Bushnell Trip

Today I went to a Bushnell trip to Hartford in order to see a “ One woman played show” called Warriors Don’t Cry. Before I went to see the performance, I had a little confused on how could one woman perform different characters in the show and what actions or tones she will use to help the audience to figure out which character she is performing. Before the show, I read the introduction of the show and also searched some background knowledge about the Warriors Don’t Cry, so I know the setting of the show and different characters in the show, so I became more interested in the actress who called Maria to perform different characters on the stage because I want to know what does she do on the stage to describe one character’s characteristic and how would she let the audience distinguish different characters she played. 

When the show started, I noticed one thing which is the light, the director did not close the whole lights immediately, he gradually close most lights, just remained some lights pointed to the actress, so this behavior would let the audience’s mind to be followed with the actress. Then the actress began to tell the story, during her telling, I noticed that she did a great job on performance. When she was speaking, she also did the actions to relate her speaking, even the audience would have some questions on her speaking, but from her actions, an audience would understand the show clearly. So during her performance, she solved one of my questions that how could her performance helped an audience to figure out which character she is playing. She used two methods, first before she said the lines in one character, she would speak out the name of the character, then the second step is to use different actions to distinguish different characters, for example, when she was playing grandma, she will bend over and speak slowly and mumbling, however, when she performed Melba and soldier, she will stand straightly and talk confidently. Also from her performance, she will stop at some points, which would help audience to know what happened, like the diary part, before and after she wrote the diary, she would stop some seconds, it can help audience to know the timeline and have a chance to conclude what happened and also this pause can also help her to have a chance to rest because this is a “ One woman played show”, she can not finish all plot in one time, so her solution was to divide the plot into different small parts. 

Also after the show, when the presenter asked us to use one word to describe the whole show, someone said inequality, discrimination, or dramatic. These words are true for describing the circumstance in Warrior Don’t Cry, but in my mind, “ struggle” is the true word for describing the whole play, because this play was written by Dr. Melba Pattillo Beals, she was the main character, Melba, one thing we need to remember is that the whole play was from her sight, so she was struggling in the racial discrimination, she faced the inequality but she had no solution, compare to modern world, when we face the discrimination, we can ask help from teachers, governors or adults, however in this play, nothing she can rely on.  Not only the white students want to bully her, but also even some teachers, parents wanted to attack and expel her out of the area where the white man lived. She is struggling in this situation but she had nothing to do about it. This story was dramatic, but at the same time it was so realistic because it reveals the real situation at that time period. So I think this story, and this performance, both bring the shocking feel to the audience. 

Warriors Don't Cry

The story Warriors Don’t Cry, which is based on Melba Pattillo Beal’s experience to write down as a story. The main character in the show called Melba, which is herself. She and other eight black men and women went back to their state of Arkansas to meet the local governor, Bill Clinton. At that time Melba is a narrator and an author, and her friends, the nine people are called Little Rock Nine, they were the first several African American students to be integrated into the school Central High School.
So this performance is like a flashback that author, Melba, would introduce the different characters first, and then go back to their childhood to tell the event. However, in Melba childhood, she experienced many unbelievable events in the new environment and faced the resistance from new school and governor. In the beginning of the story, she and eight students were asked to move school, however, when they went to the new school, she and her eight friends were prevented to go to Central High School by the governor Orval Faubus. In the new school, even though the law permit she can study in, but she experienced the bullying from many white students, which includes the new school students and faculty both did not accept Melba join into them. When she wanted to stay in the Central High School, she faced many angry white man who wanted to punch her and there was one girl even throw acid into her eyes. These things were unbelievable but really existed on Melba. During that time, the main theme in Melba life was to escape and avoid the attack from the white men, she had choice to go back to her state to study but she rejected.
The plot mainly talked about the racial discrimination between white and black people, this was a perpetual topic in American history, and also this topic would attract more audience because everyone wants to know the result of the story. Fid Melba finally resolve the problem and how did it work. During the whole play, audience would see how did Melba grow up under the crucial circumstance but still becomes strong. Also the audience will know how can she counter with the large power group, like the governor and the headmaster in new school to get a chance to stay there. She, as a black people, is representing the small power group. I think the director may want to use the different costume and the different tones in different lines to show their sides. However, a play is not like a movie which the audience could watch the whole story in different aspects, which change from one place to another place immediately. Audience should follow with the director's mind, but the question is how? Maybe the director may use lights as a hint for audience to follow. And also I want to see how can the actor on the stage to arrange, not only to explain clearly what happened during the fight, but also to let audience do not feel confused toward his play.

Reflection.

Romeo and Juliet is a classical story and when I read about it, I imaged a lot of scenes in my mind. But I never think about that I can remember all lines and perform Romeo and Juliet on the stage. I really love the main character, Friar Lawrence, in the show because he is an old man and he’s the calmest one in the whole story, that is why I choose him. Compare with my first performance, me and Sam improved a lot. Especially on blocking and actions. For blockings, after I watched the fall play The Dead, suddenly I understand why should I add into the scene and what actions should I use. After I watched the show, I began to know what means to relate yourself on the stage, to let yourself live on the stage. So during the show I put myself into the Friar Lawrence, I tried to guess what was his inner activities that what would he react when he was facing threaten by Juliet. Furthermore, I communicated with Sam about the actions when we do not speak about the lines, like when Sam threats me by using a knife when I took out the vial. Maybe is Sam speaking the lines, but at the same time, I should act scared to show my afraid rather than just standing like a robot. Also for blocking, in performance, we did not only stand in the same place to finish the whole show, instead of that, we added more movement to show the plot more clearly to the audience. However, there ’s also something I needed to improve, for example, the interaction between me and Sam, it has nothing to do with the actions, I want to talk more about the lines connections because I only remembered my lines, so I had no idea that when should I start speaking. Before the show, I tried to remember several lines from the end of Sam’s lines, but it does not work very well, maybe I can talk with Sam about adding some actions to remind us about lines, like some gestures show she finishes her lines and it is time for me to speak. And the second shortage is in speaking lines, even though I added some pause in my soliloquy to slow down my speaking speed and also do not show audience that I am speaking out the lines that I remembered, I should let the audience believe that I am the Friar Lawrence and I am trying to help Juliet. The first shortage is easy to revise, I can chat with Sam and ask her to add some actions in the show, but for the second shortage, I think I need to spend more time on it to practice it.  I can speak about the lines first and try to find a feeling about the pause parts, and then I may close the lines and try to slow down my speaking speed to say the lines. In this performance, I think I did a good job on portraying my character. Because he is an old man and like alchemy. so there’s a difference between he and Juliet, because he is older and calmer than Juliet, so when he heard the news about the marriage, the first thing he tried to do is to comfort Juliet, Juliet’s voice is higher and speaking speed is faster, but for Friar Lawrence, he needed to show his calm to console Juliet. And also when he took out the vial, he became crazy, a deep love on the alchemy, so at this time, he may lose his calm, so at this time, I always hold the vial and speak toward the vial because of the alchemist. I can not say I did a great job on adapting literary features but I would say I did a good job. There’s one movement I think is very hard to accomplish on the stage, which so goes across from the right stage to left stage. Because of our setting, the door is on the left stage, but I was talking with fake Paris on the right stage, so we decided to use the soliloquy of mine, which I gave the vial to Juliet, so at this time, I showed to audience an action that I will go to find the vial, but actually I move myself from right to left, which I successfully accomplish the actions that the script required.

The Dead

It is not my first time to go to Black Box to see a show, but this time, there’s another reason why I go there, because of the performance. I am in IB liter & perf, so this course requests me to perform in the class, but I have no idea about performance, so this time I go there to see the varsity performance, look their settings and what will they do when they do not have lines to speak, how would they interact with other characters, so I went. 

First I know the setting about the show, there are many chairs, which means there are many characters in the show, how would they arrange the show. In the beginning, the lights points on the chairs, which gives a feeling about noble and dignity, so I would assume that this must be a talk between many nobles, not a basic conversation. And as the show continues, I begin to pay attention on John, I want to watch his actions and to know why he can play the character like the character. For the section one, I love the arrangement of the play, which includes the lights, the introduction of the characters, and also the division between waiters and visitors, first I would figure out by their costumes, and then I would figure out that their actions are also different, waiters only listen to visitors command to do things, but for the visitors, they can do whatever they want, they can express their emotion, like what did Freddy Malins on the party. But for second part, I really love the interaction between John and Sam, they really do the conversation like normal on the stage, not like repeating the lines, when I looked at John’s actions, his speaking did not interfere his actions. His emotions changed very naturally, for example I remembered that there is one place Sam song a song on the party and John never heard before, John did not only say that” Oh, this is the song I never heard before.” But also he just his actions to emphasize this feeling, he gave a shrug to show his feelIng. Also after the visitors all gone, John sat and talked with Sam, and suddenly he knew that his wife’s first lover and that man was died for Sam, he was very angry and John was waiving his hands to show his angry, and then he considered a lot because he can feel his wife’s sadness, so which gives a deep understand on how to perform a character, also I love the lines that John spoke several times:  The world is a surface of the frozen lake, we walk along and we slip, we want to keep our balance and not fall, but one day there is a crack. So we can learn that underneath us is an unimaginable depth. “ Before the show starts, John spoke it once time, at that time I was thinking about the weather, the cold weather made the John say this. However, after the show, I understood that he used analogy to describe his wife’s first lover as a crack, which made me feel sad and also can feel John’s helplessness, he is alive, but at which point, his mind is died. 

Log 3

After today's performance, which is my second time to perform the whole show in front of Ms. Guarino. After the first performance, Ms. Guarino gave us a lot of advice, which helped me and Sam to consider what is good in our performance, what is bad. After one week, we played the whole show again in order to get some feedback from my classmates as from a audience view and also from Ms. Guarino. After the performance, even though Ms.Guarino said that we improved a lot from last performance, she needs to be critical because this is in IB program, every detail is very important, so she pointed out several points Sam and I need to continue improving. 

So the first thing is the pronunciation, for me, Ms. Guarino asks me to say slowly and clearly.  For speaking slowly not only because Friar Lawrence was a friar and this character’s age was older than Juliet. At this point, when Juliet was very excited and wanted Lawrence to comfort her, during the show, not only in speaking, but also some physical movement to show the different levels between Friar Lawrence and Juliet. When Juliet is very upset, Friar Lawrence should comfort her and give her some solution, but audience did not the script, so from the actor’s point, you need to let audience soon figure out your characteristic and job on the stage as soon as possible. Ms. Guarino wanted me, as Friar Lawrence, not only to speak like a friar, but also to use body language to show the characteristic. And also from my classmates feedback, I know that I need to pronounce each word clearly in order to let the audience listen and understand what was happened on the stage. That is one difficult I need to overcome in this weekend, not only slow my speaking, but also i need to relate my emotion with the lines. Maybe in that way I can express Friar Lawrence more vivid.  Then Ms. Guarino said that our memorization of lines is good but we needed to add more actions on the stage, we should do more body languages on the stage, do not like a model who just stands on the stage and do not have interactions with your partners, speaking is one way to know one character’s charactersitc, also from the character’s body language, audience could get more information because the body language is directly watched by audience. So I think in our act, I need to add more interactions with Sam, like when she uses knife to threat me, when I want to comfort her, when I want to show I am considering about the solution, and when i show my worried on this idea. So these things I can not use speaking to express for audience, and audience could not get this from my body language. Also in my speaking lines part, many of my classmates asked me to have some changes in the speaking. If there’s no changing voice, they thought I am only a robot on the stage to read the lines, which is emotionless, Friar Lawrence is an old and famous character in the book, so in my talking, I can accent some important words to show my worried, like when I explain to Juliet about what will happen after she drinks the vial, and when I want to comfort her. In these long monologue, maybe I should break down the lines, like add some stop points in it in order to let myself have some relax on the stage, but also can help audience to figure out what was happening on the stage. After this performance, from my classmates and Ms. Guarino’s feedback, I know that in the performance, I should continue working on change in emotion, whatever in speaking lines or not speaking, if there’s no speaking part, I also need to react with Sam, also do not stand on the stage like a robot. And for the starting part, I will also work on how to let audience to understand the fake character on the stage, these things are really important to relate each part in the performance on the stage together. 

However, on Friday’s class, I talked with Ms. Guarino about the beginning setting part, and then I communicated with Sam about her opinion on the beginning part, so finally we changed to the the setting that on the left stage, there are two chairs, which in the beginning I will sit on one of them and imitate I am talking with Paris, and I also changed my lines from “ My lord, we must entreat this time alone.” to “ Paris, my lord, we must entreat this time alone.” Which would let audience to figure out the whole setting clearly. And after Juliet knocks the door, I will move from left stage to stage right, and to close the door, then move back to center. Also Juliet will only move from the door, which locates on the stage right to center.  Then we added more actions in the conversation: when I say” Ah, Juliet I already know thy grief,” I would imitate I want to hug with her, to comfort her, also when I say “ As that is desperate, which we could precent.” I would take off the knife from Juliet’ s hand.  And after I say, “ Let no thy nurse lie with thee in thy chamber,” I will be silence for several seconds, and then walked to my cabinet, and imitate I am finding the vial, but after the vial, I will not immediately give it to Juliet, I will consider a lot, and then finally make the decision to give to her. Which I think I add more actions and more emotions in the perforation which would make the audience understand more deeply and would feel that I am Friar Lawrence on the stage. 

Fall play on The Dead

Weel2 Log

Day 1 ( Monday)

Today we performed about the scene when Juliet came to Friar Lawrence’s church in order to ask for the help. It was our first draft performance on the stage. Even though at that time I can memorize almost lines in my part, I still choose to read the lines and ask Sam what should we act on the stage. Then after the performance, Ms. Guarino talked a lot about our performance, and she offered some advice on how to control our talking speed on the stage and we maybe lack some reactions on the stage.  And also, many of our classmates gave us some advice from audience perspective to tell us what we did show well on the stage, and what do they want to see as the audience to see from the stage acting, so I very appreciated from their advice. In those e-mails, I knew our strength on the stage acting was that we had the body emotions which can directly show audiences what is happening on the stage, and also I think I can improve this strength because next week we will begin to rehearsal without looking at the lines, then we will show more body language on the stage to let them understand the plot better. And most of them showed interest in the creating fictional character Paris on the stage, even on the stage, we did not speak the name of Paris, but the audience could get the point of what means:” My lord, we  must entreat this time alone, so we are proud of this creative idea. But also, the emails pointed out a lot of shortcomings, like our speaking speed, I and Sam’s speaking are very fast that the audience is hard to follow what happened so that’s why they thought our body language is a good way to interpret the plot. We need to take more time on the stage to think and breathe. Also, compare with Sam, on the stage, I showed a little bit not expressive, maybe next time I need to try matching with Sam’s style in order to make the whole show be related. For Friar Lawrence part, I think I could use the costume to show my authority and for blocking part, I should consider more about how can we make the audience believe that Friar Lawrence is chatting with others, that is the next question I need to consider. So in general I am very thankful for Ms. Guarino to give us a chance to perform on the stage and give us the advice to improve the stage acting, and I believe after this rehearsal, me and Sam will know what should we improve on the stage so, in the following week, we must pay more attention to acting and interactions part. 

Day2 ( Wednesday )

In the Liter and Per class, today we did some emotion activity in order to help us to understand the character deeply then it can help us in acting the characters more vivid. So Ms. Guarino asked us to use different colors to underline each sentence to show the emotions in it. Like red means angry, black means desperate, yellow means truthfully, etc. So Ms. Guarino asked to  underline each line we need to perform on the stage. So I began to underline each line and discover what is the emotion in it. As I continue underlining, I began to understand Friar Lawrence deeply. In  the beginning, he just wanted to comfort Juliet but as time moves, he began to feel more guilty on Romeo and Juliet and he had to use the vial to save this couple. And even he knows that using vial is very dangerous and if he was found, he will lose the sacred identity. But he still tells the truth to Juliet about what will happen after Juliet drinks the vial, so I began to know more about Friar Lawrence, and also recently I repeatedly watched the video of Romeo and Juliet, so in my mind, there is a blueprint of the whole show, but I need more time to approve them on the stage and also make connections between Friar Lawrence and Juliet in front of audience. 

Day3 ( Thursday) 

Today we just stayed in the art building to memorize the lines, and Abby told us a good way to memorize the lines, which is to write down the lines repeatedly, then your muscle will memorize them then when you speaking out the lines, in your mind it would naturally appear the lines, which is very useful to help us to memorize the lines, especially in some part which is the soliloquy, so we can not make interaction with our partners to remind us of the lines, so the physical memorization helped to memorize the lines, and in the following week, I will add more body actions in the performing to help me to remind the lines, like what should I speak when I take out the vial, and what should I say after I shut the door. Physical memorization is very useful and give me more inspiration on the stage performing.