Table Exercise

Actually, this was quite fun after you got used to eating fake food and where it was located on the table. My hardest part was dealing with setting the stuff done on the table since it was hard to determine where the height was since I was above it and not on the same level. I think the exercise would have been easier also if we started off already sitting at the table and did not have to walk in. It made it harder to figure out where the bowl of potatoes (Dan Quayle) was for me.

class/play

I though that class on thur was also tough but I also liked the challenge. I never realized how hard it was to make the height of a table to keep it the same as everyone else. I think that eating is also hard because you really have to imagine eating something that is not there. I never really had to imagine something when I acted because we always had props. But it is very hard and I don't think that I would be able to act without props if I ever did it again with out a lot of practic.

I dont know about anyone else but I did not really like the play. I did see many things that we learned in class being done on stage though. I thought that the play was very confusing and hard to follow and I thought that they talked really fast. But overall I guess it was ok but I do not think that I would see it again.

I agree with the posts below me in that class on Thursday was a little tough. There were a few things that we had to think about all at once. First, we had to set a height for the table. This seemed to be the thing that tripped up most people. Not everyone was able to keep the same height of the table. I noticed that I had to go off of the person next to me because it was to hard to look across from me to get the height of the table. The second tough thing we had to do was to pretend we were eating. It's really hard to use utensils and glasses, but it's almost impossible to eat or drink without anything there. The easiest part of the exercise for me was the conversation. Luckily, our topic had to do with sports. So I was really comfortable with being able to carry on a conversation.

Table Exercise

The exercise we did in class Thursday was a quite difficult exercise because there were so many different aspects that you had to focus on. Not only did you have to focus on the height of the table, but you also had to focus on eating and having a conversation. I thought that the conversation would be the most difficult part of the exercise but it was surprisingly easy to keep conversation flowing. What was the most difficult was keeping the table the same height. Mostly, I just tried to focus/imitate where everyone else was placing things. I think most people were trying to do that, which helps a lot when trying to keep your table the same height. Overall, I would say that this was one of the most challenging exercises we have done thus far.

Thursday, October 16

Class Thursday was more challenging than I anticipated. The same height exercise was difficult because we had to concentrate on many more aspects. We were concentrating on eating, maintaining corresponding heights of the table between our group, and conversation. I think the more experience that we gain in this class the easier this will be. We need not to focus on what we are doing because if we are seeing what we are doing it will come natural. That is easier said than done. I think that once we are able to truely see the imaginary objects, we are all going to be much better actors.

Tables, Eating, and Talking

I found that the exercise we did in class on Thursday was a lot harder than i expected. We had many different tasks/ details that we had to pay close attention too. First we had to make the table the same height, which you had to pay attention to everyone in your group, in order to accomplish this and accommodate to what everyone else was doing. Second we had to pay attention to the placement of the food as well as how to 'eat' the food. And third was talking. When we put all these aspects together it all seemed to go down hill for me because i would focus on eating, then get involved in the talking and forget about where i had just put my food down and the height of the table. I feel this exercise was hard for me because it Incorporated everything we have done up to now this semester and i need to now learn how to tie all of this together and make it flow.

Experience to Evaluate

I, just like Paige, also found myself evaluating our teacher as she was acting like she was making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. She kept saying that this activity would have been better if she would have brought in the actual materials but for us to just imagine that the materials were there. All I could think about was that I wanted to tell her to really see the objects and believe they were there. I could tell that she really did not see the bag of bread and the jars of peanut butter and jelly in front of her. I would have never thought about saying that until taking this class. I never really thought I would apply this class to my education classes, but I guess I was wrong!

Interesting...

I just had to share this...
In my education block this past Thursday, my professor decided to stop teaching and have us do an activity because when discussing she realized that many of us have not done it before. The activity consisted of everyone writing down the specific steps to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. After she gave us about 5 minutes or so, she had some people in class share. Instead of simply listening, she demonstrated the steps being read to her by the student(s). Well...here is the part that relates to this class...she did not have the materials with her to actually make the sandwich so she decided to demonstrate with imaginary materials. Rhea sits next to me and as soon as our professor started using imaginary objects we simultaneously turned to each other and were like "oh my gosh...acting for non-majors. ha". I am sure that we would not even thought about it if it were not for this class. However, since we are "experienced" when it comes to dealing with imaginary objects, we found this interesting, funny, and I don't know about Rhea, but I found myself evaluating her skills. ha.

Tables and other objects

I have a hard time interacting with imaginary objects. i know we have done many activities involving imaginary objects, and some of them have been fairly successful, but they take a lot more concentration than anything else. I also feel like they either go really well or they are completely unbelieveable. There doesn't seem to be much in between, so it is hard when you get up knowing that it is either going to really suck or possible be really awesome. I don't feel like we had the same issues with the tube though. Even though we were forming imaginary objects out of it, because we had something real in our hands everything that we made out of it seemed to be real too.

tables tables tables

I think that the activity today was very challenging because it took almost all of what we have done already and put them together. Talking, eating and keeping objects in the same places all at the same time was hard. Its especially hard because in real life its easier to time when there is food in your mouth when you can talk. I noticed that people were talking right after taking a giant bite of food, I found this funny because in real life people might try not to look like a fool by talking with a full mouth. Its just really hard to keep track of everything, that's why I had trouble with it. Also, I have never really thought of the appropriate height of tables until today.

Class

I think that class is definitely a lot more fun now that we are getting more and more comfortable acting like idiots around each other. The getting stuck activity proved to be rather weird. I felt really awkward the whole time I was doing it. I'm not sure why but I didn't really like that particular activity, maybe it was because I had never been caught in a giant spider web before. However I believe that activity made us think but I could definitely see how people were finishing early because it was such and awkward thing to do.

I think it's great that everyone is starting to have more fun in class. The new exercises that we are doing let us use our imaginations a whole lot more. Especially the cardboard tube one. I think people think too hard when they are trying to come up with an idea for it. I just go with the first thing that comes to mind. And I guess that's the whole point of this and the other exercises we do.

getting stuck

I thoguht the activity we did last class was hilarious!!! i loved it! i thought it was really hard to make it not to showy! I think its a really good activity!

class

class is becoming alot more fun!!! i think it is bc cause everyone realizes that its ok to be a dork haha, and the acting we do in class now is also getting better because of that. so i think by the end of class we should all be pretty good and acting.

FUN!!!

I agree with everyone that class has been a lot of fun lately. I believe this is because everyone is starting to get more comfortable now and is starting to really enjoy the class. I also agree that it fun to pick out of the gourd because you never know what your going to get. You don't get time to think about it either you just go with it. I know for me personally its these exercises that have made me become more comfortable rather it be group or only. Even though I feel more comfortable i would still rather do activities in groups.

I second or third or whatever, the notion of class being exciting and full of drama (good kind). It was interesting getting tangled in an imaginary web monkey’s bars; I had fun trying to figure it out. I thought about when I used to live in New York, spending a great deal of my time at the park right across the street from the projects. I did get stuck once on the monkey bars when I nine, my brother had to get me down as I hanged upside down for about fifteen minutes. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for us next in class, peace.

I agree with Renee, I thought class was a blast on Tuesday. Actually I think it has been a blast for the past couple classes. At first I didn't want to do things in front of the class on my own, I always wanted to be in a group but I actually don't mind being alone in front of everyone anymore. Plus I like watching single people rather than mutiple people every now and then. I also agree that it's fun to pick ideas out of our gourd lol. You never know what you're going to pull out but it's exciting because you never know when you're going to have to be the crocodile hunter or a bull fighter!

Yes, class continues to be fun, kind of like goal-oriented 'whose line'. Speaking of which, this is a little off-topic, but I have always thought that I could pick out theater majors/enthusiasts in convo because of their overblown hand gestures and dynamic conversations. I thought they were letting overacting spill into their daily lives. Lately, I feel challenged in this attribution by the somewhat minimalist nature of this class. I wonder if anyone else feels this way?

WOW

So class was very interesting and fun on tue. I thought I had so many ideas for the cardboard tube but then someone would that them or I decided it would not work. So I did no think that it would be so hard to think of something but it really was. Also I found it very entertaining watching people get entangled in things. Everyone imagines getting entangled in something different and I liked seeing how people imagined themselvs doing something.

I also really like the whole idea of us writing down things and picking them out of bowl. I am always scared of what I am going to get and how hard it is going to be, but I always have fun and I enjoy watching everyone.

Video Taping/Story

Someone mentioned video taping the class in their entry. I think this is a fabulous idea. As an education major and a musician, I know that you can learn a lot from seeing yourself on tape. Watching a tape of yourself helps you realize what you actually look like when you are doing something. You can also realize what aspects of your acting might need more or less. And it would definitely be interesting to tape a few different classes during the semester to see progress.

I am glad that we are now putting some of our activities in the context of a story. This is really helping us to expand our acting skills because it raises the bar a bit higher. Now you actually have to think about several different aspects besides the present. You also have to think about what happened and what will happen.