Through the Looking Glass: Aishlinn Parrinello Theater Notes/Reflections

I really enjoyed creating a movement piece with a song and I found it really interesting to see what my classmates came up with. Each piece had its own feel and emotion and the pieces ranged from strictly choreographed to free movement. Some of the pieces worked super well as a whole group and others looked even better when just one person was performing the movements. I think that speed of movements was heavily influenced by the atmosphere that the person was trying to go for: the more upbeat songs were paired with faster movements and the songs that were slower were paired with slower movements that were less structured. I also noticed that some pieces had more jerky movements that went with the beat of the song and were very eye drawing and direct while the other pieces used movements that flowed together in a more relaxed manner. After seeing everyone else's movement pieces and comparing it to my own, it was interesting to see how the element of unity in my own piece (making ev...

       Over the past two weeks, I have really enjoyed working on viewpoints. I feel like by the end of the two weeks our entire class had become much more comfortable with "walking the space," whether that is in neutral or with different levels and interactions. When we first started with these activities, I was a bit skeptical with how just walking around the stage could be considered a piece of theater. I think that adding levels and vague choreography really brought the concept together for me. I learned about how to add high and low, slow and fast, big and small, etc. levels into a piece in new ways. What I found is that what each of these levels means really depends on how the person interprets the movement. In the beginning of these two weeks, I feel like my movements were usually pretty literal, but as time went on I felt more comfortable making the movement whatever I felt like. We were also given prompts to "walk the space" to; these prompts were usually si...

After completing the walk the space activity, I have noticed that my perception of a 'neutral' walk has changed. I feel like what 'neutral' is to an actor all depends on their surroundings. How much space does the actor have? How many other people are there to compete with for space to move? How are those other people moving in relation to your own movements? I noticed that as we continued to try different speeds and motions, my body became more relaxed and my movements became more leisurely. I feel my neutral walk from the beginning of class and my neutral walk from the end of class can both be considered 'neutral,' but are very different! 

- Theater moments: audiences remember/are impacted by small moments in a theater production (technical elements, stage design, costuming, color, positioning of an relation to the audience, an actor's commitment to the character/scene, surprise, contrast, immersion, etc.) - IB looks for TEAM -- tension, emotion, atmosphere, and meaning - can be created by actors, directors, designers, tech elements  - Tension: created through a building of emotion, through suspense, through the rising action of the plot into its climax, through character relationships, and through conflict and change  - Atmosphere: created through tension but through set design and production elements, helps audiences understanding setting, can help create emotion (emotion that characters feel and express, those created in the story, those felt by the audience)  - Meaning: the overall interpretation of the elements  - Various elements can impact TEAM, large meaning can be created through small moments...

 

           I have been involved in theater since I was in fifth grade. Theater is something that I really enjoy as a hobby and a creative outlet. My experience in theater has mostly been in musicals, but I also took the performing arts elective class my freshman year.  I have been casted in both lead and ensemble roles throughout my experience, but I really just enjoy being any part of the cast. One of my strengths with theater is that I really like to think about every aspect of the plot of the show and how the show will work while participating in the cast so I am able to make self directed decisions while acting that I feel enhance the performance. One of my weaknesses is that in my experience with speaking roles, I feel that several for several of these roles I have taken on similar personas, meaning I do not have much experience acting out a wide range of emotions without making my acting seeming too overdramatic. My main goal for this course to g...

          The most memorable theater moment that I've experienced was when I went to see Dear Evan Hansen in Boston a couple of years ago. Before that point I was obsessed with the show and I listened to the soundtrack on repeat for months. I was so excited to see the show and it ended up being even more incredible than I expected. What really wowed me though was that I had no idea that the cast was only comprised of 8 people. Listening to the soundtracks, it seemed as though a whole choir of voices belted out the group songs. I remember listening to "You Will Be Found" in person and literally having chills run up my back because of how incredible the voices were. I was just so amazed that only eight voices could create a unified voice with the depth of an entire choir. It was definitely a super memorable moment!