Once again a good class today.  Instead of a normal check-in my faculty ember asked the students to share what they were upset or stressed about using gibberish or stream of sound.  Then she had them use english to speak the same feelings.  It worked nicely as a check in because we have down stream of sound work before.  The exercise functioned both as a technique exercise and as an emotional check in.  My faculty member then asked the students to do a  character free write in their journals asking them to write about what their character loves, hates, and needs.  This was some nice downtime for the students to do some reflecting work on their scenes.  I noticed some stopped writing early on, but remained focused either by rereading or looking over their scenes.

Rather then doing our normal physical warm up we ran the “Tap” exercise.  The students were asked to come up in pairs one at a time, then they had to recite their lines while trying to tap the other persons back.  It requires both mental and physical focus.  This was a great exercise because the students who were having a hard time doing other physical work were having fun and managed to look a little bit more relaxed.  Games are always a plus when it comes to acting exercises.

We then worked on final scenes.  I noticed that the students are more inclined to give feed back now rather then before.  I think this is because the scenes are more flushed out.  The feed back that is given is rather good and my faculty member tends to build on what each of the students have said.

It was very nice having a class one day after another.  There was a sort of nice continuity to the work we were doing.  Even though some students could not be there for class due to the up coming break some great work got done.  We ran an improv exercise that my faculty member calls “Bodies and Voices”, but I know as dubbing.  Two paris of students come up to the playing space, two students stand to the side while two others work physically in the space.  The two students on the side speak while the other two move, like a dubbed movie.  There were many great scenes that were done.  However there was a small snag, a couple posts ago I spoke about a student who performed a rather blue scene.  She repeated the same kind of scene this day, but unlike last week where my faculty member just let the scene happen she stopped the scene short.  She then went on to explain that while the improv games we work on can be funny, they also have some serious work involved in them and that the class should try to achieve the level of work.  I find this interesting, mostly because my faculty member tries to make clear that in this class we are working to get out of the paradigm of right and wrong, that we are just going to explore.  But in this scenario clearly shows that sometimes there is a wrong.  While my faculty member did not chastise the student or call her wrong, there was an air of incorrectness (what a strange phrase).  I have always wondered about this when it comes to my faculty advisor.  While my faculty member strives for there to be no right or wrong in the classroom I cannot help but feel this it is unreachable.  Sometimes students will be wrong, but finding a way to work with the mistake is more realistic then just saying that everything is right (or at least not wrong).

We then worked on final scenes and managed to get good work done.  Managed to help a couple scenes that were having some trouble and now folks appear to be back on track.

Nice class today.  My faculty member did a nice check in, asked the students about there weekends.  That, I find, is a good check in.  In the warm up today we worked on some meditation breathing mixed in with our normal physical routine.  During movements we breathed in for a count of six and breathed out for a count of six instead of just performing the movement.  We then moved into some across the room worked focused around Rudolph Laban’s work on the body.  The class explored how move across the room using different verbs.  To push, to glide, to dab, across the room.  I noticed today that some of the students have a hard time taking the physical work seriously.  Not to say the students are being rude or dismissive, it just looks like they may be a bit uncomfortable moving.  They might be embarrassed.  Also I noticed one student has what looks like a headphone in their ear.  I think next time I see them use it I’ll ask.

The class then moved onto the scene work.  We worked through the rest of the scenes on the set list.  I had to stop my faculty member from going over time.  I felt somewhat rude, but she then thanked me later for it.  I have made a few appointments with students to work on their scenes.  I have noticed that my faculty member can nicely balance engaging with the performing group and the rest of the class.  She gives the note directly to the performing group, then brings out the note or question into the audience.

Class was nice today.  We warmed up as usual and then moved onto working on the students final scenes.  We got through four of the eight group in a class which was very nice.  Time was used well.  The students performed a walking read of their scenes and then we asked to identify three different “beats” or more in the scene.  This exercise was to help the students figure out when there is a shift in the scene from one idea to another, which is called a “beat”.  I found that some students had different definitions of what a “beat” was.  These other definitions were not inherently wrong, but the point of the class is to find common vocabulary about acting practice.  My faculty member did not discredit the other definitions, they took them and added them to their definition of “beat”.  Some students had a hard time figuring out what the “event” in each scene was.  The “event” should be a short sentence about what the character is doing that the actor can relate to.  I noticed many of the students would go on long paragraphs about what was happening, I think this is due to certain academic training that makes students feel that they need to have long though through answers.  My faculty member explained that the sentence should be relatable and short.  In the end the students understood and were able to come up wit useful “events”

Good day today.  My faculty member started by checking in quickly with the students about the conversation last week.  Most seemed a bit more upbeat or at least doing okay.  We then moved into a normal warm up routine, then followed with some Michael Chekov work.  We did some floor work thinking about the body’s center and then archetypical gestures (lover, addict, comedian etc.).  The students during this exercise looked a bit disengaged.  It was nothing that the faculty member could have fixed, I think some students were either working through personal trouble or were simply sleepy.  By the time we moved into improv the students had perked up a bit.  We ran a first line, last line structure where my faculty member gave each pair of students the first and last line of the scene.  The work went well, the only notable moment was during a scene the humor got rather blue.  The scene itself was not overly offensive, it was mostly just gross toilet humor.  Don’t get me wrong I love a gross joke as much as the next improvisor, but I can’t help but think these types of scenes should be avoided in an academic environment.  My faculty member let the scene happen and made no further comment.  There was no reason to make a big fuss about it I was just wondering how to deal with this situation.

There was a bit more trouble with lateness.  Two students were late, and one of them is dangerously close to failing because of it.  Still having some trouble working with how to work with this student.  Spoke shortly with my faculty member who said they would speak to the student themselves.

In light of the events of this emotional and chaotic week I will try to focus on how my faculty member worked with the students through the rough week.  My faculty member had the students sit in a circle.  They then began by saying that they recognized how the results of the election have effected the students.  We went around in a circle sharing any thoughts or feelings about the elections and its possible repercussions.  It was hard to watch each of the students share their experiences, it was raw and heart felt.  The class felt like a strong exercise is brave spaces.  Even students who said that they had nothing to share would end up speaking about some experience.  I spoke up shared some thoughts, and I ended by saying that I found hope in students like those in my class.  It may have been cheesy by I stand by what I said.

The faculty member then shared a passage from Paulo Freire that related the strength of liberation pedagogy.  We then read from August Wilson’s Seven Guitars for the rest of the class, reading the first two scenes and the last two scenes.  The faculty member clearly understood that the work that needed to be done in class could be paused to focus on what is happening outside of academia.  My faculty member managed to create a space that was conducive to both engaging with current events and course material.

Good work today.  The class was lead through a sequencing excercise before even stretching which was very nice.  The excercise involved laying on the floor in the dark, which while helpful may not have been the best for post midterm students.  My facaulty member got the students to be engaged with the excrcise even in the dark.

I also noticed that the students know our daily warm ups by heart.  It was great to see that the students haven really absorbed the excercises.  I think that is important in a classroom setting to have daily rituals.  Having the same form, but different content everyday is how to have a class that runs smoothly.  It should be noted that because of this smoothness students were having trouble quoting themselves on occasions today.

After class I worked with a pair of students in their scene.  We worked à crossing and cut sow, of the text together.  I realized that I need work in letting the students make choices for themselves in the scene work.  My first instinct is to direct and make the choices that I think would work best, need to learn to take a step back and let the student  have autonomy in their work.  I just want them to do amazing!

Big entry incoming.  In the last entry I wrote about my faculty member’s time managing skills and how to make sure students got equal time to show their work.  I have learned that all I need to do is ask if they would rather work on a single groups work or have everyone go.  The faculty member tends to edit themselves and move on to the next group.  It is great to see groups get equal time to show their work.  Thankfully if the faculty member wishes to focus on one group they can.

We pushed the midterm presentations back a week to make sure the students had enough time to work on them.  I was partnered with a student and we manged to do good work.  We met up twice before the presentation.  These were the only times we could meet because she could not be in class due to holidays.  There actually is a problem with attendance for certain students.  This could be the norm for every class in any university, but a couple students are either consistently late or absent.  My faculty member spoke with the students and most of them took this discussion to heart and are making more of an effort to show up on time, but one student remains a problem.  Last class she was so late she missed partnering for the final scenes and had to sit by themselves with scenes.  My faculty member spoke with them and laid down an ultimatum, miss one more class and they will fail.  The student then spent the rest of the class by themselves.  I felt like I should help the student, but I did not know how.  It felt as if it were assumed that they would fail.  I did not want to be patronizing to the student, but I felt like I should say something.  While harsh I know my faculty member is justified, it does no good for either teacher or student to try and find compromise if it is not feasible.  I think this comes down to personal belief on what a student should do in a class, which is be responsible for their own education and work ethic.

On another note, I have decided to not partner with a student for the final scenes.  I do not want my personal school and work life to interfere with their school work.  I am very excited to the work that the students make.

I will also make an effort to write an entry for every class.

The students are doing very well.  They were having trouble working with improv structure for a while.  Many times during the scene a student would resort to either saying “no” or having the structure be a mentor-student relationship.  I think this is because it is easy to make a game out of these structures.  Like I said in class I would like to challenge the students by having them attempt more rewarding scene structure because I know they are up to it.

We have moved onto monologue work and the students have picked great ones.  I am paired up with a student so I will be helping her and I have offered my time to other students, none have asked for additional help, but hopefully soon they will.

The faultily member is great, but sometimes has poor time management skills.  She sometimes goes off on interesting and useful tangents, but it takes away from the students work time.  Just today on the 26th we managed to get through reading everyone’s monologues, it took three classes.  Now this could be due to how many students there are (17) on top of running an improv structure every class, so a lot of time is needed.  I am wondering how I can help manage time in the class so the students get their due time to work without stepping on my faculty member’s toes.

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