This was taken from my IB CAS reflections. These are written as entries:
August 30th - Today was the second day of auditions and I found that I can truly express my creativity through acting. However, I did find that when I read directly off a script, my movements are limited and therefore a bit boring. Hopefully I will learn to be less dependent on text and experiment more with movement and voice.
September 3rd - The full Theatre company sat together and did a read through of two scripts in order to decide which one to use for the play itself. When reading the material aloud, I realized how abstract and deep the actual words are. I was able to relate to, for example, the idea of the "Valley of Love" and how it is a part of my own life. I think that a big part of one of my next steps to being able to perform a role, is being able to connect to the piece to my personal life so I can better understand it. Of course, I could not experiment on movement today, but I learned that speaking in different voices is essential.
September 12th - The rehearsals involving movement have started today. Today we have to run our lines on stage and do some editing. As an observer, I noticed that it is very difficult to assign lines to different people with the same character. It was more difficult to move while reading than I thought. What's brilliant is that we have all chosen hats that have now been assigned to us that allow us to become our characters every time we put them on. My previous reflection was an image of most of the company wearing their hats. I feel that my challenges for the coming days will be to learn my lines better and be more aware of my movements as I try to act more like my bird, the nightingale. I am also looking forward to figuring out how to play the part of "old man" with two other people.
September 28th - It is two weeks away from the show and I am still faced with challenges. One of my characters, the nightingale, requires me to act very bouncy, energetic and boastful. This can be challenging at times, as I may not have energy and I must always be aware of the way I annunciate certain words. I must be concentrated and focused. Overall, I have improved on my nightingale character and I have developed a bird walk to use. I have also improved on my old lady character, as I have developed a voice to use and have been able to keep it. However, I must work on the posture of my old lady character and reactions. The biggest challenge I have at the moment is to memorize my lines accurately.
October 4th - Today, I was able to try parts of my costume, including scarves. There were many things I found challenging about the use of scarves, especially since I was given another character to play who spins quickly across the stage and then around a character. I found myself struggling to keep the scarf out of my face as I spun. I would really like to try and work on my spinning and develop a technique that will work well for me and still give a striking image to the audience. I'm quite nervous for the play, as I have never played character parts before. I have only payed "narrator". This anxiety leads to my need to make sure everyone participating focuses, which causes misunderstanding because a few actors believed I was yelling. I perceived it as asking for attention in order to move on and work on a specific scene. Luckily, we resolved the issue by apologizing to one another and were able to continue. It is a real step out of my comfort zone and I am hoping to do the best I can.
October 9th - Yesterday was our last Saturday rehearsal before the week of the show. I was very tired and found a new challenge that I didn't have to encounter very often before: fatigue. My goodness, it was difficult to play my energetic characters while feeling so weak. I was able to do well, but I mostly tried to focus on the transitions between each scene. We had some trouble working together, as a lot of people were not focusing on the task at hand and were goofing off. I found it incredibly disrespectful and tried to get the actors to work with me in a concentrated way. Sadly, this was difficult and it ended up being a very frustrating rehearsal. I spent some time thinking about the play itself. I realized how important the content of the play is. It is about a journey to find nirvana. It dives into many beliefs in Sufism, which really applies to many cultures in the world. Hopefully, the audience will enjoy the show and will at least understand some concepts of the production. I'm very nervous. We only had five weeks to put it all together.
October 15th - Today was our third performance of the play and it went well in my opinion. There were no major glitches and most importantly, I didn't forget any lines or queues. It such an exhilarating experience to be on stage in front of people whose eyes are fixed on your actions the entire time. I was shaky and nervous, but I found that once I had an important role or monologue, I stopped shaking. I am so happy to say that I have gotten over the fear of doing poorly over these past few weeks and have managed to pull off a good production with my fellow actors and crew members.
August 30th - Today was the second day of auditions and I found that I can truly express my creativity through acting. However, I did find that when I read directly off a script, my movements are limited and therefore a bit boring. Hopefully I will learn to be less dependent on text and experiment more with movement and voice.
September 3rd - The full Theatre company sat together and did a read through of two scripts in order to decide which one to use for the play itself. When reading the material aloud, I realized how abstract and deep the actual words are. I was able to relate to, for example, the idea of the "Valley of Love" and how it is a part of my own life. I think that a big part of one of my next steps to being able to perform a role, is being able to connect to the piece to my personal life so I can better understand it. Of course, I could not experiment on movement today, but I learned that speaking in different voices is essential.
September 12th - The rehearsals involving movement have started today. Today we have to run our lines on stage and do some editing. As an observer, I noticed that it is very difficult to assign lines to different people with the same character. It was more difficult to move while reading than I thought. What's brilliant is that we have all chosen hats that have now been assigned to us that allow us to become our characters every time we put them on. My previous reflection was an image of most of the company wearing their hats. I feel that my challenges for the coming days will be to learn my lines better and be more aware of my movements as I try to act more like my bird, the nightingale. I am also looking forward to figuring out how to play the part of "old man" with two other people.
September 28th - It is two weeks away from the show and I am still faced with challenges. One of my characters, the nightingale, requires me to act very bouncy, energetic and boastful. This can be challenging at times, as I may not have energy and I must always be aware of the way I annunciate certain words. I must be concentrated and focused. Overall, I have improved on my nightingale character and I have developed a bird walk to use. I have also improved on my old lady character, as I have developed a voice to use and have been able to keep it. However, I must work on the posture of my old lady character and reactions. The biggest challenge I have at the moment is to memorize my lines accurately.
October 4th - Today, I was able to try parts of my costume, including scarves. There were many things I found challenging about the use of scarves, especially since I was given another character to play who spins quickly across the stage and then around a character. I found myself struggling to keep the scarf out of my face as I spun. I would really like to try and work on my spinning and develop a technique that will work well for me and still give a striking image to the audience. I'm quite nervous for the play, as I have never played character parts before. I have only payed "narrator". This anxiety leads to my need to make sure everyone participating focuses, which causes misunderstanding because a few actors believed I was yelling. I perceived it as asking for attention in order to move on and work on a specific scene. Luckily, we resolved the issue by apologizing to one another and were able to continue. It is a real step out of my comfort zone and I am hoping to do the best I can.
October 9th - Yesterday was our last Saturday rehearsal before the week of the show. I was very tired and found a new challenge that I didn't have to encounter very often before: fatigue. My goodness, it was difficult to play my energetic characters while feeling so weak. I was able to do well, but I mostly tried to focus on the transitions between each scene. We had some trouble working together, as a lot of people were not focusing on the task at hand and were goofing off. I found it incredibly disrespectful and tried to get the actors to work with me in a concentrated way. Sadly, this was difficult and it ended up being a very frustrating rehearsal. I spent some time thinking about the play itself. I realized how important the content of the play is. It is about a journey to find nirvana. It dives into many beliefs in Sufism, which really applies to many cultures in the world. Hopefully, the audience will enjoy the show and will at least understand some concepts of the production. I'm very nervous. We only had five weeks to put it all together.
October 15th - Today was our third performance of the play and it went well in my opinion. There were no major glitches and most importantly, I didn't forget any lines or queues. It such an exhilarating experience to be on stage in front of people whose eyes are fixed on your actions the entire time. I was shaky and nervous, but I found that once I had an important role or monologue, I stopped shaking. I am so happy to say that I have gotten over the fear of doing poorly over these past few weeks and have managed to pull off a good production with my fellow actors and crew members.
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