i gained A LOT just in 14 weeks.

I have learned a lot form the lectures and tutorial. The discussion of storylines of the dramas in class is one of the most important aspects of the lectures and tutorial in my opinion. When Dr.Edwin and Miss Kasthoori discussed the dramas in class, I get a clearer picture of the play. I learnt that the meaning of the drama does not entirely lie on what we read on the surface; there are ironies, hidden agendas and mysteries impelled in every sentence. These discussions are very helpful in the study of drama. Literature being a very subjective subject and every one having their own opinion from their own point of view, many interpretations will come about.

Every aspect of the lectures and tutorial is related to my field of study. With the latest KBSM syllabus for the literature component of English 1119 made it compulsory for students to answer on at least 1 play during their SPM, this course will be helpful.

I might interpret the content differently, as different individuals have different point of views; but from the lectures and tutorial with Dr.Edwin and Miss Kasthoori, I find that what I think and what I get from the plays is almost the same as what they explained in class.

From what and how I have studied drama in this course, I am confident that I can adopt and adapt to the skills that had been taught in class for my future lessons in real school scenario. Though there may be challenges, I prefer letting the students to discover the play then for me to spoon feed them, especially on texts that are simple enough. In my opinion, as long the teacher has given enough input to the students, they can discover the play themselves. Dr. Edwin’s skill of interpreting dramas is a real lesson for me. I would like to try it out in the real school scenario one day. He relates the elements of the dramas with other aspects, such as religion, history, society and myths, and not just depending on delivering the surface messages. Learning drama is not about how to read and act it out, but to read and discover the real intentions of the writers.

The only question that I have now is that how would I be able to study and interpret drama texts to the full extent? Though we went over the plays over and over again, I still feel that it is not studied and discovered thoroughly. I think that I would be able to solve this problem is if really get into it. ‘Practice makes perfect,’ they say. I am not perfect, but I can improve myself with the input from the people around me, from my lecturers, tutors and my fellow course mates. There will always be someone much better from whom I can learn from.

The Question in MY Head

How can I make my activities more interesting? That is what was bothering me even before I prepared for my simulated teaching. I find it difficult to be creative and at the same time make sure the message of the lesson is put in clear view for the students. My main point is to make sure the students gets the message of the lesson, and being so focused on that point, I tend to forget that, yes, maybe the students will get the message, but if one is not interested in the lesson, how can one learn anything? I did spend a lot of time figuring out of what I should and should not do on my lesson, but in the end I just focused on getting the message through. I lack inspiration on being creative with classroom activities. I do need input from friends and lecturers. Looking back at my course mates’ simulated teachings, and how creative they were coming up with activities that I myself could not imagined; I have now some ideas on how to manipulate the text and come up with far more interesting activities. But still, that is not enough.

Second Chance?

If I am given another chance to do my simulated teaching and deliver the similar lesson again, I would definitely change some aspect of my lesson, especially the activities. I think that the activity is not creative or inspiring enough for the students in form 4. It was rigid and straight to the point, like what I learn in most lectures. Maybe by making the activities more interesting, I can grab the students’ attention and inspire them to learn, and not end up spoon-feeding them with the knowledge that they are supposedly to gain. For me, a teacher’s job is not just to teach, but also to inspire students lo learn.

Simulated Teaching vs Real Classroom Situations

From my point of view, simulated teaching does have its similarities and differences with real teaching in real classroom situations. It is similar in the sense that teachers always relate certain things to the lesson to hint and introduce the content of the play to the students. It is different in the sense that during simulated teaching we encourage students to discover the play, whereas in schools, teachers tend to spoon-feed the students due to time constrains to make sure that they can finish the syllabus. For the teacher it is their job to make sure they finish what they are supposed to teach, and it is the students’ job to learn and understand their own studies. The classroom environment is also different. In my opinion teaching my own course mates for the simulated teaching is way easier then teaching real students in a real class, because my students during the simulated teaching are cooperative since they have no choice, unlike in real classroom situation where the students can be challenging. Though simulated teaching is quite different than teaching in a real school, simulated teaching is a good experience for teachers-to-be as a practice before entering the schools. We can prepare ourselves and plan our lesson better when we start teaching in real schools.

Learning Through Strengths and Weaknesses in Simulated Teaching

Through Miss Kasthoori’s comments and my own evaluation on my simulated teaching, my strengths in my simulated teaching are my voice projection and my paced lesson. Voice projection is an important element in the teaching profession. Having a loud and clear speech helps to grab the student’s attention. In real classroom situations, the environment can be hectic and noisy. A teacher who has good voice projection can surely take control of the class with her voice that students can hear despite all the other noises, but teachers who tend to speak softly will have a hard time getting the students’ attention. Simulated teaching is a great place to practice my voice projection! Miss Kasthoori mentioned that she liked the way I handled my lesson, she said it was well paced and she liked that I did not rush through reading the extract like most of my friends did. Rushing to finish the lesson leads one to confusion, and I dislike confusion. Being too slow does not help either. A teacher needs to have good time management, and this simulated teaching had taught me how to pace my teaching.

On the other hand, my weakness was that I am not creative with my lesson. It was rigid, and the activities are not exciting, even to me. I was just doing the activities for the sake of getting the message through, and did not put to mind the notion of getting the students to be interested in the lesson. I will try my best not to repeat this mistake in the future. A lesson is not just getting the message through; it is also about inspiring the students to want to learn.

I am glad for the opportunity to practice teaching. This is when I can learn and figure out my strengths and weaknesses, and learn to improve myself.

MY Simulated Teaching

I did my simulated teaching on the 13th of March. I taught about the characteristics of Oedipus through the Priest’s dialogue to Oedipus in the prologue. For my set induction, I showed a picture of a king, and I asked the students to describe what they see. The class cooperated, many of the students responded. I was glad they did! If the did not, I would have failed my set induction! Then, I related the description of the king to introduce the lesson. As for my pre-reading activity, I instructed the students to highlight the characteristics of Oedipus in the extract I had given them. Then for my while-reading, I called upon a few students to list down the words and phrases they underlined onto the white board. After that I asked the students to complete activity 2. I then discussed with the whole class the words and identify the connotation of the words. From the connotations that the students give to the characteristics of Oedipus in the text, I asked the students to conclude on the characteristics of Oedipus in the earlier scene. After that I instructed the students to complete task 3 at home, and we rounded up the lesson by reviewing what I had taught them for the day. I was quite nervous throughout the simulated teaching, but I am glad I was. If it was not for my nervousness, I don’t think I would be pumped enough to do the lesson.

Experiencing “The Secret Love Life of Ophelia”

On the 7th of March, my friends and I went to the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre (KLPAC) to watch a “The Secret Love Life of Ophelia.” It was my first time watching a professional English play.

When I called the blockbuster’s office a few days prior to watching the play, the lady who answered my call said “just come and get your tickets on the day itself, there is no need to book, not many people come to watch the play.” So I thought that only my friends and I, and maybe a few other cultured individuals would be going to watch the play. The lesser that shows up, the lesser the distraction would be.

When I went to the counter to get my ticket on that day, I asked the guy, how many people had purchased the ticket to watch the show that day, he replied “only a handful.” To my surprise, the hall was packed for the play that day. A group of UPM students from the credited co curriculum of theater came to watch the play too.

We managed to meet the director of the play, Christopher Ling and moments before we went in the theatre. He briefed us on the play and also what we can do and cannot do when the play is on. We did not get the chance to speak to him personally about the play though.

The hall door opened 10minutes before the play started. I was the first one to step in, and looking at how small the stage was and how little the props were, it totally changed my view about theater. When we talk about theater, it is always this big stage and magnificent props that comes to mind. For this play there were just two couches and two tables positioned in the middle of the hall at the same level with the audiences in the front row. I was seating at the third row, and yet I felt so close to the actors. I had a clear view and I could see the actor’s expressions clearly throughout the play. The play started exactly at 2pm. The play started on time regardless the audience has not fully arrived. The actors seemed oblivious to the audiences shuffling in and continued on their act. I was very much distracted at that point of time.

It was quite blurry at the beginning, when Ophelia and Hamlet was in the same stage space, oblivious to each other’s presence and went on doing their own things. When Hamlet started to speak while writing an invisible letter, followed by Ophelia who answered the letter in the same manner, I finally understood that the two being is actually not in the same vicinity, but in different places. The whole play was basically the exchange of interactions of Ophelia and hamlet through imaginary letters, emails, text messages and phone call. Talk about technological adaptations!

The play was about Ophelia’s affair with Hamlet, somewhat an adaptation from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, but this part was not in the original play itself. It was an awakening, how an old play can be adapted and manipulated and still have that ancient play feeling to it but portrayed in a modern way.

The way the actors acted and the way they said their lines was totally inspirational. The amount of lines they had to memorize, I could just imagine how long they practiced for the production of the play. Even the lines that they spoke were well written, full of underlying meanings, and the language was beautiful. Thankfully I had familiarized my self with Shakespeare’s works and his use of language, if not I most probably be lost in this play like most of the audience that day.

I am really impressed with the way the actor acted during the parts when he was making coffee, imaginary coffee! There were no props at all, but his gestures really played with my imagination, I definitely felt like he was really making and drinking real coffee. The actress was impressed me too. I liked the part when she was playing with the imaginary cat, it was so real, as if there was a real cat there playing with her. They acted so real, it was so pure, not fake like what we see in the dramas on television.

The play was simple, nothing technical. I enjoyed it. I would advise that one should know what happens in the play Hamlet by Shakespeare before watching the play to better understand what the actors are doing on stage.

That day I learned how a play becomes a play. It is not the size of the stage or the greatness of the props, or even the number of actors on stage, it I how the play is brought by the actors, how the actors uses the stage and props available.

As for this trip to KLPAC, I am thankful that Dr. Edwin instructed us all to go and watch at least 1 play to fulfill one of the requirements of this course. If it is not for the purpose of fulfilling the requirement of the course, I don’t think that any of us would be bothered to spend time and watch any professional play. I would definitely visit KLPAC again for other plays in the future.

Teiresias???

As I was reading “Oedipus the King” by Sophocles, Teiresias’ character came about. Teiresias? The blind prophet? It was like déjà vu. Isn’t he one of the Greek myths? Suddenly it rang a bell. I remember Teiresias being in Homer's Odyssey, where he was pictured in the underworld, with his golden staff, and having the power of prophecy; where Circe advised Odysseus to go to the entrance to the underworld evoke the “shade” of Teiresias so that he might tell Odysseus how to find his way home; Teiresias told Odysseus that his homecoming would be laden with hardships but that he would eventually overcome the wrath of Poseidon and return to his home on the island of Ithaca. That was the Teiresias I remembered. Teiresias in Oedipus the King? Is Homer’s and Sophocles’ Teiresias the same person, or is it different? I left it there and accepted that, ok Teiresias is just a random character. Somehow when I continue reading the play and we discussed the dialogue exchange between Oedipus and Teiresias in class, I realized that Teiresias’ character is significant in the play. Teiresias is worth to be checked out!

When I Googled Teiresias, there were lost of information about him, and different version of stories of his blindness.

In Greek mythology, Teiresias was a blind prophet, the son of the shepherd Everes and the nymph Chariclo. Teiresias was a prophet of Zeus. According to the mythographic compendium Bibliotheke, different stories were told of the cause of his blindness, the most direct being that he was simply blinded by the gods for revealing their secrets. An alternate story told by the poet Pherecydes was followed in Callimachus' poem "The Bathing of Pallas"; in it, Teiresias was blinded by Athena after he stumbled onto her bathing naked. His mother, Chariclo, a nymph of Athena, begged her to undo her curse, but Athena could not; instead, she cleaned his ears, giving him the ability to understand birdsong, thus the gift of augury.

On Mount Cyllene in the Peloponnese, as Teiresias came upon a pair of copulating snakes, he hit the pair a smart blow with his stick. Hera was not pleased, and she punished Teiresias by transforming him into a woman. As a woman, Teiresias became a priestess of Hera, married and had children, including Manto, who also possessed the gift of prophecy. According to some versions of the tale, Lady Teiresias was a prostitute of great renown. After seven years as a woman, Teiresias again found mating snakes; depending on the myth, either she made sure to leave the snakes alone this time, or, according to Hyginus, trampled on them. As a result, Teiresias was released from his sentence and permitted to regain his masculinity. This ancient story is recorded in lost lines of Hesiod.

In a separate episode, Teiresias was drawn into an argument between Hera and her husband Zeus, on the theme of who has more pleasure in sex: the man, as Hera claimed; or, as Zeus claimed, the woman, as Teiresias had experienced both. Teiresias revealed woman's greatest secret: that she receives the greater pleasure: "Of ten parts a man enjoys one only." Hera instantly struck him blind for his impiety. Zeus could do nothing to stop her, but he did give Teiresias the gift of foresight and a lifespan of seven lives.

Stripped of its narrative, anecdotal and causal connections, the mythic figure of Teiresias combines several archaic elements: the blind seer; the impious interruption of a natural rite (whether of a bathing goddess or coupling serpents); serpents and staff (Caduceus); a holy man's double gender (shaman); and competition between deities.

According to Sostratus, author of an elegiac poem called Teiresias, he was originally a girl, but had been changed into a boy by Apollo at the of seven; after undergoing several more transformations from one sex to the other, she (for the final sex was feminine) was turned into a mouse and her lover Arachnus into a weasel Eustathius on Odyssey. Teiresias died after drinking the water from the spring Tilphussa, where he was struck by an arrow of Apollo. Teiresias' grave was at the Tilphusian spring; but there was a cenotaph of him at Thebes, and also in later times his "observatory," or place for watching for omens from birds.

In the play “Oedipus the King”, by Sophocles, Oedipus calls upon Teiresias to aid in the investigation of the killing of Laios. Teiresias refuses to give a direct answer and instead hints that the killer is someone Oedipus really does not wish to find. After Oedipus blinds himself and wanders, Teiresias appears in Antigone, also by Sophocles. King Creon of Thebes refused to allow Polynices to be buried. His sister, Antigone, defied the order and was caught; Creon decreed that she was to be buried alive. The gods expressed their disapproval of Creon's decision through Teiresias. However, Antigone had already hanged herself rather than be buried alive. When Creon arrived at the tomb where she was to be interred, his son, Haemon, attacked him and then killed himself. When Creon's wife, Eurydice, was informed of their death she, too, takes her own life.

Teiresias is certainly an interesting character to be discovered in whole, and I am certainly glad that Dr.Edwin made us all to look deeper into Teiresias' character beyond “Oedipus the King”.

Writing a play.

I thought writing our own play would be easy, like writing a short story, or recording your conversation with someone. I was wrong! Writing our own play is way harder than I thought it would be. My teammates and I had been thinking of a plot, a theme, and an issue to write about ever since our lecturer gave out the course outline, but when we finally got together to start writing, it was really stressful. Getting the characters to work, getting the plot in order, trying to figure out what the characters are supposed to say and feel, and getting the theme in there. It was really a mind challenging experience. All that mental torture did not go to waste though. My team and I finally got our work together after 3 agonizing weeks. The first draft is still very much just the essence of what we want to show. Hopefully with guidance from our lecturer, the play can be improved.

Discovering talents.

Miss Kasthoori’s class was really FUN. I didn’t expect it to be that way. I dreaded that our tutor for EDU3217 would be like our tutor for EDU3214, thank God Miss Kasthoori is nowhere near that. Her classes really made me think about the elements of theatre. It really opened my eyes to greater possibilities. I didn’t know that most of my course mates could really act. I knew a few who are in their college theatre production team and some are in the UPM theatre club, but the others really left a big impression on me, especially Jeremy. Jeremy acted really well when his group performed “The Ring” he could really feel the character and presented it well. I enjoyed watching their group’s performance, I guess everyone did. Although we only had 10 minuets to prepare and act out the plays assigned, I can say that everyone was really into it and enjoyed themselves doing so.

There is no right or wrong when it comes to drama. So how one perceives a play would be different from how another person would perceive it to be. One thing that I realized today during class is that reading a play and actually acting it out is really a different experience overall.

Theatre out of date?

Being in the college theatre production team, theater is always the ‘in’ thing to experience, the ‘in’ thing to do. I personally don’t think of theatre as an out of date matter. As a matter of fact I think of theatre as a cultured thing to do. Human is supposed to be cultured, don’t you think?

However, when one really thinks about how popular theatre is to the general public, it makes me wonder whether theatre plays any significant role to the public who are not directly involved with it.

No doubt the theatre is losing its audience to films and television, but theatre will never get out of date. Theatre has been around for centuries and has evolved ever since.

It is not our culture in Malaysia to go and catch theatrical plays. It is always “lets hit the cinema” or “lets stay at home and watch DVD” attitude. Most of us are not nurtured by our parents to appreciate theatre, or even arts in general. Theatre has always been seen as an upper class affair, where proper etiquette is compulsory, and the rich and famous socialize. That is not true at all. Theatre is a source of entertainment. It has its own unique quality o be appreciated.

Honestly, I think that we as a society have surrounded ourselves with the latest, fastest, and cheapest ways of getting entertainment. Downloading movies online only takes seconds to accomplish, or grabbing a remote to watch a television show without even having to walk two feet…we as a society have drowned ourselves with the convenience of home. Other than that, the nature of the movies itself, the great variety of film it offers with lots of special effects wins over the society better than the theater can.

People find theater being too much of a hassle. Getting dressed, traveling to the theater, paying money to only see a performance once is considered to be inconvenient. Plus there are no special effects in theatre. Yet, there is more to theatre than what one expects it to be. Theatre is an experience!

Theatre is absolutely not out of date, it just lacks enthusiasts.

Theatre or Cinema?

Theatre or cinema? I am not a big fan of any, but as a student of this course, I should at least look into it, right? When I start to think of theatre, this image of a posh place combined with proper etiquette and professional life performance comes to mind. Cinema, a dull room with a huge blank screen hung on the wall combined with audience with minimum mannerism. Why you may ask? I have no idea why, but that is the way I perceive them.

Theatre and cinema; each is unique. They have their similarities and differences. Both serve as a source of entertainment and leisure for us humans. Both have actors and scripts

We all know theatre is played to a life audience, while cinema is pre-recorded and edited before it is shown to an audience. The one time only nature of life performance of theatre gives it an extra special value. The pre-recorded and edited nature of film and cinema makes the audience experience is more controlled because the camera shows exactly what they want the audience to see, the audience will never miss the gist of the story. In the theatre the audience is easily distracted by the actions of the actors or the props.

The effort put into theatre(play) and cinema(film) also differs from each other. No doubt that both require hard work to make it a successful production, but the effort that must be put in by the actors in a play is much greater in my opinion. Having to remember those lines for the whole play is a great feat. Its different in the movies, you can just stop filming if the actor forgets their lines, and reshoot again until everything is perfected. That is not possible in a theatrical play. It is a live play with a life audience, and if the actor forgets the lines then whole play would be ruined.

Despite the differences and the similarities of theatre and cinema, both have their own uniqueness, appeal, and entertainment value ready to suite their audience’s preferences.