Reflection of our
Performance
I have broken my
response into three categories: 1. What I learned as an Artist/Educator 2. What
I Contributed 3. Modified version of this Assignment in the Classroom
What I learned as an Artist/Educator: This project was
really great because as an educator I really learned what it meant to focus on the
process. We talk a lot about it in our classes; how we should be focusing on
the process as well as the performance. We don’t always talk in detail about
how we do that. This project really broke down the parts and we had a lot of
time to work on each of these individual parts before we had to put them
together. This was great because as a theatre maker I just wanted to get it on its
feet so that we could start running the performance. However, by separating the
parts and by allowing us to work on each of these parts separately it allowed
us to really think through what we were presenting. This allowed room for us to
really think about each individual part of the project instead of worrying
about whether the final performance was going to be up to par. However, I do
believe that by breaking down the project and focusing on the process made the
performance even better. I believe this is true because we had thought through
many aspects of our performance in advanced and knew where we wanted to go.
That allowed us to pick and choose things in the final stages of our performance
that would benefit our overall vision.
What I contributed: This is one group project that I have
done that I can honestly say everyone pitched in. I feel like that because we
all were responsible for aspects and stories that were incorporated into the
final performance. I do feel that I had a vital role in this process, but I
believe that we all did. I would describe my role in this process as the “putter
together” person. I felt like I did a great job about taking all of the ideas
we wanted and meshed them together. In talking and prepping, I would always
restate ideas to make sure we were on the same page and then ask the person to
elaborate on how they saw this moment; then how they saw it playing out in the performance.
This then allowed me to see what they wanted and then I often worked through
with them on how we could fit it in with the other pieces. This then lead to my
role of putting the PowerPoint together. I took media that was made by everyone
and I meshed it together in a way that flowed and made sense for our
performance. I really enjoyed this position that I forged because often I find
myself being the loudest voice in a crowd and I felt like I allowed myself to
take a step back from that. I was able to focus on listening and helping others
in our group create their moments. This was a great growing opportunity for me
as I found myself taking a different role in a process I have done many times.
Modified Version of this Assignment in the Classroom: I
really enjoyed this project and I would love to do something similar in the
classroom. One piece of our project that I thought was the 30 seconds stories. (Some
of them were longer than that, but the name is more catchy than other titles.)
I would love to adapt this assignment to be a 5-8 performance where students
would create their own performance utilizing the 30 second story structure.
Allow students to come together and decide what stories they would like to share.
Allow them to pick a subject and then find or tell their own stories. Then push
them to think about media, images, audio, bodies etc. and how they contribute to
the telling of stories. And do this by mirroring a very similar process that we
had, just on a smaller scale. I really liked how we were able to collaborate
and so one thing that I would focus on in this project is collaboration. I
would probably take more time/lessons to talk and explore what collaboration means
and how it can affect the final project. This could like some lessons before we
even talk about the project of creating small performances or projects in small
groups. To even team building activities and discussions. Another thing that I
would probably explore before we dive into this project is what it means to
represent someone’s story. The many ways that it can be done and the ways that
maybe it shouldn’t be done—exploring how we would want our stories to be told
and how we should tell others.
