In our last Humanities project of the year, we wrote plays after reading Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, and part of The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. Then, we had those plays critiqued, and eight of them were chosen to be performed by students on the BIG STAGE at CSU San Marcos. There were no constraints on the subject matter of the plays; I performed in a comedy about boxing bears! My play is slightly more serious, about two college Freshman in Germany during 1944, and a recruiting Sergeant who visits their university. Unfortunately, it was not chosen to be performed, but here's a link to my script if readers are curious.
Writing my play was probably my favorite part of The Playwright's Project, because I had known what I wanted to write about since a playwriting homework assignment over Spring Break. I was really enthusiastic about bringing out the characters in my piece, and my play was designed to mainly draw the audience in through the characters. I didn't have any major difficulties in the original writing, but I was so enthusiastic that I think I got carried away, and I had some extremely long speaking parts and a couple of rather dry places. I did my best to fix those later, but my characters' monologues were still longer than most when I was finished.
Of the eight plays chosen, two were comedies and six were dramas. All of the plays, sets, costumes, and marketing were done by the students in my class. I consider myself lucky to perform in one of the two comedies: Bear Knuckles, by Dominic Dudley. This play is about two bears: one, Barry, is evicted from his cave and must box with a lumberjack to get it back, and the other is his slightly boisterous friend. I performed as the friend, Ernie; Nate Bogdan performed as the main protagonist, Barry, and John Contreras performed as the lumberjack, Yorgen. Our director was Miguel Mendoza, our costume designer was Celina Enriquez, and our set designer was Tyler Gange.
I really liked playing as Ernie, mainly because he is a boisterous character and I am rather quiet in reality. I enjoy acting in general, but I prefer being handed characters that don't resemble me in any way. There are a lot of aspects to me, as with any other person, but I generally try to keep most of them inside, so that I'm never overly boisterous, or cruel, or admittedly adventurous. When I'm acting as a character that I'm nothing like, I have a chance to let those facets see the light of day, while still keeping everything in good humor. Thus, Ernie was practically the best character I could have been chosen for out of all eight plays. When I was practicing to perform with my group, my largest challenge was trying to keep my movements natural and not robotic. As previously mentioned, I'm never boisterous, so while I enjoyed the chance to be boisterous, I don't have any practice doing so.
Writing my play was probably my favorite part of The Playwright's Project, because I had known what I wanted to write about since a playwriting homework assignment over Spring Break. I was really enthusiastic about bringing out the characters in my piece, and my play was designed to mainly draw the audience in through the characters. I didn't have any major difficulties in the original writing, but I was so enthusiastic that I think I got carried away, and I had some extremely long speaking parts and a couple of rather dry places. I did my best to fix those later, but my characters' monologues were still longer than most when I was finished.
Of the eight plays chosen, two were comedies and six were dramas. All of the plays, sets, costumes, and marketing were done by the students in my class. I consider myself lucky to perform in one of the two comedies: Bear Knuckles, by Dominic Dudley. This play is about two bears: one, Barry, is evicted from his cave and must box with a lumberjack to get it back, and the other is his slightly boisterous friend. I performed as the friend, Ernie; Nate Bogdan performed as the main protagonist, Barry, and John Contreras performed as the lumberjack, Yorgen. Our director was Miguel Mendoza, our costume designer was Celina Enriquez, and our set designer was Tyler Gange.
I really liked playing as Ernie, mainly because he is a boisterous character and I am rather quiet in reality. I enjoy acting in general, but I prefer being handed characters that don't resemble me in any way. There are a lot of aspects to me, as with any other person, but I generally try to keep most of them inside, so that I'm never overly boisterous, or cruel, or admittedly adventurous. When I'm acting as a character that I'm nothing like, I have a chance to let those facets see the light of day, while still keeping everything in good humor. Thus, Ernie was practically the best character I could have been chosen for out of all eight plays. When I was practicing to perform with my group, my largest challenge was trying to keep my movements natural and not robotic. As previously mentioned, I'm never boisterous, so while I enjoyed the chance to be boisterous, I don't have any practice doing so.