To help you with memorization of your showcase piece, type in your scene (type in your parts but leave out the other parts) or monologue from memory as much as you can.  This is a great tool to use for memorization – writing out your part.

We are a little over halfway through the drama semester.  Write a brief sentence about the following:

1.  What have you learned that was new to you?

2.  What did you know already that was reinforced or you were reminded?

3.  What would you like to know before the end of the year or what should we add to the course in the future?

Create a character for yourself for the music video project.  Include some information about your character, his/her interests, a short backstory.  Explain why the message of this video is important to the character.

And give your character a name.

During improvisation you have to quickly identify a character (isn’t that one of the 9 rules of improvisation?).  What can you do to quickly identify a character or character traits during improvisation activities?

What do you have to think about when identifying your character?

Define “stereotypes” in your own words.  List character stereotypes used frequenty in TV shows, movies, plays, and other media.  Why do you think we see these characters portrayals used so often?

You only need to answer either blog #4 or blog #5 based on when you performed your monologue in class.  You will receive credit for your answer for either week (blog #4 or blog #5).

You have now completed two presentations in class.  Self-evaluation of our work is a very important part of our improvement and growth in everything we do.

Using the “Self-Improvement Plan” from your book (page 25) answer the following questions:

#2 – How and were did you practice (both in class and outside of class)

#5- Did you use all of the class time Mr. Cornwell gave you?  If not, what were you doing instead of practicing?

#9 – According to your peers, where do you need to focus your efforts to improve?  You will need to ask some of your peers outside of class to answer this one.

You have now completed two presentations in class.  Self-evaluation of our work is a very important part of our improvement and growth in everything we do.

Using the “Self-Improvement Plan” from your book (page 25) answer the following questions:

#2 – How and were did you practice (both in class and outside of class)

#5- Did you use all of the class time Mr. Cornwell gave you?  If not, what were you doing instead of practicing?

#9 – According to your peers, where do you need to focus your efforts to improve?  You will need to ask some of your peers outside of class to answer this one.

Memorization can be challenging to people for any number of reasons.  And many people use different strategies for memorizing scripts, speeches, information for tests, etc.

Share one strategy you use for memorization.   Explain to us what exactly you do to successfully memorize something.

Evaluation is the way we feel about the quality of something.  Evaluation is an important part of everything we do.  You are evaluated on what you learn in classes, you will be evaluated as part of your career, and hopefully you take time to evaluate your lives regularly.

In drama we evaluate ourselves and we are evaluated by our peers.  How will you evaluate yourself on each project and throughout the semester? 

List three skills you would like to improve by the end of the semester.  We will check in on this list throughout the quarter to see if you are making progress.  This is an important part of the evaluation process – setting goals and checking in on them periodically.

Welcome to the second semester drama class at TCMS.  We are going to explore drama, theatre and acting in many ways – improvisation, memorization, acting, technical theatre, theatre history and more.  You will have many opportunities to perform in front of others in the class. 

You will log onto the blog every week and post comments to the main topic and to other students’ posts.  Remember that blog posts should be positive and constructive.  If you can’t say anything nice……you know the rest.  Remember also to be safe on the internet – you should let you parent(s) or guardian(s) know when you will be working online, even for school.

Post #1: Share with the class your past experience with drama and some of your expectations from this class.