I liked the change in pace of class on Tuesday. It was nice to just have a laid back conversation with everyone. There were a lot of good topics brought up during our conversation. I would have to say that I agreed with a lot of the things that were said. I liked talking about the play. It made me understand it a little better. But I'm looking forward to the next class. I can't wait to play whiz bang again. I wonder what he has in store for.

Comfortable

I completely agree with Renee. I'm in a modern drama class and we discussed the play in that class too and I didn't really participate too much in that discussion because I don't feel even close to as comfortable in that class as I do in our class. I loved that so many different people voiced their opinions without being pressured too much by the professor, people just volunteered their thoughts. I was surprised to hear all the different comments about the old people in the play because I thought they did very well but I understand where these people are coming from with their arguments because they noticed small things about the portrayal of the characters that I didn't notice.

talking

Tue class was very interesting, I really like hearing everyone's opinion and how everyone else viewed the play. I really feel like the class as a whole is comfortable with everyone now because i felt like everyone was really honest in class tue and did not care what anyone else thought. I know that I was conformable saying what i thought because i did not think that anyone would judge me. I really enjoyed having the descussion in class and i hope to do it again when we see our next play.

To add to what Clair said, I think the same thing is true for musical performances. There is nothing worse than watching some one who is visibly uncomfortable sing or play a song. No matter how great they sound, if they look like they want to either throw-up or run screaming for the door the audience is not going to enjoy the performance. Ironically, someone can not be very good but if they are relaxed and just go with it then people tend not to notice that they are not very good.

The Crucible

The discussion that we had in class on Tuesday was very beneficial to my opinion of the play. I think going into the play having already seen the movie, I was expecting something very similar. Going into the play after having heard the discussion that we had on Tuesday I would have had a bit of a different opinion. Knowing the background of the play and Arther Miller has helped with my understanding of not only the play but the way the characters were portrayed. I think that being able to talk about the things that were good in the play and the things that were not so good also helped my understanding of the concept of the play. I also enjoyed the discussion because many times I form an opinion about things and do not explore why I feel the way I do about them, and I think this discussion helped with that.

fine arts's

Acting is like art, well, it is an art, but I meant like painting or sculpture. Most of the old masters were just great by nature. When Fabio was telling us how when a competent actor would come on stage it gave the audience a feeling of relaxation. The same comes from looking at a good painting by an old master. Some things just seem forced, What makes something good is the natural reaction that a person has rather that the artist forcing you to do something. Some artists are good just because they just are, they are not demanding you see something or wanting to be liked. We talked about an actor trying to be liked, and I saw that as a kind of trying to force a composition. Adding matching forms or color swatches does not make a painting work. Things work just because they do, even though I don't know much about acting, I appreciate the spontaneity of things that just work.

the crucible

 I felt the discussion we had today in class was very helpful in that it enabled us to hear what others thought about the play.  It really helped us to bounce off ideas of what type of acting engages the audience and what hurts actors on stage.  I thought it was nice to hear what others who have seen many plays felt about this play in comparison to professional plays.

The Crucible

I thought that it was very interesting to hear what other people in class had to say about The Crucible after seeing the play here on campus. It seemed like the majority of class did not find the play to be one of the best or anything special, however, as a class we seemed to find a lot of things that the actors and actresses did well. Also, there were many different mixed opinions about the play. Some people thought that the characters did a good job playing their ages, while others thought only certain ones did, and some did not like any of them. It just shows how everyone connects to different characters. Also, people seem to have many different views on what is in the play was believable and what wasn't.

The Crucible

I found our discussion regarding the crucible to be very interesting. I liked hearing everyone's opinions of the play and the actors. I agree with many of Hallie's opinions. I did have trouble staying focused for a lot of the play. I did not enjoy the book too much when I read it in high school, so I was not expecting to really like the play. I do, however, believe I was fortunate enough to see a few great acting performances. I am excited to keep watching the guy who played John Proctor. I would like to see him in other roles. He was such a great actor, I spent much of my time focusing on what he was doing on stage.

the crucible

I thought that the play was very interesting since there were no props involved however i t hought overall that the play was hard to stay attentive. I found myself having a very hard time pay attention to what was going on, i felt that it was slow moving and at times boring. I noticed however that 2 of the actors specifically were brilliant in that i realyl believed that they were who they were acting!

The Crucible

I though that The Crucible was a rather long play. I had never went to a play and there has been an intermission before. The actors were really into there parts and the anger portrayed by most of the actors felt really sincere and real. This play was a bit boring though without any props, that was the only thing that I didn't like about it. All the actors were really loud when they spoke as well and at times I thought that maybe that was a bit much. Overall the play was pretty good but I hope the next one has props.

watching/listening

goin off of ryans , i can listen to a movie and automaticly figure out the kind of character the person talking is. i have a very easy time distinguishing if the character is very good at showing their emotions ,and when they are not good at it.

i was eavesdropping

I was in the lobby of my dorm tonight and I was overhearing a movie in the background, and it was the kind of movie with a lot of dialogue ( I later looked at the screen and figured out it was the movie Garden State with Natalie Portman). At the time, I had no idea who was talking or what was going on, but there was a woman dominating the conversation, and I could tell just by her tone and her style of talking what kind of character she was. I sat and listened for a couple of minutes, and it was pretty funny, but I guess it kind of interested me how expressive the actress was for me without any visual.

The Crucible

I went and saw The Crucible over the weekend and I'm not gonna lie I was getting pretty antsy during it because it was kind of hard for me to stay interested when the scenery never changed adn there were hardly any props. The whole thing was very talky. However, I thought that most of the actors were phenomenal. The lack of props really forced the actors to step it up and I think that most of all Mark Leach as John Proctor was great. I was so impressed with him, and with the fact that he is a freshman, not to mention very quiet offstage. I agree with Renee that I noticed lots of stuff we've talked about in class. Like pouring drinks and drinking things that were probably not really there and like staying in character until you're completely done even when you're only in the background.

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.