Theatre Lesson : (Aug'15) Le Théàtre de Jaques Lecoq

My attention returns to my body. I start to feel the structure of my body. Initially wondering consciousness traverse back and I realize a vibration in me. I hear poundings in me. Strong pulses, my heart is palpitating. From the centre of my form, I can feel the vibration spreading out, rippling like waves towards my limbs. My consciousness stretches out towards my partial paralyzed legs and arms.

I have fingers, and toes. And if i will it enough to move, slowly it moves. They are stiff. I can feel the friction whilst separating the formerly in-contact skin on my fingers and my toes. And I move, more, faster, and in larger in action... I raised my hands above my head and I stretch further. I can feel my spine lengthen; vertebra by vertebra from my lower back towards my neck. I'm becoming longer, and longer. At one point, my body is so tense, and then i relax my muscles, and I open my eyes. A blinding white light flashes in front of me, my eyes strained and I close them again for a few seconds. I open them, and blink. I can feel that the veins or whatever structure that is holding the back of my eyes in the eye socket contract and then relax. I stare into the white lights above me.

"Am I a new born baby, a tabula rasa?... Maybe not." I find myself having a monologue. Then, I get the feeling that i just came out from a surgical theatre. The white lights, so blindingly glaring, are like those lights in the operation theatre. I raise my hands, close to my eyes. I can see the lines, the wrinkles on them. I flex my fingers, like how a puppeteer would do a marionette (but at that moment, i wasn't thinking about anything, just curious!)

Using my arms, I support my body into sitting position. I look around me and try to absorb everything into my mind. I realize that I'm sitting on a rough but quite soft surface - it's a floor carpet. I notice a yellow spherical object a few metres in front of me. I crawl towards it and poke it. It's not hard but it's elastic. Springy. And i experimented with it like a child, receiving his very first ball.....

The neutral mask

In this chapter of Theatre class, I learn the concept of Neutrality. Lecoq describes the training of an actor as an effort to become a blank piece of paper, without any knowledge or preconceptions about the world, but with the potential to do of become anything. Personally, I don't feel too difficult to get into the state of "partial" neutrality. (I put it that way because I'm still skeptical about the fact that we can be entirely neutral and pure, and innocent just with that short time of practice. But no doubt, we can reach that level of transcendence with practices!!) One of the way that I opted to proceed nearer into the state of neutrality is by possessing the curiosity if a newborn baby. I know that it might sound hard and unconvincing, but in my opinion, one way to maintain the curiosity is by constantly remember oneself in life that we don't know everything. Even if we know an object, we should know that we don't everything about that object, and therefore, with that perception in mind, we would have the inquisitiveness to ask for more experiences, be it sensory or emotional, like a kid. We would have to let go of our ego and return to our humble self; in search of the inner child. One would scarcely believe that a grown-up will do goofy childish stuff. Yet, like a forgotten fire in the glowing ash of a coal, curiosity can always flare up inside us.

Character Masks

Larval Masks

For those who wish to proceed further with the concept of neutrality, Ms Val suggested further research in the use of masks, We have the neutral mask - an expressionless mask . How would such a mask could be a tool used in actor training? Maybe in some way, the mask could help the actor focuses more on his/ her body gestures first before including facial expression into the conveyance of message through theatre. By putting on a mask or a neutral face, one tends to put more attention towards the body and movements I suppose. Apart from neutral mask, we also have Character masks and Larval masks. For all mask, I believe, it helps an actor, especially beginners like us, to pay more attention to the other parts of the body, and to fully utilize the body parts express the actor's creative and intuitive response to the character he or she wants to portray. Putting on a mask is like putting on an identity. The actor achieve neutrality by not revealing his/ her own self . With neutrality, one should be able to prevent the play character having the personality, behaviors, habitual actions, signature movements of the actor.

Apart from neutrality, I also discovered one's tendency of showing personal attachment towards object(s) at the first sight in one's transition into the neutral state. In most scenario, curiosity and inquisitiveness as well as limitless imagination are the major factors contributing to such as inclination. In my case, the long, plain, purplish cardinal, silky cloth that I played with, later became one of the prominent tool I utilized in the further exploration of this chapter.

(September 2015) CAS Reflection : 2 - MPU Merdeka Celebration Project

International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme Students taking picture with Ms Lauren, the Principal of TCSH

Event Proposal   :              MPU Merdeka Celebration Project

Objectives          :             

To show visually and aid in the understanding of what it means to live in harmony within a multicultural context.

Activity Description         :

As a Malaysian born citizen we are all familiar with the concept of a multicultural society. We are all individual with a different perspective of the world yet we are connected to each and every one by a “string of fate”. Inevitably this also means that for every action that we partake we must also be aware that we are affecting the other individual of the group which we are connected to. Recently the issue of racial disharmony has been creeping up in the media and in lieu of the country’s vision of Wawasan 2020, we are proposing a short play that will carry a strong message for the youth that is present in the college. 

Time                     :             

August 2015

Location              :             

Taylor’s College Sri Hartamas (TCSH)

Supervisor          :             

Mr Anthony William, MPU teacher TCSH

Goal                     :   

• ·       Work collaboratively with new friends from different racial, ethnical, and cultural background, or even making friends with international students regardless of nationality, race, languages, culture, habits, etc.
• ·        Resonates the extraordinary aura of teamwork, and comradeship.
• ·        Delegate jobs.
• ·        Be aware of my weakness.
• ·        Able to take everyone's opinion into consideration.

Impact                 :

• ·        Raise awareness about LOVE TOWARD THE COUNTRY, especially among the teens
• ·        Action speaks louder than words.
• ·        I am aware of my shortcomings, which includes the ineffectiveness in communication can cause lots of problems. I have to hone my skills in effective communication to avoid misunderstanding.
• ·        A great experience which taught us all the importance of teamwork and friendship.
• ·        What I hope to learn/ gain:

• Organizing and planning skills
• Performing Skills
• Effective Time Management

Timeline              :             

18^TH – 24^TH August 2015

Meeting, planning and having discussion among groups. Delegation of roles

25^TH – 26^TH August 2015

Kolam designing and making

27^TH August 2015

Rehearse the “Satu Malaysia” song with the International Students

28^TH August 2015

MPU Merdeka Celebration day

Cas Reflection:

This Merdeka Celebration event was one of our MPU project for year 2015. It was planned and initiated by us, the international Baccalaureate Diploma Programme Students of Taylor’s College Sri Hartamas batch 2015-2017. First of all, what we had to do was brainstorming. We divided ourselves into three groups as we planned to do three different activities. We are all different culturally and individually. Difference is not a sign of weakness, it is of strength. It is the understanding and respect of the presence of others that will lead us to harmony and not unity.

Throughout  the whole Merdeka Celebration, I took part in quite a number of different activities in celebrating the 58^th Independence Anniversary of our nation, Malaysia. First of all, about three days before the event day, which was the 28^th of August 2015, I helped out another group of friends of mine to design and make the Satu Malaysia kolam at the corridor along the main entrance Taylor’s College Sri Hartamas. I was living in Puncak Prima Condominium, the school hostel just next to the campus, so I offered to come down to the campus and help out at night. Initially, the kolam only consisted of three main parts – the Satu Malaysia symbol and the national flower of Malaysia, the Hibiscus, and the Taylor’s College Logo. We managed to complete that Kolam in just one night. Kudos to the Kolam Team. The Kolam was really attractive. It was radiant with many colours. The second night, we made some alterations and we ended up adding more features to the Kolam. We added a famous landmark of Malaysia, the Petronas Twin Towers, and the wording of “Merdeka58 @TCSH”. We were so addicted to Kolam making and could stop adding more details on our craftwork. In the end we have the as well as #SEHATISEJIWA on the Kolam. From the experience of this Kolam making session, I truly felt that aura of teamwork and friendship inundating me in the most sanguine way possible. It was so touching, seeing so many people working collaboratively, putting in the best hand-in-hand for the ultimate result.

Figure 1 : The kolam on the first night. 

Figure 2 : The Kolam Team and I

Figure 3 : The Kolam Team

Fgure 4 : The Kolam with the Petronas Twins Towers..

Figure 5 : The Final Artwork!

 On the day itself, Quin and I led the international students of our intake to sing a patriotic song. The international students, Kumar (from Singapore), Akash and Rina (from India) had chosen the song “Satu Malaysia”, a famous song originally sang by a choir of Malaysia singers. It was quite an experience to sing the Malay song with them, in front of the crowd. I was proud that they were willing to celebrate the Independence Day of Malaysia without prejudice and sang a song that represented racial unity, tolerance and dedication towards the country. Seeing them singing happily on the stage with us, I felt touched. Such an experience make me realize the importance of togetherness without any form of discriminations. I would like to urge all the teenagers in this world to step out and make a difference for their country. I tend to hear, from many teens from various background, saying that they do not think that they can do anything for the world. Yet, I realized that we actually can. First of all, we have to get rid of the negative mindset that errs our judgement, that is, as young as we are we literally do not have a voice. In fact, we have voices, if and only if, we voice out together. By doing a small measure on our own, those small steps by us as an individual, can sum up to be a big change.

Lasty, after the singing of "Satu Malaysia" song, I participated in the Merdeka Play, Ginger, Janet, Jemmima, Quin and I were the actors in the play. The play however did not turn up very well. We barely contrived to send out our main messages, partially owing to the not-so-strategic venue of the play itself. Another fault of the play was that we did not have enough time to rehearse the play. We were all theatre students and we thought it would be alright for us to do an ad lib performance, since we just learnt about improvisation in our previous theater lesson.  At the end of the day, we need to reflect upon the mistakes we made that contributes to the making of our nearly failed Merdeka play. I admit that I had spent too much of my time practicing the singing with the international students and had kind of neglected the play. I learnt that I should learn and practice effective time management in a bid to avoid hindering other plans in the future.

           

            All in all, the Merdeka Celebration was a success. It was quite an enriching experience, working collaboratively with new friends and getting to know different cultural backgrounds across the state border and even the international border. In the name of globalization, there’s no boundary that would stop us from learning from each other.

Figure 6 : the IB1 students can hardly hide their excitement on the event day.

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Figure 7 : The teachers and the staff taking selfie in the Malaysia Traditional Costumes

(August 2015) CAS Reflection : 1 - Jog for Hope 2015

Picture I : the backdrop / photo booth design of the logo of Jog for Hope 2015 

designed and made by me (Andy) and Anna with the help of the committee members. ^^

Event Proposal   :              Jog for Hope 2015

Objectives          :             

I would like to be a part of the Jog for Hope 2015 committee, a non-profit charity run organizer, which operates mainly by students from Cambridge A-levels Programme, International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP), and South Australia Matriculation (SAM) in Taylor’s College Sri Hartamas (TCSH). The beneficiary of this event is Siddharthan Care Centre and Sintharmani Divine Life Ashram, homes for underprivileged children. I would like to work hand in hand with the other members of the committee to make this event a success and achieve the ultimate goal of the event – charity. I believe that joining the committee and getting involved in fund-raising event like this by attracting more participants, handling the route planning of the run, and making sure that the flow of the event runs well will definitely enable me to engage with issues of global importance – in this case, prevalent poverty in every single corner of the world, to be able to do something to change other people’s life and to contribute to the society. Apart from that, being in a part of the committee, I also would like to raise public awareness pertaining the importance of regular exercises in our daily life which is tantamount to the significance of healthy lifestyle in our eyes. 

Activity Description         :

Jog for Hope is an annual jogathon held by students in TCSH in a bid to help the less fortunate people of the beneficiary of the year. For 2015, it was anticipated to have 2000+ runners, comprised of professionals, amateurs and those who run for charity and for fun, to participate in such a meaningful event.  A committee is set up since the very beginning of the year to ensure the progress of the planning of the event so that the event would be a great success. The committee members would be further separated into a few departments, ranging from the Administrative Department, Finance and Sponsorship Department to the Marketing and Publicity Department and the Route Planning Department. All the departments work together in harmony to delegate the jobs and to make sure the event would run as scheduled.

Time                     :             

8^th July 2015 – 19^th August 2015

Location              :             

Taylor’s College Sri Hartamas (TCSH)

Supervisor          :             

Ms Valar, the ECA Administrative; Mr Thina, the Programme Officer; Ms Lauren, the Principal of TCSH.

Goal                     :   

• Work collaboratively to achieve a pledge amount of RM 15, 000 to the beneficiary homes (Siddharthan Care Centre and Sintharmani Divine Life Ashram).
• Able to put in effort consistently and be committed throughout the event, constantly attending committee meetings and to come out with solutions when different problems arise and willing to stay back to do extra work without neglecting and losing track on our taxing academic routine.
• Delegate jobs and assign tasks based on the forte of each member.
• Be aware of my weakness in planning and working as a team with others.
• Able to identify shortcomings and state suggestions for future improvements.
• Able to take everyone's opinion into consideration. Be tolerant and open-minded,

Impact                 :

• Financially aids Siddharthan Care Centre and Sintharmani Divine Life Ashram whilst creating public awareness pertaining the welfare of the kids in the homes.
• Raise awareness in TCSH and other educational institutions about the importance and the advantages of community work.
• I am aware of my shortcomings, which includes the ineffectiveness in communication can cause lots of problems. I have to hone my skills in effective communication to avoid misunderstanding.
• A great experience which taught us all the importance of teamwork and friendship.
• What I hope to learn/ gain:
• Organizing and planning skills
• interpersonal skills
• A deeper and more holistic understanding of poverty, as well as measure that could be taken to actually help alleviate it. 

Timeline              :             

8^th July – 8^th August 2015

Early stage of Event Preparation (Publicizing the event, getting more participants, getting sponsorship, etc.)

9^th – 15^th August 2015

Last week of Event Preparation (Goodies bags packing, route planning: volunteers briefing, checkpoint ribbons tying, indoor and outdoor setup, road signs preparation, etc. )

16^th August 2015

Jog for Hope 2015 Event Day  

19^th August 2015 onwards

Post Mortem of the event and writing of Job Description, and suggestions for the future organizing committee. Doubling checking the receipts and the online database to determine the financial errors.

 *****************************************************

Picture II : Jog for Hope 2015 Official Logo Design

CAS Reflection   :              Jog for Hope 2015

Date                     :              31^st August 2015

               I got to know about Jog for Hope (JFH) ever since the very first week of days in TCSH, when I started my International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme in July 2015. Along with quite a number of my new IBDP friends, we went ahead for the interview and joined the committee of JFH 2015. Therefore, I can proudly claim that JFH 2015 marked the commencement of my extracurricular life in TCSH.

Picture III : Jog for Hope 2015 Official Flyers

               At the early stage of the event preparation, things were quite to us as the new member of the committee. It was very challenging as we have to learn new things and to make friends with the old members of the committee. Bonding of a team always plays a crucial part in determining how success an event would be. It was lucky to us that we didn’t have too many hard times to be friends. In fact, it didn’t take us long for us to be have outing trips together to the nearby parks and neighbouring housing areas to give out flyers and registration forms to the public to get more participants for the event. Even though most of us weren’t a member of Marketing and Publicity Department, we work collaboratively with one another in publicizing the event in order to gain more participants. We know, that only by getting more participants, we can raise more money for the kids at the beneficiary homes.

               As members of the committee, we meet once every week on Wednesday to discuss about the progress of each department. The punctuality and commitment of each member is required; a fruitful meeting would only follow suit a meeting with full attendance.  Out of the many departments within Jog for Hope 2015 committee, I opted to be in the Route Planning department because I was interested in handling the logistics of the event. Personally, I felt that it was a challenging department to be in owing to the huge role and responsibility the department plays throughout the event. The Route Planning Department is in charge of the planning of the route for the runners, the flow of the event day as well as the delegation of job to the volunteers and other committee members on the event day.

Picture IV & V : One of our home visit to Siddharthan Care Centre.

Picture VI : 
Rakcana with one of the little girl with big dreams
in Siddharthan Care Centre.

          On the 18^th of July 2015, we paid a visit to one of the beneficiary home, Siddharthan Care Centre and had some activities with the kids over there. One of the activities planned and did with them is that we gave them a piece of blank paper and requested them to draw anything that would make them happy. Unexpectedly, most of them drew their dreams, their ambitions on that piece of paper. All of them have ordinary and yet big dreams just like all of us.  Living in penury doesn’t make them less human or more human than us.  Such a fact disturbed me the most as poverty is one of the key factors that hinder them from achieving their goals and dreams. Without sufficient fund, the homes could hardly provide necessities to them for life sustenance, let alone proper education and skills support system. Only then, I realized how fortunate I am to be given the opportunity carry on my Pre-University education with International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme in TCSH under Bursary SPM 2014 granted to me by the Ministry of Education Malaysia.

Picture VII : The pace rabbits for the run.

               The day of the event was approaching fast. The final week was particularly stressful as there were many untied ends yet to be resolved. It was a huge relief that many of the committee members were able and willing to spend extra time to help out in brainstorming and preparing for the event. Working collaboratively with the team was one of the best experiences I had so far as I could really feel their support and enthusiasm thrusting me forward, spurring me on, to persevere till the very end of the event. It goes without saying that the event would not have been so successful without everyone in committee chipping in and assisting each other. The seed of team spirit sown ever since the very beginning of the preparation stage germinated and grew well into a healthy sprout, carrying up higher towards our goal like the Jack’s giant beanstalk, penetrating every hurdle and obstacle we faced in the process.

Picture VIII : Route Planning Team staying back late to tie ribbons for checkpoint stations.

Picture IX : The result of getting overwhelmed by ribbons.

Picture X : After working endlessly, and tediously like human factory from the night before until 5 a.m. in the morning next day, we finally managed to tie up to 3300++ ribbons. We dropped dead right after that task. 

Picture XI : Alex and Andy (Me) helping out at the JFH T-shirt distribution booth. 

Picture XII : The committee member on duty at the T-shirt Distribution booth.

Picture XIII & XIV: Goodies bags packing like a factory also. All Jog for Hope 2015 committee members \
and staff advisers were to pack 2200 goodies bags for the participants. 

Picture XV : Moving the goodies bags from Alpha theater to the library.
 Alex accepted the challenge to carry 90 bags in one go. Ha-ha! 

          The day before the event, all of us didn’t sleep at all. We spent the whole day (and night) decorating the place, managing registration counter and bag deposit counter, going through repeatedly the flow of the event, revising the way we should delegate jobs to the volunteers, and etc. Designing and putting up the road signs on the whole 10 km running route 4 hours before the event (around 2 o’clock in the morning!) was one of the most exhaustive but interesting task led by our Route Planning Department. We were like walking zombies zooming across the road in the middle of the night, struggling to recognize the places we have to tie road signs and boards indicating of the route distance, whilst trying really hard not to doze off. Ha-ha!

Picture XVI : Me and the jog for Hope photo booth logo I made.

Picture XVII : The goodies bags and t-shirt stacked together before the event day. 

Picture XVIII : Eugene helping out on thew night before the run. We were making road signs and
board indications for the participants. It's 1 o'clock in the morning.

Picture XIX : Gathering at the main entrance of the college before going out to tie road signs
 along the entire 10 km route. Emily was so excited! It's 2 o'clock in the morning

               On the event day itself, I was in charge of the bag deposit department. Before that, I have to learn how to make a floor plan to allocate more than 2000 bags in the limited space provided. To maximize the space, we used masking tape to mark the space for bags from participants running for 3 different categories. I would have to work hand-in-hand with the administrative department, to speculate which category would have the most participants bringing bags to be deposited in the area. As the head of Bag Deposit department, I have to learn how to explain my plan to other teammates and volunteers on the day in a concise way so that they know what they are supposed to do without wasting too much time on thinking and wondering what I’d said.

Picture XX :  Team Bag Deposit working on the floor plan.
Using masking tape to make margins for the bags from different categories. 

Picture XXI :  The floor plan when it's finally done. It does look like a parking lot.
The day before Jog for Hope is the only day in the year, i suppose,
 the student central is so spacious and clean. Ha-ha. 

Picture XXII :  Team Bag Deposit 2 hours before the Event

(without Me, the head of Bag Deposit Department because I'm taking the pictures T.T)

From left (sitting): Jeen, Janet and Alicia. Back : Siva and Quin

Picture XXIII :  Quin looking for bags for the participants. (Queen of the Bags - Pun! > <)

Picture XXIV :  Heaps of bags on the day of event!

Picture XXV :  Team Bag Deposit
(Top from Left : Siva, Quin, Shen-Li, Andy(Me); Bottom : Janet and Alicia -- I don't know where's Jeen)

              

Picture XXVI :  Bag Deposit Team started to get really busy an hour before the run. 

              

Picture XXVII :  JOG FOR HOPE
*** A FOOT FORWARD FOR CHARITY ***

               All in all, JFH has been a very meaningful and enriching experience working together as a team with every manpower we contrived to gather on the event day. Such encounter has taught me how selflessness and dedication in community work do help alleviate the burdens of the poor. It was a truly touching moment when the two RM30, 000 mock cheques were presented to the persons-in-charge of the homes. Though we were really tired, shackled by iron chains of lethargy by the end of the award ceremony of the event, we were elated. We can literally feel exuberance bubbling in our veins when we got to know we hit our target of RM15, 000 (RM7, 500 to each beneficiary home) and went ever more than what we expected. RM 60, 000 raised – the fruit of our labour; our effort definitely paid off. I’m grateful, that I’m given the chance to be a part of the JFH 2015 committee. I really appreciate that.

Picture XXVIII : The big family of Jog for Hope 2015. WE DID IT!!

Jog for Hope, see you next year !!