Commedia Dell'Arte Research

I've been watching several YouTube videos on Commedia Dell'Arte and listening to several instructors who do this proffesionally in order to help the actors in our troupe and class to help grasp the movements and physicality of the actual commedia characters that they are portraying. Here are several videos that I found useful in order to help direct the characters and help them to become as expressive as they can while stilling improvising.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUnaNTfTzuM&feature=related
This video helps the actors associate the movements of the characters with the attitude, but also with animals, which makes it easier to visualize and use during the improvisation. I think that the comparison between a few of the characters and animals will definitely help our actors.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzGx1HbYwWk&feature=related
This scene will help with Alessa and Augusto as they try and develop their scene when pantalone will be flirty with columbina.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReMHC4JnSi0&feature=related
I found this video that could be used by Elena so she could learn how to use her body more and since she is a dancer, I don't think that she will have hard time doing so.

A Reflection on Fools

Fools was a great first impression for the new and running drama department. The actors worked very well and became very dynamic with their characters. A lot of hard work was but into this production, and as my role was to assist Ms. Morrison with anything that she needed, I wanted to make sure that the director and the actors were as ready and comfortable as possible. The first night of the performance was a huge energy booster as the audience laughed at the hard work that the actors demonstrated on stage. It started off really well, with a slight hiccup with a missed line and some thunder, but the actors where able to quickly recover and continue with the performance. However, the extended intermission left the actors to think about the audience's response and the laughter seemed to get to their head, and they started Act II with less energy and less unity than they had during the first act. This was a result of a missed line and the lights and sound crew waiting for their cue. The actor was left on stage with nothing to do for a few minutes and the light and sound crew should have reacted faster to the situation than they did on the first night of performance. If we had had the chance to do more rehearsals in center stage, than this could have been more easily prevented. But because the Spanish play was scheduled to show only two weeks before the Fools production, this wasn't possible. But the hiccup was quickly recovered as the characters worked together to great the dynamics of the story. Actors where able to connect to their characters as we got closer to opening night. They had a lot of trouble with this during rehearsal because they were worried that the jokes and their acting wouldn't be funny. This is something scary for any comedic actor because their is nothing worse than putting a lot of effort into a character or plot when the audience doesn't find it funny. But when the actors heard laughter on the first night, and every night after that, they connected to their characters almost instantly. The second night brought more problems than the first, though. Because Operation Smile did not show up, their was no need for an intermission. And I wasn't able to grab the props off the stage without the audience noticing. And since there were no black outs in between the scenes, I simply had to grab the book off the stage, along with the White Flowers that the vendor had forgot to grab before the play started. I did not notice the flowers on the table, so I wasn't able to remind her of the flowers.

Final Monologue

I was not able to publish my final monologue because I was in the GIN performance and had forgotten to post my final monologue with all of the edits. I took the advice that Ms. Morrison gave me and tried to add a more noticeable climax and a bigger falling action. So what I did was describe the shouting and the fight between the mom and Daddy that was being heard by the littler girl in the barn. The little girl suddenly becomes very angry and comes to general realization of her inner strength to stand up to her father, but she does so when she is in the presence of the police officer and is re-telling her story. It is a small window that the audience gazes through and see that she does have the strength to stand up to her father, but she has been putting it of for as much time as possible since she is afraid of him and did not know that she had the mental ability to become so angry at her father. For the actual performance of this piece, the actor would start to raise their voice and start shouting the lines and sound as if she was in pain. Then she would suddenly just stop, readjust herself as if putting herself back into the state of the little girl, and then she would say her final plea to the police officer to not "let Daddy hurt momma no more."

Daddy always told me to never to talk to people like you; that you would take me away from momma, Daddy, Little Mikey, and Bobo. Well, now that he’s not here, I guess I could tell ya. But Daddy’s not going to be very happy when he finds out what I told ya’ll. I guess I should start from the very day that I was born which was April 17, 1987. I remember because every year, I would be allowed to go outside into the field and chase Bobo. I was born in the back of the barn, Little Mikey would tell me. He was about 15 years old when I came along. He told me that momma was alone in the barn, and then came out with me wrapped in an old blanket. She named me Bessie after her favorite milking cow. But, my daddy never called me Bessie. He didn’t like the name that momma gave me. She he just called me baby. He didn’t like little Mikey either. One day when little Mikey was out on the tractor, Daddy took his shotgun off the mantle from the fireplace and when outside. I tried to follow, but he told me stay in the house with momma. Little Mikey didn’t come home that day. Daddy said he went away and just put the shotgun back on the mantle. Momma started crying and cried all night and all day. She said it’s because she didn’t get to say goodbye. Daddy didn’t like it when she cried. She would be all black and blue when she came out to milk Bessie. She wouldn’t talk much. Her mouth was all swollen and she didn’t like to come out of the bedroom. Daddy would sometimes yell for her and she came to his side faster than the cars that Daddy would watch on the television set. But after she was done washing the dishes, she didn’t come fast enough and Daddy got upset. He told me to go to the barn with Bobo and to stay there. The only things I heard was Bobo barking, and screams that I thought were mommas. She was really screaming. More than I had ever heard her scream before. There were sounds of dishes smashing and I could hear Daddy yelling mean things to momma. I could hear tearing of her hair from her head as she screeched.  And she couldn’t do anything but scream and beg him to stop, but he wouldn’t. He wouldn’t stop! (Pause) I don’t want Daddy to keep hurting momma. So I ran down the dirt road by the baker and found the man with the shiny pin, like the one on little Mikey’s old cowboy toys. And he took me here, and now I’m talking to you. Please don’t let Daddy hurt momma no more. Don’t let him make momma go away like he did to little Mikey…

My Monologue So Far...

 Life in the west isn’t a very easy one. But daddy always told me to just suck it up. So I did. Well, at least I think I did. Lots of stuff happened before ya’ll showed up. Daddy always told me to never to talk to people like you; that you would take me away from momma, daddy, Little Mikey, and Bobo. Well, now that he’s not here, I guess I could tell you. But Daddy’s not going to be very happy when he finds out that I told ya’ll. Well, I guess I should start from the very day that I was born which was April 17, 1987. I remember because every year, I would be allowed to go outside and play with Bobo in the field. It always happened on the same day every year, and it was the only day during the year that I was allowed outside. I was born in the back of the barn, little Mikey would tell me. He was about 15 years old when I came along. He told me that momma was alone in the barn, and then came out with me wrapped in an old blanket. She named me Bessie after her favorite milking cow. But, my daddy never called me Bessie. He didn’t like the name that momma gave me. So he just called me little bitch…

It isn't close to being finished because the story hasn't really progressed. This is really just the introduction. Hopefully when someone reads this, they will hint towards the father being abusive and of a broken home. In the body of this monologue will talk about the father beating her mother to death and also shooting her older brother Little Mickey.  I am slightly worried about this monologue getting longer than 2 minutes and I don't want it to just drag on. I may have to make some cuts to the intro in order to leave enough room for the story to develop and conclude, even though the conclusion will be very short. I want the speaker of this monologue, who is a young girl, to sound very innocent and to be unaware that what her father is doing to her and her family is horribly wrong. And that the audience will immediately feel a hatred towards the father for his abusive treatment of his family. But, then again, I want to somehow 'justify' his actions by somehow incorporating how he did not know any better...I don't think I will have enough time during my presentation to add this bit, but it is what I would like to have written in my final monologue. But if needed, I will cut it short for the sake of the time restriction of this assignment. 

Great Monologues

When I was doing my research for this project, I wanted to find some good examples for reference since I have no experience writing monologues. So I did what most people do and typed "Best Monologues" into Google and the first two links that I was given was "Best Monologues for Women" and "Men's Best Monologues". So, out of curiosity, I clicked on the Men's one first, and started reading about James Joyce. But, I wanted to find monologues that had been done recently, so I clicked on a link that said "Best Film Speeches and Monologues" and started looking around the different styled monologues. Then, I came across one from the movie called "Precious" and read the monologue called "Who was gonna love me?" I had already seen the movie and remember how dramatic this monologue was and how it made me actually feel sorrow for the mother that I had grown to hate throughout most of the movie. It should that the mom had no choice but to be the enemy, but it made me realize why she did the things she did. It was all because of how she felt and how broken she was on the inside. This fits perfectly with the monologue that we have been asked to write since the focus should be human rights. And this monologue is about an abusive husband and father within a broken home. This helped me see the power of monologues and made me appreciate them more. This is truly a beautiful monologue.

"Precious was a little girl...She was three, and I had been givin' her the bottle. And I was givin' Carl the tittie because my milk hadn't dried up in my breasts. But not from her, but because Carl was - because Carl was suckin' on that, and that's what kept my milk in my breasts. And I thought that was for hygiene. I did what my momma told me that I was supposed to do with my child, so that's what I did. And you're sittin' up there, and you're tryin' to judge me...But Ms. Weiss, I don't like you lookin' at me like that. You got this bitch lookin' at me like I'm some kind of a f--kin' monster...I didn't want her suckin' behind him, because that was nasty, and the things that he was...it was just nasty, Ms. Weiss."

"I-I, I had a man and I have a child. And I had to take care of both of them. Okay? Did I want Carl to touch my baby? Because I would lay my baby, I would lay her on the side of me on this pillow. And it was pink and it had this little white writin' on it and it had her name, 'cause she was Precious. And I would lay my baby on that pillow. And Carl would be laying on the other side. And then we would, we would, uh, start doing it and he reached over and he touched my baby. And I asked him, I said, Carl what are you doin'? And he told me to shut, to shut my fat ass up and it was good for her.... I shut my fat ass up."

"And I don't want you to sit there and judge me, Ms. Weiss...(hysterically) I did not want him to abuse my daughter. I did not want him to hurt her. I did not want him to do nothin' to her. I wanted him to make love to me. That was my man. That was my f--kin' man. That was my man and he wanted my daughter. And that's why I hated her because it was my man who was supposed to be lovin' me, who was supposed to be makin' love to me, he was f--kin' my baby. And she made him leave, she made him go away.... It was Precious' fault because she let my man have her and she didn't say nothin'. She didn't scream, she didn't do nothin'."

"So those things that she told you I did to her, who, who, who else was gonna love me? Hmm? Since you got your degree and you know every f--kin' thing, who was gonna love me? Who, who was gonna make me feel good? Who was gonna touch me and make me feel good like that? And she made him go away. So, when you sit there and you write them f--kin' notes on your pad about who you think I am and why I did it and all of that... Because I'm in hell."

Link to the Monologue on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L26bnfsPb2A&feature=related

Great Improv Games from Whose Line is it Anyway?

What makes good Improv

The first thing that comes to mind about good improv is creativity. A good improv presentation has several good ideas mixed into one presentation. Without creativity or ideas, improv falls flat. Another important aspect is listening to your team mates. If an idea is given and no one recieves it, people stand around looking at each other wondering what they should do. I have experienced this various times when we are doing the improv games in class. I will not listen to other peoples ideas and build on them, and then other people will not build on the ideas that I give, even if they aren't that good. But once the idea is recieved, then it can be built on to make it a better idea, or it will give enough time to the team to think of a better idea. Improv is not something that can be easily done. Because of being taught that their is always a right and wrong answer, people get scared of giving ideas because they don't want to be stared at for saying the wrong answer or giving out a bad idea. There can be either a lot of confidence in a group, or a lot of fear of running out of ideas, but once the team realizes that even though their only idea is a bad one, if they work with it, they can build on it and either make it better, or think of another idea. Once you get the hang of improv, it becomes second nature. But its getting the hang of it thats the hardest part. I personally have noticed how I am mostly instilled by fear and do not have a lot of confidence when it comes to acting. I am good and doing things by the book, such as following a script, or paying attention to detail when it comes to staging. But creativity is something hard for me because I have been taught not only in school, but also in church that their is a right and wrong answer. My biggest challenge for this unit of improv will be breaking out of that mentality of having bad ideas or that their is only one right answer. Once I am out of that mentality, improv will become much easier for me.