Reflection on our final performance

      Finally, we videoed our final performance on this Wednesday. Although I and my partner, Yichen, both were not very satisfied with this final production, we tried our best within such limit amount of time. However, many problems was worth of reflecting on.
      The problem started from the script. Thank to our memorization, fortunately, we did not make too many mistakes during the actual performance. However, as I noticed many times during the performance, I went way too fast to ignore the clear pronunciation of some words. I knew that I was a little nervous, and I wanted to use various pacing to express my emotional thoughts but I could realize how fast I talked at some points. I hoped the IB scorers could see our scripts as watching the video. As what Mr. Guarino pointed out, we should practice running our script again and again before the performance including every specific detail that we wanted to add like pacing, pause, or body language, so that when it came to the real show, everything would be automatically jumped out. I felt pretty guilty about the not enough time I took to work on this.
      Another problem, same as what I had in the performance of Romeo and Juliet, was my unnatural facial emotion. I tried to convince myself that I was the daughter Suzette, I was the daughter Suzette ... again and again during the performance but I still felt like I was Sarah. I could not have a realistic and natural reaction as the play went on. The most "awkward" moment I felt would be when I was sitting in the classroom and Yichen said her monologue outside in the hallway. Within that a few minutes, I did not know what I can do. I was like stuck there. There was a series of thoughts going on in my mind like I was very sad because my mother did not come to my parent-teacher association meeting whereas the others' parents were all here; I should look really sad; I should cry; I should tell the audience that I felt so bad and miserable ... There was "a lot" that I wanted to express to the audience but I could not exactly convert them into my real body language. Comparing with me, I think Yichen really did a good job on that. While I was sitting with her face-to-face in the second scene and listening to her story about those hard times when she first came to the U.S., I can really see that her whole body was trembling. I was very impressed by that, and I just put my hand on her shoulder involuntarily and tried to comfort her. She is a really good actor; her realistic performance can naturally promote my reaction.
      Overall, it is a great and meaningful experience by playing the role, daughter Suzette, in the New York Day Women. Although the final production is not very satisfied, I learned many performing skills again. I am very grateful to my partner Yichen, our "lighting technician" James and our teacher Ms. Guarino.