The Last Hurrah

During this course, I really learned a lot. From monologues to mask work, I really got to explore myself as an actress. At the beginning of the year, we started doing monologues. My first monologue was a comedy and it was a very unrealistic scene. At first, I didn't think that it was going to be that hard. But I never initially considered all that I have to think about when performing a scene. I definitely thi that the monologues were the hardest for me. This could be because I wasn't really sure of myself and wasn't quite sure what to do since I'd never done monologues before. Also, I think that monologues can be challenging because there no one that you can feed off of. Meaning you have to deliver all the emotions on your own without the energy from other actors. But after doing this first monologue, I figured out that I had to consider my hand gestures, tone of voice, and specific blocking to let the audience understand the emotions of the scene. 

When I started this course, I was kind of insecure on stage. I definitely think that all the projects we did helped me progress into a more confident and self aware actress. The monologues helped me be confident in my voice, and then the silent movie that we did really stretched me with blocking and hand gestures, since those were all we could use to show emotions. These two projects really helped me loosen up and become more comfortable with trying new things and techniques. By the end of the course with our final scene I had a vision and could see in myself the progression of voice techniques and blocking. Therefore this final scene that we did, was easiest for me, probably just because it was all the skills we have practiced over the semester all in one, so I knew how to use them and incorporate the skills into the scene well. 

My favorite project that we did was our silent movie. This is partially because we still laugh at ourselves every time we watch it. Our silent movie was a comedy and it turned out better than I think any of us ever thought it would. It was very fun to create and also edit. We worked really well together on this project and I think it really showed in the final. It stretched me personally with having big motions and facial expressions, which was fun to experiment with. 

In conclusion, I learned a lot about not only acting, but also about myself. I learned how to use my voice as a tool to show emotion. This could mean being loud and articulate when mad, or speaking quiet when upset or sad. I learned how to use my body as a tool. I realized through this process how important blocking is and that every motion has to have a purpose behind it. This class has really helped me develop my acting skills and become a lot more confident on stage. 

If I were to take this class again, I would want to work on being a big character. Most of my characters were either mother figures, or just average, normal people that are similar to myself in real life. I think that being a very flamboyant character would be a good stretch goal for me to accomplish in a couple of scenes. Participating in the afternoon theater program in the fall was so much fun, and I got to learn about the crew perspective of the show, since normally I'm acting in shows. For the winter musical, I hope to continue to develop my singing voice, and incorporate singing with everything I've learned from this course. 

This class has been so fun and I'm really going to miss it. I can't wait to incorporate everything I've learned into the upcoming shows.