The way back home

https://youtu.be/Nb0K_QjLbVY

It is all about character!

I have been working on my dramatic monologue for a week, and I have remembered all my lines, but I am still working on my blocking because this is the first time I do this kind of monologue. In this scene, I should be a boy who was bullied by a group of other boys for a long time, and finally I stand up for myself, but I should be scared and brave at the same time which makes me so confused. To be honest, since I have memories I was never bullied by anyone, so I built my character so brave and strong when the first time I did this monologue. Then my classmates and Ms. Guarino told me that I should build this character more shy and terrified. So I changed my blocking and the way to deliver lines, and it helped me to build this character better.

The first thing that I changed was my blocking because It can make a huge different with character’s emotion state. For example, I did step forward and point at someone so many times in my first acting, and it seemed to others that my character is so angry with others and it is a strong character. However the truth is that I should be scared of other kids and trying to stand up for myself, so I changed my blocking. I tried to step back and low my head, and it worked well because when I am looking down and step back It shows my fear to audience. Instead of point my finger to someone so many times, I only did once at the end of the scene which was the time I was finally brave enough to stop other kids. It was a acting new experience  for me and this is also a challenge for me. I will try my best to improve it more because I want to improve my acting skills more.

Except the blocking I also had to change how I deliver my lines because I was yelling too much in my first version, and it made audience cannot hear me clearly. It also make audience thought that I was the guy who was trying to bullie others. So, I tried to build my emotion much slower; for example, I tried to be so scared of speaking at the beginning and it turned to be a little angry in the middle, then lose all my tempo at the end. To be honest, I am so happy that I enjoyed the process of building up the strong emotion. I hope this will work better than before.

It seems to be my biggest struggle for me in this class, and I like it because it can improve my skills and ability. I like this scene because I have to care more and work more with the character building, and It is my weakness because I feel a little hard to understand the script in English, but I will still try my best to do it. Go John!

In class writing

My character is a kid who gets so many bullie from his classmate. Finally one day he cannot take it any more, so he stands up to against. I understand this character should be a little afraid of them at the beginning, then the emotion builds up and up. Finally he opens his all emotion, and he finally get stronger. I think the setting of the scene would be on the street, and he is alone in the corner. My movements would be a little push around and step forward to show that he is not afraid anymore. Instead of showing angry emotion at the beginning, I want to show it more like that he doesn't care. Then he turned to be angry. 

Dramatic Monologue

Do it then! You're always threatening yo beat the crap out of me. So, come on, Bruce. I'm sure your friends would like to see that. They think you are cool cause you talk like you're so tough. I think you talk that way because you're scared that nobody would like you if you didn't. (Beat.) No, I won't shut up! I'm sick of shutting up because you say I should! Every single day of my life I am scared of walking home because of you. I have felt like such a loser because you wanted me to. And I let you do that. Well, I'm not gonna let you ruin how I feel anymore. You got that? So either move out of the way once and for all and let me live in peace, or show me what you've really got - right here, right now. Cause I'm not scared of you anymore. So, come on. It's your move.

Giving audience a better show!

I have wrote so many blogs for acting class last year, and today I finally saw myself became a better actor, so I can give a better show to audience. I watched my first monologue, last  monologue and some old blogs. I want to thank Ms. Guarino and all my friends who always be there for me when I need help; who give me so many great suggestions that I cannot count. I also want to say that I did not let you down. I organized what I have improved and what I still need to work on, and I hope that I can keep achieving a better self.

“I cannot remember all my words, and I have a hard time to think the main thing I need to show, so I may need more time to work on my memoirzing” (Emotions & Feeling Jiang). This was a sentence from my last year blog, and I was struggling with my lines. However, after Ms. Guarino told me that I can record myself reading lines and listening to them. It was a huge help. I spent almost two weeks memorizing my lines when I was doing my first monologue which was around one minute, but I only spent three days memorizing all my lines for my recent monologue. I have improved my memorizing skills a lot, and I started to get the main idea of a scene faster than before. “I hope that I can learn more and more things in this class, and one day I can act at Cheshire Academy theater!” (Emotions & Feeling Jiang). This was my goal for last year, and I made it this true. I am going to be Mr. Darling in Peter Pan for this fall theater program. This is my first time to be in a play, so I will put all my efforts in it to make it a great performance. Even though I have improve a lot, I still have some problems with my acting.

My pace is one of my biggest problem, and I spent two days figuring it out. I wrote this monologue, so it was easier for me to control the pace than other monologues. However, I am still bad at pace. I think that I need to work on my monologue not only with lines but also with blocking. I remember that I added two new lines in my monologue when I first time blocked it, and new lines made the scene much better. Thus, while we practice our scenes we can always find what we need to work on and what I did well, so we need to do our best for every rehearsal.

It is such a pleasure that I am in this class, because I love acting so much and I did not have a chance to take this class until last year. I have learned a lot, proved a lot and enjoyed a lot. I want to say that I will try my best to improve my skills such as pace, memorizing, pronouncing and blocking, and I will give audience a great show!

John's Monologue

https://youtu.be/6_Lg6tAyA0E

There are always things you need to improve!

We have been learning acting for two weeks. It was so hard for me to learn because I have learned most of them, but I also found out that I still have three major skills which are needed to improve. The first time I performed my monologue was not good because I lost my pace. I find two most important things that will help us to deliver our scenes better, and they are emotions and feeling. I still remember that Michel was not in the right emotion in today’s class’s scene, so all audience can not get into the situation. The last thing I found I need to work on is that the movement on the stage.

I wrote a one minute monologue about my self last week, and I tried to practice it in the class today. To be honest, I don’t like it much because I delivered lines badly and I lost my pace. I was telling myself that I only have one minute, so I was a little hurry which caused that my speed was a little fast. I will try to improve my pace and deliver and hope that audience will like it.

Emotions can help us to find the right way to act, and it also can help us to show better. I remember when Michel was doing the scene, he had to be angry. However he cannot get into the emotion, and this makes audience feel hard to know what happened in the scene. We have tried many times, and we could not make it, so we gave up. I hope that we can have another chance to do it again. I suggest that we need to study characters’ emotions before we act them, because emotions can make acting more real and vivid. Feeling is another thing that we need to consider, when we are acting. Every times, when we are acting, we need to think about the characters’ feeling in the situations. It help us to get in the situation much faster. As we can see, emotions and feelings are very important things to work on.

The last lack is that we did not do will on our movements. When the first time we dis our scene, two of us was blocked in the back corner of the stage which was so bad. After Ms. Guarino told us that we need to move us out we tried again and we did it better. However I still don’t feel so happy with it, so I truly want to do it again.

At the end, I want to talk about what I learned from this class. I learned what should I do to make my acting more successful, such as body languages, timing,tone, voice and movements. My acting skills are getting better. However, I still need to improve my other skills, for example I cannot control my pace, and I have a hard time to think the movements. I do had a good time in this class. I think I will work even harder. I hope that I can do well in this fall play Peter Pan!

Monologue John

My name is John! I like to see my self as two parts which are working and relaxing in my coach. As you can see, they are so different, but they also have some commons. I always show my bright side to people.

When I am working, I never say I can't!!! I say I'll do!!! I also like running, but I don't have much time during school days so I get up at 6:30 and go running, and I will work hard for the rest of my life.

When I am relaxing I normally playing video games and eating junk food. I laugh aloud and do silly things. More importantly I always want to influence others with my positive energy. Once my friends told me,Oh John I just lost my rank game and all my teammates are stupid!!! I said, come on dude at least you were laughing and you enjoyed it!!!

Always be the bright side

Who am I? I like to see my self as two parts which are working and relaxing. They are so different, but they also have some common. My working side is more exciting, and my relaxing side is more casual. However, I always show my bright side to people.

I will talk my working side. At the first, I want to talk my goal for my whole life. We all have our own definition of lives' worth. In my opinion, my life's worth is that I can help others. I want to help others as long as I can. I consider that helping others is a way we can influence the whole world. For example, when the first time I came here at Cheshire Academy, I was lonely and hopeless, because my flight was delayed, and I was stuck in New York City. However, Mr. Barens made Cheshire Academy my second home and I remember that he always help me when I needed him. He always put smile on his face, and he seemed that he knew everything, so I decided that I will help new students to get in this community faster and more comfortable. I helped Mrs. Dykeman for three days, and it was so hard, but when I saw new students' happy smile I feel that everything is worth.Now, I help everyone who needs help, and I will do that for the rest of my life.

When I am relaxing I normally playing video games and eating junk food. I laugh aloud and do silly things, but I never yell or be angry with my friends when I lose a game. I have seen a lot of people saying horrible things to their friends because they lost a video game. I consider that video games are only for having fun, so we should not make it a weapon to hurt others.

I am also so happy that I can take this class, because I love acting. I have three main goals for this class. The first is that I will put all my effort in this class. I will try to understand every play. I am not good at memorizing , so I will try harder to understand them and remember them. The second one is that I will try my best to help my classmates. I am not the best student; however I still will help others. If they need me for homework or any assignments I will be with them. Last one is that I will try my best to learn, and I will work hard in both the black box and classroom. I will learn harder, and my goal is that I can deliver a great performance to the audience. I saw a show in the black box once. To be honest, that was amazing. All actors are hardworking and they did a great job. I will stand with them and work with them.

At the end, I want to say that it is a big pleasure to meet all of you, and I hope we will have a wonderful class experience with each other in this year!