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!

Real & Funny

It has been a while since the first time I wrote a skit, and I am so happy that the skit I wrote this time is pretty funny. At the beginning I was thinking use the original Obama’s anger translator skit; however, I thought that it would be funnier if the material was from real life, so my audience at Cheshire Academy can enjoy the fun. Since I am the senior class president I decided to write something funny about myself and current events at school.

There was one thing I learned from last year’s spring production: Comedy Tonight which the funniest thing from the events that happen around us everyday. When we see some similar silly or interesting things happen on stage that happened in our life experience before we often feel it much funnier than the comedies which we never see before. However, this also give us a hard time to create the skirt because it is also harder to make something that happens in our life than something which we make up. Not only the writing was hard, but also the acting was so difficult.

During our first run through, I tried so hard to not laugh because Mr. Davis was so funny. Also, we didn’t figure out our path and blocking, so it looked a bit awkward. Then we started discover the connection and contract between our lines and certain movements which can help us to build our characters more.

After all this skit is one of my favorite skit, and I hope that we can perform this skit on one of our morning meeting or other school events. I am looking forward to write more interesting skits for next semester's class, and I hope that I can also find more ideas for my creative writing class which I believe will combine super well with my acting class.

Upon the living and the dead

James Joyce's —"The Dead" The last stage light had put down the perfect ending mark for my last fall at Cheshire Academy! I have been racing with time and energy during this entire fall season, and tonight I finally got my break to stop and watch people and things around me! I want to thank everyone who forgave me when I made mistakes; encouraged me when I failed; comfort me when I got hurt; applaud when I finally succeed! Now all I want is the time to be slower and slower. Slow enough so I can experience my past three years again to watch each face; to listen to each word; to review every scene that are fading out of my memories! 

After performing and rehearsal over and over again, I have been learning the character Gabriel and the story of The Dead better and deeper. Today as I write this blog, I can still feel the heaviness in my heart from this play because we are walking on the surface of a frozen lake. Along with my college applications and other school works, this play had taken a big amount of time on my schedule, and it has been an amazing journey. It was a comedic, musical, sad and dramatic play, and I am so glad that I had everyone’s support to help me building the entire play. 

I feel more strongly with each play that I learn something new from every single one of them. This play I specifically learned how to slow down! That’s true “slow down” is one of the most common and important note to every actor, and this problem has been my main issue since my first performance. This time I find out that if I pronounce every last sound of a work I will be able to make audience to hear all my lines clearly. I also want to thank Mr. Arson and Ms. Guarino because of them I found the mixed and complex emotions and goals of my character. 

I hope all the seniors can get the best result this year. And I hope all the juniors and underclassmen can enjoy all the days they have on this amazing campus!

Monologue is not Mono

Monologues often sounds mono because there is only one person performing, so it is really easy to get lost on expressing the passage under the context. Along with my fall production going and my lead role growing, I have been feeling more strongly with each day’s rehearsal that monologue is so hard because you have only yourself to remind and remember all different passages and emotions which you want to present. I choose one comedic online and one serious monologue in my fall play in my last acting class project. However, it wasn't as easy as I thought it could be because I had to perform so much more meanings and emotions on the monologue from the play.

I have been practicing my monologue since I got my script in september, but until now I still do not know the best way to deliver it. Picking a monologue in your play is so different from just a monologue standing by itself because when I was giving the monologue speech, I had to consider what happened before and what will happen after. The layer and state of a stage is very important. Based on all of the information from this play I can finally gave the best performance I had. Another struggle I had was dividing my long monologues into small sections and each one of them will be representing a different purpose. All of these small sections get together will direct all the audience to the picture I want them to see which is the building up sadness through the party.

However, when I was on the stage and speaking all by myself, I often get lost the task which I had to stick with. My final production is next week, and I wish before that and then on I can figure out all my layers of emotions and the process which I can bring all the audience to an extremely sad point at the end. Also, I can be more creative with my future monologues and make it not so mono.

Monologues

https://youtu.be/SlS6DQIRO_M

https://youtu.be/Ko5pNYtoP0c