Summer Assignment #2

The next assignment was created by yours truly! Here was the prompt I gave students:

For assignment #2, please choose ONE Greek question and ONE Shakespearean question to research / answer. Thank you!
Greek Theatre (3 options - Please choose ONE of the following questions to answer / research): - How important was theatre to the ancient Greek people? How does Greek theatre in its time reflect the culture / people of the time? - Research the significance of the chorus to Greek theatre and apply it to a contemporary theatrical practice today. - How did Greek theatre incorporate masks and costumes and how does that relate to contemporary theatre? (Think of prom's theme this year too :))
Shakespearean Theatre (3 options - Please choose ONE of the following questions to answer / research): - How did Shakespeare's life influence his works? (Don't just regurgitate facts about Shakespeare's life, really focus on analyzing the facts' impact on his work) - How did Shakespeare's work, and other works of his time reflect the history and historical events of his time? - How does Shakespeare's work still maintain significance today? (Modern productions, adaptations, etc)
Notes: Remember 350 - 500 words TOTAL. DUE BY 11:59:59, June 26th (30 points) Post the link(s) with your research, and happy reading / researching!

This was an interesting assignment because I don't usually do assignments where I create the prompt for the rest of the class. I really liked this assignment though because I like teaching and have thought of becoming a teacher, so it was interesting to assume the role of the teacher for the assignment. Also, since I've taken a year of this class, I could direct the prompt to help students get to know what the really need to to do well in the subject area/entire class. I'm looking forward to doing some more student-created assignments this year.

Summer Assignment #1

Over the summer, we were given several assignments to complete for our theatre class. The first was a "Get to Know You" post:
Hi, I'm Hali McKinley Lester and I'm a senior (wow that's weird I was about to type junior). I was in the IB Theatre class this past year and it was a blast! I chose to take the class because I have always enjoyed acting, but I could never fit any theatre related activities in my schedule before. When I decided to take the IB Programme, this class was definitely an enticing factor, and I'm really glad I chose to take it! I first became interested in theatre when I was in second grade and got to say a line in my cousin's play at Harvard. For the next seven years, I decided I was going to become a famous actress. Although that's not my dream anymore, I still enjoy being involved in theatre. I'm an energetic, hard-working, crazy and adventurous person. Outside of school, I run cross-country and track, and in my spare time, (HA! that doesn't actually exist in IB ;)) I enjoy reading, swimming, and travelling. I don't really know what I want to do with my life or where I want to go to college. I know I'm almost in my senior year now and should know these things, but I'm only 16 (for 11 more days) and I'm still trying to figure out what I want to pursue. I am most looking forward to having new people in our class. This past year, we only had 6 people, which was wonderful, but I also think it will be a new and exciting experience to have more people that can contribute their perspectives because that is often the way to learn even more. My theatrical experience entails making my debut on the Harvard stage, taking this class, participating in the middle school musicals, and overall enjoying attending theatrical performances. I know this is way over 100 words, but you'll find that I always have a lot to say :)

Wilkes University Day 2

I was visiting my mom during her residency for two days, so on the second day, June 26 2013, I got even more theatre experiences. After lunch, there were several panels going on, and one of them was about play writing, so my Mom and I attended that one. The speakers were all professors at Wilkes who had published plays. They talked about their process for writing, which was incredibly fascinating, and will definitely help me during our play writing unit. They also talked about making sure you block out the time for writing every day so you make yourself get it done, although some admitted that they can be binge writers. After the panel, my mom introduced me to several of the speakers, and I told them about my theatre class. They were really interested to hear about it, and told me we could contact them at any time and they'd love to talk to us--maybe we could Skype in class. One man even lives and works in New York City (can you say FIELD TRIP?! ;) ). Then, that night was another reading session like the previous night, although this time it was all plays, instead of short stories. This was really cool because while these weren't fully actualized productions, you could get the feel for the play more than just reading it on paper. Also, the fact that it was only read by the author was interesting because their voice intonation and expressions were what they envisioned when they wrote the play, whereas an actual production differs from the author's original intentions. Overall, it was a fun visit and a great opportunity for me to learn more about the theatre world and make some great connections

Breakfast Club

So I remember last year in theatre that we always seemed to talk about Breakfast Club and everyone kept telling me that I needed to watch it. After Katherine's monologue, I was definitely more interested but with summer starting I sort of forgot about it. Then, on Saturday August 17th, I was watching Pitch Perfect with my friend and one of the characters was talking to this girl about how she needed to watch the Breakfast Club. She refused, saying she didn't like movies, but eventually she watched it and cried and loved it. The next day, I saw that Netflix now has the Breakfast Club!! I'm hoping I'll get the time to watch it before school starts. :)

Colorado Summer

In April, we found out that my dad had gotten a job he applied for in Colorado as the Colorado State Forester. His job started July 1st, but I wanted to finish my senior year here, so my mom and I will stay here. However, my dad and oldest sister left for Colorado in mid-June. Then, my mom and I went out to join them for a month starting in mid-July. Because I didn't know anybody there, I had more time to go do things with my family. It also meant that I wanted to get some more theatre experiences out in Colorado. I thought it would be really cool to see if being across the country would change the theatre experience. There's a few theaters around here, but I've been to a lot of them, so I was excited to be able to try something new. We were in the city of Fort Collins, and one thing I thought was really cool was that they would often have performances in Old Town, which was essentially the major center of the city with all these cool shops and things to do. For example, on Wednesday nights they would have jazz nights, and often on the weekends there would be people playing their instruments as we walked along. It was really cool to see all these different performances going on in a casual setting, yet it felt like a professional performance.
Here is a link for information about the different upcoming performances
http://www.beetstreet.org/streetmosphere

University of Colorado Boulder

Since my family is in the process of moving to Colorado, I am looking at more schools out there. On Tuesday July 23, 2013 I visited University of Colorado Boulder. We took a tour of the campus, and I was really excited we got to see the theatre building. It was absolutely beautiful, just like most of the campus. Who knows, if I go to school there, i may be frequenting this building a bit more :)

Wilkes University Visit-1st Night

On June 25 and 26, I went to visit my mom at Wilkes University, where she was for her week-long residency. She is a creative writing professor for the Wilkes MA/MFA program. On Tuesday, she had a reading that the students and fellow professors attend. There were seven other presenters in addition that were all presenting original work. I didn't even think about it until afterward, but this was a great theatre experience. I was a little disappointed in some of the presentations because they dragged. In fact, I thought this night gave me a really interesting perspective on the need for an effective presentation because some people had interesting story lines that were well-written, but their presentation was bland so I didn't enjoy the piece. I found that the pieces I enjoyed more were the ones that presented in an entertaining manner. My mom was second-to-last and even without my bias she was clearly the best one. Her story was about the time there were snakes in our pool before my birthday party. She read loudly and clearly, with voice intonations. She made it so that everyone was sitting on the edge of their seats and had the audience roaring with laughter. Afterward, everyone kept coming up to congratulate her. They told her that hers was the best reading of the night and they absolutely loved her story. I was so proud of her! Now I know where I get my theatre inclinations :) Here is me with my mom after she presented--proud daughter!! By the way, she wore that blue shirt to resemble water (my pool)...so even though this wasn't a theatrical production with costumes, my mom still thought about small implications of her outfit!