Reflection 1; A Starting Point I

What did you learn this summer that might relate to IB Theater? If you say plays, wrote plays, took part in any projects or simply had reflections/realizations that you think will impact your journey in theater ahead, please describe in some detail.

To say the least, this was a very theater-oriented summer. Before summer vacation even began, I had already signed up for an ushering position in a foolsFURY Theater Festival so that I could attend a large number of shows free of charge after about an hour of work. Over the course of three weeks, I managed to attend shows performed by both foolsFURY Theater Company, and Theater Companies from New York, Afghanistan, and some San Francisco based companies. Now, it should be known that the variety of shows -where some nights I would be fortunate enough to see three pieces in one evening- is so expansive that I couldn't even hope to cover it right now in this opening reflection. I will, however, be sure to write a reflection on each of these pieces individually, outside of this beginning reflection.

However, my summer didn't quite end with those three weeks of theater viewing. In fact, they had only just begun. Before I realized it, I had signed up for and had begun attending Berkeley Repertory School Of Theater's Summer Intensive Program for Older Teenagers. I didn't know what to expect in approaching the four weeks of intense theater practice and study. All I knew was that I would be taking part in a variety of classes. The full list of classes included Play Creation, Voice, Movement, Acting, Playwriting, Clowning, Stage Combat, Improvisation, and Shakespeare. Each class was taught by a different teacher, and each class offered something incredibly unique and taught be something I had never before expected to learn.

Play Creation was, perhaps, one of the largest undertakings I have ever participated in, despite the fact that it only took place over the course of 4 weeks. Within the first half of a week, our teacher and later director, Melissa Hillman (A director of Bay Area-Based Impact Theater Company) had managed to break down most of the censor that once sat within my head telling me all the things I should say because of how foolish it would make me look. All it took was less than a half an hour of timed improvisations in pairs for me to learn that improvisation and acting, though they have their connection with one another, can function as completely different trades, because the careful planning that is incorporated to most acting is immediately thrown out the window with improvisation as anything becomes allowed, acceptable, and encouraged. Though I knew absolutely no one in the group at the time, the exercise itself forced us to stop caring about people, and faces, and the audience, and to just do it for the sake of doing it. In truth, it was the most liberating thirty minute exercise I will probably ever partake in, as it permanently broke down a censor that had once had far more control than it should have. As soon as we had worked through that exercise, everyone in the group was ready to push through more improvisations so that we could, as a group, come to work towards a topic that we, as a group would create a full, twenty minute production out of.

And so, the real thinking within Play Creation, was set in the hands of us, the students. 17 teenagers, none of which who could really come to know just what our true passions were outside of the Dramatic Arts. And yet, before the end of the week, we had spent our hours of class coming up with roughly 67 topics of discussion (if my memory serves me correctly), and, through votes and improvisations about certain topics, we somehow, rather miraculously, managed to narrow it down to one overarching topic and incorporating some of the other topics with high votes rather effortlessly into this one production, effectively named "Good, Evil, and Everything in Between."

That, however, was just the beginning of the process. Choosing the topic, in truth, was the easiest part about it all. It was, however, our job as a group to write the play ourselves, so that, in the end, the whole production was, effectively, our own. This was the moment where I managed to delve into a very short time of playwriting. Everyone was asked to bring in a piece of writing, and while I thought about my own thoughts on our potential topics, I ended up brainstorming endlessly about topics for plays that have not yet been completed, even in this moment. I did however, write one opening monologue to a particularly interesting drama of my own, with the working title of "Jean The Bank Robber." I don't know exactly what I did, but I remember hearing Melissa Hillman complimenting me on how beautifully it was written, despite the fact that it was far from the writings of others in the class. Where I found drama easy to write, the majority of my class found wit and comedy to be their forte. So, naturally, not ready to try and condense my multiple-act drama into twenty minutes within a weeklong deadline, I therefore took the backseat in the playwriting aspect, and instead embraced a hands-on aspect of the theater, which was, effectively, acting.

Through staged readings of drafts and critiquing each separate piece with strengths and weaknesses, our whole group managed to incorporate the rather interesting idea of an audience into our staging, to the point where we played with roles, and ended up having actors portraying an audience while other actors still portrayed, in a redundant way, actors acting on a stage for the audience that was, indeed, on stage. Originally, when I heard of the concept, I thought of Boal, and his Invisible Theater and how some aspects of his Theater of the Oppressed involved his audience rather directly. However, by the end of it, the concept in my head had been formed, broken down, rebuilt, and transformed into a new concept of the audience, playing with satire and absurdism as a means to entertain the audience.

The last two weeks of Play Creation, once we had a full script in hand, was completely dominated by rehearsals, running this twenty-minute piece, and extensive character work and blocking to make sure that, for a two-week, twenty minute piece, involving 17 teenagers, would run as smoothly, as effortlessly, and as impressively as possible. Looking at our work, I myself am amazed, to understand that a large cast of teens could come together in an amount of time much shorter than the time some one act productions of my school would have taken, and still managing to create a full piece worthy of the stage, with all the important aspects of tech and blocking completely organized.

Despite the fact that we were given but one single set of twenty minutes by which to perform four weeks of incredible work, that one class, out of the seven I attended during the Summer Intensive, was truly worth the time, as it taught me not only of the discipline required in the field of acting, but of the immense satisfaction one can get out of such work. Perhaps the one most important lesson that I have learned from this one class alone was one that has slowly but certainly become a truth to me. That is that Theater is the one truly collaborative art form.