Sunday, January 21, 2018

Presentations of Famous Acting Theorists

This week I learned a lot about the acting theories from many different people. These techniques have helped me very much in understanding how to act, how to perform on stage and many other acting skills. I studied Sanford Meisner and I learned a lot from his theories on how to act. I learned that good acting comes from the heart. In my group performance I need to make sure that I always act myself and make sure that I make the lines my own because it is my interpretation of how the character acts. I also learned from other presentations on how to act to where the audience is engaged. I learned that I need to ask what the audience is going to do after I perform. I also learned that before I am about to act sad, happy or mad, I need to think about a time when I was one of those emotions and then transfer that to the stage. There was also a theorists however, that contrasted this by saying that actors don't have to think back to a personal experience, but that they can imagine what it would look like to be one of those emotions. I learned that on stage I need to listen and react to my parter. I need to focus on what my motivation is for the scene and I need to make sure that I always focus on my partner. I also learned about a lot of warm up techniques that can help with communication through movements like the one where you are not allowed to talk but you have to communicate what you are saying through body movements only. A lot of these techniques and a lot of the theorists ideas were based off of Stanislavski's ideas. I think that this will help our group because I need to be able to feel the character in my own way and I need to be mad when I think the character is mad or annoyed. I feel like Helen will be able to use the exercises that we learned to act the way Amanda would, which would be to act annoying. Leslie will be able to use the exercise where there is no talking because Laura does not talk a lot in the scene but there is a lot of body movements that must happen and Leslie will need to be able to communicate her emotions and feelings without talking very much. She needs to be awkward and almost lost in the conversation and in the environment that she is in.We all need to be able to listen and respond to each other on stage because that is a very important part of any performance. We also have to look at the perspective of the audience because that is ultimately the people that we are trying to entertain. So it is important to think about how the audience views each of our characters. If we are trying to portray Tom as angry we need to make sure that the audience understands that we are trying to show that. I feel like all of the things I learned this week will help me to perform well in the upcoming performance in our group.

Friday, January 12, 2018

The Glass Menagerie Proposal

Scene proposals due by midnight. Discuss the scene, why it interests you, what character you'll play & why (& how it will challenge you as an actor), the importance of this scene in play & what literary analysis you hope to explore


The scene that I am interested in performing is the first dinner scene. I will play the character of Tom. I picked that role because I feel like I can play his personality well. In the book, Tom wants to live his dream of becoming a writer but because his father left and Laura and Amanda do not work, Tom has to stay and works at a shoe warehouse. I think that it will challenge me to be Toms character because I have to be upset the whole time that the scene goes on because Amanda is bothering him. I also am going to be challenged with memorizing the amount of lines that Tom has with his monologue and in the actual dinner. Another thing that I might struggle with is that the scene has to be shot with no cuts or editing. Usually in my other projects we ended up filming and editing the video cause of mistakes that were made by either me or another group members. This project does not allow that so I will have to make sure that my lines are memorized and that I act the way that I want to.  The importance of this scene in the play is that it is the start of the book so it gives the audience a chance to see how the family lives their daily life. Tom and Amanda are always arguing with each other and Laura stands by not knowing what to think about the situation because she is off in the head. I hope to explore the frustrations that Tom experiences with his family. I want to understand how fustrating it is to not be able to live his dream. Tom is a very important character in this book and it is important to understand his role. 

Tuesday, January 9, 2018

The Glass menagerie Ideas

I would like to play Tom to show how he wants out of the life he is living and  live his dream.

1.) Dinner scene
2.) Ending fight between Tom and Amanda

I chose these scenes because they are key parts to the plot of the story. The dinner scene is very important in the play because Amanda tries to make Jim think that they have a good life. Laura is not able to go to the table because she feels sick because Jim is there, so Amanda really tries to impress Jim by having Tom say grace at the table. This is something that Tom doesn't normally do which is why he was surprised when she was asked. The ending fight between Tom and Amanda is very important because it is the climax of the story. Amanda figures out that Jim is engaged to a girl named Betty, which makes her very upset at Tom because she believes that he should know that his best friend was engaged. Amanda starts to shout at Tom and they argue to the point of Tom leaving for good.

1:06:00-1:13:00
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kzZ_HYi7Mug
1:36:00-1:38:10
 
1:18:50-1:25:00
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nDPMBDiwL0M