Jackson’s Ultimate Blog To End All Blogs.

 For my theater tradition, I have chosen the Khon Dance Drama, with my specific convention being acrobatics. I find this to be a fascinating subject to research, and one that will push me to reach my highest attainable level of success. Khon dance is substantially more obscure than some of the other ideas I was looking into, and I find this to be an exciting challenge. At this stage in my growth as a theater student, I feel I am ready to take on a challenge that will force me to push my boundaries, and elevate my level of thinking. I am well prepared to meet the obstacles that face me head-on, and moreover, I am ready and willing to take full advantage of the resources offered to me by both the school and Ms. Guarino. Khon dance drama is a tradition with large and expansive history, one which incorporates a plethora of religious and cultural development over hundreds of years. I wish to use this as an opportunity to celebrate such a culturally rich tradition and seek to take great ...

 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1akU6Q8TPUPTwFiq_RmkzXwIWKZdC7AcOVi9y-_AFqDk/edit

  For Pipeline I would attempt to take an Afro-Surrealist to the play, blending reality and the fantastical to convey the true nature of systemic racism. Afro-Surrealism is a medium through which filmmakers and other visual performers attempt to portray their reality in a systemically racist society. James Baldwin said " what happens […] when a reality finds itself on a collision course with a fantasy? For the white people of this country have become, for the most part, sleepwalkers.” The very nature of pipeline, and in fact the very nature of being a BIPOC in America is to be a victim to a surreal structure of oppression. I would portray this in the pipeline by highlighting the surreal, fantastical, and disturbing elements of the school to prison pipeline, creating a show that seeks to convey its message more so through set design and visual cues throughout the scene than the dialogue. Concerning Set design, I would focus on creating a disjointed, prison-esque stage. Prison bars ...

 - The ISTA Project was a deeply informative process, even though I did miss many of our meeting days. While I was in the classroom and able to learn, I garnered many new skills and a deeper understanding of my individual creative process when it comes to theater. Despite the multitude of theater theorists and theories we covered, I feel the biggest thing I gained from this experience was discussed in the final 15 minutes of our last class. I must personally decide whether I am committing to the theater or not, in both a specific way when concerning trying new things or being creative in the classroom, as well as my overall conviction and understanding of theater. While I have deep love respect and passion for theater, film, and other forms of visual art performance, I am flakey, and this is represented in my work. After going through this process I have realized that in order to do anything of substance I must commit fully to the theater in a holistic way. I am too afraid to take ...

Our process was particularly interesting this time around, while we still struggled to make a more cohesive piece, I feel as though we took more opportunities to be creative, and the payoff was certainly noticeable. As a group, we made a focused effort to implement interpretive, creative movements, as opposed to the more rhythmic and basic movements we were using before. To begin, we worked on our song lyrics, breaking them down and experimenting to find what would fit. All of the lyrics had a depressing or reflective edge, and the sharp, seemingly painful movements of the group reflected this effectively. Most of the time, people were speaking at a certain rhythm, which would line up with the group members' movements, and while this was certainly an interesting look, and easy to pull off, the constant rhythm began to feel repetitive after a while. Another aspect that was less effective than others was the previously mentioned disjointed nature of the collaboration. Most scenes fel...

 Transitions into verbatim monologues utilize household objects.  Hard to differentiate between script and verbatim. Lots of monologues Interesting use of movement, less interpretive but it is still there. The main character tells a story, relates it to some larger concept, listens to an interview. Repeat. Windows are screens. Repeated ideas/themes: escape. rising, changing, opportunity, childhood, between two worlds. Immersed audience.  It is apparent during the Mobile theater production that The Paper Birds wished to let the story speak for itself, and did little hand holding. The show was very focused on introspection, utilizing verbatim theater tactics and the actor's monologues to reveal themes of class mobility (or lack thereof) and how the struggles of a modern-day capitalist society affects our minds. Due to The Paper Birds' interest in education through their shows as opposed to drawing out a catharsis, much of the show's verbatim theater felt very disconnected i...