Performance Log#2

10.31 Monday:

Today is the first day for all of us to run through our scene. Because we only had 45 minutes, I and Yichen had to run through our scene tomorrow. It is good to see other people’ scene and write some comments, I learned many things from my classmates.

In China, people says that “The person on the spot is baffled, the onlooker sees clear.” There are a lot of things that I don't know as an actor, but I can know by doing an audience's. For example, when I looked the Daniel and Gianna’ Scene, I noticed that they are too far away from each other. Even though there is a distance between Romeo and Juliet, but when the actors are too far away, it is hard to show they are in love. Also, when Dilyara and Giovanna were acting, they showed their characters’ emotion very well. When Giovanna, who act Juliet, was waiting for Nurse coming back. Her legs were shaking. I naturally understand that she is nervous. Giovanna brought her into her character very well. But the waiting scene goes a little too fast, there can be longer waiting time to show Juliet’s emotion. I know about timing is very important in acting. It is better to slow down our speed for the audience to understand the lines better.

After looking at all my classmate’s scenes, I know acting on stage is not just acting, there are things like staging, blocking and much more for actors to think about.

11.1 Tuesday

Today I and Yichen run through our scene in front of our class. It is a very new experience for me. The performance was not really good, but I know there are many things I can improve.

I was very nervous during the performance. It was fine at the beginning when I still remember to take a breath between the lines. But when there are more lines to say, I got nervous so I spoke the lines quickly and wrongly. I was prepared enough for the performance so I was very nervous and made many mistakes. To actually act in front of many people t is a lot different than what I imaged. Lines should be the least problem that I worried about, but I still struggled with my lines. I must practice my lines more.

From the other side, it is very good to hear comments from my classmates and teacher. Ms. Guarino tells me about to record my lines and listen to them. This will be very helpful for me to practice my lines. Also, it is very important to slow down the speed during acting. It is the same as Dilyara and Giovanna yesterday. I think the reason why I go too fast is still because of I am not prepared for the acting. But it is really good to know about these things that I can improve in the future. Furthermore, it is good to hear comments like “James has really good intonation”, “Yichen has many nice body languages and movements”. These gave me a lot confident to do a better job. Also, it is good to hear that our blocking and staging is good because both I and Yichen spend a lot of time in planning them.

There are many things that people can only understand after they failed. I know there are many things can be better from today’s performance. After all, it is my very first time to act in front of many people. It is a very good experience for me.

11.3 Thursday

After Tuesday’s performance, both me and Yichen decide to practice more on our lines today.

Because I still have the problem speaking lines and we are going to have a memorizing quiz tomorrow, lines are the most important things for us today. So I and Yichen first read through our lines several times. We also listen from audio book to know about how to pronounce them. Then we practice speaking lines. The result is both of us say lines much better than yesterday. Because of yesterday's run through, we know more about the lines and know which part of the lines are difficult for us to say. Then we tried to memorize the lines. It is not very hard for us to memorized them  because we already speak the lines much time. At the end of the day, I and Yichen did a practice acting. Both of us act out the first half of the scene without looking to our script. We are very happy about our improvement.

I find out myself more and more enjoy in not only acting, but also preparing to act. I look forward to performing much better in the future.