Reflective Essay On Acting

Since planning my schedule for this semester, Acting III has been the class I was looking most forward to. I’ve always struggled with appropriately incorporating movement in my performances; therefore, I appreciated the opportunity even though I was a bit reluctant to step out of my comfort zone. Nevertheless, the movement dynamics I have worked on in the past weeks embody my favorite aspects of art. First, this exercise allows me to be vulnerable: each dynamic elicits a different emotion that creates a stronger connection between me and my craft. Furthermore, one of the first things we learned in Acting I was that emotions are not playable but are rather a reflection of our reactions to certain circumstances. In this case, however, there wasn’t

First, it’s hard to visualize. Second, it was difficult to make movements as sharp as possible and I agree with my classmates that it is easy to fall into the trap of getting into robot mode. I’m not sure what helped me improve, but it might have been the music and the emotions tied to the dynamic. Given that the beat made me feel powerful, I connected the feeling of strength to the movement which helped me when thrusting. Lastly, the most challenging dynamic was pressing, which was unexpected. I thought having done pantomime before would somewhat help, and since the imagery was easy to access it shouldn’t have been as hard as it was. I remembered scenes in movies where characters were trapped in a room where the walls are closing so they had no choice but to resist. For breakthroughs, I tried to visualize a scene in a TV show in which a character has to break through some sort of magical barrier he is pressing against until h cone finally succeeds. Nevertheless, to my surprise, pressing was not only the most difficult dynamic for me but also for some of my classmates. As aforementioned, breathing is really important not only as a guide but to provide the energy necessary to carry the actor throughout the performance. Pressing provokes feelings of anxiety and being trapped; therefore, I sometimes unconsciously held my breath. Furthermore, although very distinct, every other dynamic elicited one emotion that was constant. In comparison, that consistency is not present in pressing since the feeling of being trapped is replaced by relief every time one breaks through; it is hard to convey the different emotions while maintaining the