Official Blog Post #6: END THE HATE P.S.A

I’m back people. It’s been a while since I last posted and I apologize for that forum. So much has happened since I last posted, for the past three or so weeks in Drama class we have been working on something called PSAs. A PSA is a Public Service Announcement made to benefit out society. The PSA we were required to make in drama class was for increasing the awareness of a serious topic; our group chose the large topic of Hate. There are many different forms of hate in the world: Racism, prejudice, domestic violence, we focused on the topic of homophobia.

Our group campaigned this topic with a simple yet powerful name: End the Hate. We chose homophobia as our primary topic because we felt the world wasn’t addressing it enough. In the month of September alone 5 homosexual teenagers chose to take away their lives because they were treated unjustly. This touched me because if we as race make love as an importance, why is it that we condone it for homosexuals, they just represent their love in a different way.  We chose the colors purple and white to represent us, purple was chosen for two reasons one: it represented our production company Prolific Productions and two: it represented gay pride. White was chosen to represent Hate, this is because white is a very simple term and hate is tossed around like a simple word. This project was a wonderful experience because I portrayed the role of a homosexual in grade 9 drama and this PSA allowed me to further increase my knowledge of my character.   

  

Official Blog Post #5: SPORTS GALORE

He drives into the lane… step back move… and a SHOOTS FOR THE WIN. Welcome back forum, tonight I was at a loss for a topic to blog about and found myself on NBA.com watching highlights from a recent New Orleans Hornets game when I realized that my topic was staring me right in the face. I love sports from cricket to football. Although my favorite sport is basketball I’m a football player at the core. The thing about sports is when played competitively it will bring about both the best and worst in people, but when they’re played as for fun they become a source for activity.

I am incapable of playing a sport just for fun, I have got to win. If I don’t win I try to think about what I could have done better so that next time it doesn’t happen again. I play football for my school Fletcher’s Meadow Arrows, and when I’m in practice and I miss a tackle I slam my head and think about how next time I can tear the guy apart. Sometimes my competiveness overcomes me and I become a very horrible person, for example this summer while playing basketball with some of my close friends I aggressively grabbed a rebound causing my friend to fall, my actions eventually went on to a conflict where we were on the verge of exchanging blows. If I don’t win I will do anything I can to win. But thankfully I’m not usually a sore loser, if I lose a game my disappointment will quickly transfer into optimism.

Some of my idols in sports are LeBron James, and Michael Jordan. I appreciate each of these athletes for different of reasons. LeBron James, although widely disliked now for his actions over the summer is one of my favorite athletes because he’s just a perfect example of how talent mixed with hard work can pay off. Michael Jordan’s is not only renowned for his athleticism but also for his mentality towards the game: He played an NBA finals game with a severe flu, the Utah Jazz gave him no room to breath but through his will alone MJ propelled his team to victory. Ra        

Official Blog Post # 4: Why so Wicked?

Good evening forum. I had one of the best experiences of my life on Wednesday, November 3^rd; I went with my drama class to see the play Wicked in the Cannon Theatre in Downtown Toronto. This was definitely the highlight of my week for I got to experience something completely out of the ordinary. I have never seen a live play in my life, and Wicked blew my mind.

Prior to getting into telling you about the experience itself let me give you a brief description about the play. Wicked is a prologue to the well known story “The Wizard of Oz”, Wicked is the story of two witches Glinda the Good and The Wicked Witch of the West, and how their original rivalry grows into a unbreakable bond of friendship.

When the play began I was somewhat overwhelmed by the musical experience, since majority of the play is in song it can be hard to infer the point of the scene. But I put my pickiness aside and chose to watch the play through the character’s eyes and I began to thoroughly enjoy the play. Halfway through the play I realized something about the play which made it much easier to relate to. The main character Elphaba has her world turned upside down when she finds out that her hero, her idol, The Great Wizard of Oz is truly powerless. Although the world seems no different when she finds out in her mind the entire Land of Oz is in anarchy. How is that one known and recognized for his power and wisdom is in truth just a fake.

This can be related back to when you first begin to realize that your parents who appear as the light at the end of the tunnel, those who know all and see all in truth are just human. Although the Wizard was not a positive character one of his points rendered true: The people of Oz still need to have a leader – (not the exact words). This is true because when there is someone to govern people work better, knowing that there is a greater force at work in the world. Whether you believe this force to be your parents, the government, or a god.   

This experience was truly an eye opener for me and I genuinely enjoyed watching this play. For it helped me re analyze my life from a different perspective