Film Adaptations

For the past three weeks or so, my coursemates and I have been watching film adaptations of plays as a part of EDU 3217. So far, we have only watched four plays, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Oedipus Rex, Roman Polanski’s version of Shakespeare’s Macbeth as well as King Lear. I enjoyed these sessions very much though I find the film adaptation of Macbeth and Oedipus Rex lacking oomph. I hate to admit it, but I find this version of Macbeth a tad too boring for my liking. I have watched another version of it and found it to be more interesting. The visual quality for Oedipus Rex was poor so I had trouble making sense of the visuals shown. I enjoyed both Elizabeth: The Golden Age as well as King Lear tremendously.











I find it beneficial though, since watching these films actually help me make sense of what theatre is all about. Watching these film adaptations give me a better understanding of the historical, geographical and social setting, as well as the characters and other elements of the plays. It also gives me an idea of how the play should be enacted. In fact, I had my King Lear text with me which I read silently in-sync with the film. I also find these film sessions beneficial for students with visual-spatial learning styles. Studies have shown that students learn more when they are exposed to audio and visual materials apart from texts. Using films in literature lessons is an added advantage since it enables students to evaluate verbal and non-verbal clues in the film as well as pay attention to the details.

If I were to teach literature in school, I will definitely encourage my students to watch film adaptations of the text which they will learn. I believe that it will give them a different perspective and attitude that learning literature can be cool and fun after all!

Set Induction

Micro teaching is here again to haunt me. The pressure and the need to live up to the lecturer and tutor’s expectations can be insane sometimes. Moreover, there are three micro teachings this semester, compared to only one for the previous semester.

For my micro teaching for EDU 3217, I chose to teach the play The Ring by Vincent Jeremiah Edwin. My initial choice was Macbeth, but I decided not to do it in the end because I was afraid that I might face difficulties in setting questions and activities for the pre-reading and while reading stage.

For my set induction, I designed my own video. The first part of the video consisted of a few questions for students to ponder to initiate their schemata. One of them was to imagine what a female demon would look like. It was then followed by a series of pictures of female demons. Next, I showed them a video clip from a British TV programme, Demons. After showing them the video, I asked them a few questions –

• Describe the main female character in the video clip. What does she do? How does she look like?
• How was the main female character in the video clipping similar or different from the pictures shown earlier?
• Was the main female character in the video clipping similar or different from what they visualized a female demon would be?

I ended the set induction stage by introducing them to the play that will be taught. The feedback I got from the tutor was that I did not discuss the questions with the students. He mentioned that I should have asked the students questions and get them to discuss about their opinions regarding the issues brought up. He also commented that I need not ask students questions in the exact format as the procedure I submitted for his reference. He advised me to paraphrase my questions again to make them sound less formal.

To be honest, I was disappointed with the set induction activities this time round. Everyone took into account of the tutor and lecturer’s suggestion to use songs and videos, thus they incorporated these into their set induction. As a result, most of them had similar set induction activities (same pictures, same videos, same concept) which made the whole process a complete bore. In addition to that, everyone chose to do the same play hence the similarity in their set induction activities.

I have definitely learned a lot of new things from this experience. For instance, though I have planned my micro teaching and revised it over and over again to avoid mistakes, the tutor has identified my weaknesses which I did not realize myself. It teaches me that careful planning doesn’t necessarily produce good results. It also teaches me to vary the teaching aids I use to make the lesson interesting and impressive. I will bear this in mind and learn from my mistakes and weaknesses and try to improve myself for the pre-reading and while reading stage.

My First Taste of Live Musical, and soon, Theatre!

Puteri Gunung Ledang The Musical was my first taste of a live musical. It was structured along the lines of a traditional Broadway or West End musical with scenes of spoken dramatic dialogue, punctuated with songs highlighting the emotional moments and dance sequences adding spectacle and excitement to the narrative. Since it was my first time, I found it A-W-E-S-O-M-E! What amazed me was the set design and art direction – the stone friezes and the intricate wood carvings were so versatile! All they did was switch the position of the props and a different place and atmosphere was created!









Truth be told, I had initially thought that it was a theatre but Dr. Edwin told the class that it was not a theatre but a musical instead. So, I went online to search for plays that will be staged in KL and found one entitled The Madman’s Diary which will be staged at KLPAC on the 9th-12th of April. Unfortunately, my coursemates and I will only watch the play after the submission date for the blog assignment. Thus, I will not be able to blog about my experience watching a play. However, I will blog on a brief synopsis of what The Madman’s Diary is about.

The Madman’s Diary is part of KLPAC’s Australia Month programme. The Madman’s Diary is actually one of the best works by Russian writer Nikolai Gogol and sits amongst some of the most important works of world literature. It certainly bears the trademarks of Gogol's writings where a perfectly ideal world is turned upside down by a single event or action. This performance of Gogol's short story is an electrifying international collaboration that brings together two remarkable Australians - director Joe Hasham and actor Will Gluth.



Originally set in 1840's Russia, it has been transported to a contemporary setting. The story centres on the life of a low-ranking civil servant who yearns to be noticed by a beautiful woman, the daughter of a senior official. His diary records his gradual slide into insanity. As his madness deepens, he begins to suspect two dogs are having a love affair and subsequently declares himself to be the King of a certain kingdom. The story satirizes the rampant petty officialdom of the bureaucracy in the 1840s in St. Petersburg, and has been interpreted by some as going beyond this to being an allegory about the political state of Russia at the time, revealing writer Nikolai Gogol's view of the government from the standpoint of a lowly citizen.


I can’t help but feel excited to watch this play. I hope that it will turn out to be as good as I expect it to be and that it will not be a let-down. The Madman’s Diary, April 9th, 8.30 p.m. @ KLPAC – here I come!

A Case Of Mistaken Identity

Writing has never been my passion. I used to dread completing writing tasks since young. One part of it is because I lacked the creativity to make my writing appealing and interesting for the intended audience. Though I love reading, I could never seem to put my ideas or thoughts about what I have read into words or writing.

When it came to writing a one-act play for EDU 3217, coming out with an idea or issue for the assignment was not an easy task. There was a lot of brainstorming among my group members - Cynthia, Hui Yi and I, but most ideas were rejected because we did not want to create a play that is too clichéd. After much contemplation, we chose to write a tragicomedy, since it was something we had just learnt during lecture.

Writers of The Mole
From left to right: Samantha Yong, Cynthia Dorhat, Kong Hui Yi

So here it goes. We named the play, The Mole, after the main character in the play. It is about a case of mistaken identity. It revolves around a school boy who is involved in a notorious gang in his school. Out of loyalty towards the brotherhood, he promised to fulfill the gang leader’s wish of revenge on another school boy who provoked him. However, things went awry when the school boy unintentionally killed the wrong person. To make matters worse, he managed to escape while his friend had to bear the blame. As time goes by, his guilt eats him alive. He believes he sees the ghost of the victim coming back to haunt him. Worried, his mother brought him to see a shaman, thinking that her son was possessed by an evil spirit. However, the play ends with the tragic death of the boy who was knocked down by a car whose driver actually resembles the victim the boy killed!

I must say, writing the play has been a fun and interesting experience, though for most of it, all we did was string our crazy ideas into a play. It enables us teacher trainees to pour our creative juices (that is if we have any) and train ourselves to become better writers and teachers.

Who knows? Maybe one day this play will become famous. Then, I'll get PCK or Enrique to play the main character.

PCK and his trademark mole

Enrique Iglesias

Nah, just kidding :P

The Blind Seer

Teiresias is the son of Eueres and a nymph named Chariclo. He was blind in both eyes. The mythographic compendium Bibliotheke, stated that different versions of stories were told of the cause of his blindness. One of them was told by a poet named Pherecydes which was followed in Callimachus’ poem The Bathing of Pallas. This version tells that Teiresias was blinded in both eyes because he stumbled onto goddess Athena bathing naked. Teiresias’ mother, Chariclo, besought Athena to undo her curse, but Athena could not. Instead, she bestowed upon him the gift of augury and a cherrywood staff with which he could walk like those who have their sight. Another version tells that Teiresias saw two snakes mating and hit them with a stick. Hera was not pleased, thus she changed Teiresias into a woman as a punishment. Seven years later, Teiresias came across another two snakes that were mating and hit them with a stick. This undid the punishment and Teiresias was change into a man again. The third version tells that Teiresias was drawn into an argument between Zeus and Hera. He was asked whether the male or the female had more pleasure in sex. Since Teiresias had experienced both, he revealed woman’s greatest secret – that the woman receives greater pleasure. This angered Hera so she blinded him as a punishment. Zeus failed to stop Hera, thus, he gave Teiresias the gift of foresight and a lifespan of seven years.

In Greek literature, Teiresias’ pronouncements were always clever and wise but never wrong. However, like most oracles, Teiresias was always reluctant to reveal his visions. Because Teiresias was a great seer, he became very useful to authors and was much invoked in their works.