Final Blog Post

Wow. I can not believe that this semester is already over. I have learned so much and had so much fun in our acting class. I loved how we were able to do many different kinds of projects. From monologue to silent movies, to television show scenes, and everything in between. Since we practiced so many different types of scenes I was able to learn so much about theater as a whole. One of the main things I learned is that theater and acting is a long process. You have to find what you want to act, write/find a first draft, memorize the draft, plan out staging, perform a first draft, get feedback, practice more, then finally perform your final draft. Though this process is very long, you get so much out of it. You are able to take constructive criticism from fellow actors, and you can change the scene to be exactly what you want it to be. You can change different aspects of it to make it fit the idea you originally saw in your head. In this class, we really used this process and got a lot out of it with every scene we performed.

The second thing I learned is to learn from your mistakes. When this class first started all 3 of us were not very comfortable with each other. You could definitely see this in the first group project we did together. None of us seemed very confident of comfortable acting with each other. As time went on though we became a close class. As we became closer we were able to fix aspects of our following projects that may not have been very good in the last. One example of this was from our Wipeout silent movie, to the devised bullying PSA. Our wipeopet movie was pretty good, but the other class said there really didn't seem to be an ending to it. They were left hanging. So, in our following project, we really tried to give the PSA an ending. All semester we tried to take constructive criticism and incorporate it into our next scene to make it even better.

Throughout this semester I feel that I have really grown as an actress. I still remember our first few classes. I was so afraid and timid while participating in the theater games. I was also very nervous to perform my first monologue. As the semester progressed though I became more comfortable with myself as an actress. I learned to accept that you will mess up, you will forget lines, but that's what it is. Learn from it, laugh it off, and try again. The projects we did in the curse really helped me learn a lot of new skills. From only being able to use facial expressions in the silent movie, to having to learn to play off each other strengths and weaknesses while filming a group project. All of the skills I have learned in this call will be very helpful if I ever do any more with the theater.

My favorite project this year was probably our silent movie, Wipeout. I really enjoyed this project because it was so fun to film. It was also very cool to see how the characters we each had in our minds came to life in the final project. It was also fun, yet challenging to not be able to talk. We all really had to experiment to see what worked. This project was also fun because we got to make the course. In the end, this project was one of the most beneficial aspects of my growth in the theater.

With all the new skills I have acquired from our projects and theater games, I really feel like a better actress. I also feel like I can better relate to other actors, and understand their creative process. It is very interesting to know how much work goes into even a single scene of a movie. I am also hoping at some point in my high school or college career I can do something involving the theater. I think this skills I learned this year could really help me if I ever were to do something like that.

All in all, I had a blast acting this semester. I learned so much and grew as an actress. I am so glad that I took this class because it was so eye-opening to me. I hope that I will be able to continue to act even if it is in my own free time. Thank you so much for being an amazing teacher!