Collaboration skills

• Working effectively with eachother

• Delegate and share responsibility for decision making

• Encourage each other to contribute

Research skills

- Locate, organize, and ethically organized into appropriate form

What time period were Melodramas performed in?

• Melodramas were more performed during the 19th century, albeit originating from the 18th century.

What are the main features of the Melodrama style?

• Emotional appeal

• Comic relief

• Facial expressions

• Gestures

• Stronger emotions

^{“Exploring Themes - Responding to a Stimulus - GCSE Drama Revision - WJEC - BBC Bitesize.” BBC Bitesize, 20 Oct. 2023,}

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^{Rea, and Kenneth Grahame. “Western Theater | Definition, History, Plays, Characteristics, Examples, and Facts.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 9 Aug. 1999,} _{www.britannica.com/art/Western-theatre/The-Romantic-theatre.}

The features that we covered that connects to melodrama are the gestures, facial expressions, slow motion, exaggerated movements, and more. We learnt that these features can really enhance your performance, if you use them correctly.

We experimented with different types of music, sad, happy, funny, and learnt that some performances were better fit for some sons than others, because of the emotions they used to portray in their performance didn't match up to the song, and that sort of made it hard to link the song and the performance together.

I think my group could have done better if we added a bit more at the end where the hero saves the damsel in distress, because I feel like that is the most important part in our performance, and we could have done much more to stretch out the end, instead of making it so quick.

Features of a melodrama:

• Gestures

• Exaggerated plot lines

• Music

• Facial expressions

• Stock characters

Stock characters

• Damsel in distress

• Villain

• Hero

• Villain's sidekick

Some of the things that melodramas used were:

• Big props

• Holes in stages

• Trains

• Set dressings for actors

• Props that can break

• Practical props (that can work)

The concept of the 4th wall is when the wall between the actors and the audience gets acknowledged by the actor, therefore effectively removing the wall between the actors and the audience.

Citations:

DeGuzman, Kyle. “What Is Melodrama — Definition &Amp; Examples in Literature &Amp; Film.” StudioBinder, 6 Feb. 2025, www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-melodrama-definition.

Lannom, Sc. “Breaking the Fourth Wall: Definition, Meaning and Examples.” StudioBinder, 3 Jan. 2025, www.studiobinder.com/blog/breaking-the-fourth-wall.

“Melodrama.” Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 26 Apr. 2025, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/melodrama.

We could also work on the timing of the music, maybe making a designated playlist that can trigger the right songs at the right time, so our performance looks put together.

We're exploring Melodrama techniques by adding multiple different types of features like gestures, and we tried out best tto emphasize our voices by making them louder so we could seem more confident. I notices we were a lot more dramatic when we performed than when we started out, like when we added the part where the hero steps on the villain, and the fact that we added music as well.

How do you think you are developing as a performer?

I feel that we have improved a lot, and I noticed that we got the hang of everything quite quickly, and there were often no mistakes when we practiced. I think that we did well in adding most of the scenes and removing some lines and gestures that we felt weren't necessary.

How can big movement help to show the Melodramatic style?

I think it helkps show the 'Melodramatic style' by helping the audience figure what characters are portrayed as some of the stock characters, since for exmaple, laughing evilly and throwing your hands up can emphasize your role, while telling the audience figure who is who.

How does exaggerated expressions help communicate the story?

They help to communicate the story by letting the audience know what a particular character is feeling, like for example a character make a disgusted facial expression, and that could mean they are displeased or disgusted depending on the context. It helps to give your characters more life instead of making them emotionless.

Overall, comparing back to the SOI, I feel that our group and other activities have really helped me understand how melodrama connects to Identity, values, and etc. As seen from the performances, we were able to represent specific characters and what were able to do well was that our movements were really dramatic, like how Pippi slapped away the ring box (and made it break) and how we threw the house files on the ground, along with the evil laugh and the sudden attack. I think a way we have represented identities was that we were pretending and acting out specific stock characters, and it was quite clear who was who, so I feel that it relates to Identities in melodrama. One of the goals that we set for the performance to to be able to make our villains and heroes as obvious as possible, and I feel we have accomplished that well. Comparing our performance to the others, I can admit that the others were much more funnier, with comic relief, and I feel that we could've done something to add comic relief as well.

WWW:

I think what we did well was that we made our characters really stereotypical like how Pippi was really dramatic when she fell, and how Shalom was laughing evilly when she wanted to take the house. Another thing we did well was that we had a lot of props to go along, and we had some facial expressions as well. Our stage transitions went well too, because we had some transitions for when Shalom walked off the stage, and one for when it was the next day. We had a lot of big movements, like when we threw the papers on the ground, and how out volume control was good as well.

EBI:

We had a bit of a mistake while performing; Shalom's mustache fell off whilst she was talking, and that disrupted the performance a bit.

We could've added some comic relief as well. Danich was supposed to be the 'comic relief', because she had most of the funny lines. Another thing we should've done was that some of us forgot our lines, or we stuttered a bit, and i think we should really work on that. Something I should've worked on was the timing of my entrance, because i was a bit too late when i came into the scene. When we were performing, I was laughing a little, so I think I should also improve in my seriousness.

^{(I apologize for the lengthy texts (the ones where i answered the questions) above, I realized it wasn't necessary right after I finished writing.) Sorry!!}