Seussical! The Musical!

For the past three months, a classmate and I have been working together to put together our piece for the annual Fullerton College Theatre Festival. Since my classmate and I have a huge passion for musical theatre, we obviously registered under the 10 minute musical theatre category. We are going in with a 10 minute compilation of Seussical! The Musical! (Yeah. THE Dr. Seuss.)

Since it's our last year at IPoly, we really wanted to make sure we shone at our final Fullerton performance. In this case, we decided to base our 10 minute piece on the story of Mayzie and Gertrude.

Our song choices include:
1. Oh the Thinks You Can Think
2. The One Feather Tail of Miss Gertrude McFuzz
3. Amayzing Mayzie
4. Amazing Gertrude

The opening song sets the mood for the entire piece. It talks about imagination and that a single "think" can create absolutely anything. This leads straight into the next song which begins the story where Gertrude McFuzz is unsatisfied with her small tail because it won't attract Horton the Elephant (who she is attracted to). The next song talks about Mayzie, a bird with extremely elegant and big feathers who says she used to be like Gertrude, but with a couple of pills from Doctor Dake, she grew a marvelous tail. The last song has to do with Gertrude going to Doctor Dake, getting the pills, and finally getting the huge tail she desires.

Although it seems like story about a girl changing herself for a man, we like to think that the theme is more about imagination and that anything can happen. We really hope to get into finals, or at least receive high markings at the competition.

Lesson 2 Reflection

1. What are you most proud of in your Lesson 2 Presentation and why?

• I really thought that my activity was a lot of fun for people to do and watch afterwards. It also helped them grasp the idea of what the Stanislavki Method consists of.

2a. What assessment would you give yourself on your Lesson 2 Presentation?

• P

2b. Explain why you think you deserve that grade using evidence from the Lesson 2 component contract.

• I believe that I met all the basic requirements for the P grade according to the contract. From my perspective, I think that my presentation was good, but it wasn't AE worthy.

3. What worked for you in your Lesson 2?

• My organization and power point worked very well. I think that the power point really helps when trying to get all the content down, and it also helps the audience as a visual aid.

4. What didn't work? If you had a time machine, what would you have done differently to improve your Lesson 2?

• My biggest problem was stress/nerves. Whenever I get really nervous I tend to speed through things and pass over content which really hurts my presentation. I would improve my presentation by most likely just rehearsing it more.

5.What do you think your answer #2 is going to be?

• My answer will probably be another character building method. I'm not entirely sure WHICH one yet because there are so many to choose from and it's a big decision to make.

Blog 12 - Mentorship 10 Hours Check

1. Where are you doing your mentorship?

• With Julian White at CalPoly Pomona. I haven't been able to mentor ever since October because I have been extremely busy with the school play (my independent component). Now that we've returned from break, I should be less busy and be able to finish my final hours of mentorship.

2. Who is your contact?

• Julian White

3. How many total hours have you done?

• 40

4. Summarize the 10 hours of service you did.

• I was basically the intern for Southern California Shakespeare's production of Julius Caesar. Since I was the intern, I was allowed to watch and I helped around with many aspects within the theatre. I helped stage managers, actors, stage crew, ushers, and house managers. It was an amazing experience that taught me a lot. I also met some amazing people that gave me great advice for my acting future and career.

Blog 11 - Holiday Project Update

1. It is important to consistently work on your senior project, whether it is break or we are in school. What did you do over the break with your senior project?

• This winter break I went to Orlando, Florida to live my dream of visiting Walt Disney World and Universal Studios Orlando as a graduation present for me from my parents. We were gone all 2 weeks of break and didn't return until the night of January 4. In this case, I wasn't able to do anything that requires work. Even if I was able to, my mentor was on winter break so I wasn't able to ask him for any sort of mentorship work. However, both theme parks I went to allowed me to watch extremely well put on shows and parades (yes they have acting) that had amazing acting, singing, dancing, movement, stunts, tech, and so much more. I was able to learn a lot about acting and the business in theme parks. Here are the shows I watched in the parks over break:
• Walt Disney World
• Dream Along with Mickey
• Mickey's Once Upon a Christmastime Parade
• Disney's Main Street Electrical Parade
• Journey of the Little Mermaid
• Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular
• Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage
• Fantasmic!
• Festival of the Lion King
• Finding Nemo the Musical
• Universal Studios Orlando
• A Grinchmas Spectacular
• The Tales of Beedle the Bard
• Not only do shows require acting, but so do characters in character meet and greets throughout the parks. This is especially challenging because everything is unexpected. Doing this requires a huge amount of improv and ability to stay in character at all times. On this trip, I had two of the greatest character meet and greets with Tarzan and Gaston. They were two amazing actors who always stayed in character and were a lot of fun to talk to. Here are some pictures:

2. What was the most important thing you learned from what you did, and why? What was the source of what you learned?

• One of the most important things I learned from this experience us that working in a theme park as an actor/actress is a really good idea. Being able to perform daily in front of big audiences is one of the greatest things an actor can ask for. (I wouldn't exactly mind working as a performer for Disney). I think this information is extremely important for any actor who is looking for a career in this field. Not only did I realize this while watching these performances, but I had also read an article where it stated that theme park performing is one of the best jobs an actor can have.

3. If you were going to do a 10 question interview on questions related to answers for your EQ, who would you talk to and why?

• I would most likely talk to a working actor or director because they would have the most knowledge and would currently be using their own methods that can provide me the answers to my essential question.