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.