Scene Reflection

Christeena Aaron

Acting Class

5/6/17

Scene Reflection

This week I performed a scene from the Glass Menagerie with John. John was Tom and I was Amanda, his mother. It was one of the last scenes in the whole play. The scene escalated quickly. It was short but a lot of things happened. I thought it was full of misinterpretation.  Amanda was very upset with Tom because she thought that he knew Jim was getting married and didn’t tell her. Tom claims that he didn’t know that Jim was getting married. He believes that work friends are just that work friends. People you work with for the money you get at the end of the week. Amanda can’t seem to shake off the feeling of betrayal from Tom. She thought being best friends from work meant something more than just working friends. However, I think she is mad at herself for ending up in this position too. She blames Tom for the fact that she is a deserted mother and tries to guilt him by saying that he is leaving behind a sister who is crippled with no job. It is sad to see how quickly they all fell apart. Tom can’t deal with all the yelling and screaming and quilting and accusations so he walks away from Amanda. Tom tells Amanda he is going to the movies and Amanda loses it. But than Tom tells her about the amount of yelling she does makes it quicker for him to go. Amanda so tied up in emotions tells him to go and he does go. He doesn’t come back either.

I think the hardest part about this scene was how to approach it for me. I remember it being hard to  not rush through my lines. It was hard to memorize the lines also. It took me a lot longer than I thought. But once I had them in my head it was easier to block the scene and perform it.

Liv and Michael are still working on there scene with each other which will be great.

anazlye characters

This week, I have a scene with John. In the play, I still play Amanda, the mother, and John plays Tom, my son. In our scene, Amanda has just come to know that Jim is engaged to be married. She is beyond mad at Tom for putting her and his sister in this position. Tom tells his mom that he didn’t know but Amanda doesn’t believe him. Tom told her that Jim was his best friend and Amanda considers that title to mean you know every aspect of that person’s life. When Tom tried to explain himself, he added that Jim was his best friend from the warehouse. He works at the warehouse to earn a living so he isn’t talking to Jim like a brother. He goes to the warehouse to work not to make friends. Amanda goes on about how they have wasted to much money and time on this dinner. That it was all a waste to get Laura new clothes or get a new rug or a new lamp. While Amanda is yelling at Tom, Tom is getting more frustrated by the second. The more Amanda talks, the more Tom is getting triggered. Amanda being stuck in this angered said things she didn’t mean. She said to Tom at one point to just leave and forget about her and his sister.

In this scene, Amanda is motivated by the betrayal she feels from Tom. Tom is motivated by the words coming out of Amanda mouth. Tom at first, isn’t really paying attention to Amanda or what she is saying. He doesn’t really care but as the conversation keeps going he starts to get offended and pissed off. Amanda tries to keep her cool when she is talking to Tom but the more she realizes how much of a snake he could be just makes her more and more mad. This scene escalates quickly.

Scene Reflection

My Scene Reflection

Chrissy Aaaron

Over the past week Liv and I have been practicing and preparing for our final presentation. We memorized our lines by saying them over and over in different accents. We tried the scene a bunch of different ways till we found the right one. We set up the stage so it had there bedroom, living room, balcony and kitchen. We used the whole stage. Laura and Amanda have a lot of different ideas for the future. Amanda things she is right about everything and just keeps demanding and demanding more and more from Laura.

My scene with Liv was very back and forth. It was about Liv’s character Laura, finding out that her high school crush, Jim, was coming to dinner. Laura freaked out and tried to back out of not coming to dinner but Amanda disagreed. Amanda refused to let Luara not come to dinner. She thinks it's her one chance to meet a guy and get married so she's not letting it slip away. Laura comes up with an excuse saying she's sick and can’t bare to sit at the table with them.Amanda in response says she is sick to but of dealing with her and her brother. I really liked the push and pull of this seen. I liked how dominant Amanda became over Laura in just a few lines. She is really head -strong and determined to get what she wants. Laura's character is really shy and sometimes I feel bad for the way Amanda treats her. They have a complicated relationship.





































P.S: I think we should do the Wizard of Oz for the final project.

Character Analysis

In The Glass Menagerie, my character is Amanda. Amanda Wingfield is the mother of Laura and Tom Wingfield. She is an old woman that constantly lives in the past. She lives on and through her kids as well. Her daughter is crippled. Her son wants get away from her. However, Amanda refuses to accept that Laura is crippled and prefers to call her situation a slight physical defect. Amanda refuses to accept the fact that Tom wants to leave. Tom’s father and Amanda’s Ex-Husband left her. Amanda doesn’t want to think that Tom is just like his father. But in a way he is, he wants to leave, not just her but everything. Tom wants more in his life, wants more than what St. Louis can offer and Amanda is holding him back. Amanda doesn’t really have a job and neither does Laura so Tom is the only one that pays for everything. If he leaves, than they will have no one to support them. What will they do? Amanda knows the only reason Tom is staying is for his sister Laura. He feels responsible for her. In my eyes, Amanda is super annoying. She talks and talks and talks and talks and doesn’t stop unless someone interrupts and even than she keeps going. I see why Tom is so ken on getting out of the house. She drives me crazy too. BUt maybe Amanda needs help. She might just not be well in the head. Amanda always tells the story of her 17 gentlemen callers. She imagines that gentlemen callers will appear out of thin air for Laura and show endless amount of admiration. Laura is not her mom. She is shy and keeps to herself and Amanda is trying to make her into something she isn’t She basically tells Tom he has to stay tell Laura finds a man so the that man will replace her financial support. Everything always comes back to Amanda and what she needs. She is selfish and not a good mother. She could be a great mother but she needs a lot of help.

Reflection on Silent Movie

I think the Silent Movie Project was unique and a work in progress. Everyday we changed what we were doing and nothing was exactly the same as the day before but I guess that is apart of improvising. We all had a lot of ideas. There was arguments that turned into compromises. Compared to last year we had a completely different set up. John was a father and a tourist. LIv was John’s daughter and an annoyed teenage tourist. John was trying to make this trip to Paris one for the record books but Liv was to unhappy to relate. She’s a kid and she gets hungry so they go out to eat. They don’t know the language and the restaurant they go to only has a french speaking waiter. This waiter is me and I am the nicest person. Until you cross me and get on my bad side. That is when I become angry and violent. I could have killed JOhn but Michael stopped me from doing so. Michael was the manager and he fired me on the spot. He tried to kill JOhn and Liv because he was so angry but they got away.

We had been working on this scene before Michael had come back so when he did return and we hadn’t filmed a final version yet we had to figure out a way for him to fit into the scene. I think we showed how we were feeling well through our body language. Our facial expressions could have been a lot better and more clear. Over all, I had fun working with everyone and attacking john with a chair.

Silent Movie Progress

The current project is a silent movie. The project will be performed by Liv, John and I. I miss Michael. We are creating a skit to do in the black box. The skit will most likely be about two people going to dinner in Paris. There waiter is horrible server and when one of the guests gets upset. The waiter will challenge him to a duel, using long bread sticks. That was Liv’s idea. I think we should have two people, in whatever place, sneak into someone's house and steal something. They make so much noise that they wake up the owner of the house. The owner of the house gets scarred by the noise and grabs a bat. He looks one way, while the thieves go the other way. And when the owner “goes back to bed”, BAM the lights turn on and he finds the thieves and they have an epic battle. WHo will win? The owner does but one thief gets away leaving the other to go to jail. That's my idea. I don’t remember Johns. WE all agreed on the project being a silent movie. We all had that idea in our list of ideas.

We haven’t really started on the silent movie. We are just coming up with ideas for the skit. The biggest challenge is all of us agreeing on one thing. We are a group, a team, and we need to work together. There is no I in team. Another challenge is picking who will do what or if we even want this project to be an all three project or two and one or all individual.

I hope to change they way we come to an agreement. I want to improve on some of the ideas we had because all of them are good and worth a try.

UPDATE: Okay, the last day of school before break, Liv, John and I came up with a solid plot. I am a waiter. John is Liv's dad and they are tourists in France. Liv is a grumpy teenager that wants nothing more than to not be in France but with her friends. Her dad, John, is trying to make the trip as fun and exciting as possible but that goes down hill. They come into my restaurant not knowing the language so there is major communication issues. I try to be friendly but I am weird and start playing with Liv's hair. What I serve them they don't like and I get annoyed. I serve them again and they have the nerve to throw my food in my face. I get really angry and spit in the food than before john can throw it at me we have a tug a war with it. It falls to the floor and I pick up a chair and attack John. He puts Liv in the way for protection but she runs like the wind. And I chase them both out the restaurant. (It's something like that.)

link

 https://youtu.be/Fd-XfFx9sUo

Chrissy Aaron

Mrs. Guarino

Acting Class

I really enjoyed my time with everyone for The School of Rock. We had an amazing group of people that really brought everything together. I loved playing my role as Shonelle. She was outgoing and expressed her feelings. The School of Rock was my first musical here at Cheshire Academy and I can’t wait till there is another. The energy that was brought to the show was awesome. Being backstage was exciting and nerve racking. Sam and Maddie were our moms backstage always keeping us quiet. Sam was very calm and collected backstage, which helped me try to stay calm and collected. I had to wait for my part where to go on stage and the longer you wait, the more nervous I become. I was nervous about seeing the crowd more than my acting. However, when I went out on stage I came to a realization that I couldn’t even see the audience. On stage, we ad-lib more than I thought we would on some nights. It was funny and confusing. Mr. Porter’s laugh was hard not to laugh at during scenes on Sunday. I was turning my face away from the audience to hide from it sometimes. At the end of the Sunday show, everything got really emotionally. Half of the kids I didn’t know were seniors. It was really sad to see John get his flowers. He has been a great model and friend for me. Today in class, I was talking to you about it and I almost starting crying. John, Michael, Linda, Liv and I have all grown so close. Seeing Michael and John leave will be sad.  My favorite part in the play was Stick It To The Man. It was one of those really inspiring scenes and fun one. Opening night, was the best show in my opinion. We gave it our all and it was a great experience.

Reflection on Monologue

Christeena Aaron

Mrs. Guarino

2/7/2017

Acting Class

Reflection on Monologue

I have enjoyed doing this monologue project with my peers. I think the way I delivered my monologue was good. How I pronounce my words and show the emotion behind what I am saying. My facial expressions and body language translated well into what my monologue was about. I had many takes of my monologue. I’m not sure if I wasn't prepared enough or I was so nervous that I kept messing myself up but I need to work on making sure I act as if it's my only chance and that I need to make the best of it. I need to make myself more aware of how I act. I wanted to do it over so many times because I didn’t like my blocking. Next time I need to  work more on it before I present.

Memorizing the monologue was easier to me than I thought. I just worked on it with Liv for like 10 minutes and it was committed to memory. So memorization wasn’t really a problem. My strength during the project had to do with writing the monologue. It was easier for me to have an idea in my head than just explain it than perform it. Sometimes before performing I was very awkward and it made my performance in my mind hard to watch. After a while, like Liv, it was easy to get into it. My weakness during the project was focused more on what to do with my body. My blocking was always changing. Looking back at the video, some parts of it weren’t what I wanted. Overall, I am happy with the outcome.

I learned that it's better to be over prepared than to not be sure of anything. I need to be louder and make more eye contact with the audience. Present my monologue so everyone can maybe relate to it so there’s an understanding.

monologue project

https://youtu.be/y7LzFow27V4

Monologue Progress

Christeena Aaron

Mrs. Gurino

Acting Class

1/30/2017

My monologue is about moving. Moving is the theme, whether it is focused on physically moving from place to place or up were in stages. I think what I have planned to say can be more about the emotional aspect about the experience. How I felt in the situation I was and am in. I need to work on my blocking and figure how I want to present my monologue. I know I have to stand and no sit since you said no. I need to move in rhythm with what I am saying and pause places to talk about some main points. I know that I want to walk into the scene and basically have a conversation with the audience. Even though I will be the only one talking. I think I can have more expression behind my words and more fluency. I still need to memorize my monologue and present that to you. I need to work on my procrastinating and not feeling awkward. That was a bit of a problem today.

I am

My name is christeena, but you can call me chrissy. I have been on this planet for 15, 15 years. Not always in the same place. I haven’t always been here, in Connecticut. I use to live in New York. The Empire State as some would call it. At the age of 9, my mother decided to take me away from the only place I had grown to know. Shrub Oak, New York. Now as a 9 year old, I’ll admit that I was a bit overdramatic…...I cryed and cryed and cryed, than slept, but than cyed again. The world was coming to an end people. I had to leave my friends, my house and my school. You can imagine I didn’t talk to my mom for the longest time. Blinded by anger but when I got here it was like the darkness turned to light. I had better friends than before and an allowance PEOPLE ALLOWANCE. I was rolling in dough but thats not the poit.

#2 about my first time learning to ride a bike.

#3 about all the plays I have been in

#4 my trip to disney land or israel

Christeena Alexandria Aaron

Ms. Guarino

January 11, 2015

Acting Class

This will be my second semester taking acting class. My experience in acting varies. I have been in plays and musicals since I was 3 years old. It s a huge passion of mine. One of my strengths is my presence. I think I am good at capturing the audience. I like making whatever scene or role I play interesting and intriguing for the viewers. Another one of my strengths is being able to memorise my lines. Once a person memorizes there lines, it is easier for them to play their roles. One of my weaknesses are my voice. My voice can be way too soft so people can barely hear me. I need to make sure my voice is loud enough for everyone to hear me. Another one of my weaknesses is not laughing during a scene. After getting to know everyone, it is easier not to take these seriously. It's hard to stay in character, and not laugh. This semester I would like to work on my characters. I need to focus on staying in character and not messing up scenes. Since I know everyone it is easy to break character now. I want to work on having more educated side in theater. On the take-home quiz we had before the first semester ended, I had to look up more than I would have liked to. I want to know more about the art of acting than how to do it i guess.

One goal I want to set for myself is having a well-rounded intellect about acting. I want to know what it's all about. It's easier for me to do it in the moment than to keep the information in my mind. Another goal is to play more different and diverse roles. I want to expand my experiences. I like to try more things out this semester. I like the projects we had and want more. My last goal is to be able to have a clear understanding of what I’m capable of by the end of the semester. I don’t plan on taking acting next year so I want to get as much as I can out of this semester. I look forward to working with everyone again and for the very first time Olivia Williamson. I know she will do great things and you are the perfect teacher for all of us to have. Thanks you for the future semester that is to come.

Christeena Aaron

Mrs. Guarino

Acting Final Reflection

At the beginning of this year, my goal was to become a more well rounded actress. I wanted to be able to play roles that would make me stand out as an actress. As the year progress, Mrs. Guarino taught us the art of acting. I now understand, what I need to do to play a character. You must make up the backstory and create the personality. I now understand what I need to perform a character. I need to write the lines down, over and over again till they stick to me. Once they do, I can actually perform and not worry about what I need to say next. I already know.

I believe that when you act, you're not yourself. You become whatever character you are given. That is your life now, that's who you are in the theater. One of the first projects we did was “My Real Father”. I played a character named Trina. She was an orphan meeting her dad for the first time after 18 years. Sometimes with characters, you can relate to them so creating them is easier and more real for you. Trina and I had different goals, so she was someone I had to think about from scratch.

During the first few weeks, we did a bunch of exercises that were fun. I remember it being hard to keep it together and easy to laugh and break character. You would end a scene or let us keep going, interested in what we did next. I liked how attentive Mrs. Guarino was to the class. From those exercises, I noticed  that it was hard for me to stay in character. I would get distracted from what someone else was doing so I stopped what my original goal was. From there, I wanted to focus on staying in character and doing what I needed to do.

As we came to a close during the first marking period, we did scenes where my voice needed to be louder. In life, I think I’m normally a loud person so it was weird how quiet I was when saying something on stage. At one point, we did a movement project, so I won’t have to talk. Michael and I decided to do a song from Forrest Grump. It was a good preparation for the silent movie.

The silent movie, was definitely the project I enjoyed the most this year. It was fun and entertaining. I came up with the idea to have two people in a room and then one leaves and gets locked out and the person in the room is to distracted to notice. Michael, Linda and John added a lot of depth and substance to the plot which made it comedic. Linda lost her keys and when she leaves I look through her bag to find weird music but then decide to play my own music. I am dancing around the room not aware that Linda was knocking on the door trying come in. I never notice until I turn around and find her and Michael on the floor with a broken door. I can tell they are very mad at me so I run out of the room.

The final project was probably my second favorite project this year. Linda and I sang the song “I Don’t Need Anything But You” from Annie. It was difficult to block and make up the dance routine and remember the lines but at the end of the day we got it down. It was one of the hardest projects but I think we did a great job. This year was fantastic so I want to say thank you to Ms. Guarino for a great first semester class.

blog 13

          Aaron 1

Christeena Alexandria Aaron

Mrs. Guarino

12/4/16

Linda and I have finally memorized our lines and have solid dance routine. We still need to figure out if we want to have dialogue in the begin before we start the actually song. We are planning to have Mr. Warbucks as Linda and Annie as me. I think that this will be a perfect way to end the acting semester on a high note. I am very excited.

The most difficult part of this project was  trying to find the instrumental behind it. We couldn’t find anything online  so we had to make one ourselves on Garage Band. This took a lot of time which I thought we could use in better places. I liked creating the dance routine and choosing the characters the most. Thank you, Mrs. Guarino for letting Linda and I work together.

Everytime we have practiced we end up laughing so we need to make sure we are acting out our characters and not just us. We need to concentrate better and focus so we can succeed with this project. I am confident that we know our lines well enough to be able to play off each other if one was to mess up. However, I hope we don’t have any mishaps. Now that Linda and I know each other better and are friends it is easier to just laugh if we make eye contact.

Thursday, during class we had a lot of trouble maintaining our characters. I think we didn’t feel very confident and every time someone messed up we would laugh but not even stop but continue laugh. That needs to stop. After a while of practicing we finally could contain ourselves. It honestly took the whole class time to do so but we did it.

Work-In-Progress

Christeena Alexandria Aaron

Mrs. Guarino

Acting

Work-In-Progress

For my final project, I have decided to work with Linda. Linda and I have decided to perform the song “I Don’t Need Anything But You” from the movie and musical Annie. We plan on having some dialogue before we start the song. We will dance, sing and act during our performance. I am very excited about this. I think Linda and I will have a lot of fun. Instead of playing Annie and Daddy Warbucks, we might change those characters into long time friends that have been reunited. Linda didn’t know what Annie was until today so we have a lot of work to do. Linda is suppose to be watching the movie tonight so hopefully it will make a lot more sense to her by tomorrow so we can make a plan for next week.

Brainstorming

Aaron 1

Christeena Alexandria Aaron

Mrs. Guarino

Acting Class

Brainstorming for final project

As the semester is coming to a close, I am excited about the final project. One idea I have is to sing a song I wrote. I’m not much of a songwriter but I want to do something original. It would probably take a lot of time and effort but I believe I can do it.  I would make something on garage band for the audio of the song. Another idea is to perform a song by an artist. If I don’t like or can’t come up with my own song I will sing someone else's. Since whatever I do I have to act out, I should do a song from a musical. I think Maybe from Annie would be a great idea. In the School of Rock: The Musical I know I will be singing a lot so this would be a good warm up round. My last idea for the final project is to act out a scene. I know this is something I perform by myself so it would be a monologue. I don’t have a clue has to what I would perform but I know I will have time to find something to do when I return from break. I want to act out a scene to show the progress I have had since the first day of class.

Reflecting on second scene

Christeena Alexandria Aaron

Mrs. Guarino

November 16th, 2016

Acting Class

Blog Reflecting on my Second scene

In Linda and I’s second scene we became a lot more serious than the first scene. The first one was more funny and carefree, while the second scene has a lot more emotional and feeling added to it. There are two girls, who use to be best friends, but one of them betrayed the other to hang with the popular group. That girl is trying to rekindle her friendship with her and it was difficult at first but there was progress made. Linda played the girl that betrayed my character for the popular crowd. I was more sad then angry at Linda’s character and felt the need to push her away a lot. Linda was trying hard to have a conversation with me to apologize and try to fix things. I learned that in most scenes there starts off with a problem that is usually revealed in the end of everything. I think I improved on showing more of a happy strong feeling instead of focusing on the bad. I seem to love tragedy but it's good to have a happy ending. I still need to work on the volume of my voice. I am way too quiet. I need to work on making sure I’m facing the audience during a scene. This scene was very different from my first scene because it had a more serious vibe and more depth to it.

Review of Fall Play

Christeena Aaron

Mrs. Guarino

Acting

Review of the Fall Play

On November 10, 2016 I went to see the Cheshire Academy production of James Joyce “The Dead”. The kids did a great good performing their characters. I enjoyed the play a lot. It was nice seeing John act out what we had been working on in class to his fullest potential. I was seated with Linda and Michael and we all had fun watching the unexpected twists in the story.

I liked the dancing and singing the most I think out of everything. In those scenes, you could tell the performs were having fun and showing off their talents. I liked how fast the intermission was, it felt like barely five minutes had passed before the second act. I wish there was food during the intermission. I couldn’t see every scene and not just because of where I was sitting. I liked the eye contact the actors gave when performing a serious monologue. It gave the scene more emotion and depth. I was shocked to find out that Aunt Julia died. She was a joyful presents on stage. That was heartbreaking to me, I was hugging Linda for a while after that. When John’s wife  was still in love with her dead ex-boyfriend I only felt bad for John for some odd reason. The whole acting class was very proud of John and was hooting and screaming when it was time for his curtain call.

Sometimes during the show it was hard to hear what people were saying so maybe the volume of voices could be louder. So blocking with furniture made it hard to see people's faces. It was shorter than I expected but still jammed packed with action and dialogue. For my first Fall Play at cheshire Academy I was impressed with what the Black Box theatre itself had to offer. I was worried about it being to small but it was the perfect size.

When to the play "The Dead"