FUNNY Unit: End of Unit Reflection

For the FUNNY Unit, we were put into separate groups to come up with a funny piece that we could present to the entire drama class. In my group I had, Noshin, Sunaira, Saniya, and Ankita as group members. In our small group, we decided to recreate an episode from the show "New Girl". During the practice sessions that we had to practice our scene, I personally think that our group itself did a better job during that time, but when we went up in front of the entire class to perform our scene, we got a bit nervous and kind of messed up. Since the script from that particular episode from New Girl was very long, we decided to make it a bit short and take the main scenes from the script. I had the role of playing the main character "Jess". However, afterwards when we went on stage to perform to the class we used our skills of improvisation to finish the scene as we were unable to remember all the lines from the script as there were too many. We used props to give the audience an idea about what objects we were carrying; for example, in one part of the scene, i had to carry a TV out, but as it was quite impossible for me to actually bring a TV to school as a prop, we (as a group) decided to use a big screen prop which was close to looking like an actual television as a prop for our scene. I personally think that even though we kind of messed up in our final performance, we still did a good job, as we used our time wisely when it came to practicing. However, i think that we could have done a better job in our final performance by revising the lines from the actual script from new girl, well enough so that we did not have to stutter on stage (which we did do). But overall i think that throughout the entire FUNNY unit, my group did a good job with the performance even though we had our flaws, and made a few mistakes.

Improv Evaluation: DW 6

Unit 3: Epic Theatre (Bertolt Brecht) Study: Task 3--Reflection of G12 IPP Brecht performance

Global Issues: The women of Bangladesh sacrifice a lot for men, and they put in a lot of effort when the men don't really seem to care, and they mind their own business. While the women try so hard to satisfy the men and to make them happy by doing what the men want the women to do.

Theme: Self Sacrifice

Scene from Link: 

Design Emphasis--"A Memory of Lizzie"--Thumbnail Sketches

Design Emphasis--"A Memory of Lizzie" Set/Costume Research Task

                          Design Emphasis- "A memory of Lizzie" Set/Costume Research Task

COSTUME Reference from Script		Page #	Research Task
1	“small American schoolyard – Massachusetts in about 1871/2.”	9	Find pictures and descriptions of what kids would wear to school in this period.
2	"The day they were killed i had on a blue dress" (Lizzie Borden)	10	Find pictures of a blue dress from the 1870's.
3	"C'mon let's play ball."	14	Find pictures of outfits back from the 1870's that are easy to move in
4	"Lizzie borden took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks. Then she stood behind the door and gave her father forty more"	22	Find a picture of a white dress as you want there to be a shocking reaction for the audience. (White dress will be covered in blood)
5	"Cos we don't have boys playing sipping games"	22	Find outfits of what boys would wear during the 1880's, that would go well with this particular scene.
6	'Y'have flowers at 'em both, i reckon. i seen 'em at weddings"	25	Find wedding attire pictures from back in the 1880's.
7	"Dearly beloved, we are here today to bid farewell to the remains of our friend."	28	Find a picture of a black dress that lizzie borden would wear from back in the 1880's

Costume Reference from Script:

1.Kids school attire:

Design One:

Source: http://maggiemayfashions.com/sewingblog/1870s-school-dress/

I personally think that this costume is appropriate for what kids would wear to school during the 1880's period, which is why after doing some research i thought that this costume would be the right costume for the girls to wear to school.

Character: Alice




2. Lizzie Borden "blue dress"-

Design Two:            

Author: Melanie Harris

Source: http://www.pinterest.com/melanieharris/1880s/

On page 10 it said "The day they were killed i had on a blue dress", which is why i researched on blue 1880's dress that would be appropriate for Lizzie Borden to wear since the quote is based on the action that she had made that day.

Character: Barbara





3. Easy to move in outfits

Design Three:

Author: Peabody Essex Museum

Source: http://www.pem.org/collections/2-american_art

The fashion during the 1880's mainly consisted of big corset dresses which is what most women wore at all times. After doing a lot of research i have not found any outfit that would be easy to move in while playing, so i figured that even back in the days, children would move around in the attire that they are already in, which is why i chose this design.

Character: Dorothy

4. White dress

Design Four:

Author: Katerina Miller

Source: http://www.pinterest.com/thefaerie/late-19th-century-sportswear/

After doing some research, I came across this dress. As i mentioned above, during the 1880's the attire and fashion for the girls/women would be big skirts with folds, drapes, and pleats which would give the outfit a unique look. So after doing research i came across this white dress which i think would go perfectly with this particular scene as i had the thought of giving it a dramatic effect so that after Lizzie Borden kills her parents, there would be blood all over her outfit to give the audience a terrifying and shocking feeling.

                                          Character: Ann

5. Boys outfit "playing skipping games":

Design five:

Author: The briggs brothers

Source: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/238690848974155693/

During the 1880's boys would wear dress pants, a shirt with a tie, and a blazer/suit over it. Compared to the types of suits that men tend to wear these days, the attire for the men back in the 1880's was different as it consisted of different designs/patterns/ and texture as well.


6. 1880 Wedding attire with flowers:

Design Six:

Author: Karen Ben-Horin

Source: http://pinsndls.com/2010/09/02/875/

During the 1880's the wedding attire is a bit similar to the wedding attire we have today, except back then the dresses would have more frills and on them to make them look a bit more victorian.






7. 1880 black funeral dress for Lizzie Borden:

Design seven: 

Author: The metropolitan Museum of Art 

Source: http://historiful.wordpress.com/2012/04/07/fashion-from-the-1880s/

Since this particular scene has a funeral in it, i thought that, since Lizzie Borden is the main character, she should be the one wearing a black dress. Also as she is the one who is putting her friend in the coffin it would give the audience a scary feeling as well. 

Character: Lizzie Borden 

"A Memory of Lizzie" Evaluation of Design Work

Self Evaluation

After completing all my work on the play of “A memory of Lizzie”, I personally think that my overall work was good. Although my set design and costume design could be better, I still think that the annotated work was still good and descriptive. My strengths for this particular work and unit was that I was able to come up with many annotative ideas and I think I went into descriptive details when it came to annotating the two page part of the script. My main weakness for this unit and work was not being able to draw the set design and costume design properly, as I am not an art student and because I am not really good with drawing. To stop this from happening next time, and to improve my design stage, I think that before doing the design work I though research a bit more about set design and costume design to draw the set and costume designs properly. Other than that I think that my overall work was done and completed properly.

"A Memory of Lizzie" Design Unit Peer Evaluation

Peer Evaluation for “A memory of Lizzie”

For this task, I evaluated Noshin’s work based on “A memory of Lizzie” that she had posted on her blog.  I think she did a good job with the costume design because she took close up pictures of the detailing on the costume and she also coloured in her drawings which makes it a bit more clear about what the costume will look like and is a bit more descriptive.  For Noshin’s stage design task, I think that she could have done a better job, because it is not very clear in the camera about what her set design actually looks like. One feedback that I can give her to make her stop this from happening is the same feedback that I gave myself,  “ do some research based on set design and then draw the design out to make it more clear and understandable for the person who is seeing it.” I think that Noshin did a good job on her annotate script because she gave clear and descriptive ideas about stage direction and what each character should be doing. Overall I personally think that Noshin did a good job, although her set design could be a bit better.

"A memory of Lizzie" Cat scene Script

"A Memory of Lizzie" Cat Scene Script

Re-read the scene that is related in the script by Frances/Francis concerning Mrs. Borden's cat. How might you achieve the appropriate and horrific effect of the discovery of the cat? Write it out as a script and include stage directions.

We can achieve the appropriate horrific effect of the discovery of the discovery of the cat by having specific type of lighting and sound effect on stage. While Frances tell the story to the others about the discovery of the cat, the others could be sitting in a circle on the floor while Frances tells the story. Meanwhile, there can be very dim lighting on stage on the little group circle of girls and boys that are listening to Frances tell the story of the discovery of Mrs. Borden’s cat. There should be a background sound effect of a “chopping” noise, and a cat “meowing” noise when Frances says: “she put the poor thing on the chopping-block and chopped it’s head off.” The girls and boys sitting around Frances can gasp and should have terrified expressions on there faces at this point.

Stage casting placement for this scene:

All the cast in this particular scene should be sitting around Frances in a circle, in the middle of the stage.