GCSE DRAMA COURSEWORK
Responding:
For our exam I've looked and explored two stimuli. Firstly we looked at song lyrics of "The Hurricane", which was sang by Bob Dylan. This stimulus was set in America during the 1960's. The second extract we looked at was a play "Medea" by Euripides, which was set in Ancient Greek. When I first looked at the lyrics of "Medea" and the first time I heard "The Hurricane", the first thing I noticed was that they were both from two different sources. They both had one thing in common which was that they were talking about society and life. I felt that the Bob Dylan's lyrics were easier to understand, as we heard the whole song and had all the lyrics. This meant that it was straightforward to do the tasks; whilst in Medea we were just given parts of the extract, which meant we had to work out the story and the background.
We first looked as "The Hurricane". This was based on a true story about a 22-year-old boxing champion Rubin carter who was set up by two men Bello and Dexter. Rubin was accused of murder because of his race. This story, which was based on the theme of racism "If you're black you might as well not show up on the street less you wanna draw the heat", was in the southern states that make a link to the civil rights movement.
We did various tacks to explore the song lyrics. We first looked as the first four lines "Pistol shots ring out in the barroom night, enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall, she sees the bartender in a pool of blood, cries out "My god, they killed them all". For this scene we used several drama techniques to show these lines. I played Patty Valentine, and as she was the character saying the line we decided as a group just to emphasize in on her. To show this through drama we decided to use slow motion and freeze frames. All the other characters froze while Patty Valentine moved and spoke her line slowly and dramatically. To show that Patty Valentine was the focus of the act, we used levels to show her status. We then after got the next three lines of the extract; we joined up with another group to show 2 scenes happening at the same time. We achieved this by using cross cutting and split focus, which basically meant two different scenes happening at the same time. The next task was a prison machine. This is a technique used to show what the character would be thinking and imagining. You would think of one line, which would be repeatedly said with one movement. So our focus was on Rubin Carter, so we all had to think of different lines to repeat to show how he would be feeling, thinking and what people might be telling him. The line I used was "I'm innocent" I used this specific line because it shows the audience that he is innocent, and sentenced just because of his race and it links too "an innocent man in a living hell" which gave me the suggestion. To show my line, I mainly used levels, which can be used to show status. I started standing up but as I said my line I got down on to the floor with my voice gradually quieting and slowing down. If I was to direct this part I would use dull lighting as this shows sadness, innocence and loneliness, I would make Rubin carter wear scruffy clothes as that is what would be expected. "Rubin sits like a Buddha in a 10 foot cell an innocent man in a living hell", we then had to explore and adapt these lines in to freeze frames also known as tableau. Freeze frames are when, an individual or group show the extract through no movement. We achieved this by thinking of the main points in this extract and putting them into five freeze frames. We also did thought- tracking. Thought tracking is imaging how it would be if you were in the seconds persons position and thinking how they would think. This concept can also involve the audience; they can freeze us and ask us what we would be thinking at a certain time. So in this case, we had to imagine being in Rubin Carters position, how it would be to be in prison for something, which was not your fault, and it was all just because of your race. We achieved this by having one person in the middle playing RubinCarter. We had people circling him saying his thoughts, negative and positive. We also did a task "Nightmare", were we were showing Rubin Carter having a nightmare. We achieved this by having one person in the group playing Rubin; we used four people in each corner of the room saying different things. And then towards the end we all started emerging in whilst saying "Guilty" from a quieter slower pace to a fast louder pace.
Responding:
For our exam I've looked and explored two stimuli. Firstly we looked at song lyrics of "The Hurricane", which was sang by Bob Dylan. This stimulus was set in America during the 1960's. The second extract we looked at was a play "Medea" by Euripides, which was set in Ancient Greek. When I first looked at the lyrics of "Medea" and the first time I heard "The Hurricane", the first thing I noticed was that they were both from two different sources. They both had one thing in common which was that they were talking about society and life. I felt that the Bob Dylan's lyrics were easier to understand, as we heard the whole song and had all the lyrics. This meant that it was straightforward to do the tasks; whilst in Medea we were just given parts of the extract, which meant we had to work out the story and the background.
We first looked as "The Hurricane". This was based on a true story about a 22-year-old boxing champion Rubin carter who was set up by two men Bello and Dexter. Rubin was accused of murder because of his race. This story, which was based on the theme of racism "If you're black you might as well not show up on the street less you wanna draw the heat", was in the southern states that make a link to the civil rights movement.
We did various tacks to explore the song lyrics. We first looked as the first four lines "Pistol shots ring out in the barroom night, enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall, she sees the bartender in a pool of blood, cries out "My god, they killed them all". For this scene we used several drama techniques to show these lines. I played Patty Valentine, and as she was the character saying the line we decided as a group just to emphasize in on her. To show this through drama we decided to use slow motion and freeze frames. All the other characters froze while Patty Valentine moved and spoke her line slowly and dramatically. To show that Patty Valentine was the focus of the act, we used levels to show her status. We then after got the next three lines of the extract; we joined up with another group to show 2 scenes happening at the same time. We achieved this by using cross cutting and split focus, which basically meant two different scenes happening at the same time. The next task was a prison machine. This is a technique used to show what the character would be thinking and imagining. You would think of one line, which would be repeatedly said with one movement. So our focus was on Rubin Carter, so we all had to think of different lines to repeat to show how he would be feeling, thinking and what people might be telling him. The line I used was "I'm innocent" I used this specific line because it shows the audience that he is innocent, and sentenced just because of his race and it links too "an innocent man in a living hell" which gave me the suggestion. To show my line, I mainly used levels, which can be used to show status. I started standing up but as I said my line I got down on to the floor with my voice gradually quieting and slowing down. If I was to direct this part I would use dull lighting as this shows sadness, innocence and loneliness, I would make Rubin carter wear scruffy clothes as that is what would be expected. "Rubin sits like a Buddha in a 10 foot cell an innocent man in a living hell", we then had to explore and adapt these lines in to freeze frames also known as tableau. Freeze frames are when, an individual or group show the extract through no movement. We achieved this by thinking of the main points in this extract and putting them into five freeze frames. We also did thought- tracking. Thought tracking is imaging how it would be if you were in the seconds persons position and thinking how they would think. This concept can also involve the audience; they can freeze us and ask us what we would be thinking at a certain time. So in this case, we had to imagine being in Rubin Carters position, how it would be to be in prison for something, which was not your fault, and it was all just because of your race. We achieved this by having one person in the middle playing RubinCarter. We had people circling him saying his thoughts, negative and positive. We also did a task "Nightmare", were we were showing Rubin Carter having a nightmare. We achieved this by having one person in the group playing Rubin; we used four people in each corner of the room saying different things. And then towards the end we all started emerging in whilst saying "Guilty" from a quieter slower pace to a fast louder pace.
!["Euripides is not asking us [the audience] to sympathise with Medea..."](https://mbt-essays-prod-public.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/99411/listing/99411_1.jpg)