Play

In Dr. Edwin class, he had given us a task, an interesting task. He asked us to do a play. In a group of two or three, we are assigned to do action on one text. With an expression and creativity, we were asked to do different kind of play using only one text. It is sound unfamiliar to us, especially me because I never done it before. So, as a group, we practiced doing lots of expressions on the text.

After giving us lots of time, Dr. Edwin called up names and asked to do the play. There are three groups, he called to show up. Three groups with three different expressions. Is it wonderful? Group Izwan and Khairil, who is the lucky person I guess, had been chosen. They used the text and pretend like they are in a coffeehouse. Their play is hilarious!

That day, we laugh so much to see our colleague do their play. I think the whole class are enjoying themselves. Last but not least, it is good to have different kind of activities to make the learning worth.

Ages of man

In William Shakespeare, As You Like It, it is about the stages of life, where we are young until we are grow older and die. As we read through the speech, we easily can understand the intended meaning that the writer tries to convey. The usage of tone of the words is cynical. For example, by the end of the speech ‘sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything’ it is cynical.

In William Butler Yeats, The Four Ages of Man, the poem is also about the stages of life. I hardly try to understand what the poetry tries to express his message to the reader. I have to read many times to understand the underlying meaning. ‘He with body waged a fight, but body won, it walks upright’ it is represent a new life of innocent child (a baby) who is later trying to adapt the new environment and faced the evil world.

The comparison of both As You Like It and The Four Ages of Man had been mentioned earlier. I would like to prefer As You Like It in my reading as it is easy to understand and captured my attention to read further.

Handouts

For our second class, Dr. Edwin had given us handouts related to our course Teaching the Language of Drama. Based on the handouts, it is consist ‘Overview of the History of Theatre’ and ‘18^th-19^th Century Drama’. On ‘Overview of the History of Theatre’, I have learned lots of things, for instance, now I realized that theatre divided into Greek theatre, Roman theatre, medieval theatre and restoration drama. Greek theatre is actually introduced by Aristotle. Greek and Roman theatre has its own tragedy and comedy. Meanwhile, medieval theatre is more modern than Roman and Greek theater. The famous playwright in this era is Shakespeare.

Move to drama, drama consist tragedy, comedy, tragicomedy, farce and catharsis. Those are the components of drama. In my point of view, theatre and drama are two different things. The duration of theatre is not really long as drama. Theatre needs certain amount of time. Drama on the other hand, needs lots of times to produce it. The duration of time is longer because drama got episodes and lots of actors and actress needed to create the drama alive. This is contrast with theatre.

Dr. Edwin helps us and gives us examples and information in order to make us, his student, to understand better. As a result, my understanding on drama is gaining day by day.

Point of view

First week when we start our new semester for 2008, our lecturer Dr. Malachi Edwin had given us a question on what we know about point of view. To be honest, I was quite confused to answer the question. It is because my mind ‘still not working properly’ after a long break. For me to answer that question, it takes time.

Question on point of view is actually very good to refresh our knowledge. What Dr. Edwin had done is actually a good thing. I as his student accept the things that he had done for us as long as it is good for us. Point of view is about our own perception on the play, drama or etc. In literature, point of view is important because many people got their own perception when they read literature book or something that related to literature.

To wrap my topic, I am satisfied what Dr. Edwin had done in our first class. It refreshes my mind about what point of view is. I enjoy learning in his class.