How Does Blogs Help?

How does blog contribute to your reflection on your study or learning in this course? That was also one of the questions that the interviewer, Mr. Too Wei Keong asked me regarding blogs in learning. In my opinion, it helps a great deal in helping students’ to reflect on their learning process.

The main reason of why blog helps students to reflect on their study is because of the academic purpose of its creation – to be treated as a journal, where students write and comment on what they have learnt in the lectures or tutorials. Inevitably, this will lead students to reflect on what they had been taught. In other words, it also helps in improving students’ reflective skills.

Besides that, students can also refer to the blogs of their course mates to know or recall back what they had missed in the lectures due to some reasons, such as absent, lack of attention and slip of memory.

Last but not the least, blog provides a conducive, stress-free environment, where students can freely express their thoughts and doubts that they are too shy or fear to voice out in the lectures. Thus, it may also serves as a forum to discuss about what they had learnt, as students comment on the blogs of their course mates.

In conclusion, blogs are very useful in the learning process. Besides helping students to reflect on their learning process, students become more motivated when they had a clearer picture on what they are learning, as well as the use of the knowledge they had learnt. Once they understand that what they are learning will be useful in the future, they will become more inquisitive, hardworking and attentive in the lectures and tutorials.

Analyzing Sophocles’ Portrayal of Characters in "Oedipus Rex"

Last week, I had been busy doing the Assignment 2 of EDU 3217 – analyse the treatment of a theme or portrayal of characters in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex or Kee Thuan Chye’s The Swordfish, Then the Concubine. For the assignment, I chose to analyse Sophocles’ Sophocles’ Portrayal of Characters in Oedipus Rex through Labels and Labeling. Thus, in this blog post, I will be sharing some of the findings in my analysis.

Every human being has hundreds of separate people living under his skin. The talent of a writer is his ability to give them their separate names, identities, personalities and have them relate to other characters living with him.

~ Mel Brooks, an American writer

Sophocles uses three types of labeling to portray his characters in Oedipus Rex. Each type of labeling has its way and function in characterization.

1. Labeling done by the playwright through giving names, which carry meanings that describe a character’s most important traits. Its purpose is to tell the audience and readers which traits to concentrate on, as well as create dramatic irony.

Example 1: The name of the antagonist, Oedipus has ambiguity in meaning. The word Oida means “to know” that is derived from the root vid-, which means “see”. This is referring to Oedipus’ contrasting traits that deal with his ability of having eyesight and insight. It also hints on Oedipus’ inquisitive nature (to know about who the murderer of King Laius is) that will serves as his tragic flaw (harmatia). In Greek, Oedipus also means “swollen foot” and “clubfoot”, which are the most important physical trait of Oedipus that symbolizes his irreversible fate (moira) in the play.

Example 2: Teiresias’ name is defined as “one who cries the signs of the heavens” in Greek, that tell us his role as a wise, skillful seer in the play, as well as mystery or truth revealer to the readers or audience.

Example 3: the name of Creon is a male name that is defined as “prince” in Greek (as opposed to Creusa that is defined in Greek as “princess”). The status of the Creon as a prince is the most important information about Creon, for it tells the audience or readers that he will be the next king-to-be after Oedipus. Thus, this explains why he is suspected to steal Oedipus’ throne, as well as foreshadows he will be the next ruler after Oedipus’ downfall, which is bound to come in the tragedy that entails reversal of fortune. (Sources: Answers.com and Mybaby-name.com)

2. Labeling done by other characters (epithets) to describe the characters through other characters’ point of views. Its function is to fill the audience and readers with more information (e.g. background information (identities, status and roles), past deeds and attributes), so that they have a clearer picture about the characters, which will helps a great deal in understanding and analysing the character. However, the description may not necessarily be reliable and misleading, for it may be originated from the labelers’ wrong perception, bias, jealousy and ignorance.

Example: Creon is introduced by Oedipus, as “Son of Menoikeus, brother of the Queen” (In Prologue, page 1386, line 72), which portrays his identity and his relationship with other characters.

3. Labeling done by the analysed characters to portray his characters in an implicit way, by providing the access to the characters’ mind. Its function is to provide opportunity, freedom and space to the audience and readers to think and analyse the traits of the characters.

Example: Through Oedipus’ labeling on others, we know about his disrespect to other people. He disrespects his own wife when he calls her “woman” in Scene II (page 1400, line 125). He also shows his disrespect to the blind and the elderly, when he mocks at Teiresias – “child of endless night” (line 150) and “sightless, witless, senseless, mad old man” (line 153) (Scene I, page 1394).

Unlike short stories that have narrators who can describe the characters, a play needs to find a way to do this within a short period of time. Hence, labeling is chosen for being the most creative, natural, time-saving and thought-provoking way to define and describe a character.

Words have meaning and names have power.

~ Author unknown

Similar Lesson, Different Method

If I were given a second chance to conduct the same lesson, will I deliver the same activity? My answer to that question will be “No”, simply because we should work for the better. There is no such thing as a perfect activity. In fact, there will always be some flaws detected in the particular activity.

In my case, if I were given a second chance to conduct the same lesson, I will vary my activities to make my lesson more interesting. Instead of just worksheets, I can use games to capture students’ interest to my lesson. Similarly, besides individual activity, I can plan for pair or group activities. Teaching is an art, repeating the same activity or routine merely reflects non-creativity.

As for questions or doubts in simulated teaching, I had none as both lecturer and tutor had explained clearly about what to do and what not to do before we start simulated teaching. Moreover, both of them were there if we need to make any enquiries or need any assistance from them.

My Strengths and Weaknesses in Simulated Teaching

On the 13th of April 2009, I had presented a simulated teaching in front of twenty course mates, who acted as my Form Four students. Similar to other course mates, after I had done my simulated teaching, I had to listen to Miss Kasthoori’s comment about my teaching. Thanks to her, I get a clearer picture about my strengths and weaknesses in teaching after listening to her comment.

First of all, I will start off with something positive – my strengths. My good point in teaching is clarity, regardless in the aspect of voice or explanation. Due to my loud voice, I faced no problem in voice projection and students could hear what I say clearly. In set induction, I had explained most of the terms that needed to deal with in the lesson, such as tragedy, reversal of fortune, labels and characteristics. Hence, students understood the concept and were able to achieve the objective of the lesson, which is to analyse the development of Oedipus’ characteristics from earlier scene to later scene through labels.

As for my weaknesses, they are poor time management and over-ambitious. In order to let students to have a clear picture on what they were doing, I used lots of time to explain the terms and concepts in set induction. As a result, my set induction was too long. Besides, many of my course mates were teaching how to analyse the characteristics through adjectives, I decided not to repeat the same activities again. However, according to the tutor’s comment, analysing characteristics through labels was rather too heavy for the students.

In conclusion, the simulated teaching makes me realise that I need to improve my teaching skills by managing my time well. I should discard some of the redundant explanation for it will be too time-consuming. As for activities, I should plan it according to the students' ability. In other words, the only remedy of my weaknesses is to understand students' level of proficiency and understanding.

Simulated Teaching and Real Life Teaching - Same or Different?

After performing simulated teaching, I find that it is a good experience to future teachers. Why would I say so? Undeniably, simulated teaching creates a training ground to future teachers to practice whatever they had learnt (especially teaching methodologies), before they are sent to teach in real life situation. However, is simulated teaching similar to real life teaching?

To begin with, let us look at the similarities between simulated teaching and real life teaching. The first similarity will be the emphasis on dress code as a teacher. The next similarity is teacher always ask questions, such as “Do you understand?” or “Any questions?” to check on students’ understanding. Moreover, in set induction, teachers will relate students’ experience to the story. The purpose of doing this is to initiate students’ interest in the lesson, to give a better understanding to the students, and to activate the appropriate network of schemata in reading the story. As for post-reading or closure, teachers will sum up the lesson and also discuss about the message or moral value that can be found in the story.

Next, we shall look at the differences between simulated teaching and real life teaching. First of all, simulated teaching is more complicated than teaching in real life, especially in preparation stage. In simulated teaching, teachers have to create their own worksheets and decide what to teach. On the contrary, in real life teaching, teachers do not have much time to do all this, for they have many paper works to do in the school. Moreover, there are many workbooks that provide good worksheets to their students. They also do not need to crack their heads thinking what to teach, for their teachings are bounded by the syllabus and modules, which are created by the Ministry of Education.

Nonetheless, teachers in simulated teaching can have a better class control as compared to teachers in real life teaching. This is because the students of simulated teaching are their course mates, who are usually more cooperative. In other words, teacher in simulated teaching face students that have no discipline problems.

Moreover, both teachers and students in the school are spoon-fed in their teaching and learning. Just as I had pointed out earlier, school teachers do less work in preparation because teaching materials are mostly provided by the Ministry of Education, or they can also find good workbooks in the book stores. As for students, there are more rote-learning or passive learning in their teaching process, but less self-discovery involves. The main reason is our education system, which is academic-based. Teachers have to rush the lesson to complete the syllabus that is given to them. Consequently, students are not given enough time to analyse and understand the text thoroughly. More often than not, drill-and-practice method is much favoured. In other words, teachers focus on how to make students answer questions accurately, instead of teaching them how to derive the answer. The result (how many A’s) is emphasis, not the process (development of thinking skills). Thus, activities such as analysing the linguistic feature or literary elements in the text are rarely found in schools.

Although both simulated teaching and real life teaching have similarities and differences between them, simulated teaching is undeniably a good initiative for future teachers to practice their teaching.

My Simulated Teaching (Continue) – Pre, While and Post

In pre-reading stage, I asked students to highlight the labels that describe Oedipus in the extract.

For while-reading stage, in the first activity, students were asked to complete the tables, using the labels that they have highlighted in pre-reading. In the tables, they had to state whether the labels are positively, neutrally or negatively connotated, by using (+), (#) and (-) signs respectively. Besides that, they had to find adjectives that describe the labels. For Table A, they also needed to seek for the antonyms of the adjectives as well.

In the second while-reading activity, students had to describe the development of Oedipus’ characteristics, by using the information from Table A and Table B. Since it was a harder task, I gave further explanation to assist students to complete the task.

Lastly, in post-reading stage, I asked students to think whether reversal of fortune in Oedipus’ life causes reversal of his characteristics. Students had to write an essay to state their opinions without exceeding 120 words.

In conclusion, the objective of my lesson is to analyze the development of Oedipus’ characteristics from earlier scene to later scene through labels.

My Simulated Teaching – Set Induction

Analyzing Characters' Traits Through Labels

On the 13th of March, 2009 (Friday), I had done my simulated teaching on Sophocles’ “Oedipus Rex”. In this post, I am going to explain the activity of my set induction in detail, whilst pre-reading and while-reading stage will be explained in the following post. For set induction, I used a series of PowerPoint slides.

First, I taught about the reversal of fortune. In Slide 1, I showed a picture of a Greek theatre and asked students to identify what the picture represented. Then, I briefly explained about Greek drama that is famous for its tragedy and reversal of fortune.

Secondly, I further reinforced the concept about reversal of fortune. In Slide 2, I showed two pictures, which portrayed a king and the same king who loses his throne. I told a story about the downfall of the king.

Thirdly, I introduced the term “characteristics”. After listening to the story, students were asked to give description (characteristics) about the character based on the pictures given. I discussed the characteristics with the students. Next, students were required to compare and contrast the discussed characteristics. I pointed out that the characteristics changed completely after the character’s life has changed completely too. Thus, in Slide 3, I asked students to think whether reversal of fortune will cause reversal of characteristics.

Next, I introduced the role of labels in portrayal of characters. In Slide 4, I briefly explained the term “label”, as well as the function and importance of label in analyzing character’s traits. In Slide 5, I showed the two pictures that display the character again and asked students to think how they would address both characters. I pointed out that both labels and characteristics change due to reversal of fortune.

To conclude the set induction, I introduced the play that I wanted to teach in Slide 6, which is Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, as well as the objective of the lesson, which is to analyze the development of Oedipus’ characteristics from earlier scene to later scene through labels.

The questions I had asked to the students in set induction are stated as below: Look at the picture, what can you see?

1. What is Greek drama famous for?
   
2. After listening to the story, do you wish to have that reversal of fortune? Will you remain the same as you are once you have it? If no, how would you change?
   
3. Based on the picture, what are the adjectives that can describe Henry, before and after he lost his throne?
   
4. In your opinion, does reversal of fortune cause reversal of characteristics?
   
5. Look at the picture again, how would you address Henry, before and after he lost his throne?

The Movie of "Oedipus Rex" that Shows More than the Play

On the 10th of March, 2009, we watched our third movie, which was Sophocles’ play, “Oedipus Rex”. After watching the movie, I have a clearer picture about the story, especially on the murder of King Laius.

Why did the movie make us understand more about Sophocles’ “Oedipus Rex”? The first reason of it was of course the play was acted out. After watching the movie, it is easier for us to visualize the play.

The second reason was the movie showed more than the play. Before watching this movie, I had watched another movie of “Oedipus Rex” too. However, the movie that I had watched earlier strictly followed the convention of Greek theatre – how the characters are supposed to enter the stage, how chorus should move from right to left or vice versa as they speak, how violent scenes are occurred off stage, etc. After watching that movie, I was still uncertain about what the story is all about.

As for this movie that we had watched on the 10th of March, it did not fully follow the convention of Greek theatre. In fact, it showed lots of scenes that were not supposed to act in the play due to violence. For example, Oedipus’ flashback about the murder of King Laius, Jocasta’s suicide and Oedipus’ self-blinding. In Greek Theatre, violent scenes are supposed to occur off stage. Thus, in the play text of Sophocles’ “Oedipus Rex”, the information regarding the murdering process of King Laius is given through Oedipus, and description of Jocasta’s suicide and Oedipus’ blinding is given through a messenger.

Nevertheless, since the movie showed more than the play, it gave us a clearer picture about the story of “Oedipus Rex”. After watching the movie, I did have a better understanding on the story.

My Adventure to KLPAC

Have I been to a theatre to watch a play? After 7th of March, 2009, the answer is a big “yes”. The title of the play was “The Secret Love Life of Ophelia”, which was held in Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre (KLPAC). The play was directed by Christopher Ling and was performed by two actors only, Alfred Loh (Hamlet) and Sharon Lam (Ophelia).

In brief, the story was about the secret love life of Ophelia and Hamlet, whose passion with each other was expressed through love letters. In EDU 3217, we had been taught about theatre, which is the second hand experience. Finally, we got a chance to watch a real play in a real theatre, which is the first hand experience. Nothing beats the first hand experience!

Thus, for this post, I am going to discuss about what I have learnt from this adventure regarding theatre. Some of the knowledge has already been taught in lectures and tutorials.

#1 – Punctuality

The play started at 2pm sharp, no matter the audience fully arrived or not.

#2 – Theatre = A place where a play is held

I’m shocked! I thought the play will be held on a large stage in front of the audience. I also thought that the actors will be a level higher than the audience, as the stage will be a raised stage.

In reality, theatre is a place where a play is held. In “The Secret Love Life of Ophelia”, the actors acted on the small space in the centre, while audience watched from their seats, which were situated on a higher area. It was as though we were on the stage instead.

#3 – No drink, no food, no talking

Yup, you can do nothing, but only as an audience – an attentive listener and a mute observer

#4 – No mistake, only perfection

This is meant for the actors. Since theatre involves real actors and real audience, they cannot afford to make any mistake, for there is no turning back to undo the mistake they had done.

I was impressed by the actors’ memory skills when I watched the play. How on earth can they remember their scripts that were written in Shakespearean Language? Their fluency in the language will make you salute them more.

Moreover, both Alfred Loh and Sharon Lam were so real in their mimes. Alfred (Hamlet) was making coffee without coffee and Sharon (Ophelia) feeding her cat without any cat.

Perhaps, this is what people say about practice makes perfect!

It is fun to watch plays in the theatre..... I will be back!

Hamlet: A Play in a Play

Today, we had watched the second movie, entitled “Hamlet” that was a play written by a famous playwright, William Shakespeare. It was a great movie, although we faced difficulties in understanding Shakespearean language. However, for students of EDU 3217, it was an educational movie to let us understand more about theatre in Elizabethan Era, as well as expose us to Shakespearean language.

For this posting, I will not discuss about the synopsis of the movie. Instead, I will discuss how this movie helps me in my study about theatre, as well as William Shakespeare’s style of writing.

First of all, I noticed that people in Elizabethan Era enjoyed theatre. When a group of traveling actors came to Elsinore, the people were so happy and welcomed them warmly.

The next thing that I noticed in “Hamlet” was all actors are males. It was so funny to witness the male actor acting as the queen.

William Shakespeare’s language may be tough to understand, however, he is undeniably a witty playwright. I noticed that he likes to use opposition of ideas to describe something, convey messages and advices, as well as create humour. Some of the meaningful quotes are stated as below:

• Neither a borrower nor a lender be
  


• To be or not to be
  


• In second husband let me be accurst!
  None wed the second but who kill'd the first.
  


• QUEEN GERTRUDE :
  Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue.
  
  HAMLET :
  Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue.
  


• I must be cruel, only to be kind:
  Thus bad begins and worse remains behind.

I like William Shakespeare’s style of writing. In fact, I feel that he is a witty playwright with a great sense of humour. “Hamlet” may be a tragedy, but it is also embedded with comical element. It seemed as though we were watching a comedy! Only when characters were dying one by one, I realized that I was watching a tragedy. We had a good laugh when King Claudius and Prince Hamlet talk about Polonius, who is killed by Hamlet.

KING CLAUDIUS
Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius?

HAMLET
At supper.

KING CLAUDIUS
At supper! where?

HAMLET
Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain
convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your
worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all
creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for
maggots: your fat king and your lean beggar is but
variable service, two dishes, but to one table:
that's the end.

KING CLAUDIUS
Alas, alas!

HAMLET
A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a
king, and cat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.

To be a Nobody or a Somebody?

Have you ever wished to have power and status? Watch the movie, “Elizabeth: The Golden Age”. Look at the majestic position she had and compare it with the life she went through. Is she happy with it? Or worse, is it worth it to sacrifice so much for the power? Perhaps you can even ask Creon in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex and he will tell you this,

“Think of this first: Would any sane man prefer
Power, with all a king’s anxieties,
To that same power and the grace of sleep?
Certainly not I.
I have never longed for the king’s power – only his rights”

(Line 67 to Line 71 in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex)

Practically, we want to have the power, but not the responsibility. Tough luck, my friend. “With great power comes great responsibility”, as it is told to our super hero, Spiderman, and now it is to you.

The movie, “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” had won many awards - Best Costume Design, Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, Best Art Direction and Production Design, etc. However, in my opinion, they have missed the award of the best script writer. One of the major factors that makes “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” a successful movie is their awesome script. It provides many meaningful quotes that give us food-for-thought within a few lines. Apparently, the writers, Michael Hirst and William Nicholson ought to be acknowledged too for their incredible writing skills.

What is a queen? Other than a female ruler or the wife of a king, “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” suggests other meanings. A queen is a female ruler, who needs:

a) To lose her kindness: has to be cruel to be kind

Queen Elizabeth I: Are you here to tell me I must murder a Queen?

Sir Walter Raleigh: I would never presume to tell my Queen what to do. Only you know where your duty lies……

Sir Walter Raleigh: Kill a Queen and all Queens are mortal. We mortals have many weaknesses: we feel too much, hurt too much, all too soon we die, but we do have the chance of love.

Queen Elizabeth I: Do we? I have given England my life. Must she also have my soul?

b) To lose her peace of mind: faces threats and challenges, as well as overcomes fear of:

~ Losing her kingdom

Queen Elizabeth I: Go back to your rat hole! Tell Philip I fear neither him, nor his priests, nor his armies. Tell him if he wants to shake his little fist at us, we're ready to give him such a bite he'll wish he'd kept his hands in his pockets!

Spanish Minister: You see a leaf fall, and you think you know which way the wind blows. Well, there is a wind coming, Madame, that will sweep away your pride.
[turns to leave with his ministers]

Queen Elizabeth I: I, too, can command the wind, sir! I have a hurricane in me that will strip Spain bare when you dare to try me!

--------------------------------------------

Queen Elizabeth I: By God, England will not fall while I am Queen.

~ Losing her throne and her life

Queen Elizabeth I: Spain intends to place Mary Stuart on our country's throne, and I am to be assassinated. Does this sound familiar?

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Queen Elizabeth I: May we have wisdom not to fear shadows in the night, and courage when the day of danger truly dawns.

c) To lose her freedom – as a slave to policy and others’ expectation.

Queen Elizabeth I: You like your ladies to jump at your command.

Sir Walter Raleigh: Do you think that way?

Queen Elizabeth I: To tell you the truth, I'm very very tired of always being in control.

Sir Walter Raleigh: Nonsense!

Queen Elizabeth I: What?

Sir Walter Raleigh: You eat and drink control.

d) To lose truthfulness and bear with artificiality of others

(A scene where Elizabeth Throckmorton gives advice to Sir Walter Raleigh on how to win the queen’s favour.)

Elizabeth Throckmorton: Say what you mean to say as plainly as possible. All men flatter the

Queen in hope of advancement. Pay her the compliment of truth.

----------------------------------------------

Sir Walter Raleigh: I think it must be hard for so great a Queen to know the simple pleasure of being liked for herself.

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Archduke Charles: The beauty of your Majesty is dazzling to my eyes. I am overwhelmed. I am conquered. I die. Only your love, my stattlich Elizabeth, can restore me into life.

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Queen Elizabeth I: [in German] You play the game very well, my young friend. But don't you sometimes feel an overwhelming desire to say what you're really thinking?

Archduke Charles: I daren't even think what I'm really thinking.

--------------------------------------------------

Queen Elizabeth I: More lines on my face. Where do they come from?

Elizabeth Throckmorton: Smile lines, my lady.

Queen Elizabeth I: Smile lines? When do I ever smile?

In conclusion, having power and status is not as easy or great as it may seems to be. Similarly, Emily Dickinson discussed about it in her poem, “I’m Nobody, Who are You?” which mocks the life of a Somebody. Inevitably, we need to pay the price to get the prize. However, are we willing to buy it? For the price is our own happiness.

Looking at the world from her high, majestic position with sorrowful eyes

Elizabeth, The Golden Age

24th of February, 2009 is a memorable day for our class. It is the first time we get to watch a movie together and the movie was awesome. It is a 2007 film, entitled “Elizabeth: The Golden Age”, which was directed by Shekhar Kapur. In the film, it had many good actors, such as Cate Blanchett, Clive Owen, Geoffrey Rush and many more.

In brief, the story is about the challenges that Queen Elizabeth I (Cate Blanchett) had to face during her reign: Spanish Armada, unfulfilled love and plot of her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots (Samantha Morton) to steal her throne. According to http://www.imdb.com/, the Internet Movie Database, it describes the story as “Two faiths, two empires, two rulers - colliding in 1588”

What I had learnt from “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” that is useful in my understanding about theatre is the importance of costume in presenting and highlighting the traits of the characters. The element that I like the most in the film was its costume. Just take a look at the picture below.

It is no wonder that the film’s costume designer, Alexandra Byrne, won an Academy Award for Best Costume Design at the 80th Academy Awards. It was amazing to witness how different costumes help to portray a character’s different traits, especially on Queen Elizabeth, the main character. With the help of the costume, she appeared to be elegant, lady-like and majestic as a queen. However, when Queen Elizabeth fought in the war, the warrior suit that she wore portrayed her as a heroic figure. She looks more like a courageous king or warrior than an elegant queen. In fact, the film highlighted a great deal about the role of costume. Before the queen went into the battle field, she would take out the ring from her finger and change her outfit that she normally wore in the court into the warrior suit. However, when she won the battle, she wore back the ring and changed into her usual outfit.

Besides that, through “Elizabeth: The Golden Age”, I had learnt more about Elizabethan culture and view, which will help a great deal in understanding and analysing drama from Elizabethan Era. I realized that people from Elizabethan Era believed that the transformation of nature will cause changes of fate or act as an omen that foreshadows something bad will happen. Thus, when Spanish was about to invade England, Queen Elizabeth asked her astrologer, Doctor John Dee (David Threlfall) for guidance.

Queen Elizabeth I: Give me hope.

Dr. John Dee: The forces that shape the world are greater than all of us, Majesty. How can I promise that they'll conspire in your favor even though you're the Queen? This much I know, when the storm breaks, some are dumb with terror and some spread their wings like eagles and soar.

Had Teiresias Learnt His Lesson?

“The truth sustains me.”

“There is power in truth.”

In previous post, I have discussed about the moral of the stories regarding the cause of Teiresias’ blindness and also analyzed his flaws. For this post, we will see whether Teiresias had learnt his lesson, especially in his imprudence of speech, and became wiser.

Teiresias has appeared in lots of Greek plays as the soothsayer. However, since Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex is the only Greek play I have read, I will analyse the characteristics of Teiresias only in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex.

The first impression I had about Teiresias in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex was he is a wise old seer. His wisdom is shown in a scene, where he was speaking to the mighty king, Oedipus. Instead of telling the truth that Oedipus the King is the defilement whom he seek and the murderer who killed King Laius (his own father), Teiresias chooses to keep his silence. Oedipus begs him to reveal the truth – “To your native country. Do not refuse to speak.” (Line 108) However, Teiresias replies, “When it comes to speech, your own is neither temperate nor opportune. I wish to be more prudent.” (Line 109 to Line 110)

• Note: The word “opportune” is implying that it is not the right time to reveal the truth. As for the term “prudent”, Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines it as “sensible and careful when you make judgments and decisions; avoiding unnecessary risk.”

Besides, even Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia has also compared his prudence in speech with other Greek plays, “Like most oracles, he is generally extremely reluctant to offer the whole of what he sees in his visions.” Apparently, Teiresias had learnt his lesson and will only reveal the truth or part of the truth when the right time has come. Thus, Teiresias is often used in Greek plays to create suspense.

Nevertheless, in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, King Oedipus has managed to provoke him to tell the truth. Teiresias is quoted saying to Oedipus in front of his citizen, “You yourself are the pollution of this country.” (Line 135) That is as direct as calling a spade a spade!

Now, I’m wondering again. Teiresias had learnt his lesson, hadn’t he? Or had he?

The Moral of the Stories

The stories about the cause of Teiresias’ blindness provide valuable lesson to us. The moral of the stories is to see, hear and speak wisely, or you will need to face the consequences. I wouldn’t say “See no evil; hear no evil; say no evil”, for he spoke only the truth.

According to one of the myths, Teiresias’ was blinded by Athena after seeing her bathing. Another myth recounts how Teiresias came upon a pair of copulating snakes and stared at them for hours until they attacked him. He killed (or some say “wounded”) the female snake in self-defense and was punished to be a woman for seven years. Both stories teach us that we should have the courtesy to look away, when we come upon obscene or unsightly scene.

Another moral lesson that I have learnt in Teiresias’ blindness is to speak with wisdom. In other words, we should think before we say. One of the myths claims that Teiresias was blinded by the gods for revealing their secrets to immortal men. Another myth recounts how Teiresias was blinded by Hera (Zeus’ wife) for giving the unaccepted answer. Hence, both stories advice us that we should know what to speak, how to speak and who to speak to, based on the context – to whom we are speaking to and in what circumstances. The virtue of wise speech has been highly extolled since the olden days. Confucius had once penned, “Make sure words touch wisdom tooth on the way out of your mouth.” Similarly, Ann Landers also supported the importance of producing wise speech by saying, “The trouble with speaking too fast is you may say something you haven’t thought of yet.” Even the old Malay proverb has stressed on this, “Kerana mulut, badan binasa.”

In conclusion, Teiresias unwise actions had caused him trouble, and his imprudence in speech made it double. See not what should not be seen and speak not what should not be spoken. Somehow, it is rather strange to relate the term “unwise” to an old seer, whose wisdom was well-known. As the saying goes, “To err is human, to forgive is divine.” Teiresias is a mere human being after all. Wisdom, unlike knowledge, can only be gained through experience, who is the cruelest teacher of all.

“The road to wisdom?
Well, it is plain
And simple to express.
Err,
And err,
And err again.
But less,
And less,
And less. “

Anonymous

The Blind Man Who Gives Sight

Teiresias, or also transliterated as “Tiresias”, often appears in Greek mythology and dramas. In brief, he was a blind prophet from Thebes, who was famous for the skill of soothsaying. Nonetheless, how many of us really know who he was? Where did he come from? Why was he blind? Was his soothsaying skill inborn? Or a gift from God? Or developed through training? Most of these questions will be answered once we get to know the stories behind his blindness.

To begin with, Teiresias was the son of the shepherd, Everes and the nymph, Chariclo. Well, this will easily explain his background and there is no other source that contradicts with the statement. Nonetheless, the story about the rest of his life is a mess, as there are different myths about the cause of his blindness.

According to Luc Brisson, eighteen allusions to mythic Tiresias were found and they were categorized into three groups. The first group recounts Teiresias’ blindness in two episodes – Tiresias' sex-change and his encounter with Zeus and Hera. The second group accuses Athena for blinding him. Lastly, stories that fall into the third group recount the misadventures of Tiresias, but all of them are now nowhere to be found.

Practically, most of the sources have only identified three versions of the story regarding the cause of Teiresias’ blindness. In order to tell more about Teiresias without creating more confusion, I will only concentrate on these three versions.

The first version of the story says that Teiresias was blinded by the gods for disclosing their secrets to mortal men. Another version says that he was blinded when he was young, after he had seen Athena take a bath. Teiresias’ mother, Chariclo, who was Athena’s favourite nymph, begged her to undo her curse and restore his sight. Unfortunately, Athena could not do so. Instead, she cleansed Teiresias’ ears and gave him the gift of augury, which is the ability to understand bird language. Kind Athena also gave Tiresias a staff made of cornel-wood, so that he could walk with the help of the staff. The second version of the story could be found in Pherecydes Callimachus' poem "The Bathing of Pallas".

The last version of the story regarding the cause of Teiresias’ blindness can be told in two episodes – Tiresias' sex-change and his encounter with Zeus and Hera. This myth claims that Tiresias was once out on a walk on Mount Cyllene in the Peloponnese. When he came upon a pair of copulating snakes, he sat there watching them mating for hours. However, the snakes sensed his presence and attacked him, as they would not want to be disturbed. As self-defense, he killed the female snake. At the same moment he killed her, he turned into a woman. Being a woman, Tiresias became a prostitute of great fame. Some sources claim that he became a priestess of Hera, married and had children. After seven years, the episode with the snake was repeated. This time, Tiresias killed the male snake, which turned him back into a man. Hence, Teiresias was also famous for being transformed into a woman for seven years, besides his soothsaying skill.

In the second episode, Zeus and his wife, Hera were having an argument about who has more pleasure in sex. Is it the man (as Hera claimed) or the woman (as Zeus claimed)? Knowing Teiresias had experienced both, they ask him to judge. Tiresias told them that, "Of ten parts a man enjoys one only, but a woman enjoys the full ten parts in her heart." (Apollodorus, Library 3.6.7). This statement anger Hera, who instantly blinded him. Unable to stop her, Zeus bestowed Tiresias the gift of foresight (wisdom and the ability to see the future), which explains how Teiresias gained the power of a seer. Zeus also extended Teiresias’ lifespan to seven generations. This explains how Tiresias was able to live at Thebes for seven generations as a sought-after soothsayer, starting as the advisor to Cadmus.

Now, story time is over. The questions about the cause of Teiresias’ blindness and his foresight may be answered, but the mysteries remain unsolved as there are too many versions of story taken from different sources. This makes me wondering whether Teiresias is a myth in a myth after all? Anyway, there is one thing I’m sure about Teiresias. No matter how he was blinded or how he gained the power of foresight, he was nonetheless the famous blind seer in Greek mythology. If you ask me who Teiresias is, I will tell you in brief words, “He is the blind man who gives sight”.

Acting is in the Mind of the Beholder

1.2 In groups of six, read the extract from “Bingo” by Edward Bond (Now Read On, pg 28). Discuss how you might perform the scene. Consider these elements in your discussion: number of characters, what they are doing, the mood and the setting.

1.3 Group performance of “Bingo” by Edward Bond.

That was the instruction of the activity that we had to do in the first tutorial with Miss Kasthoori. We were given an extract of a play with purely dialogue – no characters’ names, no setting and no stage direction. Using the play text, we were asked to interpret and act out the play in groups of six. One of the groups performed the play as two journalists who are sitting in the bar, talking about what news to write for tomorrow’s newspaper. As for our group, we interpreted the play as a conversation between two writers who are angrily discussing about what to write in their office, for they are having writer’s block.

However, after the tutorial, my mind was full of question marks. Are we allowed to perform a play based on our own interpretation on the characters, mood and setting? Isn’t it the playwright’s duty to fill in all the information and we have to act according to what he wants? All the while, I thought stage director should follow the playwright’s directions, while the cast of actors and theatrical backstage workers have to follow the instructions of the stage director.

Since we were using the play text taken from “Now Read On” by Malachi Edwin Vethamani and John McRae, I decided to read the explanation in the book to have a better understanding about the play, as well as the activity. After reading the book, all my doubts were cleared. According to the book,

The difference between a play and the other kinds of text we read is: a play text is mostly just the dialogue, and the performance fills in the rest.

If we cannot see a performance, it is up to us, the readers, to fill in the gaps for ourselves.

“Now Read On” by Malachi Edwin Vethamani and John McRae

Moreover, the book also explained the flexibility of “Bingo” by Edward Bond.

Since we do not know the characters’ names, or the setting, we have complete freedom to interpret the text – to build up a context, to create characters, and to make a performance.

“Now Read On” by Malachi Edwin Vethamani and John McRae

Besides “Now Read On”, I also referred to other source, which is Theatre: “The Stage of Seeing” by Milly S. Barranger. According to Milly S. Barranger,

The script belongs to the playwright, but once this original creative act – this blueprint for performance – is completed and handed over to director, designers, actors, and producers, the playwright in one sense becomes peripheral to the final process.

Theatre: The Stage of Seeing
Chapter Four: The Playwright’s Role, page 7

By Milly S. Barranger

In conclusion, my doubt about the tutorial was cleared through referring to books and other sources. I wonder what the playwright of “Bingo”, Edward Bond would think when he saw the way we interpreted his script and performed the play that day. Will he be smiling, crying, laughing or fuming?

Different Interpretation

Throughout the play of Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, I noticed that the protagonist, Oedipus like to refer people as “child” or “children”. When he first appeared in the play, he called his citizens “my children”. How would you see Oedipus when he addresses his citizens as “my children”?

In the lecture, we have discussed about the question. The label portrays Oedipus as a caring and loving king. It also shows the element of irony, because Oedipus wants his people to treat him like their father, but he killed his own father, King Laius.

However, I interpreted it in a different way. In my first impression, I did feel that Oedipus is a caring and loving king, who treats his people like his own children. After further reading, I find him as an arrogant man, as he likes to use the label “child” or “children" to show one’s lower social ranking. In Scene I, when he has conflict with Teiresias, he mocks at Teiresias’ blindness and calls him “child of endless night” (Scene I, page 1394, line 150), although Teiresias is very much older than him and is highly respected in the society. He is trying to tell Teiresias that Teiresias cannot harm him with his words, as he is more powerful for having higher social status –

Oedipus: “You child of endless night. You cannot hurt me or any other man who sees the sun.”

(Scene I, page 1394)

In other words, Oedipus often addresses his citizens as “my children” to imply that they are of lower social status as compared to him (other than showing his love to his citizens). Thus, when he has lost his throne and experienced downfall in social status, he starts to call them “my friend” (in Exodus, page 1418, line 100) (although he still uses “my children” at times), as well as labels himself as “child of evil” (in Exodus, page 1419, line 135), which shows his lost of ego.

To Transform a Poem into a Play

To analyse a play is hard, to write a script is harder. One of the challenging tasks in EDU 3217 Teaching the Language of Drama is to write a script for a one-act play. Furthermore, the script is to be used as teaching text for the language classroom, specifically for upper-secondary students. A tough task indeed!

According to what we have learnt in past lectures and tutorials, there are many criteria to be fulfilled (refer to the blog post “Criteria of a Good Play for ESL Classroom") before a play can be considered as a good play that can be taught to the students. For this post, I will only concentrate on one of the criteria, which is the sense of novelty. We will write a script, but write it differently. Confused? Now read on…… (Hehe, the famous quote in EDU 3217!)

Everyone can write about anything, but it is the style of writing that makes the difference. For a writer, the pen is the mightiest. I got this enlightenment from the famous poet, Dorothy Parker, when I was given a task to study her biography in EDU 3216 Teaching the Language of Poetry. She is famous for her caustic wit in portraying the hard truth about the world. Thus, her works normally entail the element of irony, as she writes it in a sarcastic, cynical tone.

Nonetheless, as successful as she might seem, she suffered from marriage failures and depression, which causes her to attempt numerous suicides. Some critics perceive her famous poem “Resume” as her personal account of her suicidal attempts. And it is her style of writing and her poem “Resume” that inspire our group in our script writing, as well as the title of our play – Resume.

In brief, our play “Resume” is about a counselor, Ms. Leela who needs to counsel a student, Mei Ying, who wants to commit suicide. In this play, Ms. Leela, like Dorothy Parker, is sarcastically giving her personal account of suicidal experience. Her description is intended to give a notion to the readers that suicide is gruesome, as opposed to the general perception of an “easy and quick death”. Thus, the play is trying to advice the readers to avoid suicide, just as the last line of Parker’s “Resume” that states, “You might as well live”.

Wanting to do things differently to get the sense of novelty, we decided to transform the poem into a play. Is it possible to transform a poem into a play? Initially, we were wondering too. Moreover, there is one big problem with doing things differently - either you will get a big "yes" for your creativity or a big "No" for your stupidity. However, we believe that a play is an art, and art is all about creativity, and creativity involves novelty, and lastly, novelty involves taking risk. Nothing is impossible. With strong will and determination, dreams will come true. Just as the poetry in our play has stated,

Life is a challenge, meet it.

Life is an adventure, dare it.

Life is a dream, raise it.

Life is a gift, cherish it.

We dream to do things differently, make it possible by accepting the challenge and our gift is of course our production of the script. No matter the script is well-praised or badly condemned, “Resume” will always be a gift we cherish forever.

How would I Teach What I Have Learnt?

In the previous post, “Criteria of a Good Play”, I had explained how the knowledge of what makes a good play is related or useful to my area of study. Apparently, it helps a great deal to teachers who are teaching drama, for it provides the skill of choosing a good play for their students. In this post, I’m going to discuss whether I would be able to adopt and adapt this skill that I’ve learnt for my future lessons (Well, if I were a teacher).

First of all, I will explain how I would adopt the skill in my future lesson of teaching drama. To teach drama, I can use the skill of choosing good plays to select a play that is able to create students’ interest and attract their attention. In other words, it helps me to choose a play that is able to make students to read it again and again willingly. It would be a play that is read with pleasure, but not with pressure. This is very important to avoid students to feel bored with the main teaching material (the play) that will be analysed repeatedly for many lessons. Moreover, the learning process will slack down once students stop reading or even refuse to look at it again.

Nonetheless, besides choosing an interesting play, teacher who teaches drama should be able to choose suitable plays for their students too. Now, I will explain how would I adapt the skill in my future lesson. In choosing plays, I will choose plays that are suitable to students’ level of proficiency (vocabulary), level of understanding and world knowledge (related issues), besides considering their interest.

Lastly, let us review the question again. Would I be able to adopt and adapt the skill of choosing a good play for my future lesson? The answer for the question will be a big “yes”, for this skill will be very useful in my future lessons.

Criteria of a Good Play

What aspects of the lectures or tutorials are related or useful to my area of study? My answer to this question will be the teaching the criteria of a good play. In one of the lectures of EDU 3217, we were taught about the criteria of a good play, which are stated as below:

• Thought-provoking / satisfies the intelect (Make the audience think)
  
• Shows organization (Clearly shows relationship between time or characters)
  
• Show ideational content
  
• Has economy
  
• Has sense of novelty (E.g. the plot is not dull and predictable)
  
• Has impact to the audience
  
• Moves or emotions grip the audience (Audience willing to stay until the end to know what will happen next. Suspense.)
  
• Concerns with human issues or experiences (e.g. parent-child conflict.)
  

Besides that, in the third tutorial, we were given a task to read three one-act plays, i.e. Tan Kee Aun’s “The Ring Doesn’t Fit”, Vincent Jeremiah Edwin’s “The Ring” and Rheitta Desmond’s “Selfish Mr. Pederson”. Among the three plays, we need to choose the play we liked the most and the play we disliked the most. Other than the aspects discussed in the lecture as shown above, some additional factors that make a good play are stated as follow:

• Simplicity

(e.g. choice of words, clear development of plot, reasonable number of characters)

• Have moral values
  
• Appropriate length
  
• Witty style of writing
  

Why would I say teaching the criteria of good play is related to my area of study? Well, in my opinion, an effective teacher does not only possess good teaching skills, but also skillful in selecting and utilizing teaching materials. Moreover, if the teaching material is the central tool (e.g. comprehension text) and not assisting tool (e.g. visual support), teacher need to choose it properly. For instance, in teaching the language of drama, the chosen script is the most important teaching material of all – the central tool. By having the knowledge of what makes a good play, teacher will know how to choose the appropriate play for ESL classroom.

In conclusion, I strongly believe that one of the important aspects that is useful and should be taught to future English teachers is the skill of choosing a play, as they will need to teach drama one day. As for the other question, “What aspects of the lectures or tutorials that are unrelated or not useful to my area of study? “, the answer remains unknown. (as I have not found any unrelated aspects yet)

Listen to the Experts

In a previous post (third post), I had given a brief account on the differences between theatre and cinema. For today’s post, I would like to share my findings from the Internet, which I feel interesting in my search for the answers, regarding the contrast between theatre and cinema.

• In Yahoo! Answers

Question: What are the differences between Film, Television and Theatre?

Answer: Everybody in theater wants to be on TV, so they can get famous. Everybody on TV wants to be in film, so they can get rich. Everybody in film wants to be in theater, so they can get taken seriously as “artists”.

(Answered by “Doc NoleCat”, the best answer chosen by voters)

• Based on Lillete Dubey’s view, a well-known film and theatre personality. Extracted from online article “Theatre or cinema - Lillete brings the difference”, published by Hanumant Bhansali.

“In a play, you can act like a man or a woman, a nine-year-old or a 90-year-old. You can do anything, and people will believe you. You can create a look, an ambience and your audience will believe you. That’s why you feel like a king on stage.

In cinema the challenges are there…talking to the elbow of the spot boy so that the actor emotes looking at the right direction is no mean feat! But, then, you are bound by your looks, by your director’s imagination,”

• According to “Pirategrrrl”, in response to the article “Broadway to Hollywood or Hollywood to Broadway: Which is the better direction?” by “Ace”. Extracted from http://www.afterellen.com/blog/ace/broadway-to-hollywood

“Theatre is an actor's craft. Film is a director/editor craft.”

I enjoy reading the experts’ witty comments, as their words are thought-provoking and reflect the truth behind theatre and cinema. Hopefully, these experts’ sayings give you food for thought as well. That’s the end of my blog post. Thank you for reading!

Extra Information

After the first lecture, I started to have some interest in theatre. Hence, I search for more information via the Internet to have a better understanding about theatre. In this post, I would like to share some information that I find useful in gaining a clearer picture about the development of theatre.

According to Internet sources, three reasons have been identified to explain why Christianity discouraged the development of Roman theatre. First reason is theatre is often performed during the festivals of pagan Gods, which are associated with religions other than Christian. During Constantine era, worshipping religions other than Christian is considered illegal. The second reason is the mime in the play is viewed as licentious and immoral. The last reason is also related to the mime, for it is viewed as an act that ridicules Christian practices.

Besides that, based on the sources from Internet, Medieval Theatre had two types of stage – fixed stage and movable stage. It held three types of plays:

• Cycles/mystery plays (biblical stories)
• Miracle plays (lives of saint and martyrs)
• Morality plays (spiritual lesson)
  

In conclusion, religion plays an important role in the development of the theatre.

Content-learning: A Step Back into the Past

In the first lecture of EDU 3217, I had learnt about the history of theatre, from the ancient Greek theatre to the modern drama. I found it interesting as I like history. Without further ado, let me review what I had learnt in the lesson.

To begin with, theatre started from Greek. From the lecture, I get to know more about Greek, besides the greatness of its philosophy that we had learnt in Form Four History subject. Other than its three great philosophers (Socrates, Plato and Aristotle), Greek has three famous tragedians too, namely Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripedes. They wrote mostly for religious festivals held at Acropolis. Thus, Greek plays are strongly connected with the idea of God and religion. Practically, the story is about the tragedy of a character (from legend or history), who undergo reversal of fortune. One special feature of Greek plays is their violent scenes occur off stage.

When Rome conquered Greece, Roman theatre emerges with heavy influence of Greek culture. An example of Roman tragedian is Seneca. However, during Constantine, the emergence of Christianity terminated all forms of theatre.

Nevertheless, the force of religion did not cause the death of theatre, for theatre came back through morality plays in Medieval Theatre. Its purpose is to spread Christian faith and condemn pagan rites. We are also introduced to Elizabethan Drama that involves famous playwrights, such as William Shakespeare, Marlowe, Jonson and Middleton.

Within the year of 1660 to 1668, the creation of Restoration Drama hastened the speed of theatre’s development to move from tragedy to comedy. Plays became more comical and the story revolved around the happenings in the court, instead of everyday life. Hence, they catered mainly for the court society. However, the prominence of drama was dwindled between 18th to 19th centuries.

In 20th century, modern drama emerged. It adheres to Freudian interpretation of life and realism. In addition, we had also learnt about the different types of drama, such as tragedy, comedy, tragicomedy and farce.

Last but not the least, we had been taught about the criteria of a good play, which I will explain further in depth in the future post, “Criteria of a Good Play”.

In conclusion, the lecture was beneficial and important to us as introduction to the course, EDU 3217 Teaching The Language of Drama, for it gave us a clearer picture about theater.

MISSION #1: SPOT THE DIFFERENCES

What are the similarities and differences between theatre and cinema? Well, it is a great question to ponder about before we study further on theatre and plays. To begin with, I will start off with their similarities. Both theatre and cinema held presentation of performing arts done by a cast of actors, who follow the instructions from stage director and film director respectively. Not to mention, where there is a performance, there will be a group of audience.

Next, we shall analyse the differences between theatre and cinema. In this blog, I will distinguish theatre from cinema through observation on a few aspects, such as the types of performance, the working condition and requirement of the actors, man power vs. technology, as well as the etiquette for theatre-goers and cinema-goers.

In theatre

In cinema

First and foremost, the most obvious difference is, of course, the types of performance. Theatre’s plays are live performances, whilst cinema’s movies are pre-recorded. Thus, a play can only be held in one place at a time, but a movie can be shown in many cinemas throughout the world at the same time.

Since theatre presents live performance, it requires more effort and practices from the actors and the backstage crew, as there is no room for any mistake when performing the play. They can never undo any mistake that is already done, unless they go back to the past. They can only hope that the mistake will not be repeated in future performances. Thus, I believe that the theatrical actors must have experienced great pressure, as they have to perform in front of the audience without any mistakes allowed. Unlike theatre performance, mistakes made by actors in the process of movie-filming can be forgiven. This is because the film director can film the same scene again and again, shouting “Cut!”, followed with “Take One!”, “Take Two!”, “Take Three!” and so on. This re-filming process can be repeated continuously until the actors’ performance reaches the film director’s requirement and expectation. Hence, some people think that a play’s success depends highly on the actor’s talent, whereas a movie relies on the director’s skill.

Another difference between theatre and cinema can be represented with “man power versus technology”. In theatre, it is solely human skills and creativity from set, costume to acting. In cinema movies, the actors may not necessary be human. Due to the advancement of computer technology today, the actors in movie can be personified animals and cartoon characters. Besides that, more graphic features can be added in a movie too. Undeniably, they are fake actors, yet they look and sound so real. On the other hand, if King Kong is one of the characters in theatre, a human actor has to wear a costume that looks like the giant ape, and makes the audience believe that he is an ape.

As for setting, movie usually uses real setting. For example, if the scene takes place in London, the cast of actors and the crew will shoot the movie in London. However, such action can never be implemented in play performance, as play performance can only be held in one place, and the place is named “the stage”. Thus, the crew has to crack their brains to build the set as convincing as possible, using props, lights and paintings. Therefore, much effort from the backstage crew is required in managing the set, as compared to the crew in movie-shooting.

You can never find this in a theatre.

For those who enjoy watching theatre performance, please pay attention to this. In cinema, you can go on munching and munching on anything you like until you throw up. In theatre, a nibble will throw you out. Nonetheless, both theatre and cinema also share the same etiquettes, such as “No making phone calls”, “No smoking”, “No talking loudly”, etc.

No making phone calls.

Well, the above description is a result of a very brief observation on the difference between theatre and cinema. Perhaps, after having real experience in theatre, we can discover more about theatre.

Is Drama a Grandma?

Have you been to a cinema? You better say you have or other people will be wondering which era you come from. Yet, it is normal if you never been to a theatre or even heard of it. Thus, this makes me wonder, “Is theatre outdated?” Well, I would not say that it is out-of-date, but rather ancient - as ancient as the Greek (Greek is famous for its theatre about tragedy). That's why I call it a "grandma".

Theatre has existed as early as the ancient Greece.

According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, the word “outdated” is defined as “No longer useful because of being old-fashioned.” Now, let us review the question again. Is theatre outdated? I would say both “yes” and “no”. Most modern people may prefer cinema to theatre. Some even perceive the emergence of cinema as the death of theatre. However, there’s still necessity for the existence of theatre.

To begin with, modern generation practically chooses cinema over theatre. In my opinion, some of the factors are the love for novelty, lack of promotion and convenience, as well as the power of money.

Undeniably, it is a human nature to be attracted to new things and ideas. We love novelty. Thus, when cinema appeared, we welcomed it with open hands. Furthermore, due to the advancement of technology, cinema movies have better sound effects, accompanied with interesting computer graphics.

In addition, theatre’s play does less promotion than cinema’s movie. Before a movie makes its appearance on the big screen, it is usually advertised widely throughout many countries around the world, through any mass media ranging from newspaper to the billboard. On the other hand, theatre keeps a low profile in advertising its play. For instance, in Malaysia, theatre’s play is usually promoted through posters and certain newspapers only.

Moreover, not every country has a theatre, whereas cinemas can be seen in the shopping malls in most countries. Thus, theatre also loses to cinema due to its lack of convenience. Worst still, play only occur in one place at a time. On the contrary, pre-recorded movie can be watched in 100 or even 10000 cinemas throughout the world at the same time!

Besides that, modern people prefers going to cinema than theatre because cinema tickets are affordable and relatively stable. On the other hand, theatre’s tickets vary due to certain factors. For instance, William Shakespeare’s plays are normally more expensive than other plays written by not-so-famous playwrights. Theatre tickets may cost as high as RM200 to as low as RM 0.00.

However, we cannot deny the importance of the existence of theatre. It is a training ground of the actors. Whether we accept it or not, theatre is the place where a star is discovered and born. Without theatre, the film industries cannot progress well too.

Now, what do you think? Is theatre out-of-date? Theatre, like grandma, maybe old-fashioned, but it is still useful. Likewise, old people is often neglected and regarded as dull. However, we always forget that the old is precious as they possess priceless experiences and wisdom. Perhaps, the saying, “Honor the old, teach the young” is applicable to theatre and cinema too.

One day, theatre will rock the world. Just wait!

What is Theatre???

A Play Inspired by the First Lecture of EDU 3217

Cast:
Guide – The knowledgeable guide who has to lead a batch of ignorant explorers
Explorer A – The inquisitive explorer whose never-ending questions are driving the guide up the wall
The explorers

Scene 1 (The World of Theatre)
The hall is silent, while the explorers are gathering in front of their guide. Their guide is holding a paper and smiling from face to face, giving a notion that he is about to deliver a good news to them. Everyone waits patiently to listen what he is going to say.

Guide:
Attention, everyone! I have a good news to tell you. Today, we are going to visit the World of Theatre! (Everyone gasps. Some are shrieking in glee.)

Explorer A:
Excuse me, sir? May I know exactly where is this place named the World of Theatre? I have looked through the world map many times, but couldn’t find it. (Everyone looks at the guide expectantly.)

Guide:
First, you shouldn’t have asked where it is, but what it is. It can be in anywhere throughout the world. It depends whether you are observant enough to notice it. Now, let’s hear you ask the question again correctly.

Explorer A:
(Clears his voice) May I know what is the World of Theatre, sir?

Guide:
The World of Theatre is a general term referring to theatres.

Explorer A:
What is a theatre?

Guide:
(To the audience) Now, this is a serious problem. I wonder whether they have ever watched a play. (Talks to the explorers) A theatre is where plays are held. I am sure you have
watched a play, don’t you? Or …… do you?

Explorer A:
Sir, we still don’t understand. (Everyone looks at the guide with a puzzled look.)

Guide:
(Take a deep breath) Do you know what cinema is?
(Everyone nods, and the guide is relieved)
Theatre is about the same as cinema. The main difference between them is that theatre provides live performance, whilst cinema’s movie is pre-recorded. Many Hollywood’s stars start their acting career in theatre first. Once they have their talents spotted by the movie agents, they move their way to the BIG SCREEN and earn BIG CASH, and gain BIG FAME. (Raises his voice as he becomes more and more excited)

Some examples of Hollywood Stars who comes from theatre are Katie Holmes, Denzel Washington and Meryl Streep. Even the cast of Grey's Anatomy – Sandra Oh, Justin Chambers, T.R. Knight, Sara Ramirez and Chandra Wilson, are originally from the theatre. Ahh……. (Breathes a sigh of relief as soon as he finishes the last line)

Explorer A:
Ooo…… (After some moments of silence) Huh?!

Guide:
Oh God, please help me!

Note:

1. In this play, “World of Theatre” symbolizes the field of performing arts and the place where plays are held, while “world map” symbolizes the previous knowledge the explorer has.



2. The examples of Hollywood stars are extracted from the Internet. For more information, you can log on to this site: http://www.afterellen.com/blog/ace/broadway-to-hollywood



3. P.S. This play is written just for laugh and must not be taken seriously. Hope you enjoy it! :)