SARA'S EVALUATION

From the course of September to December we have worked with one of our teachers, Sara, every Monday. We worked and developed a range of skills with her so I will be going through them today. 

Improvisation -

In October, we were given an improv task by Sara. We chose somebody else to work with and the task we were given was to recreate a memorable or fond event that happened in our lives from the past from our memory. We had around 10 minutes to prepare for our performance. I worked with Magen James and we decided to recreate one of her memories. The memory was from when Magen was in Year One and a boy called Finley gave Magen his best cover of ‘Baby’ by Justin Bieber. We chose this as it was a funny memory to recreate and would be entertaining for our class. The main part of this performance was the lyrics, but I think all in all Magen and I did pretty well! I struggle a bit with improv so it was fun to work on. 

Teecher’s Script -

In our first few lessons with Sara we worked on a script called Teechers. It’s a comedic play which tells the story of three pupils in secondary school: Salty, Gail and Hobby. The wanted to put on a play that embodies their time within school. The play itself is actually a multi-role of 3 people. While we were studying this play, we did a couple read throughs with the class. We discussed different character portrayals and how they would be performed. We also discussed multi-roles and how it worked. We worked in small groups and performed scenes from the play. 

Opening Doors Rehearsals -

For segments of Sara’s lessons we worked on Opening Doors, our first show. It is an ensemble piece which follows a variety of different stories and different timelines in life; and doors represent how we control our life. Whether we open them, lock them, close them, or walk through new ones. We developed a few scenes with Sara and she developed our line delivery too. We practiced line run throughs and how we can improve our speech for this. 

Voice Work - 

Voice work is what we work on most with Sara I’d say. We work on a variety of aspects to the voice to improve our development for performing. We focus heavily on the warming up of the voice, by practicing a range of warmups. We studied tongue twisters, and had a few lessons mastering some of them to make sure our voice is clear for line delivery, for example we used the classic ‘Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers’. This pushed the vocal ability and trained us to speak with more articulation. We also practiced voice control, with the fire alarm technique for example. This helps develop our pitch and tone and vary our vocal expressions. 

Monologue Audition -

One of the biggest tasks Sara gave us was our monologue audition. Kelly had already assigned us monologues for our self tape, and Sara wanted to do a fake audition to prepare us for a real audition. This was nerve wracking as I hadn't been to a face to face audition in a long time and although it was fake I definitely felt the pressure. I think my performance was strong in parts and I tried to perform with confidence, I used my vocal ability and projection to the best of my ability. I also tried to use my pitch and tone to fit my characters personality. I used my face and body language throughout it, however I think I need to develop my body language further. I missed a few lines out due to anxiety but I luckily didn't stumble my words and continued in character.

Strengths and Weaknesses -

One of my strengths I think is being able to work in groups and adapting to new people. Although I am generally a very shy and anxious person when it comes to new people, I am happy to work with those who I may not be with as often as the whole class uplifts each other while performing. I enjoy team work and working in groups, and somehow find it easier to work this way rather than alone as I tend to be more distracted and discouraged by myself, and that leads my to my weakness. 

My biggest weakness is my confidence. Now this is probably just me being self critical but I’ve always struggled with confidence and I try to play it off but sometimes it does take its toll on me. I think it’s mainly developed from school as I was a shy kid and got picked on so I do tend to keep hidden away out of habit, and honestly having social anxiety isn’t the best thing either. It really can affect me and it’s upsetting to say but it’s something I am trying my hardest to work on, however it will take time. All I can do really is be patient and push myself. 

Work Ethic -

In general I am pretty punctual for college. There is some off days when my buses are full or late which is frustrating to say the least because I get the earliest buses I can (seriously I sometimes leave my house at 6:30am for 10am classes) but for my own accord I always aim to be on time, and if any mishaps happen I will always message not only my teachers but classmates to ensure they’re aware. In all honesty, I have been off a couple of times. This isn’t me bunking and slacking off because I don’t want to be there, I love college and being around everyone - sometimes mental health just gets the better of me. It sucks to say but there is days where I genuinely can’t get out of bed; or can’t sleep. Like it’s 2:34am as I am typing this. I aim to keep my energy and spirits high in the classroom as best I can and try to be as enthusiastic as I can. 

3 Targets -

For my upcoming term I need to set myself some good, and realistic targets. One of them I previously mentioned will be working on my body language. I think this will push my performing and give it more variety, which is what it needs. 

Secondly, as I also mentioned I am working on my confidence. I want to try and put myself out there more but I don’t want to delve straight into it without being completely comfortable within it, as I know for a fact it will definitely botch up performances. I need to reassure myself more and make sure I’m calm and steady. Sometimes I get burnt out and it causes doubt, which inevitably causes me to freak out and I do NOT want that. It’s honestly exhausting. 

My last target is to keep pushing my projection. I think I’m getting there with my vocal ability but I need to develop it further, and I think this also has a lot to do with my confidence but hopefully I can string that all together and put on some good performances with my peers.