Journal #5

February 22, 2007

For our second day teaching, Jena and I decided to do Character Development workshops with our students. For Advanced Acting, we had students describe two of their favorite literary or film characters. They wrote down physical characteristics, personality traits, likes, dislikes, and any other information they could think of about these fictional characters. Then, they chose somebody that they knew well and developed a character for that person, also listing different aspects of character. Finally, the students had to act out their characters in short improvised dialogues. Several students decided to characterize each other, which made entertaining scenes when they acted them out. Students felt more comfortable portraying their friends and knew little quirks or traits about them that were easy to act out. Marquesha decided to develop a character of her mother—she defined her mother as always cracking jokes and acting a little crazy. In her scene, she carried herself like a mother would, while at the same time being funny, and Claudia, the other girl in the scene with her, played off this character very well. Claudia was playing her shy younger sister, and without saying very much she conveyed a young, quiet personality. It was still rather difficult to draw students out of their shells, but today was slightly easier than our last session because they had time to prepare their characters.

In the 10^th grade English class, I wanted to really focus on the book the students are reading—Something Wicked This Way Comes—to analyze the characters in the novel. I assigned students to different characters and they worked in groups or pairs to describe the characters. Then, we set up scenes from different chapters of the book so that each student was playing the character they had just worked on developing. This went exceptionally well and I think it helped the students to grasp the ideas of the book a little better. Ms. Hamilton had expressed that students were not really following what was happening in the novel, so I hope that this clarified parts of it for them. One group in particular stood out as successfully representing their characters. The scene was between Jim, Will, and Mr. Dark, one of the carnival owners. The student who played Mr. Dark used effective actions, like flexing her arm and using a flyer as a prop that was supposed to be a ticket to ride the carousel. I was really impressed with all of the students’ willingness to participate in the activity. The only one who gave me some trouble was a young man who is clearly very intelligent and also very creative who told me he just didn’t want to do it. I tried to convince him to do it but after a while I gave up and told myself he would eventually comply. He did, and he laughed at me and said he was just tricking me to see if I would believe him. I wasn’t really sure how to respond to this. He told me he was a good liar, and I said, “Well, lying and acting are pretty much the same thing, so you should be good at this too.” He was one of the few students in the class who had memorized his lines by the time the skits were performed at the end of the class.

Journal #4

February 15, 2007
Students from Jordan High School came to UCLA for the Flesh and Blood performance and discussion with the Fowler Museum. It was wonderful to see the familiar faces of the students in our classes come to the UCLA campus to get a glimpse of the campus that I call home and to see the opportunities that they have to pursue their education here as well. As I stood waiting in front of the Fowler Museum this morning, I found myself eagerly anticipating the arrival of the students. Who would be coming this morning? Who would I recognize? I first caught sight of Shaqueal and Nashale, then Orly, Mani, Yuri, Nubia and about 20 other students in Ms. Hamilton's class. I had a smile plastered to my face for some reason--I was just so excited to see the students. I was in charge of videography for the day, documenting the group's activities and taping interviews. The coolest part was seeing a group of four students--3 of which are in our classes--working on their own videography of the event. Jordan High School just opened up a media center where the students will be working on their own documentaries and shaping their skills in the Media Arts. This will be an amazing opportunity to work with students after our residency to make collaborative projects.
After the day's planned events were over, the students had some free time to get food on campus. I had gone to return the video camera, then I went to get something to eat for myself and I ran into a group of kids in teh Cooperage. It was Shaqueal, Nashale, Coco, and two other girls (whose names I didn't get). In this more relaxed setting, the girls asked me questions about UCLA and what it was like to choose classes, who inspired me to go to college, who helped me to get here, and what I thought about community college. Nashale told me she already knows that she wants to be an Orthodontist, and the other girls expressed their own goals for attending college as well. This was inspiring, and Nashale told me that she would be contacting me when the time came for her to apply to college. I left them, once again, with a smile on my face.

Journal #3

February 8, 2007

Palms sweaty, heart working a little harder than normal, taking a deep breath, I took my position at the front of the classroom. This was my first day teaching; my first day ever really taking a classroom and making it my own…the first out of a lifetime of doing this work. As Jena and I taught the first period Advanced Acting class, the time flew. Although I was uncomfortable with the silences, I reminded myself that it was the sound of minds at work. I tried not to feel awkward, especially when Jena was speaking and I was standing right next to her, and I was feeling like everyone was watching me. Any fears I had, however, flew away like the time. Students were willing (if not quite eager) to participate in the discussions we had about key terms for acting. Some students seemed to really enjoy the activities we had planned while the ones we had to cajole into playing were at least open to trying it. We started today with improvisation skills, while simultaneously playing Freeze and interjecting with comments and lessons about presence, placement, scene ideas, dialogue, and other key terms we had previously discussed. There are students in the class who picked up on the game immediately and made hilarious scenes because they already have very strong personalities. Both Jena and I noted that the topics of their scenes kept coming back to the same subject areas—boyfriends cheating, getting in fights, picking up on girls, gambling, going to parties. We tried to steer scenes in other directions, challenging students to play different ages and characters, but many times they kept falling back on these issues that are facets of their realities. It was difficult to find a balance between what they felt comfortable with and how else we felt we should challenge them.

While, as I said, some students were reluctant, once it was clear that they would have to participate eventually, they were active participants and even surprised everyone with funny commentary and scene ideas. I felt bad making these students participate, especially in the second period class which is a 10^th grade English class. There are students in this class who have no desire to act and have a fear of getting up in front of their peers, so we tried to make the environment as welcoming as possible. One student in particular was turning bright red and so incredibly embarrassed. A different student suggested the scene and it was really difficult for the nervous student to come up with anything to say, but once she started, she was into the scene and it turned out wonderfully. I hope I didn’t make her too embarrassed because I don’t want to turn anyone off to our purpose and goals. I ensured everyone that we would be doing different kinds of work related to theater in the next sessions—things like set design that would involve more of the visual arts. We had students journal at the beginning of each class so we can start to get to know them better and see what they know and what they need to work on. Overall I feel the day was very successful—one student even asked when we would be back next. It was a strong start that gives me hope for the success of the whole residency.

Journal #2

February 2, 2007

This week was writing, thinking, planning, reading. This week was the calm before the storm; or perhaps the hush of the audience before the curtains open, before the show comes alive. All the while, backstage I was running like a chicken with my head cut off…meeting with Jena, planning a meeting with Kori, finishing up a 500 page book, writing lesson plans, and in general getting nervous about the big first day. We finally made an appointment to meet with Kori this upcoming Sunday, and just today I found out we have different classes that we expected. So that 500 page book I read is generally not going to be useful at all (although it was a fascinating read and I’m extremely happy to have read it.) Once again I am understanding that in order to stand the winds of change I must have my roots firmly settled and my ideas backed by solid, creative, challenging lesson plans, theories, and standards.

I also met with Jaynie this week to start discussing work on the documentation of ArtsBridge. I went to the lab with her to see the project she was working on and where I could be of help this quarter. In the course of an hour I saw the scope of the project and had a brush up session on Final Cut Pro Editing. Jaynie explained her concept and process as well as showing me some of the footage she is working with. I’m not exactly sure what the plan is for my involvement yet…whether or not I will be working on what she is doing and helping her, or starting something different for this year’s documentation. These are things I am going to need to work out soon so I have a plan for what footage I need to take on my own and where I can gather resources from. I know it is going to be increasingly difficult the further I get into the quarter.