So this week Koller wanted us to sort of branch out from class and take a few words and jot them down on a piece of paper and 5 times throughout the week just jot down a few notes, etc. These are my choices in the following order:

1. My creativity blesses other: I actually sort of subconciously already knew this. I mean why would people want to hang out with me otherwise if not my personality?! It’s not like I’m loaded with money or somthing materialistic to offer…ok gettin a wee bit off topic. But creativity. Hmm, well the fact that I can take a serious situation that is becoming too intense for the ‘atmosphere’ and turn lighten it up a bit. Its a gift! I do it all the time with my family and its my friends also get the pleasure! Its a lot better for my life when im not always so serious about everything…I used to sort of be like that for the majority of day but now its just all fun anf games (but i still know how to get down to business). I am a very creative person and it doesnt have to be artistic but in my personality; its very unique…!

2. I now allow myself to heal: Even just thinking about it for just a few minutes gets too emotional for me. There are a lot of things in my life that sort of left a hole and I believe that no matter how much attention the situation gets that it will never heal…maybe because I dont want to try and make it better; maybe its still too hard; maybe im scared. But this one im not just ready for yet. However, i do believe that one day i will be able to…in time…

 3.  I have a right to be an artist: Actually this one was a lot of fun. After I read it I dressed to the part I didnt fo ALL out or anything but I did somthing I thought was creatifve and went through the day thinking about it. I’ve been sort of jealous of the kids in school who have the ability to draw really good, I mean if i tried I could draw but i’d have to really try; whereas, the other kids wouldnt ahve to. Its natural to them, i guess and that’s when I fully began to grasp it. I might not be able to have a whole sketch book with all of these inspiring drawings but I do have somthing I’m almost half of them dont- dance!  It’s somthing I dont have to put half the effort as “drawing” and its somthing i L.O.V.E to do anytime and anyplace. I also love it when people are like: “Hey! How’d you do that? Show me”. Hehe.

4. I now treat myself and my creativity more generously: Haha well nicley enough it sort of related to the last one. Its pretty much  just what I said: Im aware of my talent!

5. I now share my creativity more openly: Well this is true somewhat. I would love nothing more to join a group of people who share the same passion as I do (dance) and we could perform for an audience (weddings, parties, fundraisers, etc.). I actually choreographed an entire dance-about 10min long- for my sweet 16 and not only that I had to teach my aunts and mom how to do the steps. Needless to say, it was long hours/day but they pulled through for me. But, now when I look back at all the stress I was under to try and get the dance together in such little time I had more fun than I could remember DD. I realized that that was what I truly enjoyed doing for a hobby. However, since i dont belong to a group, I continue to practice and perfect little things. I learn by watching videos and movies and mimiking their exact moves and then later I will put my own styles to it. My favorite ‘method’ is just blasting the music (when im home alone, of course) and free sytling all the way and im surprised to see that some of the stuff id reeally creative. The next thing is remembering what i did…maybe i should start video taping myself??? hmmm..

thanks Koller! I really liked this one. It got me thinking about my creativity! and i can be very vreative when i want to just have to realize it!

This week Koller had the junior do this little ‘excercise’ (since the seniors are pretty much finished! what an awsome feeling) Anyway, Koller told us to write down these following eight deadlies, put them in a folder and pull one one of them out (for ten times),  and tell how they impacted our lives in a negative way:

1. Alcohol: I got this one only once. Alcohol is somthing that I have not personally tried…yet. I mean once its not being abused I think a decent glass of red wine could do some people good. But when some people just drink crates or somthing a day its considered getting out of hand. In my family I dont have any member who ‘drinks’ like that, but on occassion like christmas, new years, birthdays, etc. they will treat themselves to a glass of wine and to be honest 3/4 of the time they would say they cant drink the whole thing and throw the rest out. So all my life, growing up I’ve neer been around the whole “alcohol-abuse” thing. But outside of the family there are definitley people who could possibly affect me, hasnt happend before but it doesnt mean it couldnt!

2. Drugs: I got this once as well. Also somthing i havent been exposed to much. My family doesnt experiment with any and niether any of the people i chose to “hang” out with…thankfully.

3. Sex: Well this one I ended up gettin a total of 3 times! And the first time itself was extremely difficult to write 5 things down of how it negatively affected my daily life. Sex, obviously is apart of life, especially in teenagers, their hormones are literally bouncing off the walls (mostly boys I believe. haha) But its not somthing that can be ignored; unless you’ve lived in a bubble for your entire life. We hear a variety of different myths about sex, all ranging from great to terrible! So this sort of gives people mixed messages and sometimes we dont know what to do about the subject. I as well as many other people im sure know that in high school, especially, most kids are sexually active and more than once sometimes. However, im not exposed ‘first, or second-hand” to any of that stuff. I believe that its somthing that people, teens especially, should take more seriously because its not somthing that can be taken back if you regret it- your stuck with that memory for the rest of your life and if its not done with somebody special-husband/love-of-you-life- than it just comes out as a MISTAKE! And I for one do NOT want to live my life with regrets!!!

4. Money: money,money,moneyyyy!! I got this nonce! (synonym-none,at all, etc) Anyways, money has a HUGE affect in my life; and negatively too. Let’s give a little story. When I was in 7th grade we had this class field trip that everyone was going on. And I had brought enough money to be able to pay for two people (unintentionally) but I ended up paying for a friends with the intention of her paying me back! So we agreed and i asked her about a week later if she could give me the money she owes me because it was my moms and she had asked me for it- she said she’ll give it to me next week. Next week had come and gone and still no money. Long story short she still owes me that money till this day…well about half of it that is. It almost ruined our friendship until I realized it was just money and in  the future i just know never to “lend” or “borrow” any money to friends, family or anyone its not going to be anthing but strictly business. I was supposed to have learned my lesson but i just seem to constantly getting ‘burned’! Money is an evil thing that some people will do anything and everything to get their hands on as much as they can possibly have…and more.

5. Work: I got this one 2 times. And i dont have a job (yet) even though im in the process of trying to find one. Well, actually my only ‘job’ per say is school and my grades and i sometimes work for my mom. But still i dont want to have to depend on her for the things that i want.

6. Family: I got once though i wish i got this one 3 times because there’s so much to write about. Ive been with them from day one till this day so i’d say that would be having a huge impact on. They are the ones that i look up to because of all of the mistakes they’ve made in life and learned from. They are the ones who have been there for me through all of the rough times-especially my mom-. But, sometimes they can become too overwhelming/ overbearing. I know they dont alwsys do it on purpose adn their intention is good at heart and for our own benefit (sometimes). Parents need to realize that as a kid we dont seem like we have a care in the world but those are the most difficult times in our lives- we’re trying to find our own path and part in this world, in this family; and yeah sometimes it can be very overwhelming. It does however help to have a family who can back you up and who is strong to be there to help you in any decision we make.

7. Friends: I got 2 times. I get hugely impacted from the type of friends i have (if that makes any sense at all). My friends have a huge impact on the things i do, even if i dont want to admit it out loud. This is why i carefully choose my friends. I mean i laugh and talk with everyone but i have very few ‘friends’.

8. Food: hmm well didnt get this at all. But i honestly dont eat much its just that i dont work out as often as i should…and what really set me back was that a few years ago i dislocated my knee and couldnt do anything and that was soccer season…bummer! but not to get off topic i have absolutely no idea how food can affect negatively. It slims your chances of truly being comfortable walking among kids your own age, fear of maybe getting picked on, no one wants to hang out with you because of the part where you get picked on i mean it could go on. But personally in my life ive never had that happened but once and that was because i completely embaressed and shut him up infront of eveyone and he obviously was too stupid and because he couldnt think of anything clever to say he resorted to the obvious-which actually made him seem even more like a jerk and in the end I won! lol. But yeah my mom always tells me what her parents have always told her and that is: SHOW ME YOUR FRIENDS AND I’LL SHOW YOU WHO YOU ARE!!! along with CHOSE YOUR FRIENDS WISELY!

As you can tell from the title, we did finish the rest of the play. And i really really like Act 1 but the other one was just full of wondrous things. For instance, it turns out that the girl who loved George had a baby girl (sophie?) with George and many many years later this same girl had a family and her grandson looks exactly like George. These two people the grandson and the grandmother are giving the biography of the works of George in Paris. While, in Paris or England George was not able to get his art work recognized but eventually after his death his works became famous and he sold many pieces to wealthy people. ya ya happy ending! love it!

Then for the last class, we went over to the auditorium and sat around a table that was facing us. And it turns out that two of the seniors, Ben & Lauren, were giving their orals. Ben talked about his passion for being on the stage and his discoveries over the years of all the hard work to  be done backstage. He used a graphic of an airplane to show the different parts that all work together to make the production ‘fly’ or in other words be successful! Lauren however used a baby chick; growing and growing over the years until…uh-oh one day she became a symbolical chicken!

FCAT week!!! This means the freshman & sophmores have to come to school. Suckers!

We were all back in the costume room. The costumes were recovered and we still searched through more stuff.

Koller put on a play for us that showed an artist who portrayed pointillism. I cant remember the details but it was called A day with George in the Park (somthing like that). But i like it, actually i loved it very much. It had comedy, drama, creativity, romance etc. I loved all of the characters. The musicals were very unique it was interpreted into their conversations. There were many theatrical features such as, the curtains that had the painting of George of everyone in the park, the little props coming up from the ground then going back under..it was just so many of them. The idea of the play was George who clearly was in love with the girl he was painting and she who clearly loved him back, but grew tired of waiting for some attention from George. While George stayed preoccupied with his works of art the girl moved on and got married to someone else (i think the baker man). We watched most of the play, i believe we got through act 1 and would finish the rest next class.

As the class filed into the auditorium to start hacking those lines away, Lauren, Midly and I piled on into the costume room. Lauren had selected out a few outfits here and there and wanted us to see if they were good enough to be in that era and to also see what we could find that everyone could wear. Tony soon came to join us. A lot of the clothes in there, umm scratch that, every piece of clothes in there would not be something i would everrrr consider wearing! just saying. But we ended up with a few coats and dresses for the girls and after they were done rehearsing the last 10-15 minutes of class we had them come into the costume room and try them on. Fortunately, all of the thing that we picked out fit the girls, if not a little too big.

So the next class, we headed over to the costume room again to continue the stash of clothes we left from last time when we discovered they were all scattered! And if you’ve ever seen the costume room its not the most organized so this was basically a nightmare! We wasted no time on the fact that someone had moved out clothes but instead we huddled together and tried to think who, who could do such a unthinkable thing to us?!?! Needless to say we were all lost for words…even Toni :O! We split up into groups and set out to search for clues that could lead us closer to solving this mystery. Where’s scooby and Shaggy when you need them…?? Ya, that last part was all made up (if you didnt realize, but hey it could have happened. Its not a total stretch?) But the real story went like this: Lauren was busy tracking down her coats and dresses until the end of class while midly and I helped but eventually didnt know what they all looked like so we let her get crazy up in there!

oh i had almost forgot, when we went back to class Mr.Koller had his own surprise of his own…he had a little video that showed different acting movements onstage. In other words, the weirdest video i have ever seen! It had the people crawling all over the floor pretending to be animals and actually making the sounds to go with it! Hopefully it helped the class on their stage movements :/

lol we couldnt get away with it for so long! jk. But i am referring to Midly and I sitting in the auditorium because we had no assigned part in Anne Frank.

Koller gave us jobs…mine was to be an assistant to Lauren in her costume designing project and Midly got stuck with Toni (the Tiger, haha). Anyway, I went off with Lauren to the sound booth (with the tiger) and she showed me all of the designs she had in mind for the characters costumes. I thought they were all fitting for the era and situation of the people hiding from the Nazis in a concealed storage attic.

Lauren and i traveled down over to the Library to get a better image of the costumes online and if i were ever to see anything outside of school or anything i could buy it. She also wanted to show me the type of clothes Nazi women, who were in the youth community, wore.  It was pretty much the same as the Nazis men but they wore skirts instead.

It was a very adventurous class, i say!

OMG!!!! Beyond excited. We have a three day weekend. I know its not like the best news ever but this week has just been too much to handle and a break was desperately needed!

Only one class day this week, which i guess for some might be  a relief (those who didnt have their lines memorized), but the stress and pressure is still lurking around. Now because Alex was not here today and her character is Mrs.Frank, guess who got to play her part for the day?…Uhhh ya me! Actually Midly was laughing at me until Sally announced that she would have to play Mrs. Vaan Daan. Who’s laughin’ now midly?!?! As for the rest of the cast; they were supposed to have their lines memorized and in that case no books were allowed up on stage except for midly and myself. Because no one had scripts, whenever they forgot a line they knew who to come to (me or midly) and just say i just need this line. Actually at one point someone took my book for many, many,…many lines. Sameer pretended like he was reading a book at the table (which is what his character was doing) however im pretty sure his character is not supposed to have a script in front of him…the funniest part was Sally called him out! Speaking of Sally, she made a funny. So here’s what happened im not sure exactly who had their cell phone out but Sally was trying to get everyone in place for the opening of Act 1 and she saw their phone and said, ” I dont think they had cell phones underground, in hiding?!?!” HAHA good one Sal!

for the rest of the class we went through Act 1, and for the most part everyone was pretty good on the memorization part. According to sally it was better than she expected! SO good job guys!~

Sally had the class memorize Act 1, and as expected there were a few who did so and others who did not, but overall i thought everyone did well considering this was the 1st time reading without scripts. Mr. Koller let us in on what a “little birdie” had told him and basically he (the birdie) said that the actors/actresses needed to get more info and background on their character; so this way they have more insight on how to present the character to the audience (which can sometimes take a lot of time & effort).

SO I admit i used adrinnes little visual of what the set was going to look like: Stage left will have the kitchen, with the stove and the dining room table. In the background, there will be two doors, to Peter’s room and to the W.C. In the center of the stage, we are thinking of how to raise the level. There are some small platforms that we can use, and I think that it’s reasonable enough. The living room is pretty simple: an armchair, a bookcase, and a coffee table. This is also the room of Mr. and Mrs. Van Daan. On stage right, is Anne and Dussel’s room. There’s a desk for Anne and Margot, and there will be a door in the background as Mr. and Mrs. Frank’s room. The attic will be raised on a tall platform, and the stairs will be located behind the armchair in the middle of the stage.

oh and you cant forget…our RI rough draft is due next class :O :O :’( :’(

So this week started off…well not on the right foot so much. I just think that the pressure is dawning on everyone with the characters having to not only memorize but ‘get into  character’ by the first week of March (the show). The class period was very intense! I sort of even felt bad for a ‘certain someone’ but i guess i could see everyones point…the show is coming up and there is still no set, not even a design. After some harsh words and maybe a little sarcasm was thrown around here and there Ben finally decided he was going to draw up a sketch of what he wanted the set to look like. No offense, but i saw it and…lets just say i KNOW if he tried even he could have done a better job (but i have to admit it was kinda funny).

For about 3/4 of the class time we spent arguing over the set and the fact that there still was no design! Fortunately, towards the end we were able to pull ourselves together and put our minds together to figure out how this was going to all work out. We figured we might as well see what props we could find in the rooms; you know things that could actually be utilized for the play.

The class finally put their differences aside and we allll became friends again! THE END

Its the  new Quarter. This week was sort of rendundant. We didnt do much yet we did a lot. we continued to practice lines and see where placemetns had to go onstage for the actual play (which could get confusing because there’s about 4-6 people onstage and all trying to figure out where they all belong). Midly, Adrienne, and myself sat down in the auditorium for this “rehearsal”. While Sally was desperately trying to get everyone in their respective places and have them say the right lines (at the right time) was beginning to get a little difficult if you will; which is totally understandable given that this is the 1st week after getting parts that everyone is now starting to get into character or try at the very least. Seeing as Midly and I dont have a part until the end, we sat in the auditorium and made ourselves productive until someone needed our help (which we provided).

We also got notice that the rough draft of our RI is due on February 17.th.  OMG! I have been working on the research but at times I find myself at a rut. ok i”ll be back.