Final Scene Reflection

While reading Krik Krak, the story that stuck out to me the most was A Wall of Fire Rising. After the chapter I was constantly interested in the character's and their lives before and after the few moments we got to read about. I wondered about Lili and Guy's relationship, Little Guy's future, and most importantly how things got so miserable, Guy took his own life. The characters seemed like they needed to put on stage, therefore I was so excited to create my own prologue of their lives. The most important part of our scene was exploring the stirring and fascinating dynamic between Lili and Guy, as well as man and woman in the perspective of this book.

This relationship dynamic was integral to our scene's success. We focused on highlighting our own personalities while still challenging ourselves to make bold choices. Lili was the first time I have ever played a character married and the first time I ever was challenged to capture regret, love, longing and hate in one moment. With the challenge to balance all these complex human feelings, I had to dissect Lili in the text and find where her motivations derived from. I wanted to focus on her hidden, internal want to be loved. Though I also wanted to look angry on the inside. By writing our own script, we were able to use language that showed this longing but initially displayed anger. For example, "Do you know how hard I work?", this line may seem simple but it has two layers. The first is intense frustration, the second is Lili's thirst to be noticed by her husband. Contrasts like this were huge parts of our script's style and encompassed the way I act and the Lili I read in the book.

Strengths of this piece were Kathleen's ability to push and contrast me, and my ability to do the same for her. We worked well as an ensemble and found moments to accentuate each other. Our story was simple, consisting of vignettes, but each scene grew in intensity and emotion. Our aggression matched each other. We were constantly able to build on one another. We found moments of silence to just look at each other which conveyed more emotion than our lines at some points.

The best scene in my opinion was the haunting radio scene. We were able to have such a build mixing in love with pure hopelessness reaching a point of extreme climax. When the radio hit the floor the audience felt the tension. When I picked it up and turned the music back on, the themes of gender roles and family were defied. In addition, the upbeat music behind the scene was perfectly eerie and disturbing- making the explosion of anger even more dramatic. Overall, this scene was a roller coaster.

Of course with more time we could have perfect the lights or sound, but all in all, the scene came together very nicely. The acting had depth and challenged me to be a character I never imagined myself as before. It pushed me as an actor. The scene grew so much overtime and faced rapid improvement. I am proud of this work and glad it was able to be completed.