English
My English credit for this semester consisted of my King Lear study, a few essays, some of script work I do with plays, and the reading on theatrical theory that I do.
I think English was my greatest Failure this semester, not because I didn’t do enough work, but because I didn’t do the work I set out to do well enough in the way I had planned to do it. At the beginning of December I identified all the work I was going to have done at the end of the semester, and, while most of it exists in some form, it doesn’t all exist in the format I wanted to to. I got overwhelmed by the end of the semester and English was what fell in the dust.
Writing
I had planned to write three essays: One about the themes and ideas presented by King Lear, one about why Shakespeare is so great, and one about art and meaning. I wrote the essay about art and meaning, but haven't performed any revisions on it yet. While I continue to think and take down notes about why Shakespeare is great, I haven’t made time or found the inspiration to write that essay yet. This frustrated me because I want to improve my essay writing skills but when I’m not getting to writing essays or not getting to revisions I don’t improve so in the coming semester I’d like to get better at self discipline. The essay about King Lear’s themes and ideas, turned into what I’m calling a production pitch, which involves a polished cut of the script, a document outlining what the production would look like and a series of character portraits. I feel like that project was much harder than writing an essay and gave me a much deeper understanding of the story and the characters.
Listening
During my exploration of the script of King Lear I had, on a few occasions, a few actors over to read sections of the play with me and talk about it. It was fascinating to talk to them because some of them had experience with the play before, and had a great understanding of the characters and others had no idea what the plot of the play was. So it was a refreshing experience to go from reading the play alone, to working with a group of intelligent peers to read and understand the play. When you are having shakespeare read to you you get different things out of it, because listening is different than reading. It’s much easier to appreciate the beauty of the language when it is read to you.
Reading
I read (or partially read) a bunch of books this semester. King Lear, A Thousand Acres, Fool, Theater and It’s Double, Dance, Sex, and Gender, Theater Games for Actors and Non-actors (which is actually a book about theater of the Oppressed), The Theater of the Oppressed, The Wasp Factory. There’s probably more that I am forgetting too. I really enjoyed reading all of them and I identified something that I’ve felt for a while, but haven’t really understood, this is the fact that I read materiel from an objective point of view and the ideas that I take away from a text and internalize are not necessarily the most important ideas to the author, but because they are the ideas that I understand best or identify with I care more about them. I’ve also noticed that as an effect of being in the Pilot program and studying theater, and avant-garde/experimental art puts me into a position where I read very niche material, so when I am talking about it with other people I really do have to fully understand it, because chances are the other person has no idea what I am talking about until I explain it well.
Speaking
As a director I am constantly speaking and expressing myself so that the actors understand me and the information about the play that I believe is important.
Out of all the english standards I think that this is the hardest for me to talk about how I fulfill it, because I do so much talking, about all the ideas that work with in all my studies. I use it to communicate the ideas that are important in one study to people in a different project to connect them all. Everything informs everything.
I think English was my greatest Failure this semester, not because I didn’t do enough work, but because I didn’t do the work I set out to do well enough in the way I had planned to do it. At the beginning of December I identified all the work I was going to have done at the end of the semester, and, while most of it exists in some form, it doesn’t all exist in the format I wanted to to. I got overwhelmed by the end of the semester and English was what fell in the dust.
Writing
I had planned to write three essays: One about the themes and ideas presented by King Lear, one about why Shakespeare is so great, and one about art and meaning. I wrote the essay about art and meaning, but haven't performed any revisions on it yet. While I continue to think and take down notes about why Shakespeare is great, I haven’t made time or found the inspiration to write that essay yet. This frustrated me because I want to improve my essay writing skills but when I’m not getting to writing essays or not getting to revisions I don’t improve so in the coming semester I’d like to get better at self discipline. The essay about King Lear’s themes and ideas, turned into what I’m calling a production pitch, which involves a polished cut of the script, a document outlining what the production would look like and a series of character portraits. I feel like that project was much harder than writing an essay and gave me a much deeper understanding of the story and the characters.
Listening
During my exploration of the script of King Lear I had, on a few occasions, a few actors over to read sections of the play with me and talk about it. It was fascinating to talk to them because some of them had experience with the play before, and had a great understanding of the characters and others had no idea what the plot of the play was. So it was a refreshing experience to go from reading the play alone, to working with a group of intelligent peers to read and understand the play. When you are having shakespeare read to you you get different things out of it, because listening is different than reading. It’s much easier to appreciate the beauty of the language when it is read to you.
Reading
I read (or partially read) a bunch of books this semester. King Lear, A Thousand Acres, Fool, Theater and It’s Double, Dance, Sex, and Gender, Theater Games for Actors and Non-actors (which is actually a book about theater of the Oppressed), The Theater of the Oppressed, The Wasp Factory. There’s probably more that I am forgetting too. I really enjoyed reading all of them and I identified something that I’ve felt for a while, but haven’t really understood, this is the fact that I read materiel from an objective point of view and the ideas that I take away from a text and internalize are not necessarily the most important ideas to the author, but because they are the ideas that I understand best or identify with I care more about them. I’ve also noticed that as an effect of being in the Pilot program and studying theater, and avant-garde/experimental art puts me into a position where I read very niche material, so when I am talking about it with other people I really do have to fully understand it, because chances are the other person has no idea what I am talking about until I explain it well.
Speaking
As a director I am constantly speaking and expressing myself so that the actors understand me and the information about the play that I believe is important.
Out of all the english standards I think that this is the hardest for me to talk about how I fulfill it, because I do so much talking, about all the ideas that work with in all my studies. I use it to communicate the ideas that are important in one study to people in a different project to connect them all. Everything informs everything.