Maddie's IB SL Theater Blog

Review of The Curious Incident Performed by Cheshire Academy I saw the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Simon Stephens on November 15th 2019 at Cheshire Academy. The directors of this play were Mrs. Guarino and Mr. Hunton, the major actors were Pacifica Yang, Ameila Williams, Wiljam Lemping, and Olivia Williamson. This production is about a boy named Christopher who has autism and his families journey. When the lights came up on the stage, the first thing that happened was that a dog was killed. Shortly after this, Christopher's father, Ed reveals that Christophers mother had a heart attack and died. Throughout the first act Ed was struggling without his wife, he got so angry that he even hit Christopher. Eventually it is revealed that Judy, christophers mother didn’t actually die, she ran away with the neighbor to London. We also find out the Ed killed the neighbor's dog. Christopher wants to go live with Judy because he is afraid of his...

During Monday's session we all took notecards and wrote down a word that reminded us of the Laramie project. On  the other side of the notecard we wrote a quote that someone from the laramie project said, or would be likely to say. Then we got into groups based on which note card spoke to us. From there we made i begin i end scenes that incorporated the word on the notecard. I formed a group with Caroline and we created a scene based on the word frustration. During the scene Caroline showed me something and I just acted like I didn't care about it, this made her frustrated so she started banging on the ground. Next we added another word from a note card and the line that was on the back of that card. Our new word was disappointed and instead of just being apathetic with what Caroline had brought I was now severely disappointed. The line that we added was “do whatever you want, I don’t care as long as it doesn’t affect me.” Next we had to merge the three groups to form one coll...

https://docs.google.com/document/d/13p8Emsu6XaPlIyCuvtD4eM1bBBMbvvU6AoyP3gWjhjw/edit

The section that I read in Tectonic Theater’s, moment work was about lighting, (pgs 76-90). It made me think differently about how lighting can have a profound effect on a performance. The book gave a lot of details about all of the things that lighting can do. It creates mood, shapes the space, directs your eye, and conveys the time of day. All of these aspects should compliment the narrative being portrayed by the actors. In Tectonic Theater’s process, lighting is just as important as the narrative. Lighting sets the tone from the moment someone sits down in a theater. The way the stage is set before the play and the first few lighting cues set the tone for an entire production.  The book also gives several exercises that help you to develop the lighting of your production. First, each actor brings in a light source. This can be any portable light source, a lamp, christmas lights, a lantern or a flashlight. Then everyone makes scenes surrounding these light sources. These sc...

Overall I thought that all of the IB solo projects were very well done. All of them were very different in both the genres of theater they were in and the way that they were performed. I thought that Olivia’s project was amazing. The entire time I was completely scared and even for several minutes afterward I was still terrified. My favorite part was when she blew out the candles because it built anticipation and tension for me as an audience member. Another part of her performance that I liked were the lighting and sound choices. The sound matched what she was doing on stage very well and the lighting definitely helped build tension. One of the parts where this happened was when there was a red light on the stage which symbolized blood.  Linda’s project was also very well done. I liked the concept of hers a lot because it was very clear what was happening throughout the entire performance. I loved how she used the set to show how each puppet represents a character in Into the ...