May 30, 2016 - June 3, 2016 Weekly Agenda

Monday, May 30th:

Memorial Holiday 

Tuesday,  May 31st: 

Presentations of Rough Draft by Underclassmen:

Kayla: 
Russian emigre who has moved to the States.

Cooper:  
No rough draft; only sketchy biographical details

From rich family who wishes to make his own way through the world.

Final Presentation by Graduating Seniors:

Kamron: speaking to friend about the friend's betrayal by hitting on his girlfriend.

Jahayra: a bride on her wedding day confronts her father with his inability to pay attention to her or to see her or listen to her in any meaningful way. (Very real, honest, and raw!)

Joseph: read for feedback. Young man speaking to his mother about the loss of his best friend, his grandfather, and his difficulties at school standing up to his bullies. Very good.

Wednesday, June 1st: 

  Presentations of Senior Finals: 

Katia: struggling young woman complaining to a counselor that she cannot pay for her college tuition.

Karla: helper, plays the college counselor

Tania: (rough draft – reading from script) a model who is emotionally closed up and cannot open up to people.

Sarena: helper, plays the photographer

Justin: (rough draft – reading from script) Iraqi leader speaking to an assembly of his subordinates urging them to turn away from violence and towards peace.

Thursday, June 2nd:

 Presentations of Photos and background info: 

Kayla – initial presentation of photo and biographical sketch
40 year old Russian born English teacher  whose parents were abruptly deported when she was fifteen, leaving her and her five year old brother alone in America.

Jess – initial presentation of photo and biographical sketch
Sixty-four year old Holocaust survivor who suffers from PTSD due to her war experiences. 

Final Senior Presentations: 

Joseph – final monologue; typed script; presentation
Talking to his mom about the bullying he has suffered at school, and the loss he feels from his best friend and adviser - his grandfather
Jahayra - helper in Joseph's scene 

Taraz – final monologue; typed script; presentation
Changed the character; he is now advising his best friend, a star athlete, not to do drugs. 
 Eddie – helper in Taraz’s scene

Eddie – final monologue; typed script, presentation
Successful 35 year old businessman speaking to his therapist about seeking his wealthy, high achieving father's love

For tomorrow:
Begin work on initial photo, biographical detail, and rough draft of the rest of the class. 



Friday, June 3rd: 

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Initial Presentations: photo, biographical details, rough draft of monologue

Montserrat:

Photo, biographical details, no monologue

Biographical details: issue with mother who was a model. Became pregnant and blames daughter for ruining her life. Mother wants her to be a model. Dismisses daughter’s desire to go to college and use her mind, not her body or her beauty to make money.

Talking to mom

Anton:

Rough draft of monologue:

Stand-up comedy routine by a fifty-two year old alcoholic at an open mike. Recounting his misadventures in his life – narrowly getting beaten up by a gang member; living in his car and accidentally setting his car on fire while driving on the freeway when he throws still lit cigarette butt in the back seat

Talking to audience

Cooper:

No monologue,

Sketchy biographical details:

Still having trouble finding work, still living at home with parents, working a minimum wage job.  Had fight with best friend over a girl.  Blames his friend for stealing his lover.

Talking to ex-friend.

Final Scene Presentation by Seniors:

  

Melissa:

Monologue: Standing up to ex-boyfriend who physically abused her for years. Would always apologize by giving her expensive gifts like a Michael Kors bag.  She has had enough!!!

Talking to her boyfriend.

 

   

May 23, 2016 - May 27, 2016 Play Production Agenda

SPECIAL BLOCK SCHEDULE THIS WEEK:

Monday, May 23^rd:

BIC 
Working on developing a character, writing a monologues as this character.

Warm-ups:

Walking Meditations: conflict with another person, major issues: projections, ancient hurts, ancient traumas, frustrations, unresolved family conflict

Write

Share:
Melissa: dating a football player who was assaulted by the boyfriend
Anton: middle-aged man battling substance abuse


Wednesday, May 25^th:

BIC

Final for Play Production:

You are to create a character and write a two minute monologue as this character!!!!!

What you must have is a typed two minute monologue which you have written!

This two minute monologue, which you have written,  must be memorized!!!!!

You are to become this person.

You should dress like this character.

You should have the props your character would have.

You should do the business.

The monologue should have a point.

Your character should have an objective.

Your character should have subtext.

What change do you want to elicit either in yourself, the other character, or the situation?

You must discuss within the monologue the central conflict, issue, and/or question of your character’s life.

The monologues do not have to be dramatic. They can be funny!

In every comedy there is a kernel of tragedy, and in every tragedy there is a kernel of comedy. 

The eniors must present the rough draft of their monologue - one to two pages. The final draft will be presented next week in a final performance. The monologue must be memorized and full throttle! 

Writer’s Conferencen/Share-out:

Kamron: NFL, rough childhood. Surrounded by users who don’t respect him but are only using him for his fame and money.

Joseph: Bullied by kids at school; his best friend is his grandpa who would give him wise advice, but he died from a heart attack a few years ago, and Joseph has no one to help him. Family is having financial issues and his parents are getting into violent arguments. His father has left a few hours ago after another violent fight where Dad began breaking things and Joseph felt he had to protect his mother.  Things have calmed down now, and after the turmoil of the past few hours,  he and his mother are talking about his grandpa’s death and the bullying he is enduring at school.

Taraz: NFl player who was on top of his game until he started the hard partying life that sudden fame and lots of money can bring. Became addicted to the hard stuff – heroin, cocaine, etc. And  after losing his contract with the NFL, he’s been arrested for drugs. Now he’s sitting in his mom’s kitchen,  where she is facing eviction in a few weeks because her son no longer has money to give her, having the difficult conversation about why and where it went wrong – and asking her forgiveness for his betrayal.

Eddie: 27 years old named Mike West. Wealthy family. Mother died when he was a child. Father cold, distant workaholic who was - at best - indifferent to his son. Mike West started “New Balance” shoe company to gain his father’s love and to prove he is worthy of his father’s love.

Anton: 52 year old man, unemployed, alcoholic, addicted to cigarettes, awaiting eviction, performing a stand-up comedy routine at open mike night at a comedy club.

Write!

Friday, May 27th:  

 

-->BIC

6^th Period:

Quiet Writing Time

Presentations of Senior Rough Drafts of Character Monologues:

Kamron

Taraz

Eddie

Joseph

Jayhayra

Melissa

May 16, 2016 - May 20, 2016 Weekly Agenda for Play Production

BIC

Warm-ups

Led by Melissa and Makenzie

Vocal Warm-ups

Meditative Walk as character

Students walk about on the darkened stage, imagining walking down the street as their character as a child, smelling the aromas, the odors of the big city street, the odors of the small town, the trails of the wilderness – where ever the character grew up. As they walk, the students as their character are hearing the sounds of their home – the big city, the village, the farm, the wilderness – as they walk as children. The students, as they walk, feel the air on their faces – the fetid heat of a crowded slum in India, or the cold of a New York winter, or the fragrant cooling breeze of a forest.

Now they are older – teenagers – and as they walk about they hear, see, smell, feel, even taste their surroundings. Perhaps they have moved away to go to college, to find work, to marry. What do they see, smell, touch, feel, taste as they move through the world?

Now they are in their twenties, moving through the world – with successes and the baggage of losses, of defeat.  They might have families, and their families may be a source of joy, comfort, solace, security, or a source of pain, loss, conflict, or confinement.

The students move through the years and spaces as their characters.

Now, the students sit down and write their impressions, thoughts, feelings, images, words, snippets of phrases, stories, etc.

Presenters:

Kamron

Christian

Jahayra

Beverly

Nancy

Joseph

Thursday, May 19th:  

BIC

Physical Warm-ups

Vocal Warm-ups

Plosives, Consonant Clusters

Theatre Games

Freeze Tag with object

Walking Meditations:

Character’s childhood traumas

Character needs

Share-outs:

Anton

Kamron

Makenzie

Joseph

 

May 9, 2016 - May 13, 2016 Weekly Agenda for Play Production

Monday, May 9th:
Ms. Bridges not here today.

Tuesday, May 10th:
 

Final Subtext Scenes:

Joseph is at Eddie’s house, playing video games and waiting for his mom to finish making dinner

Joseph: has crush on Eddie’s mom

Eddie:  dislikes Joseph and wants him to leave

Kayla has run out of gas and doesn’t have money to refill her tank

Michelle is her former high school teacher.

Kayla is a stripper who lies about what she does for a living. She tells her former teacher she is an actress/dancer.

Michelle wants to see her in a show. 

Breathing exercise to help minimize stage fright before performing.

Weird Trigger Improv:

Makenzie ran it

Friends at a funeral

Every time Taraz walks around in a circle, Melissa scratches.

Every time Melissa scratches, Kamron cries

Every time Kamron cries, Taraz walks around in a circle. 

Wednesday, May 11th: 

Theatre Games:

“Clap” from the film “The Conjuring” 

People hide while the "It" person counts back from 10. The "It" person, with eyes closed, claps to get a sense of where everybody is. The people hiding have to clap back so that the "It" person can get a sense of where people are. Then the "It" person begins to walk about, clapping when s/he gets a sense that someone is nearby. Everybody hiding must clap back loudly enough for the "It" person to hear.  The people hiding cannot move from their hiding place. When someone is found, then the found person becomes the new "It" person.

“Slide Show”

Five people strike poses relating to each other which tell some sort of story, which a “narrator” then interprets for the audience as a sort of  home slide show.

There are five slides, and with the narrator’s back turned, the actors have five seconds between slide shows to strike a different pose for each slide show.

five seconds between slide shows to strike a different pose for each slide show. 

Thursday, May 14th: 

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Creating a Character:

Passed out photos and allowed students to pick a photo of a person

Students then write a quick write about the photo: images, words, adjectives, phrases, sentences, narratives, etc.

 


Friday, May 13th:
 Few people are here today due to prom.

Theatre games:

Clap

Murderer

Tag Team/Mosaic

May 2, 2016 - May 6, 2016 Weekly Agenda for Play Production

Monday, May 2nd: 

 Subtext Exercise Performances today:

Break into pairs to rehearse the Subtext Exercise:

Jess and Moddie

Makenzie and Beverly

Nancy and Montserrat

Gus and Cooper

Taraz and Gabriella

Michelle and Kayla

Kamron and Anton

Eddie and Joseph

Katia and Jahayra

Melissa and Julia 

Performances: 

Cooper - Scientologist trying to administer a personality test on Gus

Gus - abandoned by mother; it is revealed that his mother left him b/c of scientology. Pulls out a gun and threatens to kill Cooper, but it turns out to be a bubble gun. 

Makenzie - is British; applying for position with FBI; claims to be special human who uses more of her brain than other humans and is without flaws. Subtext - she wants to blow up the U.S.

Beverly - FBI agent interviewing prospective recruit. Thinks Makenzie looks familiar. Refuses to hire her. Subtext - realizes Makenzie ran over her dog.

Tuesday, May 3rd: 

Went to the auditorium to help Paul with tech cue- to- cue for Hairspray.

Wednesday, May 4th: 
Timothy Landfield from AADA spoke to class about summer scholarship program. 
Vocal Warm-up
Theatre Exercise: 
Titanic 
Subtext Exercise: 
Jess: recognizes estranged sister, plots to kill her. 
Moddie: doesn't recognize estranged sister, thinks she is being nice to set her up for embarrassment so tries to embarrass her first by showing up at party wearing the same dress. 

Thursday, May 5th: 
Theatre Games: 
Break into teams and create machines with their bodies 
Game: 
Three people are called up. A scenario is given to them. Then each actor is given an action and a trigger - when ever one of the other  people in the scene does something (raise her/his hands above the waist, take two steps, put hands together, etc) the actor has to do some bizarre action - start rapping, barking like a dog, dancing, etc. Then after the scene each actor is asked what he thinks the other person's "Trigger" was - or what s/he did that made the other actor start rapping, barking, or dancing, etc. 

Subtext scene: 
Montserrat: her sister is late to their lunch date, where she tells Montserrat that she just got a job at Vogue in New York and can't spend the summer with her in San Francisco. Montserrat is jealous of her sister and doesn't want to be the good girl anymore.   Montserrat hates the idea of studying health and sciences and living with her boyfriend in San Francisco; she would rather move to New York like Nancy and live a free, glamorous, bohemian life.
Nancy: feels that M. is the golden child who lives up to their parents' expectations - M. is moving to San Francisco to live with her boyfriend to study health and social sciences. Nancy is resentful of M. for being the favored child of the family.  Nancy's move to New York to be a Vogue photographer is a blow against her family and their perception of her as a "black sheep" and a blow for her independence from her family. 

Julia - is a co-worker at Starbucks. She is gay but doesn't want Melissa to know that for fear that Melissa wouldn't like her.  She makes up a fictitious boyfriend but secretly has a crush on Melissa. 
Melissa - a co-work at Starbucks. She is a serially killer and wants to kill Julia.