Risk Taking: Motivational quotes, walking without a jacket in the cold, Tae Kwon Do, slaughtering a cow, and bedridden in India

After our first day, the introductions shared in class were amusing, funny, scary, and excellent examples of risk taking in controlled settings. Challenging ourselves to take on new experiences and to do different and new things create opportunities for learning.

Today we will continue with the introductions, and move towards bringing those introductions to life.

The task is as follows: Find a photograph that best represents the location of the event that you shared.

Develop a short scene using the scene building format.

1. Establish a setting
2. Show character and relationship
3. Discover a problem/ conflict that arises
4. Raise the stakes
5. Resolve the issue(s).

Scenes need to be just a snapshot of the event that took place, no more than 2 minutes. Anything less is too short. Remember--what is the action of the scene (action is ongoing), and how can you and your members bring the story to life?

e.g: sparing with a sensei; swimming in Lynn Canyon; Dairy Queen disenchantment; bench pressing mishap.

Review: the creative process is your friend! A refresher on the creative process is a necessary part of all creative endeavors.

The creative process:

Or, there is this (alternate the creative process):

And also this: 

In some ways, the creative process may feel like the bottom picture--messy, non linear, redundant, hopeless, and difficult--exactly what the creative process is at time. However, identifying the steps in the above picture are surefire ways to stay on track, and keep yourself disciplined.

A pretty amazing example of the creative process is this breakdown of Spoon's song "Inside Out"

And, here is the video/song, "finished product":

Justin Vernon of Bon Iver covers the song in a very different arrangement

With all of these examples of music, you must be asking yourself "how does this relate to what we do?"

Great question. So, how does it relate to what we do in the drama classroom? That is a question I will pose back to you to think about. 

What are the "take aways"? What can we learn from a band like Spoon and Bon Iver in how they create, and how they are inspired? How can we apply that to what we do in the Drama classroom?

Let's Play!

~Mr. W