Spoon River Essay

Assignment #1
Transformation Process
Spoon River Anthology
Kavindisaya Ruktaengam
Spoon River Anthology, the piece of literature I studied in the

class, is Edgar Lee
Masters masterstroke of free verse poem series presenting an imaginative small
town called Spoon
River from different characters perspectives, experiences and encounters with
happenings in their lives;
storytelling when they are already dead.1 Chase Henry is my assigned character to
perform. Chase is the
person who had always been woebegone, despaired and ill-fated that he lost his
value of living proper
life and turned himself to be a drunkard; which made his life even rampant. Chase
was after all one of
the few characters in Spoon River that expressed no pride of their lives nor any
philosophical
connotation. His epitaph is also considerably short in length.
The beforehand preparation Stanislavskis Given Circumstances had
portrayed
the essence of concise and effective drama as a guideline to pursue. The
Circumstances offer an
exploration of varied actions, expressions, mood and tone. Also, they emphasized
on the basic elements
of drama which include, but not limited to: prior actions, time, relationship of
characters, settings and
1 Cumming Study Guides. 2011. Spoon River Anthology.

http://cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides5/SpoonRiver.html
secondary actions. So rationally, the Circumstances challenge me. But because of

that, they greatly
assisted me to gain deeper insight in performing. One of the greatest obstacle I
encountered was that I
tended to focus way too much on the lines and the vocal element of the
performance which made me
to pay less heed to secondary actions which are as equally significant. When I tried
to figure out certain
actions that might fit the performance, they initially tend to be awkward. There was
one action I
observed that make the performance less authentic; to suggest that the scene takes
place at the
cemetery, I gestured a cross on my chest. This action made the scene more
comprehensive, but at the
same time it makes the scene less credible as a dead mans monologue. However,
once I was able to
fluently speak the lines, the boulder of difficulties suddenly disintegrated to dust. I
could enhance my
performance by using body languages to refer to settings of the scene and convey a
sense of
genuineness to the audiences.
Throughout numerous practicing, I have acquired so called the
third eye for
my performance. I progressively developed from dry and barren monologue into
vivid and dynamic
performance. I started by attentively reading my script from line to line looking for
literary and poetic
devices as supplements to create impression towards audiences. For instance, the
phrase prudent and
pious, as an alliteration, connotes that Chase was expressing sarcasm to the rest of
the Spoon Rivers
citizens he thought are better than him. Afterwards, I adapted this concept into
practice by stressing this
phrase over other words with identically higher volume. Secondly, by taking notes
from my master Tim, I
incrementally make improvements after each rehearsals. As stated earlier, my first
drawback was the
inability to multifunction in terms of both saying the line perfectly and carry out
compatible actions. So I
began by interpreting the emotions of Chase Henry specifically the moment he was
saying the lines.
Consequently, I applied certain actions that would complement to the emotions. For
example, the
sorrow of not being buried in the holy ground is expressed by half kneeing and
bending forward.
Thirdly, I reflected myself by assuming I was an audience and predicted what typical
audiences expect
Chase Henry to be. The answer was that my script on its own is not enough to fully
engage the
audiences. I needed to elaborate more on other elements including secondary
actions, relationship,
time and location. However, I was not able to make effective utilization of the
relationship element into
the performance since it is a monologue.
To be honest, performing in front of the class was not too
nerving. Every one of
my friends and Tim paid attention very well. I didnt see any fidgeting at all. That
made me perform very
comfortably I could go with the flow for my actions and spoke the lines very
accurately for all the
stresses, rhythms and enjambment. Based on Tims and my point of view, I could
deliver the message of
Edgar Lee Masters of Chase Henry characterization quite precisely. But above all
else, by performing in
front of the class, I have tremendously boosted my bravado and spunk for
performance.
(word count: 724 words)

Spoon River Essay

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Spoon River Essay

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Spoon River Essay

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Assignment #1

Spoon River Anthology, the piece of literature I studied in the

1 Cumming Study Guides. 2011. Spoon River Anthology.

secondary actions. So rationally, the Circumstances challenge me. But because of

(word count: 724 words)

You might also like