In Other News, My Brain is Actually Melting

Let's talk about nerd shit. We recently finished a l̶o̶n̶g̶ day of English-based workshops within school with our English teachers. There were 4 topics we spent the day looking at an overview of. These are as follows: Narrative Theory, Rhetoric, Philosophy, and Shakespeare. During narrative theory, a particular narrative strategy was mentioned and it got my brain cogs turning.

Have you ever heard of Chekhov's gun? If you followed the L'Manburg saga on Youtube, you've at least heard about it, even if you don't understand it. If you haven't heard of it, it's not too difficult to understand. It's basically the principle in stories that every element mentioned or shown has some sort of significance in the plot. You'd think this would go against red herrings but I believe that red herrings may not have significance in the plot necessarily, they do have a very significant role in storytelling. Anyway, it's believed that, due to this principle, elements should not be included in a narrative without having some sort of use. 

Does that make any sense? No? Well, here's an example.

In the series I previously mentioned, Wilbur Soot has... mentally deteriorated. Despite this, Wilbur is the storyteller of the series. At this point, he has built a country, 'L'Manburg' by hand, won independence and lost the country to democracy. He believes that the only thing he can do is destroy what L'Manburg has become under the joint rule of a drunk and a stoner. Manburg. As he is explaining how he has placed a country worth of dynamite underneath the land, his confidant, Tommy, is trying to talk him out of it. This is where Wilbur references Chekhov's gun. He has been talking about blowing up the country for so long, it's almost worse to not. He is aware of his audience, those who stood beside the plan for destruction, and knows that he has indirectly made a promise to them that something will be blown up.

Just by mentioning the mere idea of the plan, you then expect said plan to be thought out. Why would a storyteller mention, and describe, a plan, without running it through?

Why show a gun without the intention of firing it?

I've Connected The Dots!

It's the last few weeks of term 2. We're starting our connections assessment and we're starting it strong. The following is a brief summary of the themes throughout the texts we have studied up to this point.

That's Not My Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaame

 

We Did It, Reddit

Imagine this:

Look at this seccy beast
(it's me, okay, I'm allow to say it)

    It's 9 years ago. 2012. You're year 3 me. It's the first year you've ever done acting for- anything really. It's performance night, after 3 and half terms of rehearsal, and you've just performed your silent Christmas piece and you're getting ready to go on stage with your best friend within the group to say, and I quote,

        "And now, for a Shakespearean interlude."

    Now, fast forward a few years, you're a year 7 now. It's 2016, 5 years ago. A new school, new people, new opportunities. The Shakespeare Festival has been in the notices for a while and you decide, screw it, let's try it out. You end up doing the Tempest, and it's so much fun. You're ecstatic after sectionals because you found out you were going to regionals. It's the biggest achievement you could think of.

    The next year, in year 8, you end up performing as "Prologue" from A Midsummer Night's Dream. Only now do you realise that all those years ago, in year 3, you did one of the scenes that stars these same characters. You've come full circle. You don't do as well competition-wise, but it's still fun, regardless of how salty you are in your narration role.

    Now fast forward to this year. You're year 12 now, in your second year of NCEA, and your sixth year of high school. You've done the same Sheliah Winn Shakespeare Festival for the five years before now and you've only done one student-directed piece, the year prior with Taming Of The Shrew. The student directing that piece, one of your friends, steps down from participating. Directing isn't her thing. You still want to do a student-directed piece but you have no director. So you ask yourself the question-

        "What if I did it?"

    You studied A Midsummer Night's Dream basically all year in L
evel One, you can recite the plot inside out, let's do that one. Your friends are incredible actresses, they can handle anything. Plus, in Level Two, there's a directing standard. And thus, you began to plan.

    

    A month and half later, on the 27th of March, 2021, you perform.
You're only in it for 40 seconds but that only means you're able to watch from the wings and see just how amazing your friends have become in the last 5 years. Though you've convinced yourself that nationals wasn't in sight, they were still bloody incredible.

   

    This lack of confidence only leads to surprise. It turns out you end up being the only 15 minute piece going through from your regionals. You're going to Wellington with some of your best friends. You're amazed and confused and scared. Is this really happening?

    This actually happened last saturday. This isn't some hypothetical with some moral outcome you'll forget about in a few hours. This is our reality. Nadia, Meagan, Jess, and I are going to Wellington in June for the Globe Theatre, University Of Otago, Sheliah Winn Shakespeare Festival. We get to participate in tours, workshops, and more! It's crazy and unbelievable!

    Somebody pinch me!

(P.s - In reference to the title)

Look, I Have a Headache I Can't Comprehend The Matter of Time And Space Right Now.

What is a human? Where is a human? Who is a human? Why is a human?
I genuinely have no idea how to define a human. It's not as easy as a single concept. The things that make us human can't be boiled down into a couple sentences. Unless you're google, then the definition of a human is "relating to or characteristic of humankind." or "a human being." which really doesn't help the confusingness of the how situation. 

What is a person? 

The google definition of 'person' is a human being categorised as an individual. When I'm thinking about it, it's like a human is the genetics, the biology, the DNA of it all. But a person is in the mind, the sociology, the psychology of it all.

What are your thoughts on Sandra the Orangutan receiving personhood?

Dude that's epic. 

At This Point, I'd Rather Let My Brain Explode

In Plato's Phaedo, he recounts Socrates' beliefs on the Self and personal identity. It's the one I'm most interested in because a lot of it reflects in the way I create universes in my writing.

The theory stems from this idea that the self is more than a body and that one does not end when their physical form biologically dies, and that the self is more than a body. 

A Total Mind$(&#.

 Have you heard of the ship of Theseus? No, not the Theseus, Duke Of Athens, local arsehole of A Midsummer Night's Dream. In actuality, the Ship Of Theseus is the story of a ship, which started out as wholly made of wood. Over time, the wood needed to be replaced with metal parts. Eventually, the entire ship is replaced with metal pieces. Does this mean it is a different ship?

It really depends on who you talk to.

In my opinion, it is still the same ship. It's made up of the same structure, it has the same name, it's owned by the same person. The only thing that's different is the materials. It's like in humans, roughly every seven years, your cells are completely replaced. Mentally and emotionally, you change with everything that happens to you. But you are still you. To me, your identity is in your memory, and the things that you've done. 

What do you think?

Sam Purposefully Putting Herself In A Narrator Role? In My Shakespeare Festival?

 It's more likely than you'd think.

Because this year, I'm directing! Last year, we self-directed but that was a little different. And a part of directing is having a directors process. I will be blogging this process because level 2 ncea exists :)

The first part of putting on a play is getting a script. We will be putting on a play within a play or, more formally, Act 5 Scene 1 from A Midsummer Night's Dream. I got my script from MIT's Shakespeare website and basically just edited down the parts I didn't think were needed, just to make it that little bit more digestible, for both the audience and my actors. 

Speaking of my actors, casting is perhaps the next important thing. All my friends are icons and were willing to put up with my horrendous bossiness for the next six weeks.  I already had ideas for who I wanted where, which was perfect as all of them agreed with my choices.
    The director in the piece presents the prologue, and as I still wanted to be apart of the piece myself, I thought it fitting that I would play the prologue myself. I also played the prologue when we did AMND in year 8, so I already had that little extra knowledge. For the actual characters, I cast Nadia as Pyramus. I originally wanted to put her in as Thisbe as we really need to start putting her in some more female roles but she was down for playing a guy again. As her scene partner, we have Jess as Thisbe. I just want to turn her into a drag queen. In all her short glory, I wanted Meagan as Wall. Purely for the short jokes and the 'hole in between the legs' jokes. In her Shakespearan debut as Lion is Kiera. I wanted someone sassy for this role and Kiera was totally up for it.
    Last of all our acting actors, but certainly not least, all the way from Riccarton high school, is Neve as Moonshine! As if she didn't have enough going on at any point in time, she was keen on helping us in our performance. I think she could really get the depressing vibes of Moonshine down easily. Also dogs.

I will see you soon for a quick run of concepts!

Finishing What We've Begun

 (This is a left over post from 2020 L1Art)

My lord, it's been a year already. And what a year it's been. When I look at my board I think about how I did the majority of this stuff after lockdown and realise how big a mistake that was.

I'd like to say that my board is based on 'The hand life dealt' but I think that's just an excuse to put a pun into my work and paint a strange amount of hands.

It has improved my realism immensely so I think it's worth it.

Quick update:

This board got me an excellence, resulting in an excellence endorsement in L1 Art!