Jess's Dramatic Arts Blog

During yet another monologue performance, I have learned a lot. I practiced more than my other monologue before this one, and I really tried to get it right. This monologue was special, though, because we got to choose our own songs to make into a monologue. I chose the song, “Fix You” by Coldplay, and I think that made my performance a little more meaningful because this song means a lot to me. I would say that one of my strengths were showing emotion. When my peers sent emails to give me tips when I performed one draft for them, I got a couple saying that I really acted as though I were sad. Although I did try to show some other emotions like frustration and exhaustion, I think this part of my sonologue was pretty good. One weakness I had in my final draft would be not really knowing where to walk and what to do with my hands. I got some advice from the class, but I don’t think I totally nailed it in the end. I do, though, think I did pretty well with my other blocking, like showi...

Today in Dramatic Arts class, we worked on practicing and improving our sonologues. With my partner, we worked on our blocking a lot, and how we were going to show somethings we wanted to express. While we were working on this, I think I made a little progress on memorizing, and where I was going to walk- so blocking. For next week, I think I still need to work on blocking, especially how I’m going to show my words, and where to keep my hands.

My character is a female. She’s around average height. She has black wavy hair. She’s in high school, and she’s around 16-17 years old. She has a small family, but they’re not really close. She’s afraid about how her friends think of her. It’s around present time(2018), and it’s winter. Time is really significant because the time of day and the year impacts what people are doing at the moment, and how people act in that certain time period. My character lives in America in a suburb. The “scene” takes place in her room. It is a smaller room. My character is in her room. She has a bed in her room, and she has a mirror also in her room. . She has just gone through a break down recently, and she’s cut herself off from her friends. In the scene, she’s just in her room thinking about what has happened to her, then and before. It can be interpreted from the lyrics that she went through a tough breakup in the past. She is sure in the end that she will get through it,...

Title: Fix You by Coldplay "When you try your best but you don't succeed When you get what you want but not what you need When you feel so tired but you can't sleep Stuck in reverse When the tears come streaming down your face When you lose something you can't replace When you love someone but it goes to waste Could it be worse? Lights will guide you home And ignite your bones And I will try to fix you High up above or down below When you're too in love to let it go If you never try you'll never know Just what you're worth Lights will guide you home And ignite your bones And I will try to fix you Tears stream down your face When you lose something you cannot replace Tears stream down your face And I Tears stream down your face I promise you I will learn from all my mistakes Tears stream down your face And I Lights will guide you home And ignite your bones And I will try to fix you" Link to Music Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch...

Practicing and performing these mini-monologues was definitely a new experience for me. I learned how to memorize, not be scared to act in front of people, and most importantly for me, to not just blandly read off the paper. As I watched through my first draft recording, I think it’s obvious I'm not doing much acting. Basically, I just read off the paper in varying tones. I needed to fix that, and so I did. When I went home that first day, I tried practicing in a mirror. Using the feed-back I received, my monologue evolved. It was much better than before; I was showing emotion not only with my voice, but with my face. Lucky for me, I had already memorized the words I had to say, because it was a little shorter than everybody else’s. And when I watched back the Final draft, I thought I did pretty well, which I am proud of. Another major thing I learned about performing is that it takes many, many tries to get it right. When I came back to class on the day before we had to perfo...

In my opinion, theatre is something to appreciate. It’s apparent that it takes a lot of effort to invest a lot of your time into a theatre project. For people like me who have never performed or participated in a production yet, I think it’s necessary to acknowledge all the hard work done for your enjoyment, and theatre is a prime example of that. It’s great to immerse yourself in any form of art performance! For me, theatre(especially musicals), merge me into the story, so I feel like I am right there with the performers. Traveling to a city for a big Musical has a sort of adventure-like vibe that I love to do once in a while. All the strong emotions the actors and actresses portray really touch me. It’s probably one major reason why people keep coming back. To be so invested in what you do, and when it’s so apparent when you do it, gives me satisfaction to be there witnessing something so wonderful as a musical on Broadway. Whether it’s starring in a school play, watching a show...