Start from the Bottom and now I am here!

https://youtu.be/oJ8KtYNE-jU

https://youtu.be/v3X_SvLRHOc

Senior year has been a bowl of spaghetti with well mixed feelings sauce plus complex experience ball on the top, and so far I have been enjoying to eat! You must wonder why would I call senior year spaghetti? The answer is that I cannot find the beginning and end, and I know is that I will finish it before I even realize.

At the beginning of the year, I started my full leadership job and my fall play lead, so sometimes I could barely find a time to eat dinner. To be honest, I love those days even it gave me headache and tons of pressure everyday, but I felt everyday was full with things and it kept my attention on my work, so I didn’t get much time on worrying and wondering. Through that time along with my acting class I could truly mature as an actor in all different kinds way. The most important one I have improved is memorization, and I am too happy about this because this has been my problem since my first play Peter Pan. However, now I just did Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” monologue which I could never done when I was a sophomore or even junior. I still remember how much struggle it was to read Romeo & Juliet and perform one of Romeo’s monologue.

Not only acting but also singing has been improved so much since last year. I can still feel the air when I was the only one in the cast who does not even know what note means till today I can sing solo songs without struggle a lot. Yesterday Ms. DiGiacomo was so surprised by my singing because she knew all about me making mistakes when the whole bass group is on the same pitch. Theater has becoming more and more things to me along the way of my studying and performing! This year’s acting class also helped me with my body movements a lot since I never really paid any attention before. I am so happy to join the winter musical this year again and I am so ready to use all I have learned to do my best and learn even more from it!

I set the goal for myself to create better characters, and I have done well with Gabriel. However, I will need more time and effort to create Ned in School Of Rock, and this will be my second semester’s goal. Ned is the kind of weak and extremely passive character which I never played before and it is so different from John Jiang’s characteristic, and I am excited to do so because it will help me to extent more on my acting skills and character pool. At the end I want to thank everyone in this class who have been supportive and caring to each other, and as a group we have grown so much, and I am looking forward to work more with them in the winter musical! Merry Christmas everyone and I will see you next year!

Take home quiz

Answer the following questions for each of the terms listed below:

a) What do the terms mean?

b) Why are they important to a successful theater production?

c) Can you give an example of how/when they were used in performance by you or someone else?

1. Articulation

Say every word correctly and clearly. It directly affects the passage delivery to the audience. I spend tons of time to make sure I know how to say every word in my Fall play’s monologue.

2. Projection

Volume. It is very important because audience in the back seat can have a really hard time if actors are not loud enough. One of the person who has a big voice is me.

3. Pace

The speed. It is necessary to control the seed delivering lines because audience needs time to keep up with the plot and details. I spend a lot of the time to slow down for The Dead.

4. Pantomime

Skits without lines. It can be so funny for some acting to just have background music, such as silent movie. I like the silent movie we made this year in class.

5. Body Language

Body moments on stage, such as hands. It is important for certain character to express the feeling. In the fall play the scene between me and Sam was a good example for body language because we try get close to each other and avoid the same time.

6. Facial Expressions

Facial acting, such as smile or cry. It is very important to build the emotion and character. Wiebke has great facial expression.

7. Monologue

One person perform. It is the moment which audience can focus on one person which is better to express character’s thought and feeling. I have done so many monologues.

8. Dialogue

Two or more actors having conversation. It is the basic way to perform for straight play. I like the dialogue between me and Maddie in the fall play which was so funny.

9. Ad-Lib

Add lines on actor him or herself. It is important when someone forget a line or get the wrong line. I was so impressed by Peter Pan cast in my first play.

10. Improvisation

Acting without a written play. It is very interesting because you can never see what direction it is going. I like the improve group from Yale a lot.

11. Motivation

Reason why characters do things or the goal. It is important to actor when they are studying the character so they can do better job to deliver the most important messages.

12. Backstory

Background information, It can help actors to understand the Character better which can build the Chemistry between characters. I like the story when Mr. Aronson helped me and Sam to understand the situation

13. Cheat/Fan Out

Show your front to audience. Audience cannot just look at your back or side the whole play. I learned how to cheat in order to take care 4 different angles audience.

14. Blocking

Positioning on the stage. It is important especially when there is a big cast on stage the same time because you have to know where to go and when to go. For example, in the fall play Tracy needed to learn tons of the blocking because she needed to move a lot.

15. Props

Items which Characters need on stage, such as cane or hat. It is part of the character building which can help to tell the time, weather, age and gender of a character. I changed my cane in Peter Pan to show the difference.

16. Scripts

Written lines and directions for all the people. You need script otherwise the whole play will not be organized. Jena is super good at remember script.

17. Cue

Line before your line. It is important to know so you know when you need to say your own line. Last year I messed up one of the cue for Charlotte which she helped me on stage.

18. Stage Left

When you standing on stage facing the audience your Left. You need to know this in order to get the position from director

19. Stage Right

When you standing on stage facing the audience you're right. You need to know this in order to get the position from director

20. Upstage

Away from the audience

21. Downstage

Closer to the audience

22. Musical Theater

Most music based play.

23. Straight Play

Most dialogues and monologues play.

24. Director

The person who is charge of everything.

25. Costumes

Clothes for characters.

26. Choreographed Movement

Dances or some arranged movements on stage. Linda did a pretty good job on her Final

27. Diction

How to say each words so audience can understand. It is very important to know in order to let audience know. Sam is good at this.

28. Objective and Obstacles

What character wants to accomplish and what is the problem he or she has which keep him or her away from it. It is very important for actor to know in order to convince audience the character is real.

29. Given Circumstances

A situation which is already setted. It is very important to know it and perform it and even bring audience into it. Sam is good at creating these.

30. Connecting with an Audience

Breaking the fourth wall or some line directly to an audience. It is very helpful to do it when you need to deliver some heavy emotions. I did it in the fall play.

Read Out Loud

As I mentioned before after reading Romeo & Juliet I feel more strongly that we should always read out loud in order to understand the passage. “To Be or not to be” as one of the most famous Shakespeare's monologue, and it is one of the hardest one because Hamlet’s conflict and complex emotions and feelings are so hard to understand and even perform. However, I found out that if I read over and over again I do get the sense of the feeling and character’s exception.

Along with my analysis on character I am also working on the the memorization which turned out to be a much easier process to me than I thought it would be, and it is all because I trained myself a lot through the fall play. However, I am still facing a lot of troubles, such as sentences. Because of the way I remember the monologue I attempt to stop when I should not which cause a big confusion for audience. I will keep working on that more to make sure it gets fixed.

My music piece I decided to do it acapella because I feel better to control the beat on my own which to me is a easier way. However this does influence my notes and pitch, so I will have to keep in mind what I need to go high, and what part I need to back low. I have a lot troubles to fellow the instrument and beats because I am sing all I think is emotions and the song, so I don’t pay close attention for all these three beats notes or two and half beats notes, so I will need to put more work in the future. By the way, I cannot wait to perform for my mom and the whole class. And Merry Christmas everyone!

To Act Or Not To Act

Ever since I read Romeo and Juliet last year in Lit&Perf class, Shakespeare’s work has been the beauty and the pain to me. I love how his writing can be so beautiful and effective, so it automatically gives readers feelings which he tries to express. However, his work is also the hardest one to understand to me, especially monologues. This time I decided to do “To be or not to be” monologue from Hamlet because I wanted to do a monologue with many different layers in it, and I am looking for something that conflictual and dramatic. Also, I am reading Hamlet in my English class now, and I thought what can be a better fit than this monologue?

Even though, this is not the first time that I choose a Shakespeare monologue I am still feeling nervous and worried because it is such a hard piece of performance. I learned a lot about the pace and pronunciation from last year’s Romeo’s monologue about the banishment, and I hope this time I can do better than last because I just had a big improvement on my performing pace and stage blocking from this year’s class activities and fall production. However, since this piece is such a hard piece with all these conflicts in Hamlet’s head. I will need more time to go deep into the character itself. I have been recording myself and checking pronunciation. Also, I am going to perform a song for this class.

Since I am taking Music Performance class and everyone on my class is doing a song except me, I decided to perform a song call The Impossible Dream for this class. I am so excited that I can do two final performance because I love both singing and acting so much, and my mom will also be here for my class which will make it even better! I hope everyone can do their best and use what we all learned so far!