Blog 13: Lesson 2 Reflection

Content:

1. Positive Statement

What are you most proud of in your Lesson 2 Presentation and why?

What I am most proud of is that I get to engage the class with my lesson with so much passionate and pretended like it was a performance which help me a lot. But what I am very proud is that this is the first project that I get to be myself because in the other years of projects, I always have to do subject in groups that doesn't really get my interest and I have to limited my talking and presentation skills, since I like to move around and make the subject so interesting, when it come to presentation. But for this project, I get to work on a topic that I am so passionate about and get to demonstrate my answer number 1 to the class in my own way.

2. Questions to Consider
       a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your Lesson 2 Presentation (self-assessment)?

       AE       P          AP       CR       NC

I think I deserve a "P"

       b.     Explain why you deserve that grade using evidence from the Lesson 2 component contract.

The reason why is because I have turn in my rough and final lesson plan on time, been preparing for the lesson like asking question to teacher to see what I should do and what I shouldn't do in the lesson, came prepare on the day of my presentation, gave some valuable info of my answer, reference my mentor and some sources, made time, and was able to engage the audience,aka class, which really made me happy to do so.

3. What worked for you in your Lesson 2?

What really work for me is the lesson plan and the PowerPoint because both help me to organize my thoughts for answer number one so that way I'll know what to say to support my answer. Another thing that help me is interacting with the class, I love to demonstrate to them of the things I know like how to position yourself, what to do and what not to do and so on. This help me to give them a visual info instead of just saying it.  

4.  (What didn't work) If you had a time machine, what would you have done differently to improve your Lesson 2?

Even though I made time, I should of speak less so that way I could of have more time on the activity since I only had around ten minutes to do so. Not only that, I should also work on my speaking skill since I was kind of talking to fast and had a little bit of trouble pronouncing some words, so I should try to rehearse more like I do on performances in drama.

5. Finding Value
What do you think your answer #2 is going to be?

 For my next answers, I'm trying to use method acting to have a strong and creative mind, and to do that you use the Stanislavski method, it one of the most efficient acting tools when it comes to learning to becoming the character.  I am still learning and researching it right now, but hopefully I get it all down by the end of next month.

New Mentor and Learning Experience Opportunity

About three weeks ago, I was with my parents at their friends's house to celebrate their friend's Daughter's 21 birthday. During the party, My parents were talking with their friends, including others that they never met, until they met someone name Ginna Escobar. She is a close friend to my parents' friends for couple of years.They talk about many things like where they're from, how their life are, and so on. During that time, we found out that she is the vice mayor of Pomona, which really surprise my parents, and not only that, she actually a part time theater actress and owns a acting studio in downtown Pomona. My parents began to tell her about my senior project of what I am doing and how I a handling it. She was actually curious about my work and ask me about how much I know about. I told her about things I did in my independent component 1, mentorship at chino community theatre, my involvement in I-poly drama,  my research, and so on. She was very impress of how much I know so far and told me that she really like how I am so passionate about my work. Not only that, she told me that she will really like to have me work with her at her acting studio in down town Pomona, teach me some acting tools like technique or method, and get involved with her work. I was so happy that I get to have an opportunity to work with someone who has been acting in the professional level. She told me to call her if I am willing to take her offer and let me interview her. I haven't done it yet but I will do as soon as possible because with this Opportunity, this can help me understand better of my topic better and help me with answer 2 and 3 for my EQ.

Blog 12: Thrid Interview Questions

Here are the ten questions that I would like to use for my third interview for senior project. 

1. What technique or method can an actor best use to engage the audience's attention?
2. How can an actor best memories his/her lines?
3. What makes an actor's performance so significant to the audience?
4. How does an actor become the character that is believable to the audiences?
5. How can an actor create a significant scene that is believable?
6. What are the best ways to use techniques, generally, when working in the space of the stage?
7. What aspect of acting do you enjoy the most?
8. How long would an actor need to practice on different techniques and/or methods in order to be able to engage the audience?
9. What types of excises can an actor use to practice on techniques and/or methods?
10. If you were to work on rehearsal of a play that you are in, what technique or method would you prefer to use and why?

Blog 11: Mentorship 10 Hours

Content:

1.   Where are you doing your mentorship?

I am doing my Mentorship at the Chino Community Theater

2.   Who is your contact?

My contact is my Mentor name Paul Larson, founder and director of the Chino Community Theater.

3.   How many total hours have you done (total hours should be reflected in your mentorship log located on the right hand side of your blog like your WB)?   

I have a total of 71 hours and 30 mins of doing my mentorship at the Chino Communtiy Theater

4.   Summarize the 10 hours of service you did.

The first ten hours I did in my mentorship is helping my mentor of the two day audition for any actors who wants to be in the play. I get to see what type of actors will my mentor needs in the play and see which one of them is qualify for the role and is available for rehearsals for the next two months. And for the rest of the hours, I have been going to almost every single rehearsals for more than two months watching the actors rehearse for the play and seeing my mentor working with them to help them do better. Not only that, I also been helping my mentor to build the sets for the play and get to work a little bit on the stage lights. it actually a cool experience of actually working with not just with actors, but with rest of team who work really hard to get ready for the play on December, which by all way I also help with and watch a couple of the performance. Even though I have experience this before, since I'm an actor for drama team at school, I get see a new view of actors who work so hard with my mentor, the stage crew and help one another and I have fun with it. Even though the production of the play is over, I will continue helping the theater so I can get more experience with acting that can help me learn better of my senior project.

5.   Email your house teacher the name of your contact and their phone number confirming who they should call to verify it.  

It will be sent as soon as possible

Blog 10:Senior Project:The Holiday

Content:

1.  It is important to consistently work on your senior project, whether it is break or we are in school.  What did you over the break with your senior project?

As soon as winter vacation began, I went back to my mentorship to help my mentor to finish one of the last performance that he has be directing for over two months on the weekend and help him take down the sets since there was another play that will soon be needing the stage. I did relaxed for almost a week, but that didn't stop from doing my project. During that time, I was researching couple of sources like articles and videos that I can use for my project and help me formulate my first answer and begin working on my second one for my EQ.  

2.  What was the most important thing you learned from what you did and why?  What was the source of what you learned?

I learn that even though taking a break from school work maybe good for us to rewind ourselves, we should also always learn new things everyday that can help us learn better of our topic. During my break, I try not to think about the project, but deep down in my mind, I was so eager to learn more of my topic since I'm so passionate to learn topic. So thanks to this, I know what I will be researching my first answer that going to help me answer my EQ and began working on answer 2. The source I learn was in my mentorship. During that time, I will always see my mentor interacting with the actors so passionate. I see him going on stage helping the actors to know how they will be moving around the stage, how will they positioning them self when interacting with others and presenting their acting skills they have learn to the audience. This help me to begin working on my first answer that involves stage direction and look up other sources like videos that gives lesson on stage direction, stage position and a few other that involves knowing the stage that formulates the acting tool called the blocking technique, which is helping me a lot to understand and its all thanks to my mentor in mentorship. He also gave me advice of how he use the blocking in his own way with the actors that can help created an effective scene that will catch the audience attention.

3.  If you were going to do a 10 question interview on questions related to answers of your EQ, who would you talk to and why?

I would talk to a person name Lisa Lanier. The reason why is that she is the assisstant director during the play called "The best Christmas play ever". She also an actress and perform many plays and directed in the chino community theater  for around twenty years. During my mentorship, she gave me a lot of good advice of performing on stage and how actors would practice that will get the audience attention and she knew what she was doing when working with the actors. I would like ask her a lot more about acting that going to help me learn more better of my topic.

Performing "working" at I-Poly

So far, this month has been a busy one for me. I have been so busy of model assembly and final performances at my Mentorship, but nothing can compare to my independent component 1. As soon as thanksgiving break was over, the drama team went straight to work. it was the week of the performance and and everyone, including me, have to stay long hours on Monday and Tuesday to do the last dress rehearsals before the performance on Wednesday. During the last rehearsals, My drama teacher, Mr. Hogan, went through every scene of act 1 and 2 to make sure everyone had there lines down and all of the big choreography went well. During that time, many of the actors make some mistakes and we have to work on one particularly scene to get it right. As for me, Hogan told me that I just needed slow down my monologue since I speech so fast when it comes to presenting to someone and work a little bit more my movements of building blocks. Luckily I was getting a little bit help from my speech teacher name Diana Jimenez to help me to work on my speaking skill during my lunch time on couple of Thursdays for the last few months, which help me a lot.

Anyway, After long hours of dress rehearsals on Monday and Tuesday. The day of the performance finally came. Almost everyone one was nervous of how the play would go and Hogan told everyone that we work so hard on this and wish us luck. As soon as the play begin, I felt so much energy within me that I could do anything on stage. During the performance, every scene went very well, including the choreography scenes. When they got to my monologue scene, I felt little bit nervous at first but when I began, every line I said came out naturally for me since I was practicing my monologue a lot for the last few months. After the performance. Everyone was glad that the show went very well and everyone in the audience love it.  We then perform it again on Thursday and Saturday and it went better than I thought. Many people of the audience were giving complements to the drama team  for putting an outstanding performance. There were even some, including Mrs Ortega, who were complementing and congratulating me on my performance, which made me really happy. Even though the play is over, the drama team will be performing it again in March at the Fullerton Festival , which I can not wait for. This will give me and the others in the drama team the time to make performance even better.

Everyone is busy to get everything done before the next day of the performance. As you can see, you can see Shoemaker working really hard to get the truck prop done and it was a lot of work for him. Luckily he had help.

On the last day of the dress rehearsal, Hogan was giving some points to everyone to see if any of us needs to improve something in our scene and giving us notes of what to expect tomorrow for the performance.

Everyone on the stage was doing pretty well and the way we were singing was awesome, I couldn't believe that we can sing really good on the performance seen we kind of sing horrible during rehearsals. But everything went well.

This is the scene where I do my monologue as a stone mason.while pretending to build a wall out of brinks. The way of the position I was in, it kind  look like I was doing a hamlet scene of to be or not to be, which is kind of funny because I did a monologue of it last year. 

This was technically the ending scene of the show. This was the the difficult one for us for this scene, since we only practice it only a few weeks before the play, but before you know, it turn out very well at the end.

Another Picture of me doing my monologue.

This was the scene of end of act one where everyone comes in together to sing the song called 'If I could've been"

This was the pamphlet of our play that was given to everyone who came to the play.

Final Performances of "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever."

During the weekends of December, My Mentor, Paul Larson, and the whole group of the play had been busy of working and performing the play that they had been working on in the last two months. They made sure that everything went smoothly during the play and everyone new exactly what they were doing. As for me, I pretty much stay back stage to see if they need any help, but most of the crew got everything under control. Not only that, I was able to observe the actors getting ready before going on stage and what they need to do. Some of the actors, including My mentor's assistant directors, Dona Rice And Lisa Lanier, gave me some helpful acting tips that I can use to do better in my acting skills and help me to answers my EQ later on. Finally on 12/21, which was the last performance of the play, my mentor decide to let me be up in the light booth to see a better view of the play. During the performance, I get to see how well the actors were doing on stage and by the looks of it, they have really improve a lot ever since the rehearsals. I did notice that some of the actors forgot to say a few lines that I remember during the rehearsals and one of the actors sound sick, since that actor was sick, but they kept going on through the play and didn't stop which really amazes me of how actors would continue on and act like nothing happen and the audience will never know, which is all part of being an actor.  What really hit me was at the end of the scene where they talk about what Christmas is really all about and it hit me right in the heart and I kind of feel a little emotion of how well the actors were describing of what Christmas is all about. After that, everyone congratulate one another and my Mentor gave a speech to everyone of how well they have done since the last two and a hal months  and wish  us a merry Christmas. Even though the play is over, I am going to continue on helping the chino community theater to get more better understanding of acting and learn more from my mentor who is willing to help me to continue in the theater.

Just to let you know, I was unable to take picture of the performance of the play, but luckily my Mentor was happy enough to send me some pictures of the performances of the play that were taken by professional photographers that he hired, so yeah that was pretty awesome of him for doing this for me.

Usually before they perform, it is tradition for the whole team of the play to gather round to form a circle to do what my mentor call it the "energy circle". what it is that everyone forms a circle and hold hands. My Mentor dose is that he starts the energy circle by squeezing the the left hand of the person that s next of to him and continues to do the same thing to the other. once everyone heads gets there hand squeeze and comes back to my mentor, everyone lift up there hands to the air and make a screams to cheer everyone up. My mentor told me that the purpose of doing this is to fell everyone energy so that way they'll have the confidence to do better on stage. 

My Mentor gave a few points of what to do during the performance and not to be worry if the performance doesn't go well. And he also said the most important thing while doing a play is to have fun, which made everyone cheer up.

Evryone in the light booth, including my mentor who is wearing the red shirt< are making sure that all sound and lights are working fined before the performance begins.

Looking down of the audience and it looks like its a full house.

This is suppose to be act 1 scene 1 where these two actors playing two characters name Alice (left) and maxine (right) who were complaining about the trouble making kids called the Herdmans who cause a lot of trouble in the neighborhood. The way they were speaking to one another makes the audience believe that they are actually complaining. 

This Act 1 scene 6 where the Heardmans plan to make the Christmas Pageant with there own ideas, which could lead to disaster. I like it how they were presenting to the audience without turning there backs and make it look like they are huddling together to share there ideas.

This is one of the scene of act 1 where the adults were worrying about that the heardmans are in the play and might ruin it. I like it how the way they were expressing how they feel and look like they are miserable and concern, which is good acting since they they want the audience to believe.

This was the ending of the play where every actor comes out to the stage to bow down to the audience and here the audience applauding to them. If you are wondering what they are doing, they are waving to the audience.

During 15 minutes of intermission, My mentor, who is the one with the red shirt, perform a ukulele Christmas songs with a group of people he was working with for a while. It true of what some of the people in the theater told me, he is a very talented man. 

On the next day after the the last performance on 12/21. I help my mentor and the team to take down all of the sets of the play since there was another play that will be needing the stage soon.

This is the posters of the play which turn out really great. I'm sure going to miss the people I work with in this play and made friends, but I am going to continue helping the theater and hopefully see some of the people I work with and make new friends.