STAGE Reflection

STAGE has come to its conclusion for the year. There is so much that I want to talk about, but I’m going to keep this as reflective as I can.

I started STAGE as a simple member. I heard about it, joined, went to a few meetings, but then I realized something. STAGE was getting out of control. I approached Ms. Heick about how I felt and she decided to make me one of STAGE’s two officers. It was such an honor to have been chosen for this leadership role in the group and I knew then that STAGE was going to be the most rewarding experience for me all school year.

I chose to use learning objectives 2 and 5 and I feel like I have met both of them. Objective two is undertaken new challenges. I did this for the STAGE winter production of A Simple Task. I was not on STAGE for the show, I was not designing costumes, I was not building a set, I was Stage Managing. And I’ve never done that before. I’ve never been that involved in theater until this year and all of a sudden I decided to become basically a co-director. I was involved in every decision made from the auditions to the actual character personalities and costumes and set and everything else. I sat through every audition. Took notes on every auditioner and then sat with Ms. Heick and discussed each of them. It was a tough process. Choosing who to task was nerve racking. I never realized how much work putting on a show actually is. Director’s make it look so easy but it was a long process to get to our final product. Most of my role as STAGE manager was to oversea everything that went on. Ms. Heick was always actively working with actors while I was quietly observing, quietly working until the final week of rehearsals. Tech Week was when I stepped up. A Stage Manager really only shows significance when it gets to this point. Because once it comes down to opening night the director takes her place backstage or in the Wings and takes a step back. During the show I was constantly running around making sure my cast was in position or ready or SOMETHING. This activity helped me realize that I have the potential to hold leadership roles.

Objective Five is a little harder to reflect upon. It’s the one about showing perserverance and commitment in my activity. But I look back and I think to myself “there were so many times when I said to myself: ‘Dylan, this is not even worth it.’” There was one actor, and to be polite I will not mention his name, that was so difficult to work with. He didn’t take the notes and critisim that were always given out to specific people after rehearsals. He never showed improvement until the night or the night before of the show. He made me nervous because I felt that one actor was going to ruin the show and I just kept thinking “Why do we even bother trying?” But we did try and we did push to make him go on stage and put on a FABULOUS display of great acting. I was blown away and I was glad that I helped push him to get where he was. There was also one scene that included a “passionate embrace.” We (Ms. Heick and I) wanted to have the two characters actually kiss. So we tried it out. The “stage kiss” didn’t work. It just looked fake, so Ms. Heick wanted to cut it. But I knew that the scene NEEDED the kiss to be in there for it to be great like all the others. So I told Ms. Heick that I wanted to keep it and she told me to work with Brian and Emily on it and if she liked what she saw it would be kept. So I worked with Brian and Emily and when we worked alone it was great but it was too awkward for them to do it in front of the rest of the cast so Ms. Heick pushed to cut it. At first I said “ok” because she gave me my chance and I failed. But then I kept seeing how the scene didn’t work and I worked with them again because I knew that I could make it work. And I did. I showed so much perservance with this play that I brought the scene to its next level and Ms. Heick was definitely pleased with the results.

I was pleased with the results. STAGE did prove to be a rewarding experience, and not just because it was a great way to goof off when we weren’t doing a show and play games. Even when we weren’t doing a show I was still keeping my Officer position. I even ran a couple meetings on my own when Ms. Heick couldn’t. STAGE has helped me develop new theater skills that I know are going to help me in other areas as well.

Sturgis Singers Reflection

Sturgis Singers has finally come to a close. After a year of hard work on our music we finally ended at the Senior class of 2009’s graduation. We sang our final piece with two of the people that have been the heart and soul of the group for so long this afternoon.

I went in to Sturgis Singers for many reasons. My reasons that I put for CAS were learning objectives 1 (to increase my awareness of my own strength and areas for growth) and number 2 (undertake new challenges).

So objective number 1….This was not my first time singing in a choir. I Started last year doing the lunch chorus and then later transferred in to the Chorus 10 class. I had previously had the ability (and talent) to sing (well) so this was not a new challenge for me. At first I felt that I wasn’t learning much. I had conflicts with the way Ms. Davis taught things and didn’t appreciate what she was teaching the group. But now as I reflect upon what I have done this year I think “Wow, I learned SO much.” I learned so many things I never even dreamed about. So many terms that I had no knowledge of! I had no idea what a run, or a ritardando, or a descant, or a bridge, or any of the fancy musical terms that she used. I also learned a lot more about how to better control my breaths; for example I had poor breath control when I started this, and I displayed that at my audition. But now I have learned when and where it is ok to take a large breath, when to take a sneak breath, and when to just simply use the breath I have when I have to hold long notes. Ms. Davis taught me a lot.

So as far as objective number 2 goes, I don’t really think I took on any new challenges. Previously I had hoped that Sturgis Singers would help be take on new challenges but looking back I realize that I did the same things I also did before, just at a more advanced level.

However, I do think that I met learning objective 4 even if I did not plan on that. Objective four is working collaboratively with others and boy did Sturgis Singers require that. There ended up being 12 of us by the end of the year and we were not 12 different people. We were one group of people that depended on each of the 11 members. We all needed to sound as near perfect as we could get (and believe me when I tell you that perfection is completely unattainable when it comes to music) so that when we performed we sounded flawless. If one of us was off key, everyone was off key. We had to help each other in so many ways that we became so close. When it came to Seasons of Love, Ms. Davis didn’t think that we could learn the piece in such short time. But we persisted. We told her we could do it. And she trusted us and we performed that song at graduation today.

Sturgis Singers has been such a rewarding experience. Though I have journaled negative things about it, I look back now and see how much good Sturgis Singers has done for me. It doesn’t matter if I was having fun while doing it, because what matters is that I did it, that I persisted even when it got tough and almost unbearable.