Finally! A Smooth End to the RP Process

MY PRESENTATION: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B11SiaJcy8XbR2NsOUlzUS1PXzg

Today I finally presented my final research presentation on Victorian Melodrama. I woke up all night (literally) to edit my script and practice, and I was all out of energy by the time I had to present. On top of that, I had 4 other summatives on the same day – let’s just say I was exhausted. But I knew I had to put my 110% effort, energy, and enthusiasm into the 15 minutes I would get. After all, if I didn’t, then what would be the point of all the hard work I put into this RP?

As the 15 minutes came to a long end, I ran out of time!! I realized I took too much time with my moment of theater, and did not have enough time for my complete conclusion. I would have to say this was my biggest flaw. Other than that, I knew I had followed the rubric completely, but I was very unsure towards the class’s and Mrs. Morris reaction: I came off stage, and she immediately told me I got a 7!! I was going to cry of happiness: a month earlier I would never have imagined that I would be getting a 7 from Mrs. Morris on this exam. I want to analyze the areas of discussion for this RP into 3 areas: the challenges I faced, the skills I acquired, and what I have learned.

Challenges I faced:

-Keeping it Casual Yet Formal: It was hard to speak formally, yet not sound rigid and forced with my script. It took a lot of practice and editing of my script to achieve this.

-Following the Rubric: a big problem for me before I memorized the rubric was continuously explaining the “hows” and “whys” of all the artistic decisions I made.

-Being enthusiastic: a HUGE challenge for me was sounding enthusiastic and presenting with energy: it took a lot of practice for me to not bore the audience to sleep.

-Keeping relevant information only: At first, my script was really long and I didn’t know what to take out, yet I always spoke for more than 15 minutes every time I practiced. I eventually got vital feedback from Mrs. Morris, so I knew what to take out and what to keep.

-Doing a very similar topic and character as another student in the class: I was not happy with the idea that Talah and I were doing the same theater tradition and character in fear of it affecting my grade. However I eventually realized it only allowed me to push myself ever further with my own presentation.

Skills I acquired:

-Research Skills: Due to the presentation, I was able to polish my research skills – I learned to use a variety of sources, whether from Youtube, books from the library, or articles I found online. I learned also from this presentation that citing one’s sources is very important in academic work and should always be done thoroughly.

-Teaching Skills: I never knew how hard it was to be a theater teacher!! Due to this presentation, I was able to practice the skills that an engaging theater teacher must have, from eye contact to enthusiasm to movement and demonstration skills.

What I’ve learned

-I learned from my own presentation: By researching my tradition I have been able to find connections between different methods of acting. For example, the stock characters of Victorian Melodrama are very similar to the stock characters of Commedia Del Arte from Italy which we studied in our unit of theater. Therefore, by studying the performance gestures used by the stock characters of melodrama, it will aid in my ability to effectively portray emotions in the similar stock characters of Commedia Dell Arte, and others present in various types of genres which have similar stock characters. Furthermore, studying this genre has allowed me to practice the higher states of tension in Jacques Lecoq 7 Levels of Tension, which aren’t normally accessed in most other genres. It is important to be able to access these higher levels of tension, as the practicing of these levels allows us practice being more expressive with our gestures, a vital theater convention. Another challenge I’ve had in the past which VM will help me overcome is our unit last year on abstract movement: we had to use body gestures to portray abstract ideas using songs in the background, and this was initially really difficult for me as I did not understand the meaning behind gestures and how I can flexibly use them to communicate emotions: learning about gestures in VM will definitely help me in this area as it has taught

- I also learnt a lot about other traditions listening to everyone’s interesting traditions in the class! Some of them, such as Khayal Al Zil and Noh Theater, have definitely inspired me to learn more about them as a theater student and explore them whenever I get the chance.