Drama Class

Heres another idea again involving me at High School when I took a GCSE in Drama. If anyone knows me at all they would say that I would never opt for such a subject, but here is the crazy part, I did opt for it I didn't have to do it. It was a two year long course and I only got on with a handful of people doing it and the teacher didn't like me either. Why did I do it? I hear you ask, wrll there was one reason in the form of me having a crush on that teacher who I have just said didn't like me at all! The majority of the class went completely pear shaped, consisting of a series of run-ins with various classmates and the teacher, who at that time, I swore I loved. When it was coming towards the end of the course, everyone including me, was sure I was going to fail. Then we had an external examiner come in and we had to do a 10 minute improvisation sketch. He would give us a topic, we were then allowed 5 minutes thinking time and then we just had to go for it. I was thinking I was going to fail anyway, so I just thought I would go on stage and try to be funny and if I got a laugh at least I would have got 10 minutes of glory out of the mistake I had made in doing this course for two year. The examiner gave me the topic of "differentciation between upper and lower class people." So I just remembered every single funny comedy sketch I had seen on TV involving that kind of thing and tacked them all together. I then used Brechtian Techniques (even though at the time I didn't know I was using them) to make it seem like there was conversation stage going on between two people, even though their was only me up there. The examiner and everyone else in the room thought this was extremely funny and not only did I get the reaction I was hoping for, I finished the class with a grade C as opposed to a fail and I wasn't even trying at this point.



After the exam the teacher said she wanted to talk to me the following day about my performance, so when I went back to her she asked where I had heard of Brecht. I didn't know who Brecht was or what she was talking about and so she told me about what I was doing the previous day being actual techniques, which she hadn't taught us anything about. I then had to confess that I was just copying things I had seen on TV and none of the things I did were actually my own ideas. She told me she knew they had been done before, drama had been around since the time of the Ancient Greeks and finding completely new material now was impossible. The examiner was concentrating on deliverance as opposed to origionality and that was where I excelled. She couldn't believe I didn't know what I was doing and gave me a book to read up on it. I then protested that I had finshed the course now and there was no point in it. She then told me she wanted to teach me for one of my A Levels because she could now see my talent, so I put my name down for the A Level class and read the book over the summer. When I went back to school to start my A Levels, I found out that A Level Drama wasn't running because not enough people were interested in the course. I was very upset because I was actually looking forward to it for the subject this time. There was nothing I could do about it now though except return the teacher's book. As in the days of when I had a crush on her I found myself hiding behind a partition wall, but this time it wasn't in the hope of seeing her go to the theatre, I was waiting for her to come out, so I could sneak in there. After a while, I siesed my opportunity and left the book on a table for her. I never saw her again, and continued the rest of my A Levels without enthusiasm.

Epilogue: How I came to writing.

Rites of Passage

Hi okay well I did one blog and I thought I might as well do another. I have had an idea involving five (or around that number of) friends, who are all self centred and self serving in their own way. Each has to face some sort of problem and in the end they can all use each others faults to help each other get through their own problems. This shows there is a silver lining to every cloud and teaches the readers about self acceptance and the acceptance of others. This idea is loosely inspired by Wicked and Party Monster, also from Deans script that he gave me. I am looking forward to sitting and writing properly after I have finished all my uni work, not long now and I will be free of the shackles!