My thoughts on this class so far...

The fact that I am beginning this journal four days before its due date should indicate to you right away my approach to this class. Here is a brief collection of musings about my experience up to this point in Peter Cirino's Acting II class:

• Like most acting classes I have taken, I have viewed this class as an opportunity to practice acting and to challenge myself as an actor by trying new techniques and unfamiliar approaches to my craft. Also like previous acting classes, I have resented the volume of written work expected from us by the teacher. While I certainly appreciate the value of reading and attending plays with an analytical and critical eye, I believe that actually being made to write about it takes away precious time that could be used for practicing scenes and memorizing monologues. This resentment, coupled with my characteristic lack of personal organization, has caused me to fall desperately behind on my journal. Let it be known that I have been analyzing plays and productions all semester, and that I simply have not bothered to write down my observations as was asked of me.

•  I definitely believe that this class will offer me many opportunities for improvement as an actor. While I am still struggling to understand the "outside-in" approach to acting advocated by Peter Cirino (make a statue, then adapt the spirit of your monologue and your character to encompass the statue's physicality), I believe that any approach which emphasizes physicality will prove helpful to me. I am an extremely verbal actor, focusing heavily on the vocal nuances and deeper psychological motivations behind a character's words; however, I tend not to be conscious of what I'm doing with my hands and body at any given point onstage. This causes me to default to my natural physicality, which, as my fellow students in Acting II witnessed today, involves a lot of unmotivated gesticulating with my hands. Peter's approach to acting, which emphasizes being conscious of one's physicality at all times, may prove invaluable in helping me to grow as a physical actor.

• There are a few things which I hope to gain from this class:

1.  A more active control over my physical presence onstage and my ability to physically inhabit a character convincingly.
2. A restoration of my own self-confidence. Though in high school I had no shortage of self-esteem or belief in my abilities as an actor, in college I have found myself racked with self-doubt and insecurity. By the end of this class, I hope to have grown measurably as an actor to the extent that I will feel the same pride in myself as an actor that I did when I took the final bow of my high-school acting career.
3. A greater knowledge of how to get started in the acting business. As of right now I have at best a vague idea of what I need to do to actually launch a career in acting. By practicing the process of auditioning and by asking many questions, I hope to leave this class with a concrete plan of action in regards to becoming a working actor.

 As of yet I don't feel as though I have fully realized any of those three goals. However, the semester is still young and I feel pretty excited about beginning scene work after Break!