VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS
An elementary school level arts program is the very first encounter students have with artistic expressions. As they learn to communicate their thoughts, feelings, and understanding, through the arts, students learn how to do it in nonverbal ways. The artistic expressions in the standards are Visual Arts, Dance, Music, and Theater. Art programs should include performing and experiencing such arts while combining them with daily activities such as reading and writing. More importantly, these programs should include activities that appeal to the interests and cultural background of the students. Some examples can include music, culturally inclusive artists, and literature that showcase characters to whom students can reflect themselves on. Curriculum based on the content standards requires active learning through the study, practice, creation, or performance of works of art. It also requires reading about the arts and artists; researching the arts from the past and present; writing about the arts and artists to reflect on one’s own observations, experiences, and ideas about the arts; and participating in arts criticism based on reliable information and clear criteria.
I am an artist. As mentioned in the Math section, I used to doodle during math class. Working in an elementary school setting calls for creating fun, colorful, and unique materials to keep kids engaged. It also means that students follow our example, get inspire, and eventually, they dare to create something on their own. One of the first classes I took was Theater 374, Stage Directing. In this class, we learned theories and techniques of directing for an educational play production. The idea was to develop the ability to research, analyze and conceptualize to plan the rehearsal and performance of a play script. In all the classes I took at Dominguez Hills I had the chance to create something to further explain a concept or idea. I joke with my friends that I am extra when it comes to create something. I enjoy the challenges, excitement, and the process of building something from scratch.
As I mentioned before, I am not only an artist, I am extra. As my artifacts I have chosen two visual arts examples and one performing/writing piece. I created the first artifact for my Spanish 351 class, Contemporary Hispanic Culture: Spanish-Speaking America. In this course we went over specific topics that included Norms, inter-group relations, institutions, language, and societal values of rural and urban people in Latin America. The assignment was to recreate a piece of work by the Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo. I recreated “Hombre con flor” or “Men with Flower” using pastels. We also had to add 7 important points about Tamayo’s life. The second artifact is a sample I created for KIN 425, Physical Education in the Elementary School. The task was to create a newsletter to the parents, as if I was the PE teacher. I included it in Visual Arts because illustration and design software are also a tool to create visually appealing pieces. The last artifact combines performing arts and writing skills. In THE 374, we were asked to attend a presentation of the “Blood Wedding” by Federico Garcia Lorca performed by the CSUDH Theater department. The task was to write a review of the play. This artifact combines performance arts with my writing skills.
SPA 351: Contemporary Hispanic Culture: Spanish-Speaking America.
Men with Flower by Rufino Tamayo, recreated by Deborah Andrade Giron
Media: Pastels
7 puntos importantes sobre Rufino Tamayo
1. Tamayo era un “alquimista de la investigación.”
2. Pinta elementos con forma de humano.
3. Tamayo cambió la secuencia para los jóvenes .
4. Cambió las tradiciones esperadas en el contexto de la pintura.
5. Utilizaba mucho la sandía en sus pinturas.
6. La cultura mexicana se refleja en sus pinturas.
7. Se alejó del típico color rosado en el arte mexicano.
KIN 425: PE In The Elementary School
Newsletter created in Adobe Illustrator
THE 374. Stage Directing
Blood Wedding Response
The director of this presentation of Blood Wedding, delivered a very Hispanic and very dark rendering of Federico Garcia Lorca’s play. The makeup, lighting, and music supported the fact that this is not a happily ever after type of play. The cast seemed to work together as a whole; however, certain characters could have been cast differently, and that would have given them a stronger presence on stage. On stage, there were certain aspects that, as audience, distracted us from the play, what was happening on stage, and from the overall plot of the story. Overall it was a good play, with a clear plot, also, the vision from of the director was clear, even though some of her choices ended up distracting the audience.
For someone that does not know Blood Wedding, and based on the pictures on the lobby and on the pamphlet showing the cast with Día de Los Muertos makeup, the play was probably about this Hispanic celebration, but they are not related at all. However, the somber, death related plot of the play allowed the director to include this elements on her version. The music in the introduction set the mood for the rest of the play, and accentuated the choice of makeup for the cast. "La Llorona,” a song popularized by Chavela Vargas, describes the legend of a woman who spends all of eternity mourning the death of her children by the banks of the river in which they drowned. This can easily relate to the everything the Groom’s mother goes through by losing her entire family, not by drowning, but because of violence. The makeup is famous during the end of October, beginning of November, which is when in the Hispanic culture is celebrated el Día de Los Muertos. This celebration is not meant to be scary, it is in fact a statement of death acceptance, and a moment to honor the loved ones who have died. Blood Wedding is a play with death as theme, and even though this act has affected the main characters, the makeup gives the audience the idea that they have accepted their deaths and are trying to move on. On the other hand, the lighting and choice of colors emphasized the somber theme of the director’s vision. There was indirect light and many of the colors used were black, purple, and red, colors that are often related to death.
The whole ensemble worked perfectly together, and even though some performers stole the show, certain casting choices could have been different, which would have given them a stronger presence on stage. Skylar Johnson as the Servant was one of, if not, the best character in the play. Despite of being Johnson’s first performance at CSUDH, he gets his presence on stage known, and delivers an excellent rendering of the servant. In the original play, the servant is a female character; still, Johnson’s performance makes the audience completely unaware, and whishing that every installment of the play could have a male servant.
On the contrary, the character of the mother seems to have passed unnoticed. In Blood Wedding, the mother is elderly, and very vocal about the town’s gossip and her fears and concerns regarding the wedding. It is understandable that due to the student population in Dominguez Hills, the mother had to be played by someone in her 30’s or even 20’s; however, sometimes her voice seemed to be lost in the crowd. For example, she delivers a monologue where she explains that after seeing her dead son’s bloody corpse, she leaked his blood with her tongue because he was her blood. This is a powerful speech of a mother that has gone through a lot, and is still suffering because of it. However, as an audience member, it was hard to feel empathy of her pain. Loosing loved ones is always hard, and loosing everyone that has ever meant something to you must be even worse, but, the performance lacked pain, sorrow, and basically any other emotions that can be felt during a monologue like that one.
On the other hand, in this particularly rendering, there were certain factors that distracted the audience from the plot, and anything that was happening on stage. In this director’s vision of Blood Wedding, the whole cast was always on stage. This element worked well during the opening act when the whole cast was singing “La Llorona” and also with scenes like the wedding and the party. However, having them on stage during the entire play was distracting to the audience. Having the entire cast on stage gave the idea that the whole cast was going to be part of the scenes. It was soon evident that they were in fact not part of the scenes. What was most distracting of all was that they were in constant motion, some were fanning themselves, others seemed to be sewing, and other were simply moving their arms. Even thou their movements were slow, they were repetitive, and they seemed to switch movements every so often, which made the audience wonder what new movement will they come out with, and why were all on stage. This completely upstaged the characters that were on scene.
Overall, Blood Wedding was a good, enjoyable play with a clear vision from the director’s perspective. The director delivered a very Hispanic, and very dark rendering of the play. The Día de Los Muertos makeup was a perfect fit with the dark, somber theme, of Garcia Lorca’s play. Even though some casting choices could have been different, others were extremely enjoyable, and left the audience wishing for more.