Confessions of an ex-Drama Student

I look at my timetable. Maths 3U, English Adv, Physics, Chemistry and Biology. All these subjects are interesting. I mean, I really like Physics and Chemistry, although Chem could be way better. But there are times when doing the "full science" can get to be a bit of a grind, especially when exams pop up. So I think to myself, haven't I done any subject that was fun? Computer Studies was a bludge. Sit down, turn on computer, zone out. But there is a subject that I enjoyed. Drama. It was fun, I met people whom I would never have met and could act without worrying about other people laughing at me. The drama classes were pretty segregated. I knew what was going on with the other class, but we never actually meet up and talk.

Anyway, the unique aspect of my Drama class was that there was only 3 guys, me, Bill and Lesley. The "trio", although there was a nasty joke, calling us "the threesome". We usually stuck together, and in my opinion worked the best together. Although we did tended split towards the end of the first year, some of our best works were when we worked together. A favourite act of mine was when in Drama, we were learning about miming, acting withour words, and we had to put together an act. Our act basically had Bill and Lesley as theives checking out this place to steal and me as a cop/interrogater/guard. Bill and Lesley were stealing stuff then I came on. Cue some fast-paced jazz, and I was chasing after them. Lesley got away with most of the goods and I caught Bill. Then I was interrogating Bill, pointing my finger, glaring at him, acting in a pissed-off and scary manner (which incidently, was my best act, more on that later). I locked him up, then Lesley came in, tricked me into looking away and then knocked me out, stealing the keys and freeing Bill. They walk off, celebrating with a drink, until I catch them again and throw them both in jail. It was pretty good, and that would be my defining memory of Drama.

Drama exams were relatively easy, except for the first one, constructing a mini-stage. I screwed that up. But the rest were alright, and I got decent marks for most of them. Mostly, the exams would be putting on an act as a group and then receiving individual marks. Another act that I really liked was the "Warren" act. If memory serves me right, me, Bill, Lesley, Sabrina and Phuong were in that and we bascially bullied Lesley, who was "Warren", to the point of suicide. The scene that stands the most clearly, was after Bill and I had finished pummelling Lesley to the ground and Lesley cried out "Why do you do this?" and I replied "Cos it's fun!".

Another time we had to act out a scene from a play and Lesley and I chose this play called "Whose Life is it anyway?" by Brian Clark. It is about a quadraplegic, Ken Harrision whose wanted to end his life, but the hospital prevented it claiming he was depressed, and it went to court and he won. I really wish I kept a copy of the script. But as a component to this project, we had to have a poster advertising the play. This was the first time I actuallyused Photoshop and it was pretty crappy. But it worked well and is now displayed in the Drama room. I believe it's still there on the wall to the right of the entry. And...here it is:
I was the judge presiding over the case and Lesley was Ken. Originally I was going to throw in a window with some light coming in for dramatic effect, but my Photoshop skillz was, and still is, crappy. I remembered that there was nurse who pitied the guy and I threw Phuong in there for emotion. She looks likes she crying or something, but she just covered her face, because she didn't want her picture taken. I made my eye red, as I was playing around with the settings and thought it was cool.

Dammit, I miss Drama. It was so free and secretive. You could do stuff that you know wouldn't spread throughout the school. The rule was "whatever happens in the Drama room, stays in the Drama room." And there were a few funny and embarrassing moments. Near the end of the course (this was the year 9-10 electives year), we wrote our names on paper and we passed it around for people to write stuff about. I notched up as "Most scary actor", due to the amounts of time I acted angry and I could raise my voice loud enough to jolt people.

That was cool. So back to full science revision.

*sigh*