Verbatim Theater reflection
Reflect on your experience last week exploring Verbatim Theater. Why do you think people do it? What does it accomplish? What was your experience like (and your group's experience)? Was the process difficult? And if so, how so? Were any aspects easier than others? Did you enjoy it? Why or why not? What did you learn?
I think people do Verbatim Theater because they want to show lots people’s point of views during one production. It might be hard for ordinary people to gather and talk to people on stage about themselves, especially when it’s related to something that might harmed them or their love ones before. Therefore, companies interview those people and record the interview. After that, they put it on stage, showing the audience almost exactly how the interviewees behaved during the interview. A video tape might be more realistic to the audience, but for most of people, a video of people talking is boring. That’s also the reason why while Verbatim Theaters try to make the production as identical as it can be to the interview, the directors also adds more staging and backgrounds to the production to make more fun to watch. Verbatim Theater gives chances to the voices that were once unheard, making people realize how others view the topics differently and how that’s important to different individuals. My experience was really fun. Even though I had been classmates with Josh for one year, I never paid too much attention on the hand gesture that he does unconsciously when he talks, nor the why he sits on a chair. The process of continuously observing really reminded the importance of details on stage. Those hand gestures might be small, but that’s the key for audience to know who I am acting as. I enjoyed it a lot because I get to know more about “acting as your character”. When I talk like him, sits like him and act like him, I can analyze a lot about the character’s personalities as well. For example, Josh like to sit on the edge of a chair, it shows that he’s always ready to go, passionate about his life and the things that will happen next.
I think people do Verbatim Theater because they want to show lots people’s point of views during one production. It might be hard for ordinary people to gather and talk to people on stage about themselves, especially when it’s related to something that might harmed them or their love ones before. Therefore, companies interview those people and record the interview. After that, they put it on stage, showing the audience almost exactly how the interviewees behaved during the interview. A video tape might be more realistic to the audience, but for most of people, a video of people talking is boring. That’s also the reason why while Verbatim Theaters try to make the production as identical as it can be to the interview, the directors also adds more staging and backgrounds to the production to make more fun to watch. Verbatim Theater gives chances to the voices that were once unheard, making people realize how others view the topics differently and how that’s important to different individuals. My experience was really fun. Even though I had been classmates with Josh for one year, I never paid too much attention on the hand gesture that he does unconsciously when he talks, nor the why he sits on a chair. The process of continuously observing really reminded the importance of details on stage. Those hand gestures might be small, but that’s the key for audience to know who I am acting as. I enjoyed it a lot because I get to know more about “acting as your character”. When I talk like him, sits like him and act like him, I can analyze a lot about the character’s personalities as well. For example, Josh like to sit on the edge of a chair, it shows that he’s always ready to go, passionate about his life and the things that will happen next.
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