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…