short and sweet. / Monday, 31 October 2011 @ 17:00
We started class today by discussing what we liked and didn't like about a play that majority of us went to see in KLPAC over the week. I especially liked Falling Elijah and Birthday. There were some acts that were pointless too. Some were also overacted and was not very convincing. However, I thought they all did very well for a bunch of "amateurs".

After that, we all had to present a short play in groups that we were previously grouped into. I was in the same group as Victoria and Zubin. We came up with mother-father and daughter scene where I was the rebellious daughter coming home late at night but asking for a car from my parents. However, we didn't managed to perform it today due to time constraints.

However, Rueben, Chris and Edwin did they act and it was very entertaining and funny! I loved how almost everyone in our class knew which characters we all played best and in the end, they pulled it off really well.

1, 2, 3, fight! / Monday, 24 October 2011 @ 18:30
This morning, Ms Pat gave us all the comments that she had. When it came to my turn, she said that I could have been more convincing but I did pretty well given the circumstances. I was wearing heels and I had a lot of work with the ongoing event that Grapevine was organizing. Still, it was no excuse and I could have done a lot better.

We carried on with playing a game which required us to argue. I paired up with Jia Yun and we were told to demonstrate our argument. It was not obvious to us, but to the audience, they could see who had more authority and between the both us, we had same amount.

A good example was Kai Lin's and Sue Quen argument. Their first attempt was not that good as they had too much physical movement. In their second attempt, I could clearly see that Sue Quen had more authority over Kai Lin as she was very calm throughout the argument and spoke firmly. Kai Lin on the other hand was a bit more agitated and frustrated.

this is it. / Friday, 21 October 2011 @ 22:30
This was it. I woke up this morning feeling butterflies in my tummy. I had recited my script over and over again the night before, first thing when I woke up, when I showered and brushed my teeth, during breakfast and on the way to college. I was sure that I had it all down to the last period.

When I reached the Experimental Theater, I saw that I was the 4th person to go. Taking deep breaths, I decided to keep my mind off it by talking to Rueben and Chris. However, it wasn't a very good idea as Chris was so edgy and nervous that it made me feel even worse. I decided to just pace the room and talk to random people.

Finally, we started. I think Chris and Weng You did very well. When it was my turn, I asked Ms Pat if I could wear my favourite high heels. I could see surprise on her face but she agreed and told me to make sure that I am comfortable in them. The reason why I wanted to wear heels is because I have always felt more confident in high heels. I figured that I would be more in character if I had the confidence.

I think I did alright. I managed to stay very grounded and moved with ease even though I was in 4 inch stilettos. I messed up my lines at the end a little bit, but I managed to stay calm and continue till the end. I wished I was more convincing and had more practice time, but I only had myself to blame.

The rest of the week, everyone delivered their monologue. I was awed by everyone, including the students who were previously quiet and not that outspoken. I think everyone deserves a great big round of applause and standing ovation!

be awesome, be Marilyn. / Wednesday, 12 October 2011 @ 21:30
This whole week we were going to practice our monologues!

I had not completely memorized my script and I still wasn't sure how I wanted to play my character. On Monday, a few of us had a chance to recite our monologue with our script in hand. Many of them did very well, I loved how everyone had their own character and different styles although they had the same script. I felt especially awed by Melissa who teared when she was doing her monologue. I felt goosebumps all over me and felt very touched at the emotion that she was portraying. Everyone applauded her and I didn't think she could do any better than that. Overall, everyone did really well and I was driven to do even better myself.

The next class, we learned how to incorporate the 5W's into our monologue so that we could get into character better. For example, why are you delivering this speech? This refers to the reason or the message that the character wants to deliver. And then we were given the chance to break our script into sections. We were told to practice and rehearse our monologue with different volumes and tones for each sections and to use them as breaks in between. When I had the chance to practice my monologue in front of everyone, I think I kinda blew it cause I was basically reading off my script. I was very unprepared and nervous and I don't think there is any excuse. Even Ms Pat was upset with me as I could feel her disappointment in me when she commented on my performance.

Other students had the chance to practice throughout the week. I was very impressed with all my classmates and I decided that I didn't want to disappoint myself anymore and started to work really hard on my monologue!

speak your heart. / Wednesday, 5 October 2011 @ 18:02
Today in Theater we learned h o w  t o  s p e a k  v e r y  c l e a r l y.
Hehe, yes, that's right. We started out by doing a lot of mouth exercises that will help us with our speech and pronunciation. We pulled our cheek left, right. Used our tongue to push this and that. It was quite amusing actually. After that, we recited Life's Brief Candle with perfect pronunciation. We paid attention to all the Ss and the Ds and "the"s. Funny how people take advantage of not pronouncing our sentences properly although we speak the language on a daily basis.

Later on, Ms Pat handed out a sheet with different tongue twisters on them. Some of them were "I like New York, unique New York, I like unique New York". We separated into groups according to a tongue twister that we chose. I went with "Rubber baby buggy bouncer" because it was short and simple and quite easy to pronounce. Then, Ms Pat would point at the different groups and we had to simultaneously recite our tongue twister. Some groups incorporated rhythm into their twisters and other said it really slowly. Everyone in the group had to pronounce clearly and as Ms Pat pointed around the room faster and faster, we had to make sure that our pronunciation was perfect every time. The point of this game was to train our tongue and mouth to be perfect in speech.

After that, we all were told to take out the picture that we were previously instructed to bring. I initially wanted to bring a photo of my family, but I had forgotten all about it. Hehhh. I looked through my wallet and found the Polaroid picture my best friend, Danielle and I took recently. I decided to go with this picture and do an impromptu presentation. After all, it was only two minutes.

Many of my friends brought pictures of their pets and families. I smiled thinking about how everyone had so much love for the people and things around them. However, I still did not know what to say about Danielle. When it was my turn, I stood in front and started by saying how I met Danielle.

I mentioned how she was always there for me and was going to continue about how we went through a lot together. But suddenly, I felt an overwhelming feeling in my throat and suddenly broke down. I don't know why this happened but I just know that really loved Danielle as my best friend and talking about how much she means to me made my cry. I couldn't go on, and Ms Pat allowed me to sit down.

The point of this exercise was so that we would learn to use our emotions into acting. We had to learn how to access these emotions and then snap out of it as easily as well or it might overwhelm us. All this could be applied very well in acting.

speak gibberish. / Monday, 3 October 2011 @ 21:57
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah" "Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"

Those were the sounds that we were making in Theater today. We took reaaaaaally deep breaths and recited the vowels A E I O U one by one. By the end of the whole exercise, my diaphragm was all worn out. We also massaged our faces, to reduce the tension :p

Later, we had an even better exercise. We spoke in gibberish! We had to stand in two lines across each other and start talking nonsense! :)

It was actually very enjoyable. We were allowed to us body language and movements to talk gibberish. I partnered with Sue Quen and it was really funny as we pretended to argue while using gibberish. Then we were asked to act out while talking gibberish. We had to use movements to portray a story. I supposed to purpose of this exercise was the teach us how to use body movements and learn how to act without a script yet still be able to convey a message to the audience.

Then we had one last exercise which involved us shouting at each other! No no, there was no violence involved. We just stood in the same manner as before, and whispered something to our partner. Then we take one step backward and continue or conversation. I was partnered with Anne for this one and by the time we were at different ends of the room, we were shouting at each other and struggling to hear what the other person was saying.

By the end of the class, I almost lost my voice! :p

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