Occupation Exercise

I agree that the exercise dealing with occupations was difficult. I have never really sat down and watched how different professionals carry themselves. I mean yes there are some things that are noticeable about different occupations but i have never payed attention in great detail. I think there are lots of occupations that would carry themselves the same way. For example a doctor, dentist, or physical therapist probably would carry themselves in the same manner just as any laboring job would also. I think that is what made this exercise so hard for me because there is no set standardized to how a certain occupation carries themselves. So just as everyone has been saying you have to use a stereotype of the profession in order to portray your message.

Stereotyping

Through the career activity, I realized how much stereotyping goes into acting. Depending on the person's career we assumed we knew how they walked, held their posture, fidged, and the seriousness of their facial expressions. Also, a lot of careers could come off as the same so it is sometimes hard to distinguish the role someone is playing. Although most of these stereotypes seem to be end up being true, there are always exceptions. I think that if we were to be acting a certain career role in a play or movie, we would have to do a lot of research and observing in order to accurately portray a specific career role.

I have just read Claire's post and I both agree and disagree with her. I think people do not want their jobs to define them, but I think that what you do for a living says a lot about who you are as a person. It impacts many of your decisions in life. Now I am not saying that everyone fits the stereotype of their job, but I do think that your job impacts a lot of the decisions you make in life. Everything that you do on a daily basis has some impact on the rest of your life, so it could impact the way you carry yourself, the decisions you make, and even the way you interact with others. I have not completed this activity yet, but I think it will be challenging to not show what your job is. I think that the key here is to focus on the details and not get too dramatic.

jobbers

I thought the career bus stop was kinda difficult because I don't think that there is a huge difference between some jobs. I understand that someone who works in an office might move differently than a landscaper or large rock carrier but most people don't really think of themselves in terms of their job. I also agree that we are acting more like the stereotype of what we think a ------ would act like instead of what they actually would act like. Also, if anybody goes to the Saturday the 11th show for the crucible and wants to NOT sit alone, let me know

Stereotypes

I agree that when we do the career exercise we are in a way stereotyping careers/people. But I wish there was a better word that we could use for it because the word "stereotype" has so many negative connotations. It is kind of true that people who do certain things for a living tend to behave in a certain way. Of cours there are many exceptions. And stereotypes don't necessarily have to be a bad thing. Doctors for example are supposed to be very smart people. We have to use our perceptions of how we think certain people behave in order to portray them. That is probably why one of our first assignemtns was to observe people. When we get to the point when we are given more complex characters, then I hope it will feel less like I am acting like a stereotype and more like i am acting like a real person .

Careers

First of all, I thought that the activity we did dealing with the careers at the bus stop was difficult. It is so hard because you cannot really show the people what you are. I also thought that this activity could be a little stereotypical. For example, for the construction worker Claire had to be all big and strong. This got me thinking to my past job experiences. Two summers ago I worked for the service department. I did things such as picking up roadkill and trash, mowing along the highway, weedwacking, checking sewers, and numerous other jobs. I am pretty sure no one would think that I did this job and if someone was to act out a service department worker, I would not be a model of what they look like and act like. It just got me thinking that the way we are portraying these occupations is kind of stereotypical.

Ok first of all talking is hard lol. I think it's definitely outside of my comfort zone to think of things to say on the spot, not talking was way easier for me. With that said I have to say that I love the machine exercise. I had troube figuring out what people were doing at first but I think that's what makes it so great because everyone has to adapt to everyone else and the machine could change lots of times between the beginning and the end of the exercise. I thought it was hilarious that some people were making a helicopter and some were making a sprinkler. I was right in their helping make the hose for the sprinkler and couldn't see the people doing stuff for the helicopter so when I found out we were doing two ridiculously different things I thought it was hilarious.

New Machines

Yeah, I don't know about those new machines. They're fun enough, but it is too easy for me to think of a lot of things it could be and jump to wrong conclusions. Perhaps we'll all get better at it today. I'm also kind of excited to see what else we do now that we are talking and such. On another note, it always seems like the Red Sox have a milestone right before this class so Fabio has fresh material to brag to Juan about.

I like the big machine exercise. It's fun trying to figure out what the person is doing and also finding new ways to add to what they are doing. It's also fun to see how people see different things. Just like the second we did it. Some people thought it was a helicopter and others thought it was a sprinkler.

CARS!!

For the exercise with the new machines, no one would get up and start at first so I went up and started I could tell that no one knew what I was doing. I had the image of a car and a lot of people started to catch on and on the other hand some people didn't lol. It was a lot of fun getting to see what people imagined when they thought of a car and how they portrayed it. I hope we do that exercise again it is fun. Also I really like the wiz bop bowl game lol, I don't really know what its called. I think it would be a lot more fun and harder if people sped up a little and didn't take as long to respond. Well see ya all tomorrow in class!!!!

thursdays class

i thought it was alot harder to figure out what people were tryin to create. because u could think it was one thing then it would be something totally different. take me for example i had no clue what was goin on haha. but its a good challenge, bc now u really have to pay attention to the deatail even more so i like that.

Talking

I was glad that my group finally got to talk on Thursday. I figured it would be challenging but it was more difficult than i thought. I really did not like not knowing what was going on because you had to figure out how the roles you discussed were going to fit into the scene that was set up. At first i noticed i stuck to not talking because it was more comfortable and i wanted someone else to start first. But once my group got started it seemed to flow pretty well. I also agree with Fabio that doing something (some kind of activity) helped when doing the exercise. I can see why we waited to talk now because once you add talking the entire exercise becomes more complex.

Machines

This was actually much harder I thought compared to the little mininoise objects that we made earlier int he semester. It was hard for me to figure out what was going on like when I made the helicopter into a sprinkler. I also had no idea what the first object was since the machine appeared to add wings, a rudder, some smokestacks, and the engine outside of the car. I think after I get better at imagining what might be actually going on, I would have an easier time coming up with an object to add to the machine.

THURSDAY, oCTOBER 2ND

My group got to do the talking exercise today. I really enjoyed doing this activity. Doing this activity was a lot easier than I anticipated. I got nervous at first and immediately went to talking because I felt like I had to be doing something, but it did not take long for me to feel more comfortable and then I didn't think about what I was doing, I just said what came natural.

Creating the machines was also a lot of fun. I think that this activity is important because it allows use to play off of what other people are doing and to work together; that's what acting is all about. I think that every one's ideas about what part of the machine to be was very interesting.

Big Machines

I though that this exercise was kind of tough at first. I was always unsure as to what the first person was trying to build. Once more and more people started to go it sometimes became more clear. Once i figured it out I could go up and join in. It was cool to see how many people think that it is one thing and others think different. This exercise made up really work as a group. Also the talking exercise was pretty interesting. I think that it is definitely better when you have something to do because it stops you from talking so much which also make it more believable. Also when speaking you aren't speaking just to fill up an awkwardness you actually have something potential to add to the dialog. I think that once we start talking for a while we will be able to use it when necessary and not so much to avoid awkward moments within out acting.

big machine go fast vroom

I liked the big machine making thing because it forced us to make something that actually could make sense if we do it right. I think that next time maybe instead of all standing at the same level, it would be more recognizable if for instance the wheels are lower than the steering wheel. This may be a problem if the object we choose is very large because we obviously can't change our heights. That's all I got because I couldn't remember if I blogged or not yet and Thursday seems like forever ago.

Just like Paige, I also enjoyed the activity where we attempted to build one large object together as a class. We had done an activity similar to this where we just created some random machine. This activity has proven to be much harder than the previous one. We had a car/boat that had an engine outside of the machine the first time and then a helicopter with a hose the second time. I think we will get better as a class doing this activity with practice. It is essential that everyone works together as we build these machines. I am anxious to see what we eventually create!

Building Large Objects

In class on Thursday we built objects like cars, helicopters, and sprinklers. At first I thought that it was going to be extremely difficult, but after we all did it once, I actually started liking the activity. It was interesting to see the different ways people interpret things. For example, when Brianna was spinning around with her arms in the air and making a chi-chi-chi noise, some people in class thought she was part of a helicopter, while others interpreted her action as a sprinkler. It is important that only one person goes at a time during this activity. Otherwise we can come up with extremely amusing and pretty hilarious contraptions. Overall, this activity emphasized creativity, imagination, and working as one. As individually being one piece of an object, we ended up as one large object.

Talking

I agree with most of the others who said that they were happy to be talking in class. It felt a lot more natural to be talking to people in scenes than it did to act as if we were all mute. I also agree that talking could be dangerous if we let it become the focus of our acting.
I also like the idea that a shared activity can help people interact and be more natural. This is one of those things that is true in life as well as in acting. I have noticed that when people have a clear purpose or they know what they are suppossed to do it makes group interaction a lot more natural. However there is nothing more awkward than a group of people hanging out who don't know each other and don't share a common activity/interest.

finally talking

I'm so glad that were finally getting to talk now!!! i think that it is going to be harder but I'm glad that we an incorporate it and be able to actually do "scene type" activities.  I feel that the activity we did today was harder than i thought it was going to be.  Once i got out there i wasn't sure what the setting was and there was defiantly some awkwardness.  

Talkin

I think that talking is going to be fun. It might also be hilarious as well as fun. I think that we should definitely consider all of the details that we were paying attention to when we were not talking and that will make our acting even better. I think that the talking might be an interesting change since I haven't gotten a shot at it yet. I think that it might be kind of different in that we have been acting without words for so long. One main thing about that is maybe you don't have to talk you only have to respond to other around you so your words might just flow out.

Getting Chatty

I actually think that adding talking will be a good thing. We just keep moving forward. I suppose that the hardest thing will be to remember all of the little things we were paying attention to before we started talking and to incorporate them. I know that will be hard for me anyway. Also, not all acting involves talking, I think. Lastly, I share the pain that the Sox won.

Talking

Yeah, I am pretty sure that I would rather not have to talk just because I'm sure I'll say something not even paying attention that will either be completely off topic or not going to help the scenario. Either way though, I think it will be a fun addition to the class because now there is another thing to possibly focus on and will take our attention away from beign nervous or something. It might also be good because acting does involve speaking.

And I stayed up last night watching the Red Sox game hoping the Angels would come back... what a disappointment.

new challenge, talking

Talking for the first time added a little spice to life in the class; I enjoy reacting to others actions. I feel I work real well thinking on the whim, rather than planning what I am going to do. So I believe this section of class will either confirm or deny my assumption of how I operate thinking or reacting on my feet. I thought for the first group we did real well, especially working on an improv play for the first time together with verbal content. I believe everyone will benefit tremendously during this exercise, I like playing frog detective to start class also, because it gets the mind ready for details quicker, good call, peace.

finaly talking

I'm really excited about being able to talk in class but at the same time I'm also really nervous. When Fabio said that most of acting is improv I got pretty nervous because I'm not necessarily the quickest thinker on my feet...I feel like I'm going to be fumbling around, looking for words to say. Watching the first group go in class though, the talking aspect seemed to come pretty naturally and it made the scene a little more interesting but also less believable. I'm very interested to see how much the class changes now that we are allowed to talk.

talking

The activity we had to do in class last was very interesting. I had no idea what to do, I didnt know when I should talk or not talk. I totally forgot everything that we learned. When he pointed out that didnt even give the table any height or anything. When i had to hand out the cards when we were playing I was going to shuffle them but as I thought about it, it was very hard. I did not think I would ever forget what we learned untill I got up there. I have acted a lot in my life and I never realize how hard it was. It normally just came to me but now that I am studing it it is much harder.

talking now

i am so glad we can talk now i think it will be a little tough but once we do it a little more i think we will become better atcors the keanue reaves. so i averexcited to see how everyone does in the next class now that we kno what to look for.

When I was doing the exercise, I found that it was easier to do a scene, but I think the quality wasn't as good. Since I was doing the scene, I wasn't able to see my body language or anyone else's very well. I'm curious to see how well other groups do tomorrow.d

Talking

I am excited that we get to start talking in class but i think its going to be a challenge also. At first i thought it would make it easier but after watching the first group it doesn't. Yes talking can convey the message but once talking is added everything else we learned seems to go out the window. I think this is because talking is a new aspect so we focus on that and not everything we had done to this point. I have a feeling that I'm going to have a hard time with paying attention to detail at the same time as talking. Also I'm going to have a hard time going into something without any organization. I am a person that likes things structured. So overall i feel that this exercise is going to be challenging for me but I am excited that we get to start talking.

Speaking

I am excited for the opportunity to speak in class. I think it's really going to open a lot of possibilities to our acting skills once we get accustomed to adding speech. I think the group that went for our first speaking activity did I pretty good job for their first time. I'm interested to see what my group will come up with. This activity takes a lot of focus because not only do you have to be aware of everyone else's body language, but you also have to know how to respond with speaking. It's a bit intimidating but I think it will be a good challenge because it will broaden our horizons.

Initially I thought getting to talk would make acting class easier. I thought that talking would allow us to convey our emotions in an easier fashion. After seeing the first group go I realized that talking makes acting much harder. They did a very nice job, but I became nervous about what I am supossed to say. Now we have to be conciuos that our movements and our body language match our speaking. We also have to be sincere. I'm excited to try to incorporate speaking into the class and I'm anxoius to see how everyone does. I have also noticed steady progress in everyone in the class. I look forward to each and every class.

actually talking

As i watched the first group today in class do the first voice activity i could tell that some of the language used was just used as a crutch or a filler... it did look harder than i thought it would be.  I think that finally getting to talk is actually going to make things a lot harder.  

Voice Acting

I agree with Ryan, I think voice acting would be really hard. ( Sorry I know that comment is from a really old post, but I just saw it.) At first, it seems like it would be really easy- all it is is talking. But it's not really- it's acting. After spending so many weeks acting with no talking I feel like it would be really hard to disconnect movement and words. Perhaps that was the point of not talking , to reinforce the importance of action . I don't want to overthink things, but now I'm wondering how much harder it is going to be when we have the added complication of speech to our exercises.

And then they spoke...

I am surprised how fast I got used to acting without speaking. I thought that it was weird at first, however now that we are starting to speak during our scenes, I see the point of starting the way that we did this semester. It allowed us to be able to focus on our actions without having to also figure out what to say. Now that we are more "advanced" and prepared, we are going to be able to handle the situation better than we would if we did not do the activities we did until this point.

It is kind of ironic because when going into this class, I figured that we would simply start off with acting activities that involved speaking. Now that we are used to acting without speaking, it is intimidating and nerve-racking to go up in front of the class and speak...even though we talk to each other when not acting. It is funny how something that we do all the time can be so challenging (which goes along with my blog from last week).

I agreed with Professor Polanco when he said that people may be uncomfortable doing these activities because they are not planned out. I always like to have everything planned out and I have found out that this has been a struggle for me in this class. I do not think I am very good with thinking on my toes! For example, today I was trying to plan out our scene and figure out what each person was going to do. I think it is great to be able to be spontaneous and hopefully I will get better at this!

sit, stay, speak

I think that maybe another reason or an addition to someone elses reason for not speaking until now might be that we hadn't broken ourselves in yet. Not knowing what to do is scary, but not knowing what to say and do is worse. It might have been more uncomfortable if we started just talking and then had to move into ridiculous motions to go along with it. We would revert back to talking too much. Also, it is alot harder to go from starting off with alot and then taking things away, while if we start with just doing and add talking later it would be easier. Last thing, I felt entertained when I watched the first group have their dinner party. excellent work

this week

i am starting to get the hang of all the excersises we are doin and i think they will get easier bc we will be able to talk i think you will see a big difference in everyones acting ability.

basiclly

The class is getting a lot easier for me! I was glad to hear that we might be able to talk this week because i think it will make things a lot more funnier. I know that acting is hard and that when you add lines then you have to add so much more! So i think it will be interesting to see what happens

No talking.

I agree with most of the others when they say that starting out talking would not be a good think. When we were acting in class we couldn't speak and so we had to look in the detail of our acting in order to make it look believable. I think that by starting out not being able to speak will hell up pay more attention to the details when we are aloud to speak. Being able to say something is a lot easy than having to act it out. I think the acting part will be much easier; however, I think that since being able to talk we will have to pay more and more attention to detail. I guess the more detail you have the better actor you are.

Not being able to talk has been a good and bad thing. It's good because you get to concentrate on the finer details of acting. You get to concentrate on movements instead of worrying about what you are going to say. The way that it is bad is that it makes it hard to communicate exactly what you are doing. Just like the one exercise where one person goes up and starts doing an activity and others join in. There were times where people didn't know what's going on and they changed the scene.

not speaking

I agree with Hallie that it was best for us to start off the semester without talking. I think once you incorporate talking it makes things a little bit easier (however I could be totally wrong because maybe acting with speaking is actually ridiculously hard). But I remember watching this behind the scenes thing on TV about the movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith. There is this scene right after they fight and pretty much tear their house to shreds where they just do stuff around the kitchen and all they do is look at each other, they don't talk. And the director was saying that originally they were supposed to have words but Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie thought it would be more difficult and more meaningful to just use their faces and gestures and emotions to complete the scene. I thought that was really cool because attention to detail is what we always learn about in class and this was an example of that exact concept in a big time movie with big time actors.

Voice

Speaking of not talking, I think that voice acting would be pretty hard to do, especially if I had to do a character like Meat Wad on Aquateen Hunger Force. But maybe it's easier to get into a character if it is a wierd voice that isn't your own because you can trick yourself into believing that you are not yourself easier. Anyway I was thinking about this since our acting is without talking and some people act only with talking.

not speaking

I feel that it is good we didn't start speaking right away, because it helped us to understand that acting is more than just standing up in front of people and talking.  I think that the bus stop activity we did was awesome and really helped us show how we've learned and get us ready for when we do start talking.

Rocket Ship and Talking

Yeah that was fun. It wasn't nearly as fun as the jumping when getting hit by a bus, but it was pretty close.

As for the talking which I see people liek to talk about, I would have to say that not talking certainly makes you think more about how your body works and operates during a scenario. It would seem easier to just say something, but it probably would not appear to be real. Body movements probably are a lot closer to what you would do if it was real. I think this is probably the main reason that we don't start talking in the beginning because hardly any of it would seem real.

No talking

I have given some thought as to why we don't start talking right away in class and its because it makes it easier. I agree with Brittany when she said it is easier to convey a message when you can speak. When you can't speak you have to think several different details of an object and show it instead of us telling us. Also it makes it more challenging for the viewers too because they have to pay attention to just as much detail to know what is trying to be conveyed. When you can speak facial expressions seem to just come naturally along with the words but when you cant that is another aspect that you have to pay attention too. Overall i believe that you don't start the class off with talking because it is a challenge and makes us much more aware of our surroundings.

Reasons We Don't Start Out Speaking

In many of the acting experiences I've had, including shows, we always started out with activities that did not include speaking. In one particular activity I remember, we had to pick an emotion out of a hat. We proceeded to act as if we were sitting on a bench outside of school waiting for the school bus and we had to sit there and portray this emotion. This particular activity sticks in my head because it really helped us to think about our emotions first.

Speaking is, of course, an important aspect of acting...but it is most certainly not the only aspect. If fact, dialogue can just be distracting when you are trying to portray something. To be able to portray what you are saying, it is important to first focus on what you are doing. You can go up on stage and say the line "I feel sad." but is that what your body language is showing? If not, you won't be very convincing. First, it is important to realize what you are doing physically and whether or not you are really portraying the emotion of what you are doing through your actions. Once this becomes a bit easier to realize, then adding some sort of dialogue will be easier because you will be thinking about the emotion rather than just reading off a page and sounding fake.

Why we don't talk right away

I have a thought as to why we don't talk right away in acting class. I think that it is much easier to convey a message if you are speaking. You could easily tell if someone was hurt, angry, or upset just by what they were saying. When acting, the hard part is making what you are doing believable. In real life we do talk, but we also use body language such as facial expression, movement or gestures to communicate. Sometimes when acting we can forget about these things (details) and just try to convey our message through spoken words, when in actuality that is not at all how it goes down. It is important for use to first be able to take advantage of the details that can be conveyed through body language, then it will be much more believable when we add words.

moving objects

During class Thursday I liked how professor planco challenged the class by adding more to the circle, bringing on another level of multi-tasking objectives. I also had some problems thinking of an object that can move us; I believe I was thinking way to hard on this task. I felt a little weird when professor planco suggested our group to do a rocket. I never been on rocket so I don’t have a clue on how to act while on a rocket although I did like the challenge of it and I am glad the group gave their all. Thanks team, peace.

Why we don't talk

Does anyone have any thoughts on why we do not speak in class right away?

why

Hello Friends,

You guys are doing great on the blog, but let me remind you, like it says on your syllabus, it is not enough to say you liked something. You have to explain why. If you do not, I can't give you credit for a post.

That being said, see that you are thinking about the lessons that our exercises teach especially the less obvious and, ironically, more important ones.

Keep it up.

Getting Moved by Object

I really liked the getting moved by an object activity. I thought that the balloon in the parade was a great idea. My group (the remedial group) had trouble coming up with an activity. I thought Professor Polanco made a good point when he said that none of us have probably seen anyone get hit by a bus, so that makes it harder to act out. The only time I have seen anyone get hit by a bus was in a movie, and it was very unrealistic. Final Destination had a scene where someone got hit by a bus, and I remember when I watched it I commented on how unrealistic it looked. When we acted it out, people knew what we were doing, but it did not look real. Acting out more familiar activities makes the scene more realistic.

Empty to Full Activity 2 - sorry you couldn't read the first one.

When doing this activity, I picked something that I literally do every day so that I would be able to reenact it in front of the class with little difficulty. However, that did not go as planned at all. I figured since filling my bag with books is something that I am obviously familiar with and do a lot, the hardest part would be acting like it was heavier rather than putting the books inside the bag. I was shocked. I guess it is routine so I do not actually think about how I put the books in my bag when I do it. Therefore, throughout this activity I realized the importance of detail even more.

Empty to Full Activity

When doing this activity, I picked something that I literally do every day so that I would be able to reenact it in front of the class with little difficulty. However, that did not go as planned at all. I figured since filling my bag with books is something that I am obviously familiar with and do a lot, the hardest part would be acting like it was heavier rather than putting the books inside the bag. I was shocked. I guess it is routine so I do not actually think about how I put the books in my bag when I do it. Therefore, throughout this activity I realized the importance of detail even more.

I like wizzbang. bling bling, ca-ching... I did not do my empty/full thing yet, but the objects that move you was pretty entertaining. I like to see what other groups come up with. As a class, I think we are pretty darn entertaining. I too, am excited to talk because people say funny things, and I like funny things.

Can we speak yet?

So i am really excited that we get to talk soon. I understand why it is important to do things without speaking, but I feel that it is a little bit unnatural to never speak during the activities. If we are supposed to be as real as possible, then I think talking should be a part of the scenes since real people have a tendency not to be mute.

bus stop

i thought when we did the bus stop activity everyone was acting there age. no-one was really over doin it. i didn find it hard to start acting the certain age like instantly though . but i guess that what u have to do when ur an actor/actress, be able to change charaters or ages at the drop of a hat.

Class Tuesday

Class was pretty interesting on Tuesday. I really enjoyed the whizbang game and I keep wondering where he comes up with some of these games. Half of them I have never even heard before, I must have been deprived at a young age. I think that the buss stop game was pretty interesting in that it was definitely easy to see the different age groups. I could mostly depict the different ages out by watching how much energy each person had. The older the person was they seemed to be like a bump on a long and the younger people had tons of energy.

bus stop activity

This was a fun activity and good learning experience about stereotypes with age. generally we stereotype by culture, color, or physical characteristics but this was an interesting twist, after the class I started to carefully watch several people of a diverse age group to examine what we did was close to what actually happens with movements and body language and I have to say we were not that far off from the stereotypical actions of what people do, also I think everybody is giving excellent energy towards the class objectives and activities, peace.

bus stop

I really likes the bus stop exercise. It did not look that hard and then i got up there and i had no idea what to do. I had to think about how the people i see daily really feel and try and become one. It was very hard, i had to be a 99 year old lady and i could not imagine how she would really feel. I just tried to imagine how her body would feel and how weak she would be. It was very hard but i enjoyed a challenge.

Yeah, Yeah

I also thought about stereotypes during that bus stop scene. It seems like it is kind of unavoidable. The character that we were only had an age and maybe a gender. There was no goal we had to achieve other than to convey someone of that age. When I think about that, acting like a stereotype is kind of what we were supposed to do, which is fine with me. I stereotype people all the time, and am bad like that.

Watching

I've noticed that we've been doing a lot more watching in class for the ast 2 days. Like, we watched other people have difficulty with small objects on Thursday and on Tuesday we watched other people on a bus stop for the majority of the class. But I don't mind it at all. I really enjoy watching other people and seeing what crazy ideas they come up with for our many different exercises. Even just watching someone try to take an earring out for like 2 minutes straight was really intersting to me and I've found myself paying way more attention to little details not only in the classroom but elsewhere too. For example I just notice how people eat or the way they carry themselves or things like that, and I just think it is all very interesting.

The whizbang game was kind of fun. I liked being able to use words with more than one syllable. I like the game because it's easy and it's fun. I think this game can get pretty hard if he adds in a few more actions. It's hard sometimes to remember all the rules.

Whizbang

It took me a minute to realize it, but I have played whizbang prior to taking this class. Last year, one of my theatre major friends taught us the game in our voice studio class one day. I really enjoy this game because it gets me so energized and focused. At times, you really have to think hard and react fast when playing this game. It's just a really fun game! Honestly, I'd really love to use this in my classroom one day. It would be such a good way to get students reved up for class (in a good way, of course!) and I know that they would love it. It would be especially good it a music class because it gets the students up and moving and it definitely encourages them to be more confident, which is key in music.

Usefulness

It occured to me ther other day that a lot of the stuff that we are doing in class could be very useful in a classroom someday. I know that there are a lot of education majors in the class and I think that it is nice to get future lesson activity ideas from a class that I thought would be unrelated to my major.
I think that kids would respond really well to a lot of the things that we are doing. Since I am a music ed. major, I could definitly see using Wiz-Bang or The Human Machine activity in a classroom.

Stereotyping

I realized in class on Tuesday that our stereotypes of how people act depending on age are mostly true. When people opened their paper and saw what age they would be playing at the bus stop, it seemed as if it was pretty easy for them to figure out something to do. It was also fairly easy for the rest of the class to determine what age they were role playing.
I was only six years old during this activity. When I was running around the bench and constantly moving, I felt like I was "over-acting" in a sense because of what we have been practicing in this class. We have been taught that less is more. That is why I felt like I did too much, however in reality, I did what a young child really would do. I liked this activity overall because it was interesting, fun, and definitely entertaining.

Class was all sorts of different on Tuesday, whizzbang was fun but I am not joining the intermural team, my source (roommate) says that things will get even more complicated in whizzbang. terrifying. I also enjoyed the bus-stop exercise although for some reason I decided to be an old man instead of an old woman. I'm a weirdo I guess. I think that people were better at portraying extreme ages like 2 or 92 because it was easier to act a lot different than you would at a bus stop but not as easy to change to be 4 years older, what can really happen in 4 years? The 30-50 year range is about the same for everyone I think, and even 20's are only slightly more lively.

I also agree that the bus stop activity is one of the best so far this semester. I really enjoyed trying to act a certain age and have people guess. Also it made me think of many details on how that age would act. I feel that the activity allowed a lot more us to actually 'be in the moment'. I really enjoyed watching the different 'stereotypes' that everyone had for their age. The exercise we did at the beginning of class was fun as well. I thought it was funny how after one person said the wrong word everyone started to say it. Overall i think Tuesday was one of the best class periods we have had yet.

bus stop

I agree i feel that the bus stop activity was by far in my top 2 favorite activities so far. I feel that it is finally an activity that can show what we've learned about acting so far in the semester. I relaly like the other activity we did in the very beginning with the passing of the ball and shooting the basketball!! i loved it!

I enjoyed the bus stop exercise more than anything we have done in class so far. I think that this gave us a chance to put everything we have been learning in class together. It allowed us to remain simple but we paid close attention to detail so that we could properly convey the age we were acting like. I had lots of un doing this because it was the first time that I acctually did not think about what I was going to do. I just got up and went with the flow. I hope we do many more exercises like this one.

09.23.08

I really enjoyed the age activity. I thought it was really fun to try to guess the actor's ages. I thought everyone did a great job and I was able to guess close to everyone's age. I definitely think the extreme ages are much easier to do. The older ages and the very young ages were easy to guess. I think the ages from 30-60 are the hardest. It is hard to distinguish how old they are because I feel like everyone in that age range does similar things. They more than likely are going to work, have ridden a bus before, and are indifferent as they wait for the bus. I had it much easier being an old lady!

WhizBang

Hmm... yeah so I'd have to say that is certainly the most "unusual" game that we have played in class so far. It is actually quite amusing, but I think it would be a lot better if there was a rule put into effect that someone could not use the same motion more than twice in a row. Someone can simply just do a "bang" to anything and would be near impossible to lose. But that is just a loser venting...

And the activity dealing with the age was comical. It would have been funny to see four people at the age of 85-99 all on the same stage and only having two people able to sit down on the bench.

small objects

the activity we did last class was definantly hard! i think trying to handle small objects when they are not actually there is a harder task than i thought.  I feel that actors really have to go through so many hours working on little activities like these in order to make their performances real and believable.

Comparing Classes

So last night I was talking to my friend from California and I was telling her about this class because she had taken some acting classes in school and had been in a few plays and we were talking about how similar our classes were. It was funny how both of our teachers stressed the "less is more" idea. But when I told her that we aren't even allowed to talk in our class yet she was like oh wow that's so cool....so you have to focus on like the little details and stuff...I wish my class had done that. And I just thought it was neat that as an actor she thought our class was better than the one she had taken and she really like the whole concept of what we're doing right now. Anyway, I just thought it was neat to be able to compare our class to another acting class and see lots of similarities even though she took the classes in a school on the other side of the country.

House

One of my favorite shows is "House." The main reason for why I like it is because Hugh Laurie is an amazing actor. If you listen to him talk when he is not on the show, you can tell that he has an English accent. But when you watch the show, you can't detect any kind of accent. Also, they way he acts with his cane is perfect. You actually believe he has a problem with his leg.

Small Objects

When we were told to do something with a small object at first I didn't realize how hard it was going to be. I just went up and started to do it, however, I went to fast. Once I slowed down it allowed the audience to believe that I was actually playing with a rubix cube. I was thinking in my head where the colors were and which way I had to turn the cube in order to line them up. I think that when you are acting without the physical object it is much harder because you have to account for all the minute details in order for your part to be believable. I think that once I took in all the detail that my object entailed the class believed in what I was doing a lot more and I did find this exercise a lot more difficult than I though it was going to be.

small objects

i didnt think it was that hard to do the small objects. all i really did was pay attetion to all the lil detail , and i actually thought i was threading a needle. so now i kno what professor palanco means when he says " really pay attention to the detail ".

Difficulty with Small Objects

I had a really hard time with this exercise. Just coming up with an idea was difficult for me. I really liked some of the other ideas that everyone else had though and I think it'd be interesting to try those ideas.
It is funny how much you really have to concentrate to do this exercise. There is a whole lot more detail than it seems and you really have to focus. It is definitely a good challenge!

in general

So I'm starting to like the new exercises. I can def. relate to not seeing anyone when I was doing the small objects thing. Even though everytime I had an idea in my head someone got up and did it. So I had to think of something at the last min. and it was very hard. I was not there on tue and I was so confused about the frog detective but I caught on. So class is getting better I am starting to open up more and not care about how silly I look. I normally don't anyway but since its with people I don't know well it takes a while to warm up!

Small Object

I found the small object exercise really interesting. I didn't think it was going to be as difficult as it was. I had a really hard time picking an object and then figuring out how to show it. Once i actually had to take my earring out and do it for real i realized several small details that i did. Which when i had to do it for a second time made it easier for me to actually feel like i was putting in my earring. Also i thought it was rather interesting the different objects the class picked out and how they decided to act them out.

Acting like a Browns fan

I was watching the Browns game on Sunday, and I was kind of cheering for them, and acting upset when they were getting crushed, and I realized that I don't really like them that much, or care. I wonder if I was just acting like I liked them, and then I thought about whether people acted subconsciously, just for fun like maybe I was doing pretending to root for the Browns. Just a wierd thought I had.

Small Object

So this little small object task in class certainly made things interesting. Tying a knot in fish line does not seem that hard to do, but trying to act it out and making it last a long time almost seemed impossible. I think the problem for me was that I was able to visually assume it was there and complete the task, but I had a hard time assuming that I couldn't get it done properly. I think a different task would have been a little easier, especially if it could "never" be completed such as trying to fix a computer chip or something that could involve many mistakes/problems.

Thursday's class

Thursday's class was interesting. I had an object in mind before I got in front of the class, but I did not think about how I was actually going to use it. When I was standing in front of the class I realized that the task was much harder than I thought it was going to be. Our "props" are things we use everyday, and I have never paid such close attention to the little things I do automatically. I think that this task was fun and it reinforced the topic of class; pay close attention to the little details of objects, facial expressions, and emotions.

Small things leads to big perception

I enjoyed our class on Thursday doing the exercise of concentrating on small objects or things. I got up in front of the class during my turn and acted out “fixing broken classes with a small screw driver” It was interesting because once I got up there, everyone seemed to disappear faded to the back ground so to speak, while I was focused on my task. It seemed to me that everyone in class caught on much quicker with this exercise rather than previous ones. I enjoyed watching people do their skits or scenes.

mini-things

Thursday's class was quiet. People seemed to do a good job with their difficult small objects because we all were concentrating on what it was we were trying to do. People were generally more quiet and controlled when working on their small objects maybe because it was easier to work with something you can see all of in your hand, or in this case pretend to see. It was harder to lose track of or change the size if it is so small. I chose to take the sticky thing off the back of a laminated sticker because I was given the task once at work to put lamination stuff on magnets with our company information on it, and I was trying to remember how I did that and do it again, but this time fail. As the class goes on, as a class think we are getting more creative about our scenes and items and tend not to laugh as much; that's probably because we are awesome.

Concentration

Today in class I noticed that the more we concentrate the more believable our actions become. Personally, I think the smaller objects were almost easier than the larger objects. This is because I am really able to picture the item at hand. Also, since I have to concentrate so much about the object I am dealing with, I almost forget that other people are watching me. Once I thi9nk about the rest of the class, my actions become less believable because I think of showing more than just doing. Of course...the practice and experience the past few weeks could also be making a difference.

Frog Detective!

I am with Bill and Teddy about the frog detective game! I think it is so much fun! I was glad that I improved from Tuesday. haha I was glad I had another chance today to redeem myself from Tuesday! I finally learned on Tuesday that once you narrow what side the frog is on, it makes it a lot easier. You just have to be patient and not turn in circles a lot, which is what I was doing at first! I thought I did a good job of implementing my strategy today! Now I just need to work on not giving away who the frog is! Sorry Professor Polanco! :)

frogger

I liked the exercise that we did in class the other day. It was nice that we didn't have to make any weird noises. I think the way to play the game is to slowly turn until the motion changes. Then you can tell which side of the room the person is on. Then repeat the process.

This frog game was alright, but the best frog game ever is frogger. It is probably the coolest game ever. I remember playing that game for hours when I was younger.

Tuesdays Class

By far the coolest game ever. Frog detective is so awesome, I hope we play it every day. I know I wasn't so good at it but I definitely like it a lot more than some of the other things that we did in that big circle of awkwardness. Overall I am beginning to like this class more and more, at first I wasn't so sure but now that I am getting more and more comfortable around the people in the class it seems a lot easier to make a fool out of myself in front of them.

Hundredth Post

Ha! I'm post 100 I think. Anyway I do generally agree that being less inhibited is a useful thing for acting and in most aspects of life, and that is why I am hereby vowing to come to acting class always with a little bit of a buzz on. I keep finding it easier almost every class to get into the mood to play around and act (a little), and I think that is probably because we are all just getting used to the situation of acting weird and imaginative in front of people, and I suppose inhibition will mostly go away in time, which I guess I look forward to.

Class in general

I agree that the frog detective game was fun to play. I love that we do silly excercises like that at the beginning of class to get people warmed up and ready to go. I think it definitely helps people get comfortable quickly. I really really liked the game where we had to attach ourselves to someone else. At first I was hesitant to make a sound with my mouth because everyone else had only used their bodies to make sound but I'm gad I did because I think it was way more fun than just snapping my fingers or something.

class on tuesday

i thought the excersise we did at the end of class wit the occupation scene was pretty cool. the other thing that was really cool was the frog detective excersise. i dont care that it is for lil kids it was awsome to play.

class on tuesday

Exercises

I agree that the frog detective exercise was really fun. Also the exercise when we had to connect to someone interesting. It was funny and neat to see everyone doing a different movement and making random sounds. And lastly i really enjoyed the exercises at the end of class. The different occupations we did were hilarious to watch. By watching these the one thing that i did notice was that everyone seems to be having fun now.

Exercise

I love the frog detective exercise i think it is fun and original, maybe its for little kids but it is definantly one of the favorite activities. However, i do really like the exercise we did at the end of class last class where we had to do an occupation or do something involving a lot of people intercating in a scene of some sort. I really felt like it was a hard activity but really made you think and i really liked it.

Frog Detective

I would have to say that Frog Detective has been the best "exercise" that we have done this semester. Although, the only time I was the leader I was instantly caught changing to clapping. The game appears to involves a lot of concentration on what others do on both the followers and the guesser. As long as the group is quick to catch on to the change (without staring down the leader), it appeared that the guesser had a hard time guessing. It also helped when the leader would instantly start to change the motion once the guesser turned.

The activity with the noises was rather interesting. I have no idea what that accomplished other than making people more comfortable around one another. It just seemed like we all were making weird noises and acting like we would not in public.

easing out being inhibited

On Tuesday, we started off with a cool game/exercise “Frog Detective” I looked at this game in a whole new way since this summer when I’d play with the campers during down time from the program. I have let go of some of my inhibition, and I will continue to do so throughout the rest of the semester. Since the start of the class, I have been paying attention to details more in and out of the class. Thinking about my study habits, people conversations and body language (not listening just viewing), the way animals move, etc. What I am finding out so far is that things aren’t what they appear to be all the time and all the time appearing may not be there at all. which makes life even more interesting. Peace.

sick

I was not in class on tue because i was really sick...but it sounds like you guys had a lot of fun! Im not really sure what you guys did but i herd about air guitars and stuff lol so i dont know.

Being Less Inhibited

On Tuesday, Prof. Polanco pointed out that actors need to be more outgoing and unhibited. I really struggle with this. I have always been more quiet and reserved. And I defintely think too much about getting answers right and not making a fool out of myself. That is actually one of the reasons I signed up for this course. I figured it was a good step towards trying to become more outgoing and stop worrying about what other people think. I obviously have lots of work to do. Hopefully I will progress through this semester. All I can do is continue to try my best...without embarrassing myself too much. haha.

Inhibitions

After class I thought long and hard about inhibitions. I first thought about how awful it is to be inhibited in acting class. The less inhibited you are the more people will believe you because you are going off a feeling that you actually have. I was inspired to throw away my inhibitions in not only class but also in life. Obviously, within reason, you should not have inhibitions. Inhibitions keep you from reaching your creative potential; and what kind of world would we live in if there was no creativity.

Focused

I thought our discussion on the importance of being focused was very good. It is so true that when a person is focused, the acting looks so much better. Initially, when I heard people say get focused/stay focused, I would equate that to not being able to have fun. I found out in class that you can be focused and have fun. I thought I was focused when I was playing my air guitar, and it was my favorite thing I have done in this class! I just need to remember to stay focused in class because the acting will be better and then I will have more fun because I do not feel like I am a terrible actor! :)