Tuesday, April 1, 2008

final week

This is the final week of lecture, which means Finals are creeping in around the corner. The atmosphere is tense as the clocks are ticking wildly. Anyway I just wanted to pen down my final piece before I close the chapter for this course EDU3217 Teaching the Language of Drama. The experience did do me good. I have learned a lot about literature and I have to admit that it seriously did help me in my understanding of literature, though I must admit that I did not improve much in Shakespeare’s work. I have learned so many new figurative terms and words which I had not known before. For example, I had no idea that homosexual is not a term used in literature, it did help my understanding on the play A Streetcar Named Desire when I discovered that words like “something I cannot talk about” or “degenerate” actually referred to Homosexuals. I kept cracking my head trying to figure out the words that actually meant Allan Grey was gay. Hamartia, tragic hero, reversal of fortune, all these terms made me understand one thing; everyone is a tragic hero who experiences the reversal of fortune at one point or another. Oedipus Rex was a really good play as I never seen a more pitiful character in my life. Anthony and Cleopatra I did not like very much as the script was too tedious to understand. My favorite I would say in Streetcar Named Desire as the issues dealt in the play was more recognizable. The final play 30 Days of September is a brilliant piece of work which I admire very much because the issue it highlights is of rising concern these days and I hope that by reading this, I will open the eyes of many. On the whole I think the course will be useful when I teach in the future. Before I end, I would like to thank my lecturer and my tutor for the guidance they have provided

Passion- play in KLPAC

yesterday, 1st April 2008, we watched a real beautiful play called PASSION in KLPAC, Sentul. I have been to a play once before but this time it was way better because the message was conveyed through dance and not conversation. The dance was really brilliant but after the play I realized that everyone who watched it had their own version of the story. There wasn’t any conversation in the entire play. The only words heard were the introduction and the ending. This is where stages directions come in handy. We had to be really careful to watch the expressions and the actions of the actors. If left unnoticed the story would not be understood. As I said, after the play I heard many versions of the play which differ with mine. Well, from what I understand from all the dancing, the play is about two ladies who are actually not the protagonist but the source of the conflict. These two ladies were disappointed by the protagonist and the other men, thus leaving them to have affairs and in the end decided to be together. In my opinion I think that the ladies realized that the men in their lives only desired them sexually. The title of the play is really suitable I would think because the dance was so passionate if not the love scenes. One of the stage directions I noticed was the color scheme of the clothes used by the dancers for certain scene. It depicts the atmosphere of the scene just like the “blue piano” from a Streetcar named Desire. I really admire those dancers as I think they did a good job communicating with the audience through their facial expressions and their body movements. But I have to admit that some scenes was a bit boring as I had no idea what it meant.