Dear Students,
First of all I want to congratulate you for your efforts in presenting these plays. I'm sure that it was quite a rewarding experience. Now, these are the instructions for the post-activity self-evaluation. After watching the videos, you are required to make two entries/replies to this blog. In the first, you will discuss the work within your own group:
1. How do you feel about the activity in general?
2. What are the positive aspects?
3. What are the apects to improve?
4. What was the process like in terms of presenting a synthesis of an entire play as opposed to a single scene?
In the second, choose one of your classmates' plays and briefly discuss:
1. What are the positive aspects?
2. What are the apects to improve/suggestions for the future?
It would also be very interesting for you to consider replying to your classmates' comments about your play.
You have all day Wednesday to do this assignment. The grades will be posted on Thursday afternoon and the quizzes in an envelope outside my office.
Video clip 1.a
Video clip 1.b
Video clip 2
Video clip 3
Video clip 4.a
Video clip 4.b
Video clip 5
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16 comentarios:
Professor! I cannot watchthe video! It says that it is not longer available!
1. I really enjoyed this activity because I think that it was so funny. One of the positive aspects is that we could shared time with our classmates, and it was a good opportunity to show our artistic abilities. I consider that our play(The House of Bernarda Alba)catched the attention of the people because it was funny. Maybe one aspect to improve in a possible future presentation will be to have a better organization and practice the play a little bit more. In our case we had to summarized the play because it is very long, so we selected the parts of the play that we considered the most important.
2. "The Importance of Beig Ernest" I enjoyed this play because I consider that this play was very organized, and the members of the play knew the dialoge very well, especially I liked the part of the play when the boys sang, it was very funny. One aspect that they can improve is that they can summarize the play because I think that this play was a little long, but in general I enjoyed all the plays and consider that they were good performed and they were funny.
José: This activity helped us to better understand the plays and give our own perception of the play (in our case The house of Bernarda Alba). It felt funny to performed the character of a woman.In general, the activity was enojoyable and a challenge for all of us. I would say that it was really good to do such a job because we did what we were taught throughout the course, so we did our costumes and chose the fragments of the play that we think were the most important ones. We also worked as a group having a responsibility to each other. Even though our play was good in general, I think we should have practice a lit of bit more. I also think that some of us were very nervous; for this reason we forgot some lines.Finally, the process was tiring we had to read an reread the play, so we could get the main ideas and delete the information that was irrelevant, but we worked very well as a group and, at the end,we enjoyed this experience a lot. =)
2. I would like to talk about the play "The importance of being Earnest". Personally, I think this was the best performed play of all. It was complete, it was also funny, and ot was a recopilati0on of all the play. In addition, the actors completely knew what they had to say. On the on the other hand,this play was too long. They include too many details, but It was effective and complete. The only recomendation a would like to mention is that they should be more careful with the time the play lasts.
1-This activity was very interesting and funny. To start, it is relevant to mention that my group was the one who present The House of Bernarda Alba which is one of my favourite plays, so acting a little summary of this play was a nice experience. However, I have to clarify that since the beginning the idea of choosing one play to act scaring me because I am not a good actress, but, thanks God , my group was very nice and everyone of us try, somehow, to give ideas and help each other. Besides, some of the positive aspects that this activity had were that we not only shared with our classmates, but we also had to be very creative to defined what elements of the play we were going to use, how the scenario could be, who were going to interpret each character. Moreover, though this activity we had the opportunity to interpret the play and showed our own perception of it. Likewise, this activity was a useful tool to demonstrate that everyone is able to do whatever he or she wants. I know that any single play is perfect, but I have to accept that ours was really a challenge for every member of the group. Personally, for future activities like this I would suggest more practice because in some moments some of us forgot what he or she had to do or say. Besides, it would be nice if we would have more time to organize and plan those little details that we did not pay attention like space or costumes. Finally, the process of presenting a synthesis of the entire play was interesting since this play was very long, so this activity gave us the opportunity of choosing the most important aspects of entire the play and presenting them in a logical sequence
2- The play that I like it the most was “The Importance of Being Ernest" This is because this group was well organize. Besides, they were worried about almost every single detail of their dialogues and the setting. I really enjoyed the way in which they performed this play and how they manage their own interventions. Moreover, they were really creative using monologues as a tool to summarize some situations in order to diminish the duration of the play. Likewise, the serenade was very funny. It was the best part for me. Finally, I would recommend this group to improve is to summarize more the play because even though it was very complete, sometimes it turned a little boring.
I believe that this activity was very nice because everybody was willing to do their best. we worked really hard, so at the end we could plan plays that were really funny and interesting. personally,I loved "The House of Bermarda Alba" because I think that the idea of having the guys dressed like the girls was cool!!!
Also, I really liked " Naomi in the living room" , but I didn´t like the fact tha Suelen was yelling everything to David because it was not fair to the rest of us who had to learned a lot of dialogues.
1. I had never done an activity like that one, so for me it was a new experience. We had lots of fun while we practiced the play. I really liked and enjoyed the whole process and the presentation.
Some of the positive aspects are that:
-We were sharing some ideas and extra time with our classmates.
-Instead of being a stressing activity, it helped us relaxing, laughing, and having fun in our free time.
-It helped in order to know better our classmates and they way that they think.
-My male classmates were so helpful in talking about the cloths that they had to wear (dresses and wigs) because they never said no; even though, they might feel uncomfortable.
Some of the aspects to improve are that:
-We did not have enough time to practice, so the performance of the play was not perfect. An option for this difficulty may be to give the students one or two hours per week during the class time, so they can practice and they do not have difficulties arranging the meetings.
-Some classmates did not know their lines and that changed the dialogues during the performance of the play. The solution is to arrange more meetings, to make sure that all the members know the lines, and to practice more. In addition, to help those that do not know their lines, so they can memorise them better.
The process done to create a synthesis of the play was a little bit difficult because the play was a little bit long, so we had to select the most important parts of the play and organize them in a way that they had sense.
2. The play "Naomi in the Living Room" was very funny and they had great cloths, but some of them did not know the lines that they had to say, so, even though at the beginnig was funny, at the end it turned tires to see them waiting to get the lines that they had to say. My suggestion is to practice more and to take some time to learn the lines.
Alfredo: The activity was funny; we had the opportunity to share with our classmates and to create our own version of the plays. Also by having the opportunity of the group work we could share thoughts and opinions of the plays for a better understanding.
Also, it was interesting to observe our classmate’s play because in that way we were able to evaluate and think about the different strategies for performing a play.
The positive aspects were that we had the opportunity to perform the plays that we read, and that gave us the chance to comprehend the intentions of the author and the complexity of each character. Also it was very important that this is an opportunity to socialize with our classmates and to cooperate with each other.
In fact, The House of Bernarda Alba is an extensive play, so we had to summarize it. We choose the most significant scenes in the play to perform, and truly the most interesting ones.
There were many positive aspects in the presentation of Naomi in the Living Room. First, the idea of using the video beam for the backgrounds was splendid. Second, the use of the director as a prompter was excellent. The characterization of Naomi is one of the most difficult ones so the use of a prompter was essential, but I think that they were abusing of that element (the prompter.)
I don’t have any suggestions, just to have fun while performing and try not to use the prompter that much.
1. The House of Bernarda Alba
About the activity in general, I felt it was indeed as all my classmates have said a very good one. It made us work and have fun at the same time, it is interesting what this type of activities can do because it even help us to get to know our classmates (not only the one in our group, at least I felt that the last day of class). The activity also gave a perspective on theater and plays, I mean learning all those lines and performing every night must be tough at the beginning. I felt that preparing and presenting the play helps internalize them. And it was a great experience the whole way, from the beginning to the day of the presentation.
Positive aspects:
*My group classmates where great in every single meeting.
*Altogether tried to improve the play with new ideas.
*We enjoyed doing this assignment.
*The experience was unique, I had never done something alike.
*Preparing it was fun, looking for dresses, trying on our wigs and all.
*You get into the play and you try to make it right, even though some of us have the worst memory ever including myself because I forgot like 5 lines.
Aspects to improve
*More time to prepare it, perhaps some time in class to do it.
*The length of it.
*The more practice, the better the performance.
*It would have been nice to have a curtain on the side of the stage.
The process in order to reduce this long play without skipping the details is hard. But it is even harder to choose parts were most of us participate, and have an equal share of lines throughout the play. We also had time problems, we did not last very much but it was really hard to add scenes that were going to be relevant.
2. The play the Importance of being Earnest performed by our classmates was excellent in terms of scenery, clothing, and use of the stage. It is also important to recognize the effort they must have made learning so many lines since it was a long one. They also stuck a lot to the original story but with the song they made them seem theirs. I would have only liked a little bit of humor in their lines. It was also nice that they made it feel like a real play with background sounds inclusive.
1a. The activity (play The House of Bernarda Alba) was really good since it was the climax of all the practice that we have done during the semester when `pracicing different aspects of plays and in the activity we applied all that
knowledge.
1b. Among the positive aspects there are: as i already said the use of all the things that we learned in class, the improvement of our ability to organize ourselfs to find time to practice, the imrpovement of our capacity to memorize lines, the elimination of nervousness for future speechs, the development of an ability to exprese diferent moods while speaking english.
1c. Among the aspects to improve, I will say that we needed: to practice more time, to memorize the lines better, to last a little more, to avoid smiling to much and to organize ourselfs better in the stage.
1d. The process is completely different since when we presented single scenes we had the posibility of improvising, we also had in our mind very clear the sequency of the play, while when presenting a whole play it is very difficult to memorize the sequence of actions.
2a. The play that I will chose is Naomi in the Living room since for me it was very good and funny. Among the positive aspects there are: the aspect that eventhought naomi forgot his lines, he managed to improvise the lines very good, also his expressions and hand moments where very erratic as naomi should be. Also, the end was very good since they gave a sence to the play. In addition, the inclusion of the character of th dead man was an interesting point.
2b. The aspects to improve are: the fact that lines should be memorized, the prompter was not very good since everyone could look at them. But, everything was very good.
1. This is my opinion. The previous one was in group!!!!
In my opinion the experience of staying a play was very interesting because you can present and live what you have read previously and in this way literature becomes more than words. Moreover, the process is exciting because your partners (the rest of the group) do not Know what you are going to present or to wear, so the activity is a surprise!!. Also, for me experience was an excellent opportunity to have a funny time with your classmates, and to share with people that you do not know much. In addition, by working with other people you are able to develop “Team Work Skills” because everybody had to participate and to work to reach a clear objective: “presenting the play.” Moreover, we had to overcome differences in our opinions as a group in order to have the final product, which is always always difficult. I also consider that by staying a play, we are encouraged to be creative to write our own script, to prepare our own material, and to design our own costumes and scenario. Besides, although we had a hard time trying to organize the presentation and getting the script because of the limited time we had, we were able to improvise when it was needed, which is a good skill to develop because life is full of surprises that you have to face creatively, and this situation happens frequently when you are teaching! Furthermore, I believe that in any play like, every person has to learn how to improvise to use his/her own words to convey the idea of the original conversation in a different way, which is a difficult job, but makes the performance more natural. Another problem we had to face was the meeting schedule; in fact, it was very difficult for our group to meet, and this is the reason why we could only practice the whole play twice. However, we consider that the final product was good and that the audience enjoy it and that is a difficult task. Another challenge was to give the audience a scene of conclusion. The play was long, and we consider our play was also long, but what we presented was necessary for the audience to have a clear idea of the whole play. Besides this duty was difficult because previously we had only presented short scenes of plays, so for this final play we had to organize every part to fit the previous and following parts. This aspect is not necessary when you are working with just one scene. Moreover, a scene does not require much practice, preparation, and time. I Think that all the presentations that we did in class presenting single scenes of each play that we read were indeed a rehearsal for the final presentation, and the success of this performance was a result of all what we learned throughout the semester. Some of the aspect to improve are organization and preparation in order to have even better results. We could have had a better presentation if could have practiced the play more times. I think that it would be a good idea to move any of the assignments (the journal, the teaching presentations, or the essay) a week before the final play presentations to have more time to practice. Moreover, we have to improve our organization as a group because sometimes we spend time in little details; such as, scenario and costumes, and we leave aside key elements such as content, and coordination among the member of the group. In general, I really liked the experience, and I think that I will never forget it!!
2. I chose the group that presented Naomi in the Living Room. In my opinion the play was very good; in fact, they were the funniest group. The performances were excellent because the group really internalized the characters they were presenting in terms of personality and personal struggles and fears. Moreover, Adriana’s participation was very good because she memorized her lines very well, and this is the reason why and she was able to help other members of her group with some of the lines that they forgot. Very good Adri!!!
Moreover, the use of space, costumes, and props was amazing to support the visual part of the play; they were simple, but appealing and they went straight to fulfill the audience’s needs. Additionally, something interesting was that the two dresses they had for John and Johnna were almost the same. Besides, including Naomi's husband as part of the play was very creative because in this way they were able to present their own point of view of a mute character in the play. For me the intervention of this character was good as a way to include creativity to the play and to make the play more complete because the audience is able to answer some questions that people cannot answer after reading the play. Also, Pablo’s performance presented in a good way the two personalities that John had. David’s presentation was also good, although he forgot what he had to say David was able to portray Naomi’s craziness, for me he was a real Naomi!!. Another positive aspect was the use of time; they presented the whole play, and it was not an adaptation of several scenes. On the other hand, the director’s assistance was also relevant to help some of the character with the lines they had forgotten. However, not all the members participated; it would have been a good idea to include another character, to invent a new one, or to present the two faces of any of the characters. Some suggestions can be: try to practice a little more to feel more relax, and to avoid forgetting the lines. Besides, if anybody forgets what he/she has to say try to be more natural and try to improvise with your own words, which is fundamental to overcome this difficult situation.
I think that this activity was rewarding due to the fact that we were able to internalize the play and the characters that each of us had to interpret. I had the role of the director, and summarizing the play to write the script as well as to try to understand the character’s behavior and personality is a helpful tool to understand all the dramatic elements such as the conflicts, the theme, the environmental facts, and others. Through this activity, I realized the complexity of arranging all what is needed to make a written play come into life. One should be very organized in order to do the best job on the stage. Moreover, by means of this activity, we were able to share with our classmates a entertaining experience, and we grew as a group since we had to find a balance to take into account everybody points of view and to reach an agreement without having fights or resentments among each other.
Regarding the positive aspects of this task, I consider that this activity was a good exercise to deal with our nervousness. When I was practicing my performance with the rest of my friends, I forgot my lines, and I depended on the paper to be able to make the play flow because improvising was hard. However, when I was performing my character in the class, I overcame my fears of saying word by word everything, and I tried to act more naturally. In some arts, I know we changed the order of what we had to say, but we continued and the final product was satisfying. In this type of activity, one should think about the audience since they are judges, and one should try to solve any difficulty by using one’s imagination and creativity so that nobody knows that one is making a mistake. Therefore, one grows personally since it helps the actors and actresses to be more self-confident on the stage. Another positive aspect is that everyone of us can “give his/her personal touch" to the play because we had to arrange the scenario and to choose the costumes based on our own interpretations of the play. I loved the way we divided the stage to create Algernon’s house in the town and Jack’s house in the country. Moreover, Mariela’s car was simple, but it was the solution that we found to make the scene more realistic. Furthermore, we had to adapt the play since it was really long. To achieve this goal, we used monologues in order to mention relevant information that we could not eliminate. As a consequence, I think that a positive aspect of this activity is that we were free to do the necessary modifications in order to convey the main idea of the pay in a short period of time. Sometimes, by reading the play, one does not understand many important aspects of the play, and by watching the movie, one does not have the chance to imagine all the situations and characters. However, when one is in charge of planning how to perform the character and how to decorate the stage and arranging all the effects, one enjoys more the play and remembers every single detail of the literary piece of work.
In my opinion, the aspects that we have to improve are related to the organization of the presentation. It was really hard to find a point of agreement so that we were able to meet together. All of us had different schedules, and we had to do everything with a limited time. We did not have much time to memorize our lines, and we had to improvise many dialogues and try to act according to what is written because if one modifies something deeply, the meaning of the play changes. Additionally, we are aware of the fact that the presentation was longer than the time that we were allowed to invest for the performance. Nevertheless, we had serious struggles about the script. I think that in that case, we have to try to summarize more the play. We also have to improve our organization on the stage. We did not have the opportunity to practice in the auditory and we did not know exactly how we were going to put our props and where we have to enter and leave before and after an intervention, so it should be planned in advance. Finally, when one makes a mistake, one should try to hide it instead of making it obvious for the public.
The complexity of the process of presenting a complete synthesis of the play made us realize that one has a different perception of the play and of the characters when it is fully developed rather that when one presents a single scene. My classmates and I were discussing about this fact, and we agree that the short presentations that we did in class were the key tools for us to have and idea of how we should summarize the play and what we had to do in order to present the essence of it. The synthesis should be done with enough time since one has to read and reread the play in order to take into account the most relevant aspects and to forget about all those dialogues that do not alter at all the meaning of the play.
2. Regarding the presentation of our classmates, I think that the group that performed Naomi in the Living Room achieved to entertain the audience as well as to convey the idea in general terms of what the story is about and who the characters are. Another positive aspect is that they were able to use different resources to make the presentation flow in a simple and effective way. For example, they used the presentation of power point to show the different parts of the house. We did not have much space in the auditory to set each room, so it was a clever way to solve this problem. Then, even though they did not find a similar dress for John and Johnna, they tried to wear dresses that were made with the same type of fabric and that had a similar design. I also liked the fact that they modified the play by adding a new character who was Naomi’s husband. These monologues not only were seen as a transition between scenes, but they also showed us the point of view of a character that is not developed in the play. This feature makes evident they capacity to innovate despite of the constraints that they had by presenting the play.
I believe that my classmates succeeded to internalize the characters and to show it on the stage. Even though David, who represented Naomi, forgot his lines, his attitude never made the audience feel that his performance was bad. On the contrary, he was able to express those changes in Naomi’s mood that characterize her. I loved the idea of choosing David to interpret Naomi. By doing this, this group demonstrated that they do not care about negative stereotypes regarding gender roles, and obviously it made this comedy funnier than it is. I also admire Adriana because she not only memorized her lines, but she also knew what the other characters had to say and when they had to say it, so it demonstrates that she was well prepared and that she had confidence about her acting on stage.
Pablo’s performance caught my attention because he was able to make a distinction between the masculine side of John and this character’s feminine side. I consider that the role of the director was relevant because she helped David by hiding herself from the audience and they tried to make it not so obvious.
Another positive aspect was the use of time; they were able to present the whole play without making many adaptations as my group had to do with “The Importance of Being Earnest.”
I think that most of the members of this group need to work hard in overcoming their nervousness and to try to hide their mistakes. If they forget what they have to say, they can improvise. Sometimes they looked worried and it makes the audience feel uncomfortable. To achieve this goal, they should try to invest more time practicing in order to find viable solutions to those simple details that can be avoided.
1.Performing a play is a must in a Drama course. It implies a challenge and therefore it exploits our better skills as students and future teachers.This activity help us as future teachers because it enhances team work, cooperation and it developed in us the need to rely on others. Also, it showed us the "importance of" improvising. In some parts our nervousness betrayed ourselves, but since we knew what the play was all about, we could express the dialogues in our own words. In addition, since performing a play is quite different from reading it, acting it allowed us to have a better perspective of the characters. Indeed, in my personal case, the performance of the play made me feel closer to the seeting, the conflicts and the different topics in our play.In regards to the process of staying the play, I believe that since we all had already rehearsed in class with the other plays, we've got certain skills to show in the final product. However, time was a negative aspect we had to face because most of us felt stressed out and very pressured. Learning all the lines, practicing the song and looking for the costums and props was a lot of work for a week before the presentation.
2."Naomi in the Living Room" was the play I liked the most because I think that our classmates reached successfully the aims of that comedy: to entertain, but at the same time to show the chaos of the system reflected in the character of Naomi. The use of the video beam was an extraordinary idea.In fact, in professional and more sophisticated presentations the video beam is a current resource. Moreover, the costums were very appropriate. However, since Naomi forgot her lines, it obscured the performance a bit and made the audience to lose concentration. Practice and learn the lines are the solution for these problems.
1.Performing a play is a must in a Drama course. It implies a challenge and therefore it exploits our better skills as students and future teachers.This activity help us as future teachers because it enhances team work, cooperation and it developed in us the need to rely on others. Also, it showed us the "importance of" improvising. In some parts our nervousness betrayed ourselves, but since we knew what the play was all about, we could express the dialogues in our own words. In addition, since performing a play is quite different from reading it, acting it allowed us to have a better perspective of the characters. Indeed, in my personal case, the performance of the play made me feel closer to the seeting, the conflicts and the different topics in our play.In regards to the process of staying the play, I believe that since we all had already rehearsed in class with the other plays, we've got certain skills to show in the final product. However, time was a negative aspect we had to face because most of us felt stressed out and very pressured. Learning all the lines, practicing the song and looking for the costums and props was a lot of work for a week before the presentation.
2."Naomi in the Living Room" was the play I liked the most because I think that our classmates reached successfully the aims of that comedy: to entertain, but at the same time to show the chaos of the system reflected in the character of Naomi. The use of the video beam was an extraordinary idea.In fact, in professional and more sophisticated presentations the video beam is a current resource. Moreover, the costums were very appropriate. However, since Naomi forgot her lines, it obscured the performance a bit and made the audience to lose concentration. Practice and learn the lines are the solution for these problems.
Rita Pacheco: a. I really enjoyed the activity. As as group we had hard time finding schedules to reaherse the show, but we tried our best and we met about five times. Daniela and Gerson wrote the scrip, but since the play was so long we had to cut some parts out. I am very proud of my classmates, for they did a great performance. They assumed their rol and put life to it. Hugo´s guitar was a very special effect, as were the singing birds and Maielas car. We tried to match our clothes to the play situation, and also our manners, to act as high class people, which I think we achieved. The only problem I found was we had little time to set the stage before we presented the play. Maybe next time the auditorium could be open earlier.
b. As one of the most positive aspects is to work as a team, we had to manage in order that everything comes out fine for everybody´s benefit. Besides, we found a dramatic streak in our personalities, which may help us in some other opportunities.
c. I appreciate the effort my friends put into this job, and I am really proud of our group. Mariela did great with all the paraphernalia she had to carry around. When we practice the line we were nervous and had to look at the papers very often, but once we were on the stage, the force of the audience and the pressure to be perfect, worked wonders on the results. I greatly enjoyed this activity.
d. Daniela and Gerson had to work hard on the script, for ours was a very long play and we did not want to cut out some of the funny scenes, or the ones that made the difference. The idea o f frozen characters to explain main ideas was a perfect way out of the problem. I think it was good that we had to present the play as a unit, instead of a extract of it, for it losses all the force.
Thank you for letting us participate in the dramatic side of life.
d. I liked David as Naomi , but it baceme tiresome to see him turning around to listen to the lines. He could have done great if he new more about his part. Adriana was great. I allso enjoyed Josefa a great deal. She was superb, specially with her little lamb. Bernarda needed stronger will, her push was not enough. But I enjoyed seeing the boys with woman clothing and how they manage to act naurally. Congratulations!
1. I really enjoyed the activity, it was very funny. during the all activity we were able to talk to our classmates and share with them some unforgetable experiences. even if we do not have some abilities of actress; we at least try it. The hardest thing to do was to reduce the play into a single activity.
2. I enjoyed all the plays,but the importrance of being Ernest6 ROCKS!!!! the actors were well prepared and the scenery was very good.
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