Why Is STAC Important?

Today, Zach and I interviewed Mr. Pasquier for an upcoming commerical to convince the school that STAC isn't what it's misconceptions say it to be. Pasquier is my french teacher for two years now and it has always been obvious that he is very into the arts in addition to being proud to speak french- living the french lifestyle. He is very interested in the musical aspect of culture and always has a song for each class to sing in french. He almost strives to be unlike any other teacher which is why it is definitely clear why he would produce a great interview for STAC publicity.


There was, of course, a strange moment we encountered. Noticing from the beginning of the interview process, he wasn't as excited to speak up for STAC as we had hoped. In fact, he asked Zach and I to tell him why we thought STAC was good. Initially, this seemed to be a simple teacher-student moment where the teacher wants to get more out of the student. Later on, during the interview, this idea was even more emphasized. As we explained the purpose of these commericals- to clear up the misconceptions about STAC- he changed his tone. Again he asked us what we thought of STAC and why STAC was important to us. Using careful wording he went on to state the exact misconception we have heard numerous times about STAC. Inching along he proceeding with something along the lines of- Have you ever considered perhaps that you as students kind of bring that misconception of isolation from the rest of the school. It almost seems that you are in your own wing of the school. You stay there and... maybe like a cult. At that moment Zach and I or at least I know I didn't think about what could be the right thing to say. He kept on by saying that there should be a collaberation between STAC and other classes where teachers use these students who are more experienced in the arts to help those who aren't. I sort of just nodded and went on with the interview. Now that I had time to consider exactly what he said, I realize that what he said does have some merit. I am also bias in that I see him in class always exclaiming that he wishes the chorus or technical department would help student to student with our projects like powerpoints and movies etc. which would help our class do better in projects and help our skills. But as I thought even more about it.. even in writing this blog entry... I realized that the whole point of this is to get more people, the right people, to join STAC and those kids who would want to learn how to make movies and do all the art stuff should just join STAC. Yes, STAC should come out and help them learn but to a minimal amount where it leaves them wanting more- which is what STAC live is about. Also, the people new to STAC including myself in addition to those who were in STAC last year, we still all do not know much of the skills that can be taught and we aren't really experts yet. We are in this learning process now, we choose to be in STAC for this reason and deserve to have the 3 periods in "isolation" to learn. Why is that a crime?

The Empty Space

This week after the portfolio chaos was over we talked about The Empty Space by Peter Brook and focused on the Deadly Theatre portion. I thought it was interesting for Brook to begin with the bad which I justified by the fact that perhaps he thinks there is too much deadly theatre going on. We had a class discussion and each contributed one significant line or aspect of the section. I spoke about "the deadly spectator" which is the idea that the audience can make the actors perform worse. Overall, it was really helpful and interesting to have a discussion where everyone contributed to the group ideas.

 One of the things I noticed with this book was that there were a lot of references to particular theatre performances, some of which I didn't know. It got me thinking and I realized that this book had a purpose to target artists who have already been working in and have studied theatre, not those who haven not been exposed to theatre. It seems Brook is trying to convince his audience to change their previous views.

This week was one of the most stressful weeks of my life. From dealing with personal issues to trying to succesfully complete essay and projects that were due just for the end of the quarter to attending afterschool programs, jobs, clubs. It was utterly insane. On top of all the computers in my house seemed to have something against me. Anyway, although it was difficult and stressful I am glad and proud that I made through and actually didn't do terribly. STAC was also interesting this week and I have a lot of ideas for my project.

This week in stac we worked on our book-making. So far the entire experience is pretty awesome. It is actually suprising how simple and easy it is to make a book, considering that we are making them in class. I wish all authors would make their own books, then we would see there persepective even more. Often the author never even chooses the cover of their book. However, I know this would probably cause problems because of advertising and publishing companies that don't like the ideas of the author and want to change them, but if the book is really passionately written I think the cover and even the book itself made by the author would represent what is written in the book much better.

Ne le Dis a Personne

It was pretty clear that Tell No One was an amazing movie. For the most part, what makes it great is the fact that it always keeps you guessing while at the same time confused yet eager to know what happened. It was long and had so many plot twists. I didn't really know when or how it would end, until the finally story came out and the ending was clear. Characters were often wondered to be good or bad, even the main character Margot's husband Alex at first was questioned for killing the wife. Although we got the story from Alex's perspective we really didn't get the story from his thoughts. We did not see when or if he had figured things out we only watched. Especially when watching the father revealing the truth, not only until after a fake story was established did we find out the truth. The music also added to the dramatic effect. Each song was perfect for the scene.


Being that I take French as a class I found myself wanting to simply listen and try to understand what they were saying but I really couldn't in addition to try to keep up with the plot. Also what confused me was that the characters weren't really introduced as a specific person; we had to figure them out on our own which was sometimes difficult when I didn't read the captions correctly and often they were difficult to make out because they were white on a light scene. However, this simply added more mystery to it...