Monday, March 31, 2008

So, can anyone say stressed???? I sure as heck can right now. I feel like all my professors have just dumped everything on me at once and I really don't know what to do. I have pretty much had 3 hours of sleep a night for the last 2 weeks and I feel like it is really starting to wear me down. I try really hard in class to focus on the exercises we do but I always find myself thinking about what I have to do after class and what I need to get done right away. Even as I'm sitting here right now I have marketing on my left and robotics on my right and my lines I need to memorize right in front. Speaking of lines, are you gonna be part one or part two Delon? Anyway back on my rant of all things school work. I guess I wish that the professors didn't load so much on us all at once. It gets especially hard for commuters trying to run back in forth to campus to meet with groups for every class under the sun. Gas is not cheap and all this running around is starting to hurt my checking account. Okay well I need to get back to work now on all my school stuff. I will see you all tomorrow.

Learning our Lines

So for some reason I'm a bit nervous about tomorrow. I know the lines are easy but I wonder how difficult the scene will become once we incorporate all the different elements that we will be asked to do. I am equally interested to see how everyone does with their given lines. Good luck everyone:)
I did not find last class as interesting or engaging as the substance exercise. Though, I would like to say that every class is interesting and engaging. I wish that we would do more with the substance exercises. I think that some people had some trouble with it, but I found it amazing. It almost felt as though the substance was truly there. It was interesting also to see the others react when they were suppose to have the substance or lack the substance. Very, very interesting stuff.
so ive been sick the last couple of days and im bored. There is nothing on tv so i have been watching some of the crappiest movies ive ever seen. Of course, I was critiquing them and just became bitter. I remember the days when I used to be able to sit and watch a horrible movie and think very little of it (unless it was a movie on the scifi channel, in that case they're absolutely terrible and i watch them because of this factor). This class has forever ruined my ability to watch horrible movies.

classes

apparently i suck at remembering these blogs but i really enjoyed class on thursday not so much tuesday but it was funny to watch everybodys version of using different objects in the bathroom lol, i had alot of fun and am excited for our end of the year project! see you guys this week!

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Bathroom Exercise

I thought that the bathroom exercise was fun because it felt like a real bathroom scene. Everybody was pretty much doing the same thing, using the objects in the bathroom, but in a different way. We were used to imagining only one object to deal with at a time, but that exercise required a whole room. The interesting thing was the everybody placed the bath tub, the toilet and the sink in the same place.

Breathing Exercise

While in class the last week working on different breathing techniques, I found it quite relaxing to have no obligation but to "live in the moment." Although there were times in which it was difficult to focus on moving through the different substances, I did think it was very interesting to see the reactions that each person made in comparison to "having the substance" and not "having the substance." While at first they were stationary and inactive as the matter was removed they became relaxed.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Breathing

The breathing exercise we did the other day was EXTREME! After doing all that breathing i seriously felt so relaxed it was crazy, i felt like i was walking on air. It was weird and slow at times but i understand why we did that. see ya tuesday

Today's Class

I really liked the exercise that we did today involving space. I thought it was cool to see how everyone had different visions of what the location was and the different objects that they would put in it.

Breath

So how about I just remembered ten minutes before class to write my blog:) Anyway Tuesday's class was pretty interesting, the breathing exercise was pretty unique in the sense that we don't really think about how important it is because its such a natural part of life for us.
The substance had me in its grasp and wouldn't let go that made me almost pass out other than that experience i thought the excercise was very interesting i really want to see what he does today that brings the whole thing together.

Class

I thought class was really interesting on tuesday. It was interesting to see how my body felt different when the "substance" was there and then wasn't. I could almost feel my body becoming limp when Fabio said that it was now gone.

Tuesday's Class

Tuesday's class was definitely interesting to say the least. I don't think we've ever did something similar to that activity before. I'm not entirely sure of the purpose and I hope he explains it more today. However, I don't know about everybody else, but the activity helped me focus on my substance and the object in general. I've had difficulties with focusing in this class, but I thought I kept my focus for the most part during the activities.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Substance Exercise

Last class, when we had the substance exercise, I enjoyed it because it made me feel relaxed. I took yoga in high school and the breathing part of the exercise somewhat reminded me of that. It was similar in the way that I wasn't thinking about anything. The only disturbance, I believe ,was the standing. In yoga we were lying down. At one point, I was almost swaying. On the other side, although I wasn't thinking about anything specific, I imagined the color of the substance....it was yellow. I don't really know why.

THE SUBSTANCE

The substance was a great exercise. I had a really good and challenging time with the idea. It was nice to actually focus on my body moving through space. Everything was very delibrate without ever really thinking about it. I could almost feel the substance around my whole body when I moved.
I would really like to comment on fabio's thought that the things that are truly important to us we dont use reason. It is especially interesting because in almost all of my other classes reason over passion is stressed so much. Everything we read, Machiavelli, Locke, Hobbes, Lincoln, Aristotle, the Founders, anything, reason is stressed as the most important thing. Then when you actually think as an individual as to what is truly important to you, chances are you did not reason to that conclusion. My favorite example of this is love. Love of God, love of brothers, and love of one's significant other are all things that make no sense. Love is the most illogical and bizarre thing I can think of. What would possess someone to be willing to place someone else's preservation above their own? Love does, but why do we love, why do we allow ourselves to fall into such a trap? Love is certainly passion over reason, and the things we love are the things that are most important to us, so do we really reason, or do we just think or feel as though we reason?
i dunno about other people but i found myself getting kinda dizzy and light headed when we were doing the substance activity...but it was a good exercise, definitly the longest and one that required the most thought

Learning

I really do believe that we learn more through doing and living than any other way. I have lived it my entire life. Not only through sports and school, but also with family, friendships, and just life in general. The best example I can think of is my senior year in high school. Everyone told me the year before that my senior year would fly by faster than i could imagine. In a way I knew and understood this, but not to the full extent. No matter how many times someone told me, preached to me, and no matter how hard I tried to wrap my head around it I was not prepared for what I finally learned what everyone truly meant.
I truly believe that living and doing allow us to fully comprehend what we truly need to understand. I could ramble off countless situations where i am living proof, but I'm sure we all have better things to do.

Moving the Substance

Today in class there were several important acting techniques that I believe in the future will help me to further improve my acting abilities. Although I believe it was difficult today; It was also useful in terms of creating successful acting through "being"instead of thinking. Although it is difficult, to effectively create acting that is realistic, I believe that with more practice I will become better accustomed to the idea of simply "being." Another revolutionary idea the was displayed in class today involves the use of a technique in which a substance is displaced in order to allow each person to concentrate less on the meaning of each exercise and more on the "moment."

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

I appreciate the fact that our efforts are being appreciated. the comments Fabio makes in class encourages us all to push it to the limit and thats pretty sweet. I am very interested in what he has in store this week
So I'm really excited about our project. I think it's pretty cool he's giving us the opportunity to show how we interpret things. I'm really excited to see what everyone does.
Oh, and I hope all of you had a lovely Easter.

Monday, March 24, 2008

Easter with the girlfriend

I went to my girlfriend's family Easter on sunday for lunch and was greeted with open arms. I had met most of the family members before this get together, but only once. The aunt i made friends with at the first get together immediatly started talking to me agian which made me feel more comfortable. I think i stayed either next to my girlfriend or that one particular aunt the entire time. I think it is funny that people will flock toward some form of comfort. If i was not able to be next to either of those two, nine out of ten i was quiet and next to invisible. This reminds me of the way class was at the begining of the semester. People came in and sat next to their friends and talk to their friends only. This has proggresivily evolved into a comfortable level with everyone and i am looking forward to having that comfort with my girlfriends family someday.

hello all

so how is everyone doing. I hope all my fellow classmates had a great easter break. My break was good I spent most of my time with my family which was good. I had to do some acting because I got mad at my girlfriend and had to pretend I was not. I am a damn good actor to not get yelled at by her. She is very mean and I think my skills that I have learned in class have helped me tremendously with not getting yelled at.


love, peace, and chicken grease

Project

I am really happy that we finally got our project. I think it is going to be really fun and I like that we get to add our own creativity to the equation. The activity that we did on thursday was really cool. I think I liked it alot more than the tangled activity that we did.
So I hope you all had good easter breaks. I went home on Sunday and had dinner with my family and my moms parents. It was nice sitting around and having a good home cooked meal for once. Its tough eating a huge meal like that here at school... I take for granted how much I actually depend on people to get food for me. I can't seem to make the quality of food my mom makes at home here at school, it makes me sad, 'cause I know I'm going to have to be doing this soon. Well I'll see ya all at class in the a.m.

Keep it real.
So from what was described on Thursday I'm kinda excited about what this new exercise is that we are doing this week. It's gonna be tough getting back into the swing of things with classes cause it has felt like we have barely done anything in school for awhile. I got a harsh reminder of how lazy I've been getting lately. I'm taking CS 245 Robotics and Machine Learning this semester and we have a lab due well tomorrow now and my group isn't finished. It's amazing how things sneak up on you. So now it seems like I have everything on my plate all at once and its just all getting closer and closer. It's really amazing the amount of stress placed upon us sometimes. I feel like have to be superwoman to really get it all done. It reminds me how thankful I am for this class this semester. It really has helped keep me from going insane. It's a nice break from accounting or robotics. OK well I'll see you all in the morning and I feel like this will be another week of me not being late!!!

Easter Break

I didn't really do much over Easter break. I wasn't feeling very well, so I spent all the time lying on the couch and watching TV. Actually, in Bulgaria it is not Easter yet because we use the Orthodox calendar instead of the Catholic and Easter is sometime in April. Come to think of it, now that this break is over, we won't have any other breaks for the remaining 7 weeks of school. Hmmm...it's somewhat depressing...

class thursday

class last thursday was interesting. Iam excited to see how much we are all improving in this class and its nice to hear that we are as well. i hope everybody had a nice easter! see u in class this week!
So during my massive amounts of college basketball watching, I saw tons of commercials. Many of which were completely a waste of time, but I still made sure I watched the acting. There was one in particular that the actor made a gesture in accordance to what he said. It was basically perfect, from my eyes, and made me think about that gesture. How many times would it have happened that the actor played out that role, and that one, glorious time, he made some gesture that went perfectly with his character. It so natural that I it is hard for me to believe that it was an actor. Even in class, when we try to feel things, and be the character, it is so very difficult to separate oneself and be the character. To also have the right gestures, not necessarily the right inflections is to me ridiculous.

Friday, March 21, 2008

Keep it up!

Dear Friends,

I just wanted to say, again, how impressed I am with the growth I am seeing in all of you (this goes for the 9:25 a.m. class, as well). Something happened over spring break and/or you are just starting to put things together without knowing it. In a discipline where m learning is much of the learning is non-intellectual, it is difficult to know when things will suddenly click, but they inevitably do. It is fun for me to see.

Thanks.Fabio

Keeping the Height

Although today in class I struggled a bit with keeping the height of the imaginary table the same while I attempted to place plates on it, I am sure that in the future there will be improvement. I also enjoyed the game of whiz-bang we played even though I did not make it to the final circle. Another import detail that I noticed during class was that it is certainly difficult to decide on an activity when acting, however I believe that with a little more concentration I will be better able to successfully act in order to more clearly demonstrate to the audience the task I am preforming.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

the exercises that we did today in class were new and i liked them. They provided a chanllege, like trying to keep a constant height of a surface. I beleive that these will help us alot tho in our final presentation.

stuck in a submarine

Pretending to be stuck in a submarine was a new experience for me. I think that if i were really stuck in a submarine that was under water i have freaked out a bit more and probably started hitting and kicking things. I can get a little claustrophobic though. I think this scene we have to do for the final will be fun. It will be fun to our own little twist on a dialog.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MELANIE

I think that the open ended scenes will be a challenge as well as being alot of fun I know Fabio said we were making a lot of improvement but I felt like I struggled with being in a room with the walls closing in yea that kinda sucked sorry guys. well i havent showered yet and class starts in a bit so I guess I should get ready knowing me I will probably be late. I'll see you guys there OH Melanie's Birthday was yesterday so HAPPY BIRTHDAY MELANIE
Hey guys, its awesome we've been making noticeable improvements in our acting. I'm gonna go ahead and chalk this one up to everyone really getting used to each other, I think being more comfortable in front of the group is contributing to how well we're doing in class. As for the final, I'm thinking this will be a unique adventure, and I'm looking forward to finishing it.

class

I missed class on tuesday but from what everyone is posting i think i might have a clue whats going on, hopefully im not too far behind and maybe someone could tell me about the final! see everyone today.
What Fabio said about everyone making improvments is very true. I noticed how big of strides we have made as a class and it is nice to see that even as the exercises get more complex, that we dont have a problem with them.

Tuesday's class

Like Fabio said we're all improving and you can tell and its exciting to see. I'm kind of bummed that we haven't played wiz bang in awhile and i hope we get to play it at the beginning of class today. I'm excited about learning the lines for the final and making a good final showing. I'm trying to incorporate everything I learned in class to make it great. See ya guys in class
Over spring break I watched a ton of movies. While I was watching these movies I found myself critiquing the actors and whether or not I really believed them. A lot of the movies I thought were completely believable. Some, especially when I would watch a couple movies with the same actor, I found to be a little absurd. I love this class, but watching some of my favorite movies and critiqing them is not cool. I'm ruining some of my favorite movies.

Trapped

The trapped exercise was very entertaining. I think what made it interesting for me was watching people frist realize that they were trapped then trying every way possible to get out. Then after they could not figure any other way to get out, it was neat to see how they reacted to the situation.

I think that everyone is doing better because we all had a break to walk away and refocus. I think that everyone is really trying to be true to the situation and not try so much to show us what is going on, as much as actually trying to take themselves to the situation.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

So things have been crazy stressful and I know I should be excited about the final project but right now everything is terribly stressful. I have been given final projects and papers in each one of my classes and with my hectic work schedule I find myself feeling as though I'm swimming in all the work I'm doing. It's nice though that the final for this class is different than anything else. It will help break the monotony of every other class by having something that will be able to stimulate my creativity and hopefully Delon will want to incorporate dance since I think I've made it quite clear that I really like to dance. So I just got home from work and now I'm gonna get a bit of shut eye. See ya'll tomorrow

Final Assignment

I was just looking at the dialogue for the final and I think it might be a little hard. Acting without words requires quite a lot of concentration, and with words it would undoubtedly become even more challenging. I don't really know whether I will be able to use the right intonation for the particular action we are expected to choose for each line of the scene.
For some reason, I have very little to write about right now. So I think that it would be appropriate to find something that I could discuss. Well, March Madness begins tomorrow, which I am looking forward to, and besides all the wonderful basketball that I plan on watching, hopefully there will be some actual educational benefit I can draw from it. Such as, the commercials during the games and the acting which goes on in the commercials. Ya, I am probably grasping at straws, but I guess that with the amount of time I plan on putting into basketball, I may as well make it worthwhile from an acting viewpoint.

Acting

During spring break I saw several commericals that I believe showed exceptional acting. Although there are different settings to conduct acting in, I believe that one of my favorite types of acting combines any element of comedy to improve the overall appearance that it gives. While there is certainly great acting in any genre such as tragedy; I feel that overall there is much to be gained in terms of combining humor with a good story line.

In conclusion I feel that while it is important to portray any character that you are attempting to create through acting, there is also some importance in how this is done visually and what type of character you are attempting to portray.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

I am growing to love this class. Even though I am not going to go into a career in acting, I find that much of the stuff we work on, such as being confident in front of others and being in the moment, will be beneficial in all areas of life. It somewhat saddened me that we received the directions for our final project today. Though Fabio said that we have "all the time in the world" to work on it, it still made me realize the class is slowly drawing to a close. Therefore, I want to take advantage of all the advice I am given and the friendships that I am making in the coming weeks.

class

class today was fun, it was nice to hear that all that weve been working on all semester is starting to pay off! im a little nervous about our scenes that we have to do, but im sure it will all be just fine! i hope everybody had a great spring break! i had the flu, sinus infection, and still have a double ear infection lol so mine was okay minus all that! i wish we didnt have school this week bc i think its dumb to go back to school for four days then back home again! oh well i guess! see u all on thursday :)

Spring Break

I hope everyone enjoyed their spring break as well. However, I found it pretty entertaining that some people were practically still on spring break with yesterday being St. Patrick's Day and all. There were so many people at the bars during the day as if there were no class that day. Oh well we all need a fun day:)

Habitat Build

I spent my spring break in Columbus Georgia building a house for Habitat for Humanity. There were ten schools there building ten houses in a week. It was a fun experience. The contractors that where assigned to the houses were also volunteers and usually they were really helpful. Our contractors were not so helpful though and they didn't seem to care about the build. They normally build big expensive houses and were not too concerned with the quality of the house we were building for a low income family. It made some of us mad that they would let the house be built in an unprofessional manner. I thought it was interesting that these people who volunteered their time where not willing to actually help. They seemed like they just wanted to be there and stand around for tax reasons or something.

Spring Break

I hope everyone had a good break and I'm looking forward to class again today. I went and saw the new movie vantage point over break and I was pretty disappointed. The actors themselves did a nice job portraying their characters, the problem was the production in my opinion. I thought it could have been improved and made for a better story. Instead I became annoyed watching the movie and couldn't wait until it was over.
Today was St. Patrick's Day. I think it's funny how many people actually wear green, just to participate in the holiday traditions. Maybe they're actually scared that they'll get pinched!

Spring Break

So i think they need to change the name of spring break. How many people go to leave for spring break and when they walk outside they walk into a blizzard!!! Also it is kinda hard to have spring break, come back for four days, then go home for easter, and come back for another four day week. I know it sounds odd, but I would rather wait another week and have spring break during the weekend of easter and end up getting out of school early. But hey what do I know, I'm just like everyone else, we all think we have the solution to everything.

Monday, March 17, 2008

class

Over spring break I went down to North Carolina to visit my aunt. One of the first things I told her about was this class. She thought it sounded awesome and thought this would be a lot of help for me in the future. My dad said the same thing. He told me there was no way he could do some of this stuff and I really consider my dad a very outgoing person. He told me that by doing these kinds of things in class will help me come out of my shell with people I don't know. Honestly, the only person I knew in this class the first few sessions was Molly (and we all know thats not any sort of a privilege; just kidding molly- I'm assuming you're used to it by now though) and I had to get up in front of all of you and do absolutely crazy things. The more I hear people say it the more I agree, I really think this will help in my career even though it has nothing to do with acting.

Last Class

The last class when we had to do the entanglement, and I actually had to re-do it, I felt awkward. Perhaps that is why I laughed both times. I don't really know why...I guess, I just felt funny. I was doing something I don't usually do and it felt weird. I believe just because it was out of the ordinary, I couldn't really focus and stay serious. That makes me think of the extra features on some movies when actors actually laugh about what they are doing or saying, and they have to re-do it. Before, when I watched those bloopers, I didn't really think they were funny and I didn't really find a reason for the actors to laugh. Well, now I somewhat understand that.

Pointless Break

I have no idea why Ashland University doesn't decide to have spring break during our Easter break. I know we wouldn't get as many days off but I hate having to come back for a couple days to leave back out, and I don't think we're as involved in many of our classes because were so focused on leaving again for break. It just makes more sense that way.

Back To Class

I don't know about the rest of you but I'm finding it harder and harder to get up everyday knowing I have to go to class. I can feel that we are getting closer and closer to the end and while I'm happy about that for some of my classes, I approach the end with a little bit of apprehension towards this class. Being an Accounting major I'm rather certain that with the hectic schedule I have for the rest of my time at AU I won't be able to take other class like this one. And while I know there is lots of time left, I am now trying to figure out what I am going to take in the fall and what am I going to do over the summer. I hate how sometimes we are forced to deal with future when some of us are having time dealing with the now. I just want to enjoy the time I have left in my classes this semester, not worry about what might happen in the future. So for all of us lets just remember how awesome this class is and enjoy each day we have left.

Dead Man Walking

There were many different things that I believe helped to contribute to the play Dead Man Walking. One of the most important characteristics of the play involved the actors and their ability to act without props in most cases. Although they were able to use different things on set to create a different setting for example, the majority of the play was, in my opinion, created through their creation of objects such as the glass wall in the prison among other examples.
So over spring break i saw the musical, Thouroughly Modern Millie. The music was excellent, but i really did not like the scenery or the plot. The scenery was essentially what Fabio called "high schoolish". I thought that they tried to recreate everything instead of letting the audience's imagination take off. The plot was quite possibly the most mind numbing experience I have ever had. However, I guess that is what one will get at a musical since the emphasis is clearly on the music and not on the plot, which is fine because the music was superb.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Why DMW

Hi Guys,

Amanda asked a really good question that audience members often have about plays and what makes a play. There are lots of different types of plays and theatre. Some theatre is meant to entertain (Phantom of the Opera), some is meant to instigate, some is meant to be political, some of is meant to initiate community discourse (Dead Man Walking). There is no one type of theatre. Not everyone likes all types, except maybe me. Some people want to escape and other want to be intellectually stimulated. People who like Phantom might hate political or avante garde theatre, and I know for a fact that people who like "artsy" theater usually hate Phantom. I think that is OK. Not everything is for everybody. Like different types of films, different types of theatre have different audiences. My feeling is that they are all valid and can all be good. The question, in my mind, is did they achieve their goal.

Peace

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Entangled

Hopefully everyone got out of ohio for break unlike me. But for those that got stuck here for the weekend, I feel your pain. Class was fun on Thursday, been awhile since whiz/bang, but the result was the same, me going out still... maybe next time. haha, but I also thought it was so hard to be entangled in something. And then when I did do the extension cord, I still went too fast, and ended up getting ahead of myself. I still need to remember to keep it slow and simple.

Friday, March 7, 2008

this week

sorry i couldnt be in class on thursday...i was slowly getting sick all week and just decided to rest a little bit. i hope everybody had a good week of midterms! and i hope everybody has a good, fun, safe spring break! i will see u all when we get back!
I hope everyone has fun on there breaks, i know i will. But i am kinda curious to see what i got on the dead man walking paper when we get back...but until then everyone enjoy their breaks

Thursday, March 6, 2008

So first things first. I really enjoyed Delon's interpretation of the Safety Dance in his blog. It was amazing!!! But on a serious note, I am glad we are gonna be up and moving around in class today. It's not that I don't enjoy sitting around talking but my lack of sleep right now needs desperately for me to be moving around. Can't wait to see everyone in class and now I should probably get going so I'm not late........again.

Tuesday's Class

it was interesting hearing all the different opinions about the play. I never would have noticed somethings that we discussed that had potential to make the play better or worse. It was refreshing though to hear both the honest positive and negative thoughts about it. I enjoyed our class discussion!

Mr University

Everyone come to mr university tonight. im in it and will be on stage singing. For those of you who do not know what mr university is it is basically a male beauty pagent. The alpha phis put it on to raise awareness abotu womens cardiac care. It should be a real good time to watch a bunch of guys make jack asses of themselves. hope to see you there

Mr University

you can blog if you want to, you can leave your friends behind, cuz if your friends don't blog and if they don't blog then there no friends of mine!


....No but seriously.....In tuesday's class we talked a lot about the play in terms of style and aesthetic value, we also talked about the meaning and central ideas of the production. However I feel as if we did not acknowledge the performances of the cast enough. I thought our fellow students did an excellent job bringing this play to life. its hard to see someone everyday and then see them acting in a play but these guys were great and the dedication they put into the production really showed

class

So i'm really excited about class today. It seems like it's been awhile since we did a lot of group stuff and I'm really excited about the conversation while eating thing we're suppose to do today. Plus, I have a test before this class and once I get here I know I'll be much more relaxed.

Odds and Ends

The discussion was good Tuesday and I enjoyed hearing what other people thought, but I'm excited to act again and hopefully play wiz bang at the beginning of class. I love that game! The eating exercises that we'll be doing today, I'm not entirely sure what to expect. When actors or actresses eat on TV or in the movies it seems simple enough, but I've learned by now nothing is as easy as it seems. I'm also at a slight disadvantage cause I wasn't here the day for the eating exercise a month or so ago, but I just have to concentrate and actually pretend I have food in front of me and then act naturally in the conversation.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

tuesdays class

i really enjoyed talking about the play as a class on tuesday. it was nice to hear other peoples opinions both similar and different from mine. it was especially nice to hear other peoples opinions that were similar to mine because at times i felt like i was the only one who felt that way about certain things. i guess alot of answers to my questions could have easily been summed up by the fact that there was simply not enough money for the production, but i still believe that my high school had better use of its little money for our schoool productions but that is just my opinion...not trying to bash the play or n e thing but theres so many ways of working around budgets now a days! well cya'll in class tomorrow!
I enjoyed the discussion we had about Dead Man Walking Tuesday in class. It brought about many good points and different viewpoints that I found to be eye opening. It's obvious that no matter how a play is done, even with the best cast and directors, there will be certain aspects that some people will love and some will find completely unnecessary. That's just the way it works.

Class Discussion

I also think that the discussion on Tuesday was interesting because I got to hear other people's comments and experiences triggered by the play. I was surprised how the play has affected everybody in a different way. That makes me think about how hard it must be to have everybody interested, excited, and satisfied by a play. For me Dead Man Walking was both interesting because of the multi-media that I have never seen implemented in plays before, and boring because it seemed that everything was happening at a very slow pace.

Tuesdays Class

I enjoyed our discussion tuesday in class about the play. It was nice hearing everyone elses views and it helped me in understanding some parts of the play that i didnt like or understand. But Im looking forward to getting back to our activities for next class.

class

Class on tuesday was interesting, it was good to hear everyones views on the play dead man walking. Looking forward to class tomorrow

Edmund Fitzgerald

I thought class was an interesting turn in direction from what we've all been used to with acting so far. I liked that all we did was discuss our different reactions and likes/dislikes about Dead Man Walking. As much as I like listening to what everyone else had to say about it though, I really missed getting to act something out, I just kept looking down at my watch going, "ok... are we going to act soon?" haha, but it was fine. Hopefully we can get back into the flow tomorrow. Now you may wonder why my post is Edmund Fitzgerald, well I'm going to get back to this Great Lakes Beer that I just bought and tried for the first time... Its pretty interesting, it tastes a lot like coffee, the website said it'd go good with a steak or ribs. Now if I only had money for either of those...

camera shy

So i help out with TV@ News on Wednesdays and i have seen many people try the on camera positions and get nervous. You can always tell when someone is nervous becuase they stumble with their words and maybe become quieter and quieter as they talk. I saw the same thing for a couple people in the production of Dead Man Walking. There were a few actors that you could tell were not quite comfortable on stage yet, but i have faith that they'll come around. I used to be nervous being on camera or on air, but now i love the attention. :)
I really wish that the production of Dead Man Walking that I saw had had all the statistics of the other productions. I think if that was the case I would come away differently from the play. Regardless, it makes no difference. I would like to reiterate that I have never seen a play about the Death Penalty and I think that theater is a wonderful way to begin dialoge on the subject. The key is however, that the play must be balanced, or there will be a side who will not listen and thus no dialoge can begin.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Acting Class

Although last class I learned many new acting techniques, that I believe in the future will help me in studying the field of acting, I know there are also many different techniques that I will have to learn in the future. Such as cooperation with fellow peers in order to create a better picture as a whole in terms of the audience's viewpoint.

Dead Man Walking

The play was amazing. I was so glad to experience this story. I had never seen it before and was truly moved by what I saw. Even though I knew what was going to happen in the play because people told me I was still affected the same way I would have been had I not know the play. (that was a very bad sentence) The actors were great and the use of video was an interesting twist that I have never seen before.
I went and saw the play on Saturday and I guess I don't really know what to think. I guess I was supposed to like it by the sounds of the other posts but I found myself wondering why someone would even want to make this terrible story a play. I think it is bad enough that it actually happened but to have it thrust upon people as a play (which most people go see for entertainment) was rather strange. So if someone is looking for high praise for the show, I really wouldn't look here because I just didn't get the point. I don't want to watch something so terrible being used as a play.

Monday, March 3, 2008

Dead Man Walking

I went to the play this past Saturday and I loved it. I can't wait to hear everyones reactions to it. I honestly was not ready to leave the theater yet:)
Tonight I watched the slam dunk contest at the rec center. It was quite entertaining. Contestants were judged on the style, creativity, and strength of their dunk. It was interesting to see what people came up with in later rounds of the contest, as the dunks became more and more skillful. Some of those guys were just so athletic and talented, it was amazing. Yet before the contest there were a bunch of other guys on the floor that were practicing dunks, too. There were two that I just thought were absolutely incredible and were surely going to win, but they were not in the contest. I assumed that they did not enter on time, or, what seems less likely in this case, they did not have the confidence to do so. I always wonder how many truly talented people there are out there, whether in athletics, singing, or even acting, that are undiscovered...

Dead Man Walking Around

I went to the play this last weekend and it wasnt anything i expected it would be. I wasnt ready to see a play so dark and gloomy. I wished i could have had a better experience! Nothing against the actors or ashland theatre department but it just wasnt my cup of tea but i thought the actors did a great job of making the audience believe in their character.

Dead Man Walking

So I finally went and saw the production on saturday and was in kind of a trance when i left. I knew that it was about a guy on death rowe but it made me kind of sad when it was all said and done with. I guess i just didn't mentally prepare myself enough for such a depressing experience. I did think it was a good performance though. The actors did an amazing job and i also liked that did not use props. Kudos to the drama peeps.

Response Paper

I am finally done with the response paper. I thought it would be a lot more difficult to write about my experience at the play than it actually was. I found out that I am not acquainted with a lot of theatre terminology that is needed in order to fully describe the experience of watching Dead Man Walking. But the good thing was that while writing, I realized that I remember a lot of simple details and sometimes even phrases that the actors used. Overall, I am not sure whether I liked the play or not but I have to admit that I certainly enjoyed some particular moments.

Dead Man Walking

I really enjoyed viewing Dead Man Walking on Saturday night... Jon had told us it got kinda emo towards the end but I didn't think it'd be as depressing as I thought. I dunno, maybe I'm just a big baby, haha, but yeah it was depressing. Well I'll be happy to get back into class on Tuesday, hope your all ready for my football player/sex worker look again. Haha
I would also like to discuss Dead Man Walking. I did not think that I would like the play, however, I actually ended up enjoying it quite a bit. I think this was because I thought that what it was going to be was basically a piece for social justice. Even though there was certainly an element of that in the play, I thought it also brought the victims and the families of the victims into the discussion as well. I also went into the play thinking that the multi-media would be harmful to the play, however, I was proved wrong once again. I felt as though the multi-media was necessary and helped with the story quite a bit.

dead man walking

so what i was wondering was how come the cast was so small? was it supposed to be that small with people playing multiple roles (not big roles but like 2 small parts?)? or was there just not so many people who tried out? i liked it though minus the ending bc it wasnt what i thought would happen but then again you cant change a true story!! well we'll see when we talk about it i guess on tuesday! byee

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Dead man walking

So I saw the play Thursday night and I found myself thinking of critiques we give each other in class. Some people were really very convincing and others I thought overdid it. However, overall I liked the play. Knowing it was a true story, I though it was interesting to see capital punishment from a side I've never really seen. I don't know anyone who has been on death row. I had a teacher in high school who had a friend who was murdered that said she was always against capital punishment until she lost her friend. I thought about that during the play and it kind of made it a little more surreal for me. It is a very interesting topic that we should think about more than we do.

Saturday, March 1, 2008

Plays

I was so excited about going to the play thursday night. In my hometown we have a small theater that puts on lots of plays, shows and performers. We would go to alot of the plays for school field trips and then when I got older my friends and family would go to a play or show every now and then. There were some times when the local company would put on a show or a company from somewhere else would come in and put on a show. I enjoyed both equally. I loved going to the theater and the whole experience. Thursday night made me really miss those experiences. Getting dressed up, going to the shows, meeting the actors afterwards, and then going out for a late dinner on the town. I know not many people would consider this as not their top choice in a weekend activity, but i think every one should try it!!