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!
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