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