Dekle 1 Sabrina Dekle Professor Kara Cantrell TPS 1107 8 December 2014 Personal Reflection Essay I ve always considered myself as one that can appreciate art in all forms, especially ’
theatre. However, prior to taking this class, my basis for that appreciation was only off of a few select plays read in grade school and one performance I attended live at the Shakespeare Tavern. I m happy I took this course because not only did we get to learn about plays and ’
musicals, we studied the historical conditions and people that led to theatre today, the impact of theatre on society, and the cultural aspects of such stories. The thing that surprises and impresses me most about theatre is the attention to detail. The amount of work and dedication that goes into a play goes beyond just actors memorizing lines for a particular story. The costume designer creates the character with their elaborate designs while keeping functionality in mind. The director goes line by line, scene by scene with the actors and the stage manager to perfect a natural fluidity to the script. Then theres several other designers and coordinators that make a single play possible! After learning about theatre in depth, I have a higher appreciation and respect for theatre as a form of art. The greatest challenge for me was not enjoying theatre but understanding it. Everything you can see and hear in a performance is meticulously planned out in order to invoke some type of emotion or thought process. The dialogue can be an obvious way to portray an idea but there are also many subtle cues that also effect the audience s mood. The lighting, music, sound, ’
costumes, set, and props all have a significant impact on how the performance will be perceived. It was challenging at first for me to put into perspective how all these elements of a performance translate into a message. What I learned is the message is for me, even though
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Dekle 2 there are other audience members. Art can be described as many things and being open to interpretation is one. Different people might feel similar things, but everyone will have a unique reaction due to their own personal experiences and will make connections that are true to their own lives. After learning more about different styles and approaches to performances, I overcame the challenge (more of fear) of not being able to understand the director s concept. I ’
can now identify and experience the feelings and thoughts the director intended while adding my own personal reflections, thus furthering my appreciation and enjoyment of a performance. Another reason I am happy I chose to take theatre is the performances we were required to see outside of class. Even though I take interest in theatre, I doubt I would have made the time this semester to attend a performance. Now that I ve been exposed to quite a few, I plan on ’
attending future productions as well. Although the attendance was for a graded assessment, I feel like it encouraged me to pay more attention to the details of the performances and in the end I had a better grasp. The things we learned in the classroom such as the methods actors use to harness their character and design elements aided my understanding of the performances. I can identify several dramatic elements that I wouldn t of been able to before ’
and because of that, those elements have a bigger impact on me during the performance. This class has a good balance of supplemental learning to the actual performances. My history with group projects has been one to two people do all the work while the rest of the group accepts whatever grade is earned by the few actually doing the assignment. There is no way you can get away with that in a theatre performance because everyone has an individual role. The thing that surprised me most is how easy it was to work as a group because our end result is the same play! Since we all had our own roles but for a common result, the play, everyone was eager to chip in ideas and participate. Another surprising thing to me was it
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Dekle 3 Our groups greatest strength was the willingness of everyone to cooperate and do their part. From day one we set up a group messaging app so we can communicate easily outside of class. It was easy and fair for us to vote on what play and scene we would do. The members of our group volunteered the roles they did and did not want to do so I think everyone was content with their job. During rehearsals we were able to openly give constructive criticism and have opinions be heard without it turning into chaos. By having everyone content, communicative, and compliant with their jobs, we avoided any major problems that usually come with group projects. My greatest individual strength was initiating things to get started in our group. For instance I was the one who gathered everyones phone-number and found the app we could all use to easily communicate. I also initiated the group vote to choose the play and scene we wanted to do. When it was time for group presentations, I provided the powerpoint and communicated with the group as to what parts they would like to dictate. During rehearsals at times I would have to point out scenes or lines that weren t flowing naturally and suggest ’
improvements and do overs when it seemed that no one else would even though it wasn t my ’
role. I wasn t afraid to call out things that needed to be improved upon. So my strength was to ’
assist in getting the play in order. My greatest challenge was committing to the actor blogs. I started out organized and blogged my research about my character. And then around the time group presentations came around, I didn t make as much time to do my individual blogging assignments because I was ’
becoming more busy in work and other classes. That is not an excuse I am making. After days I know I was supposed to blog, I put it off until it was so past the date of relevance, I just left it out. If I had improved upon my organizational skills not only for this class but for my other
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Dekle 4 do so. In researching the play Ruined, I realized how completely privileged I am as an American but also as an American female. Even the most hardworking female, Mama, was a product of her unfortunate circumstances as a woman trying to make a living in times of desperation in a war zone with men that may or may not harm her or the girls that reside with her. It was eye opening how easily I can walk around anywhere I d like with little fear of something bad ’
happening to me where as these women have to be more tough to survive. I feel sympathetic towards those women which I don t want to feel, not because I don t care but because I wish ’
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their circumstances weren't so awful that they should feel others sympathy. I can t say my ’
perception of cultures in Africa has changed negatively because war crimes happen in every region of the world, but my attention and perception of war in general has changed negatively. Ruined put put into perspective victims point of views that are caught in between conflicts. ’
The only advice I would give to future students taking this class is to practice and master time management early on in the semester rather than later. This is a class that is enjoyable and possible to get an A in if you stay organized and keep up with all the deadlines. I would recommend buying a large calendar (instead of a smartphone calendar) where you can mark all due dates for this class along with all your others. Not only will this help keep up with deadlines it will also give you an overview of what days and weeks you ll have more free time than others. ’
And in those days I would plan on going to the outside performances. During the performances I would recommend bringing a classmate instead of a friend that way its easier to discuss the performances in regards to things learned in class. If you don t do the performance s ’
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assignment the same night, I wouldn t recommend waiting more than one day to complete it. As ’
for the group project, communication is the only way you and your group will succeed together and improve. The group project can either be really fun or stressful depending on how you
