Once On This Island Review

This last Saturday night my family and I went to see the Cheshire Academy production of "Once On This Island." The play was great and seemed like a lot fun for the actors. I had a good time watching my fellow classmates on stage. They are all skilled actors with a lot of potential to pursue it as a career.

The life of Ti Moune was greatly portrayed  in the live performance. It started out as her being a youngling  and growing into a women over the time of a song. Ti Moune lived among the pescants before being chosen by the gods to nurse a rich man named Daniel back to health.  Ti Moune and Daniel fell for one another even when everyone condemned their love for each other. With the support from no one and the arrangement for Daniel to be predestined to marry another girl that is not Ti Moune, she was betrayed and fell into a deep depression. Ti Moune was given an opportunity  to save her life by killing Daniel and getting over her lost love. She ultimately chose his life over her own feeling her unreturned love was to much to bare for the rest of her life. She eventually died, and the gods pitied her casting her spirit into a tree where Daniel's kids would play once born.

The Cheshire Academy production of "Once On This Island" was one of the better high school plays I've seen. Cheshire Academy has a great drama program with skillful actors. The live music correlated  with the actor's movements perfectly. The band was so good that I actually thought it was a recording other than a live performance. The stage looked great. Everyone could see the effort that was put out into making the background look as good as it did.

The stage crew made it on and off the stage when switching scenes effortlessly. Sometimes I couldn't  even tell that they switched the stage setting until afte the lights were back on the stage. Two things Id try and improve were the memorization of lines/clarity while speaking, and making sure that some scenes are acted properly. Their were times where the audience found flunders in the actors performance and memorization of lines. And lastly their was one scene in the play that I felt was supposed to be romantic and serious but the audience interpreted it as funny which kind of threw the whole genre of the play off from being a romantic drama to a kind of romantic comedy.

Other than those to negative factors, I'd give the play a solid 7 out of 10 for a rating. Leaving room for improvement, but also appreciating the hard work and effort that went into producing the play. I give the producor/director amble credit for the performance and encouraging all the actors to do the best job possible. I would definitely recommend the play to anyone that wanted to see a good high school play showing. I would also definitely go see another Cheshire Academy production as soon as another comes out.

Script for scene in The Flash

Cisco: Barry, I think Doctor Wells is really not who we think he is. I need to find out what went wrong that night we captured the reverse flash and find out how he really  escaped. Can you cover for me?

Barry: sure I'll tell wells you went out of town to run an errand.

Cisco walls down the hallway to the trap they sent and captured the reserve flash. Cisco works on a computer. 

(Cisco watches the holograms) : Doctor Harrison wells we meet at last. Cisco plays it over again. : Doctor Harrison wells we meet at last. 

Cisco: It was a hologram wells tricked us 

Wells: hello Cisco your incrediblally clever. 

Cisco: your him the reverse flash. 

Wells: We never properly introduced. I am Eboard Thawne. 

Cisco: Thawne... like Eddie Thawne. 

Wells: let's call him a distant relitave. 

Cisco: you were there that night when Barry was a kid. You killed Nora Allen why? 

Wells: it was never my intention to kill Nora. I was there to kill Barry. 

Cisco: Your his friend. Your teach no him how to go faster. Why? 

Wells: I'll tell you why Cisco. I have been stuck in this time for 15 long years. And the flash, and the flashes speed. is the key to my way home. to the future.  And no one will prevent this from happening.

Cisco: I can help you

Wells: your smart Cisco. but not that smart. 

This is hard for me. Because have become quite fond of you especially you. And in many ways you have shown me what it is like to have a son. 

Wells: forgive me 

First Ever Monologue

Link to first ever monologue: https://youtu.be/-eUJqRT5C5w

My first ever monologue was both a fun and anxious expirence. I never peformed a skit in my life and it was a very fun experience. I think monologue is one of the harder projects that I will do in this  acting class, because you are on stage by yourself and you have no hint at  your next lines coming from another characters dialogue. My monologue was difficult because I was never truly able to find my characters place in the reenactment... I could not relate to the boy portrayed in my monologue  because I never as a kid wanted to be a hero. I was always quite as a kid, and I only became more outgoing recently. I think once time took its course and I became more mature I broke out of my shyness, but that still didn't help when I was trying to act as a confident younger boy around age eleven.

From watching the other students act, I pulled things out that I liked and incorporated it into my own piece. I think it was good that I received emails on how to make it better and took that to my advantage. My classmates were very helpful and it made me look at my character from another angle. At first I thought my character was around age six or seven, but then I realized after reading the emails my peers sent me, the monologue I was trying to grasp my knowledge around seemed more mature than what a six year old may say. The problems faced in my monologue would occur more in junior high or late elementary school.  The emails were both positive and negative, but the negative was put in words where it did not hurt my feelings and made me take it into consideration other than blocks it out.

What I could of done better  was practice more in front of the mirror. I read my monologue only about ten times. By then, I had memorized it and started practicing in front of a mirror. My projection was always solid and confident, but my movments could of been better with more practice. I also did not practice in front of a crowd other than my time in class. Practicing in front of people could of better prepared me for when I actually needed to present in class. Therefore with the lack of practice in front of people I got a little nervous in front of the students and teachers while performing my monologue. I knew my lines before the presentation and rehearsed them every night but when I got up in front of everyone I got nervous. Causing me to forget a couple of limes during the presentation. That will go away once I get more practice, I'm sure. Acting has been very fun, and challenging up to this point.  I have a passion for acting and I am not going to let one flunder hold me back.