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.

Theater notes

Musical vs straight play

Musical Review: less of a story line
Operetta: all singing, hardly any dialogs

Monologue vs dialogue

Monologue: one person
Dialogue: two people

Projection: stage voice
Diction / articulation: clear pronunciation

Proscenium stage/ thrust stage:

down stage: toward audience
Up stage: back


Blocking: movement
Script

Lines- cue line
Adlib improvising lines

When you forget your line in rehearsal say " line"

Costume                
Set.                             Context
Props

Lighting
Sound effects

Actor

Body lang
Social exp
Line delivery
Reaction
Chem/ interaction

Elements of musical theater

Pitch . Note accuracy
Rhythm. Tempo
Dance
Emotion
Expression

Backstory- develop character
Momotivation- why
Find a backstory is what a director would ask you to do

Voices of the High School

My scene is from a play called Voices of The High School, my character is a girl named Stacey. She's an awkward teenager who is interested in her friends brother. The setting is in Bruce, her friend's brother's room. He is in a a box when she enters and the whole play is based on the questions of why and how he got into the box. They also go back and forth dropping hints in the middle of conversations as well as making minor physical contact when Stacey enters the box so you can tell the two are somewhat interested in each other.

As I played the scene I noticed the words were short and direct, straight to the point and there was a huge feel of awkwardness as I read my lines. So I decided to put myself I. The shoes of a girl who has a crush on a boy and knows the boy feels the same way. Except as I read through there were parts where she seemed to be flirting a lot and then towards the end she played hard to get. So I tried to balance my performance and play both parts as a cruelty as I could. Although I feel like the last parts in the scene weren't played very well. For example when Stacey said, "mutual, I see why you like this place. There's no worrying about diets and knocknees or anything," I feel this line was a bit confusing to me I didn't know if she was flirting back or just taking note of the fact that he liked her but she just didn't care. So for me this line was a little of. Also, during my performance there were some lines that I kept forgetting maybe because there were many, oh' s and uh Huh's becase at some point I didn't know were to place them in the scenes. And lines started getting mixed up in my head but all in all I think I managed to memorize as much as I could.

Overall I enjoyed acting out this play because it was a little challenging and I like to try new ways of performing. And it's a good thing that the characters were teenagers because I' m a teenager as well so I didn't have to pretend or work extra hard in that department. I also liked the fact that the lines were short it wasn't so hard to memorize but the scene itself was pretty long so it was a little hard to get all my lines. Otherwise, I think I did an ok job,not my best but maybe with more practice I could learn to act out characters much better.

Winter play ❄️❄️

During this winter I was fortunate enough to take part in the winter play. The Cheshire Varsity Players performed The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee which was originally written by Rachel Sheinkin. It's based on five kids with hopes of win a spelling bee contest. But as they come closer to the price they learn a few lessons on the way. The show was comedic, educational and emotional and I loved every part of it. I mostly enjoyed the musical aspects in the show, partially because I got to perform in it. But mostly because it was well organized and fun to watch. I also enjoyed watching students that I knew get into character, they performed like professionals and I was absolutly impressed.

The Cheshire varsity player's version the 25th annual Putnam county spelling bee, involved five actors playing they spellers, two actors played the judges, there was a counselor, some cheerleaders and the audience ( family members of the conestants). Another interesting part of the play was that three audience members were chosen to take part in the play. The spellers were required to spell the word correctly in order to move to the next stage. If they misspelled the word the counselor and cheerleaders would kindly walk them offstage and give them an apple juice to go. The five spellers each had different characters, one was book smart and looked well groomed to win a spelling bee. Another speller was a perfectionist and losing was not in her vocabulary. The third speller was a little bit all over the place he wasn't considered smart in his family but his spelling was excellent. The fourth speller was a guy with erection problems and all around seemed to have lots of embarrassing scenes in the show. The last actor was a quiet and shy girl who had bad social skills. And All together these actors made the show an entertaining one.

When I heard my dance class was going to be part of a musical I wasn't expecting much, especially when they told me the musical was about kids...spelling. So when I entered the black box ready to dance and move on I was surprised to see familiar faces performing fantastically, they created funny,silly, clever characters with ease. When the dance crew came in it was a bit chaotic at the beginning. Songs were slower than dances or vis versa. But each day we practiced and got the hang of things and soon the show came to life. Sometimes during rehearsal, when the Dancers took a break, I'd sit and watch whatever I could from front stage. I enjoyed the actors and thier vibrant attitude, they were loud and the singing was well performed. The orchestra gave the play more life as well.

Overrall I enjoyed being part of the play, I enjoyed watching from front and backstage. Because I got a chance to see the actors stress out and panic only to conquer their fears and walk on stage with confidence. I was also able to see people I knew, and who I never thought would be part of a play, perform amazingly and actors who I already knew had the talent were still able to surprise me again. The show was well directed, organized and performed.

Speechless

Our latest performance was a silent movie. I've never had to perform without words before so I learned a lot about movement and grande gestures. I learned how to use facial expressions to show my reactions and I also learned to face the audience more because it would be hard to understand the play if I didn't. I also learned to be more dramatic with my performance, for example when in shock I had to place my hands on my mouth and have my eys wide open to create emphasis. And With all these new skills I've learned I can apply them to all my other performances. Whether it's a monologue or performing with someonelse I feel it's important to be dramatic on stage because the audience needs to clearly understand what's going on on stage. The most effective performance I believe was when jake and John came towards me to fight for my attention. It evolved a lot of facial expressions, I had to be confused, laugh, be irritated and freaked out which was  fun to do and watch as well. What also worked out in the play were the ideas we put into it. For example the cut scenes and adding different actions In between the fights made the movie even more interesting to watch.

A silent movie needs much more creativity because of its lack of speech, so I believe that all the work we put into creating a comedic silent movie paid off. My own performance was a little bit dry at the begin, I didn't use many facial expression because I was not so used to just using my face rather than my voice. And I also got to caught in the other actors performance that I didn't pay attention to my own acting.But as we went into performing more I began to feel more comfortable using my face and the rest of my body to tell the story. I also think I improved my skills when working with the other actors because at the begin I felt like rushed to give an expression before the other actor gave his but now the timing is in sync. What I found difficult was having to  break up the fight I didn't know how to place my self, I didn't know if I should have stepped back for the audience to see the fight while I stopped them or wether I should have come inner week so it felt a little bit awkward for me. So I think that i need to work more on positioning myself on stage where I can still let the audience see me and not feel awkward. I also found it hard to make certain faces, for example the scene were I had to sneak of I didn't know which facial expression would be funny enough. But overrall i enjoyed this performance because it was new to me and even though so aspects of it were difficult it wasnt as hard as the monologue.

Wicked witch

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=9fe_aNlCzMc

Charlie Chaplin

Monologues

I believe so far the monologues are great, each one is interesting to watch. John's monologue was very simple and funny and I think he did a great job with projecting he's voice and pronouncing the words loud and clear for the audience. He also did a great job with he's staging, he went from one spot to the other with ease while at the same time delivering he's lines well. What I think he should,work on is knowing the audience or rather the other person/people he is talking. Because at some point I didn't know if it was directed to a class or an imaginary audience. So next time he should work on making it clear he who he is talking too.

Jake's performance was also very clear and fun to watch, I like the way he portrayed his character.i also like the fact that he put awkward pauses in between his lines it made it very clear that the character is a shy and socially awkward person. And handing the flower was also very well done. What he should work on is knowing when to look at the audience and when to look at the girl, because I believe the performance would be great if he faced the crowed a little bit more.

My monologue was hard to act at the beginning because the staging directions it was hard to figure out were to stand and how to run of stage but I think I've improved a little in that department. What I should work on is projecting my voice, I sometimes get loud enough but after a couple of lines I get a little quieter. What I'm good at I think, is taking my time deliver my lines. Overall, I think with a bit more work, I can get louder and

CONTEXT: In this very silly spoof of fairy-tales, a bitter Wicked Witch curses the soon-to-be Sleeping Beauty.

WICKED WITCH:
So, looks like everyone is having a marvelous time. Hello, good to see you. Nice to meet you. Hi there, I’m the Wicked Witch, here’s my card. Let’s do lunch sometime. Ah, and here’s the birthday girl, surrounded by all of these gifts and her good little fairy friends. And here’s King Jonathan and Queen Jessica. You certainly invited a great number of people. But somehow you seemed to have overlooked the one person who could have been your most delightful guest. But no, no, don’t apologize. My feelings are hurt, yes, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t brought along a special gift for the princess. A brand new, never-seen-before, Curse of the Wicked Witch! “For all the tears you’ve made me shed, you’ll prick your finger on something pointy and fall down dead. And if your friends are feeling blue, in just one day they’ll drop dead too!” HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! (Runs off cackling… continues cackling looking for the exit.) How do you get out of this place? Oh – HAHAHAHAHA! (Exits.)

Let me introduce myself...

My name is Amanda Akaliza, fun fact about my name is I don't share my last name with anyone else in my family, and no I was not adopted, I asked. It's part of my culture I'm originally from Rwanda but  I was born in Uganda. I grew up in a pretty big family 7 kids and both parents, but I mostly lived abroad with my mother. I was very lucky to live in different countries such as Belgium, Zimbabwe and the USA because learning from different cultures has shaped my personality today. I am very accepting to change and I love meeting new people. And with new lifestyles I've learned that people have  different opinions and views, so I've also learnt to be patient and accept other people's point of view. I think the best thing I've  learned from living a broad is how to listen, I learned over the years to listen to people and their problems, hopes and dreams and as crazy as it sounds I have always been interested in helping another person grow. This is why I've decided to take psychology in college next year to learn about the human mind and how else a person can help those who need the extra push.

    Growing up I've also been exposed to music, my father loves to sing, however my mother can't really hold a tune, but let's not tell her that. My parents started to notice how much I loved to sing from the time I was 4, I wasn't really that great when I was younger I have to admit but thanks to all the effort my parents put in finding vocal coaches and choir groups my voice has truly  improved. I've since then performed at school, in mini concerts back home and I am looking forward to any and all opportunities out there for me. My dream since the day I knew I could hold a tune was to become a well known vocal performer not only for the money, but I would like that part to, but for the messages I'd send to those who listen, and I mean really listen to what I have to say through my music.

Lastly, my goals in this class, I've never really performed through acting before, I've done a play or two but I had two lines max in both plays combined. So my goal is to perform better, I've noticed I'm very soft spoken so hopefully this acting class will change that. And my last goal is to express myself through acting without being shy.