how it would be assessed. By looking at evaluation criteria such as voice manipulation, use of space and characterisation, I was able to predict and demonstrate aspects of a well-rounded performance. The way I approached my performance, assumed the use of the exact criteria I would employ to assess it if I was the supervising teacher.

 As I said at the wrap-up session, there is only one reason that anyone would do this unit three times (or more). It is the support that you receive from Jenny, Darren and alike. Education should always push you to your limits, it should develop you to think beyond yourself, but most of all improve the way you approach everything. Without the support of teachers and a supportive framework, improvement could not occur.

 This is perhaps the biggest societal fear with the Outcomes Based system, as a lack of knowledge is quite destructive to the overall support networks. Until teachers (and I’m including myself in this) know exactly what they need to teach and how to assess, a positive learning environment cannot be achieved. It is paramount that the debate is resolved, as without a clear ‘universal’ understanding, it will be the students who will lose.

 

[1] Eisner, E. W. (2002) The Arts and the Creation of Mind, Yale University Press: New Haven and London. p. 196.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Below is the final activity that I completed with my kids: To view the Snottygobbles Retell...

Click on... Act One:  Part One and Part Two

Act Two: Part One and Part Two

 

This page last updated: 30th June 2006