Wednesday 22nd of May:
Today we were given feedback on our TPPP's and i realized that there was a lot of things that were picked up that some of us did, whilst i watched and did my own TPPP i thought we were all pretty good and did what was told but in fact we didn't, there was a long list of things we did wrong or shouldn't do during the presentation. I think that it's normal that we did quite a bit of things wrong but i think as a whole we did every  good. The long list has made me realize that we need to work more on following the grade boundaries, although we thought we all did well and had some good points in our presentations would have to be worked on or changed. It would of been helpful if we were provided with a list of positive things we did during our presentations and we could use this to make our presentations better in the future.

Tuesday 23rd of May:  
Today we talked about our PPP's and what should be included during the process and how it should look like at the end as an end product. I'm actually really interested to do this because although i'm not a very arty person I've never really done a project like this before and i am intrigued to see how my own ideas will develop and how i will show my idea throughout the whole process.
After this we started on our grid map for Mother Courage Set Design - at the moment i'm not quite sure what to think about this because as i just said i'm not good at art but i am willing to try and put all my effort in to make something that looks ok ahaha

Monday 13th May 2013:

Mr.Fearnehough told us in advance that he was not going to be here and he has already planned what we were going to do.  Normally we had two hours set for our TPPP’s but since we weren’t hear we could not do them. So we worked on reading and annotating three extracts about Set Design theories. And after that we were then told to annotate and start on ideas for the set design for the play we have just started ‘Mother Courage’. – Just going through these extracts helped us broaden our knowledge about set design and specifically Brecht’s ideas on set design and how he used it which helped him create the A-effect.  

Wednesday 15^th  May 2013:

Today was the day of our TPPP’s, I was quite nervous because I wanted to do well but I always have a problem with speaking in front of an audience.  Whilst preparing the presentation I struggled at first with what I was going to say and then struggled with what images to choose. As soon as I found a photo that was quite relevant to what we had done I felt more confident because I found that I had a lot to talk about for all the photos, but because I was on a time limit I had to shorten things down. When I first timed myself at home I went a little over time at 22 minutes and found that there was a bit much, so I decided to cut it down which got me quite close to 20 mins.

Whilst watching everyone else’s TPPP’s I saw ideas in their TPPP that I had in mind so I thought when I went up that it would go well.  We got our grade very quickly back on (Wednesday 22^nd of May ) and I’m disappointed, I thougth I did well on :

-         - Timing (was the closest to the 20 minutes set out of everyone else’s).

-        -  I thought the things that I mentioned related specifically on our Commedia piece – which was what this mock TPPP was set on.

-        -  I thought my images were appropriate and along the lines of what this TPPP was focused on.

-        -  I showed theatre in the making

-        -  I explained my technical role in our Commedia piece.

-        -  I felt that I reflected and used different images to show how I felt at the beginning, middle and end of our commedia project.

-        -  I explained my experiences that I had before IB theatre at the beginning of the presentation.

What I didn’t do so good on:

-         - Used too many collages

-         - Said ‘umm’ and ‘errr’ quite a  bit

-         - I didn’t link to other theories or practitioners

-        -  I mustn’t use a script – INDEX CARDS

-        -  I feel I rushed at the end because I saw I did not have much time left so started to panic .

For this TPPP Mock I predicted myself  a 5 and am really disappointed that I got a 4 – I feel I did well and related everything to the commedia project – which I thought was the idea and focus of this TPPP Mock. 

Brecht Set Design & Our Mock TPPP's!

Monday 13th May:
We were meant to do our TPPP's today but instead we worked on annotating/reading three extracts about Brecht Set design theory. We then had to think and note ideas for our set design for Mother Courage.
This project helped us to start off on having a set designers role and also learning about Brecht style and how this he used set to help his theory and create the a-effect.

Wednesday 15th:
Today was the day for our mock TPPP's. After watching the year 13's and i saw how confident they were, I told myself that I have to be as confident because it makes the whole TPPP sound more interesting, passionate and better. I did get quite nervous though before performing my TPPP.
When making my TPPP, i felt like i struggled to find images but I think it is a lesson learnt because I know now that we should take more photos when doing exercises and projects in drama! When I rehearsed my TPPP, the timing was a little short at 18 minutes but I knew that on the day, i would talk more which I did!

ON REFLECTION of my TPPP, I thought that it was alright. I understand partly where I have gone wrong and I know that I will be able to improve for my final TPPP.

Positives about my TPPP (I think):

• good timing
• I felt like i had good explanations and relfected on my images
• used the right amount of images
• had main focus of commedia project
• Showed theatre in the making
• Good images

Negatives :

• too many umms & errrrsss
• i giggle a bit in it, unformal. 
• Used too many collages
• No links to other practioners 
• When I state theory, explain the theory.
• need less notes and need to memorise my presentation more

I predicted myself a 5 after listening & also from doing our predicted grades sheet in PSHE.

TPPP

May 13, 2013 (Monday) This is the day where we will present our TPPP but Mr. Fearnehough has an important appointment so he gave us an assignment about BRECHT and annotate it and get some important information to describe "Mother Courage".

May 15, 2013 (Wednesday) This is it! We present our TPPP for the end of the year, where i am the last person to present, i am really nervous and i don't know if i can finish it until 19-20 mins. When i am presenting i just want to visualize that i'm just practicing and their is no people around me. My TPPP is about everything that we do as an Theater student from the start of the year and refer it to me as an IB theater student and talk about our Commedia Play, about what we do in our play and what I've learn from it. I'm really nervous i didn't use my script and just talk that what my mind wants to say and i look at the time its only 10 mins and i am done explaining the images and i was like i don't know what to say and something came out on my mind that i can say about what i felt in the 1 year course as being a Theater Student.

Week 27: Mock TPPP's

Monday: Mr. Fearnehough gave us an assignment to read and annotate several texts about Brechtian theatre and use the information to sketch set designs for each scene of "Mother Courage". This project will get us to think as designers and learn about Brecht's work from a practical angle. Although we were originally scheduled to present our TPPPs today, Mr. Fearnehough had an appointment come up so they were postponed to Wednesday.

Wednesday: Today was a day of infamy. We presented our TPPPs. Before we began I was very nervous, I was worried about messing up and getting a terrible grade as this was our end of year exam and I was also worried about saying something completely stupid or too personal. The point of the TPPP is to reflect on theatre and share your personal experiences, emotions, reactions, lessons learned... When I began preparing for this presentation I was worried about having enough material. After all TWENTY MINUTES is a looong time! But when I practiced my presentation it was actually too long, this helped me feel more confidant but made me worry about it being too long. To make sure that I would not forget my points and so that my presentation would be long enough I made a super long outline. This really helped, but it could have been better developed. I used five pictures that were photographs of what things that we had done in class. In retrospect I could probably have found better images that would have let me say more things and may have been a little more interesting and useful. During my presentation I was not very well organized, I got a little lost in my notes as well as having some ideas while presenting, which were more distracting than helpful. This meant that my presentation did not flow well. In future TPPPs I need to remember to pick specific events/elements to speak about in depth instead of touching on everything kind of randomly. Another thing I could have done better at was referring to the images specifically, as "image 1" or "image 2". I had some nervous "tics" that I need to make sure not to do next time, I played with my bracelet, I said um... and so... when I was uncertain of what I was going to say next, but overall I think I did decent at not allowing my nerves to affect my presentation.

One thing that I think went well was going first. I volunteered to go first so that I wouldn't have to see everyone else doing amazing and get more nervous, so I could get it out of the way and done with (like ripping of a band-aid [plaster]), and so I could pay better attention to everyone else's presentations. This worked I was able to concentrate on the other presentation much better and I didn't have as much  time to get nervous while I waited to go. I liked my pictures of me before and after theatre, I could have elaborated on them a little more but I thought they were pretty good.

Final Exam TPPP

This week we presented our TPPP’s (mock) that acted as both practice for IB assessment next year and as an internal final exam. Although we all focused on the same experience (our commedia-inspired production of “Love Wins All”) we could relate the rest of our year back to that focus. I’m never nervous for a presentation and even enjoy presenting. For me, when I’ve prepared something, have the opportunity to clearly explain my ideas, and get to be myself (no acting involved) there is no reason to be nervous. Additionally I’d figured out the timings in my head, so I knew I had roughly three minutes to spend on each image in my presentation.

            I had to make sure that each of the aspects of the course I mentioned could be related back to “Love Wins All”, so I started my presentation discussing my technical role as the acrobatic instructor. I made sure to emphasize the importance of movement and physicality in commedia, a concept that I then related to my second focus of body positioning. Because each commedia stock character’s mask has a specific movement I discussed how they way they moved helped the audience recognize their role in society. This allowed me to mention good old Etienne Decroux and his three principles of movement (of which I’m very familiar with, after learning about him at TAPs and then presenting a masterclass about it at IST) Additionally Brecht recognized the importance of body position and movement in what he called “gest/gestus”. I then moved on to discuss how the symbolism in Brecht’s Epic Theatre mirrored the symbolism used by Edward Gordon Craig in his set designs, BOTH ideas relate to the fact that commedia characters are symbols themselves.

            For my next focus I took a figurative approach to explain how commedia mask work can really be considered similar to puppets. At this point I was at liberty to discuss the master class on puppetry I’d taken in London, and how the principles of puppetry can be applied to mask work. My last two images went into more depth on the other roles I took on for “Love Wins All” such as the role of actor (Il Capitano) and the role of choreographer. My discussing the influence and inspiration of clowning, stand-up comedy, and “One Man Two Guvnors” hopefully I got across just how much theatre in the world I knew and understood.

            Overall I feel pretty confident with my performance, now I suppose we must all wait to know results…

Week 26: More Brecht

Wednesday: We discussed gest (or gestus). It is a combination of gestures and body language. It is gestures plus an attitude. We learned that Brecht used pictures and films of rehearsals to looks at his work and to look at things that need to be changed. This method seems good, we could film our work and then look back at it and compare old versions with new ones. We also learned about "stage pictures". This means that one look at the stage should communicate everything, therefore meaning there is less reliance on dialogue. We explored the use of gestus by attempting to show emotions. We learned that details can change the entire meaning, for instance the angle of the eyes can make an action seem sweet or forced, the use of height is important, emotions can be very strong or weak this needs to regulated. The angle of the motion is very important. Brecht was attempting to make a theatre that crossed cultural and linguistic boundaries. We drew on our cultural knowledge to do this activity so we may need to work on it more if we do more Brecht.

Comparison of Brecht and Commedia dell'arte

Both use exaggerated motions

They use stereotypes rather than fleshed out characters

Reflection: the same methods are used but for similar reasons, but different purposes, for they are used to be very clear and easy to understand, the characters are supposed to be easily recognizable, but the reason for this in Brechts style of theatre is because he does not want the audience relating just recognizing and he wanted a simple story. 

In Brechtian theatre scenes stand by themselves, they do not necessarily tell a chronological story and the super objectives of Stanislavsky do not work, although the actors do need to keep track of the message they trying to send. In Brecht's plays he only presents the action, there is no explanation as he not trying to excuse  or condemn anyone's actions. Brecht uses a narrator to tell the story so that when the scene is acted out the audience wonders "how" not "what". This way the audience is more concerned about the situation than the characters. Brecht attempts to show the truth from society while Stanislavski tries to show the truth from the characters emotions. 

We tried to use what we had learned in some skits. First we tried to do a group of losing soldiers. We used a triangle marching pattern to show the fear of the soldiers (the scared people were in  the back and the braver ones were in front). We had some people running, some charging, and some dieing. We discovered that we did not show how we were losing as much as we should have. Then we did one about the management of a big factory giving themselves a raise and refuse to give one to the workers. We were supposed to show how selfish the managers were. When the managers began yelling at the workers we learned that the angrier they got the more scared the workers would get (An inverse ratio). 

Truth in Acting

Stanislavski: wants to convey the psychological truth (the emotions of a relatable character)

Brecht: situational truth (eg. bosses are evil and horrible, workers are good) he may use masks for the A-effect and to show the characters better e.g. a pig mask for the boss

Commedia: truth in characters (stereotypes must be relatable)