1

Drama Process Journal

Task B - Performance/Process/Response

Aiii, Bi, Bii, Ci, Cii, Ciii & Diii

Omer Amitai

MYP3A

Ms. Hull

Drama Unit 1 - Verbatim Theatre

1/12/2021
 2

Creative ideas and creative thinking throughout the unit

1/09/2021

Verbatim task in pairs

My Memory - My Bar Mitzvah

Facts: Was there with 6 friends I’ve known since group 2 and many family members and close family

friends. In Israel in a small town called Bazra. This summer, 21/07. Was there to celebrate my bar

mitzvah.

Description and feelings: it felt so special and I was the center of attention for everyone. Everything

was so clean and all the guests and I were dressed so nicely and it was super exciting and worth the

wait.

Significance: It was one of the best experiences of my life. I prepared for it for about two months, and

it was the first time I did a few Jewish traditions as I came of age. I waited an entire extra year

because of Covid making this so much more important to me.

Fiorella’s memory - Birth of my niece

Facts - was about a year ago at my cousin's house, my niece was born.

Description - my niece was a miracle baby because of the mother going through mental issues and

was in a dark place however the new niece was a light that helped and made her feel a lot better.

Feelings - She was a very sweet baby when I met her for the first time, and the baby actually looked

like her dad. I was very happy for my new cousin and babysat her whenever I could to help my

cousins and their family.

Significance - It was my cousin's first child and a very happy moment in the family since there were

also no newborns for a long time.

 3

15/09

Bullying exercise

Benjamins group -

Effectiveness: They looked at their phone too much, damaging the effectiveness. They do not hop

from person to person but are almost split between Mathilda, Ryler and Mete who hop roles and then

Roque and Felipe who are almost separated. Everyone spoke with emotions, it really felt like it was

happening to them rather than to someone else.

Technique: They face their back to the audience, and only the one talking turns around to talk to the

audience. Ryler, the biggest person is the bully.

Feelings: I feel empathy for the victim during the show.

I feel hope as Roque says the last line and I believe that the story is going to have a happy ending.

Roses Group -

Effectiveness: Fiorella is wearing a mask, blocking the communication between her and the audience.

Rose spoke a bit fast, I would prefer it a bit slower. They smiled a bit.

Still images and different scenes were very effective. Teesta spoke with a lot of emotion in a line I

personally interpreted with a lot of anger.

Technique: All the people besides the one talking are still with their heads down.

The show was split into multiple scenes making it feel like a real story being told.

Very quiet and organized between the scenes.

Feelings: I felt sorry for the victim.

It ended and I felt like the story was not going to end well for Rose. It seems like she is in a terrible

situation and it is not even her fault. It allows me to understand how bad bullying is.
 4

22.09.2021

Possible verbatim ideas

GLOBAL: Racism against black people in America

Perspectives of black people, cops, government, bystanders, white people in the community

NATIONAL: Dutch government limiting the Muslim population’s freedom

Perspectives of: government officials, prime minister, king, muslim civilianss, muslim

leaders, other civilians

LOCAL: Bullying in a school

Perspectives of: Bully, parent, principle/head of school, victim, bystander, police, reporter

6/10/2021

My three possible ideas for the verbatim piece

1. Talking to MYP1s about their experience of moving to secondary school, or new kids joining

the school

2. Talking to people from minority cultures in our school, ask them if they experienced any

prejudice based treatment

3. Talking to people in our school about how it felt moving countries and moving to the

Netherlands, talk about their struggles

Ideas I like from my groupmates

1. People who needed a job because of Covid-19

2. Refugees

3. Homeless people

4. People working in service organizations

5. Older people in a community

6. Differently-abled people

7. People who graduated school

 5

Final Ideas

1. Combination of talking to people of minorities

2. Talking to disabled people from Cordaan and serve the city. Talk to people who do not

experience the issue to compare.

Idea 2 was chosen by the group as it has more depth.

Planning:

Interviewees - Contact serve the city, get their perspective and through them, contact the disabled

people as well. We can contact people from the cafeteria.

We want to tell the story of disabled people who are seen as inferior to non-disabled people and are

unable to work in other jobs than what they do. They are unfortunately seen as unequal to the

non-disabled, a terrible global issue.

27/11/2021 - Ideas for performance:

Idea 1 - The group was originally thinking about solely interviewing the Cordaan members,

but I came up with the thought that verbatim is about showing a variety of perspectives, meaning we

should show the perspective of someone who is against the Cordaan group, an idea that led us to

decide to send a form to some of our peers with the goal of finding a student that can voice another

opinion

Idea 2 - My group was unsure of the way we will present the information from our

interviewees. After a discussion over the best ways to convey our information in order to reach our

intentions, I suggested the option of using cross cutting, and therefore presenting all perspectives

consecutively on stage. My group thought this idea would work well in this context and allow us to

stay interesting throughout the performance while impacting our audience.

 6

Artistic Intention

In the modern world, there are many people treated unequally due to their physical

appearance. One unfortunately common example is amongst differently-abled people. When someone

experiences a disability, it is often simple to see that is the case, for example if they sit on a

wheelchair, one can immediately know that they are either temporarily injured or differently-abled.

All these put the differently-abled in a situation where others are capable of performing acts they are

not, resembling a thought in many people’s minds, that the differently-abled are inferior to them.

This issue has a terribly negative impact on the differently-abled, who live in this situation due to

causes outside of their control and as a result, are seen as unequal and experience discrimination.

In the AICS, the organization Cordaan allows for many differently-abled people to be a part of the

workforce, and together run the AICS school cafeteria.

This is where the project born to be equal comes in. We aim to share stories, of real people who are

differently-abled in any way and are a part of Cordaan, about their interactions with AICS staff,

students and others in their personal lives. By sharing these stories, I aim to not only raise awareness

for this global issue, but also show the impact of this issue on the differently-abled people, which will

allow non-differently-abled viewers to try stopping the issue on their own. That supports my ultimate

intention, which is that this problem will stop happening, and these people will not experience

discrimination anymore. I chose to create a piece of verbatim theatre, since the verbatim, which I

favour quite a lot, allows for people to hear new stories authentically and for them to understand

issues they could never understand otherwise. That raises the impact on the audience, who knows the

stories are real and it gives them a new perspective which may shape their opinion on it.

In this piece I will act as an AICS student who supports Cordaan and believes in the partnership. The

other characters will be two Cordaan workers, a head of school and an antagonistic student who does

not support the organization.

 7

Although there are many other examples of discrimination, I chose to specifically focus on this one,

since it matters to me on a personal level. The main reason I chose to focus on differently-abled

people specifically is because in Israel, where I come from, is a country that since its very beginning

needed to fight for its freedom, causing many soldiers to be injured and many Israeli civilians, inside

and outside my home community experience a variety of disabilities, relating this issue to me. With

the opportunity I have as a global citizen in an international school outside of my country I am able to

share stories and let others, who have never heard of it before, be introduced to it and allow them to

understand what other people go through. This is not only the reason I chose this issue to focus on, but

it is great motivation for me personally, to want to share these stories and raise awareness to the issue.

The statement of inquiry I am engaging with is that by crossing boundaries to create new community

connections we can creatively inspire personal and cultural expression and new understandings. This

means that informing young audiences of the issue can break their thoughts that differently-abled

people are inferior, something that must be done in order to cross borders (related concept) and unite

our community (key concept). It will also lead to a developed understanding of the entire community,

even parts of it they do not engage with on a regular basis, which will teach them and can develop the

way they express themselves (global context).

That is why I chose to focus on a target audience of teens, from the age of 10 to 16. I want people to

be introduced to the topic when they are still young and their personality is shaping, however kids

under the age of 10, are too young and this might introduce them to dark topics they are not ready to

hear yet. People over 16 have a somewhat shaped personality, and the performance would not be as

impactful. This age group is the perfect age for my intention to be achieved successfully and for me to

perform an insightful and informative performance.

 8

To achieve my goal of convincing my audience that differently-abled people should be accepted in our

community, I will include some specific details in the performance such as:

- The play will begin by a quick introduction to our topic, explaining what the Cordaan is in

case the audience does not know, and clearly stating the opinions presented are not ours, and

no offense should be taken from them. This will ensure the differently-abled, who are not

fluent in English and may not fully comprehend the idea of verbatim will know we are now

offending them, but presenting their issue.

- Each actor/ress will wear clothes typical to their character. Me and Manav (acting as students)

will wear normal student clothes, Teesta (acting as head of school) will wear a blazer and

formal clothes and Ziquan and Rose (acting as Cordaan workers) will wear all black clothes

and a sticker saying CORDAAN WORKER. Without these, the audience may confuse the

characters and the message will not be as powerful since they do not know which character is

speaking.

- Each character will introduce who they are, and their basic opinion in one line. This,

combined with the clothes will clarify who is who throughout the piece and the audience will

have a better grasp over the opinions presented. On top of that, the ideas of each character

will be clear, and the piece will make more sense since the audience will have a context to

each character.

- The performance will close with a final sentence from each character restating and concluding

their opinion in front of the audience. Together we will all say one closing and impactful

sentence about how differently-abled are still equal to us, and everyone should be grateful for

who they are and what they have, whether they are differently-abled or not. This will impact

the audience by demonstrating how everyone is equal, and will achieve my artistic aim of

conveying that message.

- The script will not include long monologues but rather use cross cutting between the different

characters, each speaking a line relating to the previous. This will ensure the audience’s

attention remains at the stage, and they do not get bored from long and repetitive monologues.
 9

- We will use ‘simple verbatim’ meaning we will use most of the words of our interviewees,

keep the same tone and gestures but also add extra words. This will allow for the same

message to be communicated as our interviewees wanted, however our added words will

relate it to our audience specifically which will amplify the power and impact of those words.

Since the interviewees were unaware of the other characters, adding linking words will unify

the play, connect the characters to one another and it will be more logical to the audience.

- At one point, when Manav says the Cordaan workers should not work since they cannot make

good food and cannot use their skills to the fullest capability, I will go out of my place, walk

towards him, and shout NO. This will allow the audience to understand how much I believe

he is wrong. Additionally, contradicting him without a follow up response depicts it as if he

understands I am right. Thus, if the audience agrees with it, they will be convinced otherwise.

- We will all speak slowly, loudly and clearly, to ensure the audience understands all we say. I

will pause on key adjectives such as ‘good’, ‘important’, ‘reliable’ and ‘normal’ to point out

their importance in the sentence, and how much they matter.

- I will use non-verbal communication to contradict Manav, the antagonistic character of the

story and show my disagreement with his opinion. I will look with an angry face while

speaking to him, almost blaming him for not supporting these people.

- We will incorporate music into the play. It will start very calm as we all speak, and intensify

when Manav, the antagonist, says his first line. This will depict him as a villain, leading the

audience to support the workers instead. The music will be quite silent, to not distract the

audience, however will be noticeable to intensify and add to the performance.

 10

Skills to develop

Skill 1 - Characterization skills. In order to perform a piece of verbatim theatre that truly

voices the opinion of the interviewee, excellent characterization must be used by the actor. I

personally think this skill suits me since when I act I always try to implement the character and I

sometimes talk in character outside of the rehearsal/performance. I think I can develop the skill and

this drama style will allow me to develop it since it revolves around the principle of acting as a real

person. I will focus on tone and gestures typical to my character. Since the words I will receive are

through an online form rather than an interview, I will look into the sentence structure and the other

answers by my responders to truly understand their message. If needed, I will ask them personally

how they would like me to say it. Since I am a part of the Cordaan supporting AICS student

community, I already have an understanding of possible gestures, tones and non verbal

communications that are relevant to this character. A combination of these will allow for development

of excellent characterization skills leading to a well developed character and a more impactful play.

Skill 2 - Creative writing skills. I would like this piece to truly achieve the goal of raising

awareness for the global issue of discrimination against differently-abled people as explained in my

artistic intention. To reach that, a creative script must be written, which will include clever jumps

between the characters to increase the impact of this play on the audience. It will incorporate lighting,

focusing on the character speaking but also at the character referred to if applicable, such as when the

two workers speak to each other or when I reply to the other student. It will also implement music,

which will change at different parts of the play, starting calm but intensifying and varying as different

characters are introduced. The creativity will also be expressed through adding words to the

information from the interview, relating the different characters to one another and to the audience.
 11

Process Journal Entries

Entry 1: 27/10/2021

Today I critically considered different aspects of the performance. As a group, we discussed a

variety of different possible communities to focus on for our verbatim play. The three that made it

farthest into the consideration process are differently-abled people, the elderly and homeless people. I

supported the idea of focusing on differently-abled people, since that is a community we interact with

in our school. I believe that it will allow for our audience to relate to the topic more thoroughly which

will increase the impact of our performance. We ended up choosing it, finalizing the community we

will focus on (differently-abled people), their global issue (being seen as inferior, not being accepted

by students) the way we will explore this issue (hearing about their experiences with

non-differently-abled people) and the different opinions we would like to focus on (two

differently-abled people, one non-differently-abled that supports them and one that does not). I later

suggested including a character representing a head of school and their opinion, an idea supported by

my peers since it gives another perspective over the topic. This allowed me to write the first draft of

my artistic intention. When doing so, I used information I gathered throughout this unit. We decided

to use cross-cutting between our characters, an element I researched about in the first task, and was

used in the Refugee verbatim piece I critiqued. We also chose to emphasize each word, an idea we

received from our workshop with Dinos Aristidou. He explained that it is important to explore a

variety of perspectives over the topic, an idea suggested in my research sources as well. Another

technique from my research that I would like to use in this performance is the idea of using simple

verbatim instead of true verbatim, meaning we will add our own words to the gathered information,

keeping the performance interesting and relevant to the audience.

One problem we did face however was not having a teacher in class for the whole lesson, and

I was sometimes unsure of what to do. For example when choosing a community my group wanted to

ask the teacher for her opinion over our decision but it could not be done. Instead, I came up with a

solution. I suggested we will have a discussion over each topic we were thinking about and suggested

we should combine multiple topics into one. We combined the idea of talking to students in our

school, talking to people experiencing the issue and people who do not and the option of focusing on a
 12

differently-abled community all into one. Then, instead of the teacher I asked for the opinion of

multiple classmates, who all found the idea interesting. That solves our problem successfully.

Overall, today was very productive. Despite not having a teacher in class, my group progressed

further and now has a clear understanding of what we would like to perform. I also completed the first

version of my artistic intention, therefore I know what to focus on throughout this exciting project.

Document 1: The first version of my artistic intention.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/14jqz86ZBVqbr7sky_dN-KkxvZSmzoJEIntivStmTeAY/edit?usp

=sharing

Entry 2: 3/11/2021

Today my main focus was on gathering information including forms and interviews. I am proud of the

progress we have made since we sent a form and received 10 responses, which is our information for

2 characters. Those characters are the supportive student and the non-supportive student, and the form

was sent to 10 MYP3 students from my year.

Figure 1: one question from

our google form and the 10

responses. More questions were

answered overall giving us

enough authentic information

for two characters.

Sending this form was an idea I had, originally to find possible interviewees for the student

characters; however later realizing that this is already enough. I suggested adding more questions to

the form instead of interviewing.

We also contacted Cordaan, who loved the idea and we interviewed one of the workers, who was

unsure of whether it is a good idea or not but was proud of himself after doing it. That made me

understand how impactful this performance will be for the Cordaan members and how important it is

that we perform this piece.

 13

We together created an ethics form, which each interviewee fills in for us to know what they permit us

to do with their words, and how we can contact them in the future. While writing it, I realized that it

was only in English, and most Cordaan workers are native Dutch speakers who are not fluent in

English. This problem was major but I came up with a solution instantly. I suggested we write a

separate sheet in Dutch, which was feasible since we had three fluent Dutch speakers in the group.

Figures 1&2: the ethics form each

interviewee was requested to fill out

before being interviewed for us to

know what we are permitted to do with

their information, and how we can

contact them. The name is blurred for

privacy. It is in Dutch.

The group was very effective in doing this since we managed to work together and split the work. Me

and Can went downstairs to interview a Cordaan worker, Manav and Rose sent a form and received

excellent information from multiple students while Ziquan and Teesta developed our ideas. We all met

and shared it with each other, allowing us to develop incredibly. My leadership was portrayed through

organizing the group, making sure everyone knows what to do and how to do it, and allowing the

group to be productive despite how we were split. I also was the one who talked to the Cordaan and

presented our idea, which I find to be an important part of leadership.

It was difficult to decide which skills to choose to focus on, since I like this project and would like to

develop myself in many directions. I ended up focusing on characterization skills, which I chose since

I think it is important to relate to your character in order to communicate their thoughts through

verbatim and I will develop by closely reading/listening to the words of my interviewee, and

understand how they felt while saying it through their emotions and expressions. I also chose to focus

on creative writing skills since this performance must be interesting to the audience while still

communicating all thoughts and information. To do that, the writing must be creative using cross
 14

cutting and implementation of the information into a story, which I will develop by watching other

performances, understanding how they did it and improving my own. I will also use the help of my

peers for ideas.

Today my main problem was to get the information, which was tough since the Cordaan workers were

not too keen on being interviewed. A creative solution I had to this problem was to clearly explain our

aims and how we will not in any situation share this information or any information about their

identity. After this explanation of our means, and the clarification of how they will stay anonymous

they agreed and we received a wonderful and inspiring interview.

Entry 3: 10/11/2021
The two skills I aimed to develop are characterization and creative writing skills. Characterization

skills were developed throughout this last week by interviewing another worker, a female worker, and

listening to the recordings carefully and repetitively, as well as reading the form answers multiple

times in order to understand and remember how my interviewees phrased themselves, in order to

accurately convey their thoughts in my final performance. My group and I decided who will perform

as each character, and I was chosen to be the student who supports the Cordaan group. I then looked at

the form answers that were positive, and wrote them down separately. My peers worked similarly on

their roles translating from Dutch and transcribing the interviews to text, until we finally had all

responses of all interviewees written down in one document, and were able to use that to write the

script, to which I needed creative writing skills. Since the words and sentences were given, my

creativity was mostly expressed through the cross cutting between the characters and my creative

writing skills mainly developed today by experimenting with it. This cross cutting is necessary in

order to keep the performance interesting to my audience, which is why I chose to focus on this skill. I

also ensured that the lines connect to one another and make sense when said after each other, talking

about the same thing with a different perspective on it. For example, when the student who does not

support the Cordaaan mentions a communication issue, a worker says he would like to seek challenge

and I, the student who supports the Cordaan, says that they learn skills, all these sentences were given

to us, but the organization of them makes sense and is relevant to the story I am telling.
 15

The script is linked in this following document, including both the words of each character (each bit

we used is in strikethrough) and the actual script we used, before adding extra words ourselves

throughout the process. Document 2: Draft of script

docs.google.com/document/d/13ExqHcJ-p8ZFjevJVlDbAPhlQ-QTP2D0N199-Ax7iiQ/edit?usp=shari

ng

Besides this, I had more creative ideas today. One key idea was in the writing of the student who does

not support Cordaan, the story’s antagonist. I realized that since the performance will be filmed and

shared to the members of Cordaan it must not be offensive, especially since some of the workers may

not understand that this is a play and think the character truly dislikes them and does not respect what

they do. My group all agreed, and we decided to tone down this character, however keep the

perspective clear and relevant. In order to do that we decided to always contrast him as he speaks, and

also to add a prologue, where we explicitly state that these are not our opinions, and we are simply the

messengers. This was a problem I realized myself, and came up with a creative and effective solution

myself which was finalized with the help of my group. My group worked effectively today, and we

split the work in a smart and efficient way. Each person worked on either translating an interview,

summarizing words of an interview/form or working on using those words to begin writing the script.

At the end of the lesson, everyone finished that and we all started to write the script together, and we

wrote about half of the script during the lesson, even though we did not have a teacher to guide us.

This shows our understanding of the topic, and our determination to achieve our goal of creating an

insightful performance over differently-abled people in our community. Another thing to be proud of

today is my leadership skills. Each member of the group sat in a different place, working on a

different task, and I was able to organize us and make sure everyone was being productive. I ensured

everyone had something to work on, and knew how to do it, including myself. I also ensured everyone

contributed, and came up with excellent and creative ideas. This showed when we managed to

massively develop our script. I am extremely proud of all our creative ideas, progress throughout the

day and development of skills. Before next week, it is important to complete the script, which will be

easily finished since all group members agree on how we want to communicate the thoughts of our

interviewees. Then, during next week's lesson we will begin to consider staging and how the final
 16

performance will look like on stage. We will also all practice our lines separately and together, to be

ready for the final performance the week after. My artistic intention remains the same throughout this

week, since my aims from this project remain the same, however my understanding of the different

perspectives is allowing me to better understand the impact on my audience as well. During next

week’s lesson I will look into ways to achieve my goal and it will be developed.

Entry 4: 17/11/2021

The skills I chose to develop are characterization and creative writing. While last week I mainly

focused on creative writing while working on the script, this week I primarily developed the skill of

characterization. More specifically, I aimed to be able to relate to my character and truly become that

character while acting. I faced a challenge in doing so, since I did not have a recording to work with,

the only material I had was form responses. This forced me to be more creative but also gave me the

freedom to choose how to say every word, and which tone and gesture to use while speaking. Each

choice I made related directly to my artistic intention, and it always related to the impact I wanted to

achieve. I considered how different tones on a specific word would affect the impact on my audience

that the word and the piece as a whole has. For example, speaking louder as I say words and phrases

that support the Cordaan such as “good” or “they are the best option” always being loud and clear and

pausing right after to truly show how much I support and appreciate the work of the Cordaan. Since

my character is a student who supports them, I also ensured that I contradict the character that does

not. This can be seen when I respond to “I think that professionals, people who actually make good

food should be working there” which is said by the other student, by saying NO! I say it so loudly and

clearly so that it is obvious to my audience that I do not agree. This also shows an attempt of me

trying to break this prejudice that differently-abled are unable to take care of hygiene and I tell my

audience that it is false. These decisions also allowed for my creative writing to develop, since all

these decisions listed above stem from my creativity. I truly used my creative writing skills, which I

successfully managed to develop over the course of the last few weeks, to write this script in a way

that is impactful. While the previous week I practiced the cross cutting between the different

characters, this week I simply focused on my own character, and how I can truly impact my audience

and achieve the ultimate goal of my artistic intention, to show my audience the differently-abled are
 17

no different than us, and they are normal people. The development of my creative writing allowed me

to develop my characterization as well, and the close relationship between the two is the reason I

chose these two skills to focus on, I full-heartedly believe that these are the most important skills I

need in order to impact my audience, and I managed to develop them today to a large extent. We

conducted our first rehearsal on stage, and despite having a lot to improve, we are starting to

comprehend the way in which we would like to perform. I portrayed leadership today by organizing

the group and going on the stage, as well as requesting a peer to record and film our first rehearsal. I

also suggested to Can, who aimed to develop his production skills to try and find music he can add, an

idea he accepted and decided to start working on. A creative idea I had was in the entrance to the

stage, where I suggested that Teesta will start, Rose and Ziquan will join together and lastly Manav

and I will join together. Teesta suggested she will be sitting rather than standing, which I favoured

since it fits her character’s personality. Understanding of all these aspects developed my artistic

intention, and I added many strategies to achieve the aim, listed in the final version of the artistic

intention above, despite not appearing in the original version.

Video 1: first rehearsal on stage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNJaT5K9FQY

After that first rehearsal, we also conducted a full rehearsal in front of the class, and despite still

needing our scripts, we were already able to perform and received meaningful feedback from our

teacher and peers which we understood how to apply and improve. Some feedback we received was to

clarify the characters, and to explain what the Cordaan is. Another piece of advice was to make direct

eye contact with the audience, to truly convey our message and impact them.

Video 2: rehearsal in front of the class

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VL2TZDdGlZk

Before next week I will need to practice with my group, specifically on the ending where we were

unsure of how to say the last line. I must memorize all my lines to not require the script and rehearse

with my group at least once. I am very proud of today, and we made massive progress towards

achieving our ultimate goal.

 18

Entry 5: 23/11/2021

Today we conducted a penultimate rehearsal during lunch time. I contacted the teacher and requested

for us to use the room, permission which was granted, and that allowed us to practice together as well

as practice with the lights and the music. The night before, I practiced all my lines and memorized

them which was a part of my development of characterization skills. By practicing with my peers and

also with the addition of music I could truly work on those skills, and understood how it will affect the

performance. We faced the issue of not knowing the order of the performance, and I had a clever and

creative idea to solve it. I suggested we write the order on a large piece of paper and put it in front of

us on stage. First we wanted to write the name and a keyword, however that took far too much space

and instead we decided to assign a number and a colour to each group member. That way we also

included the music changes, so we knew when to pause and wait for the music. I portrayed leadership

skills by organizing the rehearsal and contacting our teacher.

Figure 3: Paper with the order of speech in the

performance. Every member was assigned a number

and a colour (I was 1 and orange) which allowed us to

know when we need to speak, and the performance ran

smoothly thanks to this creative idea

Video 3: Me practicing the Prologue on the penultimate rehearsal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tkPs3aczKI
Video 4:Part of the penultimate rehearsal, audio:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQXTvmTYc0M
 19

Entry 6: 24/11/2021
Today we performed our final performance! I am incredibly proud of it, and truly believe we managed

to achieve our goal, and that we crossed existing boundaries between the AICS student community

and Cordaan. My classmates that we presented to said that they liked it and were impacted by it. They

told me how they think the cross cutting and clothes specifically helped them understand the message

of the performance. In a rehearsal in front of the class from last week, one student said they are unsure

of what Cordaan is, and which actor/ress played which character. By the time of this performance both

were fixed and the student said they enjoyed the piece.

Throughout this project, my artistic intention has also developed. At the beginning, I stated we will

focus on differently-abled people in general, however now it is specific, and focuses on one group of

differently-abled people, the Cordaan. We also decided to add music, which did not appear in the

primary version of my artistic intention. Despite how effective the music was and how it added to the

piece, some were a little distracted by it, especially when sitting nearby the laptop playing the music,

so next time we will lower the volume to avoid that. Another development to the artistic intention

throughout the process was the addition of specific ways to achieve our aim. Developing my creative

writing made me suggest adding the interactions between the characters on stage, development of my

characterization allowed me to suggest the clothing and idea of having stickers saying CORDAAN for

the workers and the development of my understanding of the unit allowed me to suggest having a

prologue. These all relate to the development of skills, and to my acquired knowledge from research.

I applied my characterization by relating to my character and using all strategies listed throughout this

journal, and applied creative writing since the script used cross cutting and some extra phrases I came

up with during rehearsals to add to our piece.

 20

Commentary
This unit consisted of two assessments. The first was a research task, where I started grasping

the core ideas of the verbatim theatre style, and analyzed two examples. However it is through the

second assessment, development of a verbatim piece myself, that I truly understood how it is applied.

On top of that, my class had a verbatim theatre workshop with Dinos Aristidou, a professional

verbatim theatre writer. He thoroughly explained a variety of verbatim techniques, such as speaking as

listening with earphones, analysis of the words before speech including 5 features to look for (scenery,

light, objects, costumes and sound) as well as an exercise to memorize the words. I applied all those in

my performance, specifically the memorization task, where I truly considered every word on its own,

connected some words to gestures and imagined myself in the story, as suggested by Dinos. The

workshop, the research and my own exploration of the style has developed my understanding of

verbatim theatre and allowed me to write a successful piece of drama.

The global context, key concept and related concept I engaged with throughout this project

were personal & cultural expression, communities and boundaries respectively. I engaged with this

global context through interviewing others. I interviewed two Cordaan workers and a head of school,

and through the interview understood how they expressed themselves. I carefully listened to their

tones, stutters and how they express their feelings, specifically with the Cordaan workers who are the

subjects of the global issue, and how they feel about talking to them. One worker was quite hesitant

about being interviewed, and he was remarkably proud at the end, another form of personal

expression. I engaged with the key concept of communities by reaching out to all different sides of it.

Rather than solely focusing on the workers, we also reached out to the school itself, in addition to two

students. I also stayed at the cafeteria to receive information from students as they were engaging with

the workers. One student had a negative response, and I immediately asked to interview him, to which

he agreed and that added another layer to our performance, that the audience of students could relate

to. Lastly, I engaged with the related concept of boundaries by connecting all those sides of the

community, and the combination of all perspectives together in one piece, presented to students has

allowed them to understand the perspective of others, not only their own, and the acknowledgement of

other’s perspectives allowed to break boundaries in our community.

 21

This unit has massively developed my characterization skills and creative writing skills. My

characterization skills have developed through practice and consideration of the words, and this skill

was developed throughout the rehearsal and research stage of the process. By the time of the final

performance, this skill was already developed and ready to be applied. I spoke with passion, as if I am

the character expressing myself, and ensured I convey my character’s message, that the

Cordaan-AICS partnership is a good thing, which helps the students and the staff. I also spoke from a

student perspective, wore ordinary student clothes and spoke slowly so the audience understands what

I say. I truly believed in what I was saying, and agreed with the perspective, which allowed for it to

be persuasive and authentic. That helped me achieve the main goal of my artistic intention, to break

boundaries and show how it is important to accept and interact with the differently-abled. The same

process of skill developed applied to my creative writing, and by the time of the final performance a

creative and engaging script has been written. I applied this skill of being able to write scripts that

deliver a message while not boring the audience. This was effectively applied in this performance

since the script included words from all interviewees, but also added additional words written by

myself, to ensure the message is clear. While the group wrote the script together, I read through it

multiple times, adding or replacing words with more convincing phrases and connecting between the

characters. Each character spoke roughly the same amount. Lastly, during the final rehearsals, I used

my creative writing on the spot, and came up with ideas such as me walking towards Manav when

speaking towards him. Another example is how at the end while we speak he stays at front, listens and

agrees with us, leading up to all members saying the final sentence, “we should all be grateful, no

matter if we are differently-abled or not.”

These two skills are not the only skills I have developed, with another significant example

being leadership skills. I worked in a group however I did develop leadership skills through a group

project. I always came up with new ideas, and immediately shared them with my group, whether it

was at home through text, in class or during break time. I conducted all four interviews with different

people, edited and sent the google form to students, suggested writing our ethics form in Dutch as

well for the workers, wrote a big part of the script and was involved in every step of the process. I also

always encouraged others to contribute, the ATL skill I focused on in this unit, and suggested different
 22

ways in which they can improve as well as received feedback from my peers as well. I can transfer

these skills to many other subjects, since they relate to any group project, whether small or large in

any field. In music, we have a band unit, where leadership and communication skills are key. It is

necessary to listen to the feedback of others but also encourage them to practice and to try to help the

band progress. Another field in which these skills are important is Individuals & Societies, where we

often have formative group work, and some students do not work thinking formative tasks do not

matter. However, I always lead the group and encourage them to complete their parts, a skill I often

practiced throughout this unit.

Me and my group decided to continue this project into a service activity. We aimed to forward

the performance to more people in order to truly make an impact on our community, and raise

awareness to more people. First, we shared this performance with the Cordaan organization, for them

to understand they are accepted and are important, but also to see the negative perspective and how

they may need to improve. Then, we will share it with more school students from the ages of 10-16,

specified in my artistic intention as my target audience, to ensure as many people as possible in this

target group are introduced to the topic. Us, as global citizens have the opportunity to share global

issues, such as discrimination, in this case to differently-abled people, to people of all cultures. This

project in general links with the idea of global citizenship, since we can share topics that relate to one

part of our community, which other parts are unaware of, and we can share this performance with the

rest of the community, to link everyone together and cross borders of prejudice.

I managed to meet every part of my artistic intention, my strategies were applied, my target

audience was addressed and my goal was achieved. I engaged with the statement of inquiry since

borders between different parts of my community truly have been broken, and several students told

me they were impacted by it. Furthermore we have shared this video to the Cordaan as well, and they

will have the opportunity to understand what others think about them, which they never get. Going

forward, we will share this impactful piece with the Cordaan workers and with more people in the

target group, because a higher number of people who watch this performance will increase the scale to

which this border between differently-abled and non-differently-abled truly is broken.

 23

Some evidence for how I achieved my artistic intentions is how all specific strategies listed and

explained are apparent in the final performance. We used the clothes, music, prologue, introduction

and conclusion of all characters, interactions between characters, the cross cutting and simple

verbatim style in the final piece, which achieved the expected impact. I aimed at breaking the border,

and every step in the process got me closer to doing so. The skills I developed related to my artistic

intention and so did the work I produced. Slowly, with each rehearsal (which are linked throughout

this journal) it is visible how we were inching closer towards this goal and we started to add more

elements to our performance as we rehearsed. Specifically in the penultimate rehearsal, where we

gave each other feedback as we were rehearsing and all feedback was applied the following day, and I

achieved my ultimate goal. To improve, I will consider the feedback I received from my peers. One

classmate suggested lowering the volume of the music, to not distract the people sitting nearby the

source of the music. Another suggestion was to add more negative lines, since some people in the

audience felt like the piece was overly supportive of Cordaan, and that allowed me to further

understand how important balance is in a verbatim play.

I learned a lot from this project, both about the art style, but also about myself and my own

strengths. First, I vastly increased my knowledge not only over the style of verbatim theatre, but also

about drama as a whole. While in the first task and the workshop with Dinos Aristidou I learned about

the style as a whole, now I thoroughly understand it and understand how to create a piece in the style.

I knew the process of creating a verbatim piece but now I am aware of the different obstacles along,

the way, I know that is more difficult than I thought to choose a global issue to focus on, it may be

difficult to find interviewees in the different perspectives and I now recognize the ethical

considerations of the style. I did not realize how difficult it may be to write this, since you must

convey your messages and portray a variety of opinions while not offending or disrespecting any of

your interviewees. Despite all aforementioned challenges, I still managed to create an insightful,

informative and impactful piece, which I am extraordinarily proud of. I have a lot to improve in the

style, but this first piece was already fantastic and with more practice in verbatim, I think I can write

even more powerful pieces going forward. My main piece of advice to myself is to take the time and

interview as many people as possible, to choose the most authentic and impactful words for the play.
 24

I also learned from the works of my peers that I watched in class. One group discussed online

learning, and created a setting similar to online learning, with tables and chairs and laptops. I find that

approach excellent since it adds to the idea of the performance. To implement that, we could have

created a setting of the cafeteria, which would make the performance a lot more engaging and

relatable to the students and workers. I also learned from another performance I watched, where they

presented monologues in verbatim style however first presented a short performance that gave context

to the monologues and increased their impact. Although it made the overall performance feel like two

pieces combined into one, I did like the idea, and I find it very creative. I do not think such an idea

would have fit into my performance however it is a fantastic idea to keep note of for the future, since

their monologues impacted me and I doubt they would without the contextual short play. I have a lot

left to learn about verbatim not only from professionals but also from my classmates.

Besides learning about the style I also learned a lot about myself and who I am, both

personally and as an actor. I learned about how I enjoy helping others, and how when I care about

something, I cannot be stopped until I reach or complete it. I learned how I love working in a group,

and how I like to enhance my thoughts with the ideas of others, while also trying to lead the group

forward. I am very proud of my leadership skills and understand that theatre develops them

excellently. In spite of the fact I have been in this school for more than two years, and the Cordaan has

been there before me, my knowledge about them was superficial and I never realized how significant

their job is to them, and how significant it can be for us. Every day when I go to the cafeteria I am

amazed by how they work there as if their disability does not exist, they still do the same things as us

in the same ways, and it makes me thankful for what I have but also appreciate others and who they

are. I now talk to one worker I interviewed and say hello every time I pass by him, and he always

smiles, which makes me sincerely happy and proud of myself. I am grateful for having this fantastic

unit and the opportunity to explore my community in ways I never knew possible, and I truly relate to

this unit. It allowed me to learn more about others, and whether borders between the differently abled

and my target audience have been broken or not, they have been broken for me, and I do not see any

difference between them and I now.