ISTA Workshops Reflections

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        Overall, I think that these workshops were helpful and effective. I think that from the beginning, it has been somewhat difficult to conduct these workshops because the instructor has been over zoom, but I think we have made it work. I liked the format of the flipped classroom, where the whole session was dedicated to actually trying out the techniques and theater practices instead of just sitting through the slideshow. 

        Some of the activities in these workshops were a bit frustrating for me because after a take or two I often get bored with an idea and feel that there is not much more to experiment with or pull from, and the instructor had us work quite a lot on trying lots of different variations of the same thing. I understand though that this is an important aspect of theater that I need to get used to because I am sure we will continue to work on this throughout the rest of this year and next. I am trying to push myself to find new ways to experiment and enhance a piece. I think these workshops also pushed our class in our collaborative work. I have noticed that over time we often fall upon the same patterns or formats for our collaborative pieces, which I think often happens because they seem the easiest. Trying new things in these workshops challenged us to work with others who don't often pair up with, experiment with different scenarios, and devise pieces unlike the format that we have relied on so far. I think that these workshops have definitely helped our overall collaborative process. I will say though that I think we could have improved even more in this area had it not been for so many overlapping events and time constraints that led to several workshops where not all six of us were present. I think that this may have also been beneficial though, because it pushed us to work with what we had even if we were planning to have more people in a scene, or have to change a scene to work with who was present. 

        Another thing that I liked about this workshop was that the instructor had us view several different pieces of theater, theatre practitioners, or theater practices. I think my favorite thing that we worked with was Love and Information by Caryl Churchill, though my least favorite was Commedia D'elle Arte. I am still glad though that we got to work with Commedia a little bit so that I know not to pick it for my research project. 

        I think overall, this workshop has made me both more comfortable and more uncomfortable with experimenting and going a bit more "all in" with acting than I was before in front of my classmates. The continuous critique of one small action, like we did with Commedia, made me somewhat uncomfortable because I felt pretty ridiculous, but for some other things, like the final piece from working with starting points, I actually felt more comfortable being loud and ridiculous, even though that became a very comedic piece by the end. It was still a good experience to have. I am happy to have completed these workshops and I look forward to moving on to new things!

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