A Streetcar Named Desire & The 'moth'

Today, we start to read a new play which is also the final play that we will read for this course. The title of the play is “A Streetcar Named Desire” written by Tennessee Williams. Before we start reading the play, Dr. Edwin gave a brief explanation about the history of the play like when it was written and what era was it written. He also gave a brief synopsis of the play. This time around I don’t feel anxious or restless like I used to every time we’re starting to read a new play. Probably it’s because this play was written in modern English so understanding it would not be a problem. But I don’t dare to put much expectation on this play. I prefer taking it one step at a time. Today, we stop reading until page 4, to be exact we stop at the narration that describes Banche. “Her delicate beauty must avoid strong light. There is something about her uncertain manner, as well as her white clothes, that suggest a moth”. These are the two last line of the narration that describes about Blanche. Dr. Edwin asks the class something about the relation or similarity between the moth and Blanche. In my opinion, the moth relates to Blanche because just like a moth which avoids being near bright lights, Blanche is the same. The earlier description on Blanche’s appearance indicates that Blanche is someone who cares about her appearance and her beauty. She is probably obsessive with her youth. The word ‘delicate’ is probably refers to Blanche aging beauty. That’s why she avoids being near bright light because bright lights reveals her true age. Usually when someone is near bright light we can see clearly the person’s face. His/her scars, wrinkles, pimples etc. So, for Blanche, being near bright light made her feel insecure because she scared that any imperfection on her face will give away her true age.

Simulated Teaching- Presentation Stage

Today, we started our simulated teaching for the presentation stage. There are 9 groups who presented today. The first group is Harveen and Amardev. As I had expected, Dr. Edwin made a lot of comments on the first group. This is not something new, it happens to every first group that presenting their lesson. Harveen and Amri took well the comments. I can see that they’re trying very hard to make spontaneous change to the instruction they gave to students when Dr. Edwin asked them to do so. Looking at them, I become more nervous and scared. I really hope my partner, Ly Wen and I can do well when it’s our turn to present. For today’s session, I like the presentation that was presented by Diana and Alicia’s group and Hui Ling and Alex’s group. I notice that Dr.Edwin hardly comment when they were presenting. But he did made some comments on both group’s worksheets. For Diana and Alicia’s group, I remember he comments on the table and for Hui Ling and Alex’s group, Dr.Edwin said that their exercise is too simple for advanced level student. However their pre-reading text is good and that they should use transparency to help them in their presentation. Most of the groups who presented today are doing on Antigone and King Lear. Only one group chose Pygmalion that is Wanirah and Wan Haninah’s group. Dr.Edwin said that if we chose to do on Pygmalion, we have to be careful with they way we pronounce the words and speaking the dialogues. There are many comments made by Dr.Edwin today that I can use for guidelines for our presentation in the next class. Among them are, teacher should speak and not read the language, teacher must explain more to students on the current exercises before moving on to the next exercise. He also advices us to make full use of technology in our presentation. I hope with all the new information, we can do well in our later.

Simulated Teaching-Set Induction

Today, it was our group’s turn to do the simulated teaching doing the set induction for Antigone. My pair, Amadifilzah and I have prepared since last week to do this microteaching. We were nervous and happy at the same time, happy because we’re finally can get this over with and nervous because we’re scared if we messed up. Amadi started off first where she greets students and give instruction before we play the song and I’m taking over the second part that is asking questions about the song and discussing the answers. We had a small problem when playing the song in the laptop but that’s not because we’re not well-prepared but it’s because we’re not familiar how to use the laptop but luckily we didn’t took much time to sort the problem. Personally, I’m extremely disappointed with my performance. I was too nervous I guess. I didn’t handle well the part where I discuss the answers with students. When Dr. Edwin said ‘wiser’ is not a trait I didn’t know what else to say so I began to babble. Saying whatever crossed my mind at that moment. It was embarrassing when I thought back about it. I guess I need to learn how to deal with unexpected question and handle my nerve better. I learned a lot form simulated teaching sessions. I learned that a teacher needs to use materials that are up-to date and taking advantage of the use of technology so that lesson would be more interesting and can attract the students’ attention. Before the lesson starts, teacher must make sure that all teaching aids are ready to use and working. Teacher also needs to give clear instruction to students before they listen to the song and after the song teacher discusses the answer with students. When students answer the questions, teacher may ask the reason the student gave that particular answer to teacher. After the discussion, then only teacher introduces the lesson to students. Hopefully, I can do better for my next simulated teaching that is the presentation stage now that I learned a lot from the first session of simulated teaching.

Shakeapeare Wallah!

I don’t even know what to say about my experience watching this movie. I don’t mind it’s a black and white movie. To be honest, I don’t know why did Dr. Edwin wanted us to watch this movie. I try to see which play relates to this movie. Pygmalion-we’ve watched the movie, King Lear- I don’t think so, Anike or Antigone-Nope!, A Streetcar Named Desire- Absolutely not! So, why did we watch it? I guess it’s for experience. I was surprised and amazed at the same time when I found out that this is actually an Indian movie with a twist of Shakespeareans plays embedded here and there. Wow, how did they come up with the idea to do this? This movie is about a family who are theatre performers that performs only Shakespearen plays. They are always on the road as they move from one place to another to perform their plays. It also showed the trouble, problems and conflicts that they experienced in life and their work while from moving one place to another. However, I have problem understanding the plot of the movie. I feel confused and got lost sometimes. And the bad audio system made it worse because I can’t hear what the characters say. I was frustrated with the way the movie ended. It’s what I called the “That’s it!” type of ending. I feel like watching a movie and then somebody stopped it in the middle of me watching it. It’s an abrupt end. I wish the movie could go on a little bit more and show what happened to the hero of the movie or show us what happened to the heroin after she reached London. I guess the others feel the same hearing the groaning as the play ends. On the whole, I think Shakespeare Wallah is creative movie but it is too.. long that I feel really tired by the end of it.

King Lear-The End

Ok, I need a second to catch my breath!...phew…here’s the thing, we’ve finally finished reading King Lear…(clap..clap...) I’m sitting in front of the PC with a big grin on my face enjoying the moment while typing my experience reading this play. All in all, I think King Lear is a play that is filled with tragedy, cruelty, betrayal and injustice but at the same time it also portrays some act of love, honor, loyalty, humility and kindness. Even though this play is quite hard to understand because of the language, but I actually enjoyed reading it. Shakespeare really knows how to do his wri-“thing”! I was really impressed by the way he wrote this play. As the play develops, the plot just keeps on getting worse and it never fails to make me feel surprised and horrified by every twist he adds on. I really liked the scene where Gloucester was being blinded by the evil Cornwall. I totally didn’t see that coming. It was really brutal and graphic. Another twist that I liked in this play is the love triangle between Goneril, Edmund and Regan. I kind of find it funny. Here this 3 people still manage some time to commit adultery in the middle of the preparation of an upcoming war. Well, that is only an opinion. I was a bit disappointed with the way Lear died. I really thought that Lear would die of suicide or was murdered…something tragic, especially, after going through all the sufferings that could make any other sane man to commit suicide. But I guess, his is too busy being a mad man to think of ending his own life. Overall, like the ending of the play. Even though, it’s not too long but the information given is sufficient enough to tell us what will happened next and what will happened is going to be something good. In the end, the ‘order’ is restored back.

Anike-Finished!!!

So, I have finished reading the play ‘Anike’ and I think it is a good and well-written play. This play has more graphic depiction on certain things especially in the way how the writer wrote the dialogues that refers to Sirat’s rotting corpse. I have a tremendously ‘challenging’ time when I tried to imagine the images of these description. When compared with Antigone, I feel that Anike does not have the same level of intensity in terms of the feeling of sorrow that I had for the characters especially for Anike and Maniaka. I had difficullty in understanding the chorus’s line in Anike than in Antigone which I found to be ironic since it was written in modern English compared to the Antigone’s text that were translated to Old English. What I like most about Anike is how the Malay history Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat was creatively combine and integrated in this version of Antigone. I remember one question Dr. Edwin asked us before we started to read the play; he asked us if Anike is a version Sophocles’s Antigone?. He also asked us how Wong Phui Nam made Anike a play in its own right. In my opinion, he made this play in its own right by adding in the local elements (the Hang Tuah & Hang Jebat story) and changing some detail of the stor here and there for example when Nadim didn’t get to touch Anike before he dies. In overall, I think this Anike is as good as Antigone but I liked Antigone more because I enjoyed reading Antigone more.

Here comes "Anike"!

When I heard the name of this play that we are going to study next in our Drama class, I thought that ‘Anike’ is a Greek novel. I didn’t bother to find out about it in the net. I wanted it to be a surprise. True enough, I AM surprise when I found out that it’s actually written by a local writer, ‘Wong Phui Nam”. I’m impressed when Dr. Edwin told us that this play is actually the localized version of the Greek play ‘Antigone’ by Sophocles. Wow, I never think of it! The writer of this play is indeed a creative person. Salute to you Mr.Wong! I have read a few pages of the play and so far…I liked it. Haven’t had any problems yet in understanding the play, and hopefully it stays that way. I thought that the choice of the name for characters is unique and striking as well. It goes well the personality of the characters. Well, that’s all I can comment about the play so far as I have only read so little. To be continued…

Watching "4.48 Psychosis"

On 16th September 2007, I had the opportunity to watch a play at the KLPac. The title of then play is “4.48 Psychosis” which was directed by Gavin Yap a young and talented actor/director. I was really excited and am looking forward to watch this play as that was my first time going to watch a play. The play was written by Sarah Kane who was a British play writer who commits suicide by hanging herself in the hospital where she was treated for severe depression. So, it was no surprised that this play is about a woman who suffered from mental anguish and psychological distress, a condition that relates closely to the playwright herself. To describe my experience watching the play, to start with, the stage doesn’t look like the typical theatre stage, like how I imagine it, with high stage located in front of the hall facing the audience. It’s rather a unique stage where it was located in the middle of the hall to which audiences sat around to. The play consists of three characters that is the woman, the patient and the doctor which were acted by Susan Lancaster, Samantha Schubert and Malik Taufiq. Before the play started, I read the synopsis of the play and it helped me a lot in understanding the play. But I kind of regretted of doing it because my understanding of the play has been set from reading the synopsis and it didn’t allow me to have my own interpretation. Even though I read the play’s synopsis before hand, I still have problems trying to figure out the meaning of some of the dialogues and monologues. I was really impressed with the actors’ acting. It was superb! Their acting was so real and honest. I was blown away by the way they project their voice. Their voice is so loud (but they’re not shouting) and clear it filled the hall and it sounds as if they’re using microphones. The use of a lot of lighting plays an important role in this play as it helps to create the intense atmosphere and it also helps audience to experience the emotion turmoil in the characters. When the play was over, I feel depressed and uneasy. The play did affect me a little. All in all, I think this play is too intense and too deep for first timers but regardless I enjoyed my first experience watching a play and are looking forward to watch another play.

King Lear, here we come!

In our Drama class on the 10th September 2007, we started to discuss a new play titled King Lear. When I saw the book for the first time I went, ‘GULP!’… Could this book be any thicker? Then I thought, this is what Dr.Jaya called a ‘high-anxiety’ text. Then I opened the book and try to read the first page of the book. My reaction… ‘DOUBLE GULP!’. Boy, aren’t we going to have a great time studying King Lear. Let’s start with the language….I have 3 words of what I think of the language. Archaic, difficult, and ‘serious need of translation’. Thank goodness, as if understanding our need, the book comes with a translation notes for each page pf the play. Like what Dr. Edwin said, this book is indeed “Shakespeare for Dummies”. I had a great laugh every time I remember that line. Today, we read the play until Act 1 Scene 3. Based on what we have read so far, I found that it wasn’t as bad as what I think. I can ‘handle’ this book. I’m not saying that this is going to be an ‘easy ride’. Yes, the language is difficult to understand but with the provided notes and Dr. Edwin’s explanation, I think we will be fine. That is if one can stay alert the whole period of class. I read the synopsis of the story and I like it. I'm looking forward to finish reading this play and do the analysis.

Comparison between Pygmalion-Shaw & Pygmalion-Ovid's Metamorphoses

It has been a while since I posted my last blog. I have pages of blogs that I have written in my journal and are just waiting to be posted. It’s been a very bussyyy week. At last, I manage to squeeze some time to post a blog today. I’m going to write my blog based on what we have been assigned to write about. So, don’t be surprised if you found the topic of my blog is so-4,5 weeks ago. They’re a little bit outdated,so what? The important thing is the intention of still wanting to write about it, right? (it’s a rhetorical question, by the way). I’d better get started before I rambling more nonsense things.
After we have finished discussing Pygmalion, Dr. Edwin told us to compare this play with the story of Pygmalion from the Greek Mythology. I found that in terms of similarities, both Pygmalion and Prof. Higgins have the same view of women and as a result they vowed not to be married. Both of them are confirmed bachelor. Pygmalion does not want to be married because he despised so many qualities in women that he could not bear the idea of marriage and as for Prof. Higgins, he thinks that ‘women upset everything’. He said “When you le them into your life, you find that woman is driving at one thing and you driving at another”. The second similarity is that both of them are involved with ‘creating something’. Prof. Higgins transforms a cockney speaking flower girl from the gutter to become a well-spoken and poised duchess of the high society. As for Pygmalion, his creation comes in the form of a sculptor of a woman that he sculpted from an ivory and which he called Galatea (means sleeping love). The difference between these two versions of story can be seen in the way both man treats their ‘creations’. Pygmalion admired his work and fell in love with it. He treats the sculpture as if it is a real woman by clothing her, buying her presents, bringing her birds and buying her flowers of all colours. He even prays to Aprodhite to give him a wife that looks like Galatea which he will later found out was granted to him. This is in contrast with Prof. Higgins treatment to his creation, Eliza. He likes to bully her and made heartless insults to her. He also likes to make fun of her never treats her with respect. Another difference that I notice in both stories is that, in the end Pygmalion get married to Galatea and lived happily ever after while Prof. Higgins remained as a bachelor but he started to admire her new character, an independent and defiance woman.

Pygmalion the Movie!

Today we watched the movie Pygmalion that was adapted from the play Pygmalion written by George Bernard Shaw. At first, I thought we were going to watch a colour movie so I was a bit disappointed when it’s actually a black and white movie. But then I realized, actually watching a black and white movie was not that bad at all. In fact, I should be grateful and appreciate that I had the opportunity to watch the first movie version of the play. I understand that George Bernard Shaw was also the director of the movie directing together with Leslie Howard the actor/director who also plays the main character, Prof. Henry Higgins in the movie. I found that the movie followed closely to the play. Well, there’s no surprise there because I read somewhere that Shaw was someone who is quite particular on maintaining the originality of his work especially if it’s going to be adapted into movies. If I’m not mistaken he would only give permission for his play to be adapted into movies or performed in theatre if the movie/theatre follows closely to the original work. Anyway, even though the movie was exactly like how the play was written, the only thing that was not similar in the play was the choice of actors and characters. I feel that the actor who plays Prof. Higgins is too young for the character and the thing with the actress who plays Eliza Dolittle whom I feel is too old to play the character. While the actors and actresses who played the rest of characters, Colonel Pickering, Mrs. Pearce, Mrs. Higgins, Mr. Doolittle is well-chosen. I like the ending of movie compared to the play. The ending suggest that Eliza will come back to Prof. Higgins and who knows they probably end up falling in love with each other.

Pygmalion's Ending-That's it!!!

Finally, I have finished reading the play, Pygmalion, last Saturday (18th August 2007). On one hand, I was happy because I finally got to know what happened in the end but on the other hand I was quite disappointed with the ending of the play. I really didn’t expect that coming. My heart itches wanting the play to be ended in a proper way, by finishing it through the dialogues. I expected that in the end, Eliza and Prof. Higgins will finally be together but as we know, that didn’t happen in the play. It makes me feel frustrated but at the same time it also brings notice to me of Shaw’s unique style of writing. When I read back the ending of the play, I was impressed by the way Shaw had written the epilogue of the play. Instead of completing it in the customary way (that is through dialogues) he gave a narration of what happen in the end. At first I feel like the play was left hanging but actually Shaw didn’t left it hanging. He did gave us some idea of what happened later in the story, only we have to imagine ourselves how it would be looked like. I was also impressed by Shaw’s refusal to follow the audience/reader expectation in the way of how the play should be ended. Having given the impression that Eliza and Prof. Higgins might actually had some mutual attraction (seen during the arguing scenes and also the understated complimentary Eliza and Higgins gave to each other), readers starts to think that they might end up being together. I guess that’s exactly what Shaw wanted to do, to end the play in an unforeseen and unexpected way. But, in overall, I love the play. It's funny, it's sweet and its definitely got 'style'. And most importantly, I really enjoyed reading it while I'm having my 'cuppa-tay'!

"Fate" as One of Antigone's theme

During our last lesson on Antigone last Wednesday(08/08/07), we were discussing about the theme of the play. I remember Dr.Edwin had asked us how can we relate "fate" to the theme of Antigone. He waited but nobody gave any answer then he moved on discussing about "Pygmalion". Actually, I had an answer but was not confident enough to speak it out as I thought it was not a good answer. Anyway, I feel that I need to tell it and hopefully will get some opinion about my answer from those who read this blog. The theme that I can think of, that can relate to "fate" in this play is, "Fate is unevitable" or "Fate is unchangable". In this play, "fate" refers to the prophecy that was told to Creon by Tiresias. Tiresias warns Creon about the downfall of him and Thebes if he ignores the prophecy and that was exactly what Creon did. He proceed to do whatever he did in the play, Later, he realized that Tiresias was right, he was wrong and tried to fix things but it was too late because "fate" had already started taking its course and nothing can stop it. No matter what the characters do to change or to avoid fate from happening was useless. There, that's it. I wished that I can do better than this but this is the best I can do to explain my answer. I just hope that when people read this, they will get my point. Even if they do not understand the elaboration, at least they understand what "Fate is unevitable/unchangable" meant. So if you have something to say about this topic, feel free to write your comment. I really would like to know what do you think about my point or about "fate" as Antigone's theme itself. Thank you.

Welcome "Pygmalion"!

Today, we start to read and discuss a new play by George Bernard Shaw titled “Pygmalion”. I managed to read Act 1 a few days prior to our class today and I had the impression that this is an interesting play. The idea of ‘transforming a low-class flower girl into a duchess of the high-society’ by an impatient, insensitive, inconsiderate, to sum it up, by a pain–in-the-neck professor really appeals to me. I was excited to know what will happen in the end. Reading the play (Act 1) was fun because of the humour in the dialogues is really funny. I was also impressed by the way Shaw was able to write such informative and detailed conversation between the characters especially Prof. Higgins’ character and his (Higgins) knowledge of phonetics. Reading this play has also enlightened me many new information about language studies. I had no idea that one can actually make a living by becoming a phonetician. Their ability is really amazing; being able to tell people where they’re from by just listening to the way they speaks. Then I realized that this is only a play. Do these things really exist in real world? I guess I’m going to do a little research about this on the net. Anyway, real or not real, I still think that phonetician can be “cool” people! I’m looking forward to read the rest of the play and can’t wait to get back to it!

Ulik Mayang

The other traditional dance that i have chose to write about is the Ulik Mayang dance. The reason is because I have always been curious about what exactly Ulik Mayang is? If its a form of dance, then why do people talked about ghost stories associated with the 7 spirit of the Ulik Mayang princesses? So I got on the net and this is what I found out. Ulik Mayang dance in its traditional version, is a worship dance. It is originated from Terengganu. In this dance, the dancers use 'mayang pinang' (strings of arecanut's flowers or known as palm ford). While dancing, the 'mayang pinang' will be shaked until the person holding it feels that the 'mayang pinang' alives or moves by itself then it is given to another dancer!!! The dance was once performed to worship the spirit of the sea ( the 7spirit of the sea princesses). The dancing always begins with a person who is suffering from illness either when he catches fish, in the paddy field or any other daily activities in the society. The patient will then healed by a bomoh, a traditional Malay doctor in the traditional way. Seven actors beautifully dressed represent the 7 princesses who come to visit the patient when the bomoh is treating him. Kemayan will be burnt together with chanting of pantun and dancing through the whole performance. However, nowadays the beliefs of spirits has vanished and the dance is performed just for fun.Although Tarian Ulek Mayang was once a folk ritual ceremonial in the Malay society, with its gentle and graceful movement, it has become one of the beautiful traditional dancing in Terengganu culture. Some of these dances remain part of the agenda during certain occasion or ceremony, such as in a wedding or in a formal official function during which the complete set of music instrument will be used and the entire story of the dance will be carefully performed. I think that this is a unique dance.

Mak Yong

If it were not for this task (blog writing about Mak Yong), I would never know about Mak Yong dance the way I do now. Before this, all I know about Mak Yong is that it is a form of dance that was originated in Kelantan. But after doing some research about it in the internet, i got to know more about Mak Yong dance. I found out that, Mak yong is actually originated in Patani (southern Thailand) and spread into Kelantan, Malaysia. After reading all the information about Mak Yong, I think that this dance must be really unique and interesting. Why else that even UNESCO would proclaimed the Mak Yong as one of the 'old heritage' in the Oral and Intangible Heritage and Humanity category in 2005! Mak Yong dance was considered as a 'masterpiece' in performing arts. Programmes were being planned on how they could preserve this valuable performing arts. One of it is through international cultural conference in which all of the masterpiece proclaimed performing arts will be performed so people from all over the world could see it. But the irony is that, while the foreigners giving Mak Yong the most highly recognition of any performing arts could possibly get, sadly, Mak Yong didn't get the same treatment from us, the local, Malaysians. Well, maybe not all Malaysians. I know there are people out there who work hard to preserve this ancient heritage.
I remember we were also asked by Dr. edwin to find out the reason of why this dance was banned in Kelantan by the state government in 1991. So, according to the article that I read in the internet, it is because there are some elements that was associated with the dance that is against Islam. since then, mak yong dance was banned from being performed publicly. However, nowadays Mak Yong is actually still being performed in Kelantan though it was performed in a smaller group and only being performed during special occasion for instance for tourist viewing. Even though I never see the dance in real life, I hope someday I'll get to see it. And to those people who worked hard to keep the existance of this precious performing arts, I wish you all the best.