Research Investigation Sources

Here are a couple of great cites I found for researching my topic:

http://www.crystalinks.com/greektheater.html

http://www.cwu.edu/~robinsos/ppages/resources/Theatre_History/Theahis_2.html

http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/LX/GreekTheater.html

Research Investigation

For my independent research project I want to do Greek Mythology.  Ever since I was a little boy I have been interested in greek mythology.  At an early age I read both the Odyssey and the Iliad and had become captivated in the worlds of God and Heros.  From here my interest broadened and I have read many different stories about the heros of Greece, Troy, and Athens.  I am having trouble finding a play to perform, I own many of the original stories, and I can find them online, but I need a script.  Until I have a script I cannot define my research question.

The Savage World

Today in Drama we did an exercise called Hunters and Gatherers.  We split the class into two groups, one of them hunters and one gatherers.  I was one of the hunters.  Jane dictated the first section of the story, the people rising from their sleep on the day of a big hunt, gathering around the fire and saying goodbye to our loved ones.  In our groups we were to come up with the middle of our story.  In our story the hunters had set out looking for food, on the way we spied a pheasant, looking very plump and juicy we were excited in our find, none of us willing to risk failure we pushed forward one of our group who seemed a little lower functioning than the rest.  As he went to spear the pheasant it jumped up and attacked him.  As we watched in horror we saw one of our one be mauled by this evil bird.  Gathering up our courage we chased off the bird and hurriedly checked on our man.  We found him dead, but rather than risk returning home with no food and face the wrath of the wives we decided to do the right thing and eat our fallen comrade.  Cutting out his heart we filled our belly with his warm juices.  This was our story so when we returned to the other group, with a carcass in tow, we had to reenact the story before the gatherers.  They too had a story and they reenacted it for us as well, it was the story of a great childbirth.  We the zipped forward a thousand year, by now we had a form of language and we told these great stories, which had become myths over this time period.  The hunters told the gatherer story and visa versa.  It was interesting to see how our stories changed, what the new story tellers used to embellish the stories and make them more interesting, some things were even wrong or just plain lies.  This exercise is a great example of how stories have evolved in native cultures.  Many creation stories or myths were little things that happened, but because of story tellers they were embellished soon becoming much more.  Of story tellers try to make the story connect to people of their time, make it more recent and understandable, but this is only done by altering the story, time and again as the story is altered and it begins to take new form, no longer resembling the initial story.

Spontaneous Stimulus Exercise

Another activity we did on Friday was a sort of instant stimulus experience.  We sat in a circle and Jane would say a word, we used connected word association saying a connected word or phrase that popped into our heads.  One of the words we used was high school.  Some of the words we came up with were: sweat, overcrowded, freshman in lockers, homework, homecoming, dances, pep assemblies, jocks, gym class.  The overall theme of these words, that we found, was the social aspects of high school.  To conclude the day we did a sort of improv stimulus exercise.  We used topics from the things we had used in the previous exercise, as well as anything we had done in class that day, and made short little improv scenes about them.  It was an interesting experience because while you were trying to continue the scene and use all the important aspects of a good improv scene, we simultaneously had to incorporate things we had done.  It is a useful exercise for when we have to do stimulus, even though you want to make it connected you don’t want to make it to close or just copy what we did because that’s just not interesting, so it is connected, but only slightly.  This is exactly what the want in the actual stimulus exercise.

Zip Zap Zopped

In class last friday we played a couple different variations of the drama game Zip Zap Zop.  We had tried these previously with just the other IB seniors (all five of us) and they had been affective to some extent.  Now we had a class of about 20 and we were ready to try our hand at some advanced zipping zapping and zopping.  The first variation we played was normal except that when one person messed up we all took one step to the right, but leaving our essence in our original place.  This meant that if some pointed to where you essence is, even if you are no longer standing there, it becomes your turn to zip, zap, or zop.  This variation on the game is intended to keep actors paying attention to everything that is going on.  Often, when it is not their turn to do something, actor tend to drop out of a scene.  This of course is not good and this game tries to counteract that by making you pay attention to those surrounding you.  The first time we tried this activity I did quiet well, with no pauses and keeping up with the pace of the game.  This time however i had worse luck, because there was so many people it was often difficult to see to whom someone was pointing.  On top of this it was easy to get distracted by the people around you and forget about your essence.  The second variation was a pattern game.  We use the words zip, zap, and zop and create a pattern in the number of times we repeat them.  This exercise is intended to get us thinking as one collective ensemble, even if you have one particular pattern in mind someone may change it and you have to recognize and follow along with that shift.  This game works really well for me with my analytical math mind, i was able to see the pattern in my head even as I listen and participated.  Even a simple game such as Zip Zap Zop can be used as a useful learning tool.

The start of my IB blogging experience

Today we went to the libary and set up a blog for our IB drama class.  As the year progesses i will be posting my journal entries and other assignments on the blog.  This blog is intended to catagorize my IB learning experience and help me connect different assignments throughout the year.  Check often for exciting updates!