The final post.

Looking back to the beginning of the semester and comparing it to my knowledge on acting now, I had no idea how much work went into acting. You have to memorize your lines, movements, portrayal, and everything in between. There are so many different types of acting and different ways for one to act in different types. I have been fortunate enough to take both acting and public speaking, and sort of strengthen the right side of my brain through these courses.

I am a very STEM based thinker, so the artistic expression is very difficult for me. One of the original reasons I chose this class was for these blogposts. When we would write about our character or do posts about our scenes it definitely helped me with writing, which is a skill I will use all throughout my academic career and throughout life. Though I still struggle with writing I have definitely improved by being able to sort of freely get my ideas out, which I’ve noticed has helped me to improve in papers and written assignments in other classes.

Memorizing was probably my biggest downfall in this class. I wish I had put more time and effort into memorizing in order to execute the best possible scene I could. I feel as though when I wasn’t confident with myself knowing the words, I wasn’t able to perform at my best. If I had just put in a bit more effort to practice lines and maybe run them outside of class with a family member, maybe I could’ve memorized better and done better in my scenes. I did do this for the plane crash scene by writing the lines of the people around me and then writing in my lines in relation to where everybody said there lines. I think that was my best performance of the semester (so far- I still have one more to go!) and it is because of the effort I put into it, which just goes to show that the old saying “you get what you give” is right, you get out what you put in.

I’m not exactly sure where I am going with all of the skills I’ve learned in this class. Short term, I’ll probably utilize it for the winter musical next year, which I plan on participating in, and long term I think I am going  to be able to step out of my comfort zone with more ease and speak rehearsed pieces easier. This is a good skill for any public speaking environment or just for life in general. It’s really interesting and surprising how much the way something is said can change the delivery, and now knowing things like that I feel that overall the way i have learned how to speak to an audience and know how to change how I am portrayed is going to help me out very much in the long run.

Mrs. Guarino- here’s a link to a bunch of thank you cards because I want to say thank you and we have to include a link and I have no idea what else to link to.

https://www.hallmarkecards.com/ecards/collections/thank+you

A dramatic puppet

So far the audition piece I am involved in has been really challenging. Abby and I are doing an intense and dramatic scene, and we are doing it with sock puppets. It is a dialogue between an old man and a killer who is debating whether or not to to take the old man's life, and thought the old man doesn't know this, he can sense that something is off.

The main challenge for me is functioning with the sock puppet. I didn't realize that there's a specific way you have to hold it, to breathe with it, you as a person have to look a specific place, and there are so many other complications. It really is a struggle to do all of that and also convey emotions and memorize a script. This character is nothing like I have done before, with the intensity and stumbling awkwardness. The puppet is definitely the most challenging part of the audition piece, as I am nowhere near being comfortable with it, as a matter of fact I'm a little embarrassed working with it, so this is a total stretch for me as an actor and it is pushing me way past my comfort zone, and a little bit farther than that.

The growth for me as a performer are in so many ways. This is definitely a skill I have never had, and now I can say that I'm able to do a puppet performance, and it is a different type of character than I've done before. The old man is a passive personality, as many times throughs the script you can see this by him trying to change the subject and avoid conflict at any means, as well as being defensive as to not offend the other character. This is different from the dominant, powerful characters that I have portrayed already this year, whether the emotion is fear, numbness and hatred, or annoyance. Those are all very oppressive of the other character in the scene or just dominant personas. The passive timid portrayal of the old man will be a huge challenge for me, especially combined with the puppet.

My goal for this performance is to somehow find the shy timidness within myself and portray this through the puppet. I think that the wall activity that I did with Dayna and Abby for the last performance could help, except this time instead of getting more dramatic with certain words, I could get more frightened at them. For work with the puppets I can just practice a ton. I can also make them sing show tunes. Abby suggested that and not only does it sound absolutely hilarious it is so fun to do. To do the dramatic portion of the old man and to get that emotion from the puppet I'll sing les miserables. I can also say things in a dramatic tired voice to achieve this.

Because I think that puppets singing show tunes are the funniest thing on earth as well as the best thing a puppet could ever do , here is the muppets singing bohemian rhapsody. Side note: yes I realize this isn't technically a show tune, but it's the muppets!!!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tgbNymZ7vqY

This old man

My character is an old man who runs a convenience store. The other character in the scene with him is a man who is trying to get something and is prepared to kill anything and anyone that gets in his way. As far as my character goes, he is a passive person who seems to be trying to avoid conflict despite being put in an uncomfortable position. For costuming and set I imagine my puppet to be dressed as an old man. Possibly wearing overalls. For blocking, I think the characters will be generally static, however facial movement when speaking will involve a lot of moving. For this performance I honestly hope to have fun learning something completely out of my comfort zone and strengthen a different sort of section of acting. 

Making it up

This week for our class, we spent time looking at what improv is and playing some games so that we could learn the fundamentals behind it. I remembered hearing that last year’s winter musical was mainly improv (except probably the songs of course), but I didn’t fully understand until I tried to do improv myself just how hard it is to come up with something to say when you are put on the spot. One of the biggest points I remember from our lesson is that we can’t say no to anything a fellow actor says at us, because it ends the scene. So if someone were to look at me and ask, “Why is your hair standing up straight” I would have to play along instead of denying this and saying, “No, it’s not standing up.” Though I get how important this is, I still think it is very difficult because during one of our activities was basically interacting two different scenes, and some people would say things that were absolutely absurd and you had to go along with it. This was very hard because you had no idea what your partner was going to do and your partner had no idea what you were going to say, and once you turned around you both had to interact with each other in a way that made sense. 

The most challenging activity was the one with two people in a scene having a different objective. This was extremely difficult because while you were trying to convince them one thing, they were trying to convince you of another, and this got very confusing.

My favorite part of the improve was how funny some of the interactions turned  out to be, like when Dayna said “It’s not littering if we’re the only two people left,” and her reaction was so great that it looked like you could’ve pulled it straight out of a movie. The whole comedic acting was almost scripted, but the fact that it was just things that she was making up as she went along were what made it so much more genuine and realistic. Another funny scene was when I approached John asking for all sorts of toys, a pony, a puppy, and things like that for Christmas while also calling him Santa, and he responded asking me what I was doing in the men’s room.

Though many funny things can come out of improvised scenes, this has its downsides as well. Because you don’t know what to expect, you can’t prepare your reaction and not be surprised when someone says something hilarious. For an example, there was a point where Abby asked me a question that was absolutely hilarious and I just couldn’t contain my laughter.  I need to work on this because during an actual performance with an audience, such as what they did for Spelling Bee, you can’t break character or stop the scene. In the famous words of somebody, “The show must go on.” 

Live long and prosper

- http://www.startrek.com/database_article/spock

Reflecting on the Dramatic Reflection

As a somewhat reflective monologue-like scene, this dramatic scene was probably the scariest scene that I have ever done. One thing that changed the scene more than I though it ever could was lighting. It surprised me how much turning the lights off gave the entire scene a depressing mood. The little lanterns that Dayna, Abby, and myself held made the scene more mournful, and though we didn't turn them off a the correct time and made it in sync, it still looked neat how they were scattered, and surprisingly it worked out in a certain way where they went off in the order of final solo lines, as Abby spoke solo for the final time first, Dayna second, and myself third. This is the order that the lights went off in the filming, which thought it was a coincidence; I think it worked out in a nice way. 

In preparation for the scene, my group did a few acting exercises such as saying our lines as we pushed off of a wall, and though they were a bit wacky at the time, I do think that they helped out overall with the exaggeration of specific words and the connection of emotion to words. We did a few other activities that worked on similar things which were very helpful.

Timing was a bit of a struggle with this scene, as it took us FOREVER to find a scene that we could all agree on. Though it took forever and at first I was a bit hesitant about doing this scene, in the end I do think it was a suitable choice for both myself and the group.

As far as my performance individually went, I feel that this is the best scene I have done so far.  Though there is definitely still a lot of room for improvement, I think that my emotional portrayal as well as line memorization were very good, especially in comparison to my other scenes that I have done in this past semester. Writing the lines out in relation to lines spoken before and after was the tool that I used for memorizing, and it definitely worked really well. I do want to work on improv (which just so happens to be the next unit) because I remember during filming at one point that there was a line or two that was jumbled over and it confused everyone. The skill of improv would be really useful in a situation like that because during an actual live performance you can't sit there in an awkward silence for a long period of time, and by doing improv you can think on your feet and make it so those awkward silences aren't as awkward.

Unfortunately I was unable to see other group's final performances as they were being filmed because my group was out of the way practicing. I did enjoy Lisa and Duncan's performance as well as that of Jack and John. Both fit into the dark theme that played a constant in this performance. 

http://youtu.be/M9ZuMBCKlcs

Improv troupe

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQBQjF5OU1U

Peter Pan

Over the weekend I had the privilege of seeing the play "Peter Pan" preformed by the students in the play at Cheshire Academy. It was very cool how with all of the new concepts I have been taught through acting class, to see how they are applied to a live performance, and it was also quite fun for me to be able to recognize them and sort of say to myself, "look! They're fanning out so the audience can see them better!" I may have also whispered that to my friend who was sitting next to me a few times as well. Some instances in which I noticed these things were when the lost boys were talking, they would fan out as opposed to the normal circle formation the average group of people would talk in. With speaking, everyone remembered their lines and cues amazingly and everyone projected so that you could hear every single word they said. I thought it was absolutely hilarious how there were teachers brought in and that played some of the Pirates. My favorite part of the play was definitely the attitude Amalia's character (I think it was John) had, and how even though some of the ideas he presented were completely insane and I would've busted into laughter with, however she kept her cool and did an amazing job! The audience interaction part was absolutely perfect- when Peter asked them to clap it started out slow and he begged and it got louder. I am still completely oblivious to wether that was improvised or scripted, but it was fantastic to see an audience react with so much energy. The staging of the play was very obvious, however I think it gave an insight into the reality of the play- how this was not actually a magical adventure where things appear out of thin air, but more so a figment of their imagination. Overall, I think this play was fantastic! I would definitely go to see it again, and am looking forward to seeing the play this winter season.

Character analysis

My character, woman 1, is recovering from a traumatic incident. I get from her that there is a certain disconnect that she puts up trying to avoid the optic, but in this situation it all falls down. She has just witnessed the aftermath of a plane crash, which is equally as traumatic as witnessing the happening. Compared to the other two, I feel that she is the most emotionally strong, however something like this still causes her to break. With the emotional strength, the breakdown is going to be twice as traumatic, and I have to convey that. I can do this by raising and lowering the volume of my voice, shedding a tear or two, wavering my voice, and showing the emotion in my eyes. 

Dramatic Acting Scene

http://youtu.be/sT8wMBeVffk

Here is the YouTube link to the dramatic scene I will be doing

Over the edge

Here's the link to the scene: http://youtu.be/Q4T0lWOB1Ww
John, Lisa, and myself preformed the scene linked above, and oh boy was it interesting. There was a lot of mad libbing and forgotten lines, but I think in the end it turned out pretty well.
I thought that it would be easier to memorize because you were going off of what other people were saying, but it turned out that it was actually a lot harder! Instead of totally forgetting my line, I was occasionally waiting for a cue that never came because either I was waiting for a specific word and instead someone used a synonym, or someone took my line... Oops. I do think that some of our weknesses in the scene were over winging it. There was a point where it was hard for me as an actress to locate where in the development of the plot we were due to all of the added "stuff," which made the scene as great as it was. What I do think would have helped this would have been to mark down the extra things and make note of them in the script.
One of the strengths in our scene was definetly the portrayal of our characters. There is no doubt as to what (drunk) personality traits each character has, and that is what made the scene so fun. For instance, Lisa was constantly laughing, which made her seem even more intoxicated. John's costume made it impossible to take him seriously, which is very funny because he was the most serious character if all. He did a great job of portraying frustration without just continually yelling, which is what he was doing and struggled with during read throughs, so he definetly developed his character well. Personally, I do think that I could have done a less awkwardly acted portrayal of the character, however I am overall pretty pleased with my performance in this scene.
Another thing I disliked about the scene was the cheesieness of the beginning.  I thought at some points the intro, which was entirely improvised, was a bit weird an cheesy, and also didn't do the best job to set the scene. What we were trying to portray was very hard to without tons of props and a real cliff. Taking into consideration the fact that it was improv and what we had, I do think it was pretty good, I just wish we could've made it better.
Overall, I really liked doing this scene- it has probably been my favorite project so far in this class. I'm looking forwards to doing a scene with a more dramatic edge for the next project. Also- fun little thing to find in our video of me making a mistake (in true Alexis nature), we were jumping from one scene to another and I thought we were pushing the car over the edge, so I pretended to push the car. We weren't supposed to be pushing the car. Good luck finding this little hidden gem of an out of place struggling face in a scene...

Character and Scene Study

My character Brittany

Late 20's early 30's

Single 

Only child

Lives with friends

Works in retail

Was given a high education but mainly took it as a joke

New Jersey

Motivation- we are all drunk

Cedric was driving

Was the least drunk, but still very much 

Swerves and hits a hitchhiker 

Don't want to go to jail

"Jail doesn't have a nail salon"

With this scene, I am trying to portray a character similar to the type of person I never want to be- a grown up Regina George who is living off of daddy's money and looking to marry into more money, but other than that is going nowhere. I think this scene is very fun to preform and it is quite funny. 

Moving forward

I was worried about showing emotion and was confident about memorizing lines, which is quite ironic because I believe one of my strengths so far has been showing emotions and one of my weaknesses has definitely been memorizing lines. I think that this is because I was so relaxed about memorizing lines and now I know that the lines are what I need to focus on. With the next performance there are a lot of lines and I think that having other  actors to react with will be very helpful to me because in the monologues I struggled with feeding off of myself and my memory, which obviously didn’t go too well as the whole memorization part didn’t exactly work the majority of the takes. I do think one of the things that have helped me in this class is the great support from my fellow classmates whose experience and talent always amazes me, and there support is so immense that it has helped me to strive to be a better actress.

This class definitely helped me in preparation for the audition for the winter musical as I now fully know my strengths and weaknesses and can work to improve them in the second quarter. I definitely want to work on memorizing both actions and lines. I can do this by practicing more at home by running them and listening to them.  I hope to prepare for the audition this upcoming winter season and to know what to expect as I have never been in a real audition or performance other than sixth grade which I prefer not to count.  In summary of these I think I am going to resolve my goal to focus on the broader view in preforming as I tend to focus on miniscule details very often which I do think ultimately is my downfall.

I also hope to get a better understanding of what the acting industry is like. I hope to be able to understand more than just the acting portion of performances: such as behind the scenes with set design or hair and makeup. These are very important aspects of acting as without them productions just wouldn’t be the same.

I am very excited for moving forward and to see how the next few projects go. The next project I will be working with Lisa and John, both who are very talented, and we will be doing a scene called “Over the Edge” by David Dalton and Chad Schnackel. It is absolutely hilarious, and I cannot wait to see what both of my partners bring to the performance. Below I have put a link to the script. It needs a bit of editing, as john is a guy, not a girl, however that is a quick fix and we have pretty much decided to just change the name Cathy to Carl and go on with the script because Cathy was depicted in a more masculine manner anyhow. So here is the script we all agreed on!

http://hollywoodactingworkshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Over_the_Edge_-_3_women.pdf

-Alexis

Shhhhhh....... The film is about to start!

The silent movie film was certainly much easier than the projects previously done in terms of memorization as well as struggles with performance and takes. With previous assignments it was necessary to start over after every single mess-up and mistake even if it was just stuttering over a single word. With the silent movie however, it was just cutting a section out, for instance when I bent over to pick up the fake dentures and my wig came off and I sneezed, we just continued filming and were able to cut right back to where we needed to go- it also just so happened to allow a hilarious blooper reel. There was also no need to memorize lines, as the movies were silent. All that one needed to know was their actions in relation to the other actors and actresses, which made it easy because there were obvious cues, such as after Lisa throws her paper at me I lift the cane and try to hit her with it. I found this easier than monologues because there were other cues to reach off of other than the line that I had spoken before, and I look forward to seeing how this helps in the single scene with the feeding off of each other.

In this assignment I think one had to be very overdramatic with every single movement and every single look or emotion that crossed over their face, for instance in order to portray anger you could not just furrow your brow, you also had to raise your cheekbones, narrow your eyes, and scrunch up your nose or else the face is similar to confusion which can convey a totally different message. I think that Lisa did a very good job at this, using every single muscle in her face for each different reaction she had, remaining hunched over for each element of the movie, and also her movements were completely parallel to that of an elderly person. Abby was simply a grumpy old man and even without words was able to show character progression from the old grump to a cute old man in love with a woman who is inappropriately young for him. Dayna had a very soft-spoken role, yet she still was able to not be overlooked as a character. The person she was portraying seemed to be somewhat insignificant yet Dayna gave the character importance with each graceful movement.

I think that to make my performance better I could have acted better. I think that at one point I am standing up fully straight, which most old people are incapable of doing, my shaking looked awkward and faked, as well as my facial emotion was not to the level that I think it could be. Overall I think that the final product looks ok, but viewing it myself, I definitely see how when you watch yourself act you can pinpoint how you should have moved, which I think will help me in future acting performances.

Here is the movie!

https://www.youtu.be/qJYfdbPu9zl 

In Class Writing

I am not a huge fan of silent movies, however I did quite enjoy making one. The final outcome does seem a bit cheesy to me but I do recognize that that is what they have to be because there is no noise, so the actions have to be over dramatic and need to speak for themselves. I do not personally like it, but I do recognize the importance of it. In the movie produced by the boys as well as by the group I was in, I found that there we almost a comedic element tied in with the over dramatic movements such as when Duncan gets stabbed and dramatically drags himself over to the other side of the stage, or when the camera zooms in on me as I bite my thumb at Lisa's character. I find that this makes actions funny and gives a lighthearted approach to what is going on, like how with Duncan being stabbed it could have been much darker and more of a serious theme, but him making the movements that he did made it so that you could laugh at him being stabbed. I do think in my group there are points where there could have been more drama and more facial emotion. Lisa was exceptional at this however and legitimately looked like an old woman minus the wrinkles and other physical things that come with age. Dayna's character was probably the hardest to show emotions in and she did an amazing job showing a calm and happy persona. Abby was simply hilarious being an old grump.

Silent movie script

Beginning

elderly home

Middle

Smb claims to have bingo

Fights breaks out for the bingo

Alexis accidentally hits Abby's face with a cane

Abby's dentures fall out

Ending

Trying to pick them up

Movements

Alexis and Lisa are sitting making puzzles

Dayna is rolling Abby in and then she says: "Bingo time"

Everyone sits down and play bingo says" B 52"

Lisa and Alexis claim they have a bingo( stand up at same time. cards that says "bingo bingo!!!")

The fight starts:

Alexis bites her thumb at Lisa meanwhile, Abby is sitting with Dayna behind fight (

lisa throws bingo card at Shannok

Shanok SLOWLY moves Cane to hit Lisa

Lisa ducks

Cane hits Abby in face (close up shot)

Dentures fall out of Abby's mouth close up shot to where they fall on ground

Alexis and Lisa very slowly me in pain bend down to get dentures.

Eventually Dayna bends down

Zoom in to her hand only picking up dentures

Hands to Abby

Dayna sits in Abby's lap and they  wheels off, while the other two are left in pain

Heart that closes off scene

A whole speech in no words at all

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLOMdSt5qCk




This link is to a silent movie titled "Magic." Compared to talking movies, this movie used a lot more facial expressions as well as actions and props. One example of this is when instead of the older boy saying out loud that he was pretending, he picked up a twig and wielded it as though it were a wand while both him and the younger girl expressed with their facial expressions how it was truly magical in their minds had the audience believe (along with the help of props) that there actually was some sort of magic that was going on in this film. The use of props was very helpful in this film to show the change from beginning to middle and on to the end. This happened because in the film, food appeared from the magic spells that the boy did, and after the children were seeming happy, the music changed and showed that the children were really just pretending by removing the props, however the facial expressions of the kids showed that they truly were pleased by the make believe food in their head. I think that my favorite part of this short film, however, was that since it was serious, it wrote a closing credit about supporting some foundation. I think that this could add some extra humor into the film my group will be preforming by adding a sarcastically themed closing credit that tells of the tragedy that the group we are portraying goes through, similar to that of the film except in a sarcastic way. 

In-class writing about dramatic monologue

The character of whom I am performing the monologue of is a serial killer. What she is speaking is her backstory as to why she turned out to be the way she is, and in some way it is a reflection of "how did I get here". It is a personal thought process that I believe is internal. I think that blocking is done in a sort of tired, drawn out, disappointed manner. The backstory starts out hopeful but in a more melancholy way, as though this was a wonderful dream, however it didn't work out for her and that is the source behind her wrongdoings. In a way she is almost angered at the past for setting her up into the position she is in where she is so mentally disturbed that she turns to murder. I believe that the setting and blocking especially effect each other in this monologue. The setting is her disturbed and unsettled mind expressing itself, most likely hidden behind some alleyway which can be portrayed through her physical instability with body language that makes her seem self conscious, guilt ridden, or even sociopathic. This monologue is so dark and unsettling in its progression that I will definitely be challenged in its delivery.

My Dramatic Monologue

Here is the script to the dramatic monologue I am doing. It is from the movie Monster.

I always wanted to be in the movies. When I was little, I thought for sure, one day, I could be a big star. Or maybe just beautiful. Beautiful and rich like the women on TV. Yeah, I had a lot of dreams. And I guess you could call me a real romantic because I truly believed that one day, they'd come true. So I dreamed about it for hours. As the years went by, I learned to stop sharin' this with people. They said I was dreaming, but back then I believed it wholeheartedly. So whenever I was down, Iwould just escape into my mind, to my other life, where I was someone else. It made me happy to think that all these people just didn't know who I was gonna be. But one day, they'd all see. [...] Yeah. I lived that way for a long, long time. In my head, dreaming like that. It was nice. And one day. it just stopped.

Who am I? Read here to find out!

The “Who am I?” Monologue was definitely one of the more challenging monologues I have done; not just in delivery, but in creation as well. It was a very internal searching monologue and my writing style tends to veer on the side of factual, which posed as a challenge in writing this monologue. When originally doing a read-over of the monologues in class, it was evident from what my peers had presented that I had misinterpreted the assignment… oops. Once I focused in and organized my thoughts on one subject matter, my future goals, it was much better, as well as easier to memorize.

            As far as the performance, I think the final product ended up turning out pretty well. What is not evident in the final video, however, is the 7 other takes that happened prior where I tripped up on the same exact line over and over again. There was a bit of struggle memorizing, and I think that at certain points my pacing was awkward along with my hand movements.

            Though it took many takes, I am very proud of my final product monologue…it’s my best work so far! But on a serious note, I think from the beginning of my takes I was able to use a lot of crazy and wild facial expressions through this monologue that helped to give a presence to the words that I was saying.  I also think that, after watching and seeing how everything works together, I did a decent job annunciation and pronouncing words.

            In my next monologue, I think I will definitely be challenged due to the different type of acting it stems from. My next monologue is somewhat the backstory and thought process of a serial killer. This is much darker than anything I have ever done, and being that my past monologue had a more comedic and sarcastic undertone I am very excited to see what I can do on the opposite spectrum of what I have always done into something so extremely foreign to me.

            My peers definitely were the biggest influence in my monologue, from their advice to learning from how absolutely amazing they all preformed, I am definitely so comfortable in the atmosphere they provide, which makes it easier to improve and learn from my mistakes. Before my final take on my monologue performance, I was clearly getting frustrated with how long it was taking me. Everyone was so supportive and gave amazing advice that I truly believe I will be able to use for the remainder of my acting career. The acting ability of everyone I am taking this class with is so unfathomable; they can truly make you picture how they felt wearing their sensible white knock-off Keds or their true pride for their nationality. It is so nice to be surrounded by people striving to do their best in this class and I have found that it certainly pushes me to do better.

Here is the link to the final take of my “Who am I” monologue… I hope you enjoy!

http://youtu.be/fJNz1VDcUq4

Blog Post #2

Some important elements of acting we have reviewed  so far are stage positions and body language, projection, articulation, and vocal emotion.  Stage position is important for voice position as well as minimizing confusion as to what is occurring in the scene. There is a stage right, left, up, center, and down. all of these are very important for movement in a production in order to convey the proper story.Projection is important, and goes hand in hand with articulation simply because if an audience cant understand or hear what you're saying, then the performance would have no impact on them.Vocal pitch is very important to acting because it gives depth and emotion to a piece. Vocal pitch is the increase and decrease in pitch in voice. This can help to display emotion in a piece. 
Three of my goals for this current semester are to be able to improve my writing personally instead of just factually, improve my memorization ability, and overall just improve as an actor. In this class I can work on this by writing and doing the blog post assignments, as well as working to memorize monologues and other pieces of work. Another way in which I am able to work on this is by becoming more open to constructive criticism and learning from my fellow classmates. 
In this class I hope to work on improvisation because I fell as an actor it is very important to understand the scene you are working with as well as be able to think right off the top of your head in case a cue goes wrong or something to that effect. Another element that I hope to work on is  a serious mindset for a character. I find it very easy to portray a silly, comedic character because that is what suits to my personality, however I feel it would be a good challenge to attempt to portray a more serious persona in acting. The final thing I would like to work on is body movement in actin because I feel as though when I am speaking, say, a monologue I never know how to move and what to do with my hands without feeling awkward, so I hope to be able to figure that out.

Blog #1 About Me

     My name is Alexis Shanok.  I am a member of the Cheshire Academy community and a varsity player for the field hockey and softball team in this community, and hope to continue with one of these two sports into college. I have one younger sister named Jordan who is also a softball player except outside of the Cheshire Academy community. Other than that, my mother, sister, and I all participate in karate and have all achieved the rank of black belt.  I am also an honor roll student who hopes to one day be involved in the medical industry. I also play the guitar as well as sing. One thing I enjoy doing is traveling. Over this past summer I took a trip to Costa Rica for three weeks and was fortunate enough to see many of the different regions and climate zones.  As an actress, I have never participated in any large productions unless you count the Norton Elementary School production of Jack and the Beanstalk in which I was the bean seller, and had my own solo and all that.

 I hope to broaden my skills through this course and prepare myself for the winter musical at the Academy.  As a thinker I tend to group myself as a STEM centered thinker; I like to base my knowledge on facts, which is one of the reasons that I find the portion of acting that is showing emotion so challenging. Memorizing lines is an exact science because you can be told exactly what to say and when to say it (your cues), however showing emotion in a scripted manner is very challenging to me because it is entirely the interpretation of the performer, and depending on how the emotion is portrayed, an actor could evoke many different emotions from their audience.

Some more interesting things about me are that I compete for the Karate that I do and I have won first and third place at a worldwide championship for my age division. I also plan on playing college level athletics. Over this past summer I was very fortunate enough to spend three weeks in Costa Rica with many friends, both old and new. In my free time I enjoy reading, playing guitar, listening to music, and practicing my sports.  My favorite quote is “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work” by Tim Notke. My favorite color is maroon, and my favorite food is sushi. Taylor Swift, Jennifer Lawrence, and Emma Watson are all tied for my favorite celebrity at the moment. My favorite book is The Probability of Miracles by Wendy Wunder. A few songs I am currently listening to constantly are New Americana by Halsey and To the Hills by Laurel.  I am actually ambidextrous, a skill which I acquired the summer after third grade when I broke my right wrist and had to learn to compensate by writing with my left hand.

I am very excited for this upcoming semester in Ms. Guarino’s acting class, and hope it is a fantastic year!