Drama101

Stage acting is better than screen acting. Performing on a stage in front of people who are constantly looking at you may be nerve racking, but it gives you courage, awareness, and in my personal experience, it allows you to perorm at your absolute best.

On stage, the intense heat of the lights pouring down on you, the audience watching your every move, and the knowledge that you can’t mess up, makes for a better show. Sure, your nervous and you could name a billion other places you rather be, but the excitement, the thrill, the rush of energy, keeps the audience on the edge of their seats.

For those of you who have recently seen a play, did you notice how judgmental one can be as you watch people become somone other than themselves? You watch for lines that are obviously missed or unheard. You notice when the actor trips or isn’t quite in tune with the rest of the actors. Your judging them. But we are judging you too. We notice when you don’t laugh at the right parts, or the level of clapping isn’t as high as it should be. That makes for a “bad” audience. On stage, one must be completely aware of whats going on around you, in the audience, and on the stage.

Some may say, “But watching TV or seeing a movie is easier.” Yeah, you don’t have to clap, and laugh, or pay attention the entire time, but sometimes thats the best part about seeing a play. You become involved the actors. You enter their world too as you are constantly paying attention to the costumes, the makeup, the lights, etc. and you can almost understand the characters more easily as you experience what the actors are experiencing too.

So are you thinking about seeing a play this weekend? Enter our adventures as we take you on a journey to somewhere you’ve never been before. Forget going to the movies, because all of the fun is happening at your local playhouse. See a play!

 ”Wicked” the musical is one of the most well-known broadway musicals of all time. A spin-off of The Wizard of Oz, Wicked brings light into what happened “before Dorothy dropped in.” Just recently celebrating its 7th anniversary, Wicked had toured around the world and won 3 Tony Awards in 2004, one being Indina Mendzel as best actress. Although Elphaba and Glinda deeply loath each other, it would be hard to loath this amazing musical. Starting out with deep hatred torwards each other, Elphaba and Glinda harmonize their way to becoming friends, and eventually find themselves belting there hearts out in fighting for freedom for the “people” of The City of Ember.
Seeing each other for the first time, Elphaba and Glinda describe their hatred torwards each other “What is this feeling?” by describing Elphabas skin color and Glindas high pitched voice. With a very abrasive rhythm Elphaba and Glinda dish out there feelings for each other, explaining how “pure and strong” there hatred for each other is. They eventually find common ground with a very upbeat song “Popular” where Glinda shows Elphaba just how pretty she really is.
By the end of Act 1 Elphaba and Glinda start there rendition of “Defying Gravity” where Elphaba takes to the skies. Elphaba belts her way into explaining to Glinda and the whole audience just how strong her feelings are about freedom of the “people”.Glinda goes back to her old ways by siding with the people who like her for her looks and not the only person that ever really understood Glinda for who she really is. Elphaba flies to high above the audience letting out all of her thoughts that she has held in for so long.

After dying and coming back to life, Elphaba and Glinda have gone there seperate ways but come back together for there last duet. A very run down serious song of “For Good” gives the responsibility of fighting for the people of The City of Ember to Glinda as a very emotional Elphaba knows that leaving the City would be the best thing for her and for the people. By the end of the song Elphaba and Glinda are in tears as Elphaba must break away from Glinda and flies off into the skies.

Wicked keeps you on the edge of your seat as you sing along to the songs with the characters. Each song expresses so much of the characters emotions that proves that Wicked is a must see show for all ages. After loathing eachother for there looks, Elphaba and Glinda sing deeper into themselves to find that appearances isn’t always beauty.

The production of Addict by Drama 1 period 2 had been much better than one would expect. Addict is full of long drawn out monologues where if even one person forgot there lines, the show would be ruined. The acting in Addict was good however there were some slip ups. For instance it is never exceptable to wave to a friend in the audience while on stage unless of course your character is directed to do so. That is one of the basics and you would expect much more from a Drama 1 class. Although the set was very basic the miming of taking drugs, pulling weights, etc. was very believable and well done. There were times when you couldn’t understand what the actors were saying because they weren’t speaking clearly and loudly enough but out of the entire class they did very well on there diction. A critique I would give is the “costumes”. Even though the actors were just wearing regular school clothes I do not believe teachers would wear Glee jackets to school. (Even though I love Glee very much!) Overall, I would rate the production of Addict an 8/10

Lights. Music. Action. I knew my cues, my lines, my blocking, my lyrics, but one thing I didn’t know, was my voice had been damaged much more than I originally thought. People told me not to use my voice. I really should have listened. I take my first steps onto the stage and I get into position. The song starts out low so as far as I and the audience knew, I was in the clear. I’ve practiced this song so much that my body does the blocking without my mind even knowing it. My body stands up and the song is getting higher and higher as my voice is getting raspy. I can hear the audience whispering and shifting in their seats. All I want to do is run offstage into the cool darkness that surrounds the theater. But my body was still doing the blocking. My heart was racing and I could feel beads of sweat dripping down my forehead. I stayed in character until the song ended and ran offstage before the lights even went down. I couldn’t catch up with my breath as I could feel myself shaking from head to toe. I had just screwed up the most famous opening song to any musical ever known. I knew it. My director knew it. And the audience knew it.