Candy Shop Skit Reflection

    The biggest difference between performing the candy shop skit and my first monologue was having a scene partner. Instead of being on my own, I could play off of Maddie’s reactions and focus on something that was actually happening rather that something that I had to imply by my own actions. I enjoyed adapting what was already a funny skit, the Monty Python Cheese Shop sketch, into something that fit our purposes better. We could add and subtract what we wanted and make it more of our own, rather than just reading what someone else had written. I had more to memorize than I did in my monologue, but there was also the additional challenge of remembering cues from the other person and knowing how and when to respond. It was much easier to remember sequences of conversation that remembering the list of candies, but I liked having them memorized rather than making them up on the spot, especially because some of them were cues for Maddie and I couldn’t repeat any. In places where I could have gotten around it on my own, anything that Maddie or I forgot would just confuse the other person and we would have to restart. The most challenging thing was getting angry enough at Maddie to maximize the comedic effect. I don’t normally express anger in that way and I felt awkward after a certain point. I still think I could have improved in that area, though I do think I was better in the final draft. I also didn’t have a lot of blocking to work with - Maddie was always going back and forth and checking things but I didn’t have much to do so most of the time I was in the same place. I think I did a good job with the ending, even if I sometimes couldn’t get the gun out right. My reaction to her hiding the candy felt more natural than the rest of the scene, when my reactions felt a little more forced, and I changed the way I said the last line in the final draft. I liked our additions to it that the cheese shop didn’t have. Overall, I learned more about the different techniques applied to monologues as opposed to partner scenes and gained more experience reacting to another actor on stage.