KISS Observation

When entering the musical, the ushers were engaging pleasantly with the guest attending their show. They had smiles of warmth and made the audience feel welcomed. The admission for this performance was free, and the audience turnout produced a packed house. This fact that this was a free event made the experience for me more pleasurable because I didn’t have any concerns that dealt with the obvious, was I getting my money 's worth? Was this musical really worth it? It made the critiquing much more enjoyable because I was not doing it for selfish reasons. The set-up was very well organized, neatly positioned, and angled perfectly to face all audience members. However, one thing that stood out to me was how close the performers were to the audience. There was not much space between the two. The lighting was decent. The room facility wasn 't too bright or too dim and the light did not produce a glare on any of the performers’ faces. The performers were all dressed in a black formal attire, and looked rather ravishing. The gentlemen looked extremely well groomed in their tuxedos and some even going with the classic bow tie. The women were fairly breathtaking with their all black pant suits and dresses. I thought the coordination was fabulous.

On Friday, November 18th, I attended the play Alicia in Wonder Tierra which took place at California State University of San Bernardino. The play was put together and made possible by many students, professors and many others who dedicated their time and donations. I was fortunate enough to have been able to work with Sara on the props and the paint portion of the stage and set up. It was a great experience working on the props and seeing it all come together and being able to see it all finally being used to create the vision of a producer and director.

Improv was always an intimidating faction of theater. Though there is no planning or scripting, no matter when or where the show was it always seemed a labor of love. Something that was worked on for an extreme length of time but really it was formed from the performer's mind only a second before the audience saw it. Even though I have done theater and dance in the past, improv always seemed something that I was never good at. From watching performances, tv programs, or improv workshops, it always looked like an art form that I could never learn or use besides the stage. With last week's class, that all seemed to change. I saw that improv could be used in many different factions of life. Providing new life skills and practices that cam

Edna St. Vincent Millay's "What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why" is a Petrarchan sonnet consisting of an octave and a succeeding sestet. The octave includes concrete examples to demonstrate the three main themes of this poem: change, loss, and loneliness. The sestet gives a metaphorical approach to the themes, so as to further represent the change in the speaker's life. The author also contrasts the first and second stanzas with each other in order to demonstrate further the theme of change found throughout this poem. The tone which envelopes this poem is one of somberness and melancholy, as the speaker describes how she feels now that her lovers have gone.

For my concert report I went with the members of my group presentation to the weekly jam session at The Baked Potato, located in studio city. We just got done with a long night of studying, it was late, a Monday, and I was tired. This was the first Jazz show that I have ever been to and I didn’t know what to expect. I had zero expectations going into this and in the end I’m glad I didn’t. When we arrived I was immediately surprised at how small the venue was. There was maybe a little more than thirty people in totally and it was a packed house. We took our seats right next to the stage, sitting directly in front of the bassist and lead guitar player. As we ordered our two drink minimum and a couple of baked potatoes to share, I watched as the rest of the band started to step on stage. Some seemed to know each other

The Alphas were the first to perform. The Alphas started out good and then they went downhill from there. They looked sloppy and uncoordinated. My favorite performance came from the Sigma’s, AKA’s, and the Kappa’s. The Sigma’s theme was presidential and one acted as if he was President Obama and the others were his secret service members. The AKA’s were stepping in pumps, which was pretty impressive. The Kappa’s shimmied their way into our hearts with their candy canes and smooth moves. During the show my friend and I noticed that the whole BKSU (Black Kennesaw State University Students) was there. It was refreshing to see all of my educated brothers and sisters together. It felt like I was at a family reunion and it really warmed my heart. I also met someone from my hometown, Augusta, GA, at the show. We also met some cool upperclassmen girls. They were nice and kind of explained to us who was who (fraternities and

On April 4, 2017, I attended the Student Jazz Ensemble at the State University of New York at New Paltz. The concert held in the Julien J. Studley Theatre at 8 pm. It was an impressive student spring concert series performed by the students from our college. Although the concert was not performed as the professional concerts held in famous places, it was great opportunity for the campus community to listen that kind of musical activity. I have attended the same Jazz Ensemble concert in the previous spring semester because one of my friends from Turkey was playing saxophone during the performance like he did in this performance.

Even though the music being played was supposed to be the highlight of the night, I believe that the atmosphere it embodied was what transformed the experience from ordinary to unique. I was hesitant to attend this event because it was out of my comfort zone, but I ended up having a marvelous time. I derived pleasure in the vivacity of the music and the cheerful crowd that allowed themselves to be submerged into the tunes. My company and the Irish cuisine only enhanced the experience. The enjoyment I endured leads me to believe that I would probably attend another event that is similar. Despite the lack of knowledge I have about Irish culture, this event granted me the ability me to discover new values associated with Irish traditions and has expanded my cultural

I went there because of the recommendation of my professor and I will never regret about it. It was in a small auditorium with a capacity of almost 150 seats and it was partially full. There was a small stage with a grand royal on the left-hand side and a drum set in the back. The concert started with an ensemble of jazz guitar playing old and new American style jazz music of famous and not very famous composers. There were 4 guitar players two of them were students and two of them were teachers. It was a big surprise for me that among them was also my professor Byron Delto. Although I knew before that that her wife is the director of that concert, presence of my professor as a performer was a good surprise for me. There was nothing special considering the interior of that place. The only thing that mattered were the performers themselves. As I found out later most of the performers were students and this concert was some kind of final exam for them to pass this class some kind of final project. For me was a great pleasure to participate in this big event in the very beginning of their career

Putting together the show was a whirlwind. Not only was it my first lead, I would be kissing a senior on stage. My dad asked me once if I was scared for the kiss, and I told him no, because on stage I am not

Before I set out to find performances to write this paper about, I wanted to make sure that I was experiencing something entirely new and foreign to my long list of plays and performances that I have already seen. I was fortunate enough to attend two new shows that I had not seen before. The first performance was at the Dietrich Theater at Sierra College where I saw Sierra College Theatre Arts’ production of I Never Saw Another Butterfly, written by Celeste Raspanti and directed by Debra Hammond. The second was Little Shop of Horrors: The Musical, written by Howard Ashman and directed by Steve Gold and Mike Mechanick, performed by Rocklin Community Theatre at the Finnish Temperance Hall in Rocklin. Both performances offered a unique and inviting

I was excited going into see this production of Man of La Mancha. I did not really know anything about it and since I saw it on opening night there was no time to get an ingoing expectation from my classmates before I saw it. I knew this was a musical, and I really like musicals, but I had never heard of this one before. One night when I was talking to my mom she said she had seen it before and said she really liked it; she was even singing part of The Impossible Dream on the phone. I knew beforehand that they were using the same set from Life is a Dream and I automatically recognized the set, it was still very different, but a lot of the same things. The lighting was dim as you would expect going into a theatre. I was shocked at how close the pit was to the audience, since this was the first musical I had seen in the University Theatre I did not know where to expect the pit to be. It was neat to be able to look down into the pit before and during the show.

The event was well attended, to near capacity, by people from all walks of life, including local officials, community leaders, teachers, blue collars, laypersons. These folks were black, brown, white, male, and female, from various socio-economic and religious backgrounds. As the program neared its end, after a captivating keynote charge, then came the portion that would finally get people to interact and engage - the entertainment! Personally for me, I was looking forward to this. The muscles of my lower body were approaching atrophy, after sitting in stasis for almost 2 hours. I needed the circulation, but also I wanted to meet and interact with so many of the new faces that were across the room. Moments after the closing address, the Mistress of Ceremony announced the band and gave instructions on where everyone was to go, to either dance, mingle and/or get a beverage. As I walked closer to the adjacent room, I paused after hearing sounds of music that was very unfamiliar. It sounded like the chords from a banjo, complimented by music that echoed Dixie. I gave it the benefit of the doubt, that maybe this was just 1 song, so I proceeded to mingle with the board members and staff of the organization. This attempt was stymied by their obvious enthrallment with key dignitaries and acquaintances that they apparently knew or had a familiar relationship with. I managed to squeeze in a half-hearted, brief “Hello, my name is” introduction with the CEO and after 20 minutes, the music selection didn’t change. I took a moment to consciously look at the rest of the crowd and it looked very different from those that initially followed me to this venue. What happened to the diversity, the youth and multi-ethnic advocates that I’d presume were looking to have fun, exchange names or get that blood

The two Improv shows I went to were the Midnite show and the Comedy Sportz Show. Both shows were incredibly well done from the production to the improv itself. The Midnite show had me laughing out loud which is something rare for me at least. My whole life I have done relativity clean improv and to see an X-rated version of it was hilarious. The format for the Midnite show was like the improv I do where there is a selection of games performed for the audience and suggestions are taken by the audience yelling. While Comedy Sportz was the first time I have ever seen competitive improv, it was very interesting to see how they turn improv into a sport and how they use color coordination for audience suggestions. But in my personal preference I

This semester I have experience many live musical performances. Some of these performances have let me down but for the most part, these performances have been everything I ever expected. My two favorite performances this semester were Festival Vallenato and Ultra Music Festival. Although these two types of music are different in every way possible, the people and the performers are exactly where I feel I am in the right place.