Us at our weekly service meeting researching the challenges and successes of inclusivity in SG:
Month: November 2019
BTBF
Having watched BTBF last week there are two main takeaways that I had:
- As directors, we have a responsibility as to being careful withe audience’s emotions. There has to be a balance between the strong emotions that the audience feels so as to not put them in a position of being too overwhelmed that they can’t focus on the performance itself. You also want to make sure that the audience feels the correct emotions. Each element should be directed to evoking a specific emotion rather than “happy” or “sad”.
- As actors, we need to study our characters and develop movements and mannerisms that are specific to them. Jai was particularly good at this as he was able to find specific gestures that created his character well. Repeated gestures and exaggerated movements can also help distinguish your character from others so all actors need to thoroughly study their character.
Kahaani Evidence
Saint Hoax and his/her role
Saint Hoax is a Syrian artist that depicts controversial issues on his/her work. The series we studied in class was in regards to gender equality called “Make America Mysognistic again” in which Ads from the 1950s-60s in America were combined with Donald Trump quotes in other to complement the sexism in both of them. Saint Hoax, although being Syrian, likes to explore American culture and its influence. We discussed how this may be due to his personal experience because of the military influence that America used to have.
Saint Hoax has produced a range of other works like “Happily Never After” or “War Drags You Out”. In both of these instances, iconic figures were used to shed light upon issues such as domestic abuse and conflict. Saint Hoax uses relatability as a factor to drive his work as it allows people to make more of a personal connection.
I think he raises a really good question about who should be held accountable when someone is offended by work. A lot of his work is quite controversial and offends people in several situations. However we have studied that many texts have had unpredictable consequences. On one hand, authors have an intent when publishing their work and they may not have intended to offend someone. In this case should they be let off the hook? On the other hand, published work can have an affect on the general public, in which case should the audience be accounted for more?
We also began to discuss this is relation to cultural appropriation. As an Indian, I would take no offence if anyone wanted to buy Indian clothes. Some African Americans take it very personally when people wear braids and dreads etc, however I think it is quite unnecessary. Then again, we need to consider whether the audience of something also has a say in the way they perceive things.
All in all I think Saint Hoax causes us to reconsider our perspective on several world issues.
How Does the Text Create Meaning?
MUN Evidence
Pre Season Netball
LO2- Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process. // LO4-Show commitment and perseverance in CAS experiences. Students can articulate the stages from conceiving an idea to executing a plan for a CAS experience or series of CAS experiences.
This is an activity that occurs once a week for 1.5 hours where a group of girls from 11th and 12th grade get together to play netball. It is before the competitive season begins so it is merely a chance to develop new skills and get used to the game. I have played netball in the past a little but never at a competitive level.
I believe this activity achieves LO2 because it has been a long time since I’ve played a competitive team sport. I know that I work a lot better alone which means this will be an opportunity for me to refine my collaboration skills. Furthermore I am quite nervous to work in a team because I know I am not great at sports and I am worried my level will not match up and I could potentially let my teammates down. This is going to be a challenge for me in terms of learning the sport itself but as well as giving myself an opportunity to grow and become comfortable with my abilities.
I believe this is also an accurate activity for the first part of LO4 because I will have to attend this activity weekly. I know there will be times when I am lazy to stay after school or even scared because of the skill level, but I will have to stay resilient and show up to trainings in order to improve.
I am excited to see my progress after a while!
CAS Teacher Reflection 1
Kahaani Evidence
Lighthouse Motor Skill Service experience
Today was our first time interacting with the kids itself and it was a new experience to say the least. I had to become a lot more aware and notice everything I was doing to compensate for the fact that most of the kids were not aware for themselves. The biggest challenge I noticed was keeping them engaged in one activity at a time. We were constantly needing to adapt because they would get bored or perhaps the activity was too hard and we overestimated ability. One thing that fascinated me was how independent some of them were. They were able to clearly articulate their interests and build friendships with us. Some of them even looked out for their friends that were more impaired than themselves by sharing the material or guiding them through activities. All in all, it was a very inetresting opportunity to partake in and I look forward to seeing the kids again.
You can see evidence of our planning and communication amongst the service team: