Midterm Reflection

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 Midterm Self-Reflection

Name: Aishlinn Parrinello

Class: G 

Overall, how would you describe your experience in this class?

Overall, I have really enjoyed this class so far. I have liked all the activities that we have done and my experience has been overall a positive one. I have become comfortable with the other students in this class and I really enjoy getting to be creative during the school day through this class. I like that we have not focused on just one aspect of theater and have experimented with a lot of different things already that I have never tried before. 

What aspects have been easy for you? 

I think coming up with creative ideas has come pretty easily for me. I think that the environment of this class really helps me feel comfortable with sharing my ideas and working with others to think of new ones. 

What aspects have been challenging?

The movement work was overall a bit challenging for me because it was a little bit hard to become vulnerable and have other people scrutinize my movements when it wasn’t clear exactly what I was trying to portray. I was afraid of embarrassing myself but overall I think I got more comfortable as we spent more time on this topic. Collaboration is something that I have had to work a little bit on so far because I have often had certain ideas in my head but I have had to be open to everyone else’s ideas and do what was best for the group, even if it wasn’t necessarily what I thought was best. 

What is one thing you have learned about your own theater-making so far?

One thing that I have learned about my own theater-making is that when I come up with an idea, it is best to write it all down and get it out there so that I don’t forget what I have thought of. I have also learned that it is best to experiment with different things, whether that is trying different levels or lines or movements. When I experiment, I am able to get a better idea of what feels right for the scene and what would give the audience the best experience. 

What connections do you see between the things that you have explored in the course so far? Are there any overarching patterns or themes you have noticed?

So far, we have spent most of our class time working on viewpoints and movement work. I think that these two theater topics are super connected because everything that we have done so far has built off of previous activities. For example, we started off with viewpoint videos that featured mostly subtle movements and music and then moved onto movement activities where we would walk the space, interact with each other, and create different levels with our bodies. I think that through all of this, the goal was to create an experience for the viewer to interpret the movement individually because there is so much room for interpretation with these movements. 

Overall, is there anything you think you can do in order to improve in this class?

  I think for myself and my other classmates, we can all work on staying more focused during class time, because we all tend to get a bit distracted and off topic. 

Name two ways that you can stretch yourself as a learner or thinker this semester.

  • In group work, I can work with someone who I wouldn’t typically pair up with 

  • For homework assignments, I can spend more time writing more in depth reflections/blog posts to improve my understanding of what we have worked on 

What, if any, other questions or concerns do you want to raise at this point in the course?

I don’t have any questions. 

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