the link of the final project
https://youtu.be/w0sTJuCtzzQ

 Final Reflection

      I can’t believe that I have been taking acting class for two marking periods already. During these two marking periods, I have been working on a lot of different projects, and I have learned many useful things from each of them. This class really helped me a lot, and it was absolutely an unforgettable experience for me.

      Before I took this class I was really nervous, because I didn’t know how this class is going to be like and I also didn’t know what I am going to do in this class. So when I first came to this class, I was pretty shy and nervous, at the same time, I didn’t have much confidence in myself. I didn’t participate a lot for the first few weeks because I was shy to express myself and I was a little bit afraid to say my thoughts out loud. After I realized this problem, I worked pretty hard on and became a little better than before, I started to participate more in the class. After that, I became more familiar with my classmates, we started to get to know each other more and cooperate more because it was a pretty small class. I really liked every project, because I think they were really fun and helpful to me. I can always see problems and learn form them from each project. For example, after I did the monologue project, I realized that I have to slow down a little bit when I talk and I also have to speak louder. After I did the movement activity and the slient movie, I learned that my acting is better than my speaking, so I decided to work harder on my lines. But at the same time, I had so much fun when I was doing these projects; I really enjoy the proccess of doing them, and I could feel that I was actually improving. These projects has never made me feel like obligations.

     At the beginning of the second marking period, I did a serious scene with Jack. During this project, I could feel that I had more confidence in myself, and I started like doing this kind of project more than before. I wasn’t that shy anymore, and I think I was pretty into the character. For my final project, I picked a very sad and dramatic poem; it was a totally new challenge for me, but I really liked it. I think I could see my improvements through all these projects, and this class has really changed me a lot. Now I think I will be more confident and feeling more comforatble when I am speaking in front of the public, and I will be more willing to present myself to the others. I think this class made me become a more active and outgoing person, which was a goal that I always wanted to achieve. 

     At the same time, I liked the class atmosphere so much. It made me feel very comfortable when I was in the classroom or the black box. I liked all of my classmates a lot, although there were only three of them. They were all very very nice and they really helped me such as give me advice on many of my projects. I was also more willing to express myself in front of them and I had so much fun with them. And I also want to thank Mrs.Guarino for so much all the advice she gave me on my projects and her patience in me. She didn’t put any pressure on me, instead, the activities we had in class made me feel relaxed and comfortable. 

      I can only think about good things when I think about this class, it has taught me so many things that I had never expected it would. I really liked this class a lot and I think I will never going to forget these two interesting marking periods!

   Now our class has been working on our final project for a week. In this week, I’ve made a lot of progress on my final project. I’ve been thinking a lot on how to make it better. My final project is that I am going to present a very sad and dramatic poem.

   First, of course I have to work on the memorization of the poem. The poem is chose is called the “Sweet Agony”. It is pretty long, so it took me a little while to try to memorize it. After working on it during class time, now I think I am good with most of my lines. I think I just have to make sure I won’t forget anything when I am performing. After I am done with memorization, I have to work on adding emotions into my performance, which is a pretty difficult part for me, bacause I have to think about the tempo of my poem and what syllables I shold stress or where I should pause. I want to make my performance as detailed as possible. Since English is my second language, it might be pretty challenging for me, but I really like it because it is also the process of learning. And I am also thinking about having background music while I am performing, because it will make the atmosphere better and make the audience more into the situation. I am probably going to use a song composed by a Japanese musician called "风居住的街道”, which means “The street that the wind lives in”. Because I think this song really matches the poem a lot.

   I also think I need to be speak really loud while I am performing, and I need to slow down the tempo because it is a serious poem. I think I also have to focus on my pronunciation a little bit because I it is going to make the poem sound more natural. I am very excited about to see how my final project is coming along, and I hope it is going to be good.

     Now we are working on our final project for the next two weeks. What I am going to do for my final project is I am going to perform a poem called the “Sweet Agony”. This is a serious poem, and it is also very sad and dramatic, which might be a big challenge for me. I have to work really hard on understanding what the author is trying to express through the poem and find a good way to act it out.   I actually really liked this poem when I first saw it, I think it is a very “deep” poem and I also think the language that the author uses is very beautiful, which makes me have the desire to act it out. I have an idea of having background music while I am performing because I think it is going to make the atmosphere even better. This is totally new for me, and I am not very sure how the result going to be, but I will still try my best to understand the poem and try my best to stay in the character. I think I also have to work on my articulation and my tone a little bit in order to make the poem sounds better. I hope my final project is going to be great!!


(This is the poem that I am going to perform)
Sweet Agony
What do you see when you look in my eyes?
A freak? A nameless being?
Or maybe simply another face in the endless sea of people
What do I see when I look at myself in the mirror?
I see pain, laughter, tears, smiles, fatigue, and endless energy.
What do I do 
When the world I live in
Doesn't know I am suffering?
I feel the scars
On my heart
My arms
My wrists
And I think back to a time when I was truly alone
Wondering the streets at night
The sky dark and stormy,
With the cold rain falling down on me
It was like the sky was crying
All the tears I was too afraid to shed myself
That was along time ago, 
but still I can feel the sharpness of the blades upon my soul
My skin
My heart
Sometimes at night I sit up
Stare at my window
And cry, for all the pain I still sometimes feel.
I wonder if life is meant to be more then this, 
This town
These people 
These feelings
I am like a caged animal, 
Trapped inside bars
Locked in, with no hope to escape
I scream
Yell
Cry
But no one hears me
I stand alone
On my own little path of life
That I have been on for as long as I can remember
With a broken heart
A broken soul
A broken mind
Still I struggle on
So that I can maybe see beyond this world
Of darkness and despair, 
So I can see the world beyond,
Of love and life and happiness
So here I stand,
A smile on my face, 
Even though I am being torn apart on the inside.
I will continue to smile, 
And feel
And love
And I will survive; survive to tomorrow
So I can learn to trust again
And this sweet agony
That has been with me all my life
Will be dispersed
Become nonexistent
Gone
No more.
And I will finally
Be 
Alive.

Source: http://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/sweet-agony

Final Project

Now it is nearly the end of the second semester. Our acting class is about to do our final project. I have learned so many useful things from this class, and I am thinking really hard about what I should do for my final porject. I have tried a lot of different ways of performing in the class so far, and I really liked them. For my final project, I think I am probably going to do a serious or comedy monologue, and I am also thinking about doing a slient movie again.

I want to do serious (or funny) monologue because I want to practice my confident in speaking. Since English is my second language, I am always a little bit shy when I am performing for the previous few projects. Lines are my weakest part of performing, because I didn't know how I can make them more interesting. A monologue is a very good way to practice my confident in speaking, I am going to pay close attention to how I should express my lines in an impressive way and what actions I should add in my performance. This might be an interesting challenge for me, and I think I will start looking at different monologues online and see if there is anyone that I am really interested in.

I also might want to do a slient movie again because I had so much fun during the first time I was doing it. I am better at acting more than speaking, I have a lot of facial expressions when I am performing, which might interesting for the audience. And I also know how to edit videos on the app iMovie, which might be helpful for doing this project. So these are probably th reasons why I want to do this project again. But on the other hand, I think I really should do something that is more challenging for me, I think I should try something new and I also shoud face my weakness and try to improve it as much as I can. So I am still deciding which one I should do.

I really hope I can make some big improvements on my final project, and I think I will be working really hard on it.

“The Dead”

   Since John Jiang is a friend of mine; I’ve heard a lot of things about the play even before the actual performances has started. At first, I learned that it is going to be a “tragedy”, and all the great actors at CA are going to join the show. I was really excited about the show, because I knew it was going to be really fun. As what I thought, I was really impressed after I watched the show, and I’ve learned a lot of useful things from it. All the actors that participated in the show were amazing. I was also very into the scene the whole time while I was watching the show.
   There are so many good things about the show. For example, all of the actors presented their lines in a clear and strong voice. Everybody was very familliar with their lines; I could tell they must have practice them thousand of times. I also couldn’t really tell if they have made some mistakes or not. All of the them were very into the characters and they were well-prespared when they were performing. During the “party" part of the show, I felt like everybody was very relaxed, so it really made me feel like it is a real party, and I was a part of it. I really liked the atmosphere of that scene. I also thought they were drinking real alcohol during the show, which makes the play more realistic and interesting. There were also few funny lines which made the audience laughed hardly.
   There were also a lot of serious parts happened during the show. The one that impressed me the most was the scene of Sam and John talking at the very end of the play. They were fighting because Sam sang a song about the boy that she loved, but the boy probably died for her, which made her very sad. This made John very angry because the woman he loved, his wife, has loved somebody else besides him. I also loved the monologue that John presented at the end of the show, I was really touched, and I also loved the monologue itself. I was even still into the scene after I left the black box.
   After I watched the play, I felt all of the people that participated the show were so talented. For example, they have sung many different songs, and every single one of the them was amazing. They all had beautiful voice. I also really liked the piano part, it made the atmosphere of the scene even better. my favorite character would be the character that John Jiang presented. He did an amazing jon on expressing the traits of the character, and he was very relaxed during the show. His voice was also clear and loud.
   The only thing I think they could improved a little bit was to make the flashback parts of the play easier for the audience to tell. It was a little confusing when everything just stopped and John started to talk. The way that I think they could do it was to dim the light in background and have only one light on John, because this would make the audience easier to tell what is happening. Everything else was really good.
   I really liked the show a lot. According to the performance of all of the characters, I started to know what I should do when I am performing. I should try to be very relaxed, and I should be fully into my character. I shouldn’t be shy, and I shold enjoy every single second on the stage. This show made me want to work harder which I believe I will be doing. I loved the show so much and I had a great time watching it.

Our class has been working on an very interesting scene for two weeks. At the beginning of the project, we couldn't find any good scenes online, so we decided to come up a scene ourselves. We discussed a lot and we made a scene on a hot topic, which is the presidential debate. We made our scene really funny, and we came up with a lot of interesting lines. I played the moderator, Jack played Donald Trump, Giovanna played Hilary Clinton. We all had so much fun while we were working on the project. 

I also learned a lot of important things by performing this scene, I've done so much things that I've never tried before. The things I think I did well was I spoke in a pretty clear and loud voice. I also had a lot of facial expressions, I was more willing to present myself than before. These improvements  all made me liked the project a lot. We didn't get bored at all when we were practicing, we actually enjoyed it a lot because the scene was funny and interesting. We were having a lot of fun.

There are also some things that I think I definitely need to work on. For example, I think I need to work on be more exaggerating when I'm performing, so the audience won't get bored. I also need to work on developing the character more, which can make the audience learn about my character by looking at my performance. For the next project, I think I need to participate more and be more active, I think I need to share my ideas with the class more and join the discussion more. This was my favorite project, I enjoyed it a lot and had so much fun while I was working on it. I also had some improvements which I think would be very useful to my life.

Debate scene reflection
After I watched the video of our debate, I found out some strength and some weaknesses.
The first thing I think we did well is all three of us were pretty into the characters. My peers did a really good job on presenting the traits of their characters, which really made the scene interesting. We presented our lines in a loud and clear voice.

But some weaknesses we have are we weren't very familiar with all of lines, so there might be some mistakes during the proformance. And I think we also had too little movement, this might makes the audience feel boring. We should move around a little bit more and interact with each other more. Also I think I can exaggerate my character a little bit more, so the scene could be more interesting.

We've been working on the project "silent movie" for the past two weeks. It was a really fun project, and everybody in our class had participated a lot.
When we first started the project, I had no idea what we should do. When the class was discussing about the script, I was thinking really hard about how to make the script more interesting and absorbing. After that, I came up with the idea of the old lady walking down the road, and when a car comes, the old lady pretends the car hit her in order to get money from the car accident. I came up with this idea because this kind of event actually happen in our real life. And it is pretty easy for us to act it out because the plot isn't very complicated.
The role I played in the silent movie was the greedy, old lady. The thing I think I did well was I had a lot of facial expressions, and I actually "fell", so it's more true for the audience when they watch it. Also, my body language was pretty exaggerated, so it might be pretty funny for the audience.
All of my classmates did an amazing job on this project, they've been working very hard and we all listened to each other and we worked together. The only thing I think we can improve is we should add a background sound when the car comes in order to show it's an car accident. Also, there was a little problem on filming. We shouldn't see Josh pushing the chair when Jack is driving.
But it was still a very fun experience, I would love to do this project again if I get a chance.

Movement project and silent movie

     Last week we did a really fun project which was called the movement project. For this project, we had to pick a piece of instrumental music and then perform it out with a partner. The piece of music I picked is called “Summer” by a Japanese musician. The thing that was easy for me during the movement project was to have good facial expressions, I knew what kind of emotional I should have during the performance. The thing that was a little bit difficult for me was to think about what movements we should have during the performance, and what ending we should have. Because I didn’t want to make the sudience confused at the end. My partner also did a great job, we had a lot of discussions on what movements we should do and how to make the project better. During the practice, we’ve changed a lot of details in order to make the performance more vivid.
     The thing I think I could’ve done better is to have more movements and more the performance longer. Because our final draft of this project was just barely a minute. I think it would be more interesting to the audience to have a longer performace. The piece of music I picked was really happy and relaxed. Like its name, it makes people think about summer when they hear it. So my partner and I performed as little kids that are playing together, which will make the audience feel interested and happy. The piece of music was also pretty rigoroso, so I wasn’t very difficult for us to add movements in it. I actually really enjoy the time that when we were performing, I was pretty into the character and I thought it was really fun.
     Now we are working on a project called the slient movie. I think the easy part for me is to find the pieces of background music that we are going to use, and it wasn’t very difficulat for me to think abouta a script. The difficult part for me is to think about the details of the slient movie, how are we going to let the audience to know what we want to express? We have to work on this more. All of my partners are nice and they all putting efford into the project. It think the background music will change depending on how the ploting is gonig to be, this is going to make the movie more vivd. I hope it is going to come out great!

Reflections on monologue

     Today was the final draft of the monologue project. I have learned a lot things from this project and I think I did fine the the final draft. During the performance, I added a lot of body language and I spoke pretty slow. Those are the things that I think I did well because they fit my characteristics. Another thing I think I did well is I smiled a lot and I was pretty shy, because this is what a shy seven year-old kid would do during a presentation. But there are still a lot of things that I could have done better, for example, I should’ve spoken louder during the performance, because we were in the black box, so it was harder for the audience to hear the performer. I also should’ve said “thank you for listening” at the end of the monologue because this could make me sound cuter and shows that I was actually doing a presentation.
     All of my classmates did great on their performances. For Giovanna, she did a really good job, she was really into the character and she had good body language. Her lines were very clear and she spoke loud. The only thing that she could’ve done better is to have a more interesting or exciting ending. She could’ve be more scared. For Jack, he also did really good on his monologue, he had nice body language. His voice was very clear and showed his characteristic. He was pretty into the character. It was great, but he could’ve been meaner and the ending could’ve been stronger for his monologue. For Josh, he improved a lot on remembering the lines of his monologue. His voice was loud and clear, and he had a lot of facial expressions. The only thing he could’ve done better is to stay  more into the character.
     This was a really fun project, I learned a lot from it, I really liked it.

Reflections on monologue

     Today was the final draft of the monologue project. I have learned a lot things from this project and I think I did fine the the final draft. During the performance, I added a lot of body language and I spoke pretty slow. Those are the things that I think I did well because they fit my characteristics. Another thing I think I did well is I smiled a lot and I was pretty shy, because this is what a shy seven year-old kid would do during a presentation. But there are still a lot of things that I could have done better, for example, I should’ve spoken louder during the performance, because we were in the black box, so it was harder for the audience to hear the performer. I also should’ve said “thank you for listening” at the end of the monologue because this could make me sound cuter and shows that I was actually doing a presentation.
     All of my classmates did great on their performances. For Giovanna, she did a really good job, she was really into the character and she had good body language. Her lines were very clear and she spoke loud. The only thing that she could’ve done better is to have a more interesting or exciting ending. She could’ve be more scared. For Jack, he also did really good on his monologue, he had nice body language. His voice was very clear and showed his characteristic. He was pretty into the character. It was great, but he could’ve been meaner and the ending could’ve been stronger for his monologue. For Josh, he improved a lot on remembering the lines of his monologue. His voice was loud and clear, and he had a lot of facial expressions. The only thing he could’ve done better is to stay  more into the character.
     This was a really fun project, I learned a lot from it, I really liked it.

https://youtu.be/6uZQkoUepjs

Now I feel like my performance on my monologue has been improved a little. But there are still a lot of aspects that I need to be working on. For example, I should speak louder and slower, this is going to help me to show "my" characteristics. Also, I should move around a little bit more while I'm performing, because this is going to make audiences feel more interesting. My voice could be higher when I'm talking, because this can show I'm actually a child.

After I watched the video of myself presenting the monologue, I realized there are still many things that I could change. My character is a 7 years old kid, so my voice should be higher and sweeter. I was a little bit shy, and I should spoke my lines a little bit slower because the character is a kid. I should do more actions that show I'm thinking hard about how to describe my mom.

Reflection

     I’ve only be taking acting class for two weeks, but I feel like I’ve already learned so many useful things from these classes. I joined the class on the friday of the first week, so I think I might’ve missed something. But it doesn’t matter. 

     On the first day of the acting class, I felt really nervous and excited, because I didn’t know what I should do and what is going to happen. At that day, Ms.Guarino let us to walk around the classroom, while we were walking around, she gave us some situation to practice our reactions. I felt surprised about the way we are doing it, Because I’ve never done something like this before. I was a little bit shy during that activity, but I also liked it a lot.

     I think the hard thing for me in this class is to speak fast and loud. English is my second language, so sometimes I don’t know how to describe the things that I want to describe in an accurate way. I am also a little bit afraid of making mistakes while I’m speaking. I will try to speak more and try to do things with more confidence in class.

     The easy thing for me is probably the acting part. Because I’m a pretty funny person, and I like to use many body language while I’m talking, so I feel pretty comfortable while it requires us to use body language in class. 

     I like all of the activities that we’ve done so far, I think all of them are very useful. I might want to do more actual acting for this class, because I want to know what different characteristics that different characters have, and I think it is very fun to be a “different person”. But to be honest, there isn’t anything that I specifically want to do for this class. I like this class a lot and I hope I can enjoy the acting class of this year.

Monologue - Loading the space
The character of this monologue is probably a kid, because her language is sweet and niave. This monologue is talking about her/his mom, so it shows he/she loves her mom a lot.

My name is Jenny, I am a seven years old kid from second grade, my favorite person is my mom. I love my mom so much! I think she is the best woman in the world! Even in the universe! She has long black hair, gorgeous eyes... Her body is very fit and she acts gracefully. She is just perfect, she never gets mad at me, she lets me to do whatever I want to do...

The homework for English today is to define the word "beautiful", and we have to do a presentation about it tomorrow. I don't really know how to do it... So I go to ask my mom, because I think she is beautiful! I ask, "Mom, what does the word beautiful mean? Does it mean the people as beautiful as you?"

Mom laughs and says, "Oh Jenny you are so sweet, but what I'm telling you is... There are two kinds of beautiful."

"Two kinds of beautiful? What are they?" I get confused.

Mom smiled and explain to me, "There are people who are becautiufo on the outside, and people who are beautiful on the inside."

I thought about it for a little while... That's exactly describing my mom! She is beautiful anytime! So... I guess my mom couldn't decide what kind of beautiful she wanted to be, so she just picked both..."

Today during class we talked about three important parts of acting. They are motivation, objective and obstacle. We acted a lot of scenes out trying to achieve our goal that's written down on the paper, but sometimes things didn't go like what we were expecting. I learned that the scene is usually more interesting when people interactive each other. It is very important to have conflicts or struggle in the scene, because this is how you are going to make your audience interested in you play.

Acting blog

     I was a very active kid when I was born, and so am I right now. I cannot stop keep moving, my parents even say I don’t know what the word “tired” means. So this characteristic makes me willing to present myself in front of many other people, makes me not afraid of expressing myself. Which is one of the most important reason why I take acting class. I was born in Shanghai, but growing up in Beijing, these two are two big cities in China. I had a very happy childhood memory.
     There are many important and interesting things about me. One of the things that I think it is fun to know is, I am a really funny person, I love jokes. When I was in middle school I’ve memorized a whole jokes book, I love see the faces of people laughing, they make me feel comfortable and happy. This characteristic really helps me to get a lot of friends around me.

     Another interesting thing about me is I am an crazy animal lover. I love all the cute animals in the world, especially dogs. I’ve had four dogs before, I feel like they were just like my family members, and I love playing around with them. Dogs are always human’s best friends.

     The third interesting thing about me is... I love food! All kinds of food! I also love to cook for the people around me. For example, my mom is really tired after the whole day of working, when she gets home, she would be so happy if I have prepared fried rice for her. Sometimes food really can make people feel relaxed and happy. I’ve been living in the United States for almost three years, so sometimes I really miss the food I’ve eaten in China before. To be honest, China is a very beautiful country, and it has very interesting culture, you will never be regret if you travel there. But of course, there are a lot of people.

     I am taking acting is because I have learned of it before and I really liked it. When I was in elementary school, I took a class called both acting and public speaking. At the beginning, I didn’t like it so much because I was very nervous about speaking in front of many people, I felt ashamed about it. The turning point of my attitude was when a conversation with my teacher. She said I have acting aptitude, and she said I would be doing great if I put more efforts in it, she really encouraged me a lot at that time. She was a great teacher, she had taught me too many things that have big impacts to my whole life. After that, I started to take acting seriously, after a while, I started to “fall in love” with it. I really like the feelings of experience the life of different people from different stories. I also think being able to speak in front of other people confidently is a very important skill to have in everybody’s life, My parents think that, too, so they supported me a lot while I was learning public speaking and acting.
     I hope I can enjoy every single class of acting and work hard on every project. I think it’s going to be a very fun year.