Final Improvisation

On Thursday it was our final improvisation performance and I think it went very well as everyone was very active and wanted to be a part of games that we were playing. There were 4 groups just to make it easy for everyone to stand up and participate. We started with a game that only two persons can take part in. It was called something like `alphabet game`. Each person had to start a line with new letter, following a, b, c etc.. For example,
A: Actually, I wanted to speak with you..
B: Bro. about what?!
A: Can`t you calm down?
B: Definitely, just say what do you want to talk about
A: Elephants, I want to talk about elephants, I really worry about them... etc..


I really enjoyed playing `Party quirks` as people think of very funny tasks and you have to get under the skin of these tasks in like 5 seconds. My task was `a baby who learns how to walk`. I found it very easily to do as it did not require to speak at all as babies can`t speak. I was just crawling on my fours, trying  to stand up, repeatedly saying `mama, mama!`. In my opinion, this game is very easy and funny, the hardest thing was to hold my laugh because other actors made it really funny. But I tried to focus on my objective of `being a baby` and less listen to what other actors say.


The last game we played was the  `goal keeper`. Ryan volunteered to be a goal keeper. The idea of this game is just throwing ideas at him and he has to go for it for maximum 30 seconds. I jumped into a scene, shouting `get down! get down! Give me the money!` and Ryan accepted it very quickly and got down. I found that doing it very fast my emotions took over my thoughts so I wasn`t thinking what to say next. Everything went like automatically, and the short story had the beginning, climax and conclusion, however it was very short, about 30-40 seconds long.

In my opinion, improvisation helps to improve self confidence as there are no mistakes, failures or bad ideas. Everyone has to accept the idea, and make the other actor look good, don`t throw cheap jokes, that may bully others and just enjoy and go into endless stories.

Violence against women during the war monologue

I know that we had to write and base our story from World Wars but I couldn`t find enough information for my theme. I was thinking about very important fact, rape during the war, which is not mentioned in many resources. So I decided to look up Bosnian War as it has a lot of information about female rape and the lack of women power. (Similar technique were used during World War 2 against Japanese women, but Bosnian War is worse).

The problem of female rape during the war started long time ago. One of the cruelest female rape happened during the Bosnian War, where Serbians wanted to get as much women pregnant as possible, no matter their age, look and marital status. They even didn`t rape those who were already pregnant because they couldn`t have their babies. Basically, they wanted to destroy their lives by raising their own raper child.


 Serbians believed that that`s one of the way to "clean" the country. It was called ethnic cleansing, and it was a part of the genocide program. (Genocide is when one nation tries to wipe out another nation, harm it as much as possible.). About 12 000 to 50 000 women were raped during the war. Mostly women nationality were Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim).

It was violence against women, and women did not have any power against men. Female word against men words was just an empty space. It is hard understandable but using rape was actually a war strategy, carefully planned by military. (Not to mention how many women were killed, because of trying to escape.).





My written monologue, based on real facts from Bosnian War (Mar 1, 1992 - Dec 14, 1995) 


Dear John,

I`m so glad to hear that you are alright. I just can`t describe how much I miss you. I think about you every second of my life and believe that one day you will be holding my hand again, and we will be walking down by the sea side like we used to.

The other day, as usual, I was working at the factor, where we wash officers and lieutenants blazers, and officer Tom came up to me. I though he is going to shout at me why I`m so slow, like the other day, but he was smiling. His creepy smiled covered all his face up to ears. I felt something bad is going to happen. My heart started beating extremely fast, I started nervous but couldn`t hide anywhere. And then it happened... He started touching me... He tried to rape me! Rape me!! I tried to escape but I couldn`t so I slapped him. And then... He got so angry. He throw me on the florr and started beating me... He hit me everywhere: on my cheeks, arms, legs, belly.. Everywhere... I looked around, and I saw Laura looking at me, with her eyes full of sorrow. She looked at me for a second and then looked away... She didn`t want to get in trouble.

I woke up this morning in the hospital. They say everything is going to be alright but I don`t think so. I`m so scared. My life has changed unrecognizable since you left.

Will always love you,

Amber xx