My IOP Idea: Comments?

[ABKor752]

Hello all! For my individual oral presentation for IB Literature, I am planning to give a performance based off of the book The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. I want to do a performative-type IOP, where I will be talking from the point of view of one of the characters named Dave Jensen. The purpose of my IOP will be to explain/perform the development of his relationship with another character in the story and what that means for Jensen himself. I was a bit confused on how to do this at first, but my idea now is this: my IOP will take the form of my character writing several diary entries, each creating a near story-arc in the characters' relationship. While reading aloud the entries I will be miming the actions that I describe in the diary. I feel that this can help me build emotion while still digging deep into what one of the characters is feeling.

My main question, however, is about the "analytical purpose" of this performance. Acting is great and all, but is that enough? If I had to physically analyze the character, how would I be able to do that in a dramatic performance rather than a formal speech? Should I include a little introduction describing what my performance is supposed to convey? And if so, should that introduction simply be that "this performance seeks to reveal Dave Jensen's characteristic that _______" ?
 

I'm sorry for bombarding you with questions, but I hope that this was specific enough to ask for help. Thank you!

[Ingridhar]

Generally, based on what my Literature teacher has told me, when doing a performative IOP you should do whatever it is you prepared first and basically step out of your role in the end and analyze what you have done, explaining how this ties back to your topic. Analyzing it in your role would be extremely hard and I can't really think of any way to do this and I'd advise you to listen to my teacher regarding this since analyzing is the most important part of the IOP (one of my friends did a performative IOP but ended up with no time to analyze and she was at the tip of failing the whole thing.) I'm not entirely sure if this is just my teacher though, perhaps you could consult yours regarding it and see what they say?

[Nomenclature]

Explaining "Directorial choice" is your best bet. You should probably ask your teacher just to make sure he/she's personally okay with it, and if your teacher says yes, then do this after (or intersperse it in) your presentation. With this, you should be able to earn your points for appreciation and analysis. In our commentaries this year, one of the works we covered was a play so our teacher consistently asked about directorial choices that we made to emphasize characterization, tone, and themes. He's been doing it for years and external moderators have always liked it. Justifying your choices allows you to talk about the book, and from there is where your analysis can be made clear.