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.