Bone chiller!

First of all I must say that this play was absolutely amazing I enjoyed every minute of it. From when I enter the cold room with the creepy music to the last line said. I'd never actually sat down to watch a cheshire play before and after watching this one I deeply regret not watching a few more. Each character performed their parts to the best of their abilities and it was just incredible. It was funny, mysterious and scary all at ones. I like the story line and I feel that the actors played it out well, I understood what was going on and I feel like this was a kind of show that really need to be played out accurately to understand what was going on. At times I'd find myself laughing hysterically at a joke or jumping out my sit when I heard a scream I even sat at the edge of my sit when it was time to unravel the mystery, so I commend the actors and director and everybody that had a part in this play, it was a job well done. As for the story itself to be honest I am so surprised it turned out to be the lawyer and the cop! The whole time I was positive it was the grand son's wife's sister! I thought I had it all figured out, I mean she was hardly in the room most of the time and she wasn't one of the people who died so I thought it had to be her! So when it turned out to be the cop and the lawyer I was really shocked. As a matter of fact there are so many other people I would have placed before them. I mean the butler seem very odd and by the way she was treated I assumed maybe she got fed up and killed the guy, but then her character died so that was impossible. Then I thought what about the cook she wasn't in the room when the butler died so maybe it was her, and the fact that she knew what the code was and said she'd figured out who the killer was I thought if she knew why would she run away she could, have stayed to help get them arrested. But then against she 'died' so she couldn't be the one. So finally when the mystery was solved I was both frustrated and shocked at the same time. But I was very impressed at how they skill fully worked to solve the mystery, when each person who took part in identifying the murders came out and told there story I was at the very edge of my sit making sure I heard exactly how it happend. Overall I truly enjoyed the show! And lastly I have to say that my favorite character was the undercover detective, her sass and humor almost had me on the floor laughing! But the whole play itself was really worth watching and I am very glad I did!

And that's a wrap!

I had two goals at the beginning of this course, my first goal was to improve my acting skills and my second goal was to get out of my comfort zone and increase my stage voice. For my first goal I truly believe I have learnt a lot over the past few months, I have learnt that when I am performing I must be aware of my audience and perform for them, face them and use gestures that they can see and understand.  I also learnt that I must know whom I am talking to if I were to be given a dialog. When acting before, I used to use the same expressions when talking to other actors, but now I know that my expression should change when I am talking to a child and it should change when I am talking to an adult. Throughout the course I’ve also noticed that I’ve become more and more comfortable being someone else. Before I found it quite silly actually to act, especially in front of people, I would always get shy to play a role in fear that I might mess up. Even when singing on stage I’d sing to the microphone and show no emotion. But now I’ve improved a little bit more in that department. My second goal was to step out my comfort zone and speak louder! What I meant by stepping out my comfort zone was that I wanted to act out different characters, not just the ones I felt comfortable acting. At the beginning of this course we were given scenes to choose from and I chose the more serious script because it evolved being serious and I find that to be easy to perform. But after all the stuff we’ve done, from silent movies, to monologues, dialogues and finally a three people scene, I’ve been able to be more than just a serious character, I have stepped out my comfort zone and I have tried new things. As for the speaking louder part, I still need work on that, I’ve improved a little bit but I noticed as I was watching our last performance, that my voice would get loud but then I’d go back to my normal voice and forget about the audience. So I need to improve on that and hopefully when I’m in college I will take an interest in acting and continue from there. But for now I feel I’ve improved from how I started of in this class and I plan on keeping these new techniques I’ve learnt this year and hopefully use them again in college. And lastly, of all the scenes we have acted in this course I am most proud of the latest one we did where I was Cassie. I like this one the most because I feel I performed to the best of my ability, it wasn’t so perfect but I feel like I actually put effort into portraying myself the way she was written. I even stepped out my comfort zone and pulled out a (horrible) British accent to change things up a little bit. Overall I have truly enjoyed this class and I’ve learnt so much!

Cassie,Brandon and Tom

The three person scene so far Is going well, we have been working on memorizing our lines and today we did pretty well without reading. However it wasn't perfect so we still need to work on memorization a little bit more.I also noticed that when we were reading we forgot our queue lines which resulted to awkward pause in between. So we need to remember when to come in and when to fill in the blanks. And as for the performing I feel like there is no energy so we need to try deliver our lines loud and with more energy. And seeing as how this is sort of a comedic show we need to deliver the funny lines in a funny way.  But over all As a whole group we have manage to memorize our lines pretty well and work well together. And I feel as soon as we get the blocking down we will do great.

As individuals I find that my character needs to be portrayed in a way that makes her look like the bad guy not the victim. I've noticed that I get quieter on very important lines that should be said with great emphasis and I tend to use shy body languages when instead, I should be more flirtatious ans sneaky. So for next time I will definitely work on my acting. As for the lines I. Think I've memorized most of the. And they shouldn't be a problem.

John's character IS the victim so I feel he needs to portray himself as a man who has been hurt from when he comes in to when he leaves. Especial when he is talking to Brandon, there are lines where he needs to sob more and play the Victim morel and the lines where he says 'uhu' and 'mhm' I feel he needs to use them after jake gives his lines, in order for it to look more like he is pretending to care when truly he has other things on his mind. But as for the rest he is doing pretty well.

Jake's character plays two roles the first is a man attracted to a married woman and the second is a man running away from the issues behind being attracted to a married woma. For the first part I feel jake need to act like he is interested and truly doesn't care about the husband, until Cassie brings him up. There he should  show truely bark at Cassie get furious because he knows he will get caught in a lie. So far jake is performing pretty well but he needs to add more emotion to it. As for the lines he has them pretty well memorized.

Overrall I believe that with more practice and blocking we will do a great job with this piece. And personally I enjoy playing this piece since it involves al three of us and it's not too hard to act.

Broadway wannabees!

Singing part of your world from the little mermaid was a little challenge but fun at the same time.
It was mainly challenging because there were a couple of high notes that I couldn't reach, I'd sometimes push the notes but it would come out wrong or leave my throat in pain, or I'd go in head voice and it would sound off key. But by singing this song more and more I learnt new techniques from my teachers as well as by myself that helped the transition from low to high go smoothly. I learnt that singing some parts lower would help make it easier to fully breath in and hit the high notes and I also learnt that if I sang some parts a little faster I would have less time to think about how high the note is. I can't say however that I truly hit the notes the way I wanted to but I did much better with my last performance compared to when I started. And with the help of the piano I feel like my performance wasn't so bad. But what I should improve on with my singing would be my my breathing techniques and to take my time with the  pianist. I noticed at the beginning that I  would try sing faster than the pianist or I'd go slower, so I think I need to trust that whoever is playing  will go along with my singing. As for the acting I practiced multiple times to perform while singing but then again I don't feel like I reached my full acting potential. I should have set an audience and told a story rather than just sing. By the time I had to perform my final piece I realized that I was more focused in the song than on the performance. So In The future I think I'll need to pay more attention to my performance. I also felt like I didn't chose an audience I was singing aimlessly and I kept walking in random directions. I feel like I used my facial expression well enough but if I'd used my body language more I would have done I little bit better. But over all I really enjoyed working in this piece and getting to feel what it's like to do two things at the same time; singing and acting.

As for the two other performances, I enjoyed them both very much. At the beginning of johns performance he didn't know the lines and he too didn't pick an audience or a person he was taking to. But by the last performance he knew every line by heart and he used emotion and grand gestures which was really impressive. However I fell he should work on picking only certain words to put emphasis on and say the rest normally. Jake did pretty good to, the first try was a little shaky but he got a hang of things when we talked about breathing  and finding an audience.

Meet the husband continued

Brandon: dammit, now I like this guy.
Brandon stands up to leave and Cassie runs back in
Cassie: hey! I'm back turns out it wasn't that big of an emergency. Where's tom
Brandon: (looking at her with no affection) he left.
Cassie: oh. Well that's to bad.
Brandon: yea.
Cassie: so, where do you want to go? What do want to do.
Brandon: actually, I have to go, uh, it's work related.
Cassie: what?  Now?  But I just cleared my schedule for you..
Brandon: (whispers) clear your schedule for your husband
Cassie: sorry. What was that?
Brandin: I said clear your schedule for your damn husband. We sat here for the longest and most painful 15 mins talking about how he thinks your cheatin-
Cassie: cheating? He knows I'm cheating? He said that? Don't mess with me Brandon, I know your mad I left you here with him but that doesn't mean you should say things like that to hurt me.
Brandon: I'm not lying Cassie he knows and he wants to be a better husband... For you. I thought I could do this. I thought I could get involved with a married woman. But let's face it the husband wins, he'll always win and I don't think I want a front seat to the 'happy ever after show'. I'm done Cassie.
Cassie: but Brandon I- I know it's hard but I don't love him, I stopped loving him a long time ago you need to believe that we won't last. And if you just wait, he'll be out of the picture.
Tom comes in after he's overheated the last few lines: I left my keys... (Walks away and turns around) oh and I'm moving out.
Cassie: Tom wait!
Brandon gets up to leave too.
Cassie:wait  Brandon don't leave too! What the hell just happened?

Two scenes

1.https://mail.cheshireacademy.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=4c017356b2734bff98c5b7bd60db538e&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.bhplayhouse.com%2findex.php%3foption%3dcom_mtree%26task%3datt_download%26link_id%3d649%26cf_id%3d24

2. https://mail.cheshireacademy.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=4c017356b2734bff98c5b7bd60db538e&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.bhplayhouse.com%2findex.php%3foption%3dcom_mtree%26task%3datt_download%26link_id%3d145%26cf_id%3d24

Broadway or Bust

This show was really inspiring, I enjoyed watching young adults really push for their dreams and work hard to achieve them. Each new episode brought new challenges, and thing got more difficult and there were more tears and sweat but at the same time these kids were growing. They were learning and they kept moving forwards rather than give up. I was kind of surprised that certain people like Brittany and Evan didn't win because they showed amazing skills they took extra steps and weren't afraid to push passed their limits but at the same time you could see that they had no control over their abilities. So what I learnt while watching this show is that talent does come naturally but it takes practice and self control to really make it to where you want to end up.