Last week we were assigned a costume design project for Shakespear's play Romeo and Juliet. I knew that I wanted to set the play during a significant conflict, so I immediately considered the idea of setting it during a war. I decided that the 1960s in Vietnam would be a reasonable period for the setting of my project. I decided to focus on the Vietnam War as my conflict, making Juliet being Vietnamese, and Romeo being American. The conflict I chose works for my project since the Montagues and the Capulets are in opposition. This setting would fit the project because I could easily set up the Capulets and Montagues as two parties who disagreed with one another (because of the war). Additionally, I believe that this setting makes it easy to use costumes to distinguish a visual difference between the two families. I think that I could accomplish this by designing the Capulet's clothing based on Vietnamese fashion from the time. I considered the possibility of putting Romeo's friends in U.S. soldier costumes. Since I knew I would be designing the outfits, I wanted to choose an era and place where I could get a substantial amount of photos for reference, and I also clothing that personally excited me. I was inspired considerably by images I came across while I was researching Vietnamese fashion from the 60s, which compelled me, even more, to set the play during this period. I look forward to sketching out ideas based on the fascinating images from my research.
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Today in class we played the improv game "emotion party". We've played this game before but this time we had every member of the class participate in one "party." Because of the increase in guests, each person had to go through many different emotion changes. I was the second guest to enter so I got to experience most of the different waves of emotion. Doing this exercise is really fun for me because it's entertaining. It also gives me a feeling of freedom in way. I felt like I could be safe in my decisions as long as I fit the emotion, which in turn resulted in me talking more and moving the conversations forward. This time we played it there was a bit of a storyline that came up, characters and events were mentioned multiple times and this made it feel fun almost as if I was immersed in a story or world. The 'quiet-gossiping' mood was one of the most entertaining for me. Somehow I picked up the personality trait of being engaged, which came up multiple times through the game. Having something like that to rely on for conversation starters made it easier in way and it also helped me develop a half-baked character of sorts. As guests left and we had to rewind back through all the emotions that had happened, we got the chance to add things/say things that may have gotten cut off the last emotion. It also, for me at least, developed my one-dimensional half "character" further. After establishing it in the first half I was able to put it through the different emotions while all in all staying as the same person. Going back through them made the whole thing feel like it drew to a more natural conclusion. As we cycled back through the "I'm engaged" mood the energy, and volume, went up. Then the "I'm the greatest" mood continued this positive mood but to a less frantic degree. Finally the "I hope someone comes to my party" mood ended off the scene with a somber, slower note. The silence that came with the final emotion I think did a good job in ending the scene without feeling abrupt or unnatural.
The first game we played was "I, You, We." The things I enjoyed about this game was that there was a structure to it.The fact that each person's statement had to start with a certain word was very limiting but also very reassuring. It gave me something to work off of, but sometimes the dialogues would end up being sort of repetitive. When different ways of creating a character were introduced it made the dialogues more interesting and dynamic. It was a little difficult for me to respond on the spot, but I think that games like these are improving my ability to do that. I didn't particularly enjoy how short the dialogues were because it felt very limiting, but I think that it made sense for the activity.
The second game we played was "Instant Character." I liked how we defined certain aspects of a character because it was helpful in teaching me how to quickly develop a character. I didn't really enjoy the structure of this game though because it felt like it took such a long time to get to the actual acting out of the character, and when it did get to that part it didn't last very long. I just wish that there had been more acting as the character in the game, but I still think the activity was effective in learning to build characters. Our theatre class only met twice this week. On Monday we played the game moose and the announcer game. I enjoyed the announcer game. In the announcer game, one pair of people acts as the announcers, and the other couple of people get to pantomime a scene. This game was entertaining because of how different it was each time. Just watching the game, it was interesting to see what scene the pantomimes would come up with, and how the announcers would describe it. It was also interesting participating in the game because of the dynamic between the announcers and the pantomimers. For example, the first time I was the pantomimer, I was more in control of the situation, but the second time, the announcers shaped the scene more. Even though that might not have been the intention of the exercise, it was very interesting to work around the things that the announcers were saying.
On Thursday, we played a game, of which the name escapes me. Two people would improvise a scene, and then whenever the audience called for it, one of them would pick up a card. The cards were statements or questions that we had written beforehand. I enjoyed playing this game because it forced me to go out of my comfort zone and improvise, but it also offered some guidance with the cards. The cards also made each scene very entertaining because of the way they took the scene in so many directions. This week during the theatre class we continued to play a variety of theatre games. To warm-up, we played simpler games like “stop-go jump” which was really just to get us comfortable and woken up again. Some games were more focused on active listening/watching such as “Quick-change” where one person would leave the circle, change 3 things about their appearance and then come back and have the group try to guess the differences. The “Twin interview” also focused a lot on active listening and watching but it additionally had elements of more talking and acting. We played conductor and Television channels, which are similar in structure. In a conductor, 5 people would line up and when pointed to by a ‘conductor’ they would say one sentence to create a story. This game was really interesting for me because the stories would get pulled in different directions by each persons’ sentence and then the group would have to adapt and build off of it. The Television channel game was less of a team effort, but still entertaining. One person would point to one of the 3 people. Of those three people, each of them had to act as if they were a part of a certain television channel. (eg. sports channel, news channel, soap opera etc.) Multiple games were based on expressing emotion, such as “slow-motion emotion” and “Emotion party” which we played again this week. But my favorite “games” that we played this week were the “Scene from a photo” and “Scene from real life” activities. In the scene from a photo activity, I was an actor. My director made some interesting choices based upon the image of a snowy scene that we were given. We ended up going with some Christmas themed scene which was very entertaining. The parameters we were given made improvising a scene very, interesting you could say. My director definitely had a clear vision of the scene so it was interesting to just follow along with what she wanted us to do. In the other activity, a scene from real life, I got to be the director. It was interesting to see how the actors improvised a scene based off of the story that I told. It was very entertaining to watch how they interpreted the characters, especially because some of the actors knew the characters in the story. This week we continued to play theatre games, but we started to transition to games that involved more speaking and bold decisions. My favorite game that we played this week was the "emotion party" game. In this game, the host would start by setting up the party while acting with a specific mood. Then when each guest came in the host, and any other guests who had arrived would switch their emotion to match the one of the person entering. I enjoyed this game because it allowed me to make choices which would change the course of the scene. It also allowed me to follow the flow of other people's decisions. Playing this game showed me how to build off of other people's emotions and actions as a way to extend the scene. Besides the game being an eye-opening experience, it was also just an enjoyable game. It let me feel like I was playing, which always seems like a good thing to me, and it was also one of the most entertaining of the games to watch. Another one of the games we played was a superhero game. This game was similar to the last game I mentioned in that each person enters one by one. The first person 'on-stage' is given a superhero name and some problem that they need to solve. When each person comes, the person who entered before them has to provide them with a superhero name and then they have to try to help solve the problem. In the end, each person has to come up with some specific reason why they need to leave. This game was especially fun for me because as each person entered, they would take the scene and move it in some other direction. This exercise was good for me because it helped me let go and get more comfortable with adapting to the scene and making changes on the spot.
After this week, I realize that I need to work on not breaking. I have a serious problem where I'll start laughing at everything, it may have been just an off week, but I want to stay aware of it as we move on. I think I might be laughing as a way to 'protect myself' because I don't want to commit to the scene, but I need to remind myself that this is a safe environment and the whole purpose of these games is to commit to the scenes. I think I'll also enjoy the activities a lot more if I can feel able to completely immerse myself in some ridiculous character or story for just a short while. This week we played a variety of different theatre and improv games. The purpose of these games was to build trust within the group, and I feel like it worked. Participating in the games forced me to push myself outside of my comfort zone. I was able to do this in a risk-free and fun environment. I never felt like I was being judged by the group, which helped me enjoy the class and be present during the games. I think my positive experience was aided by how we all were going through the exercises together. It felt like everybody was participating and collaborating throughout the games.
Certain games made me feel like we, as a group, were getting on the same page and working together. The "I'm going to grandma's house" game is an example of this. We had to listen to what other people were saying actively and then repeat what they had said. When we played One Word Story, the group had to collaborate and work together to create a cohesive story, which also helped create a sort of bond. The monster game, where we had to all act as one monster, also added the feeling of teamwork in the group. Since all of us were acting ridiculous together, I didn't have to feel embarrassed, but I could focus on the objective of the game and having fun. The games that included more individual participation and decision making, like "park bench," were slightly more difficult and uncomfortable for me. However, by that time, I felt comfortable with the class and was able to work past those obstacles. I felt supported during the games, which I'm grateful for because it allowed me to enjoy the experience. The present game, which was entirely pantomiming, was also exciting to me because I had to communicate something solely with my motions rather than words. The experience of playing these improv games left two main lessons with me. The first of which was that it's okay to just decision and roll with it, there is no wrong decision in improv. The second thing I learned was that I don't need to be afraid. This kind of ties into the first point, but I realize that there is no wrong answer and it's best to make choices and follow them through with confidence. As my mother always says, "Be Bold!" |
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March 2020
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