Train scene - Act 2

Teenager and Uncle Argument

In class we talked about how to create a good piece of drama act. On Tuesday's drama lesson we all started with a warm up exercise that helped us improve our performances. We were all asked to sit in a circle, and then we were given different scenarios which had different emotions being conveyed. Although, we had to act out the given emotion or scenario without talking, only with the use of facial expressions, to convey our emotion. This helped bring out depth to our drama performance piece, as it helped us convey different emotions with a more sightful meaning to it. Also, this made our task of acting a lot easier as it gave some practice to us. Our scenario was to continue our train surfer scene. In the previous act we looked at a train surfer who is getting late to reach home, and on the way meets another train surfer who is injured. They are unsure at first but they decide to help them, and this causes even more delay for them to reach home. At home they have their uncle waiting. This time in class we had to continue this scene, with the act that the train surfer has finally reached home, but their uncle is extremely mad and furious. 

We all were put into groups of twos and each pair had to in-act the scene. I played the role of the train surfer who got late, and Mehul played the role of the furious uncle. Our task was to make sure that the first 1 minute was complete silence and we had to show emotions through our body language and emotional expressions. For the first minute only the uncle was there in the scene, he had to act like he is being impatient and tired of waiting for their son/daughter (The train surfer). The different levels we used during our act was a block to represent a chair, and the floor for initial acting. We also had a chair which the uncle sat on, and when the train surfer entered and explained their reason as to why they are late, or as the uncle says "Excuses". The uncle then in extreme anger throws the chair to convey and portray high levels of anger. At first the uncle is quietly listening to the train surfer's reason, and this makes the audience feel tensed and they try to anticipate what might happen next. I think that we successfully created a good piece, although after looking at drama pieces from different peers, I felt that many more things could have been done to improve our work. I think that if we were to do this assignment again, we should first discuss ideas before starting the act, we should make sure our expressions are effective to the audience. I feel that I could have been more scared after Mehul throws the chair, to show more believable emotions, as our aim for this unit is 'Realistic Emotions'. Overall it was fun to create this scene and we were able to complete the task efficiently.  

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