A Midsummer Night's Dream Play

Last night, I went with twenty other students from drama class to the Cal Poly Studio Theatre to watch a Famous William Shakespeare's play called "A Midsummer Night's Dreams", which was directed by Sam Robinson. While watching the play, I was amazed how the actors were able to make me and the audience feel like we were part of the story  and how well they were able to play the roles with long monologues and do a lot of movements in a small stage.

After the play, me and the other drama students were able to stay to ask questions to the director and the actors.  Few other people from the audience did asks how long did they work on the play. The director said that they were working on this for six month but only had eight rehearsals, but the reason why was everyone was busy with their own things, but every actor of the play made a commitment to practice their lines every single day, even they didn't had a lot of  rehearsals. The director also told us that at the end, every actor fulfilled their commitment, which really surprise me a lot.

 I was able to ask one question to the actors which was "Was it easy to play a role of your character that could the opposite of yourself". One of the actors did told me that some roles can relate to them but some can be the opposite. But they told me that being an actor is to be able to express your self in a whole new view. Its also to expand yourself with different roles to make the audience believe that your this character.

This play in Cal Poly Studio Theatre help me to understand a little bit more of my topic and reminded me why I love doing acting. I see these actors having fun of what they do to make this play entertaining and have the audience to enjoy the play. I am just glad I pick this topic and I will continue to learn more of my topic for this year senior project.

Here are some of the picture I took from last night. Sadly, I wasn't allow to take pictures during the performance, but was able to take some of the stage before the play started. Plus I was able to take a picture with one of the main actors of the play, which was awesome. But most important, I had a lot of fun.

 Waiting for the play to started in the hour.

The ticket of the play with the seat number in the bottom right.

A sign stand of the play that was right next to the entrance. 

The place where I saw the play in Cal Poly.

Pretty much a small stage where the audience can watch the play in two sides.

Had a few props in the stage.

There were couple of cloths hanging above the stage to add some effects with the stage lights.

Get to take a picture with this awesome actor, which by away was the audience's most favorite actor during the play. 

Blog 6: Second Interview Questions

Content: 

1.  Who is your mentor and where do they work?

I don't have an official mentor yet, but I am pretty sure that I will be working with a Director named Paul Larson at the Chino Community Theater. He is going to be working on the next production called "Best Christmas Ever". Also I found out that he is also the founder of the Chino Community Theater, which means this can help me a lot with my senior topic and help me come up with a good EQ.

2.  What five questions will you ask them about their background?

The five question that I will be asking my Mentor is:

1. What have you studied in your years of education and what places have you studied at?
2. What made you to become interested in theater?
3. What is the most significant experience that you had here in the theater?
4. I know that you are the founder of this theater, so I wanted to know what made you want to open up this community theater here in Chino?
5. Since becoming involved in theater, what have been some memories that you gained that you now cherish and give you a feeling of satisfaction with your work?

Blog 5 Project Reflection and Working EQ

The Pentagon: 

(1) Positive Statement: What positive thing happened as a result of what you have completed so far?

So far, I have been checking my blog and teachers's email more often which is helpful because its helping me to stay on track and finish my work on time. I'm also starting to get more involved with i-Poly drama club since now I'm part of the play that drama will be working on for the next few months for Fullerton Festival. This is going to help me to gain more experience on my topic and help me to improve my acting skills.

(2) EQ Content:  Pick a piece of research or your interview.  How has it helped you improve your understanding of your topic?

 My first source,which is an article called  "Introduction to Theatre -- The Actor.", is actually helping me understand my topic better. It talks about so many different methods and techniques that many actors have use to improve their acting skill, even that ones I haven't even heard of. It also helps defines the difference between methods and Techniques, different types of actors, and gives a brief history of how  acting techniques and methods were developed.

(3) What has worked for you so far in the senior project?

Ever since my class went to the Cal Poly Library on 9/6 to learn how to get the better article through the library website, I am now able to find better articles and books that can help me to understand my topic better than going through Google which doesn't really give me the specific articles that I need for my topic.

(4) What hasn't worked so far?  

The only thing that hasn't work so far is finding the right mentor for my mentorship. I kept looking for people who are experienced within my topic, but most of them pretty much live far away from where I live.  Luckily, I was able to get contact with the Chino Community Theater, but I kept meeting different people who work at the office on different days who kept telling me either I can help out or not. But finally, I was able to talk to the right person named Alex who was able to help me get my summer mentor and gave me some contacts of other people that I could work with. I wanted to do my mentorship there, but I have wait for the next production in October.

(5) Finding Value:  

•  What is a potential question you would like to study this year?  (working EQ)

After reading few articles, I realized that most of my articles talked about how an actor prepares for a performance or an audition. So after doing some thinking, I decided that I want to study the different methods or techniques that an actor would need to use to perform better on stage. 

So my working EQ would be:

"What is the best acting techniques or methods that an actor can use to improve their performance on stage?"  

•  What do you plan to do for mentorship?

Right now I'm still trying to find mentorship, but luckily the person I interviewed gave me some people I can contact.  My Interviewee told me that these people have a lot of experience with acting and have been working with Chino Community Theater for years. I will try to contact them as soon as possible. But in the mean time, I am still waiting for the next production at the Chino Community Theater, which starts around the beginning of October, but I'm also still looking at other places to find mentorship. When I do get mentorship, I will help out what ever my mentor needs me to do or I will observe my mentor working on a production which  I did with my summer mentor during the summer.