With our amazing script and excellent performance, this was without a doubt another
great success in my English teaching career
For the first time
since the Education Bureau held this competition ten years ago, we finally came
in first place. Upon hearing the announcement, we were all over the moon,
shouting and screaming. This feeling was hard to describe with words, but I
knew I wanted to remember the ecstasy for a very long time.
This glorious
victory carries some significant meaning to me. First of all, ten years ago,
when the competition was first held, we regrettably came in second. When it was
our turn to coach for this year's, we always aimed for the championship. Of
course, this was also the very first grand prize in the history in KMJH. Then,
the story itself was well structured, with some twists and surprises, and of
course, designed for vocal expressions to bring the characters alive. I
especially took great pride when the judge said it was one of the very few
perfect scripts that he was ever seen. Finally, my daughter took on the leading
role as Aladdin, and together we spent so much time getting her performance
better and better. It's great that the father and daughter can work towards the
same goal and share the same passion.
So, how exactly
did we pull this off? Well, let's save the details for my future workshop
presentations and boil them down to four major key elements:
1. Story Structure
I watched dozens
of YouTube videos on this topic and finally absorbed the very core of a story
structure. Then I proceeded to work on the script, with each scene having its
own goal. For example, for the big revelation to work, Aladdin has to suffer
the most but still ignores the price he has paid until Jasmine decided to give
him a second chance but hung up on him.
I felt like a
great director when writing the screenplay for the RT competition. I already
have vivid pictures of how each character should use his or her voice to
illustrate their emotions perfectly.
2. Pronunciation and Intonation
We cannot
emphasize this too much. It's the first impression your audience will have
about the whole show. You can have all the fancy body language or conspicuous
props you want, but they won't do any good to the delivery of the story when
the students have poor skills in connected speech or rising and falling
intonation, not to mention mispronunciation of some specific words.
3. Vocal Expression
The whole idea is
to bring the story alive. You may have perfect English pronunciation, but the
audience can't relate to the story if you deliver it in an emotionless
monotone. For example, when Aladdin was about to make his last wish, it was so
sentimental because he already knew he would lose Genie immediately. You have
to make the audience believe that Al was determined but also very sad to make
this decision.
4. Character Interaction
As the story
builds up to a crucial moment, all characters must help the audience understand
the hidden meaning behind it. During our countless rehearsals, I kept reminding
the characters that it was a big no-no if you stood there, acting like the
whole thing had nothing to do with you. Instead, we used body language,
expressive expressions, chants, and so on to highlight the big moment.
Of course, not
everything will go well as planned. I had to get rid of some of the subplots
because we only have six minutes to deliver the script. Some students couldn't
live up to our expectations, and we had to put them on the bench, which was a
hard decision to make. Well, when shit happens, and it will, you have to take a
deep breath, calm yourself down, and figure out how to fix it.
I can't make this
happen all by myself. Alex and I make a great team. We both were driven and
dedicated to the contest, so we got to solve all the problems quickly. Also,
the director of the Academic Office and her staff have been very supportive of
the logistical arrangements.
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