Oral Reflection

When I was preparing for my Oral Commentary, I wasn’t very nervous. I had just completed a similar assignment for my English class, so I felt as if I knew exactly what I was preparing for. I had also reflected many times on my scene, my performance, and thought thoroughly about why we did what we did on stage, so when I was doing the commentary, I pretty much knew what I was going to say, and knew where I was going to go when speaking. I am pretty pleased with my Oral, I thought I covered every base and spoke at a good tempo. I am very appreciative that I was able to get an opportunity to practice, however, because Mrs. Guarino gave me great notes on various topics that I missed. Because of this, my actual Oral went very smoothly, and I felt confident when it had finished.

To be honest, my favorite part of the oral was explaining what I do differently and why.  When I was talking out things I could change, I became inspired, and I was able to visualize my scene with different props, costumes, etc. and how it would affect the overall performance. I hope that the IB will like my oral, and although I stated that I felt confident with the finished product, I hope they understand the various topics I touched upon. If I had to do the oral again, I would limit my use of “um”s, and phrase my sentences in a more coherent way. Often I would start a sentence, and think a new thought during it, stop the sentence, say the new thought, and return to the old sentence. It can be a little confusing when listening to it, and despite the fact that I knew what I was talking about, I hope the IB does as well.

Written Oral: Rough Draft

The short story “Nineteen-Thirty Seven”, focuses heavily on the impact of religion and/or belief on relationships. Because this story showed so much potential for different contemporary forms of adaptation, I was very interested in picking it for my scene. I loved the idea of working in a small group of all women and the many different ways the scene could be altered to show their connections with one another.
 Therefore, I aimed to highlight the role faith played in each relationship between the Madonna, the mother, the grandmother, and Josephine, while also demonstrating the impact it had in their decision making.  By showing each of their feelings throughout the scene, the audience was able to gain an insight as to how religion affected their relationships with each other, and how it influenced the decisions they made.
In the actual short story, the Madonna is a figurine that Josephine's mother latches onto for emotional comfort and spiritual guidance. However, in our scene, we chose to have the Madonna begin the scene as a doll, and once Josephine loses her mother, she comes to life. By adapting this aspect of the story, we were able to allow the Madonna to actually guide the mother (and eventually Josephine) throughout her life. It gave the scene and the audience a new perspective, showing the mother constantly consult the Madonna as her guide and her crutch for support.
In order to portray my character, the Madonna, as a god-like figure whose sole purpose was to help the mother, I knew I would have to have a strong presence on stage. In order to achieve this, I manipulated by body language and my vocal tenacity. For example, whenever walking around on stage, I tried to stand as straight as I could, holding my head up. However, when I needed to show that I was a form of comfort for the mother, I would lower myself to be on her level, make eye contact, and establish a sense of touch whenever speaking to her. When I did verbally communicate with her, I tried to speak slowly and calmly, only using louder volume when a situation called for it. For example, when the Madonna chases after the mother in the river, I used louder volume to show the audience that I was gaining her attention, and to demonstrate that I was powerful.  Therefore, I was able to show that while I was still on a higher social level than her, I could still emotionally connect and have sympathy for her.
While all of this worked very well for the scene, I would do a few things differently. Specifically, I would limit the overall number of scene changes and use different props. Because of the constant stopping to change scenery or to transition, our scene was unable to flow. If I were to correct this, I would rewrite the script and comprise scenes so that hopefully it would not only flow more, but also so that the audience would be able to focus more on the relationships, plot, and characters. If I had the opportunity to change some of the props, I would love to use an actual Madonna figure. This way, the audience could understand that the Madonna is a symbol for religion. Because we used a cluster of fabric for this, I fear our audience will lack this understanding.

Reflection

Looking back on our performance, my favorite part of the performance for me was out lighting. I was so happy with every perfectly timed black out, fade out, special effect lights, etc. When writing the script, I had a clear vision as to what I wanted with he lights, and I am so thankful that we were able to achieve it. Each lighting effect was planned and carefully executed, and it really looked professional. Especially during the river scene. The blue accents on the hanging fabric on the triangle brought the scene to life, and I believe made it more visually interesting for the audience. I believe the most important part of our story that we adapted was the river, and how it acts as a turning point for the mother’s journey in her life. Therefore, I think it was perfect how the river scene in our performance naturally became the most abstract, intriguing, and visually satisfying moment and stage layout. By far and away, this was my favorite part of the performance. We were able to use the triangles to our advantage, by hiding things behind them, running around them as if Sam was wading in the water, and as an abstract aspect.

What I would change about the performance if I redid it would be the many scene changes. By the time my group was given this note and realized how it interrupted the flow of the scene and made it confusing for the audience, it was unfortunately, a little too late to undo. Looking back, I do see the scene changes as a problem, and I know if we were able to limit them, my partners and I would have less of an issue making the scenes flow and would be able to focus more on the actual scenes, than having to worry about their many, different set ups. However, I do think the many different changes were necessary with the script that we wrote and re-wrote, so the only way we would be able to realistically improve this, would have to be through re-writing the entirety of the script again. Im sure if I was to watch the video I would want to change more, however this seems to be the most evident place for improvement.

Overall, I really feel as though my scene partners and I pulled our project together very well. It took so much work in a very limited time frame, however I am so pleased with how the final version turned out. This process has been challenging, yet extremely  interesting, and I am glad I was fortunate enough to take part in it. Every scene from our class, not just ours, was above and beyond, and I am so proud of our IB Literature and Performance Class.

I am so honored to have been a part of such a wonderful group of actors, and I have loved working alongside Nadya and Samantha. We really tried our best to make this scene as great as we could, and I know our hard work has paid off.

(Video of Rough Draft Is Published On Separate Blog Post)