In this class we are still working on our scenes. I am in two scenes, one with Maddy and one with Sam. The one with Maddie is about a freshman and a senior. The senior is confronting the freshman about a boy named Bobby who she recently started going out with. The senior warns the freshman of what a jerk Bobby is and by the end of the scene the freshman is off to do a confrontation herself. The second scene with Sam is a little more serious. It is about Bo and Patti two friends who had both recently lost their siblings to the same traumatic event caused by the deadly substance of carbon monoxide. The scene is Bo going to see if Patti is doing alright due to the fact that she hasn’t been to school all week. The scenes are both very serious and that is probably the biggest challenge for me.
In this project I have learned that it is not easy at all to be serious and to portray sadness. I, being a generally happy and excited person find it hard to go to from that to a sad boy who just lost his sister. I also learned that during long pauses, it is more facial expression and body movement that tells the story. There is a part when Bo realizes that “burns with a blue flame” is in the definition of carbon monoxide. He then has a long dramatic pause before revealing what the phrase meant to him. His sister had used the phrase before her death. This pause can’t be one where I just sit there showing no expression at all and then say the next line, my face has to show realization and my body has to show confusion and thought.
I have finally discovered the most challenging thing for me in acting and that has truly helped me develop as an actor. Learning how to adlib and react naturally to things that my character would, are the main components of being a good actor. When someone is a character on a television series, being able to understand your character and to be able to react the way that character would to situations is what makes or breaks you getting the part and keeping it. Now that I know this, I can work harder on my abilities to portray more serious and depressing scenes. Also making the audience believe that this is real and not some cliche.
Like I said, body language really makes or breaks a scene. When a person is trying to deliver a line that the character would be hesitant to say, body language shows that you are have that hesitance. Body language can help show our inner feelings in a way that the audience can just notice how you deliver your words and how you act while saying them. Memorization helps with being able to connect to your character and that has helped Sam and me realize the true way to make the scene heavy. The more comfortable we get with the words, the easier it is to add character to them. Backstory helps build character as well. It helps with the body language and with the delivery of lines. Knowing your character a little more than what the script says makes the performance more comfortable. 
Lea Michele portrays great body language here.
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