Friday, 30 January 2009
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.
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Theatre out of date?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.
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.
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.
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