ISTA TAPS Reflection

Throughout ISTA TAPS I learned a lot about theater and made a lot of good memories. A memorable experience was definitely the first scene that I did at ISTA. It was one of the open scenes that we practiced in class after returning from the trip. I was very nervous because I didn’t think that I practiced enough. However, when I stood up to perform I got lost in the moment and completely embodied my character while focusing on my partner in the scene. Afterwards, I thought that the scene went really well and for the rest of the performances throughout the workshop I was not nervous.

Another memorable experience was watching To Kill A Mockingbird. During the first fifteen minutes of the play I was unsure if I liked it or not. However, once I started to understand what was happening, I realized how amazing all the moving parts were. For me the most powerful moments were the pauses in Atticus’s closing speech to the jury. It made me think more about the things that the representative from Tectonic theater company was saying during our master class about dialogue and how it is not as important as the moments surrounding the dialogue. 

During our master class with the Chinese Opera I learned a lot. For me the main takeaways were about how you hold yourself when you are onstage and your presence. Another important part was coordination, we practiced this when we were doing a routine with the sticks. At first the routine was very difficult but after awhile I got into a rhythm. I can apply this to my acting because sometimes during a scene it is necessary to do a movement or dance move that requires a lot of coordination. During the master class they taught us to break the movement down into many steps and repeat it until you can do it well. This also applies to dance moves/difficult movements in acting. Chinese opera also taught me about how to hold myself when I am onstage. There was one student in our class that kept slouching and leaning off to one side during the routine. Our instructor kept correcting him about his posture because part of your character onstage is the way you keep your body. While it was difficult to do while twirling the stick it made me think more about every aspect of my body while I am on stage.

Another part of theater I learned about at ISTA TAPS was interpretations of a scene. There was one session where the whole class broke into groups of three to rehearse and then perform the same scene. In the group there was one director and two actors. Our director interpreted the script in a different way than the others did. My group was one of the last to perform and after we were done I thought that the scene still worked even though it is different than what everyone else did. When we reflected about this our instructor talked about how none of the interpretations were wrong, they were different.