Final project

https://youtu.be/C9k7qajXX-Y

Final Reflection

The final project that we did was a scene from the Wizard of Oz. I feel like it was good to end off the year by doing a group final because all of us had been split up doing different things for the whole year, working in pairs and I liked the fact that as a group we worked so well together. As a whole year, we did so many amazing projects and every project had a meaning to me. I was able to work well with all of my partners and th chemistry between all of my classmates is amazing and I had a great time. The projects we did brought forward their own challenges and put all of my acting abilities to the test. As I prepare for a college theater course, this class was ideal for me to take a class that really challenged my abilities as an actor both memorizing lines and using improvisation. The Wizard of Oz really tested my ability to improvise both movements and lines which I really liked. As a whole, this class has really helped me become a better actor and has prepared me for the next level of theater. I am confident that I have been prepared to take my skills to the college level. Thank you to Ms. G for your constant support and for pushing me to do bigger things. I will always remember this class

Final Project

For our final project, we will be acting out a scene from the Wizard of Oz where Dorothy, The Cowardly Lion, The Tin Man and the Scarecrow all sing about what they hope the Wizard will be able to do for them. In the movie, it is portrayed that they are walking down the yellow brick road as they are singing. Instead, we are going to start with Dorothy singing in the beginning and all of the characters will walk out and place themselves on either side of Dorothy, alternating sides, meaning one will go on her right, the next on her left and so on. The cast is as follows: John Jiang: The Tin Man, Myself: The Cowardly Lion, Chrissy: Scarecrow, Livvy: Dorothy. In the end of the scene we will then skip off as they do at the end of the song. I feel like this scene is going to be a really special one because for the first time, all four of us are working together and working on a scene from one of the greatest films of all time. I'm a little bit nervous because my character has a certain accent and is able to speak/sing a certain way that I am not vocally capable of which may cripple my ability to hear the notes correctly but that just means I'll have to listen a bit more closely than I normally would which won't be much of a change but it's just something thats in the back of my mind. This project is very unique in the fact that for the first time we are going to be using a bit of choreography which is different because for the previous projects we would pretty much stay in one place with the exception of a few movements such as walking around or moving from place to place but this is more of a choreographed movement which is kind of exciting. I am excited to begin working on the next project.

Scene Analysis - Jim and Tom

John and I teamed up once again to take on the role of a freedom deprived factory worker (Tom) and his compatriot (Jim). As a group I feel as though we executed this scene very well and the scene wrapped itself around our ability to work as a team and make it happen. I feel like I played my role well, I did my job of playing the opposite of Tim's tight strung character  as the more laid back, chilled out character. As a way of improvement, I should have reacted better to what John was saying because a lot of times I was just sitting there and looking around although trying to make it look like i was thinking about something, at times it looked like I was disengaged from the conversation or just not listening. Maybe I could have maybe fidgeted with my hands or moved some type of way to make it look like I was doing a bit more acting than just sitting there like I was. In terms of how the scene spoke, I felt like it really let us see Tom's desperation to leave and how Jim kind of thought he was a bit off the rails. I feel like John did a great job of adding the desperation to the character but at some time could have eased up on the emotion and let the words do the talking themselves. As a group, John and I yet again I feel like delivered a good performance that showed our development as actors and showed how we as a group work well together because we have a good relationship and have worked well in other projects before and always deliver quality work. In conclusion, this project was a good challenge for my acting abilities and I'm excited for the next project

Character Analysis - Jim

In this play and this scene, Jim is a very low key character and doesn't really say much and isn't really a main character. For me, I feel like Jim's purpose is to show a potential love interest for Laura, who is a very conserved and shy character with a probable social anxiety issue. The significance of Jim's character to Laura is the fact that she's the only one that she can seem to communicate with and not be shy. Before Jim comes to the house, Laura is having a panic attack and her and Amanda (mother) argue over who's going to answer the door for Jim and Tom (brother). Throughout the scene, Amanda tries to make Laura out to seem like a put together woman who can cook and do all these things when in fact Laura is very shy and doesn't have many skills if indeed she has any. It has been established early on in the play that Laura will not get a job and her only chance at living a decent life is to get a husband with a decent job. It is shown that Jim is a hopeful solution to that problem. The two originally hit it off, finding out that the two went to school together, and then Laura's favorite glass piece, the unicorn, is shattered. Jim then goes on to reveal that he is engaged and will soon be married which breaks Laura's heart and ruins everything. Earlier on in the scene, we realize that Jim is the boy that Laura showed her mother when she told her she had a crush on a boy. It is shown that Laura seems to have less anxiety around Jim and I guess, to me, Jim is her medicine because from watching the conversation, Laura seems to calm down, although starting very tense, she seems to calm down and open up to Jim before the glass piece is shattered. I feel even though Jim is not a main character, he is a very influential character because it shows that Laura does have a medicine and with her it seems to be emotion for the opposite sex.

This I Believe

One of the definitions of strength is the emotional or mental qualities necessary in dealing with situations or events that are distressing or difficult. At a time in my life I could not find my strength, in fact, I thought I didn’t have any. One day, my grandfather told me that no matter what I did, he didn’t want me to settle for being ordinary, he did not want me to throw away the gifts that I was given. He wanted me to be great. When I was young, my grandfather took on the role of my second father. He taught me how to tie my shoes, how to ride my bike and most importantly, he taught me how to play tennis. My grandpa didn’t really play tennis, but when he saw how happy it made me and how much I loved it, he immediately wanted to make me into a tennis player. For the longest time, I couldn’t seem to learn and I often doubted myself and my abilities and I used to tell him that I would never be good enough and then he told me something I’ll never forget, he said “I don’t care how many times you fail, as long as you never stop trying”.

On an ordinary winter day, my grandpa picked my brother and I up to go to his house to shovel snow. Except the thing was, my grandpa was hiding something from us. I could tell that he wasn’t well, but he was so stubborn and persevered as he attempted to shovel the snow. After a while, he laid down in the snow and told us that he was going to nap. Later that afternoon, I got a call from my grandma. He was dead. Have you ever felt so hopeless and alone that you feel your heart shatter like glass as it hits the floor? Yeah, that’s how I felt.

As my family walked away from the casket, my hands trembled as I stood alone. I remember kneeling down and placing my lips on the soft wood of the casket as I put a rose on it, I then went on to say “you told me to not give up, I never will”.

Reflection of Final Project

In my final project, I sang Endless Night from the Broadway production The Lion King.  This final project completed my goal for the semester which was to gain confidence in myself and to try new things. I had never done a project where I sang a solo song from a musical just because I had never had the confidence. My goal for this class was to find a way to do something I had never done before in terms of acting and performing. I was glad I chose this project because in honesty, I don't think my goals for this class would have been met and I would have felt like that I didn't do justice to the class because the whole reason I took this class was to make sure that I was confident in something I wasn't confident before. This class as a whole taught me that if you don't step out of your comfort zone as an actor then there will always be something missing from your performances and I'm glad that I did this as my final project. My first project right off the bat was a monologue which I had never done before which was the first step in meeting my goal. The whole semester was surrounded around attempting to do new, quirky things that I had never done, I did a monologue, I did a comedic dialogue and I did a solo song, all of which I had never done before. When Mrs. Guarino suggested that I do a song from a musical, I got nervous originally because I had never done anything like that. I had never had a solo song in a musical and had never had to be by myself singing a song anywhere. Not only this, I've never had to choreograph or move while I was singing by myself so this was lining up to be very interesting final. The hardest part was finding a song that fit my range and that I could find a way to choreograph or improvise movements to. After about 3 days of searching and agonizing over what to do and how to do it, I decided that I was going to 'Endless Night' from Lion King. I chose this song because I felt like that I had such an emotional connection to the movie that it was the perfect scene to me and that if there was going to be a song that I was confident singing it was going to be that one, only because of it's somber and desperate nature and I felt like that I could really bring that to life in this song. The most difficult part of this project was figuring out the timing. The timing in this song was very strange because it is not a style of music that I'm used to singing so it made it an especially tough nut to crack. I learned the words and the notes in maybe 3 days just from listening to it over and over. In the end, I was able to do a successful run of the song where I demonstrated my skills as an actor and a singer and my skills to improvise on the spot. I feel like this project has been my best yet and I am excited to see where this class takes me next semester.