Final Reflection

Over the past two years I feel I have really used the CAS program to my own advantage. Given the strenuous nature of the IB Diploma, it has been really important for me to be involved in activities outside of school. This has helped me retain a certain balance in my life (albeit a little challenged at times!) as well as encouraging me to broaden my interests and develop those I already have. For the section of 'Action', I have been involved in the basketball, football and swimming SAISA (South Asian International Schools Association) competitions. Basketball and football are both sports I have not played before, so being involved in these seasons meant that I learnt a number of new skills. I learned how to position myself on a field and a court, as well as some simple ball skills. My greates acheivement was an increased consciousness of team work - I have previously been involved primarily in individual sports, so it was a great experience to be a part of so many teams. This learning curve culminated in my captaincy of the basketball team, where I tried to focus as much as possible on team cohesiveness and participation. I was also involved in the swimming SAISA, as well as a number of efforts out of season to maintain my fitness including biking and yoga. I have been rewarded for my continued efforts in Action with a more balanced outlook on life and some sanity during times of extreme IB stress. For the section of 'Creativity' I have been involved in both visual and performing arts. Throughout Grade 11 I was involved in the Wednesday activity of Pin hole photography. This was a continuation of photography classes that I took in Australia. I enjoyed exploring this media and furthering my knowledge of photographic development. I really started to understand the 'feel' of working with a pinhole camera, and the relationship between shadows, light, distance and development. There is a very careful balance you have to strike. I was also involved in two theatre productions, one in Grade 11 and one in Grade 12. While I played two very contrasting characters, this continued involvement in performance expanded my understanding of theatre. I enjoyed working with a very large cast in The Crucible, as well as learning to 'inhabit' my character. This year, in the performance of Sorry, Wrong Number, I challenged myself with a relatively major part. We worked in a much smaller group, and I discovered a number of theatre activities and workshops that really improved my presence and emotional expression on stage. My involvement in the Creative section of CAS helped me further my understanding of myself, as well as a continued and expanded knowledge of creative skills. Last, but in no way least, my involvement in Community Service. For the past two years I have been continually involved in RCCI, or the school program with the Rehabilitation Centre for the Communication Impaired. Half way through Grade 11 I became leader of this service activity, and have since then been primarily involved in planning and initiating activities with the kids. This often happened on a more spontaneous basis, and I tried as much as possible to lead by example. I really feel that this CAS activity is as much about teaching children at OSC to understand and forge relationships with children who are differntly abled as anything else. In this way, we can spread tolerance and understanding, as people are seldom afraid or critical of people that they understand. I also believe that by showing these children some compassion and concern, their interractions with the wider world will be more positive. They will have more experiences with people who are prepared to give them a chance, to approach them with the hand of friendship despite the gap that lies between them.

Sorry, Wrong Number: PERFORMANCE

The performance of "Sorry, Wrong Number" was part of the series of perfomances in 'Simply Scenes: Two Nights of Theatre' at OSC on the 24th of February.

Getting on stage always makes me nervous - it's part of the reason that I enjoy theatre because I'm forced to step outside my comfort zone. On the other hand, I find theatre less intimidating than public speaking because I am up there speaking as a character, rather than as myself.

The costuming and set for the play was very simple. I was the only person wearing something other than black, and it was only a red dressing gown. I thought it fit very well with my character - floaty, expensive and exotic. Someone who lives vicariously through a telephone is bound to 'collect' items that prove things - how rich, well educated and knowledgeable about the rest of the world they are.

I had my lines memorised in the last few days before the performance, so it was very nerve-wracking. It was difficult to memorise as I had large blocks to say without many cues from the other characters. On the other hand, Mrs. Stevenson essentially repeats the same thing again and again throughout the play:

"I'm a sick woman, and I'm not supposed to be annoyed, and this murder has upset me dreadfully..." etc. etc.

This play really gave me an opportunity to explore my creative side, as well as a better understanding of character development and emotional recall in theatre.

I love the chance that drama gives me to become someone else - at the end of the day, despite the stress, it is always worth it. I think that entertainment is part of what makes us human - the ability to empathise, to give in to the 'willing suspension of disbelief', to create a world in our heads and then try to share it with others.

Basketball Tournament in Nepal

SAISA Basketball tournament in NEPAL! First of all, travelling to Nepal was enormously exciting. I had never been there before, and so it was a fantastic new experience. I hadn't travelled for SAISA since the beginning of Grade 11, because both the other SAISA's had been hosted by OSC. I am really glad that my involvement in the team gave me the chance to explore the region, as well as get to know other international schools in the area. I was hosted with the other senior on the team, Ayla, at her cousin's house (by complete chance he and his wife live in Nepal and have kids at Lincoln School). They were extraordinarily generous and made my whole stay just wonderful.


Nepal is a lot colder than Sri Lanka, so playing conditions were very different. You don't sweat half as much, but I tended to run out of breath more quickly. I think this might have something to do with the poor air quality in Kathmandu. In the end, only 7 schools came, because Karachi International School was unable to make it at the last minute due to strikes at the airport. This changed the whole timetable, and meant that instead of two pools, each team had to play all the other teams. This meant that we ended up playing 2 more games than we would have otherwise.

However, to make up for it, they shortened the game time. I actually found this a relief! I was on the starting 5 for the team , and we didn't have much substitution in the games. So I ended up playing a large majority of all of our games - I was exhausted. However, this gave me a chance to push myself to my limits and show what I was capable of. I don't think, overall, that I played as hard as I did last year (I used to go a little feral on court), but I improved in other areas. As team captain, I played an important role in keeping the team together, both on and off court. We were all extremely tired by the end of the tournament, and so I made it my job to smooth over arguments, listen to people's problems and keep everyone happy. I also tried to keep an eye on our teamwork and spirit on the court - things like sharing the ball, working plays and maintaining good sportsmanship.


Our games were against:

• Bombay: 2 games. We won the first one which was really great because we lost to them last year. However, they came back to beat us in the semi-finals by 1 POINT!
  
• Chennai: 1 game. We won!
• Lincoln: 1 game. We won!
• Lahore: 1 game. We lost. We didn't play well as a team in this game, but we also didn't really have the support of our coach during this match. On the other hand, the loss meant that Lahore won their first game in 4 years.
  
• AES: 1 game. We lost. However, I think we gave the AES team the biggest challenge they had in the tournament. They were the champions of the tournament.
  
• Dhaka: 2 games. We won the first game and came back from our defeat by Bombay to beat Dhaka again in the consolation finals.
  

We ended up coming 3rd in the whole tournament. This was the same place that we acheived last year. I was a little disappointed that we were unable to beat Bombay in the semi-finals - it was so frustrating to lose by one point! I twisted my ankle half-way through that match and so didn't play the rest of it, or in the consolation finals. Fortunately, Stephanie took over my position and played like a trojan. Overall, I really enjoyed the chance to play and travel for basketball, and hope that I fulfilled my role as captain to my best ability.

RCCI - Awareness and Handing Over

We organised a booth at the CAS Awareness Evening. I have been in the proccess of handing over the leadership role to Aparna in Grade 11. I was unable to organise the booth myself for the most part due to commitments with basketball, and Aparna did a WONDERFUL job. We printed off photos during the CAS session on Thursday afternoon and then Aparna and Kuval came in on a Poya day to put everything up. They really made our area look professional so I feel that I am leaving RCCI in extremely capable hands. I am now staging out my participation in this CAS as I have to start studying, as well as organising my art exhibition so I am very busy. I have really enjoyed being involved so directly in the kids lives, if not making a hugely appreciable practical difference, at least demonstrating a caring face from the outside world. I think that forming relationships with these kids has been one of the most challenging and rewarding things I have done in the IB.

SAISA Basketball

Basketball Season has started!

I have decided to continue with basketball so that I can develop on the skills I learned from last year. I really enjoyed the season in Grade 11, and this year I will have the opportunity to travel to Nepal, which will be fun! We have 5 players from the team last year, and another 5 players who are either new to OSC, new to basketball, or didn't make the team last year. So we have a big mix of abilities.

We have a coach from outside the school who has come to coach us - Mr. Tharindu Fernando. We do a lot of movement work, which I hope will teach us how to position ourselves well on court as that is something that is quite difficult to learn. I am working on improving my shooting, as this was a problem area for me last year. It is nice to be doing a sport where I have a basic skills base - it means that I feel less lost on the court! We have been training very intensively - for two hours each practice, four times a week! I hope that this is helping me keep my fitness levels up.

Because I am one of the oldest players on the team (in fact, the oldest, I think), Mr. Fernando has designated me as captain. Quite a few of the girls obviously have a greater skill level in basketball than I do, so I am making my role as a leader more concerned with how we work together as a team. This team is not as cohesive as the football one, and keeping everyone happy is presenting some challenges! However, it is doing wonders for my diplomacy skills. Ayla, the other senior on the team, and I are working together a lot to make sure everyone participates and feels like part of the team. I am learning how to keep my temper when I want to lose it, and how to negotiate and compromise in a group situation. I think these are important life skills that can be reapplied anywhere, not just in sport.

We have been learning a few new plays. In defense, we have learnt a trap defense, which type of press defense. This means that we defend the other team while they are bringing the ball down the court. It is quite difficult to remember what you are supposed to be doing, but when everyone does their job it is a very effective defense.




Green circles are DEFENSE (our team). Blue triangles are offense (the opposition.


I am mostly player 5 or player 3.












If they make a break for the middle, 1 and 2 trap (move together and block the player). This is pretty good for stopping up the centre court.

On the left side,the 2 and 3 trap,while the 1 looks for a short center court pass.The 4 guards the middle and watches the short pass. The 5 looks for any long pass,but defends the goal first.

This looks the same on the other side. Basically it means that it makes it hard for the players to dribble down the court, forcing them to pass, and then allowing for us to intercept those passes. We also learned a Press Break, or offensive set up to beat this defense, but we're not very good at it yet!!






On OFFENSE we learned three plays - one to break and 2-3 zone defense and allow a three point shot, and the other two to break a man-to-man defense and allow the post players to shoot under the basket. We are still learning our positioning in all of these plays as they are quite complex and it can get VERY confusing if you have to switch positions.

We have played a couple of practice matches against the Gateway International School and the Women's National Team of Sri Lanka. We lost all three matches by quite a lot, but I think the experience taught us a lot, including just a general feel for the game. The level at SAISA will hopefully be a little lower and we will have a good shot at the finals!!!

Sorry, Wrong Number

A friend of mine, Tara Nelson, is in IB Theatre Arts and has to put on her Individual Theatre Project in February 2011. She has decided to direct a play, "Sorry, Wrong Number" and she has asked me to be in it. I am going to play Mrs. Stevenson, the main character. The piece was originally written as a radio play, so there is very little movement.

The plot centres around Mrs. Stevenson, an rich, neurotic and bed-ridden invalidat home alone for the evening, and her sole connection with the outside world is her telephone. She overhears plans for a murder of an unknown woman on the telephone over a wrong number. Through her various attempts to retrace the call and catch the men she eventually realises that she is the intended victim, but the realisation comes too late.

Barbara Stanwyck in the 1948 film version of "Sorry, Wrong Number"

I really like the play - I'm a big fan of the noir tradition in theatre and I find it interesting how cleverly tension is developed solely through dialogue. However, this means that a lot of responsibility falls on my shoulders, as my dialogue is about 80% of the play. Basically this means that it is my job to build tension, and almost entirely through voice and facial expression. Scary thought. However, despite the fact that I have a lot of responsibility, the preparation has been a lot about group work. Tara has been using various theatre excercises to help us understand and develop our characters. The cast is quite small so the excercises really force us to develop trust and work together. This has helped me build on the skills I developed in "The Crucible" last year.

I am quite nervous about learning all the lines - there are A LOT of them - but I am also really excited to be involved in theatre again. I am basing my character a little around Mrs. Bennet from the BBC adaptation of "Pride and Prejudice" as both characters have problems (real or imaginary) with 'nerves'. Mrs. Stevenson is also imperious, self-centered and impatient, which are all traits I find quite easy to sympathise with. She is a much easier character to "get to know" than Elizabeth Proctor, as she is less reserved and her flaws are much more obvious.

SAISA football

The SAISA football tournament finally arrived, and I have to say our team COMPLETELY exceeded my expectations. We had won every one practice game against other schools in Sri Lana easily, and so we hadn't come up against much competition. This made me pretty nervous because I knew that the games at SAISA would be much tougher, but I didn't know how prepared we were.

The teams that came to the tournament were:
American Embassy School (AES) - New Delhi, India
American School of Bombay (ASB) - Mumbai, India
American International School of Dhaka (AISD) - Dhaka, Bangladesh
American International School of Chennai (AISC) - Chennai, India

Lahore American School (LAS) - Lahore, Pakistan
Lincoln School (LS) - Kathmandu, Nepal
International School of Islamabad (ISOI) and Murree Christian School (MCS) - Pakistan
Overseas School of Colombo (OSC) - Colombo, Sri Lanka!!

The weather for the tournament was terrible. It had rained for weeks beforehand so both of the fields were more like wetland marshes than football pitches. We played most of the matches on our field at school, as by the end of the three days the other field we had hired for the tournament was unplayable. As well as that, some of the matches on the third day had to be cancelled because it started pouring again. However, everyone persevered despite the difficult conditions to make the tournament a success!

Most people played the same positions that they had all training season, but we mixed things up a little in defense. Kavindra and I had mostly been centre defense and sweeper for the trainings, but for the SAISA games we put Saba as sweeper and Kavi and I shared the position of central defender. This actually worked really well, and both Kavi and I adjusted to the change and continued to give our all. Saba was far and away the best player on our team, so it felt very safe to have her on defense, and meant that I could play more adventurously than I normally would.

I think that this team was probably the most cohesive team I have ever played with. Over the tournament we really learned to read each other almost telepathically, we kept each other's spirits up and we worked together at every step of the way. I don't think anyone thought that they were being left out or were unimportant, because everyone was an integral part of the team.

Our games were:

1. AISC (Chennai) - won 5:0
2. ISOI and MCS (Pakistan) - won 3:1
3. AISD (Dhaka) - won 2:1
4. SEMI-FINALS: ASB (Mumbai) - won 2:1
5. FINALS: AES (New Delhi) - lost 0:3

So we ended up coming second - which is the best OSC has done in Girls' Football for a long time. It was disappointing not to win the final on our home ground, but AES outclassed us - they won the tournament without conceding a single goal. In the end, I was still very proud to come second.

As with basketball last year, I wrote quotes on my arm for each match, except I now can't remember what they were! However, my tournament quotes were:

"You said we're a team. One person struggles, we all struggle. One person triumphs, we all triumph"

I think our team really lived up to this as a whole. We had the least amount of infighting I've known on a girls' sports team, and we played our hearts out, together, every single match.

"Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire."

As an individual I followed this idea to the best of my ability. I gave 100% to every match. I may not have had a very complex role (defense is more straightforward than offense - just STOP THAT BALL!) but within that role, and within my team, I set myself on fire.

I also improved a lot over the season - I learned new skills such as positioning, jockeying (defensive move), how to pass directly and effectively and the beginnings of how to dribble. Having never really played football meant that everything I learned was new, but this gave me more opportunity for growth. I also learned that I really love playing football, and I hope to continue to play in the future.

RCCI fundraiser

On the 4th of November, the Primary School put on a production of "Seussical". As the leader of RCCI, I was given the opportunity to organise to sell food in order to raise money for the CAS project. Kuval, Gurleen, Josh, Aparna and I made or bought snacks, and I went to the production and sold what we had made as parents were arriving. I made brownies! I sold most things for about 50 ruppees - I didn't like to charge much because we were in competition with several other CAS projects. What was not sold on the night I took home and my family ate it, and then donated 1,000 ruppees.

In total we raised 3,000 ruppees. I hope to use this to either give the kids gifts for Christmas or Sinhalese New Year. While it isn't a lot, and there isn't much that we can do for the kids with it, I think that sometimes the simple act of giving, and lighting up someones day is more important than grand gestures.

On the note of grand gestures, the school actually raised a significant amount of money in previous years to help the RCCI build a new centre for the kids. This project is currently in the proccess of finding land for building, but this is not something that students can really be involved in.

YOGA!

I have always thought that my flexibility was a little pathetic, and this year I have decided to do something about it. My mum takes yoga classes twice a week at her work, which is just down the road from school, so for the past 2 months I have been joining her. I would never have thought it would be such hard work! It is relaxing, but only in the sense that by the end of the 1 1/2 hour session I am so exhausted that my brain is completely empty. Because of SAISA football I have only been going once a week, but I would like to try and increase that to twice a week. I have been hurting in muscles that I didn't even know I had - particularly my hamstrings, which are also working from football, and all the muscles in my back.

There are a lot of poses that I have difficulty with because the strength and balance required are a little beyond me. I often end up shaking in the pose! The one pose that I want to work on particularly is the "downward dog pose" pictured below. This is used as a base for many of the other stretches. I really want to be able to get my feet flat on the floor and my spine fully relaxed like the woman in the picture. I figure that knowing what I have to work on is the first step.

I can feel the difference in my flexibility and balance already, but mostly the joy of yoga is that it does leave you feeling very healthy. Your muscles feel that they have been working, but in the right way. So even if I can only continue with one class a week, this is something that I WILL do, and hope to carry on with even next year in university.

SAISA Football

For the past 5 weeks I have been participating in the training sessions for the SAISA football team! I have never really played soccer since Grade 7, and even then it was not very seriously, so this is an entirely new experience for me. I've been surprised how different football is from basketball - it's alot slower and less close knit, but I think players have the opportunity to contribute more to the team without necessarily having an incredible skill level. However there are som similarities. Once again, being tall, my job is to stand at the back on defense and intimidate/run over people who are trying to score. I actually really enjoy this as it is more about body co-ordination and dealing with another person rather than dealing with the ball. I am not very good at dribbling.




The problem with playing defense is that many of the games we have played against other schools in Colombo have been very offense oriented for our team. That is, we have annihilated most other teams, and on defense this means I don't get much of a work out! However, I think that come SAISA this will change. We have also played a couple of boys teams who definitely gave the defense a lot to do (they beat us most of the time).



I have also discovered other ways that, as central defender or sweeper, I can contribute to the team. I tend to be able to see a lot more of what is going on than the other players, so I can yell out instructions. Apparently this is helpful - although it is a fine line to draw between helpful and bossy, so I will have to be careful. However, it is nice to feel useful, particularly in games where I'm not doing much.


I really enjoy the team atmosphere in football, and I'm having lots of fun getting to know some of the girls in younger grades that I would not otherwise have talked to. I think we have a really strong team.





My aims for the season are:

1. To make it onto the final team by showing consistent commitment and putting in 100% effort at trainings.
2. To work on my ball co-ordination so that I do not panic under pressure.
3. To learn how to position myself effectively on the field so that, with the other defenders, we create an effective wall against the attack.
4. To have the best team spirit ever!!

Swimming, Latin Dancing

Unfortunately, I was unable to go on the SAISA Swimming Sports Exchange. I made the team, but my extended essay draft was due immediately after the trip and so I decided, with my parents, that I would be unable to manage both of those commitments. However, I persevered with the trainings, because I actually enjoy them. I find swimming training more rewarding than competition, and MUCH less stressful. My goal for the year now that the season is finished is to continue to try and swim at least once a week. This may not be possible at all times due to other SAISA's and academic commitments, so I will have to be flexible about this goal. However, whenver possible, I will stick to it.

An unexpected development!
My friends Anishka and Priyanka are participating in the after school activity Latin Dancing, and they asked me to come along. Dancing is not really something I have much experience, so this was really stepping outside of my comfort zone, but I decided to give it a try. I was not very good at it, but it was surprisingly good excercise and quite good fun. It's on Friday afternoons, so this may end up clashing with SAISA football (I'm planning to try out for the team), but I will keep going as long as there are no other clashes. My only goal is to reduce my self-consciousness about dancing, and try to improve my co-ordination!

Goals

GOALS

1. Service: I'm going to keep leading the RCCI Service Group. I would like to organise a fund-raising event maybe at the end of this year to give the kids presents for either Christmas or Sinhalese New Year.


2. Action: I hope to continue with my swimming and basketball through SAISA competitions and/or training. I really enjoy both of these sports, and may even try going to Football trainings, just to see whether I like it. I am also planning on taking up Yoga, as there are classes held at IWMI, where my mum works, which is just down the road from school. My goal is to maintain and improve my fitness, as well as, through Yoga, to develop my strength and flexibility.


3. Creativity: For Christmas, I am going to try and create all of the presents I will give to people. I am going to spend Christmas with my parents, grand-parents and brother, so I am aiming for 6 presents. These may be consumables like a meal, or clothes that I will sew, etc. I want to do this because I think that Christmas gets really out of hand in terms of giving people hundreds of meaningless presents that they don't need. So instead I want to make a few presents, but put effort in to them.

This year I hope to try a couple of activities that force me to step outside of my comfort zone, as well as a few self-directed activities that will help me to self-motivate (such as the Christmas presents or self-directed excercise). It is also important to me to maintain a basic fitness level, and continue to participate in the RCCI program.

Year's Reflection

I think that I really embraced the principles of CAS this year. I worked hard to involve myself in a broad range of activities, and I really enjoyed it! My work with RCCI was really challenging, forcing me to go outside of my comfort zone and really be a risk-taker. The important thing when interracting with the RCCI kids is that you lose all of your embarassment and just go as silly and fun as possible - they love it! Sometimes it can be hard to stay so enthusiastic, but I think learning to do that is an important life skill. I had never done anything like this before, so it was a completely new experience for me, although one I plan to continue next year.

Through Pinhole photography, I found an entirely new way of looking at the world. Taking a photo where you have to sit and wait for 40 seconds teaches you about the way time influences your perceptions of things. Pinhole photos also have to be more considered - given the effort, you can't just point and snap! This is the type of creative process that yields the best results for me - the more I think and prepare a peice, the better the end result. Unfortunately, the Electives program is not running next year at our school, and so I will be unable to continue this activity. However, I am hoping to use some of the techniques I learned here for some of my Diploma Art work.

Participating in the production of the crucible was as much team work as it was creativity. I felt that here was probably one of the areas in which I took an 'unofficial' leadership role. We were part of a group of both Grade 11 and Grade 12s, and I made sure that I was always as enthusiastic and commited as possible, to set a good example. I really value the friendships I made during this production, as well as the opportunity to 'get into someone else's skin' and the thrill of performance!

Finally, I have made a fairly big effort in terms of Action this year. I participated in swimming and basketball SAISAs, as well as the Habitat for Humanity fund-raiser run (not documented, but i did it! I was the 1st high school girl!!). I am most proud of the fact that when I was not involved in SAISA, I made an effort to keep active - I rode my bike, I swam, I went on various active holidays with my family. I know that this is a really important area for me, both in terms of physical and emotional well-being. I am much happier, and more able to deal with stress, when I am doing regular excercise.

At the beginning of the year I set some aims I did not complete. These were taking Sinhala and piano lessons, and continuing rowing. Unfortunately, I was unable to take up rowing here as the Colombo Rowing Club was rather unhelpful, and transport would have prevented me in any case. I was also unable to take Sinhala lessons. I did try to organise this, but it kept clashing with my basketball trainings so in the end I decided that I didn't really have the time (I was also involved in the Crucible at that point). Finally, for piano, I have not had the time to organise lessons. However, in this case, the cloud has a silver lining! I have actually started playing quite a lot on my own, and taking real enjoyment from this. Given that this is an unstructured activity that I do not want to set goals for, I will not be including this in my CAS blog.

My main and most important goal was to get as much out of the CAS program as possible. I think that I have definitely acheived this goal. I have kept up active, creative and service activities throughout the year. I have attended reuglarly everything that I commited myself to. I set goals within the individual activities and I tried my best to acheive them, and I tried new things. The only thing I have not really succeeded in to an enormous degree is leadership. I hope to take a more active leadership role next year in RCCI. In conclusion, in terms of CAS, my Grade 11 year was very satisfying, rewarding and enjoyable!

RCCI concluding thoughts

We had our last RCCI meeting for the year, but unfortunately only 3 kids were able to make it due to the rain. So we had alot of food and very little to do with it, so the party wasn't a great success. Sadly this was Ms. McKeon's last RCCI session, as she is leaving us next year. I have really enjoyed working with the RCCI kids this year - it's been a real challenge, but a rewarding one. I think it's an important life skill to learn to communicate with different people, and differently abled people are generally overlooked by most societies, so this project has taught me to appreciate their perspective.

The Crucible

Cast List

Betty Parris - Sascha Shipley/ Stephanie Van Der Burgh
Reverand Samuel Parris - Dylan Bertus
Tituba - Christina De Silva
Abigail Williams - Grace Smith
Susanna Wallcot - Maheshi Dharmasiri
Mrs Ann Putnam - Maria Santiago
Thomas Putnam - Ali Khan
Mercy Lewis - Toni Levy
Mary Warren - Chrisni Mendis
John Proctor - Damien Martin
Rebecca Nurse - Ayla Oleson Yurteslan
Giles Corey - Kashish Sharma
Reverend John Hale - Thaim Rasheed
Mrs. Elizabeth Proctor - Alice Fredericks
Francis Nurse - Rajindh Fernando
Ezekiel Cheever - Sasha Smith-Sreen
Judge Hathorne - Filippo Stopponi
Deputy-Governor Danforth - Nicholas Buhne
Martha Corey - Marline Jaspers-Faijer
Hysterical Girl - Tangmo Saksirivetkul

Director - Ms. Abeyawardene

Crew

Costume Design and Makeup - Tara Nelson and Camille Raguin
Set Design and Production - Paul Schluetter and Hella Dijsselbloem-Giron
Photography and Publicity - Yiseul Shin
Lighting and Sound - Saba Rewald
Props - Sascha Shipley
Prompter - Harshini Karunaratne

Visual Arts Co-ordinator - Ms. Barnett

So! We finally made it to production week. We have been working on this play since the beginning of this semester. It was an extremely ambitious play, but in the end I think we scraped through creditably. We still had some line problems, so our prompt, Harshini, was invaluable! It all looked like it was going to be a disaster at the dress rehearsals, as people were still memorising large portions of their scripts back-stage. Luckily, I had freaked out a couple of weeks earlier about how close to performing we were, and had learnt most of my lines. Admittedly, I had an awful lot less than some of our main leads, like Thaim, Damien and Nicholas.

I had started with the impression that my character was a little bit boring, but by the end of the production I really empathized with her. I enjoyed being someone that has a quiet dignity and courage - precisely because I am so different. I think that she is important in creating the human drama in the play - otherwise it would be quite impersonal. She brings a sense of personal tragedy, of reality, to John Proctor's story. I think she is not a particularly likeable character on her own, but she is saved in the audience's eyes by the fact that Proctor loves her.

Most of my scenes were with Proctor (Damien), which was actually quite helpful as we really learned to back each other up and interract on stage. It's much harder if there are more people on stage. If one of us forgot a line, the other was able to rescue them (although not always).

Overall I was really impressed with everyone's acting - people really 'found' their characters towards the end. There were just two main problems. The first one was lines: there were still some quite long, awkward pauses, even on the performance nights. Secondly, some of the scenes, especially towards the end, were really static - no one moved! This probably had something to do with not knowing their lines.

Our best Act was definitely the first one (which is kind of sad, because I wasn't in it), and then they gradually deteriorated down to the last one, where we ended up skipping large chunks of the script because we couldn't remember it. That said, the last act was particularly difficult, and was mainly a conversation between Danforth (nicholas) and Proctor (damien). The two guys did really really well, considering the amazing amount of lines they had to remember, as did Hale (thaim) and Parris (dylan).


I think that while this certainly wasn't a perfect production of the Crucible, it went a lot better than I had been expecting. It was also really helpful for understanding the play, which will be useful as it is one of my texts for the IB Examination Paper 2. I enjoyed developing my character, and getting to know some people I hadn't really talked to before, and especially being part of a cast, which is always fun. So it was a pretty positive experience, all things considered.

RCCI

Here are some photos from one of the sessions with the RCCI kids on Thursday afternoons. I was trying to teach two of the girls how to play volleyball (or just to get them to throw the ball back to me!). Throwing and catching games work very well, as does shooting hoops, and I have recently tried getting some of the boys to jog around the gym with me, which gets them some excercise.

I have been made leader for this semester, which means that I need to set up a website/blog about what we do at RCCI, and work hard to be a good role model for the other OSC kids - especially in helping the ones that are new to the activity understand how it works, and how to relate to the RCCI kids.

The Crucible: Character Research

I don't know how much this actually will help, but I found researching the Puritans kind of interesting, so here goes!

Joan Allen as Elizabeth Proctor in "The Crucible" (StinkyLulu Blog)

Puritans -sources: articles on The Puritans and The Salem Witch Trials on Wikipedia.

• Puritans settled New England in 1630 – 21,000 settlers. Not all stayed in America, but population grew a lot because there was high birth rate and low death rate.




• Greater emphasis on personal purity (Be there no penitence but it be public?? - asking them if they are not true to their puritan ideals).




• Each church is independent – there is no bishop hierarchy within the church.




• Very strict worship practices – no images, clothes, or CANDLES (disgusted by Parris and his wish for gold candlesticks). No Holidays (against the principles of the Bible). No music.




• State rewards ‘true religion’ and punishes ‘sin’ but is not part of the Church




• All members of the Church had to prove they led good lives etc. (if Elizabeth admits Proctor was a lecher they would be kicked out of the Church) but also had to recount an example of the grace of god working in their lives to the congregation.




• Order in the family fundamentally structured Puritan belief. The essence of social order lay in the authority of husband over wife, parents over children, and masters over servants in the family. (family is unusual in that Elizabeth has a certain amount of power of John because of his affair with Abigail.




• Children that behaved badly reflected on the obedience of the parents to god. It was therefore VERY important that Children be ready to for conversion… (reflected badly on Elizabeth that her son had not been baptized – bad mother = bad Christian).




• The home gave women the freedom to exercise religious and moral authority, performing duties not open to them in public. (John’s adultery happened at the home – partly Elizabeth's fault - in her eyes - because she did not keep her home together. It was her responsibility to keep the home/house pure).




• Children (particularly girls) were extremely repressed and not allowed to do anything. Children should be seen and not heard was taken at its word.




• Women seen as totally subservient to men – women more sinful, and more lustful. Sexual sin was usually their responsibility.

Character, Elizabeth Proctor:

Historical research + my interpretation: Her grandmother was a Quaker, which carries a certain stigma with the Puritans. She was also tried for witchcraft (Elizabeth Proctor, Wikipedia). Elizabeth always has to prove herself – always has to prove that she is pure enough to be accepted.

Many of her family was arrested – her family is looked down upon by others (Elizabeth Proctor, Wikipedia). MASSIVE COMPLEX ABOUT NOT BEING GOOD ENOUGH. Cares very much what other people think because this affects whether you live or die – support of the town was essential to survival (Puritan societies survived the harsh environment because they worked together).

Pinhole Photography

I have continued this elective in the second semester as leader of this elective. I contributed by suggesting that we try making Photograms during the first lesson, when most people did not have containers ready for their pin-hole cameras. A photogram is made by placing objects on top of a piece of photographic paper and then exposing this under an enlarger. An example is shown to the left, using a necklace, plastic beads, film strip, tissue paper and a glue stick.

I am lucky that Shamith, the leader from last term, is still in the elective as he knows what to do much more than I do, so he helps out the new people as well. Shamith is also working on putting together an exhibition of the photos that we took last semester, so hopefully that should happen some time this term.

Week Without Walls

From the 8th to the 12th of February, Grade 11 went on a field trip to Hambantota, on the southern coast of Sri Lanka. The trip was part of the Overseas School of Colombo's "Week without Walls" programm, where each grade devotes itself to a certain CAS activity for one week in February. Our objective was to repaint two pre-schools in the Hambantota area. As mentioned in a previous post, we were split into two groups, one for each pre-school. The week was mainly focused towards Community Service, but there were also aspects of Creativity and Action.


COMMUNITY SERVICE:
For 3 days from 9 am until 4 pm, we were the painting crew! It was actually quite physical work, and by the end of each day I was exhausted. We painted the inside and out of the two, very tall, exterior wall using rollers stuck on the end of a broom so it could reach the higher places. We painted the floor, the doors, the windows and ledges, and the playground equipment.

For the outside equipment, floors and windows, we used Enamel Paint (1 litre of paint to less than 1/4 litres of turpentine).

For the walls and most of the mural we used Emulsion Paint (1 litre of paint to 1/4 litres of water).

I was mostly involved in painting the inside walls on the first day; the mural on the second day (we started and finished it pretty much on the second day); and the doors and windows on the third day.

I found painting really satisfying because you could see what you had acheived. I liked the fact that we were doing something concrete for the school, however small. Often what we do at school -whether it be in classes, in CAS or just in our daily lives - is very conceptual, very removed from reality. In CAS we donate money to organisations, but we don't really see what becomes of it; or in RCCI we play with the kids, but we don't really know what becomes of them after they go home. OSC in itself is quite disconnected - there are very few places in the real world where you find such a mix and hybrid of cultures and nationalities. So taking that into account, it was nice to see that what we were doing was real, affected real people and possibly, just possibly, made a real (small!) difference.


We also spent 1/3 hour of each day playing with the kids, and at the end of the three days we put on a joint concert. It was really incredible to see how much support and interest we generated amongst the community - the concert had a fairly large turnout for what appeared to be a relatively small village. Christina and Raj became an invaluable members of our team at this point because they were able and willing to communicate with everyone, understanding not only the language but also picking up on the cultural cues and context.

I tried to make up for my lack of language skill by being as enthusiastic as possible. I played games, painted pictures, tried to learn some basic singhala vocab (so that people could laugh at my dreadful pronunciation), smiled as much as possible and clapped enthusiastically. During the concert, we put on a puppet show, which I had written from memory from a kid's book I had loved, and Christina had translated and then narrated. Tara, Grace and Ayla were the puppeteers, making wonderful sound affects for the animal puppets which caused a great deal of amusement. Young-Jun and Raj created the puppets (which were little works of art, incidentally). Saba, Ashish, Kashish, Filippo and Young-Jun put on two dance performances, which also went well. However, we paled in comparison to the awesome performances that the school put on. There is nothing quite so cute as a five year old on stage - it's universal!





ACTION
There wasn't an awful lot of action involved, unless you count the painting (which I do!). I was exhausted after every day - I had never realised what physical work painting is. But on the first day we also went on a Safari in Udawalawe National Park. Although this mostly involved sitting in the back of a jeep, it did get us out into 'the wild' - which I think is also a part of Action. Alot of the sports I most enjoy are outdoors type sports, and I enjoy them because they give me a chance to appreciate the beauty of my surroundings. SO we saw alot of elephants, which was truly an incredible experience. The sad part was that it wasn't as impressive as it should have been, which is the down side of spectacular wild-life documentaries - seen it all before! But to actually see an elephant in real life, (and we saw baby ones too) was nevertheless pretty magical.


CREATIVITY
As mentioned in the 'Planning for Week Without Walls' post, I was in charge of the mural. I came up with a design, and on the second day, Raj, Young-Jun and I painted it. We chose a smaller wall next to the entrance to the school, because the larger wall already had a mural on it. I think this ended up being a blessing in disguise, as it meant that the mural wasn't as monumental a task as it could have been. We finished earlier than expected, so Raj and Young-Jun painted a second mural on one of the other walls, which was a bonus. I enjoyed being able to put a little bit of thought into the painting I was doing - just painting a wall a single colour can get a bit mindless after a while!! The research and planning I had done made things a bit easier, because I had a clear mental picture of what I wanted the mural to look like, so it meant we didn't waste too much time. The best part of the mural was working together as a team with Raj and Young-Jun: they both worked really hard, and had some great creative input. It was very satisfying to be able to work so cohesively, and the final product showed this!

All in all, I really enjoyed Week Without Walls. I think this is something I would enjoy doing again, or at least something in a similar vein. While it is important, in humanitarian aid, to change policies and deal with the big picture, I think it is important to start with the smaller picture to get some perspective. Playing with the kids really gave me that perspective - it really showed me how just turning up and showing that you care can make a small amount of difference, that making a connection with the people you are trying to help is vital.