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!