Hola Amigos!

So last time we chatted, I was getting ready for “A Lie of the Mind.”  Well, the Schuster Theatre has been crazy lately. “A Lie of the Mind” (or as we cast members call it, “Lie”) opens this week, the cast of “For Colored Girls” is rehearsing for their opening night in March and the theatre fraternity, Alpha Psi Omega, is getting ready for a mini Fringe Festival.  The mini Fringe Festival is basically a series of one-act plays that we are all working on. Sounds like a lot, huh?

As we are all getting ready for these amazing events, there are six of us in the communications department that are in the midst of the senior thesis.  What thesis is, in a sentence, is a class dedicated to researching a topic of your choice, culminating into a 20-page paper.  Thesis is a requirement for everyone in any area of the communications department and is by far the toughest challenge I’ve experienced in four years.

I had the brilliant idea of taking two different methods of acting (the Stanislavski method and the Suzuki method) and doing a comparison on them. Stanislavski’s method is very emotional, forcing the actor to go deep into their memory and pull out events that have occurred to surface emotions necessary for character development.  What Stanislavski thought was that if actors thought of something sad, then they can make themselves cry; if they thought of something exciting, a smile would burst onto their face.  Tadashi Suzuki, on the other hand, uses a very physical technique.  He did not believe in emotional connection to characters.  The best explanation I can give based on Suzuki’s method is:  if you stomp around a room long enough, you will release endorphins that will make you irate.  If you smile long enough, you will begin to feel happy and relaxed.

In a nutshell, senior thesis is going to be a rollercoaster for me.  I’m excited to see where it takes me and how well I can write this monster paper before crossing that stage in May!

Congratulations to those of you who have been accepted to your college(s) of choice, and I hope your senior year is going well.

I’m here if you have any questions, as always.

Till next month, adios.

-K