Costume and Makeup

A few weeks ago, Ms. Guarino asked us to write a self-monologue about I didn't say she stole my money, and from my perspective, I wrote a character that was talking to another one and basically, was about she is not the one that I mention, he is the one who stole my money. So in this monologue, I did not write a lot about the script that what should people do because I thought we just gonna read it out loud. And I did not do a lot of the emotions that I should use in this monologue. However, there is not a lot of difference between the two because there is no script description as well, so we should create our own character and thinking about this character.  This week, Ms. Guarino let us choose a monologue that you like the most among 8 of them, and I chose the one that related to the boy’s dad. We have to use our emotions to express the characters on stage. My actor was like he doesn’t like his dad always working in the house, while he doesn’t have enough time to play with him. The boy Nick felt furious and unhappy about his dad. And I as the character, I played this character by feeling the inside of Nick. I can hear his voice through his writing that from each line and words, I can tell his depression overwhelms him. The words that he used in the monologue like work, waste, always, missed, said, never… These words represent the boy’s inside emotions toward his dad. He could not stand it anymore because his dad’s always working and even missed his most important games. I think in this monologue I should be angry, upset and disappointed to his dad, also I got the connection in this monologue because my parents are like Nick’s dad, so I can get a sense of the idea that what should this character be like. Speaking of myself, When I was young, I was raised by nanny and grandma that my parents seldom care about me. They had a lot of work, so they come back late and go to work early in the morning. I couldn't see them sometimes. When I saw this monologue, I felt angry, related and emotional. I wanted to express this monologue to present my feelings towards my parents. From this monologue, I did well on controlling my voice that I can speak loudly in front of everyone, and acknowledge when to sit and when to get up(when I act serious and angry, I should get up), I also noticed that how can I act doleful(maybe sign during the monologue or lower my head or touch my hair in a sad way), upset(cover my face, sit down) and disappointed( eyes on the ground, voice become smaller) etc. This monologue helps me how to act in the play while I feel varied emotions. Additionally, I learned a lot from this monologue that how to be angry through emotions, physical movement, and voice. Such as when I am disappointed in the blog, I can lower my head and watch the ground for a while, I can also sigh, cover my head with hands. So I should use more in the next time, and utilize different emotions.  It was difficult for me to do some actions or movement in the monologue. This is hard for me because on stage, I was pretty nervous and scared of speaking the wrong things, so l forgot all the motions and such. I didn't remember when is the time when I sigh, sit down or watch the ground. I think if I do it again and again, I will get used to it. Also, I might neglect or ignore all those small details while I was doing it. Next time, I will practice again and again and tried to add more motions and more details into the show like sometimes, I can not only verbalize the words and sentences, but  I can also use movement to demonstrate the words. In peers monologue, I think they did pretty well. In Jenna’s monologue, I can feel the emotions she used to like her character was kind of cunning and ‘kind’, so she needs to express it with her own understanding of cunning and nice to neighbors. She added a lot of pauses and movement on the blog, and it forms really well. I really like the part when she exposed her personality fabulously by saying don't worry..., and the movement between the good person and the bad person. Yongchen’s monologue was pretty good as well, the nervousness and hesitation were expressed in a great way. He used off and on stage, so we can see it that he was deciding whether to say it or not. They were all well-prepared on stage.