Steve Jeffs Drama Bioblog
The first thing I remember doing for Drama was in kinder. I was in a few performances none of which I can recall any specific details of, the sole exception is the faint recollectioin of a Kick ass Christmas Tree costume I wore in one play.
Drama in Primary school was, I believe, largely forgotten. However in year 6 my class got a new teacher to the school. this teacher was younger than any we had ever encountered, she also insisted we call her by a nickname. This teacher proposed that wwe would make a puppet theatre stage. I remember being very exited about helping design the theatre. my friends and I spent some lunchtimes writing plays, these were built around the various animal puppets we had in the classroom.
I was very exited to begin High School, the chance to be in ACTUAL DRAMA CLASSES, this would have to be cool.
I was very popular in drama class, I could come up with a scene fast and assign roles and even give lines to people straight away. this meant that for those who didnt really want to do drama (the vast majority) I was the best person to be in a group with because I told them what to do so they didnt have to work at it.
Year 10 drama was an elective and so (in theory at least) only people serious about drama were in attendance. The final assessment task rolled around and I was ill prepared. I had to improvise a solo performance and to my great shock I got an A+ (this may be because I was playing a paranoid schitzophrenic while I was in fact having a legitimate panic attack of sorts on the stage).
Going into year 11 noone wanted to do Drama. I was desperate, my parents complained to the school and after much whining and bitching I was granted the right to do year 12 drama instead. This arangement was not without its compromises. The drama teacher would let me in the class, however I had to complete all the year 11 drama theory work over the holidays. So I spent an immense ammount of my holidays studying by myself.
I presented the work on the first day back at school and never saw it again. it was never reffered to in any detail in class and my fellow Drama students (all year 12), when questioned about it were astonished that I had learned these things that they said had only been mentioned in passing and “you never need to learn”.
Anywho finished year 12 drama with decent results. Also participated in a school musical, played several minor roles, one of these was a scene stealer and i became famous around school.
University, Bachelor of Creative Arts, Performed in the fringe festival in a performance piece, random pieces of drama we made in class. I was doing English at the same time and studied creative writing and Shakespeare whenever possible. I performed in a few more performances including “tales from vienna woods” (tried to upload cast photo) and “life after george” the latter being a student directed and performed production, also my final Uni production.
University, Bachelor of Teaching (Primary and Secondary), On placement have taught many lessons on\with drama. One lesson I did on costume remains among my fondest memories of last year.
Thats about it but I always like to end a post with a pop culture reference so here is one to think about in relation to performance,
“Do or do not, there is no try”- Yoda