Assignment 6: Beck Michul

     Overall, I thought the performance was pretty successful. The point of this presentation was to get across the theme of the story in a short presentation of one scene. I think we completed the goal; we got across the comedic aspect of the story, but also the "serious" side. Performance-wise we weren't perfect. Me, Jacob, and Charlie absolutely could have projected more because, on the recording, we were almost too quiet. Our props and costumes were well utilized, although I felt like I could have looked more like a priest. Maybe if I had my button-up showing under my sweatshirt then it would have looked like a priest. I also noticed that Charlie and Sam had a flub when performing, but it was quickly picked back up and brought to end by Jacob and Me. We all memorized our lines and we had a good time delivering an 8/10 performance.

Assignment 6: Sam Flomenhoft

      Our group's performance all in all wasn't stellar, but it was still entertaining. I'm not trying to brag but I thought my portrayal of Cecily was spot on; at least the costume was. I thought Jacob portrayed Chasuble as a very boring, monotonous man, whether that was on purpose or not, I still thought it was good. Beck, Charlie, and I all did a decent job acting but I don't think we brought anything extra to our characters, although we did all stay in character.
      While Jacob's portrayal of Chasuble was good, he  didn't project at all times. My voice as Cecily was humorous, but certainly not always the easiest to understand and I didn't articulate as well as I could. In general I though Beck and Charlie did a good job of delivering their lines crisply.
      The major area in which we lacked was our use of space. There was minimal movement, and only at the beginning of the scene, and the part where Chasuble and Prism come in. No one completely turned their back on the audience though which was good. The lack of movement wasn't entirely boring because there were hand motions and such but more spacing and walking would have been desired.
      Our group was fairly prepared. We all memorized our lines to a decent extent, although not all ere delivered verbatim, but that is to be expected. We could have done a better job planning out or movement to move the audience's eye. I thought our final product was very respectable, although certainly not a stellar job.
      Mostly this experience helped me understand some of the more slapstick, silly humor that could be incorporated into this play. While reading I mostly just got a sense of the wittiness of Oscar Wilde, but I saw there was room for directors to make decisions to add even more humor to the comedy.

Jacob Faulkner - Assignment 6

art¹

ärt/

noun

1. 1.

   the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.

That is nothing less than our performance. Honestly, it should be called a perfectormance because we did everything right. Shout out to Charlie Sam and Beck, we keep the game a hundred, cream of the crop keeping these fake players out of the game, in the words of Drake, the jokers out of the deck. Sam's great costume, Charlie's cucumber cool acting, and Beck's double character life along my perfect acting skills and on the spot made up Kermit voice as Ms. Prism, we genuinely should be considered the Leonardo Di Vanci's of our time. If historians found our video of our acting 1000 years from now, they would consider us geniuses, probably worshiped deities of our time. And who's to say we aren't? We turned a pile of sticks into gold. Not only did we remember our lines incredibly fast and well, we also had great use of props and costumes. Looking at you, Sam. Nothing we did could be any less than the 100 we deserved. But that's OK I'm sure we all can accept an 89 it's still basically an A. What I have gathered out of this assignment is that acting in front of people is really easy, but remembering lines and preparing something takes away the soul, the emotion if you will, out of the performance. Every true theater needs a little improvising, a Mad lib, if you will. I enjoy my life much more doing things as they come,, rather than planning a lot ahead to do something that feels artifical. If something comes to me, I'll do it, I mean, I am an ENFP, I am intuitive, and look how funny I made this post? Exactly.

Assignment 6 Samantha McGehee

I thought our performance was pretty good. I think all of our actors remained in character pretty well. Our stage directions were meant to be pretty isolated to one area besides with the door for entrances and exits. All of our conversations revolved around the table mostly for Cecily and Algernon’s lines so they could talk but still be able to access the box and diary. I struggled with getting the cues for when to sit down and lean on the table. I thought every person contributed to their character and to the play overall. I thought we had some funny details such as the dog cart, and the huge box of letter. I thought we did a good job of playing off one another during our performance and being our characters with each other on stage. I think the main thing that would have helped our performance was if we had memorized our lines. What this activity taught me about the play was it really emphasized and brought to life the humor in the play that I think I recognized but did not really appreciate until I saw it acted out and by acting it out. Like I really did not realize how hilariously crazy Cecily was until I got to play her which was a lot of fun.

Assignment 6 Jack Phillips

Our groups rendition of The Importance of Being Earnest was fairly well done given the time frame, but most of the problems we encountered originated at the beginning with scene selection. The character development was very good with some characters, Jack and Miss Prism in particular, because there was a range of emotions and many lines to express them in whereas Chausable remained somewhat underdeveloped because he lacked the sheer number of lines to create a connection with the audience. This could have been solved with a different scene selection where the lines are more evenly balanced. Our characters identity was based around the voice of the characters. Each character had a very different, but equally as ridiculous accent. I don't know how but we all managed to keep up the accents consistently and not break character throughout the performance. Our costumes were very much the highlight of our set design as we didn't use many physical props save a single backpack. At least we were well prepared and had all memorized our lines, or at least the gist of all of our lines, and we didn't have any awkwardly long pauses due to forgotten lines like some of the other groups. Overall, our performance was satisfactory in my opinion and I really enjoyed being a part of it.

Assignment 6: Keionna Bailey

 All in all I feel like my group lead a great performance. Although we read our lines instead of memorizing them, we all stayed in character and spoke clearly. Based on the video we projected our voices really well and i could understand all of it. I think that we developed our characters well and although it was tough to display the male persona I feel like we demonstrated our characters well and were believable. Reading our scripts may have been a distraction to the audience as we were constantly flipping through the pages of the script. But Taylor and Madye did memorize their lines. Another thing that we could have worked on was the use of the stage. We stayed on one side of the stage that was far from where most of the audience was located which was a little problematic as my back was sometimes facing the audience. We did try to work through that during practice but it still didn't work well. Our group tried to focus on the humor of the scene which is why our script was a little long and mainly between two characters but I believe Samantha and I portrayed the connection between the characters fairly well.

My performance of Algernon made me realize that every character is open to interpretation and the way I portrayed Algernon definitely made the text seem more comedic and him ignorant and manipulable (based on  Cecily's actions) rather than the obnoxious condescending person he appeared to be when I was just reading the text.

Assignment 6: Noah Welch

Our group was fantastic and I have no complaints about the other members. In my opinion, we worked well with the limited resources we had. I enjoyed every moment of our performance.   Art is wonderful in nature because no performance is ever truly perfect. There are always imperfections that time and experience can improve. Due to our lack of premeditated rehearsal our mannerisms were not perfect, how could they be when we did not recall the other’s lines? I think Connor’s accent was hilarious, Andrew was on point with his portrayal of Algy and I, while not perfect, think that my performance covered the important qualities of Jack. When we were able to use accents, I think they were satisfactory. I think our articulation and projection were very decent. However we had the problem of breaking character when we forgot our lines. I truly believe if we had our lines memorized in context we would have performed exquisitely.  I think our use of space and props could have been a bit better.  Since I was unable to be at our rehearsal in the theater, we had difficulty using space effectively. I regret that I could not practice on the stage, because I believe that our performance would have been much improved with time in the theater.  I think our costumes were good, for the short period of time that we had to collaborate.

I have concluded that this performance was helpful in my understanding of the Importance of Being Earnest. It helped me go into character and understand the play. I continue to develop a respect for practice and think that our group would have been top tier, if we had more time to rehearse.  I have always enjoyed theater and this performance was an amazing way to gain appreciation for the art.

Assignment 6: Thomas Stokes

My group performed the scene where Gwendolen and Cecily get upset at each other over "Ernest" and their cake. Our characters were Cecily, Gwendolen, and Merriman. I feel our mannerisms as our characters went well, as we we're all able to stay in character. That said, our voices as Gwendolen and Cecily weren't on the top of their game. We didn't try to act effeminate, or even British. We simply were reciting our scene on a basic level. Our use of space and props was overall a success. We had nice props and we all knew what we were going to use each one for. From the tea that Kevin made to the cake that was not-quite-so-cut. Overall I feel like we were prepared on an average level. We knew what we had to do, and we did it. We just didn't have our lines entirely memorized. Our performance helped enhance my understanding of the play. Beforehand I knew that it was supposed to be comedic and satirical, but I'm not too keen on picking up on what kind of turns of phrases and tones that cue into sarcasm and satire, but acting the scene out made me realize truly that everything about it is comedy and critique about the time. I also learned that memorizing lines is crazy hard, and I have zero total skill for it.

Assignment 6: Tapan Darji

Theater has been around since the Ancient Greeks. Comedy is one of the main styles of performance. My group's scene from "The Importance of Being Earnest" was one of comedy. We were very funny in the play. However, we lacked costumes and accents. The first line spoken was hard to hear. As the performance went on, the projection of voices got better. Some of the lines were not said properly. The pause when Merriman was setting up the table was kind of awkward. We did a good job of being funny. Kevin did a great job with the set design by making tea, setting up the table, and bringing sugar. He was well prepared. His movements were good. We did not use much space because most of it the scene was with Gwendolen and Cecily sitting. Overall the performance went well.
The performance added to the text because it gave the text a new perspective that reading only does not give. Performing the text adds dept to the dialogue on the page because you can actually see what the background looks like and the actions of the characters, so you can actually focus and concentrate on what they are saying.

Assignment 6: Josh Strange

Overall, I think my group did excellent at performing. Jack, James, Harrison, and I all had our lines down and were extremely prepared for our presentation.  I think that our script was well-made, looked neat, and was an accurate interpretation of what we performed on the stage.  Jack was portrayed as rude and ignorant, which added an interpretation to what others thought of him in the original script.  By being rude and ignorant, it made Algernon appear well-mannered and pleasant- which is also slightly different than what could have been perceived in the original script.  Jack's vigorous shaking and touching of women shows his anger, along with his loud voice projection and angry face.  Lady Bracknell comes across as a more polite woman, even when she is frustrated.  I found our short skit funny because the gender roles were flipped, showing that Jack had no idea how to act outside of his "house-hold duties" by shaking and touching women throughout the skit.

Personally, by acting out the skit I was able to visualize how the play intended for each character to be played.  I also learned how each line was meant in context.  Also, in the context of acting- I learned how poor of an actor I am.  It was personally entertaining even for me because I struggle to keep a straight face at any time, including on stage.  While I was supposed to be crying and upset, I was laughing, and I think that was obvious to anyone watching.  I found our skit to be comedy because we also put in small acts of slightly perverted humor to pertain to our audience of high school students, and our use of large grand acts of rudeness and ignorance.  Also men in dresses is always funny.  I personally loved this assignment and learned a lot about the "Importance of Being Earnest" and gained a lot from this experience.

Assignment 6: Madye Moore

Personally, I am not a fan of presenting of any sort, especially performances in front of a large group of people. However, I believe that the actual performances of "The Importance of Being Earnest" not only enhanced my reading of the text and brought on some new and different interpretations, but it also forced a lot of people to go out of their comfort zone in a good way (me included, although I didn't have many lines). I think that my group did an exceptional job with the execution of our scene, with the little amount of time and on-stage preparation we were given before the actual performance. We acted the scene out exactly as it was on our script, followed our stage directons, had props for each character, projected our voices well to the audience, stayed in character/portrayed each of our characters accurately, and I feel that we conveyed the comedy of manners very well throughout our scene. However, there were definitely some places where we fell short of where we probably should have been. Although I feel that our group was prepared when it comes to stage directions and where we were supposed to be throughout our scene, I do not think we were very prepared when it comes to line memorization. Sure, I had my lines memorized (considering I only had 8), but I definitely think that the rest of the group had difficulty memorizing theirs (understandably so, considering that both Samantha and Keionna often had paragraphs to memorize for just one line). I am not pointing fingers towards either of them for not having memorized their lines, since I know I probably wouldn't have been able to memorize them either, but I do feel that there could have been more time put into the memorization of lines, and I feel that the lack of memorization took away from our actual performance. Perhaps we should have chosen another scene with an equal distribution of memorization across characters rather than a heavy emphasis on just two characters, or we should have split the roles up differently, but I do feel that memorization is a big part when it comes to performing, and we definitely lacked in that area. I also feel that we lacked in utilization of space. Yes, we wanted to focus on just one area of the stage (where we set up our table for our scene), but I feel that we may have been better off with a table in the middle, or even just having different parts of the scene in different areas of the stage. However, I still believe that the table we chose was a perfect setting for our scene, and I believe that we worked well with what we had. 

All in all, although I despised this project when we were presented with it, I think that the performances definitely enhanced my meaning of the play as a whole. The performances opened my eyes to the many different interpretations one could have of each scene and how it is to be acted out, as well as forced me to take a deeper look into separate scenes of the play as well, which definitely helped when it comes to my comprehension of the play as a whole. 

Assignment 6 - Kevin LaZur

Overall I think our group could have been more prepared. Acting as Merriman only required me to learn 1 line, so I had it easy. Thomas and Tapan had the hard job,but, that being said ,their mannerisms were good. When they were doing the "when I see a spade"bit, I could tell they had a good feel for how they should act now that the boring part was over. After I leave the scene too, thomas does a great job at projecting anger and being loud. A lot of our comedy came from our use of props, which isn't something to brag about. Furthermore, our actions played a bigger role than our dialogue for the entire performance. Tapan cutting the cake, Thomas throwing the cards on the ground, me extravagently spreading the tablecloth. We didn't have good use of space, but our mannerisms played a big role in developing the characters and the scene. I would have liked to have built more tension before I came into the scene, but the goofy mood was good too. The text gave me the vision of Cecily and Gwendolyne arguing over their men, awkwardly repressing this anger when merriman enters, then bursting out again when he leaves. Our performance helps me to understand the interesting, comical nature of the dialogue and structure of Earnest. Our personal awkwardness in our mannerisms and delivery of the lines almost makes it feel sarcastic. This tone was enhanced by our exaggerated use of props.

Who's Irish? Gish Jen Biography

Lillian “Gish” Jen is a second generation Chinese-American, her parents immigrating from China in the 1940’s and moving to Long Island, New York where she was raised in the Jewish community of Scarsdale. Growing up with 4 siblings (3 brothers and 1 sister), Gish was the only one to not pursue a career in business or medicine. Entering Harvard University as a pre-med or pre-law major, she changed her mind and ended up graduating with a BA in English, attending Stanford Business School for only one year thereafter, where she ended up dropping out to attend the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she earned her Masters of Fine Arts (MFA) in fiction. Over the course of her writing career, Gish has written five novels: Typical American, Mona in the Promised Land, Tiger Writing, World and Town, and The Love Wife. Of these five novels, four of them are fiction, her only non-fiction novel being her most recent, Tiger Writing. This book, published in March 2013, is about the differences in eastern and western culture, and how they have a large effect on both art and literature. Even though this piece of literature is non-fiction, all of her novels tend to focus or incorporate the same subject- Chinese American families. Her novel Mona in the Promised Land is about a Chinese American adolescent converting to Judaism, and the struggles she faces when doing so. The Love Wife is about yet another Chinese American family with interracial parents along with biological and adopted children, and tells the story of when another child is adopted into the family, that child just happening to be Chinese, and how she adjusts to life in the Carnegie family. World and Town is her novel published in 2010 that tells the story of a Chinese American widow and how she, along with a family of Cambodian immigrants, faces adversity when it comes to adjusting to the American lifestyle, putting emphasis on immigration, religion, and globalization, while also touching on the major effects of 9/11. Typical American is her first published novel, being published in 1991 and most directly reflecting her family’s struggles when it comes to moving to America. This novel highlights one Chinese immigrants journey from China to his successful adjustment to life in America, becoming a millionaire after moving to this new and very foreign country.  Now living in Cambridge, Massachusetts with her husband and two children, Gish continues to write short stories, such as the one we are presenting, Who’s Irish?, along with many others. She has had a large influence on Chinese American writing, having many of her short stories featured in “The Best American Short Stories” as well as receiving many awards for her work in fiction.

Assignment 6: James Apo

The play "The Importance of Being Earnest" written by Oscar Wilde is a true example of a comedy of manners. It satirizes the order and customs of the upper class in order to boost the lower class of the Victorian Era. Our scene was a vital part of the story, highlighting when Jack finds out what happened to him as a baby and who he truly is.

The mannerisms we used were solid for the most part, however they were not as consistent as possible considering some actors played multiple roles. The switching and breaking of character made for a harder task of acting that we executed decently. Since we had an all male cast but multiple female characters, the higher pitched voices we used as an impression for how a lady would speak as well as the cliche British accents we tried to employ all summed up to an effective use of voices. The over-exaggerated high pitch of Lady Bracknell along with the shy and quiet voice of Miss Prism combined for a humorous female duo, not to mention the funny costumes. We articulated the words and projected our sounds well, and also remembered our lines well in comparison to most groups. Since we never had to hesitate to remember them, it made for a much smoother process and an eloquent cadence. All of our main characters had easy to identify props and costume features. Lady Bracknell has a necklace and earrings and a  dress and Miss Prism is wearing a dress as well. Dr. Chasuble has a priest outfit on as well as holds a bible, and Jack is played by Jack and even makes a racket with the chairs on the side of the stage and brings the handbag he was left in to the discussion. Algernon and Cecily are represented by printed out pictures of their characters in the movie. One could argue that we did not use the space very effectively for our play, as that is something we did not really think about when rehearsing. When a character did not have lines, it was almost like you did not know what to do with yourself, and I believe we could have moved around better and spread out more, as there were instances during the discussion where we were all sort of cramped together. We were all quite prepared and also were the only group to act within the time constraint of 5 minutes.

Although our performance was far from flawless, it definitely added a new perspective on the story as a whole and how humorous it truly can be when performed. I think the funniest part was that two male actors took on the roles of two elderly women. That evidently is unorthodox and it made for very funny altercations between characters. I have always enjoyed watching plays and movies and tv shows. Overall, I do like seeing how an actor or actress can do settle things in order to make an effect on the audience. I have never really taken a drama or theater class, but it is something I would consider doing in college and this activity only further influenced that possibillity.

Assignment 6: Jessica Nelson

     Our performance did not exactly go as expected. The gigantic pause in the middle was not ideal and I’m sure if you could see my expression behind my ginormous umbrella during it, it was not so much in character as it was annoyed. Somebody forgot part of a line and it happens but were we to do it over again I would definitely prefer that didn't happen. Other things I would change are mainly blocking and my expressions. I feel like I made the same expression multiple times and I wish I had varied it more to make it more interesting. I projected pretty well though and I was glad to have successfully memorized all my lines. The blocking was an issue as well because we didn't move around enough and when we moved to the right of the stage Alex didn't move back far enough and there was a table in the way so I had nowhere to stand without blocking them because of the umbrella, having my back to the audience, or being awkwardly far away so I spent that portion of the performance doing little steps around that table (and almost falling down) to try to find a better position which detracted from the performance and was unsuccessful anyways. The umbrella tied up my hands too so the only real gesture I could do was twirl the umbrella, so maybe it would have been better if I had used an umbrella that was lighter so I could have held it with one hand and gestured with the other.

   
      Some of my classmates that I think excelled were Raffia, Charlie, Andrew, and Samantha. Raffia’s group overall was the best but she stood out to me in particular for her vocal expression and exaggerated movements. Samantha is a naturally sarcastic and funny person and she brought that to the character even though she was reading her lines directly off the script and her inflection made the performance more “modernly” funny. Charlie’s performance was subtle but it really fit the character. The attitude and the little gestures (sweeping strands of Sam’s Barbie wig back) he used made his performance very interesting and fun to watch. Andrew was fun to watch just because he was so into it. He had obviously put thought into his movements and expression and he seemed to be having fun with it which makes it more enjoyable to the audience then watching someone who just looks uncomfortable.

     The performance helped me to understand the text better by highlighting the humor. Sometimes it can be hard to just find words on a page funny but when you make a conscious effort to make those words funny in your audience’s eyes by your expression or the ways you move when you say them makes the humor more apparent and it resonates more with a modern audience. I also understand how hard it is to connect to an audience because not everyone finds the same things funny. Our group thought the little “secret handshake” we did and the comically large umbrella was really funny, but the audience wasn't laughing as much as we had. It shows how hard it is to write universal humor too. There is no way every reader found Wilde’s comedy funny and thinking about which groups of people would have disliked The Importance of Being Earnest brings a better understanding of it.

Isabel Jenkins Assignment 6

I had a fun time with this assignment. Obviously my group was no stranger to the stage - we've all been in at least one play. That's not to say our performance was perfect by any means! As the others have said, we took a risk by condensing a few scenes and cutting out lines, but ultimately I think it paid off. The way we combined the scenes, keeping everyone on stage the whole time, seemed to hold the audience's attention well. We could've executed it a little better, staying in character and reacting more dramatically when the other group was speaking. For having only one rehearsal (and one group call), though, I thought it went great.

I know some of my fellow group members have struggled a bit with projection in the past, but I'm confident that as a whole our lines were clear and understandable. Some of the blocking was guesswork during the performance, since it was difficult to work out the logistics of the stage with the setup for 12 Angry Jurors. With more practice, we obviously could've been better prepared, but we utilized the whole stage fairly well and only stood in front of each other like 3% of the time. Admittedly I'm pretty embarrassed that I dropped a line, since I'm supposed to be the "seasoned actress" and all... But to be fair, I had at least two muffins stuffed in my mouth, as well as a mind swirling with the thunderous accusations and snide snips of Juror 3. It was surprisingly difficult not to deliver my lines angrily, since all I've done the past two months is scream at Raiffa. That aside, we recovered pretty quickly and hopefully most people thought I just paused to swallow those muffins. Which is also true.

While I love acting just for fun, I did find that my understanding was deeply enriched by viewing these performances and doing one myself. Sometimes I struggle to identify deeper meanings when first reading a text, so I really appreciated the kinesthetic aspect of this project. Reading Earnest in the book, I picked up on some of the satire and comedy of manners, but actually performing it caused the humor to be abundantly clear. 10/10 would do it again ...just not right before tech week of a different performance ;)

Assignment 6: Raiffa Syamil

3 years ago, if we were assigned a project like this I would sooner die than get up and act in front of others. Ah, how progress is made.

To be honest I feel my group slayed this performance. I felt pretty awesome about it after we finished performing and watching it back I can say we did execute everything pretty well. Projection for the most part was great (but Isabel, Maya, and I were well antiquated with that being in the final week of rehearsals for the fall play), we followed the script and our stage directions well, and we were able to cover any slip ups. Performing it I hadn't even realized Isabel dropped a line but we both stayed in character and picked it back up and it seemed like nothing went wrong. The true test of theater.

With more rehearsal we could've improved blocking, but I feel that also came with a limitation on space. Also we could have focused more on developing each characters mannerisms to better fit the time period and the situation.

I really enjoyed being able to fully act out a scene from this play. Reading it, you can tell where there are supposed to be beats for comedic effect and what a character who is not speaking in a scene would be doing and being able to fully flesh that out helps to reinforce all of Wilde's comedy.

Also I would like to apologize for the unfair advantage we had being that 3/4 of my group were not strangers to blocking and projection and theater but to be fair we were also in the process of preparing for another performance.

Assignment 6 Ji-Hae Kim

This assignment was fun. I think my group did pretty well, considering how ambitious we were. We took three scenes and abridged it so it would fit into 5 minutes. We had a lot of lines to memorize (especially for Jack and Algernon), but I think my group did a good job of remembering most of them. There were a few slip-ups here and there, but not enough to be extremely noticeable. The character developments of Jack (by Raiffa) and Algernon (by Isabel) were really good. I think Cecily and Gwendolyn could have been developed further in their mannerisms. I slipped out of character during Jack and Algernon's muffin scene, but it didn't change the overall performance of my group. It wasn't too hard to understand what we were saying. The projection and articulation of our lines were good. We could have been more aware of the space on stage. We weren't always facing the audience, and we may have blocked each other from the view of the audience. It would have been fun to use more props, but I believe the muffins were sufficient. We were prepared enough for the performance.

I think performing the play helped me understand the characters and plot more than just reading the play. The characters were more developed in my mind after performing. 

Assignment 6 Keanu Gomez

This project definitely seemed to be too demanding at first, but after seeing the final performances, it proved to be worth it. Having to memorize a script was difficult, especially with all the other things going on that the time, but actually performing the play gave me new insights to the subtle nuances that cannot be perceived from a simple read-through. I thought my group’s performance was pretty good after considering the amount of practice time we were given in class. Aside from the few awkward pauses, I thought that we did a good job staying in character. Though, I guess we could have tried to articulate some mannerisms more effectively. I thought that we did a good job with the vocal aspects of our performance. If anything, I felt that our vocal expressions and tone were the best part of our performance. The shift in mood when Jack transitions from pretending to have lost his brother to asking Dr. Chasuble about christenings was clearly conveyed. We could have improved our use of space. We envisioned the scene to consist of slight walking movements back and forth across the stage, but when we had some pauses, I guess we forgot to move around. I felt that we focused more on trying to memorize our lines during the practices, instead of improving our actual delivery of the scene. It was kind of hard on our part because our scene was not really that funny. I think we could’ve chosen a scene that had more comedy, or have made a guy play a girl character like the other groups.

When I first read-through the scene that we chose to perform, I didn’t even notice the bitter comments from Ms. Prism. It was only after we had rehearsed the line that I noticed that comedy. After I tried to get in the character of Jack, I noticed how hard he was trying to seem depressed because of Earnest’s death. But overall, being able to visually watch a performance of the piece helped me understand and appreciate the play more because I didn’t have to imagine the stage directions, and the scene as a whole, from my head. I was able to focus more on the characters and the events in real-time instead of attempting to imagine it.

Assignment 6 Maya Creamer

     At the time that it was assigned, having to prepare a scene from The Importance of Being Earnest seemed like yet another assignment that I did not want to have to worry about. The thought of memorizing the scene amid rehearsals for 12 Angry Jurors, college applications, and all the other homework we are assigned was enough to make me groan. But, despite my initial reaction, this turned out to be a very entertaining assignment, and I was impressed with how well the performances went overall.
     I think that my group's performance went about as well as we expected it to, which was fairly well. We all had our lines memorized, and aside from a few slip-ups, we delivered them well. The few times that we did stumble, I think we covered it pretty well. We knew that we had chosen a longer scene with a lot of lines to memorize, so we knew that it may be hard for us to get them down. But I think we were well prepared for our performance. I definitely think the rest of the class could hear us and clearly understand what we were saying; we did a good job of projecting our voices, and our articulation was clear overall. We could have done a little bit better with character development, especially with Gwendolen and Cecily. It would have been great to play up their mannerisms even more. We stayed in character most of the time, but there were a few instances where we slipped out of our characters and into our normal voices and mannerisms, especially when we were struggling to remember a line. I think we did do a good job of portraying the absurdity of the way the characters are acting towards each other, and for the most part I think we pulled off the mannerisms of the snooty British aristocracy. We used a majority of the stage, but there were a few instances in which one person stood in front of another, blocking them from the audience. The few props we had I think we utilized well, although my fan could have been used more to add even more to the snooty mannerisms. Overall, I am proud of our performance, given the amount of time we had to prepare, and I think the class enjoyed it.
     This performance definitely made the text easier to grasp; by being able to visualize the scenes described in the play, both through my group's performance and watching other groups' scenes, I was able to better understand what was going on. It also made what was already a very entertaining play more fun, and emphasized humorous moments that I may not have noticed had I just read the play. This performance was definitely much different from the acting I usually do; it was much more casual, and some people had scripts on stage. But it was also very fun, and made me realize that acting doesn't have to be professional to be effective, since I would definitely say that watching and performing these scenes helped me better understand the play.

T. Stewart Assignment 6

These types of performances, side projects in English classes, are often doomed to a monotonous fate on the stage. Bored students and lackluster material contribute to this, but the performances of Earnest were exceptional in many ways: they were funny, most people truly tried to develop character, and we had some great props/costumes, too.
I think my group did fairly well in terms of character development, with what time we had. The all-girl thing might've been a challenge, but I think it actually made the performance more humorous, seeing as only one of the parts was female. There was no lapse in focus or awkward silences (apart from the time where I forgot my line, my b), but that was because we had our scripts there with us to hold our hands, which detracted from the performance. This is something that could've been ameliorated with more practice, again. Projection was something emphasized throughout our practices, and I think it's something we succeeded in - nothing was inaudible, really, but maybe that's because I had heard our scene so many times that I'm biased.
Space was another item we mulled over during practice, as I was in charge of adding stage directions to the script and didn't want to confuse anyone. We tried our best to make sure backs would never be turned to the audience, and movements with Cecily and Algernon wouldn't get awkward with all the props and stuff. Speaking of props, THE SHOPPING CART was super funny oh man and all my idea btw, and the letter box was supposed to have more paper in it but oh well. Preparedness is something I already touched on with the scripts, which were the main issue. Other than that, we were fairly prepared for our entrances and exits, cues and such.
Performing this scene added to my experience of the text through various interpretation choices. Some parts of our performance I added to the script myself, like when Algernon cups his hand around his ear as if he's listening intently. Though the script Wilde wrote is detailed and everything, I didn't realize how much it left up to interpretation by the actors, or in a more advanced production, the director. Choices in character portrayal like inflection and use of space can make or break a performance, and that's something easily taken for granted.

The Book of the Dead Edwidge Danticat Biography

Keionna Bailey, Raiffa Syamil, Beck Michul, Jacob Ferguson, Kevin Lazur

Biography

Edwidge Danticat was born in Haiti on January 19, 1969 and immigrated to the United States when she was twelve years old. Her parents immigrated to the U.S. before she did as they were fleeing the oppressiveness of Francois Duvalier and his military regime, but Danticat and her younger brother stayed behind, experiencing the injustices of Francois’s son Jean-Claude. Her parents always wanted her to pursue a medical career considering the poverty stricken background that she was familiar with. She instead wanted to pursue a career in writing. Most of her stories depict the injustices and crimes in Haiti during the rule of the Haitian dictator Duvalier. One of her first novels was Breath, Eyes, Memory (1994) which is about the life of a girl after she moves from Haiti to the U.S., earning her the book club pick by Oprah Winfrey. She also wrote Krik? Krak! , collection of short stories about women trying to understand their families and relationship with Haiti.

Sources

Biography.com Editors. "Edwidge Danticat Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television,     n.d. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.

The Editors of Enclyopaedia Britannica. "Edwidge Danticat | Biography - Haitian American Author." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.

Assignment 6 Harrison Inocencio

      Theater work has been around since the  very first amphitheater was built in ancient Greece, and it has always been considered a work of great artistic significance. The purpose of plays is not only to tell a story and entertain the audience but it is also to often teach a lesson, or explain a point. Whether that point be a very deep one like the meaning of life, or something less deep like life of an average person, is up to the play writer. Plays have also been used as a satirical tool as well, as it is in "The Importance of Being Earnest". Through clever puns and settle references to real world figures and real parts of society, the viewer is able to laugh along with the play-writer and poke fun at the upper classes of Victorian times, that were so often seen in a negative light. I believe that us actually performing the play for this assignment, helped us to better understand the play and to better maybe better understand the feelings and images being attached to the Victorian upper class by watching it play out in front of our eyes between different figures rather than reading it from a script.
      In the evaluation of our own groups performance I personally though we did quite well, but their was definitely still some areas where we could've improved to push our performance above and beyond. Starting off with mannerisms, I thought we did good in that field, as I think our etiquette and even our accents helped reflect that. However some of our accents were a bit lack luster, and maybe the voices we did were a little to over the top for the style of the play. That evaluation bleeds over into the next voice statement in which I believe much of the same thing. The voices were good, but may have been a little to much and may have distracted from the main theme. Projection and articulation however, I thought were fairly clear. We spoke loud enough and even through our silly impressions I think we could be understood. Our use of space I believe, was pretty mediocre. We kept it isolated to only one portion of the stage and there was little movement as we spoke our dialogue. It was difficult to realize when we were rehearsing but now watching the recording, I can clearly see that space was something we could've improved upon considerably. Overall I thought I performance was very exaggerated and funny, but I think their were some areas that could've been built up, and even some that could've been tuned down, to create a more balanced performance.
      I think that the performance added some real life to the text, and even helped me to better understand the situation that was playing out, by being able to see the actions and events play out on stage rather than read them from the script. In the script, you had to try and create the situations based on just dialogue and a few stage directions, while in the performance, all of that is satisfied for you visually, so you can focus on the events and better understand the play.  

Andrew Hardy- Assignment 6

Any great work of art must be considered within its' context. The Cave Paintings of Lascoux and Jackson Pollock's No. 5 are regarded as great because of what they did within their society and contemporary time. Given the amount of the time we had to prepare, and the nature of the assignment, I believe our groups rendition of The Importance of  Being Earnest was a great work. With Noah's absence on the singular practice date, we had not ability to prepare for the presentation. Our lines were memorized within the context of each others, and so when our presentation did not go as planned- as first runs often do- it was understandable that we might stumble over our lines.
I do not think this detracted from the performance. What else is comedy supposed to do, but entertain? If I felt that our performances had been apathetic or lackluster, I might be harsher upon ourselves, but given the circumstances, every member of our group performed to their highest ability.  If we were to have another run through, several elements could have been improved. More elaborate costumes and props added to the humour of the other groups, and if we had more resources, that would have contributed to our group as well. Continued practice with the entire group would have insured that everyone knew their lines more accurately and we would not have relied on one another to prompt us. Being unable to practice meant that some moments dragged more than was necessary. The end of Algernon and Jack's conversation lost some of it's bite because of our amateur nature.


This assignment has not convinced me of the merits of theatre. All of the issues we had could have been addressed had we done the performance in a film format. If the only merit of theatre is in the difficulty of it, I am wholly unconvinced of it's modern relevance. Comedy and acting rely upon timing, and within the editing room, this becomes a mute point. I hope to see more plays in my future, and ones that might grant me new insight into the benefits, but this assignment left me assured that I had no interest in theatre or acting. b

MLA Help with Critical Lens

Help with formatting your paper:
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/

Help with in-text citations:
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/02/

Assignment 6

Write a review of your group's performance. Be sure to address character development (including mannerisms), focus (ability to stay in character), voice (articulation, expression, projection), space (use of stage area and props), preparedness, and overall presentation. Dissect the performance to pinpoint what made it successful and areas that could have been improved.

Conclude your review by explaining what your own performance added to your experience of the text and to your understanding of the comedy. You may also talk about your understanding of acting.

Please make the post title "Assignment 6" and your name.
ex: Assignment 6: Nathan Spalding

Due Wednesday evening by 11:59 pm.

2nd Hour Playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIqwj1EOARYAUVj5ctjypFl8T1q5itYtL

4th Hour Playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIqwj1EOARYBqibG_PHArFeB4CpdiM4r8

"Saving Sourdi" - May-lee Chai Author Biography

May-lee Chai was born in Redlands, California and is the eldest daughter of an Irish-American mother and a Chinese father. Her mother was an artist and her father was a political scientist. She has lived in fourteen states and four countries. She majored in French and Chinese studies from Grinnell College in Iowa, got her M.A. in East Asian Studies from Yale University, got another M.A. in English- Creative Writing from the University of Colorado-Boulder, and got her M.F.A. from San Francisco State University. Chai is the author of eight books, including three novels, My Lucky Face, Dragon Chica, and Tiger Girl.  The story of Nea and Sourdi continues in Dragon Chica. She was awarded the National Endowment for the Arts Grant in Literature. She is currently an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

Chai maintains a blog about her books and writing. She even replies to questions about her pieces. According one of her responses, “Saving Sourdi” was actually inspired by an actual Chinese-Cambodian refugee family that she knew when she was a teenager in South Dakota. The family opened their town’s first Chinese restaurant. She continues to explain how the characters in her short story were inspired by many different Cambodian Americans she met throughout her life. She incorporates their experiences with prejudice, bullying, cultural assimilation, and traumas from refugee camps in her writing. 

Bibliography:

Chai, May-lee. "Re: Questions on "Saving Sourdi"" Web log comment. Questions on "Saving Sourdi" WordPress, 27 Mar. 2014. Web. 27 Oct. 2015

Chai, May-lee. "May-Lee Chai Biography." May-Lee Chai Biography. May-lee Chai, 2007. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.

Medeia Sharif. "Medeia Sharif." : Interview with Author May-lee Chai. Medeia Sharif, 3 Oct. 2010. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.

Sample Paper and Resources for Lit Crit

If you would like to view a sample essay, please see the link attached below.

http://blogs.fcps.net/nwhitman/2015/10/26/ap-lit-lit-crit-research-paper-resources/

"Interpreter of Maladies" author Jhumpa lahiri biography

Jhumpa Lahiri was born Nilanjana Sudeshna Lahiri in London, England on July 11, 1967 to mother Tapati and father Amar, a Bengali couple immigrated from Calcutta. Her family moved to the U.S. when she was two years old because her father, a university librarian, opted to relocate. They eventually settled in Kingston, Rhode Island. She graduated from South Kingstown High School where her teachers called her the family name Jhumpa. Then she attended Barnard College in New York to earn a B.A. in English Literature. Following that she attended Boston University where she earned a Master's degree in English and Comparative Literature, M.F.A. in Creative Writing and a doctorate in Renaissance Studies.

Her first published piece was a collection of short stories called “Interpreter of Maladies,” a collection of short stories which won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize. She followed up in 2003 with her first novel, The Namesake, which was adapted into a 2007 Mira Nair film and returned to short stories in 2008 with the No. 1 New York Times best-seller Unaccustomed Earth. Lahiri's 2013 novel, The Lowland, was partially inspired by real-world political events.

Her novels are based on her Indian-American background and her frequent trips to Calcutta. The stories focus on the difficulties faced by Indian immigrants living abroad. Her major themes include domestic and marital discords, miscarriage and disconnect between the two generations of immigrants based in America. According to the author herself, at first she unconsciously centered her stories on her Indian-American experience. The driving force was her natural inclination to bring the two worlds she lives in together, if not in real life then on paper.

Works Cited

Johnson, Judy. "Jhumpa Lahiri. (Cover Story)." Current Biography 76.1 (2015): 56-60. Academic Search Complete. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.

http://www.biography.com/people/jhumpa-lahiri-21465687

" Jhumpa Lahiri." 2012. FamousAuthors.org 19 October,http://www.famousauthors.org/jhumpa-lahiri

"The Moths" Helena Maria Viramontes Author Bio

Bio for Helena Maria Viramontes

            Helena Viramontes was born on February 26, 1954, graduated from Immaculate Heart College, and is currently residing as a Professor of Fine Art's in Cornell University. She was one of the leading Hispanic writing figures in the 1980's and 1990's and based her writing almost solely off of her experiences growing up in East Los Angeles in the 1960's, in which she uses the hardships that she faced being a Latina Woman. One of eight siblings, her early years were had the most effect on her and influenced her works such as "The Moths", Under the Feet of Jesus, and They Came with Their Dogs. The best example of this influence is found in her work Under the Feet of Jesus in which shes takes on the persona of a 15 year old girl migrant worker, and follows her through the hardships she faced both as a woman in the 1960's through a feminist lens, and as a Latina through a Biographical lens. Born in 1954, the East Los Angeles that she grew up in was one that was pockmarked by social repression, and impoverished immigrants. California was one of the first states to see a massive immigration from Mexico since the end of the war, and it was through this massive amount of migration that it established it self as one of the fastest growing states in the nation. Immigrants were attracted to California through the promise of steady work mostly in the states many agriculture valleys, and also by the promise of cheap housing and familiar Mexican communities and culture, but with this migration also came a lot of social revolution as organizations such as Cesar Chavez, and his United Farmer's Union began to gain ground and fight for migrant worker rights. Mexican's weren't the only ones seeking change either, as other organizations such as the Black Panther's and the Civil Right's movement led by Martin Luther King also began to gain ground. In short, this rich environment of social awareness and social change heavily influenced Helena Viramontes in her childhood, and can be seen throughout her lifetime literary works. Her powerful writing influenced by this equally powerful background, are what has propelled her into textbooks and literature sessions worldwide, and is what inspires her novels general focus on the impoverished, and undocumented.

Romo, Ricardo. East Los Angeles: History of a Barrio. Austin: U of Texas, 1983. Google Books. Google. Web. 14 Oct. 2015.

Alaniz, Yolanda. "Helena Maria Viramontes." Helena Maria Viramontes. UC Santa Barbara Library, n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2015.

"Helena María Viramontes." Helena María Viramontes. Stuart Bernstein Representation for Artists, 2014. Web. 14 Oct. 2015.