"For colored girls" production

I’m so glad I took time out of my afternoon to go see this production (whose full title is “for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf”). I didn’t really know what to expect, except from what I could gather from the unusual title of the play. The production was loosely structured as a series of monologues, and it included elements of music, dance, and singing. Maybe it was because it was being performed in the lab theatre, but I couldn’t help comparing it to our monodrama performances we did in class. Compared to what I saw today, our monologues were so stiff! Looking back, I know I just sort of stood there while delivering my monologue. But these girls, they weren’t just reading words off a page, they were presenting a piece of their hearts to the audience, if that makes any sense. They moved about the stage so gracefully and naturally. Even though some of the girls had ten-minute or more long monologues, it didn’t feel like I was listening to one person talk non-stop for that long; they were really brilliant at keeping the audience’s attention. But I was so impressed by the amount of passion and depth that those seven actresses brought to the stage. The final monologue performed by Shamiah Palmer’s Lady in Red brought tears to my eyes. I got so lost in what they were saying because there was so much drive behind their words. Also, I liked how the play was performed in such an intimate setting. I feel like some of the connection the audience feels with the characters would have been lost if this were performed on a bigger stage. That being said, this production also deserved a bigger audience.

Dedication to Group Projects

I think our discussion in lab today was a helpful one. We talked about the importance of being committed to our group work, something that we all know already, but it doesn't hurt to be reminded. Though honestly, I am so proud of my company. I think we collaborated really well on our monodrama project and literally every member of the group put forth effort to make it successful. Most of us missed one rehearsal because of other committments or because we forgot, but because we met outside of class so much we could afford that. For this project, we definitely have bigger time constraints and so everyone is going to have to show up every time. But I'm really confident in my company's dedication to the class and, more importantly, to each other. Maybe I'm too optimistic, but I think we're going to manage our final project just fine. Another cool thing happened after the lab dispersed into the two separate companies and our group was talking about who would do what job for the project. I love acting, and so I was hoping that I would be able to act in the scene. But I also knew we needed a director and a couple of designers, so I might not get to act like I wanted. As it turned out, Kat wants to study lighting design so she's our lighting/set designer, Abby loves costumes so she's our costume designer, and Shifra was really pumped to direct the scene! It worked out perfectly; I think everyone ended up with the role they wanted, something that I think will help our group work well together again.