Going green...

Frankly, I was a little disappointed at the stimulus that we received today. A poem on ecology? Been there, done that, then repeated the whole process at least three times. We've talked about saving our planet and recycling in almost every subject (next thing you know, they'll replace trigonometry by ecology in maths class!), so it's no wonder really that most students were not the most enthusiastic they had ever been when presented with it. But anyways, this blog isn't really meant to be a complaint to the IB Theatre Arts board, so I might as well get on with what I have to say.

We were a full class today, and this time I was so prepared for it that I jumped in with half a dozen ideas as soon as we were put into groups after reading the poem. We had to imagine a piece of theatre that we could draw from this stimulus. Our group's idea was good, according to our drama teacher: My Apocalypse. It's the story of a boy who loses his grandfather and who feels as though the world has stopped spinning; that this is the end and he cannot do anything about it. The world (represented by Celine, Farah and I) turn around him, egging him on by whispering and drawing closer as he becomes more and more agitated. The child in the middle, played by Dan, eventually realises that the world must go on and that this should not affect the rest of the people around him. I was disappointed because we hadn't rehearsed much and some of us forgot when exactly and where they had to move, when they had to whisper, and so on. Another thing that annoyed me was when our teacher pointed out that it was terribly cliche to have a character in the center and building up tension with movement and noise around him- because it was true. So next time I'll try to learn from the mistake of using very obvious theatrical devices and go for something a little more subtle.

What I did like about this exercise was that each group drew something completely different from the poem; ours was about the end of the world for a little boy, Meghna's group portrayed an idealistic world, and Marta's group was a comparison between people who believe that they have problems and others who make them realise that life is in fact, worth living.
So live life to the fullest! :)

Love & Sunshine

Soph