Fall 2022
TMA 455R Theatre Tour
TMA 260R Theatre Production 2
TMA 123 Acting Fundamentals
TMA 160 Theatre Production 1
TMA 201 Drama Perf: Antiq to Renais
TMA 240 Playmaking
TMA 260R Theatre Production 2
TMA 123 Acting Fundamentals
TMA 160 Theatre Production 1
TMA 201 Drama Perf: Antiq to Renais
TMA 240 Playmaking
TMA 455R - Theatre Tour
Course outcomes common to all sections of TMA 455
- Students will expand talents and skills for performing through challenging literature, blocking, choreography, characterization, and emitional commitment.
- Students will be introduced to alternative aspects of production (through educational outreach programs, service opportunities, and theatre for young audiences).
- Students will explore children's literature and practices as well as synthesize performative and critical assessments.
Emmalisa Horlacher
TMA 455R
12-03-2022
PRODUCTION REFLECTION
I feel that I have had the opportunity to grow in many ways over the course of this touring performance. I have grown in my acting abilities, I have grown in the ways that I interact and react with children, and I have grown in the creative learning and exploration process. This has been a unique experience and taken me to the a new level of accomplishment. In so many ways I’ve been blessed by the things I’ve learned.
My acting has significantly grown as I’ve learned how to act for kids. I’ve learned about being authentic and really allowing yourself to feel the action of the moment. When acting in a scene humans have the ability to blur the line between what is real and what is not. As an actor you have to harness this skill to make what you do believable. In each scene there should be moments of true authenticity and by developing the skill of controlled believability, I’ve been able to find that authenticity and react to it. In those moments there comes a time when I am no longer Emmalisa acting in a play, I become a Green Metaphorical Dog that just had their sandwich taken away… and I was hungry! The ability to control belief is almost like a superpower and as I have performed in this play, I have been able to help grow and develop this skill.
One of the struggles that I came across as I performed in this play was the ability to make it fresh. It becomes harder to believe that you’re experiencing and discovering this scenario for the first time when it’s the tenth+ show where you’ve experienced it. In this way, I had to learn how to make it fresh. One of the things that helped me overcome this obstacle was a simple phrase I heard from a speaker somewhere. (I think it was from Hagen’s book “Respect for Acting.”) Hagen talked about loving long show runs. As I was currently in a long show run this seemed to be relevant information for me. She talked about taking on the challenge of making the show fresh and new every night. Instead of complaining or getting bored by what she was being called to do, she took up a mantle of responsibility and did what she could to bring something new, fresh and fun to every show. (This doesn’t mean she changed the show, the blocking, or anything like that, but in the little ways she could, she found ways to make the show a discovery.) After hearing her story I knew that I couldn’t use the excuse of repetition as a reason to get complacent. I had to do something to make a change so I could continue enjoying the experience.
There were two main ways in which I added freshness to the shows. The first was to add a level of discovered emotion. For me this meant that I would add a type of dynamic change or depth to the emotion I was assigned to feel in that scene. For instance, in the tug-of-war scene, I had originally tried to help Pink Dog win the tug-of-war battle but as the shows went on I experimented a bit and tried out a new emotion to worry instead of battle. Suddenly, I became the worry wart. From there I used every new performance to go deeper and deeper into that emotion and as I did I found that my actions changed. Instead of joining the battle I would try to unsuccessfully reason with those involved with the tug-of-war battle. This was just one example of my experimentation with the play. Other times I have tried to interact more with the audience, other times I focus more on a relationship with a specific character. For me it helped keep the show fresh. There were instances when these explorations would change my motivations and sometimes my actions, which may not be the best option but it worked for me and I do believe I was still able to retain the integrity of the show.
The second main way in which I tried to add freshness to the show was alluded to before. It is a method that I have not quite developed but I am learning and that method is the style of storytelling in a play. The profession of oral storytelling is extremely audience participative and each story should be tailored to the specific audience you perform for. Sometimes you will perform for large groups of strangers, sometimes just a small intimate group of friends. In each case, the story needs to be adapted to be a co-creative experience with the audience. As the play continued on I tried to figure out different ways in which I could incorporate co-creative and individualized experiences into this specific performance of the play. (Again, I am unsure if this is a good method for every play but it seemed to work for this one.) One of the ways I did that was to react specifically to something the audience would say or do. If they would gasp at one part, I might gasp back at them, or stick my tongue out, or just react. Reacting to something the audience did or said really helped me feel like they were a fresh and new part of the performance. It was still the audience, it was still our show, but it was new.
I think the ways in which my acting as overall grown has been because of allowing myself to be vulnerable. Experimenting, staying curious and being ready for adjustment and change has been a big theme of my performance experience. These are all things in which I have to be vulnerable in order to be successful and I think it is vulnerability that fosters the best land from which connection can grow.
One of the ways in which I have grown has been that of interacting with kids. I have learned how to rein kids in, how to rile them up, how to play, and how to make meaningful connections. Working with kids is an extremely rewarding experience and one of my favorite things about this performance was the audience. The audience, especially at elementary schools, has very loud commentary and very engaged interactions. Their response becomes a part of the performance, which I find to be especially entertaining for the adults. The adults will look at the kid’s interaction with the play and be entertained by their response. Interaction and connection is one of the best ways to truly share the story.
Over the course of the show’s runs, I had been given a lot of comments that people loved watching me interact with the kids. While this is a nice compliment, I wanted to know why. What was I doing that was working so well? The answer for me came simply as one-to-one time. As soon as there was a kid that I needed to interact with they became my complete focus on stage. I wanted to help them succeed in every way possible and I tried my best to interact with them on their level. Some kids needed more encouragement, some kids needed a little challenging, and some kids just needed to know that they weren’t alone there on stage. With my expressions, my eyes and my voice I tried my best to portray the message that I was happy to have them there.
All my life I’ve been more or less the self-proclaimed ring leader of children, especially at family reunions. Instead of mingling with all the adults, I find the group of kids that want to play and we play. I make up all kinds of silly games and I try to find a place for each kid. In this performance it was interesting translating these skills into an acting experience. I had to show the aspect of “play” through my interaction with the other characters. I would try to bring the kids in using my expressions and eye contact. I noticed that there were times when bringing kids into the action was not appropriate, specifically referencing a few of the hat scenes. At the very beginning, if the kids were invited into the action in that very first hat scene, they were lost by the end and nobody was able to hear her song. It also didn’t help that the lines themselves were very open ended and allowed for participation. While riling kids up is a needed and engaging part of the play, there were times when the focus needed to be transferred from exploding out, to zeroing in.
There were a few ways in which I learned to help rein kids in. One of those ways was first, to not acknowledge them. It’s not that you cut them off, but rather, you direct your focus so completely on what you want them to look at that they notice you becoming unaware of them. When they don’t get the reaction they are hoping for, it cues them to change tactics by watching the performance, instead of trying to yell at it. Another method is to distract the audience by doing some kind of kick, sound, or big movement to get as much attention as you can and then to burst forth into the performance. Stillness is another method to help rangle kids. Having the big attention grabber and then going completely silent and waiting for the kids to copy you was a tactic that I found worked if you were willing to wait long enough. If the kids knew you wouldn’t move on till they were quiet, they would become quiet. Giving kids multiple things to pay attention to helped kids to remain quiet as well because they were focussing energy on keeping track of the things instead of talking about the things. The last method to rein in kids is to just flat out ask them. Lots of times this is done with a “shhhh” which was banned and unusable from our production. As such, we had to use different methods to shush an audience. I thought the Brown dog’s hand air grab worked extremely well. Everytime after he did the hand-air grab, the audience would shush and it was pretty awesome.
The workshops themselves were very informative on what and how our audience perceived our play. Some kids said it was the most amazing play in the whole wide world. Some kids asked questions like, “what is the meaning of this play?” Each audience and group were very unique and different. Some kids had a harder time playing the workshop games while other kids got completely crazy. Within the space of classrooms I had to learn how to rile kids up and how to rein kids in. It wasn’t much different from the stage but I would say that the biggest difference between workshops and performance was the aspect of teaching and executing an activity. In performing, your fellow actors all have the same goals and motives, in teaching, kids are motivated by so many different things and trying to be a part of an activity sometimes gets lost in place of showing off for friends. Teaching is a much more one-on-one experience as everyone learns differently while performance is more of a collective enjoyment experience, where being a part of the audience group is more important than showing individual flair.
One of the ways that I feel I’ve grown has been in learning about myself and being comfortable and confident in myself. There were times when I would get self-conscious about my intense level of engagement. I started hiding myself and being closed off from internal and external expression. I didn’t want to be perceived as “better than” anyone else. I even went so far as to think that my backing off would help other people to rise better and that they would help me more if I allowed myself to act in a victim manner. Yikes. Then I reread a quote that has stuck with me been a constant theme in my life and one specific phrase stood out. “There’s nothing enlightening about shrinking so that others won’t feel insecure around you… when you let your own light shine, you unconsciously give others permission to do the same.” After hearing that I had realized that I was allowing myself to shink. I had a wrong way of thinking and the best way in which I could help my fellow castmates was to be the best me, regardless of what others would think or how others would judge and compare. I started to allow more space for clearer boundaries and healthy but direct communication.
This has been a very exploratory experience for myself and in the way in which I’ve traditionally seen the world of theatre. In my very own creative process I have gotten the chance to try new tactics to achieve new and familiar results. I’ve seen how play and improv has helped me to change styles and create a product that I was only just curious about being successful.
To start off with I was only familiar with the model of a written script and performing assigned words and characters. In a normal play, you memorize lines and then block out your actions and add emotions throughout the process. In this process of play creation it was much more free reign and in many aspects we ended up creating our own characters and really let the emotions in the scene drive our actions. In many ways we just explored different movements, different scenes, different actions and circumstances to see how they would play out.
There were times that I would act a certain way or do something and then realize that a lot of characters from the cast were doing the same thing. For instance during the night scene when he yells at us at first in rehearsal I acted all rebellious and mad. Then as we continued practicing I noticed that a lot of the other characters were acting rebellious and mad too. As an audience member I would have been bored if all the characters on stage reacted the same way so, in my need for variety, I tried out a different reaction to getting yelled at. I’m grateful that other characters took on the role of being sassy because then I was able to explore different reactions. I settled with being very scared and sad. This became extremely fun when we had adults up there holding the blankets. I was able to plead with these adult participants and so very often I got a lot of them to smile and tell me that “it is a time for sleep”. Being defiant would have created a different reaction among the adult participants, still fun, but not as endearing for both me and the teacher. And the look the teachers gave me when they realized that I was staring at them was always priceless. It was always something like, “Oh, you’re telling me you don’t want to go to bed? Sorry but you have to go to bed.” Variety in characters always allowed for interesting different moments of exploration.
One day we had our dramaturg come in and teach us about clowning. It was fun learning about all the physicality aspects of comedy and then trying to incorporate those aspects into our play. It was like a game where you watch something then try and recreate it. I was able to practice doing different vignettes that I saw in videos from other famous clowners. This helped me to learn that sometimes all you need is to be shown what is possible, and then give it a try. If you try it, practice it, and keep going, you will likely soon be able to master it.
Using creativity in the process of this production seemed to awaken a sleeping part of my heart that wanted to bravely explore the world. Instead of being told, “no” to acting like a fool and doing silly things, I was told “go for it!” This permission just allowed me to open up, and while there were times that I definitely failed, there were other times that it went very well. In awakening this creativity I was able to transfer it over to other classes. As I’d be doing an assignment an idea would come to my head of something that might be fun to try and I would mention it to my group as something that I just wanted to try out. As we experimented with the idea it sometimes worked and sometimes didn’t. There were even times that only half the idea worked but we would end up using what we all came up with in our overall assignment. I also noticed that as I shared ideas, other people in my groups would come and share ideas too and everyone would start exploring. Sharing creativity is a vulnerable experience and needs to be done in a safe place. I feel that my sharing my creativity in different ways, I was able to help show other people that this was a safe place for people to come and be themselves. Overall, it has improved my college experience.
I feel like I’ve also gotten to learn about stage management and behind the scenes work. Because we are a touring show we the actors had to take care of the set up, clean up and all the transportation, costumes, just about everything. It takes a lot to put together a production. Being a touring show came with a lot more responsibility. Sometimes along the way you have to work with people and spend a lot of time with people that might be hard to work with. When that happens you really have to separate the way in which they act with the way in which you see them as a person. You can still care about them and can still not agree with their method of doing specific things. There is so much more that comes with a production than simply meets the eye. Actors make it look so easy. It’s not easy. There’s a LOT of prep work that goes into it.
Overall, this experience has grown me spiritually, emotionally, physically and socially. In the spiritual and emotional aspect, I have had to face some uncomfortable parts of myself and overcome my own self-consciousness. I’ve learned about creative vulnerability and adding depth into my emotions when acting. In many ways I was able to explore my own acting style while learning the power of authentic presentation on stage. In the physical aspect of this experience, I can honestly say that I’ve had some good exercise! I think I even lost some weight! On a more intellectual level, I feel that I was able to improve my skills in mimicry and adding variety to my physically. Socially, as I learned about audience interactions, specifically with kids, I find new ways to connect and keep the discovery fresh and alive. Overall, this experience has been incredibly beneficial to me and I know that it will be something that I will cherish throughout my life.
TMA 455R
12-03-2022
PRODUCTION REFLECTION
I feel that I have had the opportunity to grow in many ways over the course of this touring performance. I have grown in my acting abilities, I have grown in the ways that I interact and react with children, and I have grown in the creative learning and exploration process. This has been a unique experience and taken me to the a new level of accomplishment. In so many ways I’ve been blessed by the things I’ve learned.
My acting has significantly grown as I’ve learned how to act for kids. I’ve learned about being authentic and really allowing yourself to feel the action of the moment. When acting in a scene humans have the ability to blur the line between what is real and what is not. As an actor you have to harness this skill to make what you do believable. In each scene there should be moments of true authenticity and by developing the skill of controlled believability, I’ve been able to find that authenticity and react to it. In those moments there comes a time when I am no longer Emmalisa acting in a play, I become a Green Metaphorical Dog that just had their sandwich taken away… and I was hungry! The ability to control belief is almost like a superpower and as I have performed in this play, I have been able to help grow and develop this skill.
One of the struggles that I came across as I performed in this play was the ability to make it fresh. It becomes harder to believe that you’re experiencing and discovering this scenario for the first time when it’s the tenth+ show where you’ve experienced it. In this way, I had to learn how to make it fresh. One of the things that helped me overcome this obstacle was a simple phrase I heard from a speaker somewhere. (I think it was from Hagen’s book “Respect for Acting.”) Hagen talked about loving long show runs. As I was currently in a long show run this seemed to be relevant information for me. She talked about taking on the challenge of making the show fresh and new every night. Instead of complaining or getting bored by what she was being called to do, she took up a mantle of responsibility and did what she could to bring something new, fresh and fun to every show. (This doesn’t mean she changed the show, the blocking, or anything like that, but in the little ways she could, she found ways to make the show a discovery.) After hearing her story I knew that I couldn’t use the excuse of repetition as a reason to get complacent. I had to do something to make a change so I could continue enjoying the experience.
There were two main ways in which I added freshness to the shows. The first was to add a level of discovered emotion. For me this meant that I would add a type of dynamic change or depth to the emotion I was assigned to feel in that scene. For instance, in the tug-of-war scene, I had originally tried to help Pink Dog win the tug-of-war battle but as the shows went on I experimented a bit and tried out a new emotion to worry instead of battle. Suddenly, I became the worry wart. From there I used every new performance to go deeper and deeper into that emotion and as I did I found that my actions changed. Instead of joining the battle I would try to unsuccessfully reason with those involved with the tug-of-war battle. This was just one example of my experimentation with the play. Other times I have tried to interact more with the audience, other times I focus more on a relationship with a specific character. For me it helped keep the show fresh. There were instances when these explorations would change my motivations and sometimes my actions, which may not be the best option but it worked for me and I do believe I was still able to retain the integrity of the show.
The second main way in which I tried to add freshness to the show was alluded to before. It is a method that I have not quite developed but I am learning and that method is the style of storytelling in a play. The profession of oral storytelling is extremely audience participative and each story should be tailored to the specific audience you perform for. Sometimes you will perform for large groups of strangers, sometimes just a small intimate group of friends. In each case, the story needs to be adapted to be a co-creative experience with the audience. As the play continued on I tried to figure out different ways in which I could incorporate co-creative and individualized experiences into this specific performance of the play. (Again, I am unsure if this is a good method for every play but it seemed to work for this one.) One of the ways I did that was to react specifically to something the audience would say or do. If they would gasp at one part, I might gasp back at them, or stick my tongue out, or just react. Reacting to something the audience did or said really helped me feel like they were a fresh and new part of the performance. It was still the audience, it was still our show, but it was new.
I think the ways in which my acting as overall grown has been because of allowing myself to be vulnerable. Experimenting, staying curious and being ready for adjustment and change has been a big theme of my performance experience. These are all things in which I have to be vulnerable in order to be successful and I think it is vulnerability that fosters the best land from which connection can grow.
One of the ways in which I have grown has been that of interacting with kids. I have learned how to rein kids in, how to rile them up, how to play, and how to make meaningful connections. Working with kids is an extremely rewarding experience and one of my favorite things about this performance was the audience. The audience, especially at elementary schools, has very loud commentary and very engaged interactions. Their response becomes a part of the performance, which I find to be especially entertaining for the adults. The adults will look at the kid’s interaction with the play and be entertained by their response. Interaction and connection is one of the best ways to truly share the story.
Over the course of the show’s runs, I had been given a lot of comments that people loved watching me interact with the kids. While this is a nice compliment, I wanted to know why. What was I doing that was working so well? The answer for me came simply as one-to-one time. As soon as there was a kid that I needed to interact with they became my complete focus on stage. I wanted to help them succeed in every way possible and I tried my best to interact with them on their level. Some kids needed more encouragement, some kids needed a little challenging, and some kids just needed to know that they weren’t alone there on stage. With my expressions, my eyes and my voice I tried my best to portray the message that I was happy to have them there.
All my life I’ve been more or less the self-proclaimed ring leader of children, especially at family reunions. Instead of mingling with all the adults, I find the group of kids that want to play and we play. I make up all kinds of silly games and I try to find a place for each kid. In this performance it was interesting translating these skills into an acting experience. I had to show the aspect of “play” through my interaction with the other characters. I would try to bring the kids in using my expressions and eye contact. I noticed that there were times when bringing kids into the action was not appropriate, specifically referencing a few of the hat scenes. At the very beginning, if the kids were invited into the action in that very first hat scene, they were lost by the end and nobody was able to hear her song. It also didn’t help that the lines themselves were very open ended and allowed for participation. While riling kids up is a needed and engaging part of the play, there were times when the focus needed to be transferred from exploding out, to zeroing in.
There were a few ways in which I learned to help rein kids in. One of those ways was first, to not acknowledge them. It’s not that you cut them off, but rather, you direct your focus so completely on what you want them to look at that they notice you becoming unaware of them. When they don’t get the reaction they are hoping for, it cues them to change tactics by watching the performance, instead of trying to yell at it. Another method is to distract the audience by doing some kind of kick, sound, or big movement to get as much attention as you can and then to burst forth into the performance. Stillness is another method to help rangle kids. Having the big attention grabber and then going completely silent and waiting for the kids to copy you was a tactic that I found worked if you were willing to wait long enough. If the kids knew you wouldn’t move on till they were quiet, they would become quiet. Giving kids multiple things to pay attention to helped kids to remain quiet as well because they were focussing energy on keeping track of the things instead of talking about the things. The last method to rein in kids is to just flat out ask them. Lots of times this is done with a “shhhh” which was banned and unusable from our production. As such, we had to use different methods to shush an audience. I thought the Brown dog’s hand air grab worked extremely well. Everytime after he did the hand-air grab, the audience would shush and it was pretty awesome.
The workshops themselves were very informative on what and how our audience perceived our play. Some kids said it was the most amazing play in the whole wide world. Some kids asked questions like, “what is the meaning of this play?” Each audience and group were very unique and different. Some kids had a harder time playing the workshop games while other kids got completely crazy. Within the space of classrooms I had to learn how to rile kids up and how to rein kids in. It wasn’t much different from the stage but I would say that the biggest difference between workshops and performance was the aspect of teaching and executing an activity. In performing, your fellow actors all have the same goals and motives, in teaching, kids are motivated by so many different things and trying to be a part of an activity sometimes gets lost in place of showing off for friends. Teaching is a much more one-on-one experience as everyone learns differently while performance is more of a collective enjoyment experience, where being a part of the audience group is more important than showing individual flair.
One of the ways that I feel I’ve grown has been in learning about myself and being comfortable and confident in myself. There were times when I would get self-conscious about my intense level of engagement. I started hiding myself and being closed off from internal and external expression. I didn’t want to be perceived as “better than” anyone else. I even went so far as to think that my backing off would help other people to rise better and that they would help me more if I allowed myself to act in a victim manner. Yikes. Then I reread a quote that has stuck with me been a constant theme in my life and one specific phrase stood out. “There’s nothing enlightening about shrinking so that others won’t feel insecure around you… when you let your own light shine, you unconsciously give others permission to do the same.” After hearing that I had realized that I was allowing myself to shink. I had a wrong way of thinking and the best way in which I could help my fellow castmates was to be the best me, regardless of what others would think or how others would judge and compare. I started to allow more space for clearer boundaries and healthy but direct communication.
This has been a very exploratory experience for myself and in the way in which I’ve traditionally seen the world of theatre. In my very own creative process I have gotten the chance to try new tactics to achieve new and familiar results. I’ve seen how play and improv has helped me to change styles and create a product that I was only just curious about being successful.
To start off with I was only familiar with the model of a written script and performing assigned words and characters. In a normal play, you memorize lines and then block out your actions and add emotions throughout the process. In this process of play creation it was much more free reign and in many aspects we ended up creating our own characters and really let the emotions in the scene drive our actions. In many ways we just explored different movements, different scenes, different actions and circumstances to see how they would play out.
There were times that I would act a certain way or do something and then realize that a lot of characters from the cast were doing the same thing. For instance during the night scene when he yells at us at first in rehearsal I acted all rebellious and mad. Then as we continued practicing I noticed that a lot of the other characters were acting rebellious and mad too. As an audience member I would have been bored if all the characters on stage reacted the same way so, in my need for variety, I tried out a different reaction to getting yelled at. I’m grateful that other characters took on the role of being sassy because then I was able to explore different reactions. I settled with being very scared and sad. This became extremely fun when we had adults up there holding the blankets. I was able to plead with these adult participants and so very often I got a lot of them to smile and tell me that “it is a time for sleep”. Being defiant would have created a different reaction among the adult participants, still fun, but not as endearing for both me and the teacher. And the look the teachers gave me when they realized that I was staring at them was always priceless. It was always something like, “Oh, you’re telling me you don’t want to go to bed? Sorry but you have to go to bed.” Variety in characters always allowed for interesting different moments of exploration.
One day we had our dramaturg come in and teach us about clowning. It was fun learning about all the physicality aspects of comedy and then trying to incorporate those aspects into our play. It was like a game where you watch something then try and recreate it. I was able to practice doing different vignettes that I saw in videos from other famous clowners. This helped me to learn that sometimes all you need is to be shown what is possible, and then give it a try. If you try it, practice it, and keep going, you will likely soon be able to master it.
Using creativity in the process of this production seemed to awaken a sleeping part of my heart that wanted to bravely explore the world. Instead of being told, “no” to acting like a fool and doing silly things, I was told “go for it!” This permission just allowed me to open up, and while there were times that I definitely failed, there were other times that it went very well. In awakening this creativity I was able to transfer it over to other classes. As I’d be doing an assignment an idea would come to my head of something that might be fun to try and I would mention it to my group as something that I just wanted to try out. As we experimented with the idea it sometimes worked and sometimes didn’t. There were even times that only half the idea worked but we would end up using what we all came up with in our overall assignment. I also noticed that as I shared ideas, other people in my groups would come and share ideas too and everyone would start exploring. Sharing creativity is a vulnerable experience and needs to be done in a safe place. I feel that my sharing my creativity in different ways, I was able to help show other people that this was a safe place for people to come and be themselves. Overall, it has improved my college experience.
I feel like I’ve also gotten to learn about stage management and behind the scenes work. Because we are a touring show we the actors had to take care of the set up, clean up and all the transportation, costumes, just about everything. It takes a lot to put together a production. Being a touring show came with a lot more responsibility. Sometimes along the way you have to work with people and spend a lot of time with people that might be hard to work with. When that happens you really have to separate the way in which they act with the way in which you see them as a person. You can still care about them and can still not agree with their method of doing specific things. There is so much more that comes with a production than simply meets the eye. Actors make it look so easy. It’s not easy. There’s a LOT of prep work that goes into it.
Overall, this experience has grown me spiritually, emotionally, physically and socially. In the spiritual and emotional aspect, I have had to face some uncomfortable parts of myself and overcome my own self-consciousness. I’ve learned about creative vulnerability and adding depth into my emotions when acting. In many ways I was able to explore my own acting style while learning the power of authentic presentation on stage. In the physical aspect of this experience, I can honestly say that I’ve had some good exercise! I think I even lost some weight! On a more intellectual level, I feel that I was able to improve my skills in mimicry and adding variety to my physically. Socially, as I learned about audience interactions, specifically with kids, I find new ways to connect and keep the discovery fresh and alive. Overall, this experience has been incredibly beneficial to me and I know that it will be something that I will cherish throughout my life.
TMA 260R - Theatre Production 2
Course outcomes common to all sections of TMA 260
- Students will practice technical theatre skills in support of deparment productions.
Emmalisa Horlacher
TMA 260
11-22-22
Go Dog Go Wardrobe Crew
I worked on the show Go Dog Go as a wardrobe caretaker. I made sure that the costumes were checked in before and after tours so that all the costume pieces were accounted for. I also made sure that the costumes were put into the laundry for the costume shop to be able to wash as needed. (A huge thank you to the costume shop!)
In this position I learned about keeping costumes nice and working with others to make sure that costumes were correctly packed and prepared so that they can last the needed duration of the play. Costumes cannot be washed overly often so as to keep their bright colors. Costumes needed to be hung after each performance so that they could be aired out. In this position I had to work with the actors to be able to make sure that they themselves knew how best to treat their costumes as they were the ones who would perform in them. It makes a huge difference when you show that you trust an actor to take care of their things versus controlling the situation to make sure that it all stays perfect.
My favorite part of the experience was working with some amazing and fun people. It was really neat to be able to be a part of a traveling show and manage one of the big and needed aspects of the performance. Without the costumes, the look of the show is completely thrown off. I would even argue that without costumes, your show doesn’t even have a look.
I found that my position became difficult when I accidentally left the wardrobe bag at one of the schools. I felt so bad because I had inconvenienced the entire cast because of my mistake. In this way I learned about having to deal with what to do when supplies are left behind. I also had to grow as a person and learn to let go of my own mistake and not continually blame myself for it. Luckily, the cast was extremely kind and understanding. They were very kind in their way of helping me with my mistake.
This backstage experience has given me a greater appreciation for all the work that costume and wardrobe crew have to do and get through. If anything I hope that it changes the way I interact with costumes and makes me more careful and aware of what it takes to put the show into place.
Some other technical areas in which I would want to learn more about would be perhaps directing for touring shows. Touring shows, especially touring for elementary schools, you cannot could on lighting to help you tell the story and the pictures you make on stage need to be the ways in which you direct the focus and the eyes of the audience.
TMA 260
11-22-22
Go Dog Go Wardrobe Crew
I worked on the show Go Dog Go as a wardrobe caretaker. I made sure that the costumes were checked in before and after tours so that all the costume pieces were accounted for. I also made sure that the costumes were put into the laundry for the costume shop to be able to wash as needed. (A huge thank you to the costume shop!)
In this position I learned about keeping costumes nice and working with others to make sure that costumes were correctly packed and prepared so that they can last the needed duration of the play. Costumes cannot be washed overly often so as to keep their bright colors. Costumes needed to be hung after each performance so that they could be aired out. In this position I had to work with the actors to be able to make sure that they themselves knew how best to treat their costumes as they were the ones who would perform in them. It makes a huge difference when you show that you trust an actor to take care of their things versus controlling the situation to make sure that it all stays perfect.
My favorite part of the experience was working with some amazing and fun people. It was really neat to be able to be a part of a traveling show and manage one of the big and needed aspects of the performance. Without the costumes, the look of the show is completely thrown off. I would even argue that without costumes, your show doesn’t even have a look.
I found that my position became difficult when I accidentally left the wardrobe bag at one of the schools. I felt so bad because I had inconvenienced the entire cast because of my mistake. In this way I learned about having to deal with what to do when supplies are left behind. I also had to grow as a person and learn to let go of my own mistake and not continually blame myself for it. Luckily, the cast was extremely kind and understanding. They were very kind in their way of helping me with my mistake.
This backstage experience has given me a greater appreciation for all the work that costume and wardrobe crew have to do and get through. If anything I hope that it changes the way I interact with costumes and makes me more careful and aware of what it takes to put the show into place.
Some other technical areas in which I would want to learn more about would be perhaps directing for touring shows. Touring shows, especially touring for elementary schools, you cannot could on lighting to help you tell the story and the pictures you make on stage need to be the ways in which you direct the focus and the eyes of the audience.
TMA 123 - Acting Fundamentals
Course outcomes common to all sections of TMA 123
- Students will apply professional work habits of dependability, promptness, cooperation, a sense of ensemble, and the ability to make independent choices
- Students will develop script and character analysis skills including identifying circumstances, relationships, obstacles, and actions/tactics
- Students will develop critcial observation skills through attendance at theatrical performances and the reading of selected dramatic texts
I performed 2 contrasting monologues.
TMA 160 - Theatre Production 1
Course outcomes common to all sections of TMA 160
- Students will demonstrate basic technical production skills necessary to support live production.
- Students will analyze the realization of production elements based on a creative teams' concept, production theories, and design elements.
Emmalisa Horlacher
TMA 160
11/26/2022
Technical Theatre Production Research
I have chosen to research the subjects of puppetry, dramaturgy and scenic carpentry as they relate to children’s theatre. First off, children’s theatre is an underrepresented and often not taken seriously because of it’s fun and frivolous nature, however, children’s theatre is a blast. It’s fun to create, it’s fun to be apart of and it’s fun to watch. It’s especially fun to see how the kids interact with the performance. (The kids often become half the show.) TYA (Theatre for Young Audiences) is a complete experience, including participation and exploration of new theatre techniques. The reason I chose the specific technical aspects I did is because they are the ones I am most interested in. First off, puppetry is a huge subject of which children’s theatre highlights on. Puppets are able to talk about things and present things in ways that actors may have a harder time doing. I do not know much about dramaturgy for TYA and thus I would like to understand. Lastly, scenic carpentry in TYA is often extremely simple and creates more implied scenes than actual full built sets. I’d like to know more about that. Thus I have chosen to learn about puppetry, dramaturgy and scenic carpentry in relation to TYA.
First off, we learn about puppetry. Some puppets have make-your-own designs. Different make-your-own puppets designed for different audiences ages and can range from young children to adults. Props and puppets made out of things kids could make and used in plays. Things like plastic bags, recycled toilet paper rolls and cardboard. One company has a play where you can create your own “gruffalo” puppet which is one of the main characters in the play. In many cases the puppets and actors are very clearly separate and more representational, as if the actors were playing with barbies. The expressions on the puppet don’t move and it is very clearly just a prop while the actor does all the emotions and vocals. The actor makes the puppet come to life simply by holding the puppet and speaking as if it was the puppet. The puppet isn’t the one doing the actions or the emotions, it is very clearly the actor, but in this representational way, we create these characters. In some states there are puppet guilds. It amazes me how theaters use puppets to create all kids of looks, characters and feelings. Shadow puppets can tell complicated action or traveling sequences. Puppets can be designed in all types of ways to create magical special effects on stage. With puppets you can make the unimaginable become real.
(Also, look at this Aslan puppet from the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. So cool!)
Another important aspect of Children’s theatre includes TYA dramaturgs. The children’s theatre of Cincinnati has a resource tab for each one of their shows and in it we see that each show has a companion activity packet and a 30 minute self–guided, show-related activity with answer key. This is obviously the work of a dramaturg! (How fun would it be to create an activity packet for a show like Rudolfph the Red-Nosed Reindeer?) The show Harriet Tubman: Straight up Outta’ The Underground, has more additional resources including podcasts and show press kits. It seems to me that a dramaturg is flexible in the way that they could easily help out in whatever way, be that marketing, show creation, even concept design. In my research I found that almost every company that does children’s theatre also does workshops with kids. These designed experiences can easily be the brainchild of a dramaturg. The how-to puppet creation information I found on the tell-a-tale children’s theatre website is all dramaturgy work. Is it not a dramaturg that goes and justifies reasons for a play to be presented at this time in this way. In her dramaturgical work, Danica Taylor explains that theatre for young audiences can help increase school attendance, it helps to foster creativity and it helps to teach children about their world and how to interact with it. Plays and the experiences that come with plays, can help students open up, communicate and be invited to explore new concepts. There are so many ways in which a person can help others interact with the play itself and a dramaturg can help do that.
In set design I noticed first that many sets are adaptations of more popular books and stories. The show Mr. Men & Little Miss On Stage was a story book type adaption with changing pages as if you were inside the world of the book. In learning about TYA set designs I’ve found that simplicity is often the most go-to design. Materials that are foldable, transportable, self-supporting and even made of fabric are incorporated into more versatile sets. There can be a few fancy items but mostly the majority of the set is simplistic. This could be for multiple reasons, allowing the budget to go other places or even to invite more imagination from the audience instead of filling in the imagination with a completely set world. I liked the quote from Pittman’s article where she said, “In short, to make the costumes and set of a play the main thing is to keep in mind that the space must be beautiful and respectful and stimulating for the actors.” Actors need to play on the stage and if they aren’t having fun, neither will the audience.
In conclusion, there is a lot of unacknowledged thought, creativity and work that goes into the sets, the puppets, and the dramaturgy work of children’s theatre. I learned about how puppets can be effectively used to enhance performance. I learned about sets and the different ways in which their simplicity can be most effective. I also learned about the dramaturgy work that goes into each production and workshop that is presented in front of kids. Creators of Children’s theatre don’t just want the kids to come watch the show, they want to create an experience for the children to be apart of. Overall I think the aspect that I am most interested in (yet also least interested in) is actually the dramaturgy aspect. I like learning what they do and what they can do for a production but I don’t like how completely flexible and undefined their role is. Dramaturgs have to kind of stick themselves in and make themselves useful wherever they can. I love the idea of creating an easy pathway for the audience to interact with the performance, but I don’t like how utterly undefined that is. I am very glad to have chosen the topic of TYA. It has been really fun looking up and learning all types of things about the world of children’s theatre.
Written Sources:
Children’s Theater: Costumes and Scenery
Brenda Bittman, 2019
http://www.colebroscircus.com/childrens-theater-costumes-and-scenery/
Why Do Kids Need Theatre?
Danica Taylor
https://www.orlandorep.com/kids-need-theatre/
Additional Sources:
http://www.tellatalechildrenstheatre.com/creativelearning.html
https://www.christaharris.co.uk/my-work/childrens-theatre-and-puppetry/
http://mspuppetry.com/Puppet%20Arts%20Theatre/PAT%20Home.htm
https://www.littleangeltheatre.com/about-us/
https://childrenstheatre.org/
https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Children%27s+Theater
https://hstech.org/books/set-design/james-hull-millers-self-supporting-scenery-for-childrens-theatre-and-grown-ups-too-scenic-workbook/
https://thechildrenstheatre.com/shows/rudolph-the-red-nosed-reindeer-jr/
https://thechildrenstheatre.com/shows/harriet-tubman-21-22/
TMA 160
11/26/2022
Technical Theatre Production Research
I have chosen to research the subjects of puppetry, dramaturgy and scenic carpentry as they relate to children’s theatre. First off, children’s theatre is an underrepresented and often not taken seriously because of it’s fun and frivolous nature, however, children’s theatre is a blast. It’s fun to create, it’s fun to be apart of and it’s fun to watch. It’s especially fun to see how the kids interact with the performance. (The kids often become half the show.) TYA (Theatre for Young Audiences) is a complete experience, including participation and exploration of new theatre techniques. The reason I chose the specific technical aspects I did is because they are the ones I am most interested in. First off, puppetry is a huge subject of which children’s theatre highlights on. Puppets are able to talk about things and present things in ways that actors may have a harder time doing. I do not know much about dramaturgy for TYA and thus I would like to understand. Lastly, scenic carpentry in TYA is often extremely simple and creates more implied scenes than actual full built sets. I’d like to know more about that. Thus I have chosen to learn about puppetry, dramaturgy and scenic carpentry in relation to TYA.
First off, we learn about puppetry. Some puppets have make-your-own designs. Different make-your-own puppets designed for different audiences ages and can range from young children to adults. Props and puppets made out of things kids could make and used in plays. Things like plastic bags, recycled toilet paper rolls and cardboard. One company has a play where you can create your own “gruffalo” puppet which is one of the main characters in the play. In many cases the puppets and actors are very clearly separate and more representational, as if the actors were playing with barbies. The expressions on the puppet don’t move and it is very clearly just a prop while the actor does all the emotions and vocals. The actor makes the puppet come to life simply by holding the puppet and speaking as if it was the puppet. The puppet isn’t the one doing the actions or the emotions, it is very clearly the actor, but in this representational way, we create these characters. In some states there are puppet guilds. It amazes me how theaters use puppets to create all kids of looks, characters and feelings. Shadow puppets can tell complicated action or traveling sequences. Puppets can be designed in all types of ways to create magical special effects on stage. With puppets you can make the unimaginable become real.
(Also, look at this Aslan puppet from the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. So cool!)
Another important aspect of Children’s theatre includes TYA dramaturgs. The children’s theatre of Cincinnati has a resource tab for each one of their shows and in it we see that each show has a companion activity packet and a 30 minute self–guided, show-related activity with answer key. This is obviously the work of a dramaturg! (How fun would it be to create an activity packet for a show like Rudolfph the Red-Nosed Reindeer?) The show Harriet Tubman: Straight up Outta’ The Underground, has more additional resources including podcasts and show press kits. It seems to me that a dramaturg is flexible in the way that they could easily help out in whatever way, be that marketing, show creation, even concept design. In my research I found that almost every company that does children’s theatre also does workshops with kids. These designed experiences can easily be the brainchild of a dramaturg. The how-to puppet creation information I found on the tell-a-tale children’s theatre website is all dramaturgy work. Is it not a dramaturg that goes and justifies reasons for a play to be presented at this time in this way. In her dramaturgical work, Danica Taylor explains that theatre for young audiences can help increase school attendance, it helps to foster creativity and it helps to teach children about their world and how to interact with it. Plays and the experiences that come with plays, can help students open up, communicate and be invited to explore new concepts. There are so many ways in which a person can help others interact with the play itself and a dramaturg can help do that.
In set design I noticed first that many sets are adaptations of more popular books and stories. The show Mr. Men & Little Miss On Stage was a story book type adaption with changing pages as if you were inside the world of the book. In learning about TYA set designs I’ve found that simplicity is often the most go-to design. Materials that are foldable, transportable, self-supporting and even made of fabric are incorporated into more versatile sets. There can be a few fancy items but mostly the majority of the set is simplistic. This could be for multiple reasons, allowing the budget to go other places or even to invite more imagination from the audience instead of filling in the imagination with a completely set world. I liked the quote from Pittman’s article where she said, “In short, to make the costumes and set of a play the main thing is to keep in mind that the space must be beautiful and respectful and stimulating for the actors.” Actors need to play on the stage and if they aren’t having fun, neither will the audience.
In conclusion, there is a lot of unacknowledged thought, creativity and work that goes into the sets, the puppets, and the dramaturgy work of children’s theatre. I learned about how puppets can be effectively used to enhance performance. I learned about sets and the different ways in which their simplicity can be most effective. I also learned about the dramaturgy work that goes into each production and workshop that is presented in front of kids. Creators of Children’s theatre don’t just want the kids to come watch the show, they want to create an experience for the children to be apart of. Overall I think the aspect that I am most interested in (yet also least interested in) is actually the dramaturgy aspect. I like learning what they do and what they can do for a production but I don’t like how completely flexible and undefined their role is. Dramaturgs have to kind of stick themselves in and make themselves useful wherever they can. I love the idea of creating an easy pathway for the audience to interact with the performance, but I don’t like how utterly undefined that is. I am very glad to have chosen the topic of TYA. It has been really fun looking up and learning all types of things about the world of children’s theatre.
Written Sources:
Children’s Theater: Costumes and Scenery
Brenda Bittman, 2019
http://www.colebroscircus.com/childrens-theater-costumes-and-scenery/
Why Do Kids Need Theatre?
Danica Taylor
https://www.orlandorep.com/kids-need-theatre/
Additional Sources:
http://www.tellatalechildrenstheatre.com/creativelearning.html
https://www.christaharris.co.uk/my-work/childrens-theatre-and-puppetry/
http://mspuppetry.com/Puppet%20Arts%20Theatre/PAT%20Home.htm
https://www.littleangeltheatre.com/about-us/
https://childrenstheatre.org/
https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Children%27s+Theater
https://hstech.org/books/set-design/james-hull-millers-self-supporting-scenery-for-childrens-theatre-and-grown-ups-too-scenic-workbook/
https://thechildrenstheatre.com/shows/rudolph-the-red-nosed-reindeer-jr/
https://thechildrenstheatre.com/shows/harriet-tubman-21-22/
TMA 201 - Drama Pref: Antiq to Renais
Course outcomes common to all sections of TMA 201
- Students will demonstrate a general working knowledge of major historical periods, philosophical trends, and performance movements and will draw connections between society and performance.
- Students will analyze great works of literature through multiple perspectives-society, culture, politics, economics, gender roles, religion-to better understand the ways in which dramatic performance functioned in particular times and places.
- Students will appraise (1) how we represent the world, others, and ourselves and (2) the consequences of these representations for our families, our communities, and ourselves.
Go Dog Go Essay Reflection
BYU Young Company’s play Go, Dog. Go! is an adaptation of a contemporary popular children’s book. In this way I do believe that it is easy to say that it would not have the same impact upon theaters of Ancient Greece and India. For the reason of popularity it is an obvious truth that without the history of the book itself, the audience would not fully appreciate the impact such a play would have. While there are similar characteristics and historical beginnings such a play can be traced to, it is also very important to acknowledge that the play has a much different audience than that of the plays of historical time periods.
One of the traceable aspects of storytelling used in BYU Young Company’s Go, Dog. Go! is that of clowning and miming. The Young Company performance relied heavily on telling the story through gesture and movement alone, with no words. This is the very essence of mimes. (Yes the performance did have sounds and gibberish type talking but such sounds were presented more as sound effects rather than meaning filled communicative language. The origin of such comedic play dates back to Greek theater and was resurrected in Italian theater.
Perhaps one of the more interesting parts of the play Go, Dog. Go! was the use of facial expressions. In Indian theater some facial expressions have been codified to mean specific emotions and intentions. In a way it could be argued that some facial expressions have given connotations but not nearly to the extent that Indian theater regards. In one scene the Green Dog uses facial expressions to foreshadow the idea of scaring awake the other dogs. This is a devious expression from which the context allows to tell the story. Indian theater relies much on the context of the story as well to give motives to why the character is making the expression they are making.
Very unlike Indian theater, the play Go, Dog. Go! used a LOT of props. The theme of playful interaction was a driving factor to how the actors interacted with the props. While Indian theater focuses only on using swords, Go, Dog. Go! only used props that would be attainable for the use of children. Things like jackhammers, saws, and cars were created using the imagination, simple implied objects, and paper. In some ways, Indian theater too, also uses imagination to imply certain aspects of the theater, specifically talking about locations and sets. In Go, Dog. Go! there was certainly an implied imagination of set locations similar to that of Indian theater.
I would say that one of the biggest differences between Ancient Greece theater and BYU’s production of Go, Dog. Go! is the intended audience. Greek theater was meant for adults to enjoy. It was not a family centered event and certainly did not have children in mind when creating experiences for their audience. Young Company is completely different in that aspect. This show was made for kids. It was for adults to enjoy but the primary audience was for the children to be able to experience theater. Most of the recorded theater we have and have studied has all been that of theater for adults. Performances for children either wasn’t a thing back in those days or did not have the prestige needed to be worthy of historical preservation. BYU’s production of Go, Dog. Go! is made possible because of the contemporary style and audience in which the play has been produced.
BYU Young Company’s play Go, Dog. Go! is an adaptation of a contemporary popular children’s book. In this way I do believe that it is easy to say that it would not have the same impact upon theaters of Ancient Greece and India. For the reason of popularity it is an obvious truth that without the history of the book itself, the audience would not fully appreciate the impact such a play would have. While there are similar characteristics and historical beginnings such a play can be traced to, it is also very important to acknowledge that the play has a much different audience than that of the plays of historical time periods.
One of the traceable aspects of storytelling used in BYU Young Company’s Go, Dog. Go! is that of clowning and miming. The Young Company performance relied heavily on telling the story through gesture and movement alone, with no words. This is the very essence of mimes. (Yes the performance did have sounds and gibberish type talking but such sounds were presented more as sound effects rather than meaning filled communicative language. The origin of such comedic play dates back to Greek theater and was resurrected in Italian theater.
Perhaps one of the more interesting parts of the play Go, Dog. Go! was the use of facial expressions. In Indian theater some facial expressions have been codified to mean specific emotions and intentions. In a way it could be argued that some facial expressions have given connotations but not nearly to the extent that Indian theater regards. In one scene the Green Dog uses facial expressions to foreshadow the idea of scaring awake the other dogs. This is a devious expression from which the context allows to tell the story. Indian theater relies much on the context of the story as well to give motives to why the character is making the expression they are making.
Very unlike Indian theater, the play Go, Dog. Go! used a LOT of props. The theme of playful interaction was a driving factor to how the actors interacted with the props. While Indian theater focuses only on using swords, Go, Dog. Go! only used props that would be attainable for the use of children. Things like jackhammers, saws, and cars were created using the imagination, simple implied objects, and paper. In some ways, Indian theater too, also uses imagination to imply certain aspects of the theater, specifically talking about locations and sets. In Go, Dog. Go! there was certainly an implied imagination of set locations similar to that of Indian theater.
I would say that one of the biggest differences between Ancient Greece theater and BYU’s production of Go, Dog. Go! is the intended audience. Greek theater was meant for adults to enjoy. It was not a family centered event and certainly did not have children in mind when creating experiences for their audience. Young Company is completely different in that aspect. This show was made for kids. It was for adults to enjoy but the primary audience was for the children to be able to experience theater. Most of the recorded theater we have and have studied has all been that of theater for adults. Performances for children either wasn’t a thing back in those days or did not have the prestige needed to be worthy of historical preservation. BYU’s production of Go, Dog. Go! is made possible because of the contemporary style and audience in which the play has been produced.
TMA 240 - Playmaking
Course outcomes common to all sections of TMA 240
- Students will identify the wide range of methods by which performance can be created.
- Students will demonstrate their knowledge of playmaking and will creatre a range of performance pieces.
In this class I wrote a play.
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