5th week Reflection
” Why me Josh?”
My first line from the play Bang Bang you are dead when I played the role of Emily.
I can still remember those lines and actions after that. Especially my solo part when I drop dead dramatically. It was well received by the audience and the judges. Still could recall those moments. It has been two years since i perform on stage. I dearly miss my drama days. Actually my love lies not only in filmmaking but performing arts too.
Drama is something close to my heart always and I m still proud to talk about the performances I was involved. Most memorable ones are the Singapore Youth Festival (Syf) and my secondary school’s Musical performance. My school got gold with honour and became one of the top 4 for the play Bang Bang you are Dead for syf. The musical was to commemorate the school’s annual 10 year anniversary held at Nanyang polytechnic. It was called “ Club Gangsa” it involved the entire performing arts Drama, Dance, Choir and Band. I played the lead character. It was really a roller coaster ride for me during those days. The best moments I had in life.
But what I want to share here now is about my thoughts about stage acting. I always felt that stage acting is better than on-screen acting. In film, we can have as many takes as we want to get the right emotions from the actors. But in stage everything is live. You can’t do mistakes and there are no retakes. In film, actors do not act continuously. Only editing brings the whole movie as one piece. But in stage the actors act continuously. They portray emotions very well.
Not saying that cinema actors are bad. It is just that both are totally different. There are certain rules you have to follow while acting in movie and acting in theatre. In movies the characters must be natural not dramatic. But in theatre it’s totally a different story. The more dramatic you are the more impact you create. I personally feel that theatre acting improves an actor’s modulation. It helps us pronounce our words well and make us use our voice from the diaphragm and not stomach. Theatre acting is a good way to learn acting skills.
Acting is also a form of art. We need to cultivate the art first in order to excel in it. People often misjudge that acting is a natural talent. I will not say their perception is totally wrong but the passion for acting brings out the natural talent. But no matter how good you are, you have to polish the skill right? Acting should come natural and have to learn it too. So for those who want to take acting seriously, I will encourage them to go for acting workshops, classes or join a theatre company. It can really help a lot.
On a last note, I want to say that I hope I could once again act on stage. I don’t want my talent to go wasted. Just waiting for the moment to come true.
Drama MaMas In Action
After our performance with MR Mark Waite our director
This is a good post, and the pictures help. I wonder if part of the visual trigger assignment has helped you use photos to motivate your writing.