He Doesn't Exist

Oh, the day I've been dreading has finally come and gone. Although I do enjoy performing, I find myself still incredibly self-conscious, especially if it involves a monologue. Unfortunately, that's just what I was required to perform today, a monologue of all things. Woe is me. I have no idea why I just said that considering that my monologue was not even remotely related to anything Shakespearean. Anyways, woe really is me. With most performances, I have a tendency to be so overwrought prior to the performance that I end up forgetting everything that I've previously learned, be it lines or blocking. Today, I felt especially unprepared, considering that I had not been working on the piece for that long. Still, as performance time crept closer and closer with the end of each period, I resolved to just wing it. Alk in all, the performance proceeded much smoother than I thought it would. At one point, however, I did have to ask for my line, but otherwise I was able to cover my tracks. With a considerably smaller number of students in my theater class, I felt as though it was easier to perform with less eyes on me. Upon completing my monologue, the class proceeded into crituques. Most of the comments I recieved had to do with the physicality of my environment and my display of emotions. The character within my piece was dealing with the death of her grandmother, and in the process blames God for his sadistic ways. Since I saw this piece previously performed, I almost felt as though I had to live up to the previous performance. Though I did not actually want my character to cry within the piece, I wanted to allude that by the end she is on the verge of tears. With a second attempt to peform the monologue once again next Monday, I hope that I will be able to discover all levels of the piece.

As I watched the other performances, I felt as though I was being transported back to the beginning of the year when we first saw each other's pantomimes. Once again, the concepts of pantomiming and blocking posed probably the biggest problems among the performances. Students would often limit or trap themselves by setting up their environment a certain way or even confuse the audience with inconsistent pantomiming. In the end, however, all performances, including mine, were largely mediocre.

With that, we began watching a video on medieval theater. Today, however, they focused specifically on the mystery playes. It would be quite interesting to be able to see a resurrection of any of the cycles in Britain right now. What with the pageant wagons in all their glory, requiring the audience only to wait in place for the next group of performers to comes. It was especially amazing to see various footage of these cycles and how the pageant wagons were structured. Reaching incredible heights, these pageant wagons often included a functioning second story. It seems practically impossible, and all within a wagon.