Winter Portfolio

Final Journal – Winter Semester

Alvan Le

I feel as if just yesterday I was starting my first day in Drama 300. I was nervous, and scared about what would happen in the class. Nevertheless, I’m glad I took this class. The amount I have grown as an actor over the year is more that I could have imagined! Although I have learned many lessons in this class, here are the three biggest lessons I will take away: all the clues that you need are in the text; your guideposts will ground you in the world of the play; and to do everything with purpose.

It wasn’t until we worked on Shakespeare that I understood that the author leaves a multitude of clues for the actor in the text. William Shakespeare fills his text with hints such as figures of speech,

Honestly, at first I was unsure if they worked. They didn’t seem to help me improve my work; however, it wasn’t until I went in depth with each guidepost that it really sunk into me. We were told to consider the moment before, but it wasn’t effective until I completely understood the importance of it. Once I had considered how the moment before made my character feel and how it affected the present moment, the guidepost would finally help me. I had to embody each guide post in order from them to help me. It was one thing to answer each guidepost, but it was another to take the guidepost to heart. As a result of learning about guideposts, my work has become more authentic and more connected to the

During the year, I had received conflicting advice from different teachers about movement. One teacher told me to stay still and another told me that I’m too still. As the semester went on, I had discovered that it’s okay to move, but you have to do it with purpose. I was originally told to stay still because I had a habit of fidgeting and wandering about. Meanwhile, I was told that I was too still because I wasn’t embodying the text with my movement. Both pieces of advice were given to me to help me get to a balance of both. Movement is acceptable if you did it by choice and not out of fear or nervousness. But it doesn't stop there. This lesson can be applied to how we say our text too. For example, it’s acceptable to pause if you’ve earned the pause and specifically chose where to do it. However, it’s unacceptable to pause if it’s a habit that you’re doing after every couple lines of text. Overall, this lesson teaches me to be precise in my work as an