Viewpoints Reflection Journal

  Over the last two weeks, we spent a lot of time expanding our perspectives on what theater is and what it looks like. I feel as though my perception of what it means to act has been significantly altered. Being given a word and just told to go off and walk the stage forced me to take a much more freeform and creative approach. Learning to be comfortable with trying new things out and doing something weird played a big part in that process. I noticed that overtime I felt more and more comfortable with the theater, and less worried about staying right in center stage. Allowing myself to approach things from different angles both literally and figuratively created much more interesting scenes then I would have had. Furthermore, I noticed that this also allowed me to take in direction or some kind of word and make significant differences to fulfill the direction. Over time I believe this will greatly aid my acting. What had the biggest impact on me over the last two weeks was the exercise we did with color. Seeing the color reflected in our movements and actions created what felt like a very contemporary and interpretive scene, this is not something I would expect our class or myself to be able to achieve so quickly. I felt like we were actually making theater, and regardless of the outcome it felt very invigorating. I want to apply this in future use by allowing myself while acting to get weird and push the envelope more often in terms of my movement and engagement of my whole body. I also have become very interested in doing more devised theater, centered around phrases and sound and lighting, as opposed to a script. I have found this to be a more out there way of approaching theater, but when executed was extremely satisfying. I also would like to pursue more theater in outdoor settings. The dynamic setting offered by the wind and nature surrounding us was very interesting, and I can see a lot of ways to play around with. To extend beyond this, I also think public settings with other people not a part of the theater existing in the space, as opposed to a more formal or traditional audience could be interesting. I have come out of these last two weeks inspired and ready to come back and keep going, I hope to learn much, much more!