Theatre Lesson : (Oct'15) Realism - Character Costume Check

Arthur is a Pro-Chinese person, not to the extreme end of it, but I think he would always try to uphold Chinese traditional culture, norms and values at all cost, at least until the end of the play. 

And thus, I designed this costume for Arthur and I will wear something similar for the scene. 

I choose the shirt with different presentations of Dragon on the shirt. This is not a typical Chinese Traditional Samfu for Chinese Male though, as I don't think Arthur would wear such a troublesome costume during his "vacation" to Singapore. Under normal circumstances, Chinese Samfus are only worn during special occasion such as Chinese New Year or the Wedding. Arthur will only wear a shirt with Chinese characters or figures on it during his trip home. he didn't plan to stay for long in Singapore as he still has his business and projects in Shen Zhen, waiting for him to tend to. He would wear a presentable attire at all times, In this play, Arthur will wear the t-shirt with dragon pattern with a black slack pants. He's will make sure he's always on the go, so a nice shirt and a slack pants will make sense I think. 

The front view of the t-shirt I designed.

The back view of the t-shirt

The sides of the t-shirt.

And this is the shirt I got for Arthur 

Arthur in the shirt. 

Theatre Lesson : (Oct'15) Realism - Character Analysis (Arthur)

Realism: Meeting a Character (Stanislavski Style)

Homesick Character analysis: Arthur Koh

What the author says about ME?

Middle son	Property developer
Based in China	The One out of the five children that frequently returns to Singapore

What I say about ME?

A discerning character : - He remember the father’s birthday. He is very caring at heart. [It is his 70th birthday tomorrow, am I correct?]	Close to the father: He’s very respectful to the father. He knows the father’s secret.
Blunt : - Not good with his choice of words. Not sensitive towards taboos. [I have come to pay respect to our dear father.]	Educated : He knows his stuff. He can discuss and  chat with Manoj about economics and business, global issues, etc.
Business-minded : - Business is his everything. [D: Don’t you carry a phone? A: Yes. For business. D: And I don’t suppose you have another phone? A: For what? ] [Quarantine? For how long? I have an important project in Shen Zhen.]	Conservative/ have strong beliefs in tradition : - He’s very particular in the way one address one other. Salutation is important for him.  [Terms of address matter…. I hope everyone can call me by the name Pa gave me. Weiyang. I’s a real name.]
Empathy : - He’s able to understand Cindy’s and the Father’s situation.

How others see Me?

Herbert: Oh shit! Why is he back in Singapore too? He knows my secret and my weakness. I must make sure he doesn’t go around telling everybody. I’m the big brother now and he mustn’t order me or threaten me.	Marianne: Stop smothering me with Chinese traditions and naming and I will be fine with him. Cindy: Oh, he’s good and he helps me a lot.
Manoj: Just like his siblings, he is in denial of their identity. Most probably, he couldn’t even differentiate between a true china citizen and Singapore0born Chinese.	Daphne: Can’t he get himself a phone? It’s not for his own convenience but others’. He’s Arthur and I’m gonna call him Arthur, not Gor or Gor-gor.
Patricia: He’s very tolerant of the brother. Even though Herbert is very possessive, narcissistic at times to the extent of annoying, Arthur doesn’t throw tantrum when Herbert gets more than him. He’s a good son.	Patrick: -            Why is everybody treating me like a kid? Oh, he’s Weiyang!

How I see others?

Herbert: A snobbish Anglo-Saxon who denies he’s own identity and the existence of his own inheritance, family, and nationality. He’s being untruthful towards himself. I know his weakness and his secret. Hehe-he!! He loves to show that he’s the eldest son.	Cindy: No matter how she disrupt the harmony of one family, one hand doesn’t make a clap. She’s not innocent, but she’s not one sole contributor to the marriage failure. She’s shouldn’t take all the blame. WE should help her.
Manoj: He has a clear vision of what’s happening in the family as he’s from a different family. Not ton say he’s an outsider, but he belongs to not just one family. Thus, he can detach himself and be an audience that sees clearly.	Daphne: A world citizen. Hard to contain. Always travel around the globe. I’m proud of her, if she’s not too busybody.
Patricia: She’s my mother and I love her and respect her decisions. Marianne: Oh, she’s my big sis!	Patrick: Such an ignorant brat.

In my opinion, the super goal/ultimate goal of the character Arthur is Arthur wants the family to be together. No matter how far they were apart, he would always cherish the moments they are together. He’s one the few in the family that would uphold the traditions and see unity as an important element of the formation and destruction of a home. Arthur is not glib nor flippant. He doesn’t really know how to deliver his care and love through words. Most of the time, he’s blunt. He is the typical Chinese/ Eastern male breadwinner figure in literary works and in real life. Most of the father in the world, more so in the eastern societies, tend to talk less, interact less with the family, and focus more on the businesses. They aren’t good in speech, so they show their love with actions. Albeit such an action mostly leads to misunderstandings, and they seemingly looks uncaring, business-crazed, stoic, and etc., their love for the family is indubitably authentic and genuine.

I (Arthur) know secrets, but do I care about them?
I think I don't really care about them. I know I remember them but I don't really put them in my mind all the time. Everyone has their own secrets and I acknowledge the fact that everyone wants their privacy. Even though Herbert and others might thought they should stay away from me in a bid to protect their secrets from being revealed, but no,  I will never use the secrets as a weapon to threaten them. 

Arthur is a socially-awkward freak. He's blunt and he's very controlled (he remembers details-  the birthdays, etc.), but he's not stupid. He's very considerate at heart and very smart.

Sense and Perception: Constantly Challenging as a Collegian; Thriving Thrillingly as a Taylorian; Entertaining Enthusiastically as a IBDP étudient!

Obviously, senses can be misleading and a deceitful sense may result in wrong perception. Of course, even when the sensory organs give us the exact stimulation, our perception still may not reflect upon the truth. The Three theories of Truth : Correspondence, Coherence and Pragmatism, are closely related to our sense and perception. Even when sense and perception are indeed true, interpretation varies form one individual to another. Suffice to say, no two humans will have the exactly same life experience, no two individual will have the absolutely identical ways of living and seeing life as what it is. So stop saying to everyone in the world, that: "I know exactly how you feel... I know exactly what you experienced?" ? 

Apparently, what the majority ones vote for could be incorrect for an arbitrary chosen individual too. 

Many said to me, that <The Attack on Titans @ 进击的巨人> is one the the best anime in the world. For me, it's nor precisely my cup of tea. Although the story line being so atypical, the emotion build-up and the pace of the story was way too draggy and lengthy. Ha-ha! I really tried not to be too picky but I have the chance to cherry-pick, and I am sure I wouldn't watch it for a second time. I don't even know why I spent my busy IBDP days watching such an useless film and even write a post about it. Ha-ha! It wasn't a totally bad experience but I have better ones. (The first opening song was good though.)

However interestingly, IB life is very busy, and the more busy I get, I tend to find myself having the time to indulge myself in different means of entertainments. Up till now, since July, I'm done watching <MAUS complete graphic novel> ,< 四月是你的谎言 > the anime, <Sherlock Holmes the BBC drama>, <The Law of Ueki @ 植木的法则> the anime, <The Martian> Movie, <进击的巨人> th anime, and I'm currently reading <The Martian> novel. Ha-ha! I love IB life! 

<Your Lie In April>, probably one of the most touching and inspiring anime I've ever watched.

Sherlock Holmes by the BBC. The best ever!!

The Law of Ueki

The Martian was good. The physics theories applied in the movie was quite interesting and, surprisingly, real. I feel that the Martian movie was a great success, mainly because the theories illustrated in the movie can be easily comprehended and accessed by the public without leaving them to much of a migraine after the movie. Apart from that, the movie definitely act as the catalyst that spark up the motivation and inspiration for young adults in the education world to venture further in the field of astrophysics (or pure physics and engineering), and the movie could also have reignite the glowing flame buried deep in the heart of every man that once dreamt of being an astronaut. 

Theatre Lesson : (Oct'15) Realism : Acting is doing action in imaginary circumstances.

We did some Stanislavski style practices in class this week. Mercury ball and ball of energy training becomes easier for the second time. We learn that visualization is important for an actor toe engage in the imaginary world. Shrinking, growing, dragging, throwing, lifting and other shadow actions comes in the form of impulse and inner feelings. Breathing does help a lot in getting into the mood. Later in the unit, we will work more on our character's super objective, scene objectives, scene action and unit actions. I shall have to know my character better. ^^

______________________________

Acting is doing actions in imaginary circumstances

Theatre Lesson : (Oct'15) Starting from Nothing : Stanislavski and Chekhov Style (Realism)

In this theatre lesson, we learn about Stan Style. Actors, in theatre generally, train like athlete because the need the stamina to perform various characters and therefore most of them are in really good form.  In class, Quin brought up her thought regarding Michael Chekhov's External Plasticity. She felt that plasticity gave her a foreboding portent that being actors, we have to flexible, physically, mentally and psychologically. Visualization exercise, concentration, coordinate and movement training is essential too. One of the base skill of an actor is 'following the impulse', which I think most of need to put in lots of effort in developing them.

There's definitely similarity between the concept of neutrality proposed by Jacques Lecoq and the idea of circle of attention mentioned by Stan. Circle of Attraction consist of 5 or more levels actually, but in class, we focused on the first 3 only. In the first circle, we deal only with ourselves, our body, mind, focus, attention, emotion and everything pertaining our cognitive, anatomical, psychological aspects. once we have an intuition of a clear intention, we are ready to proceed to enter the second circle of attention. The second circle has a radius of 1 meter around us. An object was placed in the circle and we are supposed to approach it with the intention we had in mind earlier on. We would only move towards the object, or carry out whatever responses towards the object once the impulse is set and when we feel the urge to do it. Once we are comfortable in the second circle, we step into the third circle -  the room. We are allowed to interact with others only in the third circle. In the first and second circle of attention,we are supposed to live in our own imaginary world, the reality in high fantasy without acknowledging the existence of others. We have to be in character. Visual, audio or any other forms of distractions might affect our concentration. Technically, if we are distracted, we would have to go back to the first circle and redo the whole thing from zero. 

The idea of the fourth wall in realism acting comes in in the first and second circle of attention. In theatrical context, the fourth wall refers to the imaginary wall created by the actor in detaching himself or herself from the audience to remain unsmitten by the reactions, responses and other visual or audio unintentionally caused by the audience. Even though the actor know that he or she is being observed by a large group of people, the actor still has to visualize himself as an individual or character in the character's world (the play) and do whatever the character would do in the play according to his impulse without adhering to the old theatre rule of the blocking movements. The actor will have to act naturally and live the life of the character in the theatrical reality. Basically, the actor has to create the character's world and live within it, show indifference towards the audience and develop public solitude to enhance one's concentration and at the same time, awareness.

The words "organic", "authentic", and "aesthetic" have been brought up a few times in the class, and what do they mean in the context of theatre study? In my opinion, those words reflect upon how realism is taken into account as a form of acting. In realism, an actor would have to react naturally in the character of the play. In other words, the actor would have to be mentally, psychologically and biologically prepared for the character, and the actor would have to forsake his own personality and adapt to the behaviours of his character. Suffice to say, reality in high fantasy could be a form of Realism too. 

My "story line" in the learning process of circle of attention was quite different from the others. Christ's <Blue Pencil Case>, Janet's <Silver Flour Sieve>, Quin's <Orange rubber ball>, Ginger's <Old TuTu>, and Jem's <Neutral Mask> were all stories with a proper fictional story owing to their prior knowledge of the object. My object was a silver unknown object with an irregular shape. M story turned out to be an <Exploration of Imagination : An Argentum Puppet>. Okay, I know that sounds stupid. Ha-ha! Anyway, the initial thought I had once I venture into the second realm of the circle of attention was, "Is that a spacecraft accessory? Why is it here?" After taking a closer look at the object and after touching it, I decided that it looked like a lamp frame -probably an extra, unused lamp frame of the lighting system of the theatre room. "Alright! What......" and I was confused. At one moment I didn't know what to do with it. A moment later, my character decided to turn the object into a musical instrument. I made it into a percussion and I sang the melody in my mind. I felt happy. Intuitively, the impulse in me urged me to sing into the object, and so it became a microphone, or so to say, a speaker. 

The hand gesture of holding it as a speaker reminded the me, as in the character, of a telescope- the one prevalently used by pirates and sailors in adventurous movies. "I'm a free sailor now !!" and I picked up the object and view into the hole. I see Jemmima acting in her neutral mask; I see Janet intermittently pressing on her innovative modern flour sieve; Christ turned his pencil case into a blue ribbon and was dancing or trying a gymnastic move with it; Ginger was making faces with that tutu on and it was hilarious.I nearly laugh out loud myself. Just as i was about to move out of the second circle into the third, I saw Ms Val and she stared back at me. I thought I can smile, because my impulse told me to do so. I was sent back to the first circle of attention......

The second round took me a relatively shorter time to proceed into the second and finally the third circle of attention. The taste of being a sailor stayed for some time in me and further evolved to the desire of transforming into a captain. I turned the telescope into a hand-guard and imagine myself as Captain. An impulse took me by surprise, urging me to create a hook for the silver object. I ended up with two fingers poking out of the object and I realize that it resembles a puppet. A silver alien-like puppet with two snail-like eyes. I began to interact with others, I hid behind the curtains and occasionally appear to prank on them. 

It was fun, and I laughed out of my heart, the character's heart. I can really feel that.

After the class, Ms Val says that I have the vibe of a clown. Not the type of clown as in circus jester clown, but the clown that brings smiles and laughter to people around me. I'm glad that Ms Val pointed that out to me, though initially I didn't realize that I have such an attribute. I didn't know I can really resonate such an aura on stage. I do hope I can further explore my clownish style of performing and achieve something with it. ^^

**********

Once again in theatre class, I've obtained a conclusion that people get to be attached to things they claim possessive of. And those personal attachment to things do help the actor to enter their character. For example, if i pick up the same silver object next time, it would be easier for me to get into the puppet master character again. Attachments are like our anchors to the other character realms. It might be an object, a hand gesture commonly and naturally used by the character, an accent, a slang, the voice range and the talking pitch of the character, the costume or just any item symbolic to the character and anything of personal meaning/ relation of the character to the actor. 

Theatre Lesson : (Sep'15) Realism : < Homesick> Artistic Enthusiasm a.k.a. Intuitive Response

My Artistic Enthusiasm for Homesick, the play. 

I don't know what to say. After reading the script of the Singaporean Play Homesick, I don't have the urge to go home, so I guess that's not the ultimate purpose of the play. However, I do have an intense urge to draw a mask. A mask with a smile on it. But the mask was cracked, and parts of it are shreded off, some of it broken in to pieces and crumbled in to fine powder. 

The mask I drew signifies a disguise, used by almost everyone in the story to cover up their original identity, which was quite saddening because none of the children in the family really considered themselves as Singaporean. They recognize themselves and also introduces themselves as the residents of another nation, another country of their dream. Marianne and Manoj only refers themselves as the citizen of United States; Arthur loves China so much that he might just as well be a China Chinese; Herbert thinks that Anglo-saxon status is higher than others; Patrick thinks highly of the Australians only and Daphne is the typical World Citizen that promotes public awareness in everywhere except Singapore in the name of Globalization. The mask is placed on top of the topographical map of Singapore which once again stresses on the disguise created to hide their true self (Singaporean).

My intuitive response is drawn in the form of a puzzle, which juxtapose the concept of the cracking mask. It's ironic: A mask is supposed to be flawless and smooth and lustrous, in the end of the end, will crack, lose its colour and radiant, and fade, and shatter into pieces; whilst a puzzle, no matter how jumbled up the pieces are, in the end, when there's a will, there's a way. The persevere ones will prevail and the puzzle can be fixed again. The puzzle in my artistic enthusiasm, or the so-called intuitive response is the symbol of a family. No matter what happens, a family is always a family, and they are always there for you and for me. 

The artwork is made of only three colours: Black, Grey and White. Black and White represents definite answers, evidents and proofs. These are the important aspects in the world and our lives are inevitably intertwined with these things. Nonetheless, "grey" regions do exist too. This is where emotions and feelings, judgement and biases, assumptions and opinions, come into the picture. Homesick gives me such a feeling when I first read it. I was quite vague for me to describe it in words but I feel that despite being critical, and rational, sometimes, letting intuition and emotion rule wasn't always a bad thing. > <

Theatre Lesson : (Sep'15) Le Théàtre de Jaques Lecoq ( Laban Movements - Levels of Tension - Eye focuses )

After spending an hour or more on the concept of neutrality (which, according to Ms Val, was supposed to be done for a long period of time to fully understand the state of neutrality - the actors under Lecoq practiced just 'the awakening from relaxation to go into neutral state' for at least half a year before their proceed with the sight of new items or props and go further in the neutral state ), we experimented with a few things. We have learnt Levels of Tension, Laban movements, and Eye Focuses.

Jacques Lecoq developed an approach to acting using the seven levels of tension. We has been practising them for a few times in the class and I do think i really helps me, as a beginner to start my journey in theatre lessons. Out of seven Levels of Tension we learn in class, we have the Catatonic, which literally means being in a state of immobile or unresponsive stupor. In that session, we are require to walk in the one level of tension and change into another one when Ms Val call out for another Level of Tension. For Catatonic, we have to walk as if our ankles were chained with irons of lethargy. There's no tension in the body at all. Being in a state of relaxation, everything was done with minimal strength. If we have to walk or speak, it's real effort. Then, we have the Californian, of which supposedly refers to the carefree, laid back characteristic of the Californian Soap Opera. Of course, we have the Neutral state - having no story behing the action - and the alert state - curious and alarmed state, possibly a Mr-Bean-like state. These four levels of tensions are our everyday state.

Besides, we have the suspense state. All the tension is in the body, This level of tension is quite melodramatic, and sometimes, a bit of exaggeration is required. Female suspension I portrays the style of the ladies in the Victorian era while Female Suspension II requires us to walk and move like a female supermodel. Again, Male Suspension I is the counterpart for Female Suspension I and Male Suspension II is the male supermodel thingy, Then we have the Love Passion and Anger Passion  level of tension, and it was funny, witnessing the six of us being love-struck in front of Ms Val.

In my opinion, States of Passion deals with extreme emotions. Love. Anger. Fear. Hilarity. Despair. and Hope. And those sudden emotional outburst, are difficult to control.  Lastly, we have Tragic. Basically, in the state of being petrified, as if a full body bind spell has been cast on us. The body is a solid tension.

Later, we proceeded to the Laban movements which consist of the movement of WRING, FLICK, FLOAT, PRESS, GLIDE, DAB, THRUST/PUNCH, and SLASH. The movements are just like the denotation of the word itself, but with those movements we can achieve quite number of things.

This is when the interesting question of the difference between 'movement' and 'action' comes in. Someone in the class brought up this question, and I'm happy that I managed to answer it. movement is just a movement, it can be wring, pull, push, knock, and et cetera. However, when intention comes in, the movement becomes an action. With a will, an intention, a purpose, the movement that brings out a goal is an action. Gestures or hand signals are intentional, and therefore, they are considered as actions. Putting together the Laban Movements with the Levels of Tensions aw well as the eye focus, movements becomes actions. That's what we had been doing for almost most of the classes in September. ^^

Jacques Lecoq

Levels of Tension :

1. Catatonic ( Exhausted, Jellyfish-like state )
2. Californian ( Laid back )
3. Neutral ( no story behind the movement )
4. Alert ( curious )
5. Suspense ( Victorian era / Supermodel )
6. Passionate ( Emotions / Opera )
7. Tragic ( Petrified )

Leban Movements : 

Eye Focus

1. Wring
2. Flick
3. FLoat
4. Press
5. Glide
6. Dab
7. Thrust
8. Slash

Eye Focus : 

1. Up and over
2. Surface of the ground
3. Personal 1 
4. Personal 2
5. Eye to Eye
6. Imaginary Character
7. Horizon Loss 
8. Horizon Return
9. Epic

Laban Movements is a method and language for describing, visualizing, interpreting and documenting all varieties of human movement. Effort in Laban Movement is the characteristic about the way movement is done with respect to inner intention. It has four subcategories and each of them has two opposite polarities. The four factors are Space, Weight, Time and Flow. For Space, we have direct and indirect (flexible) movement. Weight is represented by the strength used in that movement, like a strong movement or a light touch. Time can be referred to the duration of movement, be it a sudden, nimble move or a prolonged, sustained move. Flow, on the other hand, is responsible for the continuity or "ongoingness" of motions. Without any Flow effort, movements must be contained in a single stroke. Flow of a movement resembles the fluidity of the liquid.

**************

For me, in class, I experimented with two combinations of different Levels of Tension, Laban Movement, and Eye Focuses. For the first time, I played with Male Suspension II (supermodel), Laban Movement Flick and Up and Over Eye Focus. Ms Val made us say "I LOVE YOU!" in the context of our combination. I imagined myself an idol, in my purple silky cloth I mentioned in my previous post, flicking and swishing the cloth, like I'm wearing an ancient Greek toga, waving and doing fan service to my imaginary "fans". Saying "I love you" in front of a large group of friends, is hard, and awkward!! I freaked out because initially, I could not relate my choice of movement combination to the word we have to say. Later, as an actor, I guess I have to overcome that as we will have to try more scripts in the future. After trying to get into the mood of our character or a few trials, we get to show others our character. Ms Val didn't believe what I did for the first time. I made a few amendments and tried again and finally I got some positive feedbacks from Ms Val and my friends. I will work harder for a better performance. My second combination was Catatonic, surface of the ground eye focus, and float Laban movement, and we have say "He's dead!" This second attempt was not too hard because I imagined someone died and I was grieving for him. For now, I suppose intuitive response from our inner thoughts and emotion do play a very important role in conveying the message we want bring out. Without a clear intention, it is very hard for the audience, or even the actor himself to understand what has been delivered. You have to mean what you say.  

Theatre Lesson : (Aug'15) Le Théàtre de Jaques Lecoq - State of Neutrality

My attention returns to my body. I start to feel the structure of my body. Initially wondering consciousness traverse back and I realize a vibration in me. I hear poundings in me. Strong pulses, my heart is palpitating. From the centre of my form, I can feel the vibration spreading out, rippling like waves towards my limbs. My consciousness stretches out towards my partial paralyzed legs and arms.

I have fingers, and toes. And if i will it enough to move, slowly it moves. They are stiff. I can feel the friction whilst separating the formerly in-contact skin on my fingers and my toes. And I move, more, faster, and in larger in action... I raised my hands above my head and I stretch further. I can feel my spine lengthen; vertebra by vertebra from my lower back towards my neck. I'm becoming longer, and longer. At one point, my body is so tense, and then i relax my muscles, and I open my eyes. A blinding white light flashes in front of me, my eyes strained and I close them again for a few seconds. I open them, and blink. I can feel that the veins or whatever structure that is holding the back of my eyes in the eye socket contract and then relax. I stare into the white lights above me.

"Am I a new born baby, a tabula rasa?... Maybe not." I find myself having a monologue. Then, I get the feeling that i just came out from a surgical theatre. The white lights, so blindingly glaring, are like those lights in the operation theatre. I raise my hands, close to my eyes. I can see the lines, the wrinkles on them. I flex my fingers, like how a puppeteer would do a marionette (but at that moment, i wasn't thinking about anything, just curious!)

Using my arms, I support my body into sitting position. I look around me and try to absorb everything into my mind. I realize that I'm sitting on a rough but quite soft surface - it's a floor carpet. I notice a yellow spherical object a few metres in front of me. I crawl towards it and poke it. It's not hard but it's elastic. Springy. And i experimented with it like a child, receiving his very first ball.....

In this chapter of Theatre class, I learn the concept of Neutrality. Lecoq describes the training of an actor as an effort to become a blank piece of paper, without any knowledge or preconceptions about the world, but with the potential to do of become anything. Personally, I don't feel too difficult to get into the state of "partial" neutrality. (I put it that way because I'm still skeptical about the fact that we can be entirely neutral and pure, and innocent just with that short time of practice. But no doubt, we can reach that level of transcendence with practices!!) One of the way that I opted to proceed nearer into the state of neutrality is by possessing the curiosity if a newborn baby. I know that it might sound hard and unconvincing, but in my opinion, one way to maintain the curiosity is by constantly remember oneself in life that we don't know everything. Even if we know an object, we should know that we don't everything about that object, and therefore, with that perception in mind, we would have the inquisitiveness to ask for more experiences, be it sensory or emotional, like a kid. We would have to let go of our ego and return to our humble self; in search of the inner child. One would scarcely believe that a grown-up will do goofy childish stuff. Yet, like a forgotten fire in the glowing ash of a coal, curiosity can always flare up inside us.

The neutral mask

For those who wish to proceed further with the concept of neutrality, Ms Val suggested further research in the use of masks, We have the neutral mask - an expressionless mask . How would such a mask could be a tool used in actor training? Maybe in some way, the mask could help the actor focuses more on his/ her body gestures first before including facial expression into the conveyance of message through theatre. By putting on a mask or a neutral face, one tends to put more attention towards the body and movements I suppose. Apart from neutral mask, we also have Character masks and Larval masks. For all mask, I believe, it helps an actor, especially beginners like us, to pay more attention to the other parts of the body, and to fully utilize the body parts express the actor's creative and intuitive response to the character he or she wants to portray. Putting on a mask is like putting on an identity. The actor achieve neutrality by not revealing his/ her own self . With neutrality, one should be able to prevent the play character having the personality, behaviors, habitual actions, signature movements of the actor.

Character Masks

Larval Masks

Apart from neutrality, I also discovered one's tendency of showing personal attachment towards object(s) at the first sight in one's transition into the neutral state. In most scenario, curiosity and inquisitiveness as well as limitless imagination are the major factors contributing to such as inclination. In my case, the long, plain, purplish cardinal, silky cloth that I played with, later became one of the prominent tool I utilized in the further exploration of this chapter.

(September 2015) CAS Reflection : 2 - MPU Merdeka Celebration Project

International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme Students taking picture with Ms Lauren, the Principal of TCSH

Event Proposal   :              MPU Merdeka Celebration Project

Objectives          :             

To show visually and aid in the understanding of what it means to live in harmony within a multicultural context.

Activity Description         :

As a Malaysian born citizen we are all familiar with the concept of a multicultural society. We are all individual with a different perspective of the world yet we are connected to each and every one by a “string of fate”. Inevitably this also means that for every action that we partake we must also be aware that we are affecting the other individual of the group which we are connected to. Recently the issue of racial disharmony has been creeping up in the media and in lieu of the country’s vision of Wawasan 2020, we are proposing a short play that will carry a strong message for the youth that is present in the college. 

Time                     :             

August 2015

Location              :             

Taylor’s College Sri Hartamas (TCSH)

Supervisor          :             

Mr Anthony William, MPU teacher TCSH

Goal                     :   

• ·       Work collaboratively with new friends from different racial, ethnical, and cultural background, or even making friends with international students regardless of nationality, race, languages, culture, habits, etc.
• ·        Resonates the extraordinary aura of teamwork, and comradeship.
• ·        Delegate jobs.
• ·        Be aware of my weakness.
• ·        Able to take everyone's opinion into consideration.

Impact                 :

• ·        Raise awareness about LOVE TOWARD THE COUNTRY, especially among the teens
• ·        Action speaks louder than words.
• ·        I am aware of my shortcomings, which includes the ineffectiveness in communication can cause lots of problems. I have to hone my skills in effective communication to avoid misunderstanding.
• ·        A great experience which taught us all the importance of teamwork and friendship.
• ·        What I hope to learn/ gain:

• Organizing and planning skills
• Performing Skills
• Effective Time Management

Timeline              :             

18^TH – 24^TH August 2015

Meeting, planning and having discussion among groups. Delegation of roles

25^TH – 26^TH August 2015

Kolam designing and making

27^TH August 2015

Rehearse the “Satu Malaysia” song with the International Students

28^TH August 2015

MPU Merdeka Celebration day

Cas Reflection:

This Merdeka Celebration event was one of our MPU project for year 2015. It was planned and initiated by us, the international Baccalaureate Diploma Programme Students of Taylor’s College Sri Hartamas batch 2015-2017. First of all, what we had to do was brainstorming. We divided ourselves into three groups as we planned to do three different activities. We are all different culturally and individually. Difference is not a sign of weakness, it is of strength. It is the understanding and respect of the presence of others that will lead us to harmony and not unity.

Throughout  the whole Merdeka Celebration, I took part in quite a number of different activities in celebrating the 58^th Independence Anniversary of our nation, Malaysia. First of all, about three days before the event day, which was the 28^th of August 2015, I helped out another group of friends of mine to design and make the Satu Malaysia kolam at the corridor along the main entrance Taylor’s College Sri Hartamas. I was living in Puncak Prima Condominium, the school hostel just next to the campus, so I offered to come down to the campus and help out at night. Initially, the kolam only consisted of three main parts – the Satu Malaysia symbol and the national flower of Malaysia, the Hibiscus, and the Taylor’s College Logo. We managed to complete that Kolam in just one night. Kudos to the Kolam Team. The Kolam was really attractive. It was radiant with many colours. The second night, we made some alterations and we ended up adding more features to the Kolam. We added a famous landmark of Malaysia, the Petronas Twin Towers, and the wording of “Merdeka58 @TCSH”. We were so addicted to Kolam making and could stop adding more details on our craftwork. In the end we have the as well as #SEHATISEJIWA on the Kolam. From the experience of this Kolam making session, I truly felt that aura of teamwork and friendship inundating me in the most sanguine way possible. It was so touching, seeing so many people working collaboratively, putting in the best hand-in-hand for the ultimate result.

Figure 1 : The kolam on the first night. 

Figure 2 : The Kolam Team and I

Figure 3 : The Kolam Team

Fgure 4 : The Kolam with the Petronas Twins Towers..

Figure 5 : The Final Artwork!

 On the day itself, Quin and I led the international students of our intake to sing a patriotic song. The international students, Kumar (from Singapore), Akash and Rina (from India) had chosen the song “Satu Malaysia”, a famous song originally sang by a choir of Malaysia singers. It was quite an experience to sing the Malay song with them, in front of the crowd. I was proud that they were willing to celebrate the Independence Day of Malaysia without prejudice and sang a song that represented racial unity, tolerance and dedication towards the country. Seeing them singing happily on the stage with us, I felt touched. Such an experience make me realize the importance of togetherness without any form of discriminations. I would like to urge all the teenagers in this world to step out and make a difference for their country. I tend to hear, from many teens from various background, saying that they do not think that they can do anything for the world. Yet, I realized that we actually can. First of all, we have to get rid of the negative mindset that errs our judgement, that is, as young as we are we literally do not have a voice. In fact, we have voices, if and only if, we voice out together. By doing a small measure on our own, those small steps by us as an individual, can sum up to be a big change.

Lasty, after the singing of "Satu Malaysia" song, I participated in the Merdeka Play, Ginger, Janet, Jemmima, Quin and I were the actors in the play. The play however did not turn up very well. We barely contrived to send out our main messages, partially owing to the not-so-strategic venue of the play itself. Another fault of the play was that we did not have enough time to rehearse the play. We were all theatre students and we thought it would be alright for us to do an ad lib performance, since we just learnt about improvisation in our previous theater lesson.  At the end of the day, we need to reflect upon the mistakes we made that contributes to the making of our nearly failed Merdeka play. I admit that I had spent too much of my time practicing the singing with the international students and had kind of neglected the play. I learnt that I should learn and practice effective time management in a bid to avoid hindering other plans in the future.

           

            All in all, the Merdeka Celebration was a success. It was quite an enriching experience, working collaboratively with new friends and getting to know different cultural backgrounds across the state border and even the international border. In the name of globalization, there’s no boundary that would stop us from learning from each other.

Figure 6 : the IB1 students can hardly hide their excitement on the event day.

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Figure 7 : The teachers and the staff taking selfie in the Malaysia Traditional Costumes