"It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman!"

This weekend I saw "Superman" at PBK for their final performance. I'm glad I went because it was an entertaining show, but I have to say that overall I was a little disappointed. What the director, designers, and actors did with the play was really good, but I think the script itself was only mediocre. The songs were pretty bland and didn't have very memorable tunes. The performance was funny, but I think it was largely due to the talent and the comedic timing of the actors as opposed to well-written jokes. That being said, the creative team behind the production did an excellent job. I loved the backdrop covered in pictures like those out of a comic book; it made for an exciting first image at the beginning of the show. The bold colors and angular shapes used in the set pieces also enhanced the idea of a cartoony and unrealistic world. The choreography was cute and well executed, but sometimes the actors looked a little bored with it. Now, it's worth noting that I saw the last performance out of six (or was it seven?) shows and it was a matinee, both of which probably contributed to a lack of energy among the performers. But it made me sad that some of the ensemble didn't appear to be enjoying themselves. Overall, the W&M company did a good job with what they had, but I wish, for the sake of the cast and crew, that a better musical had been chosen.

after-performance reflection

Our midterm performance is over. The weeks of work, the several meetings outside of class with my group all came to a climax on Friday morning when we performed our piece. I have to say, I'm really proud of my group. I feel like we presented a well-rehearsed and polished little production that we can honestly say was completely our own work. Besides the occasional guidance from Jason, we put it together entirely on our own, from original scripts to deciding how to stage our monologues to coming up with a plan for costumes, albeit simple: black shirt and jeans. But the simple stuff can go a long way; I think our clothing choices made our performance more unified. As far as ways I could have improved my individual performance, I think I was holding back a little bit. There's no reasonable explanation for it, but looking back, I feel like I could have let myself go even more. My monologue was a pretty emotional piece (it was about my grandmother passing away) and I should have really taken my time with it. Let words sink in. And apparently, or so I've heard, we could have made our pieces a lot longer. It's kind of frustrating that I misunderstood the directions because there were other things I had wanted to say, but I limited myself because of time constraints that didn't actually exist! Oh well. I think I did good work, but of course the monologue could have been improved.

costume design

If a person were playing me in a play, they would be dressed casually. They would definitely be in pants, because I usually only wear skirts or dresses if there’s an occasion for it. Jeans make the most sense, because not only do I wear jeans most of the time, I think they’re reflective of my relaxed personality. As far as the shirt, I think a light blue matches my personality the best (and blue is my favorite color). The shirt would be long sleeved because I always get cold, even when it’s summer! It would be feminine and pretty, but nothing very eye-catching because I find myself wanting to blend in a lot of the time. The shirt would definitely be long enough to cover my stomach because I’m kind of modest with clothing. The material should be soft because I would like to think that have a soft and approachable personality. For shoes: gotta go with the flip flops. You can’t go wrong with those. The only other must have is a hairband. I find myself wearing hairbands all the time because I'm too lazy to make my hair look perfect in the morning.

monodrama update

Today I spent some time editing my monologue for our midterm project. I hadn't changed much of it since the beginning of the process and it was still looking like a first draft. Maybe I hadn't tried to fix it because I figured it was good enough to get me a decent grade. But today I finally sat down and looked at it and I realized it was very stale. There were no glaring errors or anything I could label as particularly "bad," but it was just really flat. My monologue was originally about receiving my acceptance letter from William and Mary in the mail, something you'd think could make for a really exciting monologue. Well, it wasn't. It was pretty boring, and I didn't hear much of my own voice coming through it. So I sat down to edit it today, planning on tweaking things here or there, and I ended up with an entirely different piece! It would take a long time to explain how it got to this point, but now my monologue is about how my grandmother's death this spring affected my family. It's a very different subject I know, and one that's kind of hard for me to talk about, but I feel a lot better about my monologue now. It's genuine, and, cheesy as this sounds, I'm speaking more from the heart. Even if the monologue is a bit of a downer now, I'm glad it says something that matters to me.

Collaboration

Today in our lecture about five professors talked about the work they’re doing on the musical, “It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s Superman!” It was really cool to hear their perspective and to be reminded of how much work goes into putting up a show. We heard from the director, the choreographer, and the lighting, costume, and set designers. There must be even more people involved that we didn't hear from today, like the sound and makeup designers. It was evident that each person has to put in a lot of individual effort, but that it is all very unified and it comes together as a collaborative effort, too. The whole structure makes so much sense to me: that there are several people who are experts in their field who do their specific job but they are all working towards the same vision as the director. Without communication, the show would probably fall apart, or at the best, it wouldn’t make any sense. It would lack cohesion. When I watch plays, I’m aware that it takes a lot of hard work to put it together, and that there are many more brains at work than just the actors that we see, but I often forget about how difficult it must be to create the unity of a finished product. Everyone probably wants their own way, but they have to make the harmony of the play the priority. When they do, the finished product is truly magnificent.