Assessed

(Newbie, All-The-Way, and me as "The New Three Graces" at our Movement Showing. 12/04/09)


I won't lie: I was scared going into assessments this semester. Assessments come at the end of the semester, and you sit in a room with all your professors (past and present), and they read written statements about your work during the semester (in the classroom and on stage). My assessments went well my first and second semesters here, so really, I don't know why I was worried. But I was.

The first 6 weeks of Movement class were hard on me because the stretching unit was a big ball of frustration for me, a person who is generally TOO stretched out. And in both my Acting and Voice classes, we went through units of Shakespeare scansion in which we're using methods that are both occasionally contradictory to each other, and are also quite different from my previous training on the subject (training that I regard highly and deem to be quite excellent... which made me unintentionally resistant to the subject matter at times).

And on top of that, I didn't get great casting this year. And I still don't know why. I just keep thinking that I'm doing something wrong, or angering someone... It has made me incredibly insecure.

But to quote the Spice Girls, "all you need is positivity." And that's the state of mind I'm living in now. Assessments went really, very well for me again this semester. And I'm relieved.

I know it's bad form to brag. So that's why I do it on this blog; so I won't be tempted to do it in life.

You've been warned. If you don't want to read all the lovely and positive things that my professors said about my work this semester, then stop reading now. :)

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Some quotations from my assessments (and these are word for word, because they give us printed copies of what they say to us):

"Angela, you are the perfect student."

"The MFA review panel has identified the following as areas of strength: work ethic, application, enthusiasm, intelligence"

"Angela, I'm happy to congratulate you for an excellent semester's work. You're starting to put it all together: your huge dramatic imagination, your ability to tap into deep pools of feeling, growing technical excellence, a fanatical interest in the rules of scansion, and a sense of humor. You are charismatic on the stage because you take joy in performing. I, for one, can't get enough of you."

"Strong choices, strong opinions. This is very impressive in one so young."

"...you've made good progress since working on Andromache - a performance, by the way, that was perfectly beautiful."

"I have high hopes for you, Angela. Keep up the good work."

"Your speech work is clear and precise, and this semester I can hear you truly beginning to integrate speech into your voice so that it sounds natural; speech that has ease and accuracy."

"Based on your transcription and spoken R.P. dialect work, you obviously seem to have a very good ear and are proficient at learning dialect - this will be invaluable as we move into more complex dialect work next semester!" (Note: She also wrote that I got 100% on my written R.P. exam, and 100% on my spoken R.P. dialect exam)

"Beautiful, accurate work in both scoring and speaking a scored Shakespeare text!"

"You were a bit uncertain about some of the Shakespeare scoring, but you were willing to take my corrections and ultimately to keep a flexible, open mind."

"You come to voice class ready to work and enthusiastic about the work."

(on a show we did for Acting class)
"...breath, vocal production, forward placement, clarity and use of speech - in all these aspects you applied the techniques of voice class to your work on the stage. Your voice was expressive, integrated both body resonance and head resonance, was linked to impulse, and played your pitch ladder freely - truly excellent vocal work!"

(on the show I was in this semester)
"...throughout the rehearsal process, dress runs, preview, you took all voice/speech notes and made successful adjustments. You were able to find and se new character motivated vocal choices skillfully. And you maintained your good work throughout the run of the show."

"Angela, a wonderful semester!"

"Angela is very playful in contact improv. She is generally in control of her body, very willing to take weight and lift others, and is comfortable being lifted."

"She is breathing very well, and her alignment is stable in movement class, which is a great accomplishment."

"In ballet she is beginning to find her way into technique - when she gets the line it is perfect. She has a perfect body for ballet..."

"...her love of dancing and movement across the spectrum is infectious, and her ability to do new things safely has grown exponentially since last year. She is also a good partner in both contact and dance, and I look forward to her work in commedia, renaissance, and baroque dance, where her ability to act the dance will play to her advantage."

"One other thing, Angela has beautiful arms and hands and I encourage her to use them."

"A lovely semester."


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And (since I know you were at the brink of hating me for all the bragging) here are the things I wasn't great at, and things that I get to work on in the coming semester:

"The MFA Review Panel identified the following as areas needing improvement: committing to subtler choices"

"Now we must work on subtlety and nuance. You gravitate toward hardness and toughness. But if you want to be a contender in the Leading Lady Sweepstakes, which is your destiny, you must also prove that you can play characters who aren't so sure of themselves, who don't have all the answers, or who are out of balance. And you must be able to play women in whom a kind of feminine refinement is an essential ingredient."

"Angela started out the semester frustrated with the differences between her body and the bodies of others: she is much looser than most people and so didn't always feel the resistance stretches as easily as her classmates (lifting weights is a more useful strength building technique for her) and became frustrated. She solved this issue on her own."

"She often locked her knees in [play]. This may have been a result of shoes that were too big, but in any case it is an old pattern to watch out for because it throws her into lordosis, head pushing, pushing her chest forward."

"...needs to increase her overall strength and awareness of what she is doing, specifically with her limbs. She has made great improvement in this area, but could do more on her own by using a mirror, looking at what she is doing from the front and what she is doing from the side."


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Sometimes, you need to be told that you're doing alright.

I'm glad that I am.


May you be better than alright.

~A~


P.S. Don't you wish I blogged more? If I get a 20SB Bootleg Award Nomination, I'll try to do just that. :) My 20SB URL is http://www.20sb.net/profile/angelaboration