Class

In class i though that the mirror exercise got a lot harder once the leadership was taken away. I am usually the leader in most group projects, however it is sometimes better to step back and follow every once in a while. When you act I can see where following can be better because you are going of what others are doing and that is what real acting is, taking in your surroundings and adjusting yourself to what you have to do to make the audience believe it is really happening before there eyes.

mirroring is achallenge

I have been challenged in many areas so far in the past few weeks by this class and I enjoy it; looking forward to future challenges of the class. Mirroring is such a great concept to bring strangers to together for a common cause to create art or display of reality. The many ideas and thoughts that are flowing during the moment of trying to figure out the action(s) of our classmates is really a great experience. To view or see great minds at work exploring the possibilities of what is being said by body language. This exercise has been challenging in the sense sometimes I take control when I don’t need or want to, it just seemed to happen so when that happens I really try to check myself.
Peace.

Thinking outside the box

I agree with Brittany's comment about how she never thought to feed off of the other people in the class when we were doing our joining in activity on Tuesday. I was the same way, when I saw Aaron digging a hole I was thinking okay so we're going to have 8 people all digging a really big hole. But then when we did the scene at the park and I just thought it was so cool that we all did our own thing but it came together to look like a bunch of kids playing at the park and I thought it was really neat.

Also, after just these first few classes I already notice myself becoming more comfortable with the activities and exercises that we're doing. At first I felt completely ridiculous when I had to get up in front of everyone but on Tuesday I was playing an imaginary volleyball game with a referee and everything and a sunbather in the background and I felt totally comfortable.

Mirror Exercise

I think the hardest part of the whole exercise is that you are unaware of the moments or thoughts the other people are doing. For example, in the baseball and volleyball games, the movement is so fast that it is probably pretty hard for people to actually make it look like it is going on. The mirror exercises have to be slowed down to the point where it almost seems mechanical. Although, it was obvious that the later ones after my gardening activity started to get much better since people were paying more attention to their surroundings.

The O C

So I have never seen it before and my friend made me watch it and now im addicted. I just wanted to throw that out there. While watching the O C i can def. pick out bad acting. Some of the actors seem to not have a very good idea of there surroundings But on the subject of the mirror exercise it is def. more hard then I thought it would be. The class is a lot of fun but I think it will be so much more easy once we start to use words and stuff.

Acting

Details

I also agree that the mirror exercises are harder than they look. When we had to do it without a leader it made it even harder. I never knew rather she was going to move or if I should so I hesitated a lot. I also really enjoyed the exercises when people had to join in. I honestly didn't think it would turn out to be fun like it did. I never realized until this class how important little details are in acting. For example when I "walked" into the bookshelf because I didn't really pay attention to where the others "placed it". Also when we were doing the joining in exercises by adding a simple detail you could set the entire scene. As I said before i didn't realize how important the little details were.

Creativity

I very much enjoy going to class. I find myself amazed at others' ability to think outside the box. For example, during Tuesday's class we did an exercise where people had to join in an activity. At first the joiners tried to do what the first person was doing. When we did the second activity and Renae pretended to play hop-scotch; other people joined in with different activities. One person was sitting on a swing. I found myself thinking Can we do that? It had never occured to me to work together with someone but to feed off of them and do something different. This class inspires me to be more creative. When there aren't rules you don't always have to play it safe; get crazy!

The Real World

I do not know if anyone watched The Real World last season, but instead of being assigned a "job" like usual, they were assigned to go to improv classes. As they improved they were then assigned to participate in shows. Yesterday I was sitting in class listening to Prof. Polanco talk and I realized that we are basically doing the same thing - minus being on TV and doing shows. It was amazing how much The Real World cast improved by the end of their time there.
I feel like I learned so much already that would not have crossed my mind if someone did not point it out to me. For instance, when holding an imaginary fork or rope...my fingers/hands can not be pressed together or it does not look realistic. I am looking forward to seeing how much everyone in class progresses and improves throughout this semester. And I am really enjoying being able to take a course different from all my other classes.

Mirror, Mirror

I agree that the mirror exercises are harder than they look. I have never considered myself a control freak ( In fact, I always thought that it was my nature to follow rather than lead) but when we do the mirror exercises i often find myself wating to take control because I feel the need to DO something. The hardest part of the class so far has been trying to keep it simple. It is so easy to just be a mime and "show" what i am doing. It is a lot harder to actually "do" something with nothing. I never considered myself unimaginative, but I have difficulty interacting with things that aren't there.