The Glass Menagerie described the lives in a family of a single mother and her two children in the middle 20 century, and Jacob and I chose scene six in act I and scene eight in act II to act out the changes in the relationship between the mother, Amanda, and her son, Tom. I played Amanda, and Jacob played the son, Tom. The performance went quite well.
After reading it, I found out the relationship between Amanda and Tom is dynamic. When the time pass, their attitude toward each other is changing. For the audience perspective, the relationship between Amanda and Tom was awkward but peaceful at least at first. Tom is enduring his mother, but he still respects to his mother. Amanda notices Tom's impatience to her, but she does not know the reason, so she decides to leave the trouble alone and treats Tom as the past. Their relationship has forcefully remained between Amanda and Tom's silence until the end of the book, Tom leaving the house. As an audience, we would like to think they both can be blamed. Tom should understand his mother's care and thoughts. Amanda was thinking the whole family, but Tom's attention is more toward his interest and his development. On the other hand, Amanda is also an egoist. We can see that she does what she thinks without respecting others' dream and ambitions. Therefore, they are the same kind of person. However, for Tom and Amanda's perspectives, they all blame on the other. When I played Amanda, I would not only like to find the changes in Amanda's attitude but would also like to find out what Amanda thought when she changes the attitude toward Tom.
Amanda feels Tom's disagreement and dissatisfaction, but she still keeps doing the annoying things. I believe there are two reasons push her to keep her annoying personality. Firstly, she is sure that she is making the right choice for Tom. Amanda thought the writing could not earn enough money to support an entire family, so she restricts Tom write. It is a truth that it is so difficult to live by relying on words. Therefore, compared to the reality, Amanda thinks working hard in the warehouse can earn basic financial support, and the job in the warehouse is more stable than writing. Secondly, the past of Amanda makes a great difference from the present she lived. Amanda's past is full of glories according to her memorization. Therefore, compared to the bleak present life, she spends her most of time on hiding in her past and escaping the reality. Then, even though Amanda feels Tom's dissatisfaction, she has no time and is tired to face the problem. As a result, she is forced to handle the family as a single mother, and she is also living in her fantasy as an outspoken romantic woman. The conflict makes her complicated, and I believe living between the fantasy and reality will bring a lot of reluctant feeling to the lives.
When I played Amanda, I continued putting layers in the character building. The first layer would be the behavior and appearance, which is as simple as possible. Amanda is so outspoken that she usually talks without thinking, and her words hurt Tom and Laura. Her behavior gives me the first impression of her, childish egotism. All the kids and teenagers will somehow feel like the world is moving around them, and then they talk whatever they want without thinking about the influence or effect to others. However, adults will not do it because when they grew up, they will be independent and socialize with a lot of people. They have to cooperate with others. Amanda in the book does not seem like she is a cooperative person, even though she looks socialized. To show the childishness, I walked brightly in the first scene we played and heavily in the last scene. The second layer will be her inner thought. I acted out her contradiction by reacting to Tom and adding the pauses between the sentences. In addition, facial expression can also help to improve the contradictions. For example, when Amanda speaks the words she does not mean to, I can the first standstill speaking in a louder voice with affirmed facial expression, but then I realized I might say the wrong words, so I looked away and frowned for a few seconds.
For the staging, we set up easily. The first scene is the same as the second scene. The differences between the two scenes are that first is happened more in the fire escape, and the second happened in the living room. Moreover, since we did not have any monologue, we did not set a strong spotlight and change the staging.
Wednesday, February 28, 2018
Tuesday, February 20, 2018
Essay Outline
1. What is The Glass Menagerie about
What the scene we chose
How is the performance
2. After reading it, I found out the relationship between Amanda and Tom is an interesting and important topic of this book. For the audience perspective, the relationship between Amanda and Tom was not bad at first. Tom is enduring his mother, and Amanda also notices his impatience to her, but she does not know the reason. Their relationship has forcefully remained between Amanda and Tom's silence until the end of the book, Tom leaving the house. [add details] + Compare and contrast the mood of the two.
3. I believe Amanda in this relationship is not as dumb as she shows us. Amanda feels Tom's disagreement and unsatisfaction, but she still keeps doing the annoying things. The reasons behind it are (1) she is sure she is doing good for Tom. (2) She cannot handle this problem so she just pretends she does not know and escape from it. (3) She is lost in the past too much to handle the problem.
4. Performance-- The emotional explosion is easier to portrait, but how to portrait Amanda's annoying look, careless behavior and a stagnant and sentimental heart.
5. The difficulties of acting Amanda.
6. The difficulty 2 of acting Amanda
7. Staging (light, stage space )
8. Acting review: the weaknesses and strengths
9. Reconclude the theme of the scene and the personality of Amanda.
What the scene we chose
How is the performance
2. After reading it, I found out the relationship between Amanda and Tom is an interesting and important topic of this book. For the audience perspective, the relationship between Amanda and Tom was not bad at first. Tom is enduring his mother, and Amanda also notices his impatience to her, but she does not know the reason. Their relationship has forcefully remained between Amanda and Tom's silence until the end of the book, Tom leaving the house. [add details] + Compare and contrast the mood of the two.
3. I believe Amanda in this relationship is not as dumb as she shows us. Amanda feels Tom's disagreement and unsatisfaction, but she still keeps doing the annoying things. The reasons behind it are (1) she is sure she is doing good for Tom. (2) She cannot handle this problem so she just pretends she does not know and escape from it. (3) She is lost in the past too much to handle the problem.
4. Performance-- The emotional explosion is easier to portrait, but how to portrait Amanda's annoying look, careless behavior and a stagnant and sentimental heart.
5. The difficulties of acting Amanda.
6. The difficulty 2 of acting Amanda
7. Staging (light, stage space )
8. Acting review: the weaknesses and strengths
9. Reconclude the theme of the scene and the personality of Amanda.
Thursday, February 15, 2018
Reflection and Evaluation
After the first draft, we found there is a lot to change and to improve. The main weaknesses of the first draft are the staging and body language. Specifically, the occupation of fire escape landing on the stage is too small to have any action and my body language should be more controlled. Besides, Jacob and I did not fully memorize the script. Therefore, our main job after the first draft is memorization.
Firstly, we just sit in the black box and ran the script over and over again. It was a tedious process when you repeatedly read your line but helping each other remembering the line made the process become interesting. I remembered that one day when we complained how redundant and how repetitive (especially "how soon, quite soon" part) the lines were, and he asked me whether I could remember all the lines because Amanda has too many lines. I showed him my confidence or a kind of arrogance that I can remember all of them in a short time. Clearly, he doubted my words and begun to test me, and of course, I was exposed to the light in a really bad way. He read my lines and I repeated it and tried to remember immediately. We spent almost an entire class working on Amanda's lines but we still did not finish. Therefore, I continued memorizing after the class. As a result, Jacob remembered his line more quickly. Memorization took us a plenty of time. Compared to the memorization, we made changes and improve quickly. For the staging, the fire escape landing is too small, so we decided that the space of fire escape landing and living room will be separated equally; besides the correct exit, Jacob added the sound of pushing off the chair when he was leaving, and he also added the sound of smashing the door. In addition, for the connection of the characters, I decided to hit Jacob when I said the last long paragraph in the last scene. Even though I felt shy at first, I believed it could reveal the anger mood more.
For the final draft, I think it is much better than the first draft, which not only reveals on memorization but also the character's building. The space using is one of the strengths in the final draft. I chose the best time to walk into the living room instead of going forward and back to the fire escape and living room repetitively. After we entered the living room, I had more walkings in the living room. In the last scene, I like Jacob pushing his chair and hitting the wall, and standing still near the door for a little longer, which the actions did not happen in the first draft. Besides, I stood up and turned my back to Tom to show that even if I wanted to tell him something very "funny", actually I do not want to talk to him at all because of the anger and sadness. Then, when Jacob went toward the door, I grabbed his arm to show that I was concerned and hesitated. The reason for the actions is that I believe Amanda does not want Tom to leave unconsciously. Every word she spoke come from a feeling of anger and depression. Thanks to Jacob, his reliability allow me to act without any restraint or concern. I enjoy this performance.
The weakness is memorization and the time. In acting, I stumbled at some lines because I did not remember the lines well, and it caused the recording time really long. I still need to work on memorizing. Yes, I feel sorry for it... I kept memorizing, and then I kept forgetting. Moreover, I did not wait for Jacob to finish his last line. I need to pay attention to it.
Firstly, we just sit in the black box and ran the script over and over again. It was a tedious process when you repeatedly read your line but helping each other remembering the line made the process become interesting. I remembered that one day when we complained how redundant and how repetitive (especially "how soon, quite soon" part) the lines were, and he asked me whether I could remember all the lines because Amanda has too many lines. I showed him my confidence or a kind of arrogance that I can remember all of them in a short time. Clearly, he doubted my words and begun to test me, and of course, I was exposed to the light in a really bad way. He read my lines and I repeated it and tried to remember immediately. We spent almost an entire class working on Amanda's lines but we still did not finish. Therefore, I continued memorizing after the class. As a result, Jacob remembered his line more quickly. Memorization took us a plenty of time. Compared to the memorization, we made changes and improve quickly. For the staging, the fire escape landing is too small, so we decided that the space of fire escape landing and living room will be separated equally; besides the correct exit, Jacob added the sound of pushing off the chair when he was leaving, and he also added the sound of smashing the door. In addition, for the connection of the characters, I decided to hit Jacob when I said the last long paragraph in the last scene. Even though I felt shy at first, I believed it could reveal the anger mood more.
For the final draft, I think it is much better than the first draft, which not only reveals on memorization but also the character's building. The space using is one of the strengths in the final draft. I chose the best time to walk into the living room instead of going forward and back to the fire escape and living room repetitively. After we entered the living room, I had more walkings in the living room. In the last scene, I like Jacob pushing his chair and hitting the wall, and standing still near the door for a little longer, which the actions did not happen in the first draft. Besides, I stood up and turned my back to Tom to show that even if I wanted to tell him something very "funny", actually I do not want to talk to him at all because of the anger and sadness. Then, when Jacob went toward the door, I grabbed his arm to show that I was concerned and hesitated. The reason for the actions is that I believe Amanda does not want Tom to leave unconsciously. Every word she spoke come from a feeling of anger and depression. Thanks to Jacob, his reliability allow me to act without any restraint or concern. I enjoy this performance.
The weakness is memorization and the time. In acting, I stumbled at some lines because I did not remember the lines well, and it caused the recording time really long. I still need to work on memorizing. Yes, I feel sorry for it... I kept memorizing, and then I kept forgetting. Moreover, I did not wait for Jacob to finish his last line. I need to pay attention to it.
Friday, February 2, 2018
First Draft Review
After the first draft of the scenes, thanks to the David who recorded for us and thank for the advice, I found out there are many details I should improve or change, such as blocking, speaking, and body language on the stage.
Blocking is the most important teamwork that should be improved. Firstly, the fire escape landing is too small. I think it is possible to divide the whole stage into two equal parts: one for fire escape and the other is for the living room. Therefore, when Jacob is standing on escape landing, he can stand on the back of the stage where it is close to the bridge instead of the clothes rack, and then I can have more time to come to him while speaking my long redundant lines. Secondly, I do not know where I should go on the stage, so I sit on the chair a little bit early. However, in the first scene, I should go to the landing first, and then go back and stand in the living room. Next, I can go back to fire escape landing where Tom is still there so that I can make a connection with him. At the end of the first scene, I should wander around in the living room while deciding to make some decorations, and after it, I sit opposite to Tom for a moment and come to him touching his shoulder. The scene should end up with the position. Third, I got a better idea for Jacob's blocking when he is doing the last scene. In the last scene, Jacob made a wrong exit actually. He should exit left stage where the fire escape landing is instead of the right. I am standing in his way when he gets mad. Therefore, when I say, "You live in a dream: you manufacture illusions," he can stand up and rush to the door. Because he walks so fast, he collides with my shoulder. I do not react first because of the shocking, but then when I ask him "where are you going" three times, he can stop rushing, standing near the door and only showing a back to me. After my complaining, he leaves. It will be more dramatic.
Speaking and my body language should be improved as well. Base on the comments, I twist some word and do not pronounce clearly at some words. Therefore, I should practice more words by words, and then when I stand on the stage, I should slow down my speaking. Body language is a serious problem I have, and I am so unsatisfied with my body language. For Amanda, even though she is not a gentlewoman, but what I stand and what I sit look so casual. In addition, I have a bit hunchback, so the appearance does not make me refreshing. I need to stand straight, sit formally with closed legs and the back should be straight all the time. That is what I need to improve.
Thursday, February 1, 2018
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