So. It happens. Even though I'm sure you looked up more than one source for your homework on Tom Thumb, two groups chose exactly the same site. However, as I said, in a way that was a good thing as it illustrated a point far better than I could have expressed it: the very reason behind Drama.
Yes, I said you could present your findings however you chose. I'm not dissing [informal slang meaning disrespecting; crticising] your choice to read your research. But this class IS about the visual arts. It would be much more relevant to present your findings visually rather than orally. Best of all would be to present it creatively. One way to do so would have been to present the information as a news broadcast with updates: "Reports are starting to come in from Harbin concerning an unusual birth. Early reports tell us that the child -said to be healthy and whole - is, however, only Five centimetres long!" etc. Or an interview with bereaved [sad] parents whose only son has just been eaten by a cow.
(The other reason it would be a good idea to try to think of creative ideas for homework projects is that it would ensure that a teacher could never get the idea that her students were not taking the class seriously and were putting off their homework till the last minute!)
However, what this week's class showed is the reason for the popularity and success of drama as a medium of entertainment.
A written narrative [story; tale; dialogue; explanation] never changes. The words are presented in the same order no matter how often we read it nor who reads it. They can become so familiar to us that they lose a lot of their value, or no longer delight or entertain us. But that same narrative, converted into a visual form, can vary as many times as there are people to interpret it. The value of the visual form is enhanced [increased;heightened] when we consider that it is capable of being enjoyed by those who are unable or uncomfortable with reading. There are, in fact, those who argue that movies and television have decreased the popularity of books and print media considerably.
It is entirely possible that everyone went on to the same website for their information. Just as, with a play or a movie, everyone uses the same script. But it is the interpretation of that script which sets the visual arts apart. I mentioned that I had three or four different movies of Pride and Prejudice - a book which I have only ever read once. Each movie reflects a different interpretation of the book or script and so it is as if I possess four different movies - whereas multiple copies of the book - not one of my favourites anyway - would be pointless.
No two minds are the same. Even those who have been brought up together, gone through the same experiences together, been taught by the same teachers, will still hold different views on certain things. This is due due our internal differences - genetics - and ensures our uniqueness.
So while one person may read Pride and Prejudice and consider Mr. Darcy an absolute pig of a man, others may find him romantic while still others feel sorry for him having been brought up in the inhuman system of political correctness which governed the ruling classes of his time and place. The same goes not only for every other character in the book, but also for the whole English class system, the concept of Family, or any of the other themes which appear in this book.
A director, therefore, brings her or his own interpretation to any script, the producer may have
some ideas, each actor brings their own ideas to their character and then such mundane [ordinary;rather boring; unexciting] issues like budget, location, weather, can also work to change how the story is presented.
Something else we learned from your presentations was that the medium through which we can present a story can also differ. One group chose to read, another to act and the third to utilise no actors or readers, but to present their story through a group of inanimate objects: a stuffed toy, a doll and a box of chalk! This too, is one of the delights of drama - it is elastic. It can be presented through puppets, through mime, through shadows, through plasticine, through cartoons or through ordinary household objects. It can be presented in a barn, a classroom, a park, a bar or the street. It can be a big-budget production costing millions, or cost nothing more than time and effort.
All of the above may seem like statements of the obvious. It's certainly not news to most of you. But our class is called Drama Criticism and the whole point of a class like this is to examine exactly what it is that we mean when we talk about drama, to pick it up and look at it from upside down and sideways, to pick it apart to see what makes it work, to shake it and see if it rattles - and to find out what part it plays not only in our lives, but in the world.
And along the way, to find out if it has any use at all in the vibrant, changing place that is modern China.
So, by now we have briefly covered the three traditional classifications in Drama as handed down by the Greeks and kept to ever since. Because these three really cover all the human emotions. As I said, by now we have all kinds of sub-categories or genres, but they all fit somewhere into these three classifications. Think about any movie you have seen recently and, regardless of whether it is an animated feature, a Kung Fu epic or a romance, you will see that it will belong to one of the three main groups above.
Now that we have got that sorted out it really is important that we start viewing clips or segments of movies. Been told at last that we are NOT going to be able to use that room in FFL which is a bitter disappointment. Perhaps, when the weather improves, we might be able to have some parts of our classes outside. But until then, lets just hope that we get a classroom with a media player or we are really up the creek[in trouble]
Vocabulary
Enlightenment...period in European history where humankind began to seek for answers about the world around us that were not based on Christian thought
Slapstick...physical comedy; falling down, slipping on a banana-skin or getting a pie in the face
Keystone Kops...the very first slapstick "gang" in film history: a group of policemen who always rushed in to save the day but always ruined it instead
Inept...useless; unskilled; impractical
Henry Fielding...well-known writer of satire in England
Satire...saying one thing and meaning another; highlighting social ills by presenting them often in opposite ways; making something serious look ridiculous
Synergy...the relationship between two objects; the way two objects or persons combine to produce a certain effect or reaction
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