Oral Presentation Reflection

The oral presentation is a hard challenge for me, I have a lot of pressure but also excited about talking my performance experiences. I am proud of myself that I finish a beautiful performance. I know the oral presentation will be long and my speaking English is not good, so I prepared a lot for the presentation and tried to be claimed during the speaking.

Before the presentation, I listen to other people’s presentation and me, learn from them a lot. From those presentations, I understand the basic structure of the presentation and have a rough draft in my mind. Then I wrote out a draft and received several advices. After all of these, I start writing down important points from my presentation. I know that it will be hard to remember all those points during the presentation, and those note cards help me lot. During the presentation, I was nervous. I try to calm myself down, but just like during the performance, when something goes slightly wrong with my note card, I automatically want to restart. Sometimes, my pronunciation of some words goes wrong. Then I get more nervous. But thanks for the note cards, I know what I am going to say, which help to reduce my nervous.

For a brief moment, I find myself really enjoy the presentation, where give me a chance to talk about my work. I make a clear explanation of my actions, which is the main force of the presentation. I am glad that I remember to connect the lines from the original story to my presentation. Those examples provide good reasons for my actions on stage and make the presentation more believable.

This presentation gives a great chance to talk about my reflection to the performance, as well as think for the teachers and my classmates’ help during the performance. I also learn how to prepare for a presentation, that making note cards is such a great idea. In conclusion, this oral presentation I also a great experience for me to learn and improve.

Oral Presentation Draft

   Edwidge Danticat’s Krik? Krak! shows the difficulties of many Haitian faced in their lives. One of the challenges is about immigrants to or their country. As it is shown in the story Children of the Sea, a young boy is on a boat going to America, and the girl who he loves is staying in Haiti. Both of them imagine they have each other to talk with and to start writing letters to record their lives. (Intro)

The story deeply attracts me at the beginning. It is a very dramatic story with a lot of information that needs reader to explore beyond its surface. I see those illegal immigrants on the boats with the boy, all those people have their past, which forced them to leave their country. Considering the background of the story, when Haiti was under dictatorship. I understand that for those people, their lives in Haiti was hopeless, so they want a new life. So those brave people left their country to America, through the bad pass on the sea. From the boy's’ letter, the writer describes the actions of the boy, the story of some passengers, and how the boy think in his mind. These expressive the despite those illegal immigrants without saying directly, which bring me more impressions. The story also tells about the other people who stayed in Haiti through the girl. The girl witness how to crush the dictatorship brought the country into. She saw the violence of the solder wand the powerless of ordinary people like her. Staying or leaving is always a hard question for those people, the story shows the two different kinds of chose to express the hard condition for Haiti. This impressive me a lot, and I feel confident to adapt this story into a performance. (Summary of original story)

This story Children of the Sea has great concept inside, but my partner and I do not satisfied with only performing it. We decide to change the setting of the story from Haiti to North Korea and let the character grows up. We want to present a different story that has its highlights to interest audiences. The concept of Haiti and North Korea is very similar, which both of the countries were under dictatorship and its people were struggled to decide leave of stay. Changing the setting to North Korea also let our story seems more interesting to play. I act the role of the boy, who grows up, married with the girl become a father. The second main point of our performance will be how the character extends from the origin story. It is interesting to continue the story and bring new views to the original story. (Summary of the adaptation)

In the performance, I use my expressing in the school threaten to create the stage, blocking and the lights. We use pictures and background Music to help to tell the settings. For example, the King Zen-un’s picture, the national song of North Korea. Moreover, I use two spot lights to force the character when they are writing their letters. The letters with the spot lights create the finest expression that I looked for. It fits with the story and brings audiences into the deeper level of the character's mind. (Setting, blocking for performance)

The final performance goes on smoothly. My partner and I were familiar with the story and knew what we should do on stage. But I was nervous on the stage and forget lines very often. So I force on remembering the lines more than living as the character on stage. I notice that there are moments that my character breaks up on the stage. But one thing that I am very proud of myself is there was a whole line that I forget, but I push myself to say some words that my character would say. Like “this is for her to have a better life” and let the conversation continues. It is a great save in my mind, and I find the moment the most successful as acting the character on stage. (Value the final performance)

It is a very meaningful experience for me. I learn a lot throughout the princess, and I enjoy the time I have with my partner and all my classmate in the theater. There is a long way to go to reach professional acting; I am glad that I try my best to bring out an excellent performance.(Conclusion)

Reflection on IA

   In the performance, I and my partner Marinda adapted the story Children of the Sea from Edwidge Danticat’s novel Krik? Krak!  The whole production was done in nearly a month by us. We made out the scripts, decide about the setting, lighting cues, sounds effects, props and blocking. To make a performance from beginning to the end is an unforgettable experience and I enjoy it a lot. In this performance, the story shows its unique and interesting, the setting fits with the story very well and my acting achieves the basic requirements for the story, but it still needs many improvements in lines and expressions.

   Firstly, a good story is the basis of every good production, so in my group, we spend a lot of time in making our story. I like to performing a unique story that different from other groups, which will be more interesting for people to see. So we change a lot of detail setting in our story. For example, we change the place from Haiti to North Korea and set the boy and the girl becomes father and mother, who wanted to escape to South Korea to see their daughter. North Korea is very similar to Haiti since they both are under a dictatorship and people are suffering. And the characters Father and Mother show the extension of the Boy and Girl from the original story. In this way, our story is not simply copied the story from the book and perform it. Our story has all those new contacts and can attractive people.

Secondly, the setting like props, lights, and sounds help us to create the world we want, then the audience can understand our story better. Many feedbacks from my classmates tell me that even though our story seems interesting, it is hard to understand. So in our final performance, I print out the flags of North Korea and South Korea, as well as a picture of Kim Jong-un. The flags can help to show the places of the scene, and the Kim Jong-un's picture can attractive audience’ attention very well. Then we also add the national song of North Korea and South Korea during scene changes. All these can help to explain the story better. Furthermore, I use my experience in our school theater as a light designer in creating lights cues for our scene. For the first scene, where it is in characters’ home at North Korea, I use darker lights in a small area to show the depressed of North Korea. During the second scene, when the father and mother read their letters, I use spot lights forced on them. The spotlights really make the scene look beautiful that it show the lonely of the characters when they are escaping and the emotions.

Lastly, acting is the center of the performance. We know there is less action in our story because we force on monologs, so we add the first scene when the father and mother can have more interactions. For example, actions like waving my arms, drinking teas, and moving my body forwards. I try to not just sit in the chair and say the lines, so I do those actions pairs with the lines. I also add some actions during the monolog. I sit on the bench at the first letter, then I stand up, and sit down on the ground lastly. Those positions match up with the emotion of my character and help me to create my character clearly. After all, the title acting of this performance goes smoothly and pass the basic requirements for the story.

But I still need to work on the action parts more. I did not get used to on stage, so I was very nervous during the final performance. Then I could not speak out my lines clearly and loudly. Also, I did not remember my lines perfectly, so sometimes I have to pause and remember the lines. More importantly, even though I add more actions, there are still many awkward moments in the performance when there are no actions of the character. I set myself free a little during this performance, but it is not enough to become the character itself. I think this will make my performance less emotion and harder to impress audiences. Acting more freely with more emotion will be my next goal in performance.

In conclusion, I am glad that the overall performance went smoothly and tell the story, and I will keep working on my acting to show a more real character on stage. The progress of making this performance is such a great memory of me and I am so happy that I can help with my classmates in their performance as a light designer. It is a great high school memory!