on the very first day of the drama class we discussed about the topics which we will be doing. that time i was little bit scared by looking at all the topics we will be doing this year but after the second class i was feeling good. on the second class we did jatra and we had to do a presentation on it. many people doesn’t know what is jatra for knowing about jatra very well we were asked to a presentation on it.though it was a mini jatra research. after doing the presentation we had got a clear idea about the jatra. we all got different types of topics which was related to jatra. some one did the stage, dance,music etc and in the other hand some people did the effects of jatra in our life and etc etc. after the presentation we had to do a mini jatra play. mini jatra play means that the play will be not very long and for doing so we need to have a topic so we choose to do Ramayana because it is first of all the epics of Hindus (Indian) and we can see many jatra people doing it in the stage or some where else. so after we were done deciding we actually researched on Ramayana because many people in our group didn’t know the story and without knowing the story it will be hard for some one do his/her role properly. than after the research we decided the characters who will be whom. we had only five characters in the play so it wasn’t difficult for us to chose the characters. after deciding the characters we are working on the scripts and in few days we will be also done with our script. thorough the whole thing i was feeling very excited and scared in the same time. i was excited because this time we got a few new people in your small play and i have to work with them but i was scared because i don’t know weather i will be able to do my role properly or not because my part is one of the main character if the play. anyways i will hope for the best. i will try to give by best.
31st august 2010
today we did started working on the script, music and the dress etc. first of all we did see a presentation on jatra than we did so0me physical exercise which was really good. than we started continuing with our works. ever one is in-charge of something. it was really nice that we divided the work among all of us. this has made our work very easy and this looks like a group work. no one is leader in our group, i think that is a good thing for all of us because every person can give there own opinion and so on.
19th September 2010
on this day we did a workshop.in today’s class we learned a very few important thing for our play and for any drama play. in this class we learned how to get into a character. than we learn to to facial expression. your eyes. how should we our body movement when we are in a character and many other things. i really enjoyed this class because in this class we get to know many important things but in a fun manner. i had lot of fun doing thins workshop.
20th september 2010
today we had an another workshop in which was also really fun. we had to be a different animals. from there i learn how it is important to understand the character because if a person get to know his/her character than only he can do good because many things are only depends on the understanding like eyes, facial expression, looks etc. this was really fun to being a animal. when we really get into the character the eyes,looks comes automatically.in this class we learn about all this things.
21st september 2010
int today class we practice the script for RAMAYANA. the script was not fully done but still how much the script was done we rehearsed. firstly we read the whole script and than stated practicing the script. then we all had to fix the script because we had some problems with the script. in this class we had learn should our characters be. like in RAMAYANA sita’s role was very soft. innocent. ram’s role was like strong, caring and lakshman’s role was strong, angry etc. so ya each and every one had a different role and every one had to work on that.
26th september 2010
today i learnt lots of things. today i learnt that hpw much it is important for some one to get into his/her character. i also learnt that if you are in a character we just dont look at our facial expression. we also look at many other things like how should we walk, how should be our eyes, how should we talk, h0ow should we be looking at things etc. i just know that if we are in a character we just need to look at our facial expression but after doing the workshop i really get to know that i was wrong. when we are in a charater we should move each and every part of our body not just one part. i was doing good in the facial expression thing but i need to work more on my walking. if i compare my character with a animal i will be chooseing deer because deer looks very innocent, it is very simple, it doesn’t harm some one etc. and my character is totally like that. walking is a very imporatnt part in drama. because by someone’s walking, facial eapression, by looking the eyes people can get a fair idea about what type of character a person is playing. for example if a person’s character is evilish and the person’s walking looks like a kind person, that won’t make scence. i had really fun in this workshop because i get to learn new things and i get to find my weakness as well.
27th september 2010
today we worked on our script and did the making .only one person was working on the make up and the other were working on the script.we made few corrections in the script. from there i learn how to work to together in a particular thing. i thought that if each and every people works together on a particular thing, than the things get messed up but by actually working as a group i get to know that i was wrong because each and every one was actually participating in the script. every one was giving new new ideas. which was very good. i know the whole story properly. it was my strong part. i could actually guide the people very well. by today we finished our whole script. i had fun in writing the scripts. because when only one person was writing the script, it took a long time to finish and plus there were many mistakes as well. but when we worked as a group we we finished our script in 40 minutes with out any mistakes.
29th september 2010
today we did the Jerzy Grotowski exercise. this was the fifth time i guess i was doing this exercise. at first i couldn’t do this exercise properly. but now i get it really well. as the time is going i am getting better and better day-by-day. we are doing this exercise so that our body can be flexible. in jatra we really need to move mostly each and every body parts and if our body is not flexible we wont be able to do our jatra thing properly. this exercise helps a lot to strach our body. i think that my body is more flexible as compared to my previous stage. i can now actually move each and every body part. in that exercise we had to put our feet in the ground than we had to do onjolation an we had to kick three times. i think that was very challanging for me. but the good thing is that i practiced it in home and in the drama class as well. now i think i am getting this exercise very well. i am doing a good job. i dont have much experience in this field because i did do somethign liek this in any drama class. but while doing this i really get to know that how much important it is for the jatra. i really had a good experience whole doing this exercise because by dloing this exercise my body is getting more flexible and this is important for thr jatra thing as well. after the exercise thing we rehearsed. we worked on our voice, your movements etc. doinhg this was very useful for me because i didn’t know that how should a princesss talk, how should she walk, how should be her ficial expression etc. after getting the proper idea of my character i think i did well. my character is very nice, she has a very soft voice, she is innocent, she is careing etc. i think that i real life i am same like my character. so it wasn’t that much hard for me to really get into the character. when we were practicing i get to know in which thing i should work on and how can i improve it. i my opinion in each and every drama class i get to know my good things and my weakness as well. i get to learn new thing as well. i always get the chance to improve myself. i think it is a good thing. if i do a mistake i always try to improve it.
3rd October 2010
i was very excited for today’s class because i really wanted to see that how do i look in sita’s character. today we rehearsed the script. by doing this i get to know that what is my weakness. i think that i did well in sita’s role because i think that in real life i am little bit of like sita. so i think that it wasn’t hard for me to grasp in sita’s role. i think that i should me more like a drama queen which i didn’t really do. i should also work on my body movement and my eyes. because some times my body movement shows something else and my eyes shows something else. if the body movement and the eyes different language than people won’t understand that what are to trying to show them. so it is very important for me to work on it. i think that my voice quality was good. i don’t think that i need to work on it very much. but i have to feel my character more. i need to really understand my character. which i am really trying to do. over all i really enjoyed this class because here i get to know many things which i have to work on and my good things as well.
4th October 2010
today we did to things. first we practiced the dance which we will be doing in jatra. and the other thing was to rehearsed the script. this was our first dance practice for jatra. i guess it was very nice because very one was trying their best to do the dance. we all are working hard for this dance. in a jatra play dance is also been a important part. that why we decided to add dance in our play as well. your dance is based on a Bengali song because in jatra we play Bengali song. we practice only half of the song. we are presenting in front of the fifth grade students that’s why we decided not to complicate our dance. but we were doing very well. every one was actually contributing in the dance. it was actually very fun. we all did the dance part. in the dance part our each and every body part is moving which was really good. in jatra our body needs to be flexible and i think that by doing the dance, we are actually making our body flexible. after we rehearsed the dance for 5 to 6 times we worked on our performance. we did rehearsed the script again and again so that we get more familiar with our parts.
5th October 2010
today our first task was to rehearse our dance. we are getting better and better in the dance day- by-day. we rehearsed our script after were done rehearsing our dance. because we did to practice both. so first we decided to do the dance part so that our body can move in any direction. and it was like a warm up as well. and we need to rehearsed the dance up till we did and plus we need to make new steps as well. we did the dance for like half and hour and rest of the time we were practicing your dialogues. this was a little bit hard for me to like do the dance thing first and and after something i had to switch to the script which was tiring. because after doing the dance i fell very tired but we had to work on the script so i had to do the both things. it is a good thing in my opinion while doing the dance we get some physical exercise as well. the dance is really good in many ways. our script wasn’t totally finished but still we tried to improvise our lines which is really good in a way.
6th October 2010
in today’s class we finished our whole dance which was good in a way. it was just like a warm up for me. we practice the dance for like 3-4 times and every time it was getting better. we are not doing the whole dance. we are just doing kind of 1 paragraph. we also decided to your costumes for your dance. it will be the same dress which we will be wearing during your role’s in the play because if we don’t do this than we need some time to change in for our character. but over all we decided to do the dance in the beginning than after that we will directly start our play. it is a mini jatra so our play plus dance will be finished in half an hour.
10th October 2010
Today we practiced the dance first because there was kind of a gap between our practices. But I was happy because I remembered all the steps I thing I was forgetting was to smile when I was dancing which was important. I should look happy, energetic and enthusiastic or people will think that it will be a boring dance. after doing the dance we practice our rehearsal so that very thing can get perfect. my lines are very short so i was able to memorize it quickly. but my acting was not that much good. i wasn’t able to improvise by dialogues. i just memorized the dialogues which was written in the script and in same place it i forget only one word, i forget the whole sentence which was a very big problem. but after practicing my dialogues in front of a mirror i was able to improvise which was the good thing for. that time even forget some words i could just make it up.
11th October 2010
in today’s class we spent our time discussing our rehearsing times because on the 20th of October we are presenting. so by that time we should be fully ready. with the crops. our dialogues, our costumes etc. we also discussed the time when we can do a dress rehearsal so that we don’t get messed up when we are actually presenting . that will be very embarrassing for us. anyways i was dome with my costumes and dialogues. but i need improvise.
12th october 2010
today we rehearsed the whole play. were need to practice the last few scene. this was the first time when we rehearsed on the last few scene because before that we didn’t have the full script. we need to practice the fighting scene (between ram and ravan). we got almost every type of crops we need. but we need the arrows and the bows still. but we had the swords so we started rehearsing with the swords. it was quite fun when we were actually using the crop in the rehearsal. i had lot of fun.
18th october 2010
in today’s class we discussed about the things which is still left in our play. most of the people has done with there costumes but not all the people. some people have practice their make up and some didn’t. so we need to work on this types of things. that’s why we had made a list of things which we have already done and things that is still left to do. so that each time every one can see the list and can memorize what they have to bring or the things which is left from there side. in my case i need to bring a flower mala. because this is the only ornament sita wears in the forest so it is very important to wear the mala. we also planned a time line. in the time line we divided our time for the dance and the rehearsal.
19th October 2010
today we started our class by practicing the dance because we didn’t practice the dance for a long time so we kind of forget it but after practicing it again, we did very good job. after the we worked on our dance. i think the dancing part is very nice it really make our whole body move. we rehearsed the whole play like two times which was good. i still need to memorize my dialogues properly because all the time i have to look at the script so i can’t fully focus on acting. that’s why my acting wasn’t proper.
20th October 2010
in today’s class first we practice the whole dance. actually by doing the dance daily i think i am understanding the beats the movements the facial expression more. which is important while we are dancing. i am also understanding the words of the song. by practicing the dance so many times i have memorized all the main steps. sometime if i get time in home i usually practice the dance because i am the first person standing in the line and i am kind of leading every one. so it is very important for me to memorize the whole steps. after the dance we followed our actual routine. so after the dance we did the play and i was so happy that finally i have memorized my whole dialogues. which is very good for me. now i can completely focus on the acting. i think my voice should be more loud so that each and every person and hear what ever i say. but in the main time i need to keep this in my mind that sita has a very sweet voice. she always speaks very softly. because if i say my dialogues in a very high pitch than it won’t go with my character. i have to say my lines in a very soft, sweet voice but a little loud so that very one can hear me. i always have to remember that ram is my husband so i have to treat him as my husband because sometimes i do behave in front of the people that i am ram’s wife but they don’t get it.
24th october 2010
in today’s class we help the people who didn’t finish their crop. we try to do it quickly because we didn’t rehearsed the full play with the song. so as quickly we will be able to finish the crop, we can start practicing. after all this we planned the thing which we need to bring for tomorrow so that we can just enter the class and can start working according to our planning and plus we didn’t have much time left for our final product. most of the people was done with all their dress. make up, costumes etc. which was helpful not not fully. but we didn’t stop we did every thing which we can do.
25th october
for today our job was to rehearse and to do the stage directions. we were supposed to use the whole stage. if we use the whole stage, we ca more be spread in the stage we can more free. we can express our emotions very well. in my old school we did something like this and that time our teacher told us that how necessary it is for us to use the whole stage. in the whole stage we can move from one place from another. by our emotions, our walking we can express yourself more to others. so after the stage direction was done we started doing our rehearsing to see weather the stage direction was right or not.
26th october 2010
today the whole day we just practice because the play was tomorrow and the good things were every one knew their lines, their expressions,their voice everything. this was a plus point for us. we also decided where to enter ad exit. we also decided our dress-up time. we also checked that weather there is something left or not. we ensured everything.
27th october 2010
after working so hard the day came for which every one was eagerly waiting. overall my jatra experience was really good. this was the first time when i felt really confident. i wasn’t nervous at all which was a good thing. we all worked very hard for this play. first we researched about Ramayana because this topic was kind of new to all of us. we made the script in our own words. we wrote the whole script at least twice. after that we selected our roles. after that we researched about our character. than we started working on our voice, our dialogues ,our expression etc. we worked on our dialogues most of the time and the voice. because for that tome this two things were very important. after the time passed we rehearsed and rehearsed to make our play very good. on the last day and the day before we worked on our stage direction.
i think that i did pretty good job. i helped every one do to so their work. if some one’s crop wasn’t finished i help them to finish it. i was very friendly with each other. i did every thing which i was supposed to do. i brought my clothes on time, i memorized my lines, i was energetic enough, i had expression, i had word on my voice etc.
in my opinion everything went very good. i was happy about my work i did in jatra. i was feeling very confident. but usually before every play i am nervous but for this i wasn’t. which is a good thing i think because sometimes if we get nervous the whole thing gets wrong. o i a overall very happy.
1st november 2010
today we start a new unit. we have to do a workshop for 90 minutes. it was hard for me because i didn’t see or did this thongs before. but i am quite sure that i will be able to do it.
8th november 2010
in today’s class we discussed our planning about our workshop. i did a plan but i was going in the wrong way than miss helped me to find the right track. than i got a clear idea of what i have to do to make my workshop interesting. i have to kind of find a good script for my audience. so that they can read the script and act out it. i think doing the planning was a good thing from there at least i get to know that weather i am going in the right track or not.
after discussing all the planning we did a small activity. in this activity we had to stay still for 2 minutes. it was difficult but not impossible. for the first few time i couldn’t stay still but after some time i finally i did it. it was very hard for me. from this activity i have learn how to stay still. how to not do any type of movements. how to focus on something. i think that this is just not useful for theater it is also important for our studies, our future. being focused is very important while we do anything. i think this was a very good activity to see how focused we are.
9th november 2010
today we had to do two types of workshop. it was just an example how to do our final workshop. i thought it was a nice example of what we should be doing in our workshop.
today we did 2 workshop. one was naureen’s ad another 1 was mashrur’s. both the workshop was different. naureen’s one was a Pantomime. where she read a story and we had to act it out. the first time when we did this it was hard for us. because some people did understand what they have to do and some didn’t. but we did it once, we sit in a circle and tried to discuss what should we need to do to make it more understandable and interesting as well. after we done discussing we give it a try again and we did everything which we discussed ad it worked. it really did. the second 1 was way better than the first 1.
after this we move on to mashrur’s workshop. for his workshop we had to make random sounds ad we had to make a story as well. we did what ever he said. we make random sounds and tried to make a story from there. which was not bad at all. but it wasn’t that much good. so we decided to do the same thing with mashrur’s workshop as well. we sit in the circle and discussed the weak points of the workshop. after we tried the thing again and this time we did better.
so from today’s workshop i have now a clear idea about a workshop, how to led it, how to make it interesting etc. it was really helpful for me because i never did a workshop before.
10th november 2010
in today class we did adiba’s and sadma’s workshop. both of the workshops were different from each other. leading a worksop is very difficult i think. for doing a workshop we have to be fully prepared. while doing a workshop we have to know what we are doing. we need to make our workshop very very interesting or other wise the people will get bored.
for the fitness weeek i was leading the bollywood dancing section. i was in the front and i had to show the steps to the other people. some steps was hard and some were easy. some people were gettign it and some weren’t. sometimes when we doa thing for 10- 11 times we get annoyed. that happend to me when ever one was asking we the same stepa again and again. but the first rule of being a leader is not to get annoyed. so i tryed not to be annouyed. i try several ways to make them understand the steps. i was quite focused. i knew what i have to do. i had a very clear plan and i was going according to my plan. first i asked the people to show me some steps which they know to make the it more interesting. after they showed me their steps i showed them the stepps which i know than we combined all the step and than we went on with the music and every one was having fun. no one in the stage was just standing. it looked like every one was into the song. before the end of the secession i asked ever one to do what ever step they wanted to do and every one was doing it. each person was moving their which body. what ever they can do they did it.
in sadman’s workshop we completely unnderdstand that he wasn’t prepared. he didn’t have a plan. as a result he even didnt know what he shuld be doing. we was massing things. kind of non os us was able to understant that what he was trying ti do. he wasn’t clear at all. nut the good thing was he was patient. he helped us to understant about the topic. he has a quality to be a good leader because for his workshop we had to be in pair. but parul didn’t had a patner, so sadman went top parul and he was parul’s patner. it was kind of a conversation so parul wasn’t able to do it alone.
but adiba’s workshop was very clear to understand. she had a very good planning. in the beginning she did some activities with us. where we had to make different type of movements. it could be any type of movement. we stand in a circle and did our movements, first slow than fast. we did this for like 3-4 times. when adiba thought that our movement was fine then she started telling us what we have to do. our task was to do a movement and we have to make a machine from than movement. it was hard because we all did random movement. than we tried to put all the movement together one by one. after trying we did it.
22nd November 2010
in today’s class we discussed about our plannings. miss told us that how the planning is important for our workshop. without any planning we can’t be able to led our workshop. adiba was only the people who handed in her planning. in our planning we were also supposed to write down the things we need for our workshop. by seeing that miss will arrange everything but if she doesn’t see our planning she wont not know what materials we need. if we show our planning to miss that she will be able to guide us. she can twll weather we are in the right track or not. that’s why planing was important.
23rd novemer 2010
in our mall group nauren was the first person to led her workshop. being first is really hard but i think naureen did pretty good job. her topic was Beijing opera. first naureen showed us a power point and a video so that we can have an idea about the Beijing opera. she wasn’t that much clear about her topic. but the good thing was she was very confident about what she is doing. she was confused a little bit but she didn’t everything according to her plan. when naureen was showing her power point, we asked her several types of question. she gave the answer of each and every question. in some question i felt she was confused and in some question she was very sure. which i think was a plus point for her 
. after the power point and the videos we moved to some physical activities. which was really fun . we did improvise. first adiba and mushrur start a conversation than shadman took mashrur’s place and i took adiba’s place.as we switched places, we changed our conversation as well. we did it like 3-4 times. after that we moved to a small play called the drunk concubine. in this play concubine was the main character of this play. so s being a good leader naureen gave each an every one a chance to be the concubine. naureen was fair enough with every one. this is what i liked the most about her . she really wanted every one to get the concubine’s part very well. so we tried it many times until it was perfect.
over all i think that what ever naureen did was good but she didn’t really make us understand about her topic. i was very confused about the activities she did. i really didn’t get how her activities relate to her topics. but what ever she taught us about the activities was very clear. i love doing the activities. i hope i will get a chance soon to do this activities again.
24th november 2010
today was adiba’s turn to led her workshop. her topic was Turkish puppet play. the topic was really interesting. first of all adiba showed us a power point on Turkish puppet play. when she was explaining, i felt that she did lot of research about her topic because she gave all the answers of our question and she wasn’t confused at all. she was really confident. she was really well planned. she knew what she have to do. the good thing about her workshop which i thought was good was that she was a very good leader. she made us engaged in different works and the work wasn’t boring. it was really fun. she made us understand each and every thing she did. from the power point i got a well knowledge about Turkish puppet play . then she asked us to go next door. there she teached us how to make puppets. that’s was really really fun.i enjoyed that a lot. first i thought that it will be really hard but than when i actually did it, and it was really very easy. it was fun doing it and plus i got to know how to make puppets. adiba was really a good leader. he was helping every one. what ever we couldn’t understand she came to us and explained it to us.
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