Collaborative Learning and Working

Today we were put into our TIE groups at first I was worried that we wouldn't work well together because I don't normally talk to some of the people in my group, however after the tasks we did I'm looking forward to working with new people and listening to their opinions. 

Our first task was to create a short play as if we were in a confined are using a small space, at first it was hard to work as a group because we weren't use to each other but I think that after we felt more comfortable with each other it was a lot easier for me to talk and share my ideas. However I think there is a lot of room for improvement when it comes to working together. By becoming more comfortable with each other it will allow us to grow as actors. 

We were also given the task to use a small space and make the audience think we were in a large area.  

I found this very challenging because I didn't quite know how to achieve this however my group and I sat down for a bit and discussed different possible ways to do so. 

In the above picture our group is performing a piece in which there is a couple who lost there children in a huge cemetery on halloween and we had to use the space within the yellow lines and make it seem like we were in a huge area. After perfuming both of the tasks we sat down and discussed the different things we need to do to improve after talking with Mr. Evans I realised that we need to work a lot more collaboratively and have more group discussion. I aim to encourage other group members to express their ideas and thoughts so that we are all contributing to the performance. Also I learnt it is important to say what you feel so that when you are performing your comfortable with what you are doing.After reflecting on todays lesson I would like to try and be more creative and use my imagination more when preparing and discussing in our groups. 

In the last 15 minutes of class we were given the task to create game using the items in the picture bellow. 

I think this activity made us work more collaboratively with each other, we all contributed towards the game and gave different ideas. I enjoyed making the game because I think it was the time in which we worked the best as a team. 

TIE- Theatre In Education

In todays lesson we talked about out first Unit Theatre In Education, we discussed a few possible outcomes. We also discussed some of the different techniques we could use in our performances. 

We discussed Choral Speaking, Tableaux, Improvisation, Role Playing and Re-enactment. 

In the above picture Mr. Evans put Pedro and Danny into this position and told them to freeze he then asked us to describe the action. By doing this we were able to understand that we can have a frozen background and then choral speaking to explain what was going on. By doing this I learnt that Drama isn't only short play it can be a lot more. 

When we began talking about improvisation Kenny and Mr. Evans showed us a short improvising act to show us how improvising can bring new ideas to the table.

On of the important things I remember Mr. Evans telling us is that by using improvisation you may actually do something that makes the play better so it would be a good idea for members of the group to switch roles and then improvise on behalf of the other person and by doing this someone else may take something you did to their character and use it to make the play better. 

After a bit of fun we moved on to talking about our TIE unit in more detail. 

TIE - Theatre In Education

We researched 3 TIE combines individually and wrote brief introductions about each one and then we choose our favourite one and discussed it in more detail. 

Brain Storm Productions:

Brain Storm Productions is a two-person show and they help around 350,000 students each year learn about anti-bullying, cyber bullying and welfare education. They are award winning and focus on productions in primary schools. Their aim is to reduce the amount of bullying in schools and improve the wellbeing of students and their behaviour.  

Class Act: 

Class Act is the biggest non-profit TIE company in Western Australia, the company has been set up to run on its own resources. Class Act combines modern day issues with a mix of comedy, dance and songs. They mainly work towards issues such as the environment, bullying, depression and the significance of family. Class Act uses the language of the schoolyard and brings these serious issues to life, making them esaily understandable by young kids and even the teachers. 

Take Away Theatre Company:
Take Away Theatre is a TIE company based in the UK, Take Away takes serious matters and changes them into a drama performances. One of their most popular performance is called 'Hope.' 'Hope' teaches people about Anti-Bullying. Take Away also does some performance like cinderella where they emphasise the moral of the story.

After reading and researching about the different TIE companies I became more interested in this unit because it gave me a better idea of what we will be doing. The company I was most interested in was Brain Storm Productions. I liked the fact that they use different methods of acting to convey different messages. After briefly researching about Brain Storm Production I went and did a little more research because I was very interested in it. I found out that Brain Storm Productions have worked very hard to get to where they are now. They combine children stories with an important life lesson. After their performance they sit with the children so that they can discuss the significance of the message sent by the performance, they also do activities with the children to further convey a certain message. 

Drama Games

Yesterday in our drama lesson we were introduced to our first task "Theatre and Eduction." However we were mainly introduced to a few theatre games, we practiced speaking and being more confident with each other. The games we played were basically pre-performance warm ups. I learnt a lot from so of the exercises. For example when Mr. Evans told us to move around and then freeze it made me realise that its a lot harder to stay serious and freeze than I thought. Yesterdays lesson gave me a lot of enthusiasm and Im excited for the rest of the year. 

Production Elements of Drama

Today we had our first lesson in the drama studio, and I fond the lesson very interesting. We discussed the importance of using lighting and how using different lights in different positions can change the vibe of the performance. 

We tested different lights to see what kind of vibe it would give. In the above picture we Mr. Evans used Pedro to demonstrate the significance of using lights in different ways to portray different themes and emotions. 

We looked at the different gel colors and learned how to control the lights using the lighting board we also tested the sound. 

As you cans see in the above picture we used different background to help change the mood of the area. Imagine George just siting down in a black room you wouldn't know where he was or what he was doing. Just by putting a picture or headlines behind him the story becomes a lot clearer. Using pictures can also emphasise on what the actor is saying. 

Today we continued talking about our reflections in drama, 

personally I got a lot out of todays lesson. We went over the 

different ways in which we can reflect we also practiced writing different ways to use our writing skills in our reflection. We were given the task to write about the same experience in three different ways descriptive writing, personal writing and reflective writing. This exercise helped me realise the significance of using different writing styles when writing reflections or even just a written assignment. After this session I would like to try and include the three styles of writing in each of my reflections. 

We also discussed the different types of reflection, retrospective reflection, international reflection, evaluative reflection and action points. We talked about and discussed each of these individually to get an idea of the significance of each one. 

What is Reflection?

In our introduction to Drama lesson we went over the different ways to reflect and talked about some of the aspects of Drama that we enjoy. The following websites gave me an idea of how my blog and reflections should turn out and also what I could include to make my blog posts reflective and how I can demonstrate my development. (http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2011/06/07/julia-rothman-drawn-in/, http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/12/06/moleskine-detour-book/).

In this lesson I got an idea of things I might be good at. As a class we also discussed some of our burning questions. We went over some of the Theatre Journal Ideas. I learnt about the significance of Plans of Action and Concept Maps.

Lastly, I learned all the significance about writing good reflections and what you need to write a good reflection.