allys20timeproject-blog

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Final Blog

The subject I have chosen for my 20Time this semester is dystopian literature. This past week I have been focusing mostly on poems and going a little farther in the fifth wave. Similar to the fifth wave these pieces seem to have a lot of destruction and grieving but not necessarily the idea of a "perfect society". In fact many seem to lack the society factor at all. A lot of them are far more apocalyptic and more about war and post destruction. They of course share a strong use of commentary on human behavior and downfalls. A major part of the poetry I believe is point of view. All of the poems I've read this far have been told in third person omniscient and provide a very eerie, all knowing tone toward to storu at hand. It's very distant. This perhaps could be a supplement to this idea that the people of the society function as mindless masses and can't see the faults of their function, so it requires someone who isn't a part of society to be able to pick apart why it isn't a utopia. Some very prominent themes in all of the poetry also are Destruction and Nature. Which do not go hand in hand. A lot of them carry the idea that through the destruction of mankind, nature lives its fullest life.

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Blog

My Literature theme is Dystopian. This last week I've been The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey. The most prominent theme I'm noticing psychoanalytical as the entirety of the novel is the protagonists thoughts. The uniqueness of this novel however is the mind games that the aliens have played on the humans, and how twisted Cassie is. Particularly her as a teen, and trying to murder and survive and losing her family. This piece seems to fit the genre in that the world has been destroyed and there are very very few humans left. It doesn't seem to fit however the "utopia becomes dystopia" idea. It seems more apocalyptic than Dystopian. But we'll see where the novel goes! This piece is unique because as opposed to all of the short stories I have read so far, this book is written in first person, where as everything else has been in third person, or third person omniscient. So this makes for an interesting conflict, because the conflict while overall is humanity vs. the others, But the first person view gives an insight to another conflict between Cassie and Herself, this internal monologue is something we haven't seen in other pieces and it will be interesting to see if this conflict is as prominent later on in the novel

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Blog 11

My category for this project is dystopian literature. This week I finished Harrison Bergeron and began one of my novels, The 5th Wave. The basic premise is that in Harrison Bergeron, no one man is better than anyone else. The society is specifically designed to make sure that no one is better than anyone else. Except Harrison Bergeron, who is worlds better than everyone else, and dies in the end of the story for breaking the rules of the society. the largest Literary Lens I am noticing is the marxist lens, or more importantly the lack of it. The society in Harrison Bergeron makes a point to make sure that no one has any more money or any more power than any other man. As though this futuristic society believes that they had learned from our inequalities,and found a way to solve them. However when we read it, we see all of the faults of the society and how they can’t celebrate their differences. And that is why this story fits the category, because while the society seems good to the characters, it is in fact a dystopia. The conflict in this piece is interesting because we work so hard in this society to make sure everybody “gets a trophy” and we’re constantly striving for equality. While most of the time the equality we fight for is also for justice, this shows a point of view in which this fight is taken too far. Not too many connections between this and other pieces. Other than the general theme that is, balance is key. We as humans need to make sure we don’t take things too far, and all of these short stories have shown instances in which we took things too far. 

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Blog 7

This week I read “The Pedestrian” and  began Harrison Bergeron. Which are both considered dystopian short stories. I haven’t read enough of Harrison Bergeron to develop lens analysis but, for The Pedestrian, I am slightly noticing the Historical Lens in regards to social customs. In the story a man is walking outside when he is arrested however the cop is entirely robotic. Being pulled over by a policeman is a typical thing we see every day but not usually for walking around outside. Also the cops are usually human so you could say this is the extreme of what happens when police crimes (or like in today’s world police brutality) becomes so controversial that the government takes that job away from humans altogether. As far as fitting into to typical dystopian themes this one meets the man having power over nature but in an interesting way. The man in the story goes outside and appreciates every thing about the nature, but it’s not allowed to be appreciated. Everyone is supposed to stay in their home, this is probably to suppress free-thinking. It also discusses altruism vs. egoism in an interesting light. The man walks around outside, breaking the law and benefitting himself, egoism, but he harms no one else in the process, so there is no altruism. This story is told in third person omniscient, which fits with most dystopian literature, especially older. I would like to pick out conflict particularly though because there seems to be no conflict throughout the entire story, right up until the last page. For a majority of the story the man views the neighborhood, the nature and minds his business, and the narrator describes these events. It is in the last page that the conflict arises as the man is arrested, and the story abruptly ends with the man’s disappearance. There is no resolution for our protaganist, and his climax and falling action are incredibly short lived. This writing style doesn’t make sense to me, I have yet to see if that is dystopian styled, or a rare Bradbury twist. I see very similar styles to this and “There Will Come Soft Rain” also by Bradbury, which we read in 8th grade.  

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Week 2

I am reading and studying the distopian genre of literature, this week I chose to read the short story, The Lottery by Shirley Jackson. Some major lenses in noticing are Gender roles, Historian lens and Moral/Ethical. In this futuristic society the women "meet their menfolk" (1) and don't do the hard dirty work, like drawing for the lottery. All the women are married and have children and at one point one of the husbands even tells his wife to "shut up" (7). While Jackson doesn't necessarily present any gaping social commentary, she discusses significantly that the Lottery is tradition "there's always been a lottery" (6). The townsmembers don't think much of their crimes because that's the way it always has been. This also, of course, plays into the moral and ethical lense. While looking at the stoning as a reader the terror of the town is apparent but it is merely ritual to them, nothing wrong with it. It fits in the category because, although it's a little weird that they all meet each year, the reader doesn't realize someone is going to die until nearly the end of the story. All seems well, but in reality it is insanely inhumane. And of course to the townspeople this is nothing wrong to them, there's nothing inhumane about it. As far as fictional analysis, I would say the primary conflict here is Man Vs. Society, Mrs. Hutchinson has to face death because of the way her society is shaped. It's harder with short stories because you don't get the whole back story: How did the society get to be the way it is? Is there a solution? How long has it been like this? But, I do believe that Man Vs Society will be a primary theme in Dystopian literature. Another large part of the Lottery is Jackson's style. She writes the story almost nonchalantly, the idea that this stoning is just a regular thing to the people of the town. As far as connections there aren't a whole lot noticeable right now, it obviously bares a similar style to Hunger Games.

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Week 9 So this week Abigail went to Kentucky for her brothers wedding and I had an audition on Saturday morning so we were unable to hold a workshop on Saturday. However, we held Musical workshops all week this week. Monday Wednesday and Friday were dance workshops, so we got the opportunity to teach like 30 kids! It was awesome and I hope it compels more people to come to the dance workshops. On Monday and Wednesday Abi went over basic dance steps with them like ponies, chanaes, develope kicks and batmas, a lot of the basic stuff we went over in workshops. Then, on Friday I got to teach the students a combination, and they performed it for Pence in small groups of 5, it was really fun and really exciting! Overall I'm completely on track for deadlines. However we are losing a lot more workshops than intended, we won't be able to have one this Saturday either due to a fundraiser for the department. Next up is coming up with the curriculum for the tap workshop, I need to meet with Abigail and discuss when that will be and what we'll go over. I also need to start putting together what I want to say for my Ted Talk!

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Week 8 We held another workshop this week! With our highest attendance ever of four people! I'm beginning to think that may be as high as our attendance goes, but that's okay, I'm satisfied with the work I'm doing. Of course we'd love to work on getting more people, but again, I'm still happy. Unfortunately we aren't holding one this week as Abi and I will both be gone, hopefully this absence does not affect attendance too greatly in the weeks to come. We also need to come up with curriculum for a two workshop which we decided to include this week, as tsp is a very prevalent dance style in musical theatre and is difficult to learn quickly and on the spot. During this week's workshop we stretched for approximately thirty minutes, then we did across the floor work. These exercises consisted of three step turns, chanaes, batmas, sassy walks and posses, these exercises took about forty-five minutes. Then we learned a combination to the song, "Supercalifrgilisticexpialidosious" from the Broadway musical and famous Disney Movie, Mary Poppins. This also took about forty-five minutes and it is pictured above. We try to teach a new combination each week in order to prepare students for what dance auditions are really like. Students will seldom if ever have access to an audition dance beforehand, so it's important to get the brain in shape for learning it quickly and efficiently.

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Week 7

We held our second workshop this week! And doubled our numbers! From 1 to 2 that is. That's alright though. Unfortunately I wasn't able to be there because I had to attend a practice workshop for state choir auditions. But Abigail said they worked on good stretching technique and even started putting together combinations! That's amazing! Of course it's easier to teach when you only have two students, but that's okay! My skills won't improve much until I can be in there teaching students, then I can learn about what the proper way to teach is and what methods students learn best through. The next step is still, getting more people to show up. I'm trying to get Mr. Pence to advocate it more but he's been as it is show week, and we're trying to keep this event completely independent from the school functions, which I entirely understand. It's just proven to be more difficult than anticipated for Abigail and I to advertise these. But I've talked to some more people and it's looking like we may have four or five there this Saturday, plus it's the first week Abigail and I will both be there teaching together! Yay! I think as our last fall show wraps up ad people begin to really start thinking about the musical, our attendance will skyrocket, that's the hope at least.

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Week 6

I held my first workshop this week! So I went through and planned out a really solid curriculum that consisted of really in depth stretching, basic jazz steps like: Batmas, jazz walks, pas de borrees, and jazz squares. I was very proud of myself and very excited! Then, one girl showed up to the workshop. So we stretched some and then cut it short as there was no point in teaching one person curriculum. So I finally held the workshop, but it wasn’t exactly successful. Since I’ll have to teach this weeks curriculum again next week, that puts me one week behind schedule. So the next step is making sure that I’m advertising the event. I made a post on Facebook, so I’ll probably try to tweet sometime in the next couple of days, and just haggle everyone that I see about showing up. I should also lay out the curriculum for the next few weeks more in depth. I also realized, upon starting my workshop, that I didn’t any music or anything to play music from! So I will need to pick out music for my exercises this week and make sure that I bring a speaker or a CD player for next week.I’m glad I was able to catch these things before it turned into a big deal. While these things are important, the most important of these is making sure that I can get people to come. I will certainly be lacking product if I don’t teach anyone to dance.

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Week 5

This week was yet again, not entirely productive, I got the key from the church so that was productive. But we were supposed to hold our first dance workshop this Saturday and it fell through. I mixed up the schedules and forgot that my choir would be singing at RenFest this weekend, in addition to the act that  permission forms still hadn’t been printed by Saturday. So no workshop this week. I learned that it’s okay to cancel something that you were planning on doing. However, permission forms have been printed now and we will absolutely be holding our first workshop on Saturday. This puts me one week behind the “revamped” schedule, but other than that I am on track for my deadlines. I have come a long way from my starting point, I originally had the idea over the summer but no means to make it work. This project gave me motivation to make it happen and after a lot of trials, it’s finally happening! I can’t wait to see the effect that sharing my talent and my passion has on the kids of the program and where it will put us for musical season (in three weeks.) My helper Abi Knepper can’t be there on Saturday so my next step is to perfect what I will be teaching on Saturday. I also need to collect permission forms from students and hype up the workshop during the upcoming week to make sure that we have people actually attending the workshop. Other than that, everything is in order and ready to go. 

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Week Four

This week has been very productive! I finished the liability form and turned in the room application for the church. The only thing we are waiting on now is the final sign-off from Christ Community Church and to get Mr. Pence to print the forms.Once these two things have happened, we will be ready to have our first workshop! Tuesday will be spent advertising the workshop on Saturday. I am nervous that we may not get very many students as there is a show for the theatre department on Saturday night. While the two don’t conflict, we might have too many students still sleepy from Friday night. But hopefully there will be enough students that still want to do it. I am very exciting to finally begin workshops and I can’t believe it is this close. This puts us exactly on time for deadlines, I wish had started advertising earlier but that will be okay. 

The photo above is of my helper Abigail Knepper and I after last year’s mainstage musical: The Addams Family. 

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Week Three

Hello everybody, so my 20Time project has come a long way this week! I don’t think I ran into any major problems. This week was pretty much all progress. I got the curriculum from my partner and I got the okay from the space at my church. Which means I have the potential to start workshops on Friday. I need to fill out the form the church gave me and make a few edits to the permission slip and then I’m ready to begin advertising. So I’m finally ready to set up the sign- up genius! I’m still several weeks behind my original goal, but on track as of my rescheduling last week.  So yeah after those few minor steps are taken the next big thing is just advertisement and getting people to show up, then we’ll try to host our first workshop this Saturday! The picture above is a photo of the space we would be using. It has good length so it will be good for the set up, it’s not overly large so if too many people show up I would worry slightly about room;however it’s ideal because we wouldn’t have to put too many things back together after using the room, which is what my concern became with using the sanctuary, as we’d have to put all the chairs back in their rows for service on Sunday. Anyway, I would really like to start this Saturday, but I’m worried it will be too short notice and we may have to put it off until the next Saturday. I’m anxious to get this off the ground and would prefer to not wait another week

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Week 2

So this week was rather, unproductive.I guess it was more productive than it seems, but it feels like I’m not making any progress because I don’t have location in place. I realized it’s useless to start advertising until I know where I’m going to be holding my dance workshops, and I can’t figure that out until my youth pastor gets back from vacation two weeks from now. I texted her, and found out that there will probably be a space available in the church for free, which is an awesome plus! The trick would be finding which spaces are available, most rooms in the church would work but some might be too small. There is another lady at the church who does the scheduling for the rooms, so I think I may try to talk to her next Sunday. If we can get something worked out, that leaves a week for me to open sign-ups and advertise the program before next Saturday. That isn’t a lot of time, but I think I need to just jump in and get started. If I keep waiting in the “prep” phase I’m worried I’ll never really get started. I still need to get curriculum from my partner, which I have asked for nearly every day this week. So I am a little frustrated with that situation. I planned to start workshops the week after old settlers, so as of right now I am two weeks behind, and after this Saturday it will be three. I’m not worried though. So long as I get in even 3 or 4 solid workshops I’ll feel good, and if I can start two Saturdays from now, I’d say I’m in a pretty good place. So next is talking to the lady at my church. I’m honestly kind of stuck until that gets done. I can’t start sign-ups or advertising until that’s completed. However once I finish talking to her progress will rapidly increase. There is a possibility I could get my mom to excuse me tomorrow during 20Time to drive to the church and go talk to her. That would allow more time for advertisement and sign-ups. I decided that I will advertise through the theatre’s social media accounts, and I’ll use sign up genius as an RSVP. I also got my mom to agree to be a parent sponsor. So my to-do list for this week is drastically shortened to: 

- Talk to Virginia at the church about availability

- Create a likeness permission sheet? (I’m not sure if this is something I will need or not)

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Week One So My name is Ally Tinker and my 20Time project is Dance Workshops! Basically getting a group of kids together and teaching them basic technique, and learning how to apply that technique to basic combinations. The focus group for this project will be Olathe North Theatre kids, so improved technique will drastically better the overall quality of shows. We recently pitched our ideas in class, and mine was sub-par. It was rather short, I had good energy but could have explained the idea a little more. From watching my peers perform, I realized the importance of speaking clearly, purposely and making eye-contact. These factors make you appear more confident and passionate about your work. This week has been busy, and I haven't made much progress yet. I have all the dates and idea laid out in my head, but I need a specific to-do list of the steps to go through before the first workshop next Saturday. -I need to figure out how to get kids signed up - I need to talk to my youth pastor and see if there's any way we could use the church as a location for the workshops. If not, I need to check with Parks and Recreation to see which shelters are reserved on the days we need them. -I need to pick a form of advertising. I definitely need to post on the theatre Facebook page and Twitter, I would like to do this after I have the details figured out. - I need to get the curriculum from my partner and review it. - I need to find a parent sponsor For each week (if not, 2) The main concern right now is finding a location, after this, happe fully things will quickly fall into place, and stress will relieve. (Above: North Theatre kids rehearsing "When You're an Addams" from the 2016 main stage musical "The Addams Family")