Self-Reflection

1. Name and briefly discuss the most significant lesson you learned about acting from the 365 Project.
One lesson I have learned from 365 is that, when performing, you need to keep up your awareness of everything around – including those in the scene as well as your audience. Going off of kinesthetic response and using your peripheral vision, I feel like I’ve become more aware of how to take everything in as well as concentrate better on a scene.

2. Discuss how you can deepen this lesson with your final Acting I project.
Often times, when I’m doing a scene, I either get caught up in what I’m doing or get distracted by what is going on with the audience. With my final scene, there are multiple asides, which I think will allow me to integrate what I’m doing on stage with how I interact with the audience. I can continue to address my scene partner while also being aware that there are people watching and work there presence into my performance if I so decide to.

3. Name your most effective acting moment in 365. How was it effective and what were you doing in terms of technique to make it effective?
I suppose my most effective acting moment, or at least the moment when I felt most in character and comfortable, was during 7-11. With the over-exaggerated mockery of the scene, I felt that I could be silly and move about with my scene partners and work off of their energy while also keeping in character. Also, I liked the way I had to do the little scene within the scene twice, changing the way I used my voice to convey different emotions.

4. Discuss how you can deepen your technique in working on your final Acting I project.
With the final scene, I think I can finally concentrate and focus more on how I say my words and how they affect my physical action. My final scene is significant within the context of the play, but also still rather silly in the grand scheme of things. Being a comedy of manners, I feel that I can go in many silly directions with my character and explore her different possible emotions.

5. What is the most apparent weakness, unanswered challenge or missed opportunity in your 365 performances? If you could go back into rehearsal, how might you address this element in order to make your performance more effective?
One thing that I know is a problem is my small voice. During rehearsal, everyone told me I needed to speak up so any audience member who was further away would be able to hear me. The thing is, is that I thought I was, but apparently it wasn’t successful. I guess what seems loud to me actually isn’t. So, I suppose the next time, if I need to really raise my voice, I should use a voice that sounds like I’m yelling at the top of my lungs to me and get my full breath support behind it because maybe that will be the desired level for my audience. Perhaps by using Vera's techniques, I can come up with a way to speak that not only seems loud to me, but my audience as well.