Dog In The Nighttime Analysis

Jaehun Lee

11/19/17

Final Response Paper Like sports, music, and painting, one of the most important aspects of acting is to balancing the planned out and the imaginative. While the actor must research the character, and give close thought to what comprises the character’s identity, the actor must also be receptive to his or her environment and be able to live truthfully in the moment. If the acting is too contrived, the performance may not be truthful and the audience may perceive it to be untrue; thus, the actor will not be able to “live truthfully in untrue circumstances.” On the other hand, acting solely from impulse is also dangerous because the actor may not be able to do the role justice. The readings and discussions from class have

For example, Elliot Purcell placed heavy emphasis on researching key characteristics of the character by meeting and interacting with many people to fully understand the condition(s) a character may have. Two points that especially resonated with me during Elliot’s talk-back after The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime were: 1) how actors constantly learn new things about their characters throughout the research and rehearsal processes and 2) how much actors focus on meeting people with specific conditions when applicable. Elliot talked at length about his experiences of meeting people with Autism and how that shaped his portrayal of Christopher. During the research process, Elliot told us he learned a lot about Autism: how it was on a spectrum and how everyone on the Autism spectrum has a different set of symptoms. For example, one person on the spectrum may exhibit superior intellectual abilities like Christopher, while another person on the spectrum does not exhibit such abilities. This reminded me of when the director of Rent at my high school brought in a guest speaker to talk about the AIDS epidemic, which allowed the cast to connect with the theme of AIDS on a deeper level and more easily make connections with their

It was interesting that Moore said what she observed in her research often contradicted common “stereotypes” about people with Alzheimer’s. For example, Moore recalled her experience with an Alzheimer’s patient who was with her caregiver. Instead of interacting with Moore, the patient would look to the caregiver as if she couldn’t recognize Moore but could recognize the caregiver. Thus, during our final projects, it would be important to maintain an open mind – to “empty your cup” – as we research the stories behind our characters and read accounts of people who have experience with similar situations. In my research of my character, I too will try to keep my mind open to various experiences and perspectives as I create my own version of a character. I hope watching the Still Alice movie during our discussion section in a few weeks’ time will give me insight into the perspective of the caregiver when a loved one has Alzheimer’s. I also plan to read “The Bear Came Over the Mountain” (from Professor Kirschner’s class) and “The Last Day of Her Life” again to get more caregivers’