Spring Improv Reflection

        It is a hilarious and fantastic show!  The spring improv, Propless, is comprised of many small improvising acting games.  The show is in the lecture hall instead of the black box, which it brings more casual and relaxing elements into the show.  The show is directed by Sam Weed with Julia Rafferty, Aaron Luo, Helen Zheng, Nan Zhou, Ray Dong, Julia Shatalov, Mao Inoue, Jerry Yu, Krystal Charter, and Olivia Williamson.  They literally are amazing and creative.  The show might not be great without them.  Of course, the participants are also helpful and passionate.  During the show, I was sitting in the chair, clapping all the time, and I could not stop laughing.

        In the show, I love the game of translating the most.  Two people sitting on the chair to communicate with each other in the different language to solve the problem, and there are two people standing back the two people and being their interpreters.  The communication is really funny.  For the first group, Jerry and Aaron mainly focus on the body language and emotional expression by changing their pitch and exaggerating the arm work.  They are facing divorce, and the story looks completed.  Thanks to the two interpreters and actors, I think they also show the complicated reaction from different kinds of people.  Some people will hesitate and want to redeem a failed marriage, but the other people might be tougher and decisive.  For this show, I was laughing at the beginning and then felt sad about it immediately when Jerry stopped fighting and being quiet.  The contrast that the show gave to the audience is excellent.  I do not think they all designed this.  They really might do not think too much.  This improvising is great.  The second translating game is performed by Nan, Ray, Krystal, and Daniel.  Nan and Ray showed a totally different skill from Aaron and Jerry's performance.  They emphasized a rhythm of sound and the timbre.  It is like a pitched percussion, which is really interesting.  I like this idea.  Daniel participated well especially in translating the first sentence.  I forgot what he said, but he imitated the rhythm and coughing sound.

        I also like the Aaron, Ray, Nan, and Julia R's acting on dating performance.  Sometimes, when you are improvising, it is hard to keep the active body language and facial expression.  However, they really did a good job.  They vividly imitated temperament of that groups of the people (and Mr. Cirmo).  Moreover, for the last game, I love Olivia's idea when she wanted to drive Helen away from the bench.  Actually, Olivia has a lot of good ideas and wonderful punchlines, but I especially like this idea because I think the thought might be too hard to have.  She is like an agent from CIA in the Marvel comics who wants to scare some strangers so that they can get their mission done.  I hysterically love this joke.  She did not even talk and look at Helen, and she just made it!

WC Reflection

          It has been a long time from the last revision.  Now, when we open the work, and we can see there are still a lot of problems in it.  My biggest problem is the conclusion.  I do not know why I just wrote one paragraph of conclusion.  The conclusion paragraph has five lines, six sentences, which is much shorter than the other paragraph.  Especially compared to the introduction, the introduction could be the two or three times of the conclusion, so when we read, we will feel the essay is unfinished, or it is an anticlimax.  Therefore, I have to expand my conclusion to revise it more interesting, thoughtful, and detailed.  I can write about the fun facts or feelings after the performance.  I can write about how uncomfortable my custom is and how I work with my partner.  I can also write about what I learned from this performance and what I learned from this character.  I do not know whether it is good to write, but I can additionally discuss the other groups' Amanda, and the acting knowledge or the understanding to the character I learned.

          The other improvement of the essay should be the topic ending sentences and thesis statement.  Actually, I cannot believe I wrote my thesis statement so vaguely after so many labs I wrote.  The thesis statement is as important as the hypothesis which needs to be logical and detailed.  I think it is good to write the purpose of the performance and how you will portray your character as thesis statement instead of pointing out what you will explore on only.  The topic sentence of each paragraph has less problem than the ending sentences.  In fact, ending sentences are not the things that I focused on before, so it probably will not be a big challenge for me.  The last problems are grammar, in-text citation format, title page and works cited.  Today in class, I already changed the in-text citation, title page, and works cited.  Then, after solving the conclusion and ending sentences problem, I will go to the writing center to fix my grammar.  This blogger must have grammar mistakes...haha...  An interesting fact is that when I graded my paper and then see the scores that the others graded to me, there is no such a huge difference between the scores.  Similarly, the score I graded for my partner and the score she graded are really close as well.  Therefore, it demonstrates that we will definitely do better if we judge our work strictly like other did.   

          

            

Poetry Reflection

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLMCp4LnA3A

Compare to the first draft, I added some movement and change some lines to emphasize an emotion.  However, in general, the final draft is little bit lack of facial expression.  For my performance, the most difficult part is to match the music with the poetry.  The reason is that I choose a short music that it has its own climax and dynamics.  I can end the performance with the music end if I perfectly match the time.  I match good on the first draft, but on the final draft, I did not match the music that correctly.

It is an interesting topic of changing lines.  The poetry has so many metaphors.  When I first read the poem a few times, I did not know the meaning of the poetry.  After so many times of reading, I can somehow understand the poem in different perspectives.  This poem begins with a question and ends with the same sentence as a statement.  In my understanding, what the poem wants to tell is that it is better to face and admit your difference that it may not follow the other's value than living in a life that is afraid of others' judgment. I found it is difficult to understand if the poem has so many metaphors.  Therefore, I change the last few metaphors.  "You need to know.  I want you to know we need not dissemble our darkness." These are the changes.  I believe they can also deliver my expression easily.  You need to know because I want you to know.  I am anxious because I desire to let you know that you can not disagree one thought or one behavior just because it is not common.  I think it is easier to feel the anxiety and a desire to be understood.