Journal entry: 8

It has been a month and a half that I haven’t posted on my theatre blog. I am quite happy that my presentation has finally finished today.  This semester we did a lot of new things, which was mainly based on Commedia dell arte. Before we had started with Commedia dell arte we had been given to read a chapter on Asian theatre. I found it very interesting and very unique form the other types theatre we had learnt before. I was quite proud while reading and learning about it due to the fact I am an Asian. Asian theatre is mostly based on religion, history of their ancestors or about warriors and kings. It is quite different form the Western theatre as it more sung or danced than spoken. We learnt about Punch and Judy, Karagoz, Bongsan mask dance and Balinese dance. Form all of these I liked Balinese dance the most. The dance was done was to entertain god and music was played by a group named Gamalong. For ever leg and feet movement there are 30 names. For arms there are 16 names, hand and fingers there are 19 names, trunk there are 14 names, neck and shoulder 20 names and facial expression 16 names. In the Balinese dance the most famous and demanding dance was the Lengong.  It is performed by young girls (preteens). They begin their training at very young ages (tender age) and retire by the time they reach mid teen to teach other the Lengong dance or to join in other dance forms. The Asian theatre has colorful mask and also rich in costume.

We started Commedia dell arte by watching a video. By just watching it we got a good understanding about it and the stock characters. We began exploring and researching about Commedia dell arte. On Thursdays when we have double block theatre we did different exercises, which could help us do different exercises. The physical jokes in Commedia dell arte are known as Lazzi and the verbal jokes are know as Burla. We tried different Lazzi and tried Burla only once. It was nice experience and very funny seeing all my friends different have different movement and facial expression. We did a lot of research for Commedia dell arte and also watched different videos. I liked how Commedia dell arte is an actor’s theatre. The actors are performers, editors and authors of their own work

As we started to progress with Commedia dell arte our big presentation was coming up. We began by choosing a stock character and I had chosen the second actress: ISABELLA. I liked her character, as she is immature just like us. We started by first researching on her character. I really liked how we had been given a small skit and had to perform before our actual presentation. It helped me a lot. It made me more comfortable and gave me confidence. The preparation for this presentation was very different form the other presentation I had done, like I had mentioned during my presentation. It was like a package where we had to research, explore, plan, prepare and lastly present on our own. The whole preparation for me was very challenging but exciting too. As our presentations started it was entertaining seeing all my friends perform. Me being one of the last person also had an advantage as I learnt form my friends mistakes. Everyone one had done a great job and performed very well. I was very nervous and scared for the presentation. When it was my turn to perform I was quite nervous. When I started to present I did not look at anyone because I was so scared. I did forget a lot of lines but I hope everyone enjoyed it.

I really enjoyed doing the presentation and learnt a lot form it. I myself have noticed that now I now have become very different form before and have started to open up now and become for expressive. This is all for now I hope to learn and explore new things each and every day.