6/9/2010

Journal:
Edited some sound for my showcase. Will show in class tomorrow. Unable to record voices until the weekend.

Grade: 100
Blocked the rest of my play.

Journal:
E-mailed corrections / notes on Lexi's paper.

Grade: 100
Helped Lexi and Abbi work on their papers and taught the freshmen class a mini grammar lesson on the verb "to be" and passive voice.

6/4/2010

Grade: 100

Again, I did not receive a third draft from either of my Freshmen today. What should I do about this? Is there anything I can do besides just keep reminding them?

6/2/2010

Journal:

Audio research... Chose Sodham, South Georgia as my song. God, I love Iron and Wine. I know one of the major lessons to know is not to score your piece with something just because you like it, but it's always nice when it works for the piece AND you like it as well...

I came up with a list of sound bytes of beeps and airport noises that I will share with Daria. Still nothing on the voice though. We'll see.

Also, checked out some Christopher Riley. His cover of "Karma Police" is pretty incredible.

Grade: 100

Some notes of interest:

"Director admits when director is wrong."

"Connect your biography to the play - director's equivalent to grounding."

"Shit, you're right." - Javi's realization that his protagonist dies at the end of his play.

"An actor who isn't grabbing something to write with when I'm talking is a very anger-making, making me angry actor." (Best.)

"Do not say anything unless you're motivated to and do not stop talking unless you are cut off."

And I don't think anybody said this, but it's my own revelation of the day:
"Comfortable situations do not make for compelling drama."

6/1/2010

Eighteen days until I reach "manhood." Travis Tribbins could learn a lot from me.

Journal: I listened to a LOT of Iron and Wine today while reading my play. I definitely feel it for the ending. And I'm having doubts about the Music for Airplanes. It just seems too calm for me. I'd rather start it off starkly, with just literal noises of an airport... Swoosh and boop and everything. I don't want to have any music in the beginning of the play, I don't think.

Grade: 100

We worked on scenes today. I'm still really happy with how my freshmen are handling everything... Lexi has great instincts and Abbi is very natural.

As for my notes... I took a lot. Some of the more interesting ones:

"Do not sink your boat before you even set sail."

"You do not CONTROL the actors, you GUIDE or DIRECT them."

"Can you go to the market and get some fish?"

And the best one: "You must tell the story under the assumption that you will have no lighting, sound or any other elements to help you out. Think of it as having a really good acoustic version of a song and then a really good, freaky Radiohead version."

5/28/2010

Grade: 100
I have not received a first or second draft from either of my freshmen yet.

5/26/2010

Journal:
I found this video of Brian Eno's airport music... Interesting. I could see it working for the start of the play with the airport noises. I want it to sound like this... Silence, first couple notes of the piano, HUGE swooshing of an airplane... Boooooooop... boarding announcement... Yeah, something like that.

Funny, I've been listening to the track while writing my journal, and as it goes on, I like it more. Even if it's just more the of the same over and over and over and over...

Grade: 100
I TOOK THAT STUPID EXIT EXAM.
But for legitimate grading purposes, I taught my freshmen how to use operative words in the twenty minutes I was with them. And then 8th period, we talked about the design aspects of our plays.

5/24/2010

Journal: Well, neither of my freshmen e-mailed me their papers, so I can't make comments on them... I sent them both e-mails and text messages advising them to get them to me by midnight for full credit.

I also found another image to add to my ever growing director's book:Yeah, it's a blue airport. Kinda... self-explanatory.

Grade: 100
5th & 8th: Monologue work. I feel fairly well-prepared for the exit exam.
6th & 7th: Worked with Freshmen on acting in small gym. Worked a little bit individually with each scene.

5/12/2010

Journal: Reading Fat Pig again for my exit exam monologue.

Grade: 100
Worked with Freshmen today on developing their outlines. Also went over their presentations about each director that they researched last night.

5/11/2010

Journal: I wrote a short play today called The Line.

Grade: 100
Film lecture with freshmen. Katelin talked them through the Powerpoint and then afterwards, I taught them about writing thesis papers and formatting outlines. I also repeatedly told them of the evils of the "five paragraph essay."

5/10/2010

Journal: Read through Powerpoint presentation to get an idea of what we're doing in class tomorrow...

Grade: 100
We couldn't do anything today with the Freshmen because during 6th & 7th period, they had NWEA testing during shop, for some reason... But as they came back, I sat them down and talked to them about their papers. Most of them have an idea of what they want to write about so far, so that's good.

5/7/2010

Grade: 100

Worked with Freshmen on their papers. We taught them a LOT of grammar stuff, surprisingly. They seemed to understand the movie itself pretty thoroughly. A lot of them are interested in writing about the visual aspect of the film, so we talked a lot about that.

5/6/2010

Journal: I'm working on re-memorizing my Fat Pig monologue for the exit exam. Woohoo, what fun. It's remarkable how I can still remember the Midsummer monologue from nearly two years ago because it's written in verse and can barely remember the one from Fat Pig I picked up six months ago. Whatever.

Grade: 100

Finished All the President's Men and had a discussion afterward.

5/5/2010

Journal: I looked through Ohio's curriculum today. I'll be honest, that's probably the closest thing I did to homework.

Grade: 100

We watched All the President's Men with the freshmen. They actually seem very interested in this one. Who'd have thought that My Fair Lady would bore them but All the President's Men would engross them? It's such a subtle movie and it moves a little slowly. Whatever, I'm glad they're enjoying it. They're asking a lot of questions and putting a lot of ideas out.

And on a side note, I really enjoyed teaching today.

5/4/2010

Journal: Did some research on All The President's Men today... I love this movie. So happy we're watching it. Youtube was blocked in class today so we couldn't show the freshmen Nixon's resignation, but I found it at home, so we can show it to them tomorrow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEOGJJ7UKFM

On a side note, I find it funny that Nixon's Presidential library provided the clip.

Grade: 100

Since we didn't have the DVD today and Youtube/the entire internet was blocked, we talked about the Watergate scandal with the freshmen and then taught them how to analytically watch a movie with Catch Me If You Can on Matt's laptop. I'm glad we did because it took a lot to get some of them engaged in analytical thought. I wish I had had practice the first time I had to write a critical analysis of a movie... Ha.

5/3/2010

Journal: So, I'm really not sure what I'm supposed to do for my journals anymore. The showcase is at a stand still and we have no other projects going on. I read through the script again today and made some revisions to my blocking that I plan to put into effect when we start rehearsals again, but I don't want to overwork this thing... May I ask for some guidance here?

Grade: 100
Theatre exit exam. Lord, that was easy... Then film history.

4/29/2010

Journal: Well, blocking is almost done for the show. I finished up the rest of what I wanted to do. The sisters never sit down at the exact same time, except for in the very opening of the show and the very last moment. I'm still using props for their flashbacks... blankets, etc. But instead of hiding them in the suitcases, they're all pre-set behind the cubes at the top of the show. Yeah, this should work out fine...

Grade: 100

Blocked up to the middle of page 4 of the script today. Once everything gets to the flashbacks, it starts moving very fast. I have Abbi jumping around like a crazy woman. It's really rewarding to work with these kids, they have a lot of potential.

4/27/2010

Journal: Worked on blocking for tomorrow... I'm having them avoid eye contact as much as possible. There's a jaded edge to these two sisters. They're not getting along very well. And of course, their father is dying. Also, I wrote a little bit today. I'm working on a new play that will probably not get finished, but whatever.

Grade: 100
Blocked one and a half pages of the script, so... Roughly 5 beats. I don't remember off the top of my head. Abbi and Lexxi have great instincts, so they're pretty good to work with. They have a very good understanding of the play and I can tell they're actually doing the homework I assign to them. I'm happy to have them in my cast.

3/16/2010

Journal: Sound research for Departures... I want to use Iron & Wine. It's the exact tone I'm looking for. Sorta the dreary, bittersweet, midwestern sorta thing.

Grade: 100
5th: Spent some quality time with the dancers.
6th & 7th: Talked life with the freshmen.
8th: Sound research lesson.

3/10/2010

Journal:
Teen Driving. I still don't have a title for it, but that can wait until later. I've got ten pages now. The protagonist is gonna die at the end... There's really no other way. I think I might leave it on one of those ambiguous endings, where the law hasn't been voted on yet and it's like a "what would you do?" moment that you find in these films all the time. I don't know, I don't want to be contrived, but I need to get the point across. Then again, we can work a contrived script into something new, so I'll worry about that later.

Grade: 100
5th & 8th: Notes on directing.
6th & 7th: Production work! What what!

3/8/2010

Journal: Worked on Teen Driving. Temporary title. I'm not dividing it into an Our Town-esque series of vignettes like I originally planned, because I don't want to copy Stick River. I'm going to stick with a more basic Aristoltarian plot structure... I just need to decide on a protagonist.

Right now the story can be summed up as such:
A group of friends reflect on their driving habits on the eve of a state assembly vote to move the legal driving age to one year older. They attend a party and then one of them will probably die. That's the way it goes.

I'm going to leave the state/region ambiguous so it can be applied to anybody living anywhere.

Let's see... Anything else... Nope, not really.

Grade: 100
5th & 8th: Worked on Teen Driving.
6th & 7th: Rehearsal for Departures. Abbi and Lexii had their "oh! that's what the play's all about!" moments today. It made me very happy.

3/5/2010

Grade: 100
5th & 8th: Read through and analyzed Javier's and Katelin's plays.
6th & 7th: Rehearsal for Departures.

3/2/2010

Journal:
Director's book: I'm throwing ideas around on my script now, making notes on things to discuss during table work. Yay, hurray, woo, yay. I'm excited to be working with Abbi and Lexii, they have pretty good chemistry and already a certain level of honesty.

Grade: 100
6th & 7th: History lesson. American theatre! OH boy.
5th & 8th: Directing lecture.

2/19/2010

Grade: 100
Yay weekend.

5th & 8th: Blocking lesson. Divided my script up into beats... Interesting, interesting, interesting. There are a lot of beats in Departures.

6th & 7th: Worked on director's book. Textual analysis moving steadily forward.

2/18/2010

Journal:
I'm working on the textual analysis of Departures. It's fairly straightforward. Right now, I'm just having a little trouble getting a realistic context for the moments when Pauline breaks out and talks directly to the audience. I'm thinking having her talking directly to the audience is a reasonable convention, but we'll see.

Grade: 100
5th/8th - directing lecture... Talked about blocking. I've gotten some ideas for my blocking.
6th/7th - basically talked with the freshmen about how hard the life ahead of them is. Oh boy.

2/16/2010

Grade: 100
History lesson.

2/8/2010

Journal:
Good Person of Szechwan essay for SUNY.

Grade: 100
Read plays for Freshman showcase.

2/4/2010

Journal:
Streetcar

Grade: 100
Directing lecture
Streetcar

2/3/2010

Journal:
Showcase book.

Grade: 100
I wrote for two periods... And we did our post-show evaluations. Hurrah.

2/2/2010

Journal:
Read Streetcar Named Desire for 30 minutes.

Grade: 100
Strike!!

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Grade: 100
Good Person of Szechwan.

1/20/2010

Journal:
Reading House of Bernarda Alba.
Feedback on Katelin's essays.

Grade: 100
5th - 8th: Showcase tech.

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Grade: 100
Taught Freshmen.

1/14/2010

Journal:
Recorded voice-over with Hope... Finally finishing rough cut of my film.

Grade: 100
5th - 8th: marketing materials. Printed out tickets and flyers.

1/12/2010

Journal:
Read Brockett + prepared lesson plan.

Grade: 100
5th - 8th: Got in touch with colleges... checked status of my applications.
Mailed out letters of rec.
Made tickets for Senior Showcase.
Made Google Doc of info for the program.

(1/11/2010)

Journal:
* Scholarships!
* I got a haircut. (THAT APPLIES TO MY INTERVIEWS, SHUT UP)

Grade: 100
5th & 8th: Scholarship talk
6th & 7th: Epic theatre

adfjsadfj (2/8/2010)

Grade: 100
5th-8th: Writing and discussions on essay writing.

High school low (1/5/2010)

Journal:
Finished my DePaul portfolio and mailed it... My writing is off to Chicago. I sent them Don't Cut Class (the script. Hopefully, I'll have a DVD of the film by the time of my interview.) a poem and Fishbone. I was going to send them JUMBO, but that play is currently undergoing some serious renovations... And it will be there for me to leave with them at the interview.

Grade: 100
5th & 8th: College talk. Montclair interview on February 19th.
6th & 7th: Theatre history/political science discussion.

Depot, Depot (1/4/2010)

Journal:
Editing Don't Cut Class. It's ready for a rough cut. Yay.

Revision: It is not ready for a new cut. I need to re-record the voiceover again. Doing it on Katelin's Flip caused an inconsistency in the sound that I'm unable to repair via sound editing.

Grade: 100
5th & 8th: Essays and college talk.
6th & 7th: Recorded voiceover with Hope.