movement composition.

I performed today! What I was really bummed about was that I brought my camera to film the entire thing and I think my nerves were just going crazy so I COMPLETELY forgot that I even had my camera, so I don't have a recording of it :[ I was really bummed out because as soon as I finished my performance, I realized I had forgotten to film it. Oh well, I guess I'll be able to live without it.

Performance Reflection
  I thought my performance went really smoothly. I didn't have any slip ups from my choreography and it was fairly easy to adapt to the size of the stage. Of course my nerves were going crazy right before I had to perform, but that happens to me wherever I go, so I tried my best to channel the jitteriness from the nerves into the energy and emotion I put into my performance. As soon as the music started, I just went straight through without having to worry about what came next since it was almost like the choreography was programmed into my muscles. I think I used the stage really well and my positioning on the stage was really good too. I didn't face the back of the stage and I always made sure I cheated out a lot or as much as I could. I also think I put in an immense amount of energy and emotion into my performance and I think it came out enough for the audience to effectively notice it all. I also thought my lip syncing was right on and I moved my mouth big enough and exaggerated enough that people could see what I was saying.
  Now there are a couple things I wish I had changed. Mainly from the comments from the audience, I apparently acted a lot younger with all the energy and giddiness I had in the performance. So maybe I could have toned down my energy a little bit. Also, Ms. Weil commented on how my middle scene where I'm dancing around the room could have been shorter and I could have added another piece of the story into it because it got really repetitive and by the end it was a little boring. I also wish I had worn a different shirt. I wore a shirt with a pretty well-known Asian character on it, but it's black and white and Ms. Weil commented on how I should have chosen a brighter color to wear so I guess it isn't has well-known here as it is among my Asian friends, but other than that I think my performance went pretty smoothly.

Here is the graded rubric. 49/50!!

movement composition.

Today is the day before my performance! I'm super nervous yet I'm super excited to perform it. After watching a couple people perform before me, I realized a lot of things that I need to accentuate and exaggerate while I'm on stage. It also looks like fun to perform the silent scene.

Performance Prediction
  So my performance is finally tomorrow. I spent a significant amount of time on my performance that included practicing and even just brainstorming things to do. I'm pretty confident that with all the time and effort I put into my piece, it will turn out fairly well. Now I don't expect perfection because even within the choreography I have in my head, I know it could use a couple touch ups in the storyline, but I think it's a bit too late to change the full story now. 
  I think the things that will go well during the performance are the lip syncing and just overall knowing what to do at what part of the song. I listened to the song over and over to make sure I knew all the lyrics and timing perfectly so I could eliminate that possibility of an error. I know all the lyrics that I could practically sing the song in my sleep. I have also memorized all the choreography and the timing and what's supposed to be going on at what lyric of the song or what instrumental part. I'm also pretty confident that I'll be able to portray my facial expressions really well because I have a tendency to do that naturally, so I only have to take it a couple notches higher. Also since I've seen many teenage girls on TV or in movies act like this, I know what kind of expression I need to have at what part of the song.
  Now there are a couple things I am worried about at the same time. I didn't have a very big area to rehearse my composition. I used a pretty narrow hallway in my house because it was the only place long enough to choreograph anything. The stage on the other hand is a much larger space and I'm worried about getting lost at where to go or getting stuck on one plane of the stage and just staying there. I want to be able to move around the entire stage evenly divide up the stage area that I use. I also am worried about my position on stage. I didn't get to practice on a set stage as I said before and I don't know how to best cheat out to the audience and I'm afraid of accidentally showing my back to the audience instead of my face and I don't want them to miss the expression I put on. 
  So I think this is pretty much all I'm predicting that will happen tomorrow. As long as I get a little bit of time to practice on the actual stage before my performance, I think I'll be fine. I just need to concentrate and let my emotions run free and I'm sure I'll be able to do a good job. 

movement composition.

So I know I already blogged once today, but I finished my story analysis/plot summary for the movement composition. I just thought I'd blog on it since I'm performing in two days or so. 

Final Story Analysis/ Plot Summary
The scene begins with a girl lying on her bed writing a song for her boyfriend that she's completely infatuated with. She struggles with it at first, but then she finally gets it right and finishes writing the song. Then she gets up off of her bed and stretches and mid-stretch, she sees a picture of her boyfriend and her on her bedside table and she picks it up. She looks at it and kisses her boyfriend's picture. Then holding the framed picture, she starts dancing with it and dances all around her room obsessively just like any girl who is head over heels for someone would do. Then she's about to put the picture back down on the bedside table where she gets a phone call from her boyfriend who is asking her to go on a date with him and she happily agrees. She puts the picture down on the table and runs to her closet and picks out a jacket, looks in a mirror and fixes her hair, then grabs her purse. On the way out of her room, she takes one last glimpse at the picture and then happily skips out her room and this is when I will skip off stage.

Throughout the entire song, I will be lip synching. I'll also start out on stage left and try and utilize as much of the entire stage as I can. The closet where I get the jacket will be center right stage and the mirror will be upstage center and I will exit upstage left. I have attached a scanned piece of paper of how I want the stage to be set up and how I want to move about the stage as well. 

Now all I have left to do is rehearse and perfect everything so I won't forget anything for sure. I think this is coming along pretty nicely. I'm a bit nervous about performing this in front of everyone, but I'm going to try my best to just block everyone out and act out as much as I can because my nerves can really get to me sometimes.

movement composition.

So I'm cramming for the performance basically. I know I just have to do the character analysis and the plot summary, but I'm not even finished choreographing yet. I mean, I have most of it, but I still have a WHOLE lot of work to do. 

Character Analysis
My character is a teenage girl who is lovestruck. She's basically in love with her boyfriend and she's a really happy, giddy person. 

Plot Summary/ Story Analysis
The scene takes place in the girl's room. She starts out laying on her bed and she is writing a song about her boyfriend. She struggles with it at first but then suddenly gets a brain blast and finishes the song and sort of sings it to herself. Then she dances around her room and picks up a picture of him and hugs it and kisses it and puts it down. Then she looks into her closet and finds his jacket that she always wears and she takes it off the hanger and puts it on and sort of cuddles in it. Then she just dances around her room with the picture in her hand like she's dancing with him.

That's really all I have so far with the plot summary and the story analysis. I know what I want to portray through the song, but I still have trouble blocking everything out and thinking of distinct pantomime gestures to tell my story. Hopefully I can think of more things to do and actually have genuine practice.

 During class, a couple people performed today and I sort of got an idea of what I could improve upon. A lot of people were concentrated on one plane of the stage, so I think I might just broaden it out and use as much stage as I can. Also, not many people had complicated movements, so I don't think I need to worry too much about making it too complicated. Simple is really the best because you can really tell what the actor is doing up on stage. Facial expressions also play a HUGE part in this performance, so I need to really get into my part too.

movement composition

So Ms. Weil gave us the material we needed to cover in our journaling for the movement composition performance. Since I already started blogging on the unit, I'm not sure what I've covered and what I haven't, so I think I should just start over on my daily journals for the project. 

Basic Information:

Title: Our Song

Artist: David Choi

This song has always been one of my all time favorite songs ever since I heard it. It's still one of my top played songs on my playlist and I just never seem to get tired of it. I think the main thing that stands out to me are the lyrics of the song. The first time I listened to the song, I wasn't listening all too carefully for the lyrics, but after the song was over, I felt like I had totally missed a really big part of the song and I finally listened to every song that David Choi sang and I was immediately attached to the song. The songs sort of tell a similar story that has happened to me. Someone has written be a really simple song that was really easy to learn and the lyrics were easy to remember and whenever I think of that song, I think of the person who wrote it for me and it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. The song Our Song tells a really similar story in that I wasn't the one writing, but the emotions and thoughts my friend was going through were probably along the lines of the ones that David Choi sings about. 

Here's a song that I wrote for us
It's simple, so we both can remember
I'll sing this when I am feeling alone
And you do the same

When I sing this song
I'll be thinking of you
I'll be thinking of you
When I sing this song
Know that anywhere you are
You're really not that far
When you're singing our song

Even as days go and disappear
I'll still hold your hand and I'll say
Forever and ever, we'll be here together
And nothing can take that away

When I sing this song
I'll be thinking of you
I'll be thinking of you
When I sing this song
Know that anywhere you are
You're really not that far
When you're singing our song

When I sing this song
I'll be thinking of you
I'll be thinking of you
When I sing this song
Know that anywhere you are
You're really not that far
When you're singing our song
Our song, our song

And whenever I listen to this song, it just gives me such a warm and fuzzy feeling inside, as cheesy as it sounds.

Also, whenever I listen to it, since it just sounds happy, it lifts my spirits really easily.

And here I attached the song from youtube :D

Our Song-David Choi 

Here is what we need to have in our journals.

movement composition entry #1,2,3

I had all these blogs saved, but I never published them, so now it all looks like I wrote these on the same day. So I guess I'll just label them the dates I actually wrote them all. =P


November 8, 2009


This is my first entry on the movement composition project, although I should have blogged a lot sooner. My mistake. Hopefully I'll be more on top of things. :]

Ms. Weil recently assigned the movement composition project to us during class. She performed for us once and I thought it was a really powerful performance. It's actually really inspired me to try really hard for this project because her performance was laid out so well and it was really moving and I want to be able to perform that well in front of an audience.


I had a lot of songs in mind to perform to because I'd hear one song and think of a really good idea, and then I'd think of another one. I just had too many songs going through my mind and I couldn't decide very well. I'm still not totally sure about which song I'm going to do it to, but so far I'm going to be performing to Our Song by David Choi. Not totally sure though. I have a perfect beginning for the song, but I can't think of anything else past that. 

I also have scanned the rubric and the assignment description as well. 

The first document is the assignment description and the second is the grading rubic

With the grading rubric, now I know what I need to focus more on in order to get a super good grade.


November 9, 2009


I'm still having loads of trouble deciding on a song. I can't really decide between a comical performance or a dramatic performance. I keep thinking of perfect openings for songs, but past the first thirty or so seconds of the song, I can't think of anything else, it's really bugging me because i only have a week left to choreograph and I should really hurry up and start choreographing and practicing for the performance. BUT I NEED A SONG. I didn't think it would be this difficult. Well, so far, I'm still thinking about doing Our Song by David Choi because that's the only song I can choreograph a little to. 


November 10, 2009


I think I just spent around an hour looking for songs. I honestly didn't think it would be this difficult to choose one. I don't know how I'm going to finish choreographing and practicing my movement composition in time for the performance next week. I would have to say, it might have been a little easier to do it with a partner, but I seriously have good ideas of what to do, and then I blank on them. I tried acting out random movements that went along with a storyline, but it just seems so stupid and simple. I want it to be a good, interesting performance like Ms. Weil's, but I can't seem to do it. I can't even start the darn process anyway...

I keep forgetting to journal. That's not good because we've already done so much that I haven't blogged about and now I'm going to forget a lot of stuff to put in!

So last Thursday, we watched a preview for the fall play and we watched one of the six plays called "Sure Thing." I really enjoyed watching it and I thought it was a really fun performance and the actors did really well. After the preview, a couple of the IB Drama students taught us some improv games that we played and it was really fun even just watching. Thursday night was the drama preview of the entire fall play and I thought it was amazing. All the actors were so great on stage and the lines were given so well it was such an entertaining play. I think Ms. Weil did a really good job directing and the actors were really great. :]

On Friday we did an improv activity with a group of four people. It was the Snapshot and Home Video activity where we had to portray five snapshots of our group going on vacation and from one of the snapshots we had to create a home video. We went on a trip to an African Safari and we had various snapshots were people played animals, inanimate objects, and other people. It was actually a lot of fun to perform because we did really well too. It was also really fun watching the other groups perform theirs as well.

I think it was on Thursday or Friday...or maybe even Wednesday, Ms. Weil assigned our movement composition assignment that I am SOOO looking forward to. She showed us her example that she choreographed to music and I thought it was so moving it seriously almost brought me to tears. It felt so real when she was moving around the stage and lip syncing to the music she chose. She performed it really well and that energy and power really reached out into the audience and I was so amazed. Then she told us the criteria of the project and what we needed to do. I got really excited that I immediately started thinking of songs to do my composition to. I think I'm going to make a separate blog entry about the movement composition, so I guess this is it for now :]

Today we did a big mix of things. Since tomorrow is the preview and the last dress rehearsal of the Fall Play, Ms. Weil gave us a short lecture about theater etiquette. All of it was pretty much common sense, but then again, people still do things that should obviously be avoided. Our class came up with a list of the five most important rules of theater etiquette.

1. Don't talk during the play either to other audience members or the actors. Yea, not a good idea.
2. Turn OFF your phones during the performance. And all the way off. 
3. Don't eat during the performance. 
4. Don't make unnecessary noises during the performance.
5. Be on time to the performance and stay seated until intermission or the end of the performance.

 There were a lot of other rules we wrote down, but they didn't quite apply as much to high school theater, although they should be taken into consideration no matter what.


The other activity we did during class today was a stage position sort of demonstration. There were seven people and two chairs on the stage and one at a time, each person would pose themselves somewhere on the stage in relation to the chairs. After everyone established their position, Ms. Weil called out multiple combinations and we would position ourselves in our poses. Then the audience would determine who had the strongest position depending upon their location on the stage and their position facing the audience. It definitely gave me more practice with stage directions and positions.

I feel bad for not having posted for almost a week. We haven't done much in drama, but we've definitely learned more about a couple things. I can't really recall everything we've learned in the past couple days, but I'll try and reiterate as much as I can remember.

We learned about stage directions with the center, left, and rights and how the stage is divided up into nine sections, each with their own names. The directions are always in the viewpoint of the actors, so it is the opposite for anyone who is looking onto the stage from the audience's point of view. I pretty much knew what the stage directions were before because of a previous basic drama course I've taken, but one thing I didn't know was the reason behind why downstage is called downstage and upstage is called upstage. There are also stronger places on stage to stand while speaking on stage. Down stage center is the strongest while up stage left or right tend to be the weakest. There are other positions in between starting with positions downstage and working your way backwards.

With stage directions, we did an activity that also involved different things. Mine incorporated sitting in a chair on stage after walking in from stage right down to down center stage. While I didn't get to present mine to the class, it was fun practicing how to properly "sit" in a chair on stage.

We've also learned about positions of standing while on stage. There are a variety of positions and there are certain positions that are stronger than others. Full front is the strongest position and it is when the entire body faces the audience. Full back is when the entire back of the actor is facing the audience and this position tends to be avoided. There are positions in between as well, going in both directions: Quarter turns, Half turns, and Three-Quarter turns.

With the positions of standing on stage, we played Simon Says to practice our knowledge of the stage positions and it was really fun, but it was really hard too because there are set directions for where positions such as quarter left or three-quarter right turns were. I enjoyed playing that game.

And today was really fun too, yet slightly painful...yes. We practiced stage falling today. Now, when it comes to falling, I am an expert at falling...but for real and not faking a stage fall. So even though Ms. Weil sort of taught us how to fall or faint on stage, I think I still have a couple bruises on my knee and my hip. It's a lot harder than I thought...as in falling without hurting yourself. It's definitely something I need to work on. :)

Class was fun fun fun today! Our warm-ups are getting a lot more intense than before! But it's LOADS of fun. I always look forward to going to drama because it's one class that I don't run the risk of falling asleep in.

For class, we started out by working on our posture. The activity that was involved was walking around the classroom with different postures depending upon what Ms. Weil told us. We all started in the neutral position, which was a straight back and our hands at our sides as well as our heads at a reasonable height. Ms. Weil called out different emotions such as happy, sad, confident, and bold as well as acting as a child and an elderly person. I found it really interesting how slight changes in posture can really give away the emotions or character or age of a person.

We also had partner performances during class. We were given five or six different locations to choose from, and we needed to create a silent scene and try and give clues to the audience of our ages and the scenario, but without speaking. Sydney was my partner and we acted out a scene in a café where we were two teenagers and we were keeping an eye out for hot guys. The audience got the idea pretty well and it was so much fun acting out the parts. Everyone else's performances were really fun to watch too.

We're going to begin the Movement Composition unit in drama now. Ms. Weil told us that our final performance for this unit will be a...movement composition. Yes. We're choreographing movements, or pantomimes, to a song in order to tell a story. We don't know the specifics, but then again, we just started the unit yesterday. More information to come later.

Yesterday, we talked developed our own silent scenes of a sport and try to help the audience guess which sport we were portraying. My group decided upon ping pong and we discussed certain things that were important to keep in mind while we performed: facial expressions and large, exaggerated movements. The performance went well and we all had a lot of fun with the choreography of it. The class as a whole also talked about things that are important to keep in mind while performing a pantomimed segment.

Today, we sat down and learned a lot more about pantomime. We learned what it was and how it is one of the first things that theater students must learn in order to progress quickly. Pantomime is when an actor on stage uses only gestures and their body to tell a story. It is a silent performance, but distinct stories can be told throughout the movement.
Another thing we discussed were two activities that are required for any serious drama student: fencing and dancing. They help in many different ways. The physical aspect: provides cardiovascular activity and improves physical fitness level, which is crucial for stage actors. They also aid in concentration and focus.

The last thing we did in class today was pantomime telephone. The game is so much fun to play and really funny to watch. The first person in a line makes up a simple movement composition and it gets passed down the line as best as it can until it reaches the last person in the line, who then performs the passed down composition to the first person. It was quite fun and we're continuing the game tomorrow as well as more notes maybe?

I can't wait until we do more with movement composition. :]