Summertime

Woah. Sometimes I forget how busy summer gets...as well as my startlingly sporadic access to internet. Therefore, most of my summer theatre experiences are being documented in a hard copy journal, which I transfer over to this when I get the chance. Please excuse my sporadic postings :) in fact, the chaos kind of reminds me of theatre because I remember when we were trying to memorize our lines this past year, Mrs. Burke would tell us to just practice them whenever you get the chance. It might not be at regular or long lengths of time, but you take what you can get. So, that's what I'm going for her. I'm hoping to get everything up within the next few weeks :)
Here's some pictures of my trust summer journal

Anne of Green Gables

So ever since the summer started, I have started reading books for fun again--AND IT'S THE BEST THING EVER!!! I don't really have time for pleasure reading during the school year, so I take advantage of my free time in the summer. One of my favorite books as a kid was Anne of Green Gables. I always wanted to be like her and I read that entire series. So, when I saw I could read it for free on my phone, I got it and started reading it. Anne is an outgoing girl, and she gets into doing recitations, one of which she performs in front a lot of people in town. Her experiences reminded me a lot of what we do in theatre, especially our monologues. We have much of the same process: memorizing the excerpt, interpreting it, and performing it, which is just what Anne did. It made me happy that Anne and I have something in common after all. :)

Rhinos Everywhere

Today my dad was listening to NPR, and when I came downstairs they were talking about rhinos and the exploitation of rhino horns. Of course, it reminded me of when we studied and produced Rhinoceros!

Pride and Prejudice Monologue

My favorite movie/book of all time is Pride and Prejudice. I was watching it for the millionth time this past weekend, and I decided that I wanted to do Elizabeth's monologue when she refuses Mr. Darcy. I did that today, June 4, 2013 during class. For my setting, I projected a picture of Mr. Darcy in the rain onto the screen and had the class sit with facing me with their backs to him, so it was like I was talking to him but they could still see my face. I thought it went really well because I love the character of Elizabeth and I'm able to channel her personality. Yet, the one thing I noticed with this, that Mrs. Burke pointed out as well, is that I often portray strong characters. Next year, I'm going to work on trying act outside my comfort zone, by being someone wish-washy or not as confident. I think that'll be a good experience for me to experiment with other types of characters. In fact, we talked in class about possibly doing some monologues or some initiation into theatre on the first day of school. Mrs. Burke was telling us how up at Penn State, the first day of Theatre 100, 2 grad students always stage a fight, so we were thinking something like that might be really fun! We're going to try to plan it out of the summer.

This is the picture of Mr. Darcy I used:

booksteame.com

Rhinoceros Reflection

On  April 1, 2013 (April Fool's Day) our IB Theatre class produced Rhinoceros by Eugene Ionesco. It was really fun! We got all ready in our costumes and everything before first period, and then we blocked off the stairwell, so people wouldn't interrupt our show. The second show went a lot better than our first show. In our first show, I think we were still really nervous and working out the kinks. We hadn't had a full technical rehearsal, so we also didn't really know how it was going to work. We had a few minor problems, and a bit of line skipping, but we didn't let that ruin the show. I was really impressed with how we were able to recover and keep the show going to make it really good. After the first show, we looked over the lines where we had problems, and the second show went really smoothly. I also think it helped that the audience was more responsive second period and seemed to understand the gist of the play better. They asked a lot of questions about design choices, especially the use of red. It was also funny because they asked us some questions that we hadn't really thought of before, such as the symbolism of the cat. Not only did we teach them through our play, but they also opened our eyes to new possibilities. That was a really cool experience. I also liked how we did part memorized and part staged reading because I thought that showed the audience that there are many types of theatrical productions and not everything has to be the standard memorized and on a stage. I think our setting was also interesting for both the audience and actors to experience. It gave the audience a new understanding of how to watch theatre, as well as it gave us a new experience of acting in different settings where it can still be theatre. And it was great to later get compliments from people on how they liked the show! :)

Grease

On Saturday April 13, 2013 I attended CV High school's production of the musical Grease. It was amazing!!! Everyone was so talented, the dances and singing were great! I really noticed how the actors had worked so hard to coordinate with each other. My favorite part of the musical, of course, was "Hand Jive" because it involved so many different people. I had brought my theatre glasses (binoculars) so I used them to look at specific people. It was really cool to see how each cast member put so much effort into their work. They were all focused, but they also made sure to keep acting. Even in a big crowd, it was important for each, single person to be doing everything correctly. The costumes were also really well done. There was so much color to convey the vibrancy of the musical, and some of the costume changes for the main characters were pretty impressive (they could change costumes in basically 60 seconds flat), Also, the set was incredibly elaborate! We had gone down in theatre class that week to see the set. We walked around it a little bit (even though I was scared to go up on it because I'm afraid of heights and I thought it was going to collapse and kill me). Mr. McGuire pointed out the different aspects. WOW!! It must have taken SO much work to construct it. Also, there were kids dancing on top of the structure thingy so they had to make sure it was incredibly safe. I was so impressed. Of course, they have a big budget for their shows (budget is incredibly important in theatre), but I was still really impressed. I was really impressed by the car they had for Greased Lightning because it just exemplified the fact that they had thought of everything. He also showed us some lighting techniques and sequences. For example, they had a white sheet behind the set, so other light colors could show and convey the mood of different scenes. We had a professional lighting designer who has worked on Broadway shows show us a few of the many lighting sequences. He also showed us how they could light up the jukebox with all different colors which was really cool. It was amazing to go see the show and watch as everything could be put together into a spectacular production.

Blood Wedding Monoluge

So during second marking period, I had taken notes in my Blood Wedding book for extra credit, but I didn't need, so I asked Mrs. Burke if I could so something in relation to it for extra credit. She said yes, and I chose one of the bride's monologues from the end of the play when the bridegroom's mother discovers her. I thought it was interesting because the bride was so clearly trying to deceive the woman, yet she was almost convincing. I wore a white dress with sneakers because she was a "runaway" bride. I took the class outside to a wig willow tree. I stood next to the tree, and the class either sat or stood nearby. I wanted to do this to give it the woodsy feel because this scene took place after the bride is discovered in the woods. I think it went really well. I felt more comfortable with everyone being immediately in front of me in a fairly casual setting. Also, I really felt like I could actually get into the character of the bride because I understood this scene, and I really liked it. Overall, it was a fun experience with theatre in a different setting, which often adds to the quality of the work.