Author: pande89664@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg

The Beginning to a Beautiful Forever

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This year I decided to audition for the high school production – Behind the Beautiful Forever.

Right from when I researched about it, its story and intention appealed to me. Being from a city right next to Mumbai- the city the play was set in- I was quite familiar with the context of the play. The play explored the lives and struggles of poverty in the Indian slums of Mumbai with an underlying exploration of the worldly growing problem of Waste. Flying into Mumbai every two months to go back home from school, I pass through these slums and that’s why the issues explored in this play resonate with me louder.

I landed with the role of Mirchi, the 14-year-old daughter of a slum family. We began the rehearsal process with the exploration of different themes and individual characters. We played different games, did different exercises and workshops regarding the play to understand the complete context. For me, a huge part of this process was developing the character of Mirchi. This taught me a lot about character development, new acting techniques and body and voice control. My cast members were also a big part of my learning process.

But even before we started with the blocking process, we focused on the context through different ensemble explorations and activities. And therefore, when we were ready to start blocking, I was already instilled with the feeling of empathy towards the world beyond mine. It was not only the beginning of a play, but the beginning of a forever where w

 

Behind the Beautiful Forevers

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Being a part of this play was one of my best High School experiences.

My favourite part about being in play is researching about the context of the play. I was a part of was set in an Indian slum. It made me aware of a completely different lifestyle and was a very humbling production to be a part of because actually having to play the role of a 14-year-old slum girl made me more empathetic and considerate to the world beyond mine and it opened my eyes to problems such as poverty and education.

Further, through this play, we aimed at making people aware of these conditions of poverty. Therefore, for me, Theatre is a way of enacting meaningful change. Being in a play also means working with new people which helps me build on my skills as an actor buy learning from the other. I love working with new people and under different teacher directors as it gives me a wider scope to learn new things and greater exposure.

Another aspect of growth for me was being able to put myself out there in front of an audience and being able to act confidently. It really helped me overcome my stage fright. Working with an ensemble made it easier as I was able to learn different voice and body warm-up techniques used before going onto the stage.

But my favourite thing was the connections I made with people and the meaningful relationships I built. I think to work in an ensemble instilled in all of us the sense of being a part of something, something together. This really built up a sense of team spirit as well. I was able to know my fellow cast members beyond their characters throughout meaningful conversations about the severe themes explored in the play.

 

   

Humility overnight

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During my exciting week in Laos for Project Week, I was fortunate enough to experience a homestay with a local family in a small village in this country that I’d never visited before.

This was my favourite part of project week as it was something very different from anything I’ve done before. I think coming from the city I grew up in or have lived in Singapore for two years, I sometimes forget how privileged I am and take it for granted. Spending a single night in the village was a very humbling experience – seeing the way they slept on mattresses on the floor, bathed in a common community bathroom and stitched their own clothes.

But something that I’ll never forget is how selfless and content everyone in the village was. It took me until we left to realise that my host family has only two table fans in their house. Both of these fans, they placed in the room in which my friends and I stayed. Although they could have kept one fan for themselves considering the burning heat in Laos in the month of May.

This experience really taught me how to truly be considerate about others and selfless. Besides, it was a culturally rich experience to have eaten their local food, learning how to use the big weaving machine and meeting other people in the village.

Besides this heartwarming experience in the village, I was also able to challenge myself in different ways during project week. The trek until the waterfall was 10km, which is a lot more than I have trekked before. Although it was very challenging to complete the trek, it tested my perseverance and when I had finally finished, I felt a great sense of achievement. I had overcome my tendency to give up easily when situations get tougher.

Along with challenges, there are a lot of fun memories too! Some of them would be being a part of the “serving the monks” ritual, river rafting and playing games with the village kids. Something interesting that this week gave me- I became of certifies Mahut!

 

    

 

Um, Dois Três, Quatro!

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For the second Culturama that I took part in, I was a part of the Brazil dance group. This experience was quite interesting for me as I learnt a completely new dance form- Lambada which originates from Brazil.

I chose to be a part of this dance as my EE was included Brazilian street theatre which led me to research more about Brazilian culture and traditions. I learnt about the Brazilian Carnival which caught my eye and hoping to have a similar experience like the one I had researched about, I auditioned for the Brazilian dance with a lot of hope in my heart.

When we started practices, I was quite excited to learn the conventions of lambada- the steps, pace, beats. But as practices went on, the dance got quite challenging for me. There were dance moves that I couldn’t do even after trying again and again. At times, I felt like quitting. But it was my love for dance and the want to overcome something difficult that kept me going. My second Culturama was a tougher experience than my first one. Being in Grade 12, the academic pressure was more due to the excessive number of submissions. Therefore, not only did I learn a new dance, but I also learnt how to manage my time better and get more organised. I came up with new ways of doing so such as making a list to prioritize my work and allocate a specific amount of time to my academics as well as dance practice and other activities.

With extra lunch practices and re-watching our practice recordings, after a month I was finally able to better myself at the dance, even if not perfect it. Further, being on stage and performing this dance with a group of people, who were bound by team spirit, was extremely enjoyable. It made all the extra time and effort worth it, making it a performance that will always be special to me.

 

 

Reflective Conversation 3

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While doing my third reflection, I recognized the points of major learning through my Extended Essay process. Something that I learnt more about was how to write a research paper and citations. This was very new to me. I didn’t only learn how to produce broad and deep research through various sources, I also learnt how to be organised by keeping my planning documents and citations in an orderly fashion.

Being an SL student, I am unable to cover the unit on theatre practitioners. But through my EE, I was able to learn more about the practitioner Augusto Boal. This further interested me in reading about the other practitioners and drawing comparisons between their work, methods and intentions.

Working on me EE also made me realise that the reason for me enjoying this process as much was because of the happiness I got in learning new things. It excited me throughout, every time I found of something I hadn’t known before. The most interesting part of my research was to see how street theatre in two different countries- India and Brazil- had such common goals towards society but were differently shaped in their method due to their different cultures.

Reflective Conversation 2

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While working on the first draft of my essay, not only was I introduced to new knowledge about Street Theatre, but I was also able to refine my knowledge on things I already knew. The research process was an informative and interesting one for me. The interviews I conducted with Street Theatre professionals, for my research, were particularly my favourite part of my Extended Essay process. Getting my questions answered by people who have closely worked with Street Theatre, directed and even acted in it, gave me a better and more personal insight into this style of theatre. During the second Reflective Conversation my supervisor gave me some helpful feedback which helped me decide on two main aspects that I have to focus on to better my essay-Being more explicit with my use of terminology and stating my points more clearly and using more diverse sources for my research.

FOA Reflection

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For my FOA I chose to present how identity is represented through social media. This relates to the topic of Language and Technology and Language and Representation. I chose Alexandria Ocasio cortez who is a new Congresswomen, and decided to focus on her recent popularity amongst the American public. Through my FOA I wanted to not only focus on how she is represented by her haters, but also how she is able to change the reception of her identity through the way she responds to accusations on social media.

When I first started researching about AOC, I began reading articles about her, accusations put on her and what haters say about her. Then I searched and read through many of her tweets to get an overview of her style of replying, her tone and her audience.

The structure I followed for my FOA was:

  • Introduction to Alexandria Ocasio Cortez
  • Her display on social media by her haters
  1. Verbal Blackface – to analyse Code switching
  2. Dancing video scandal
  • The way her response on Twitter helps her mould her identity.

Throughout my FOA I have focused on analysing the language she uses on social media, her tone and audience reception and shown how they all affect her identity and popularity.

Shivani Tries a Sport!

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I have always been artistically more inclines. So I decided to challenge myself and take up a sport again. Although I had trained for badminton for three years before, it was a long time ago and I knew trying it again was going to be a task for me.

The first practice, I revisited the basics- backhand, full arm swing and the smash. It required a lot of training and time to get back in touch with my badminton skills. But after a month and a half of practice, I was not only able to re-learn old skills but also learn new ones.

 

Kahaani

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Kahaani is a dance showcase, associated with the Kolkata Global Concern (GC) group.  It supports a very meaningful cause; giving financial aid to disabled children in India with the help of the money collected through the tickets. My passion for dance was one of the major reasons for me joining this GC. So, when Kahaani came around, I embraced both my passion and the good cause and signed up to be a dance leader.I was extremely excited but not without doubt as it is a great challenge to be able to teach Indian dancing to a bunch of culturally diverse people. Besides, being new to UWCSEA, I was not very close to my seniors, many of whom were in my dance group. But I really wanted to do this, challenge myself and at the end be proud of my new achievement.

Practice was held every Monday for an hour. Initially it all went smooth. I was amazed to see how so many of them picked up on the steps even without understanding and knowing the lyrics. After the first few weeks, it started getting tougher due to time constraints. As the show came closer, people started getting nervous and it became even harder to get through the dance. As a leader, it was my duty to keep calm and help the rest feel confident. I remember on of my dancers had a slight panic attack on the day of the show and came up to me saying that he could not do it. I explained to him how he was not doing it alone and how he would be proud once he was actually done with the show. But what I remember more clearly is how well and confidently he danced!

Though we finally put up a great dance, the journey till the performance was not all sunshine. There were many lows such as slight disagreements turning into aggressive arguments, people not showing up for practice and even backing out with affected our entire choreography. But I took it in the right way and decided to look at the lows as areas of learning. I learnt to better manage my time and to be organised as in order to have a successful practice session, I had to plan it out before hand. I learnt to take the blame as I had taken up the responsibility of teaching and I could not be complaining. I developed my patience by maintaining my calm even when things weren’t working out. I learnt so much from my teammates! Some of them showed me what determination is, some proved to me that things done with a smiling face are things that are enjoyed more.  And just like that, climbing through all the lows, I learnt so much and grew a lot as a person.

This experience is one of the most memorable ones not only because I had an opportunity to lead, but also because I had the opportunity to learn from so many new people. I realised that this is the most important aspect of leading; teaching but also learning willingly.

  

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