Dramatic Scene Reflection

At first, my group really struggled to pick a dramatic scene. It took us longer than we wanted to find one, but in the end I feel that we chose a unique scene that we were able to  turn into our own. Our scene went beyond the norm and pushed the boundaries of decency. Each actor in the dialogue made a tremendous effort to become their character and achieve multiple levels of anger, sadness, and the feeling of being shell shocked. It was not an easy script to deliver, as it covered many disturbing experiences. However, Alexis, Dayna and myself pushed through the skit and tried our best to present it in a serious manner.  

Together we tried numerous acting strategies to achieve these emotions. One of which worked the most was when we pushed strongly against a wall and delivered our lines. This proves to be a successful exercise by forcing each of us to channel inner emotions of anger and even sadness. In addition, the exercise showed us how we could change our vocal range and tonality, something that we struggled with and was key in our dramatic scene. I was extremely impressed that Alexis and Dayna went along with my exercises that at the time, they thought were ridiculous.

When it comes to staging our piece, we tried numerous possible situations. However, when we reached our final division of where to place each of us and our movements, everything fell into place. We were able to limit our movements and even eliminated over head lighting to add emphasis to our speeches. Finally, the use of dramatic music and lanterns gave the piece an overall eerie feel. Each element of our performance was careful thought out and in my opinion, unique.  

I think that the other groups performed well. I loved Lisa and Duncan's scene selection. It was different from all other scenes that had been performed and their effort paid off very well.

John's and Jack's scene was interesting with its dark undertone. They did a fantastic job with altering the ending of their skit. I also admire John's willingness to listen to other's suggestions to improve his acting skills. Every skit was interesting and performed very well.

I really enjoyed doing a dramatic skit with Dayna and Alexis. Together I think we made a great team, even if we were off to a slow start. Throughout the process we stayed optimistic and engaged with our piece. So much so that we were able to effectively turn a poem-styled dialogue into a scene that was captivating to our audience. We planned out climatic parts and movements and had fun doing so together.

In the future, my goal is to pick a piece in a more time-effective manner and to be able to dedicate more time to it. I feel that if I do this, the piece will flow more smoothly and so will the process of developing the scene. I also want to pick a piece that is more challenging for me. I think that besides the Fantastic Mr. Fox monologue, I have not felt that I have pushed myself enough as an actor. I want to try new strategies in acting and continue to develop my abilities. I hope to achieve this in the next skit and during the remainder of our Acting Class.  


http://youtu.be/M9ZuMBCKlcs