Blog 23 - Senior Project Reflection

Positive Statement

• What are you most proud of in your block presentation and/or your senior project?
• I'm extremely proud of the examples I used throughout my presentation. My subject wasn't the easiest to grasp but the examples really helped enhance my presentations understandability. However, I am also overall proud of how my entire presentation and project went as a whole because it was almost flawless in a sense that I enjoyed doing it, I did all the work I was required to do well, and it all tied together with an amazing presentation.

Questions to Consider

• What assessment would you give yourself on your block presentation?
• AE
• What assessment would you give yourself on your overall senior project?
• P+/AE

What Worked

• What worked for you in your senior project?
• I think my independent components really helped me test out my different answers. They let me explore theatre acting first-hand. The other thing that worked for me was my second mentorship. My mentor Chip Healy allowed me to direct an act of their play which was an amazing opportunity. This mentorship let me implement my knowledge I've gathered throughout the year into the act I was directing. These two things helped me gain experience within my topic and helped me justify my answers.

What Didn't Work

• If you had a time machine, what would you have done differently to improve your senior project if you could go back in time?
• I would've been more impulsive to find another mentor after I lost contact with my first one. Not having a mentor for a while greatly affected my ability to get answers and more information on my topic. If I would've found another mentor right away, this would've been avoided.

Finding Value

• How has the senior project been helpful to you in your future endeavors?
• My senior project topic specifically allowed me to learn a lot about the profession I intend to go into. Although researching the character building methods that my EQ was based on, I also learned a lot about the business of theatre which is extremely important to know. The book "Acting is Believing" by Charles McGaw helped me learn about the theatre business and why it is so important. Besides my research giving me more knowledge on my topic, my second mentor, Chip Healy, was a huge help for getting me to get more experience within theatre. Even if the time I spent with him was short, he provided me with opportunities and encouragement that have driven me even more to pursue my career within theatre.

Blog 22 - Mentorship

Literal

• My mentorship hours log can be found by clicking here, or clicking on the link that says "Senior Project Hours Log" on the right had side of my blog.
• Mentorship Information
• Julian White
• CalPoly Pomona
• Chip Healy
• South El Monte High School

Interpretive

• What is the most important thing you gained from this experience? Why?
• I believed that the most important thing I gained from this experience was the overall knowledge on my topic. This is because my mentors provided me with information I may have never found out about on my own. Since my mentors were very experienced, they not only taught me about the meaning and importance of character building (which is what my entire senior project is based on), but they also taught me that acting is a business, not just entertainment. They taught me that actors must be able to be skilled in many things within theatre, dance, music, and especially business and economics. This knowledge that they have provided me will be able to help me in the future when I am trying to pursue my career in acting, which is incredibly valuable to me.
• Here are some pictures from my first mentorship with Julian White:

• Here is the only picture I was able to take in my mentorship with Chip Healy:

Applied

• How has what you've done helped you to answer your EQ? Explain.
• No matter what I was watching or directing within both of my mentorships, the ideas of character were always there. My mentors stressed to me the importance that a performance is nothing without the realistic characters. While doing things such as directing act 2 of La Casa de Bernarda Alba, I was able to work with the cast in order to perfect their character. With Julius Caesar, I was able to watch professional actors in person to see how they do their character building process. Everywhere I went, character was there. However, having to pick a specific character building method was difficult, until I noticed that within both mentorships, the cast would always begin with the psychology of a character. This showed me that the most important part of character building is the psychology, making the Stanislavski Method my best answer for its in-depth work on the inside of a character.

Exit Interview

1. What is your essential question and what are your answers? What is your best answer and why?

• EQ
• What is the most effective method a theatre actress can use in order to best build her character?
• Answers
• The most effective method a theatre actress can use in order to best build her character is the Stanislavski Method.
• The most effective method a theatre actress can use in order to best build her character is the Meisner Technique.
• The most effective method a theatre actress can use in order to best build her character is the Chekhov Technique.
• Best Answer
• My best answer is the Stanislavski Method because it is the only method that really goes in-depth with the psychological characteristics of the character the actor is supposed to portray. The psychology of the actor's character is one of the most important parts of character to build because it is what's going to create the realism the actor needs to fulfill the purpose of theatre. The psychology will then lead on to creating real actions, mannerisms, and connections.

2. What process did you take to arrive at this answer?

• The process was very simple, I took the knowledge I knew from my past experience and independent components, the knowledge I had from my mentors, and the information I got from my research, I can to the conclusion that what really creates realism in acting is the psychological characteristics of the character. Without the psychology of the character, the character would a cliché which is unappealing to audiences.

3. What problems did you face? How did you resolve them?

• I only had one problem I had to overcome. The first was that I had a mentor from July-October. After that, he didn't have anything for me to do and he would hardly ever reply to my emails. Luckily from August-October I was able to fit in 48 hours of mentorship. To fix this issue, I had to find a new mentor. I asked my dad if he knew anyone that could help me, and he introduced me to his co-worker Chip Healy, the drama teacher/director at South El Monte High School. Mr. Healy is an amazing and encouraging mentor. He has taught me so much about my topic and encourages me to start getting into the business.

4. What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?

• One of my most useful sources was my mentor Chip Healy. He talked a lot to me about what makes theatre and acting so meaningful and important. He gave me many tips on character building and his take on the methods I decided to use. A lot of the information he gave me during Interview 4 was about important aspects when character building, leading me to picking my best answer.
• The other source that was significant was actually three different books written by Constantin Stanislavski. An Actor Prepares, Building Character, and Creating a Role, all gave me in-depth information on the Stanislavski Method while explaining how it fulfills the meaning of theatre. They helped me because they had everything I needed to know about the method and provided valid reasons as to why it works so effectively, helping me choose it as my best answer.

Independent Component 2

Literal

• A
• I, Iliana Solorzano, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 70 hours of work.
• B
• Sharma, Shaan. "12 Steps to Consistently Brilliant Performances, Part 1." Backstage.com. 5 Nov. 2014. Web. 12 Nov. 2014.
• Sharma, Shaan. "12 Steps to Consistently Brilliant Performances, Part 2." Backstage.com. 5 Nov. 2014. Web. 12 Nov. 2014.
• Sharma, Shaan. "12 Steps to Consistently Brilliant Performances, Part 3." Backstage.com. 5 Nov. 2014. Web. 12 Nov. 2014.
• Tobolowsky, Stephen. "5 Simple Questions to Create a Performance." Backstage.com. 28 Nov. 2014. Web. 11 Jan. 2015.
• Wallace, Craig. "How to Fully Embody a Role." Backstage.com. 25 Mar. 2015. Web. 26 Mar. 2015.
• C
• To see my Senior Project Hours Log, click here, or click on the link that says "Senior Project Hours Log" on the right hand side of my blog. My independent component 2 hours will be at the bottom of the spreadsheet.
• D
• My independent component 2 consisted of putting together, directing, and performing, in a 10 minute performance of Seussical! The Musical in order to perform it for the Fullerton College High School Theatre Festival in March. We had a cast of 14 and it was one of the most amazing performances IPoly has had in a while. I am extremely proud of the entire cast and of the amazing scores we received on the days of the competition.

Interpretive

• My strongest evidence was the night we performed at Fullerton Pre-Show. There, with the rest of the drama club going to the competition, performed our competitive pieces to which received great audience reactions. I also have photos from the pre-show and a couple of other pictures from the competition. There's also a video, sadly it doesn't include the opening number.

• One of the significant parts of my independent component was the first time we put everyone into costume. It was the first time that my classmate and I had done any sort of costuming and it was a really fun experience to go shopping for costumes and putting them all together. Another highlight was when we finally put together all of our songs and kept rehearsing the entire number. It was an amazing feeling to finally have the piece finished and looking so amazing. The final highlight was from the second day of the competition. Our CD for the music wasn't working the first day so we were prepared to use our extra speaker. We had no problems performing and we put on a really great performance. However, on the second day, we were prepared to use our extra speaker but apparently that was against the rules. They allowed us to perform and get judge's notes but not be ranked. We were all extremely disappointed and furious at the ridiculous rule, but we had our best performance nonetheless. After the performance, we received our scores. I could not be more proud of the almost perfect scores we received. In all honesty, if we weren't disqualified, we probably would have made it to finals. I'm so proud of my cast and I hope the festival changes their backwards rule so no incident like this ever happens again. The competition is based on our performance. Not if our music works or not.

Applied

• This independent component helped me answer my EQ because I had to get in touch with my character Gertrude. I tried to implement some of the methods I learned about and it really worked. I felt as if I really connected with my character because we had a lot of the same qualities and experiences, allowing me to portray Gertrude more realistically. One example is where we had to explain to the cast that if they don't become their character onstage, the performance wouldn't be as great as it could be. After we told them that, their characters really stood out and made the performance bigger. I really felt as if I became Gertrude, meaning that the character building methods really worked and made the performances more fun and realistic.

New Mentorship!

After not having talked to my original mentor since October, I have finally found a new mentor who is extremely happy to have me working with him! My new mentor is Chip Healy. He's a math teacher and the drama teacher at South El Monte High School. I found him through my dad who works in the same school. I had told him about my troubles with my mentorship and he directed me to Mr. Healy.

What Mr. Healy allowed for me to help out with was something really big. He is giving me the opportunity to direct act 2 of their play, La Casa de Bernarda Alba. He wants act 2 to be reader's theatre instead of actually performing the scenes. This means that the actors sit down and read off of their scripts in-character. However, this has been proving to be difficult because this play wasn't meant for reader's theatre. I hope to try and create something in which I can make the act look the least awkward possible. It's a challenge I am sure I can overcome.

Mr. Healy is truly a great mentor. During my interview 4, he gave me a lot of tips, stories, and information I can use for my final presentation. He's a really fun guy and I'm so thankful for the opportunity he is providing me.

The Drowsy Chaperone - Play Review

Every year after the Fullerton College High School Theatre Festival, the college invites us to watch their production at the time. Freshman year we watched Cabaret (which is absolutely amazing musical), sophomore year was Assassins, junior year was Noises Off, and this year we got to watch The Drowsy Chaperone. I wasn't exactly sure what to expect of this show because I had only vaguely heard of it. Even my drama teacher Mr. Hogan had no idea of what this play/musical was about. However, this was most likely the best show I've seen at Fullerton College. The Drowsy Chaperone was an amazing musical within a play that was extremely funny, full of all kinds of talent, and surprisingly dramatic.

A Bit of Background
The play begins with the main character, Man in Chair, beginning to talk to the audience about the theatre and how he hates it. He then goes on to explain how he loves to listen to musicals because it calms him down (he also hints at having mental problems and how he has to take medication). He puts on his favorite musical ("The Drowsy Chaperone") vinyl on his record player and throughout the musical numbers, guides us through what the musical is all about in a very comedic way. It's a rather bad musical, but the play goes on to its dark ending tying up all loose ends about the musical and the story of the Man in Chair.

Acting
Everyone's acting within the play was phenomenal. The cast was full of lively characters and everyone played them very well. However, the one who stood out to me was Man in Chair. This actor had a huge challenge to play a character that was altogether comedic and very sweet, but at the same time had to be very dark and portray a mental illness. His true emotion and realism is what caught my attention and he was overall an enjoyable character that had a really awesome bond with the audience.

Singing and Dancing
The three songs that stood out to me were "Show Off", "Toledo Surprise", and "I Am Adolpho". The other songs were amazing, but these songs stood our for their own specific reasons.

I love "Show Off" so much because of it's range and how well the actress sang the song. The choreography was also stunning and the entire song was a lot of fun to watch and it was really enjoyable.

"Toledo Surprise" was just a really weird song. I loved the fun and silly essence the song gave off. Plus, it's two lovable gang members started it off with a really fun twist. Its choreography was amazing and that's what really made it stand out.

"I Am Adolpho" was a very strange thing to hear in a Broadway piece, especially because the song is very latin. The actor portrayed this character extremely well and overall, the performance was technically stunning and visually appealing (and also very fun to listen to).

The only dancing that stood out to me was during one of the songs where the husband-to-be and his best man tap dance. Tap dancing is extremely difficult. Especially when you are tap dancing and singing at the same time. This scene was incredibly impressive and this really caught my attention. Who doesn't love a tap dancing singer and actor right?

Technical (Lighting, Sound, Set, and Costume Design)
Not being tech savvy, I can't really comment on how the lighting or sound impressed me. However, the set was very well done and extremely effective. It was interesting to see how they changed the same set to different settings of the musical. The costumes were true to the intended time and looked really well on stage.

In Conclusion
I loved this show. Every aspect about it was amazing and I'm glad that this was my final Fullerton College show before I graduate.

Fourth Interview Questions

1. What makes someone's character real?

2. What makes someone's character enjoyable?

3. What is your opinion on the Chekhov technique?

4. Should an actor memorize their lines before building character? Or memorize lines after the character building process?

5. What are some important elements that an actor needs in order to be a "great" actor?

6. What is the most important resource during the character building stage?

7. How can an actor get rid of nerves before a show so the nerves don't conflict with their acting?

8. Do you think that recalling past emotions to create real emotions for one's character is effective? Why?

9. What should the director do if an actor is having troubles with character building?

10. What should an actor do if other actors are trying to make their character for them?

11. If you use it, what part of the Stanislavski Method do you believe gives the most help to build character? Why?

12. Who can an actor look to for help when having trouble developing character?

13. What do you believe makes a good production?

14. Which acting technique do you think is best for a beginner actor?

15. When should an actor begin to use their imagination to build onto their character?

16. Can improvisation be used to help build character? If so, how?

17. What is the best way to memorize lines when performing Shakespeare?

18. How can one more easily understand Shakespeare to be able to build character?

19. What are some important parts of line delivery that an actor should always be aware of?

20. Should an actor connect closely with their character? Why?