12/23/11 Participation

Participation: 100

Today in class, we talked about my performance last night at the Mainstage Benefit Concert. It obviously was not the best performance. We discussed my mistakes and how I could have handeled them. I have definetly learned from my mistakes and rather than getting discouraged from last night I will use it as insentive to do better next time. We also helped clean up the classroom and the auditorium today. Some of us even stayed an extra class period to get things done.

12/20/11 Journal

Today would have ususally been our theater history day. Instead, we continued to watch My Fair Lady. During this part of the movie, we got to see Eliza really change into a more proper British women. She went to the horse race, and on the outside she appeared to fit in with the other people, and her accent was decent, but the way she talked and phrased things was still very unproper. She finaly changed completely when she went to the ball. I thought that this part of the movie was much more interesting because the story started to become more interesting. Also, the costumes at the horse race and the ball were beutiful. I was actually shocked to see that there was an intermission in the movie. I guess the people who created it really wanted to get the whole effect of being in a theater.

12/19/11 Participation

Participation: 100

12/19/11 Journal

Today is Monday, which means it was my design day. I had a pretty interesting class and I really enjoyed it, although it got difficult at times. I had to sketch the acting major's feet while they were standing or sitting still. This was hard because I have never really done it before. Also it was rare that there was a moment when the actors were still.The pictures above are just rough sketches. Hopefully with time I will be able to sketch better and make things look more lifelike

12/16/11 Participation

Participation: 100

12/15/11 Participation

Participation: 100

Although I was not in school today, I did spend time working on my responsibilities for theater. I worked on the first draft of my thesis, I started reading Pygmalion, and I finished my turn of the century costume design.

12/14/11 Participation

Participation: 100

I think I learned a lot about the person that I really am. Two exercises we did today really showed me exactly how my personality really is. During the first one, you had to walk around the studio and the rest of the class had to imitate exactly how you walk. I tend to take very small strides, I am very stiff, and I walk with my head down. In the next exercise, we had to make a movement that represented our personality. In my movement, I pushed my bangs out of my face, and I grabbed my wrist. Both of these actions show me as being a little bit shy and uncomfortable. I try not to come across that way, but theater is where I tend to be myself the most. Deep down I can say that this is my personality deep down inside. I think I understood exactly what the point of these exercises were today. We had to not only play the part of the other people in class, we also have to be ourselves. If we can't be who we really are, how do we expect to play another character successfully?

12/14/11 Journal

Today was my only acting day of the week, since I am a minor. We did a few interesting acting games and exercises today. The first one we did was actually a little difficult for me. We were paired up with someone in the class who we had to imitate in-front of the whole class. I was paired with Ashley, and we had to spend about 5 minutes talking to each other and asking questions. The next exercise we did was actually very eye opening. We had to observe the way each student in class walked, and had to try and copy it to the best of our abilities. After that, we did another exercise that really showed people's real personalities. We had to come up with a movement that represented who we are. I did a movement that I catch myself doing all the time. The last two exercises we did were things that we did at our auditions. In one of them was sort of like a domino affect. We had to do exactly what the person before us did, and pass it along. In the last one, we had to say the words "bippity bippity bop" to the people in the circle. If they say "bop" before you do, you move onto the next person. If they didn't they take your place.

12/13/11 Participation

Participation: 100

I learned a lot about musical films today while watching the movie, My Fair Lady, in class today. Musical films tend to try and emulate the feeling of being in an actual theater. For example, The introduction to the film that usually lists the credits and plays background music is representing what would be an overture in a play. I also learned the definition of an In siding action. An In siding action is a change in the status quo of a play. In My Fair Lady, the In siding action was when Eliza made a scene in the middle of town because she thought that Higgins was stalking her. I learned a few random facts while watching the movie, including that many people who didn't have much money only took showers in the spring, which I thought was pretty disgusting when I found that out. I also learned a lot about the clothing that was worn in the early 1900's. Women wore long dresses and big frilly hats most of the time. I am very exited to be working on my design that was assigned to me for this week.

12/13/11 Journal

Today would have normally been a theater history day. Instead, we watched the film adaption to My Fair Lady. My Fair Lady is a contemporary version of Pygmalion, which is a required play for us to read this marking level. My Fair Lady is about a women named Eliza who sells flowers in the theater district of London. She works with a phonetic professor, Henry Higgins, to improve herself so she can get a job at a florist. We also learned about the girl's father, Alfred, who wants money from Eliza so he can fulfill his drinking needs.

12/12/11 Participation

Participation: 100

These past couple weeks have actually been a little difficult for me. We have had to help out with the dance show, and since I am I design major I spend more time in dance then the rest of the freshman class. Mrs. Mack has been giving me jobs to do that the production majors have been doing. I know these things need to be getting done, but I have been struggling a little bit since i'm not a production major. A part of me wants to ask if I can switch to acting for my major, but I haven't gotten the chance to do much design so I really don't know if it would be the best choice. Despite all of this, I have been working to my fullest potential while helping with the dance show and hopefully Mrs. Mack sees that because I know a majority of my final grade comes from her.

12/12/11 Journal

Today was a major day, which meant that I go to Mrs. Mack for design/production. We listened to Mrs. Mack talk to the dancers and the techs about things they need to work on for the show. She also went into topics like nutrition and the importance of the performing arts program at the school. I actually felt like I learned a lot from that part of the discussion. After that we helped clean up the black box because the dancers have been using that as their dressing room for the show.

12/9/11 Participation

Participation: 100

Today we did Soc writing, which is actually something I really enjoy. Writing gets a lot of my frustration out and the Soc writing is perfect for that. We also took notes on the elements of theater. Tonight I also went to the dance show, which was amazing. It was interesting to see a dance show, because I have never seen anything besides a dance recital. It is sort of the same thing with community theater and professional theater.

12/8/11 Participation

Participation: 100

I think that I grew as an artist today. We did a lot of movement, which we have done in the past. The other times I did any type of movement I felt very awkward and uncomfortable. For some reason, today when we did it I felt very relaxed and comfortable, which is something I haven't felt in weeks. Everything came a little bit more naturally to me today and I am actually very exited for the next time we do movement. I am starting to wish I chose acting as my major, but maybe that's because I haven't done much designing yet.

12/8/11 Journal

Today would normally be a design/production day for me, but since Mrs. Mack didn't need any help, I did acting. We did an exercise today that I found very interesting.We had to do a movement that represented us getting rid of something, and once we were comfortable with it we had to go to the other side of the room and do movement. After that, the seniors talked to us about picking monologues and performing them to the best of our abilities. I feel that after they talked to us I know more about which types of monologues I should be choosing.

12/7/11 Participation

 Participation: 100

All weekend I was working on rough costume sketches for Brett's play, Bad Romance: The Musial. This was the first sketch for a costume that I started for the character, Nemesis, which was read by Ashley.

12/7/11 Journal

We continued to tech for the dance show today. They are opening tomorrow so we needed to get as much done as possible as we could. I spent the whole two periods working with the costumes, which I was very happy about. I sewed flowers onto strips that will be sewn onto the spring dresses. I also cut out fabric strips that will be used in another season's costumes. I learned that things need to be very precise when it comes to cutting out fabric. The fabric that I cut out wasn't as neat as it should have been because I was cutting in the dark. This was a mistake on my part, because the smartest thing to do would have been to find a place with light and put as much effort into the cutting as possible.

12/6/11 Participation

Participation: 100

I accomplished a lot today teching for the dance show. We are back in production mode, so I am kind of used to the whole process now. You never stand around and wait for a job, you have to volunteer and take whatever job is given to you with no questions asked. I would have liked to do more with design these past two weeks, but I know that there are more important things that need to be done as soon as possible. I've decided to focus more on design this year, and acting next year. I have until junior year to decide what I want to do. I figured that next year the juniors and the sophomores are the ones who get to act in Mainstage, so it would make sence for me to do costumes this year so I get the chance to completely try out both.

12/6/11 Journal

Today we teched for the dance show again. I ran around doing a few different things, which was new because usually during production I have one main thing that I work on. Today, I worked with the music a little bit while the dancers were practicing, which wasn't extremely difficult because all I really had to do was press play on an  iPod. I helped organize wires for a little while, which was helpful for the techs. The last thing I got to do, which I have to say was my favorite, was helped sew flowers onto fabric for dresses that were being worn in the show. It was nice to finally do something that was related to my major, design.

12/5/11 Participation

Participation: 100

I worked really hard today during our class time. We had to tech for the dance show since they were having a hard time. It was good that I got to work with costumes for the first time since we started majors and minors, because I think Mrs. Mack thought I was a production major and had me working with Zack, Christa, and Miguel for the past week. For the second half of class I teched, which was a lot easier since I sort of knew what I was doing because we did a lot of the same things for senior showcase.

12/5/11 Journal

Today we teched for the dancers show coming up this Thursday. I worked with costumes for about half of the class, which I was happy about because costume designing is what I hope to pursue next to acting. I cut out fabric for some of the costumes, and labeled costumes that were already made. For the second half of the class I ran around doing a few different things involving lights.  We just spent a lot of time teching for the senior showcase, so I knew what I was doing a lot more than I did when we first started teching this year.

12/2/11 Participation

Participation: 100

Yesterday we did a reading of Brett's Play, Bad Romance: The Musical. I have never done a play reading in the program before, so I thought it was a very interesting experience. I read for the part of Tickle (Theresa) a 12 year old girl. The last time I ever did a reading was in my last community theater show, and I can defiantly see a huge difference in my acting. I am acting a lot more naturally and truthfully than I used to. Things I noticed I need to work on are showing different emotions. Maybe it's just because it was a reading, but I had difficulty during the parts where I needed to show that I was upset or really happy. With more training, I hope that I will learn how to show these emotions better.

12/1/11 Participation

Participation: 100

I would give myself this grade for participation today. I painted leaves that are props for the dance show today. I didn't talk at all and got a lot done. Since we were in the dance studio, I got to see the differences between a day in theater compared to a day in dance. The dancers have a little bit less freedom than we do. All of their moves are choreographed a certain way, while in theater our movements are kind of up to us. Dancers also seem like they have to have more patience and stamina. When a dance isn't done a certain way, they have to perform it over and over again until it is perfect. Actors need these characteristics as well, but we also have a little bit more freedom when it comes to interpretation.

12/1/11 Journal

Today was Thursday, which meant that it is my design/production day. We speant the two periods in the dance studio. We painted the leaves that we cut out Monday to make them look more realistic. I haven't gotten to do any design yet, but hopefully next week I will get to do something with costume or set design.