For our exam I've looked and explored two stimuli. Firstly we looked at song lyrics of "The Hurricane", which was sang by Bob Dylan. This stimulus was set in America during the 1960's. The second extract we looked at was a play "Medea" by Euripides, which was set in Ancient Greek. When I first looked at the lyrics of "Medea" and the first time I heard "The Hurricane", the first thing I noticed was that they were both from two different sources. They both had one thing in common which was that they were talking about society and life.
I felt that the Bob Dylan's lyrics were easier to understand, as we heard the whole song and had all the lyrics. This meant that it was straightforward to do the tasks; whilst in Medea we were just given parts of the extract, which meant we had to work out the story and the background. We first looked as "The Hurricane". This was based on a true story about a 22-year-old boxing champion Rubin carter who was set up by two men Bello and Dexter. Rubin was accused of murder because of his race.
This story, which was based on the theme of racism "If you're black you might as well not show up on the street less you wanna draw the heat", was in the southern states that make a link to the civil rights movement. We did various tacks to explore the song lyrics. We first looked as the first four lines "Pistol shots ring out in the barroom night, enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall, she sees the bartender in a pool of blood, cries out "My god, they killed them all". For this scene we used several drama techniques to show these lines.
I played Patty Valentine, and as she was the character saying the line we decided as a group just to emphasize in on her. To show this through drama we decided to use slow motion and freeze frames. All the other characters froze while Patty Valentine moved and spoke her line slowly and dramatically. To show that Patty Valentine was the focus of the act, we used levels to show her status. We then after got the next three lines of the extract; we joined up with another group to show 2 scenes happening at the same time. We achieved this by using cross cutting and split focus, which basically meant two different scenes happening at the same time.
The next task was a prison machine. This is a technique used to show what the character would be thinking and imagining. You would think of one line, which would be repeatedly said with one movement. So our focus was on Rubin Carter, so we all had to think of different lines to repeat to show how he would be feeling, thinking and what people might be telling him. The line I used was "I'm innocent" I used this specific line because it shows the audience that he is innocent, and sentenced just because of his race and it links too "an innocent man in a living hell" which gave me the suggestion.
To show my line, I mainly used levels, which can be used to show status. I started standing up but as I said my line I got down on to the floor with my voice gradually quieting and slowing down. If I was to direct this part I would use dull lighting as this shows sadness, innocence and loneliness, I would make Rubin carter wear scruffy clothes as that is what would be expected. "Rubin sits like a Buddha in a 10 foot cell an innocent man in a living hell", we then had to explore and adapt these lines in to freeze frames also known as tableau. Freeze frames are when, an individual or group show the extract through no movement.
We achieved this by thinking of the main points in this extract and putting them into five freeze frames. We also did thought- tracking. Thought tracking is imaging how it would be if you were in the seconds persons position and thinking how they would think. This concept can also involve the audience; they can freeze us and ask us what we would be thinking at a certain time. So in this case, we had to imagine being in Rubin Carters position, how it would be to be in prison for something, which was not your fault, and it was all just because of your race. We achieved this by having one person in the middle playing RubinCarter.
We had people circling him saying his thoughts, negative and positive. We also did a task "Nightmare", were we were showing Rubin Carter having a nightmare. We achieved this by having one person in the group playing Rubin; we used four people in each corner of the room saying different things. And then towards the end we all started emerging in whilst saying "Guilty" from a quieter slower pace to a fast louder pace. In "Medea" we focused on the Greek theme. Medea was first performed in 431BC. Euripides is believed to have written 92 dramas but only 19 of them are known. Euripides were known and mainly recognized for there tragedies.
We looked at the background of the Greek culture and one thing I found interesting was the Greek chorus, which was basically taking a certain phrase from the play and making it into a Greek dance. We firstly just got a few lines of the play and we had to expand on it and make it into our own dance. The thing I enjoyed was that we could create it how we wanted to. One thing I found which we did in the lessons was that, before we did any practical work we looked at the background and themes of the extracts. Secondly, we were given the tasks in parts, which made it clearer and easier for us to understand.
The Stimuli have differences and similarities, firstly they both are talking about society and life, but in Medea they are focusing on the theme of love whilst the hurricane is focusing on the theme of racism. Also both extracts are from different sources: a song and a play. The Hurricane and Medea are also from different eras. Developing " I can't believe this has happened to me I mean I'm only 22 years old and I had a incredible future in front of me. I shouldn't be in this dirty damp place. I mean its disgusting. I haven't even had one good night sleep all I hear is "tap tap tap", the leaking never stops.
Its weird in one way, my life has been taken away through innocence. The worst and most dreadful part was, when a group of guilty white men said I was guilty. I mean how and why would they do that to an innocent person. I.... I.... I'm innocent, I swear. When I got arrested I kept thinking why I did, and I thought it was a mistake until I got to the court case... (Flashback) Judge: Monday 21st April 1967 Order order! Will Rubin carter please rise (high pitched voice, black clothes, formal language. Loud, clear and slow) Rubin: I didn't do anything I... I (Casual clothing, talking fast and stuttering).
Judge: Be quiet (shouted) Patty valentine do you find Rubin carter guilty or not guilty? (Calm, but with a high voice and standing up straight to show her importance) Patty valentine: guilty your majesty (Stand up, being polite and innocent, a formal dress) Judge: Bello do you find the defendant guilty or not guilty? (Calm, but with a high voice and standing up straight to show her importance) Bello: um... um.... guilty sir (Smartly dressed, stuttering, thinking a lot before he speaks to show innocence) Judge: Arthur Dexter Bradley do you find the defendant guilty?
(Calm, but with a high voice and standing up straight to show her importance) Arthur: yes I find Rubin carter guilty (Smartly dressed, fast quick and short,) Judge: guilty or not guilty? All: guilty!!! Rubin: Noooooooooooooooooo (a crying pleading voice) Judge: Rubin carter you are found guilty and will be sentenced to prison for life for murder. (Formal, standing up showing status) Then I realized, why I was really sentenced to prison. "Guilty", at that point I recognized everyone in the court case was white, and I the only colored. Its at this point in life, you see how society really treats you.
The diagram below shows us the setting of the courtroom. For his practical I played the part of Patty Valentine. I played an innocent loving caring girl. I showed this through voice and movement. I decided to make my voice gentle and slow, to show that she was innocent. I didn't make much movement as if I had have done, it might have suggested I was guilty. Rubin carter (Dharmesh) Police officer (Trupti) Bello Patty valentine Arthur Dexter (Amee) (Heenal) (Shoaib) If I were to set Rubin's monologue (where one person talks), I would set it in the cell. The picture below shows how I would imagine the cell to be like. Evaluation.
Concluding, the overall process was interesting and challenging. The extract I found easier and understandable was "The hurricane," however I enjoyed "Medea". The thing I found interesting about this extract was the Greek theme. It got us to explore and see a different culture. The task I found interesting and imaginative was the Greek chorus (dance). I really enjoyed this as we worked in a group and I had a lot of ideas to put a dance together. I liked the theme of "The hurricane," about racism and the fact that it was based on a true story. It was also linked to the civil rights movement, as that is what got him out of jail.
Researching, I found that Euripides have written 88 plays but only 18 of them are known, however Medea was one of the most well known plays done by the Greeks. The Greeks used to work on the themes of tragedy and comedy. I also found that when the Euripides performed "Medea" the Greek chorus was an unfamiliar aspect to the audience, but the Euripides was aiming it not to be "naturalistic". They used to make it a highly stylized art form; where the characters wore masks and the performances incorporated song and dance. Euripides used chorus to create it like a poem.
The themes of Medea were: passion and rage-Medea was a woman of extreme behavior and extreme emotion. For her passionate love for Jason, she sacrificed all, committing unspeakable acts on his behalf. But his betrayal of her has transformed passion into rage; revenge-Medea is willing to sacrifice everything to make her revenge perfect. She murders her own children; pride- Medea's pride drives her to unnecessarily brutal action. Researching on the hurricane and about civil rights, we see how easy it is to be discriminated because of your color. When I first read the extract, I thought about the bus situation with Rosa parks.
As she was a black woman who wasn't treated equally as the white people. But she fought for her culture and went against the rules of society at the time. This is linked to the story of Rubin carter as he was sentenced to prison just because of his race, but then got released through the black civil right movement. Doing this research and finding out about the Greek culture and the civil rights movement made my understanding of the plays much more clearer, as then I could as an individual add my own thoughts and ideas in. Overall, I found these extracts interesting and totally different from each other which therefore made it more motivating.
No comments:
Post a Comment