Year One Theatre

Flying to the Sunset (term 3)

Flying to the Sunset is a play in which two main characters, Ian and Rachel, are having a conversation where Rachel is trying to convince Ian to stay in their small town. This play was challenging as we had to take note of our use of space as there were only two characters, keep our energy up throughout the long performance. We also needed to take note of the emotion behind the lines and convey that through our tone.

Flying to the Sunset also required us to understand the background of each character to ensure that we could portray our understanding of them correctly. As we let our imagination run wild, we found many more ideas to explore. For example, we imagined how our characters' parents would be like and how that sculpted them to be the characters they were.

• To watch an excerpt of the play, Flying to the Sunset, performed by Dawn Wee and Donald Chong from R4, click here

• ** There is a "scene" at the end of Rianne running up to the two and laughing which is not part of the performance !!

Devising and Creation from tableaux (Term 4)

The devising and creation started off with each student writing a short story under one of the five themes : fear, dreams, identity and family. The students are then grouped up according to these categories, and are split into smaller groups of 3. They then have to combine their stories into 1 and create 3 tableaux to represent the story. Along the way, the story evolved and became the script for the showcase. The tableaus became the core of the story, the lines and character development being built around these 3 freeze frames representing the beginning, middle and end of the play.

Showcase (Term 4)

The play the students presented during the showcase was the play they created previously. During this time, the students refined the details of the play, such as the specific lines, tone of the character, relationships between characters, and use of levels, use of space and transitions. The students worked tirelessly for weeks to create the end product.

To watch a short excerpt of a performance, Once Upon a Dream created by Dawn Wee (R4), Koko (R7) and Sarah Saw (R7), click here

preview pictures above !!

Reflections

Questions

1. What are your thoughts and feelings after being in SOTA Theatre for about 1 year?

2. What is one notable thing that you have learnt this year that will stick with you forever?

3. Use one word to describe your experience in theatre so far.

Responses

Q U E S T I O N 1

• I guess I feel happy but that's too basic lol.

• Exhausted, having theatre 3 times a week is very tiring but the lessons are very engaging and meaningful.

• I feel like honestly the way the teachers in theatre taught us definitely made me enjoy theatre (not that I would have not enjoyed it if they taught differently I just couldn't think of any better response :))

Q U E S T I O N 2

• We have to be willing to accept criticism because that's the only way can improve as a performer

• We should be open to suggestions from other group mates and be a good leader as well as follower

• We have to be able to adapt to change and improvise when we mess up lines or do something wrongly on stage

Q U E S T I O N 3

• whirlwind

• entertaining

• tiring