Monologue

Silent "Lines"

Even though we didn’t have a lot of time, but our final production was actually much better than I thought. I have to confess that this is the most educational silent movie I have done so far because following after the movement project, this silent movie gave me a strong sense of feeling about the silent lines that we have in the silent move with our body languages and blockings. For a long time I have been focusing on lines on the script, but I just realised that it was wrong because lines make the character work, but movements make the character alive.

There are two most important things in a production; the first is lines, and the second is movements. These two come together can make the best performance, and I have been losing movement side since my first monologue. I checked three monologues I did when I was uploading the silent movie last night. I found that many of my body movements have no purpose which makes it a huge distraction for audiences. Starting now, I will have to plan out not only my way to say lines, but also the movements and body languages that work for the character.

Another thing I noticed when I was watching Linda, Chris and Michael performing, I realised that the stage movements and body languages need to be big enough, so the audience can receive the emotion and passage. For example, in the really life we wouldn’t use our hands a lot in a argument, but if we are on stage we have to make it big and obvious. Same with the lines, we have to project and enunciate more. With this silent movie, I have once again seen the magic of silent lines can do. I will use this more in the fall production and future performance.

Move With A Mind

Our movement project has been going on for almost two weeks, and I have to say that this time it got my attention the most. In the school fall play I am taking lead role, and we are going to perform in a round theater setting which will be the very first time to me. In order to make this play a amazing production, I have been working on this since the day I got my script. However, there is one single part which I am so worried about, and it is blocking or you can call it movements in general. It turned out that this movement project has been helping me to understand and prepare better with what my final production will  be.

Other things like memorizing lines, singing and emotions delivery are pretty similar to what I have done before, but this time movements became my biggest problem. When I was trying to act a middle aged university professor, the hardest thing is the physical present. For example, you can read like a middle aged professor, but it is extremely hard to stand, walk, sit and even raise hands like a middle aged man. Even worse, the stage will be a round setting which means I have to figure out when I will be where on stage, so all the audience will be able to see me a front angle. This movement project starts with very basic to high which helps me to re-discover a character and him on the specific scene set. For instance, I could image what problems I have on my body, such as knee problem, back problem and deeper and slower speaking voice. All of these movements ideas were from the emotion building and focusing on just body moves.

Overall this project has been helping me at the perfect time with perfect focus. I a, looking forward to direct the silent movie because I want to experience more what movements itself can bring to the audience, and what are the most important points to make a specific movement valuable and meaningful.