FINAL REFLECTION ??!!

This is supposedly my last blog for this course ‘teaching the language of drama’ and there are still a lot more that I want to share with others about this course. Erm..well, I still can continue blogging if I want. Frankly speaking, I enjoy blogging very much because in some ways it can release my tension, create my confidence, develop my critical thinking skill and the most important thing is I can share ideas with my friends. It is really great!
As for this final blog of this course, the first thing that I need to say is that I really enjoy studying this subject – the lecturer is fantastic, the input that I get is really useful for me as a preparation for the next semester course –THEATRE. The most memorable assignment that I had done is writing the script for a short play which really taught me on how to direct a play. The cast, stage direction, the sequence of scene – it was not an easy task to complete this assignment. However, it was an enjoyable moment when we were trying hardly to complete the script.
Today, I have done my simulated teaching and the feeling was like throwing a ton of rocks away from my head. I have tried my best to prepare the best activities for the lesson and hopefully I can get the best mark also. Well, this simulated teaching is really helpful for me as a future teacher. I cannot imagine how it would be if I am really in the real situation at school. I can feel how difficult it is to handle 45 students at a time with various attitudes. Fuhh…Do am I really going to be a teacher? Yes you are! Come on..this is what we call as challenges. Teaching is a noble job.
Other than that, the most memorable moment I have experienced in this course is the meeting with Kee Thuan Chye. He is a creative writer and I really admire his work in the play ‘the swordfish, then the concubine’. However, the meeting was really swept away my respect towards him. After meeting him face to face, I found that he is not really a good writer. He was really obsesses about his politic view and this has made him as an empty container for me.
The last thing that I want to mention is that, our beloved lecturer Dr. Edwin is not going to teach us anymore after this as he will move on to a secret place which we don’t even know where it will be. It is something dreadful for us since we know that we are not going to have another lecturer as dedicated as him. We will miss you Dr. Edwin!!!!Waaaaaaaa!!!
One more thing…for those who will miss to read my blog after this, you can still visit my site since I will keep blogging to share everything with all of you!

WOMAN VS MAN.....

As we are studying ‘the language of drama’, we were required to watch several movies as for our references in understanding the world of drama better. From the beginning of the semester, I have watched several interesting movies – Oedipus Rex, Macbeth, Elizabeth the Golden Age, King Lear and Street Car named Desire. However, the most movie that I really interested is Elizabeth the Golden Age. It is a fantastic movie and no wonders this movie had won many global awards.
From the beginning of the story I was fascinated by the costumes used by the actress - the old gown during Elizabethan era. I assumed that this movie had won The Best Costume Design for Academy Award. What I have learnt from watching this movie is that besides the actor’s and actress’s talent, the costumes also play an important role in making the story become more realistic and interesting.
The main reason why I love this movie is that it shown the woman’s power over the man. Well, it is very difficult to find a movie which put woman on the top of a community. This movie in some ways made me proud to be a woman. Haha..In addition, as usual a movie is incomplete without the sense of love. Thus, for this movie, the triangle love between Elizabeth, Bess and Raleigh was another element that captured my interest towards this movie.

Sorry Kee Thuan Chye.......

Last Monday, i have had a chance to meet Kee Thuan Chye and at first i feel very excited to meet this creative writer. I really admired his play "the swordfish, and then the concubine" as this play is very unique in a sense that he combined two different elements - modern and traditional.
However, that meeting was not really as what as i hope it to be. At first, i was very happy as i finally i can see him face to face and i was able to hear his speech. Erm...i was a bit disappointed as i think his speech was 80% into political issue. I admit that in "swordfish and then the concubine", there are several points that related to political issues, however i never believed that he was too obsess into this topic.
I still remember a sentence that he said during his speech on that day is that we students should not be taught about history of Malaysia. I understand he is totally against the government, but i think he does not have the right to say so because at early of his speech, he did mentioned that we ourselves do not know whether the history is true or not. So, who give him the right to say that the history text book is polluting students' minds?
However, i really appreciate Dr. Edwin's effort to invite him for this conference. At least, i got the chance to know and understand him better. Sorry Kee Thuan Chye, I am no longer your fan anymore.

GO OEDIPUS!! FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHT!!!

Frankly speaking, I just finished reading the play “Sophocoles; Oedipus Rex” and something captured my mind about this King. When I went through this text I class, I found that Oedipus was the worst person in this world. However, after thoroughly reading this text on myself, something new came out from my heart towards him. Readers should not blame him for something that he never knew the truth. People started to have negative feelings towards him because he had killed his own father and married with his own mother. However, readers must take note that he never wished to do all of that. When he was at Corinth, he left his hometown and never return because he tried to get rid from the oracle – he will kill his father and marry his mother. This proved that he never willing to against the nature.
Besides that, I think Oedipus was an honest and responsible leader. Readers might think he is a bad person when he scolded Teiresias for not telling him the truth about Laius’s murderer. But for me, he done this because he felt the responsibility to find Laius’s murderer and at the same time solved the plague. Moreover, at the end of this story, when he truth was revealed, Oedipus blinded himself as a punishment for him. Besides that, he also beg Creon to let him leave the city because banishment was the punishment he declared for Laius’s killer.
Thus, from my point of view, readers cannot blame Oedipus totally because his situation is what we called as ‘Moira’. As human, we cannot change our fate; God has planned our destiny.

WEDDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WEDDING!!!!
It was the first word that appeared on my slide show during my simulated teaching for set induction. At first, I was a bit upset and unconfident to present since there are many presentation which focused on wedding ceremony. Why should they choose the same Drama? Ermm..maybe others who had the same issue with me would came out with similar question. However, I managed to get my confidence back after showed my first video of the presentation. I have prepared two video clips about wedding ceremony. The first video was about a worst wedding while the second one was a happy ending wedding. At the end of the presentation, students were acquired to response by comparing those videos. I have got good feedback from the students for those videos and they participated very well during the presentation. After all the presenters for that day finished presenting, our tutor, Mr. Harold has came out with several comments on what should we do and don’t during the presentation. I was lucky because none of his comments were connected with my presentation. Well, I thought it was a big luck for the next presenters since they have got several tips and can use it to improve their presentations. Whatever it is, hopefully I will get more confidence on the next presentation and I will try my best to give an awesome pre-reading and while reading activities.

Who are you TEIRESIAS?????

TEIRESIAS!!!!!!what's so special about him until Dr. Edwin asked us to search about you?? I just know your name through the Sophocoles play which illistrates you as a blind prophet. However something captured into my mind about you. How could a prophet who is supposedly perfect, can be blind? Since i'm so eager to know about you as well as Dr. Edwin had asked,finally i have found an article about your history. But i,m a little bit confused. there were so many information that i found till i did not know which one is true. The first article said that you were blinded by Athena after you stumbled onto her bathing naked.Is it true?your mother begged her to undo the curse, but she can't.instead of undo the curse, she gave you the ability to understand birdsong.The second article said you were hit a pair of copulating snakes with his stick.Hera was very angry with you and she transformed you into a woman. Wow! Is it wonderful to experience that in your life? The last history that i can find about you was you were drawn into an argument between Hera and her husband Zeus, on the theme of who has more pleasure in sex. And you had gave a truthful answer, but then you had made Hera angry again and struck you blind for the impiety.Ermm...poor you...So,which one is the true story about you? Please replied..Hehehe

Who's Next???

Thanks a lot to this course for giving me a chance to be a script writer and also make my group and I burn our midnight oil until the last drop. Hehe..The lesson that I can get from this experience is that in future, I don’t want to be a script writer. At the first moment when we started to brainstorm the ideas that came out from our gifted mind, suddenly a feeling of admiration came into me. The respect towards script writers was in my mind because now I realized that it was not easy for a person to create a script of a story. Especially scripts for two or three hours film. I couldn’t imagine how they managed to create the dialogues of each character and organize them into a story line. As for me, even though there were three of us who could share ideas in creating dialogue, things got to be more complicated because too many ideas came at the same time and we started to quarrel. After a small ‘fighting’, finally we managed to complete the script entitled “Who’s Next??”.

Protect Our Cultural Heritage!!!!!!!!!!!

Traditional dance – people who knows me will know how much I love dancing, especially traditional dance. Compared to the modern dance, I think traditional dance has more artistic value. The beauty and the grace of each step will mesmerize me. Zapin, Inang, Joget, Makyong are some of the examples of Malay traditional dance that I ever perform during school and college. I really enjoy performing those dances and every time I was on stage, the feeling of proud and satisfaction will come. I really interested in learning more about traditional dance but time has limited my desire. I started enjoying traditional dance when I watched my mom’s collection on video clip of her performances during college. My mom was really great on stage performing her Makyong steps and when she started to work as a teacher, she took the opportunity to teach traditional dance at school. Then, her skills was inherited by my sister who is now is struggling in training her students for national competition in traditional dance. Maybe I also get the heredity from my mom and now I am trying to control my appetite if not I cannot dream to perform anything. Most teenagers nowadays are more interested in modern dance which just knows how to hop and jump. Well, it is important for them to know about traditional dance since it is our cultural heritage which is full with splendor and magnificence. Each state in our country has its own cultural dance and the community should be proud to learn and practice it. For example, in Johor we have Zapin, Pahang with Joget, Kelantan with Makyong, Melaka with Dondang Sayang and Terengganu with Ulik Mayang. Thus, in a hope to protect my cultural heritage, it would be nicer if there is a course of traditional dance in B.Ed TESL program and I will be the first person who registers it. =)

DEMON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OMG!! I'm really excited reading the drama script - The Ring. Seriously, it is really weird, but beautiful, nice, wonderful! How i wish i can meet the writer of this script. He must be a creative person. The story is very unique; i mean it is rare to find the love between human being and demon eventhough it is just an imagination. Frankly speaking, i could't stop smiling while reading this.It is so romantic. Vincent really can make the reader fall into his imagination and he is smart in choosing the best words for this story. I mean, the simple words that he used really help me to read and understand the story smoothly. The ending of the story - when Raj was get caught into the mental hospital and Leila sacrifizes her love just for the sake of Raj's future is so touching. In my opinion, Raj's mom's appearance at the end of the story can develop reader's higher thinking skill as they need to think and come out with their own interpretation. What a lovely story... Hopefully i can be a creative writer as him.

Well, i just read Dr. Edwin's blog and the most important part is we are going to watch theatre!! Great idea right? A big thank to Dr. Edwin for suggesting this wonderful idea. It is good to experience the feeling of a real theatre. At least we can get more input in understanding and learning about theatre. I have been informed that we will handle a real theatre next sem. So, in this sem we should put more efforts to understand this subject. Hopefully we can have a great performance on the next sem!!

Drama?????????????????

Ermmm.....something interesting for this sem – teaching the language of drama. Can you imagine that we will learn a language of a glamour world? I can’t wait to discover all of those things and I’m sure that all of my coursemates have the same feelings too. Right guys? Oh come on..Don’t tell me that all of you never dream to be a superstar like Britney, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, and Dr. Edwin..their lives are full of shine and glare. And it must be more motivating since once again we will be guided by our beloved lecturer, Dr. Edwin.

The first class – Must be more creative! That was the first thing that appeared in my mind during the class. It is due to our first assignment- one-act play script! Wow!! What kind of story should I create? Love story...family relationship...or should it be a happy ending or a sad ending? Something challenging, but interesting..Well, be creative!! During lecture time (12.30 until 1.40pm) – it was very tough to concentrate to the lecture during this hour and I could see some of my classmate were having a hard time to open their eyes. Luckily the topic for this lecture is quite interesting – overview of the History of theatre. And I started to recall the one and only theatre that I ever watched-Ibu Zain. It was tremendously superb and I was mesmerized by the great performances by the actors and actress, and also a wonderful feeling being in the big hall at Istana Budaya. That was a wonderful experience I had and I think it will help me a lot in learning this subject.

It was a good start for this subject and I wish I can participate well in the class.. Good Luck!!