Question 1
I am confident that I have a strong character building method. I believe that creating a background for my character only serves to enrich my performance. The first production I performed in was Annie, and I tried to portray a Ms. Hannigan that the audience could empathize with. Ms. Hannigan is constantly being portrayed as a bitter woman. I thought she was a depressed woman, whose depression manifested in her drinking. I tried to portray her as tired and stressed, taxed in a very human way. I wanted people to see Ms. Hannigan not just as an “evil stepmother” character, but as a woman who had devoted her life to children only to never find her own self-fulfillment. Given a flask, a feather boa and some really bad makeup, I made a
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Acting has never been a lone effort in my experience and I have always worked in a team in order to finish a production. I was in a production of The Vagina Monologues one semester at Brooklyn College. I had my own idea of how the more poetic character in “My Vagina Was My Village” should have behaved. However, as an actor is important to remember to respectful of the other talent and experience in the room. The director, my colleagues, and even the writers are all there to bring a vision to life. I was only a small part in big production and was given a lot of advice on how to proceed with the character. In the end, I reconciled my own feelings and theirs to create a performance everyone was proud …show more content…
In high school, I was a part of the Theater Development Fund, and we got to see several plays and musicals throughout the school year. Guided by our mentor, we would discuss some of the themes or ideas that were present in the performance. I learned so much from my peers and from the performances that storytelling and learning became synonymous to me. The past semester I took a speech course with Professor Mercer, who is an actress as well and she taught us that performing is not just to entertain but to teach. She told and taught us the fundamentals of Augusto Boll and the Theater of the Oppressed, which shed a whole new light on acting for
In this area of theatre i have learned more about brainstorming, character position, the effectiveness of music, the effectiveness of light and at what darkness and more about character goals and character formation both physical and vocal.
Olive, David. "Possibilities of Performance: New Ways of Teaching Dramatic Literature." Links & Letters 2 (1995): 9-17. UAB Digital Repository of Documents. Web. 30 Mar. 2012.
I’ve learned to appreciate the beauty of how theater is more than a performance, but rather an art form with nuance and depth. I’ve been introduced to the Brechtian theater style, and I’ve learned more about the musical theatre style. After studying RENT, I am inspired by the various possibilities for theater beyond acting, singing, and dancing. Theater can be used as a form of activism or commemoration. Theater is so much more than a dramatic presentation. Theater can relay a greater purposeful message about society amidst the theatricals on stage. Brechtian and musical theatre styles are two efficient and ideal methods for raising awareness about social phenomenons and issues because Brecht’s style makes the audience think and analyze the purposes and themes, while musical theatre is a medium that communicates those matters to reach large
I love theatre. It has been my rock thought high school and navigating the changes in my life. I found myself during the shows I did. Each show I did was a gateway to understanding who I am, and what I love the most about myself and my life. I have never liked to be in the spotlight, so my freshman year I asked our director if there was anything I could do that was not a performing role, and she asked if I would be interested in working backstage. I accepted her offer and fell in love. My junior and senior year of high school I was the assistant stage manager, and I loved it. Being on the stage management team was everything I could have imagined and more. I was able to be a part of the show for months before tech week in addition to being
Dating back to ancient Greek theater in the sixth century BC, acting has tremendously evolved and become more than the plays acted in the Roman period. As it continues to evolve until this day, it is important to look into history to understand the present era of the career in acting. For Aristotle, a Greek philosopher, acting is “the right management of the voice to express various emotions,” considered to be a talent rather than a skill to be taught. While growing in Greece, the acting field was supported by a lack of subtleness and a great variety of huge costumes; all played in outdoor theaters with books, the written version of the play, written by Euripides and Sophocles. Despite the expansion in Greek theaters, acting as an art began to decline during ...
Music has been a constant source of confidence from a young age, and I have received recognition for my talent I worked hard to achieve. From chorus member parts to earning principal roles in a high school environment, to being cast in a 4-person musical that qualified for a main stage spot at The International Thespian Festival. The root of theater, the sheer love of performing, sometimes gets lost amidst the competitive atmosphere. Ultimately, I'm pursuing
Before I can do this, however, I need to develop a firm foundation in traditional theater. I would like to train formally as an actor. For a number of reasons, I hope to study in England. As well as being accustomed to training students from diverse backgrounds and cultures, there, the emphasis is on preparation for a theatrical career as opposed to one in film or television. What draws me most to the English theater schools, however, and indeed to England, itself, is their appreciation and mastery of comedy. Comedy is the most difficult and exciting aspect of performance; it is also the most entertaining. After I complete my training, I plan to gain experience working professionally as an actor. Eventually, like my grandmother, I hope to have a theater of my own.
In the play, all the characters understand their parts. This did a nice job of portraying their characters. For example, Monica who played Ella know her character well that she could put herself in the role of Ella. During the show, she always kept a good pace. Next is Nathan who played Topher have a good character body
The Vagina Monologues is a wonderful performance by local students in a community that informs the attending audience about real life stories from women; these students take on the personality and emotions of these women from their stories. This performance is part of a big movement known globally as the activist movement to end violence against women and girls; it is also a way to empower women. The Vagina Monologues are also performed to inform other women that they are not alone in any feelings they may have about being a women or thoughts about their vagina. From beginning to end The Vagina Monologues was anything but boring and the performers covered a wide range of women’s stories with distinctive issues. The main acts that caught my attention were The Flood, My Vagina Was My Village and The Woman Who Loved to Make Vaginas Happy.
I’ve learned to appreciate the beauty of how theater is more than a mere performance, but rather an artform with nuance and depth. My knowledge on theatrical styles has expanded and some of my favorites we have studied in class are Brechtian and Chinese theatre styles. I grew up participating in musical theatre, but never had the opportunity to truly learn the history and details of the craft. After studying RENT, I am inspired by the various possibilities for theater beyond acting, singing, and dancing. Theater can be used for activism or as a form of commemoration. Theater is relevant by communicating issues to the world. Theater is so much more than a dramatic presentation. The theater that I have come to appreciate the most are the performances that relay a greater purposeful message about society amidst the theatricals on
Applied Theatre work includes Theatre-in-Education, Community and Team-building, Conflict Resolution, and Political theatre, to name just a few of its uses. However, Christopher Balme states that “Grotowski define acting as a communicative process with spectators and not just as a production problem of the actor” (Balme, 2008: 25). Applied Theatre practices may adopt the following “theatrical transactions that involve participants in different participative relationships” such as Theatre for a community, Theatre with a community and Theatre by a community Prentki & Preston (2009: 10). Whereas, applied theatre one of its most major powers is that it gives voice to the voiceless and it is a theatre for, by, and with the people. However, Applied Theatre practitioners are devising educational and entertaining performances bringing personal stories to life and build
...ously and see plays and performances not only as art but as a vital part of the human existence.
Theatre will always survive in our changing society. It provides us with a mirror of the society within which we live, and where conflicts we experience are acted out on stage before us. It provides us with characters with which we identify with. The audience observes the emotions and actions as they happen and share the experience with the characters in real time.
Historically, drama, and indeed all areas of the arts, have been seen to make an unimportant contribution to society as a whole. As recently as the mid to late 20th century, the arts were seen as a luxury, and a purely leisure exercise or hobby, with only gifted children having access to classically defined art forms such as music or art. This ideology still exists in some form today, although the arts are beginning to be recognised as an integral part of our everyday and working lives. Many drama practitioners and educators consider the arts to be a growing power within the economy, and that drama has benefits to society, culture, and a person’s inner development. These benefits have shaped the incorporation and delivery of drama within Queensland schools. This essay will examine how, by teachers delivering a rich aesthetic experience to students through drama in schools, students are provided with opportunities to develop self identity and equipping them with a skill set that is transferable across a variety of learning areas.
“Acting is not about being someone different. It’s finding the similarity in what is apparently different, then finding myself in there.” ― Meryl Streep. I love exploring and gaining knowledge about the beautiful craft of acting. During my journey of being an actor, I notice there are two types of actors: stage and film. Stage and film actors are different in their times of rehearsal, their relationship with an audience, and their emotional challenges.