Recycled Asian Costume: Construction Reflection

We have finished our costume :)
The fashion show rehearsal is tomorrow and the fashion show is the day after that and I am incredibly excited.

Our final product turned out very well. We made the final adjustments to the top today, and it turned out quite nicely. We had to change the way we were going to take it on and off, but it looks decent. We cut up the middle and laced it together so it would be easier for Kathy to move. After fitting the top on top of the finished skirt, it looked really good!

Kathy still has some slight trouble moving around in the skirt, but she's slowly adjusting. We tried to make the skirt a little bit easier to move in, and it worked. Kinda... One main worry is when the skirt bends, the tissue paper has a chance to rip. Hopefully the cellophane will do its job.

Now that our costume is done, all we have to look forward to is the fashion show, which I am excited for!
Hopefully, everything goes well!

Recycled Asian Costume: Construction

Today, we have completed the skirt!
Honestly, it looks really good! Somehow, through the many layers of paper and cellophane, we have managed to achieve that poof skirt, and it resembles the hanbok. Well, at least the bottom does. We kinda started the shirt, but haven't made too much progress on it. But hey, we're done with the main base of our costume.

Kathy still does have some trouble moving around in it. The main areas of concern are stairs and bending. Stairs are included in the fashion show, so hopefully we can find some way to make it easier for her to move. One main thing is that we make sure we conserve the look and the materials, but make it easier for her to move as well.

Recycled Asian Costume: Construction

Today was a very productive day! We were able to finish covering the skirt with the first precautionary layer of pink tissue paper. After finishing that, we completed garment test #1, with the results below.



There were some slight problems, but those will be easy to fix. I hope... The garment test was very useful. Now, we know exactly what we need to change at this stage in construction of the costume. So then, we won't have as many problems as we progress through the stages.

After the test, we also noticed that the first layer of tissue paper was not sturdy at all, so we covered with another layer of cellophane. We plan to add one more layer of purple tissue paper and then cover the final skirt with cellophane.

Recycled Asian Costume: Construction

Today we accomplished the very beginnings of our costume. We planned out how we would create the top on the model, and we have the basic layer of the skirt completed. The skirt design includes a large piece of white butcher paper wrapped around Kathy and duct tape straps that actually do work pretty well.

Our main worry from today is the lack of movement that is allowed from the butcher paper. As of right now, there is a slit where Kathy can move, but sooner or later that will be covered up. A possible solution to this is when we cover everything up with layers of tissue paper and cellophane, we can cut a hole in the butcher paper so Kathy can move. :)

Recycled Asian Costume: Planning and Construction

Over the weekend, I picked up some materials that we are using to construct the costume (tissue paper, crepe paper, and white duct tape).

Today, our main focus was planning the costume, and maybe some construction.
We planned out what we would do, making a construction schedule, planned the design of the hanbok, and took Kathy's measurements.

Our finalized materials are as follows:
Materials for Top: Tablecloth, crepe paper, duct tape
Materials for Skirt: Butcher paper, tissue paper, cellophane, duct tape

Recycled Asian Costume: Planning and Research

Our main goal today in class was to decide the basic design of our hanbok.
Two color combinations that we decided were acceptable were...
- Dark purple top/Navy skirt
- Aqua Top/Purple skirt
In the end, we decided that the aqua top and the purple skirt were a better combination.

Anticipated Materials
-Stretchy tablecloth for the top
-White butcher paper for the bottom layer of the skirt
-Purple tissue paper to layer for the skirt
-Clear cellophane to layer on top of the skirt
-Streamers for the bow (Plum colored)
-Paint and other items for embellishments
-Duct tape for various needs

The Korean Hanbok

Different parts of a Hanbok
Jeogori: It makes up the upper part of the hanbok.
Dongjeong: This is the white collar attached along the rim of the neckline.
Otgoreum (Cloth Strings): It is a women's ornamental piece, which hangs vertically across the front of the chima.
Baerae (Jeogori Sleeve): It refers to the lower lines of the sleeve of the jeogori.
Chima: It is the women's outer skirt.
Pattern: Traditional and graceful, with a combination of lines and colors

Our Design
Jeogori: Aqua color, made out of a stretchy, plastic tablecloth.
Chima: Purple, made out of violet tissue paper, cellophane, and layered with butcher paper.

Library Research: Importance of Recycling

Evaluate the importance of recycling on life, society, and/or the environment.

In the modern twenty-first century today, we consume more than we ever have from the world. These days, many seem to doubt the fact that we must change our lifestyle in order to save the world. The way of life from the past will not stand for much longer, as the state of the world is rapidly deteriorating as we consume and waste daily. The daily waste produced by the human race has brought the world problems like global warming, the hole in the ozone layer, etc.

The way to turn the tables on global warming is to change the way we live. With recycling, we can change the state of our environment. Not only do we improve the state of our society, our own personal lives, but we improve the environment as well.

Recycling can help to improve our world, improve our lives, and improve our society.

Library Research: Key Problems

Write below the key problem in this project that needs to be solved. This is your opinion.
I think one of the main problems that will have to be solved during this project is the fragile aspect of all of these costumes. The Korean hanbok has a poofy skirt and a tight fitting top. To create the costume out of tissue paper is a risky choice, but in a way it is also one of the best choices. Tissue paper is flexible and easy to use, but it will rip easily. The main problem during this project will be to find how we can keep the light tissue paper from ripping while Kathy is wearing the hanbok.





A Korean Hanbok

Recycled Asian Costume Assignment

Yesterday, December 2nd, 2009, Mrs. Weil assigned us the Recycled Asian Costume assignment. This assignment is the Tech MYP Assesment. The purpose of this website is to create a traditional costume from a country on the continent of Asia out of completely recycled materials. We were shown a few examples from such countries such as China, Thailand, and Korea. We also were told about a few guidelines on how to create this costume. Also, we were assigned the MYP Assesment packet.

Today, December 3rd, 2009, we went to the library to do research on a possible costume to create. We also chose our groups, mine consisting of Alice Zhou, Jason Liu, and Kathy Lee. Because Kathy has had exposure to Korean costumes, we decided that the best costume to create was the Korean hanbok. Alice also brought up the idea of creating a Chinese hanfu, but in the end we decided that the hanbok was simpler and would be easier to create, also based on the created hanbok that we saw from Shelby's group last year.

I think the recycled Asian costume project will be one of the most successful of the year. The project connects to myself, and my morals and values. I strongly believe in recycling, and going green. :) Recycling may be the one difference between how our Earth will survive ten years from now, and it is a certainly good way to go. Also, the idea of creating an Asian costume also connects to myself. It brings in the idea of my culture and my heritage.

Silent Monologue Assignment: Performance Reflection

I think my performance turned out decently. Though I had been pretty packed during the week that I was supposed to perform, I gave it my full effort. I think my rehearsal time was somewhat limited however, and I could've taken the time to rehearse maybe once or twice more than I did.

I think the emotion that I portrayed through my performance was one of my strengths. Some audience comments said that the emotion I portrayed made them feel the sadness, the depression, and the grief themselves. I felt that I truly put myself into my performance, and put myself into the place of the surgeon, and that was a reason why emotions came through so strongly and people could feel the emotion. I think another one of my strengths was how I blocked out my performance. I focused on three certain spots of the stage for my blocking. I used the actor's stage right for the surgery room, stage middle for the family waiting room, and stage left for my personal office. I tried to keep my position in a place where it was easy for the audience to see what was exactly going on during my performance, and I also think that helped my performance do well.

One main thing did not go as I had planned. Before my performance, I had planned out timing for everything I had to do. (i.e. 20 seconds for this, 10 seconds for that.) However, while performing my silent scene in front of the class, I seemed to speed everything up by a lot. I had planned out my performance so that it would last for the full span of the song, but I ended a lot earlier than planned. It seemed as if nerves had made me unaware of how fast I was doing everything. Mrs. Weil noticed and she said that it was as if I rushed everything. It was a little irksome that I let my nerves get to me, since I knew I would be nervous and I had taken the time to plan what would happen in my scene.

One of the things I did the first time I performed my silent monologue was I didn't allow the full time for the impact of what was happening in my scene to sink in with the audience, and allow them to truly process what was happening, so if I had the chance to perform again, I would change that. I would try to slow down everything that happened, to achieve the full impact of the serious emotion that was occuring within my performance.

Overall, I believe my performance turned out decently. Mrs. Weil gave me a 48.5/50 points which was an A. However, I do believe I could've improved if I had not let my nerves get to me.

Silent Monologue Assignment: Performance Prediction

Tomorrow, November 17th, 2009, I will perform my silent monologue. Because I have had a lot of other things to do this week, I hope I have not been to preoccupied and my performance will turn out decently. I've practiced several times tonight, and I think I know my routine quite well. I think my performance, as with anything, there will be the positives and the negatives.

I think my strengths will come through my method of portraying emotion in this scene. I've worked in Speech and Debate on dramatic scenes before, so I think that will help a lot. My dad watched my performance and said the emotions, such as depression and grief, came through very clearly. I also think another one of my strengths will be my performance story. I think my story line is creative and different from what most people would expect for the song I chose. It would be expected that I have a typical relationship story, but I did not want to do that, and I wanted to do something different, which is why I decided to go with the surgeon story line.

I think one of my main challenges will be nerves. I usually don't have trouble with public speaking; I feel quite comfortable when speaking in front of a crowd. However, this isn't exactly what I would call public speaking. I have everything timed and rehearsed, but I'm scared that nerves will cause me to make a mistake on performance. I hope I will be able to calm down so my nerves won't be as big of a problem.

Silent Monologue Assignment: Story Analysis and Plot Summary

For my silent monologue assignment, I don't want the lyrics of the song to dictate what my performance will be like. The lyrics of the song seem to discuss a relationship that may be experiencing some turbulence and troubles. However, I want to create a scene that truly ponders the idea of life. I thought of the idea of the surgeon, through the idea of when life may be in danger, many head over to the hospital. I want to portray the idea of how fragile life may be, and the hardships that may be difficult to cross over, and the idea of how the choices you make can affect the state of life.

My basic plot line will be the surgeon who is just beginning to feel comfortable during a procedure, who has worked her whole life to achieve this goal, receives a patient, a young boy of about five, who suffers from appendicitis. She has performed this procedure before, so she is feeling fairly confident. However, things go deathly wrong in the procedure as the appendicitis bursts, and the young boy's pulse decreases until it no longer exists. She is stricken with depression, sadness, anger, and pain as she lets the family know what has happened. She then progresses to her office, where she strides around and sobs as she thinks about what she believes is her responsibility. She decides it is only right if she takes her life as well.

At the beginning of the song, during the instrumental part, she eagerly preps for surgery. Though she may feel absolutely terrified on the inside, on the outside she attempts to put on a demeanor of calm. She puts on gloves, a face mask, and a hair net after washing her hands.

The lyrics begin as she heads over to the operating table, on the actor's stage right, and asks her assistants if they are ready, and for the first neccessary tools. She makes the beginning incision and makes her way to the appendix to have it removed.

After about twenty seconds, she hears a beeping noise and looks at the computer screen to find the little boy's pulse is falling, and falling quickly. Frantically, she yells for her assistants to get her various materials as she tries to save the boy's life.

After another twenty seconds, it is now too late. The child has died. She is beginning to realize what happened, and takes some of her emotion out on her assistants as she throws her face mask to the ground and lets the grief overtake her for ten seconds.

For twenty seconds, she walks out of the operating room, pushing the double doors open, and knocks on the door of the family waiting room (middle of the stage). The family opens the door, and instantly knows it is not good news from the demeanor of her face. She quietly tells the family what has happened as she excuses herself, sobbing as she leaves the room.

Walking towards her office now, stage left and partly middle of the stage, she opens the door, closes it behind her, and sinks down to the floor and just cries for about thirty seconds. She then gets up, heads over to a cabinet, opens it, and takes out a photo album of pictures of all of her previous patients. She looks at all of the lives she had saved, and then thinks of the one she didn't, and overcome by emotion, she throws the photo album on the ground after about twenty seconds. She then takes her diploma off the wall and stares at it for about twenty seconds wondering if she really deserves it, and throws that on the ground as well.

She then cannot deal with the pain no longer and takes a gun out of the drawer in her desk that she kept for emergencies. She stares at it for about twenty seconds, decides it is not the right way to go. Then for ten seconds, she reconsiders it. She takes the gun out again, holds it up to her head for about ten seconds, and shoots.

Through this story, I want to portray the idea of life, and what life exactly may be.

Silent Monologue Assignment: Character Analysis

My basic character for the silent monologue assignment will be based off a middle-aged, but experienced surgeon. She will be in her mid-30s, just beginning to feel comfortable in the surgery room. She is just reaching the state where she is beginning to feel confident about her abilities in the surgery room and she is expanding her scale as a doctor, a surgeon, and a hero. She wants to be able to save lives of those in need, and give families that may have been stricken with sickness, something to be grateful about. She wants to be able to help those who need it, and in the process help herself become a better person. At the beginning of the performance, she is anxious to start the surgery procedure that must be performed to save a young child's life. She is taking deep breaths and trying to look happy as she preps for the job. She has spent her whole life aiming towards becoming a surgeon. And now that she has achieved her goal, and has just started to gain respect among her fellow surgeons, she does not want to mess anything up. She believes she must put absolutely two hundred percent of her effort into every surgery, and she hopes that everything for the rest of her career will run smoothly. She will try to make everything work.

Pantomime

The past two days in drama have been focused on the idea of pantomime.
I found this unit very interesting.

On Monday, we focused on pantomiming movements by playing a hand-off game and a game called "What are you doing", where we got to pick what an opponent had to pantomime.

Yesterday, we had to watch a movie on pantomime. I found that very interesting as well.

Silent Vacation Scenes

Today, we performed some Silent Vacation Scenes. The assignment was to create five snapshots of a vacation trip, and take one snapshot and create a silent "home video."

My group was Alice, Hannah, Jared, and Eric. We decided that our vacation scene would be Japan.

Scene #1: Experiencing turbulance on the flight from China. Emergency landing in Japan.
Scene #2: Being followed by Japanese school girls.
Scene #3: Japanese school girls turn into samurais.
Scene #4: Sushi food fight!
Scene #5: Flight to China, turbulance, and ending up in Singapore, where Japanese school girls were detained.

I think we could've worked on our story line somewhat more. But, I think our blocking and our ideas were strong.

Silent Monolgue Assignment: Basic Information

The past few days have also been days where we've worked on the movement unit with exercises and some comedy improv.

We have also had the chance to see the school play, All in the Timing. I really liked the play and the way it was set up!

Today, we received our next project. It is a silent monologue performed to a song of our choice. Mrs. Weil showed us an example today, and her silent monologue was so powerful and moving.

I'm thinking I am going to perform my silent monologue to a cover of Apologize by OneRepublic ft. Timbaland, by Ryan Narciso, CJ Torralba, and Matthew Torralba. I have a deep connection with that particular version of the song, and I think it will be very easy for me to emotionally and physically connect to it. It was a song that helped me through a spat that happened in my family, so I can truly connect with the song. I feel that the lyrics mean something, and truly hold a meaning and a lesson to life. The idea of it being "too late to apologize" is one that many humans hold. Humanity as a race can be stubborn and unforgiving. However, sometimes, it is neccessary to forgive and forget so life can continue its course.

Apologize One Republic ft. Timbaland --- Songwriters: Tim Mosley and Ryan Tedder
I'm holding on your rope,
Got me ten feet off the ground
I'm hearing what you say but I just can't make a sound
You tell me that you need me
Then you go and cut me down, but wait
You tell me that you're sorry
Didn't think I'd turn around, and say...

It's too late to apologize, it's too late
I said it's too late to apologize, it's too late

I'd take another chance, take a fall
Take a shot for you
And I need you like a heart needs a beat
But it's nothin new
I loved you with a fire red-
Now it's turning blue, and you say...
"Sorry" like the angel heaven let me think was you
But I'm afraid...

It's too late to apologize, it's too late
I said it's too late to apologize, it's too late

It's too late to apologize, it's too late
I said it's too late to apologize, it's too late
It's too late to apologize, yeah
I said it's too late to apologize, yeah-
I'm holdin on your rope got me ten feet off the ground...

Beginning of Movement Unit

Seeing as we have finished the Shakespeare Fandango Puppet Performances, we are now beginning the Movement Unit. These past few days in Drama, we are being introduced to things such as pantomime, silent scenes, and much more. Some activities we have done in the past few days are...

- Movement Telephone: This was soo much fun :) I hope we do it again!
- Silent Scenes: Alice and mine's was quite... interesting. A crying child and an annoyed mother...
- Walking Activites: This was harder for me. It was hard to channel a character through a walk.
- Notes: It was cool to watch Mrs. Weil communicate so much without speaking.


I think I have the potential to learn a lot about how to act and how the human race communicates within this unit! :)

Shakespeare Fandango Puppet Project: Final Performance

I believe our final performance for the Shakespeare Fandango Puppet Project was pretty good.
As with any performance, we did have some glitches. Our character voices were not very strong. Out of all of them, Jason's Bianca voice was the best. I could start a line with a strong British accent, but as I progressed the accent would slowly fade, and I would just be speaking with my normal voice. British accents are very hard to do!

However, Mrs. Weil said our energy was great as well as our puppet control. I had a feeling that my character voice was not going to be as strong as I would've wanted it to be, so I did plan ahead to try to put more emotion and energy into my puppet voice. And I also practiced puppet-positioning in conversations to make them similar to those of a humans. I guess it all payed off in the end.

Like any performance, there are improvements, but I think that I am satisfied with my work on the Shakespeare Fandango Puppet Project!

Puppets Performing :)

Shakespeare Fandango Puppet Project: Final Rehearsal Day

Today... er... yesterday... was the final rehearsal day for the Shakespeare Fandango Puppet Project. I think that we have used the time to the best of our abilities and created a performance that will hopefully be enjoyed by all.

In the end it was decided that I would play Petruchio, Alice would play Hortensio and Katherina, and Jason would play Baptista, Lucentio, and Bianca. Though we each play a different number of characters, we end up with the same amount of lines.

We first began by running through lines and working on our character voices. I decided that I would try to develop a form of a British accent because it has that sense of sophistication about it. Alice would develop a deeper voice for Katherina and a Valley-girl accent for Hortensio. Jason would try to develop a higher voice for Baptista, an Asian-accent for Bianca, and an unbelievably deep voice for Lucentio.

After that, we began blocking out our movements on the blocks and working on movement and puppet-control. This part was easy enough because we only have three people.

After continuous rehearsals, I have learned my lines sufficiently and I think we are ready to put on a pretty good performance!

Shakespeare Fandango Puppet Project: Progress Report

Our rough draft of the script has been completed, however, I did not write any of the final script. I did write a part and send it to my group, but they decided to re-write it. I do like the final script, I think it is very entertaining and has the potential to be a hit with the class.

However, I did work on puppets. My Scrooge McDuck looks very realistic and I think it fits the character of Petruchio very well. Jasmine looks all right, not my best work, but I do like her hair. Also, Genie looks very well-made, complete with red belt and little hair, and goatee! :) I was also able to stick to my goal of keeping my puppets simple. They are made of nothing but paper bags, paper, and markers.

Bianca... Jasmine from Aladdin

Hortensio... Genie from Aladdin

Petruchio... Scrooge McDuck from A Christmas Carol

Shakespeare Fandango Puppet Project: Puppet Making Day #2

In the end, Alice, Jason, and I decided to modernize the Taming of the Shrew, by William Shakespeare, because it has an easy to follow plot story and it has limited character roles. With a group of merely three people, I hope that will help.

We decided that we would base all of our puppets off Disney characters. Alice continued work on her Cinderella-Katherina puppet, as I continued work on my Scrooge-Petruchio puppet. Jason had already finished his Mickey-Baptista puppet, so he worked on the script.

It has been decided that Jason will finish off the script as Alice and I finish the puppets.

Shakespeare Fandango Puppet Project Assigned

Our Shakespeare Fandango Puppet Project have been , so we went into the library to start researching plays, and any possible and easy plays. Our group consisted of Vineeth, Alice, Jason, and Elissa. We expressed interest in the plays Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Titus Andronicus, and Taming of the Shrew. However, while in the library, Vineeth expressed interest in transferring out of MYP Drama into MYP Art. It was also an option that I was considering, but nothing to serious. However, in the process Alice and Jason also expressed interest. So, Elissa, being afraid that we would go through with this switched into another group, forming a group of seven.

Only Vineeth went through with this switch leaving Jason, Alice, and I being a group of three. I guess this means slightly more work for each of us, but then there are less people that we will have to maneuver around while performing.

Romeo and Juliet Prologue Final Performance

Because Mrs. Weil was sick on the 21st, our scheduled day to perform, we instead performed today. I think that our group's performance was decent, nothing too special.

The regular Romeo and Juliet prologue needed a little more work on the coordination between Rikelle's narration voice over and our group's movements. According to Mrs. Weil we also could've been a little more enthusiastic in our performance and added more energy to not only for the audience's benefit, but for ours as well.

Our modern adaptation was stronger, and Mrs. Weil said she could feel the energy and she knew we enjoyed ourselves a lot more with that. It seemed as if the audience also had a more positive response to our second performance.

Overally, the Romeo and Juliet Prologue Performances were a great learning experience! :)

Romeo and Juliet Prologue Final Rehearsals

The past few days in drama have been dedicated to practicing for the Romeo and Juliet prologue performances. The roles assigned to each person in our group are as follows...
Rikelle: Narrator
Crystal: Juliet/ Daughter of McDonald's owner
Aisha: Juliet's mother/ McDonald's owner
Jason: Romeo/ Son of KFC's owner
Daniella: Romeo's mother/ KFC's owner

We worked out acceptable and appropriate movements for the actual prologue and then began to work on our modern-day development. Daniella suggested we use fast food chains as a sort-of-metaphor. So we decided that our modern-day development would be the children of the fast-food rivals McDonald's and KFC falling in love.

I think our performance has the aptitude to be very strong; we just need to work out some glitches. (i.e. enthusiasm, energy, etc.)

Romeo and Juliet Prologue Performances

Today we received our Romeo and Juliet modernized Performance. We are supposed to perform the original prologue along with movements, and adapt it into a modern version and choreograph that as well. This will hopefully help with our next project, being the Shakespeare Puppet Performances where we will have to modernize a whole play.

Here is the original prologue:
Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
Where ancient grudge break into new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life.
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
Is not the two hours' traffic of our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

Our groups were assigned to us, and my group is Jason, Rikelle, Daniella, and Aisha. Rikelle generously agreed to be narrator for both scenes! That will be a lot of memorization.

I hope that starting out with adapting a smaller piece into a modern version will help us for the upcoming project.

First Few Weeks of Drama

In the first few weeks of drama, we have played games in order to create a more comfortable atmosphere in our drama class. We've played games to get to know our fellow classmates better and help us edge a little bit out of our comfort zone.
Some of the games we played were...
-"Caw-caw!"
- "Whoosh!"
- Trust games
- Irish duels
And many more...

I felt that this period of time in drama was a lot of fun and it helped me to learn more about myself and what I feel comfortable with. It was cool to get to know the poeple in my class in such a unique way.

The first few weeks of drama were a success! :)