1.You took a children’s book and collaborated to ‘dramatize it’ – make it theatrical – for a specific audience. DISCUSS your role in the development process: What did you contribute? How did you collaborate with your ensemble? What were some successes of that collaboration? 

my role in contributing to create this task was by suggesting movement ideas, dividing the lines, and taking in ideas my peers suggest. When my group was dramatizing the story book, we had challenged because every class we had one member missing. It made it hard for us to communicate and make large progress in class. However, when we were creating this piece I contributed by giving suggestions of what actions my peers can do. For example, the monster could stay on one side of the kid then the other side when the kids turns its face. I also contributed by listening to my peer’s suggestions and taking that to make my role more developed in character. As an ensemble everyone contributed to this piece. We all made suggestions and took in the suggestion to make it a better piece.

2. You performed it for the ES kids: DISCUSS your experience as a performer in this piece: What do you think and feel about your performance and performing for an audience? What new insights did you gain (yourself, theatre, audiences, performances, etc) through this experience?

when I was performing I could see the kid’s face and they had no expression (especially because they had masks on) and it made me feel a little anxious because I was worried that they weren’t enjoying what we were doing. We expected there to be a larger reaction, however, there weren’t many reactions. After the performance I thought “maybe it wasn’t entertaining” but I also thought ” we did the best we could” Overall, I thought my group did pretty well but I also realized it could sometimes be difficult to please the audience and not everything turns out the way you want it to.

3. You reflected as an ensemble (whole group) in the studio afterwards: DISCUSS what new learning or understanding about theatre or the process of creating this piece you gained. What do you now KNOW or UNDERSTAND that you didn’t before?

I realized it was very important to utilize the location you are performing in, and it takes a lot of practice to get used to an abnormal stage. My group definitely didn’t get as much time as the other groups to practice as a whole group. The location where we performed was unique and I wasn’t used to the set up. We also didn’t practice in the location many times, which made it difficult for my group to utilize the location and run the act smoothly. After the performance I know that sometimes you can’t control the audience’s reaction. I also know that it takes a lot of time and effort to create a performance in an unusual, new location.

4. CREATE 3 BULLET POINTS.These are instructions that you could use as a guide if you were to do this type of task again.

–communicate with your teammates and plan what you will do each class

– work efficiently don’t waste time

– practice, practice, practice!