Blog 8: Final Evaluation Blog

Well, I haven’t written a blog in a while, not since, I believe, before spring break. In this evaluation essay I want to speak about the influence which this class, “purple”, and the community which we have created in this very short amount of time, has had on me and others. I will be looking at the past, explaining its influence on the present, and explain how it has developed into a type of inspiration and optimism for the future.
When I first joined the cast of “Purple” I was indeed, like most, hesitant about putting on a play so different than, one, anything I had ever done before, and two, different then anything I have seen performed in the William and Mary theater department before. However, I embraced this opportunity for the experiential value that it offered. Like when I performed in “Medea” in the fall which forced me to perform extremely external emotional scenes, this play pushed me beyond anything I have ever done theatrically in the past. “Purple” required me to accept and perform in the extreme, at times with over-exaggeration, and at other times acting in scenes portraying uncomfortable topics and themes. Through this experience, while trying at times, I developed a newfound and invigorated sense of self-confidence on the stage. To perform in a style so different then anything done before is always an opportunity for personal growth, and this experience had a profound influence on me. While I was unable to perform during the final performances, the experience in rehearsals has affected me personally and as an actor.
Realization of the play’s content has influenced me greatly as well. While I have taken courses in the past which presented themes of gender, sexual, economic, religious, cultural, and class oppression, the artistic representation of these themes in this particular play, being that they were many times presented in an exaggerated style, made me uniquely aware of its brutality and violence. This style forces the audience, and the actor, to re-evaluate and analyze the scenes performed, and in this forced analysis we come to realize these oppressive social, religious, and political constructs in a new way, leaving us no longer desensitized, as most modern audiences would be, from the true cruelty of the past and present. People who walked out of the play, while not being able to experience the full effect of its entirety, nevertheless are made to think about what they had seen, to analyze the performance, and realize the reality of what they had seen performed.
By desensitizing the audience, and by realizing the cruel reality of the past and present, this play has the power to influence the future. Just as Junior is forced to revisit his past to realize himself through writing his and momma’s story, people who have seen the play, even if only in part, are influenced in the same way. We must reevaluate the way we act and interact with people. This leaves me with a sense of optimism for a better future, and has given me a personal desire to influence the future myself. Like when Junior comes to realize in the end that we cannot change to past, we do have the power to change ourselves and our future. We have the power, I have the power, to influence others just like this play has, and that is why I am so happy to have been involved in the community that we have over this semester established. While I was unable to perform in the final performances, I am proud to have been involved in what was accomplished.
It is sad that the play is over, however; while the play itself is over, the motivation that it has given us to inspire change lives on in all of us. Thank you all for involving me in this community, thank you Guru for giving me this opportunity, and I look forward to seeing you all around campus in the future.

Blog 7

Well, this will be my final post, seeing how the class and the show are finished. I do hope however that we might be able to get together and do something in place of "purple" for at least some of the time left in the semester. Guru, I hope you keep us posted on future opportunities as it would be fun to possibly put together something else with the time left this school year. As for the final days of performance, I must say that it was a pleasure attending the shows and helping out when I could. It was nice to continue to be included and involved with the community that we inevitably established during the first half of the semester with the show. I feel like it would have been a great loss to terminate the connection which we all created between us, and I feel privileged to have been included within the unique bond which we all shared in being involved with the play. During the last day, when the show had finished and we were tearing down the set, I was initially saddened at the idea that we would not be seeing each other every day as had become custom. I reflected upon the time that we shared, the good and the, well never bad, but at times definitely trying and difficult. I remembered the rehearsals, the class periods, the jokes, the dances, and all the dialog that passed between us and I rejoiced at the fact that I had indeed been apart of such an amazing experience, beyond what I had normally experienced in past theater productions both here and in high school. While we are no longer physically meeting everyday in rehearsal or performance, I believe that we will all be with each other everyday for the rest of our lives, bonded by the experiences with each other during "purple". I still see people around, and without fail we always either stop and talk or at least take the time to acknowledge and greet each other when rushing to our next activity of the day. This is probably one of the most notable tributes to the lasting bond that we all share, and the community which we all established together and remain apart of. Thank you Guru Francis, and thank you all, for allowing me to be apart of this community, this Banjar. Thank you and hope to continue to see you all around campus in the future.

Blog 6

Well, today was the final day of class, and while we will meet tomorrow to finish the dramaturgy exhibit in the front lobby, I am sad for it. I look forward to seeing the final product of the show, after all the lighting and sound is finished and all the hard work everyone has done is shown to the William and Mary/Williamsburg community. I think that we all did a great job putting together the dramaturgy, and seeing the final product today, all the slides being put together and ready to be printed, I am sure that it will look great and be a testament to the hard work of the entire class. The show, as I stated in my last blog, looks wonderful and I am sure it will be a great success thanks to all the hard work of everyone involved. While I do not regret being apart of Macbeth, I do regret that I missed key rehearsals during a time in which the cast united and passed from one stage of emotionality to another, in effect making it impossible for me to catch up and continue to be apart of the show. I feel assured however that my being there, missing key moments in which the cast became something greater than just a bunch of actors, becoming a group of highly efficient storytellers and evolving into an even tighter knit community, would have only hindered the show. And from seeing the show last night I would have forever regretted hindering such a performance as was given, a performance which could only have been done with the unification of the entire cast during all the rehearsals, and especially at the end during days which I especially now regret missing. Guru, you were right, while I might have been able to catch up on the blocking, and that might have been okay for another show, I could never have caught up to the cast, in terms of the artistic vision of the play, in the time that we had left to put on the show. I would never have been able to catch up to the cast in terms of the creative aspect of this show, a show that is all the better for incorporating this aspect, and which only with an emotionally unified community, the Banjar, of cast members, would it be possible. I am greatly thankful to still be apart of your community, even if not on stage, and look forward to helping out in anyway I can to make sure that the show is a great success, as I am sure it will be. A show that I feel sure will be talked about for a long time among the Williamsburg and William and Mary community.

Blog 5

So, I saw the full show for the first time yesterday and I must say that it was by far the most powerful show that I have seen on the main stage yet. Even if it went up yesterday, with all the sound difficulty that everyone was having and the few mistakes that were caught the show would have been worth the money spent. The best thing about it by far is the high energy mixed in with culture, history, and the artistic presence of the actors. It was obvious that everyone was into their characters and that the entire cast knew what they were doing and were doing it to the best of their ability. I especially enjoyed the hip hops scene and must say that I was unprepared for some of the cast coming into the audience, extending all the energy on stage to the seats in which those watching were sitting. It was a fantastic touch to the entire scene and I felt not only a part of what was happening on stage but also was greater affected by the already profound energy in which the show had progressed with. Both the end of Act 1 and the end of Act 2 left me deeply emotionally touched and left me begging for more, the one thing which any audience member wants when paying money for a show is not wanting to leave and for the performance to never end. I was left feeling that sensation during both of these parts of the show, something I have never felt before when watching a main stage performance at William and Mary. In fact, usually I find myself looking at my watch wondering when the show will end. This is not the fact with "when the purple settles". The costumes, the dancing, the actors, and the energy kept me begging for more, and when it was all finished I was sad that it was over. So congratulations to all the cast members, Leah, Jen, Jason, Joey, and especially you Guru for creating a show that creates such a profound experience. While I am not on stage with the cast, and greatly saddened because of this, I am happy to do work behind the scenes if it means that this is the show you were able to produce, and by being able to continue helping with the show I truly feel apart of something great, and am extremely thankful for it.

Blog 4

While watching documentaries in class can be of great use in understanding history, I definitely enjoy when we get to be actively involved in the learning process. The class period that we spent learning pronunciation and words of the language of the Filipino's definitely did this, and it was very enjoyable despite the intensity of the heat in the room (by the way, can we put on the air conditioner next time, PLEASE!!!!). While certain pronunciations of words were difficult to master, and yet still not yet entirely mastered, it was great to attempt to speak this creative, and as we found out somewhat simple, language. Following the mastery of speaking the vowels, which to me seemed the easiest part because it is so similar to the way we say the vowels in speaking Spanish, it was surprising how simple some of the words were, simply adding consonants to the front of the vowels and then repeating them twice. While I know not all the words of this language are as simple as the ones we practiced, Titi, Dodo, Kiki, Bobo, and other words of similar simplicity, it was still exciting to learn and practice. Furthermore, I think that by practicing in class, we will be better prepared for the language's use during the show.

Blog 3

I think that the hardest thing for me up to this point is going to be attempting to contextualize the rape scenes. In rehearsal, when Francis just told us to attempt to visualize and create the rape scene on stage I definitely felt a little weird about it. It helps to be in the class so as to better understand the history in which this brutal act represents yet I feel that it is going to be continually hard for me to get to a point of comfortability during this scene, just as it was when we did the scene involving oral sex. However, by continually learning about the history surrounding these very graphic acts and how these acts serve not to necessarily degrade but to better contextualize this history for a more modern audience, to provide a message which might make the audience understand the brutality surrounding the history of this culture and the patriarchal attitude ingrained within it. These scenes in many ways attempt the same thing as the abortion scene which was performed during MEDEA this past fall semester. A modern audience, with our culture of graphic videos and games, is in many ways desensitized. In MEDEA, it would have been harder for an audience to really feel to pain felt by the characters by just killing children of a certain age. But when the abortion took place, in all its glory, on stage, right in front of the audience, ending with a blood soaked stage and an unborn fetus, the modern audience might better relate and feel sorry for the characters on stage. It was an act which provoked an actual response from the audience and left them thinking about what they had seen for days after. Because of my experience as Jason in MEDEA, the father who is deprived of all his children and his new wife by the brutal murders by Medea, I feel I can better understand the use of graphic content within the play. While it may be hard for me to contextualize the content now, I feel in the end the overall effect will be of greater meaning.

Blog 2

Hello class. In this blog I would like to take the time to discuss some of the things that we have recently been exposed to in class. First, I just want to say that the videos that we found documenting the flagellation ceremony and the mock crucifixion were pretty graphic. I don't think that personally I would ever want to take devotion to any religion as far as these people did. It looked as though it was the most painful thing in which anyone could do to themselves, and which we found out, which anyone could allow another person to help them do as well. Secondly, it was interesting to see the types of clothes which the ifugao people created. They were extremely native, with headdresses utilizing cloth and feathers, and displaying unique embroidery. When we were looking at the clothes I was visualizing the women dancing at the beginning of "Movement in Green" and was considering how awesome it would be if we could use these types of clothes for the characters playing the natives during this scene. Overall, the things which we saw helped me further understand the culture the ethnics which make it up.