Cypress Lake Theatre: Journals
Acting One
1. Imaginary Lives: If you had five other lives to lead, what would you do in each of them? Be a pilot, a cowhand, a physicist, a psychic, a monk? Whatever occurs to you, jot it down. Do not overthink this exercise. Next over the course of the week you choose these lives, think about what that specific person does. If you said “a country singer”...can you pick a guitar. Find something in you that you can add to each of these other five lives. Jot your abilities down near the alternate life. You may come up with several. Make this as artistic as you are.
2. Ten Ways: Think of ten ways in which you are mean to yourself. List them in your journal however you choose. Make them noticeable. Just as making the positive explicit helps allow it into our lives, making the negative explicit helps us to exorcise it.
3. Communication: List five friends you have not spoken to in a long time. Near each name list why they are important to you. Send postcards to these five friends. This is not a goody-two-shoes exercise. Send them to people you would love to hear from. Place any received correspondence in your journal.
4. Sharing: Give your journal to your best friend for one evening. Allow them one page to do whatever they choose. This page must stay attached in the journal. Once it has been returned take a moment to review what they have done. Allow yourself time to react to it. Jot your reactions down on the back, or a consecutive page. Do a quickwrite about how it felt to allow your personal feeling to be viewed by another.
5. My Favorite Creative Block: Answer the following question by drawing a cartoon. “Honestly, my favorite creative block is...” It can be TV, over-reading, friends, the internet, rescuing others, being a drama queen, etc. Whether you can draw it or not, cartoon yourself indulging in it.
6. Faith or Money - an IMAGE file: If you either had faith or money you would try... Now choose between the two and list five desires. Be alert for the next few days and whenever you see images of these desires, clip them, sketch them, buy them, photograph them, draw them, collect them somehow. This will be the beginning of a file of dreams that speak to you. Add to it continually over the next few years.
7. Dreams come true: Answer the following question in great detail: IF MY DREAMS COME TRUE, MY FAMILY WILL...? Think only of others, not yourself.
8. Feedback: Choose any one topic that we have covered so far this year. Using stream-of-consciousness writing, write for a minimum of five minutes beginning with feedback on the chosen topic. Your mind may wander. If it does, GO WITH IT! Do not stop writing for at least five minutes. Set a timer and when five minutes have expired, begin closure on your writing. Allow your mind to lead your pen. When finished, and closure has been achieved, re-read what you have written. Do not change anything.
All Acting students are required to have eight journal entries by the end of each semester. Journals will be collected and graded BEFORE YOUR SEMESTER EXAM. Refer to your department handbook for the journal assessment rubric. Journals will be due May 28th, 2010. All journal entries are private and confidential between the student and the instructor.