What I Have Learned About This Field

The area that I am interested in is mainly theatre and the performance aspect of it. But I am also interested in learning about directing and other backstage elements. I would like to minor in business and therefore I have been thinking of ways to combine both of my interests into a job that I could make a living off of. I came up with the idea of being a House Manager for a theatre company and take care of ticket stubs, play bills, advertising, public relations and the like. But as I have researched this blog and because I have had directing experience in the past my interest in being an artistic director of a production company was rekindled. Being as though I was involved heavily with a theatre company in New Jersey no in relation to my High School I understand a lot of what Kevin O'Hara is talking about in terms of the amount of work that needs to go into a production before even producing the actual play. But I learned a great deal more because the theatre company I was involved in was based out of one place where as Kevin's theatre company travels both nationally and recently internationally with their production of The Importance of Being Earnest. The day to day work that Kevin goes through is what I would expect an artistic director to go through. I became close with artistic director of the production company I was involved in and therefore got into conversations with him about the type of things he was working on at a given moment. I know that being an artistic director involves a lot of work in different areas. Work in actually casting the plays, directing them, and making sure you have the rights for them. Kevin in his blog spoke about creating a team and making sure that each production wasn't filled with primadonnas but with people that worked well together and this is something that is very important in order for a production to be successful. They also need to keep in mind what the audience wants to see. Artistic Directors also need to deal with finances for renting rehearsal and performance spaces as well as paying the actors and directors. They must also oversee the technical work that goes into productions, lighting, microphones, set designs, costumes. The Artistic Director doesn't do all of this on his/her own but they find the person to do the job and they oversee it and say what they want expressed through that certain medium. In reading his blog entries I did not learn anything new but it did reinforce things that I knew earlier to this research. My understanding of the field hasn't changed at all really because I went into this research with a very good understanding of what this type of job demands day to day.

Unit 2 Portfolio

I think that my potrfolio is put together quite well. I spent a lot of time on my speech and worked really hard on learning the new material, understanding it, and writing the speech. I kept up with almost all of my blogs. The problem that I faced was managing my time. I did not manage it well and therefore was not able to hand in my portfolio on time and I think it will really hurt my grade. This upsets me because I did work very hard on my speech. But besides my work being handed in late I think that the other aspects of my portfolio were better than my portfolio from Unit One. I did a better job in keeping up with blogs, I spent more time revising my feeders, and I spent a lot of time on my speech. A theory that I have as to why people did better is that this Unit was on a relevent topic in our lives. The topic was current and very important. This project gave me the extra modivation to learn about the candidates and their policies and in turn develop my opinions on these topics and who I wanted for President. I think that this is true for the rest of the class because the election was something that many people were interested in and passionate about and usually when one is passionate about something they will put more effort into it.

Unit 2 Portfolio

I think that my potrfolio is put together quite well. I spent a lot of time on my speech and worked really hard on learning the new material, understanding it, and writing the speech. I kept up with almost all of my blogs. The problem that I faced was managing my time. I did not manage it well and therefore was not able to hand in my portfolio on time and I think it will really hurt my grade. This upsets me because I did work very hard on my speech. But besides my work being handed in late I think that the other aspects of my portfolio were better than my portfolio from Unit One. I did a better job in keeping up with blogs, I spent more time revising my feeders, and I spent a lot of time on my speech. A theory that I have as to why people did better is that this Unit was on a relevent topic in our lives. The topic was current and very important. This project gave me the extra modivation to learn about the candidates and their policies and in turn develop my opinions on these topics and who I wanted for President. I think that this is true for the rest of the class because the election was something that many people were interested in and passionate about and usually when one is passionate about something they will put more effort into it.

Unit 2 Portfolio

I think that my potrfolio is put together quite well. I spent a lot of time on my speech and worked really hard on learning the new material, understanding it, and writing the speech. I kept up with almost all of my blogs. The problem that I faced was managing my time. I did not manage it well and therefore was not able to hand in my portfolio on time and I think it will really hurt my grade. This upsets me because I did work very hard on my speech. But besides my work being handed in late I think that the other aspects of my portfolio were better than my portfolio from Unit One. I did a better job in keeping up with blogs, I spent more time revising my feeders, and I spent a lot of time on my speech. A theory that I have as to why people did better is that this Unit was on a relevent topic in our lives. The topic was current and very important. This project gave me the extra modivation to learn about the candidates and their policies and in turn develop my opinions on these topics and who I wanted for President. I think that this is true for the rest of the class because the election was something that many people were interested in and passionate about and usually when one is passionate about something they will put more effort into it.

Paramedic Method

This is originally what Ben wrote in his opening paragraph:

With the upcoming Presidential election, there is more emphasis being placed on key issues. Some of these issues include gay marriage, the economy, the war in Iraq, and abortion. Abortion has been a very controversial and hot topic for a few decades. This is a very important aspect of each candidate's platform and will impact people's decisions on who to vote for. After searching on the two websites, www.georgewbush.com and www.johnkerry.com, it is evident that presidential candidates Senator Kerry and President Bush may agree on some minor issues, but definately disagree on the issue of abortion.

This is how I revised it using the Paramedic Method:

Key issues have more emphasis being placed on them with the Presidential election fast approaching. These issues include gay marriage, the economy, the war in Iraq, and abortion. The past few decades abortion has been a very controversial and hot topic. Each candidate's platform contains abortion as a very important element and it will impact greatly the people's decision. One can see after searching the two websites, www.georgewbush.com and www.johnkerry.com, that presidential candidates Senator Kerry and President Bush may agree on some minor issues, but definately disagree on the issue as a whole.

Reaction to Speech

Upon hearing my speech Katelyn thought that overall it was pretty good. The response I got was that I should work more in depth on my plan and maybe use more pathos in my speech considering it is a sensative issue that deals with human life. Especially when I talk about where the scientists are getting the stem cells from (embryos), this is when I should use more pathos to explain why it is acceptable. In the part of my speech where I talk about funding Katelyn suggested that I use more logos and deductive reasoning. I agree that I could use more because this is the part where this kind of information is most pertinent. In general I believe that the speech was received well by her and I agree with the suggestions that she made. Therefore I am going to use more pathos when talking about the embryos and more logos when talking about the funding. But her reaction provoked me to think more about my ethos, pathos, and logos. I came to the conclusion that I am going to use more ethos in my plan for the funding and ethics of stem cell research. I am going to do this because I believe that there is a common ground that everyone can agree on. This workshop was very helpful because I learned in what places it is most effective to use ethos, logos, and pathos.

Draft Workshops

I think that I get a lot out of the draft workshops when we all really apply ourselves and are working hard. I think that a lot of good feedback, suggestions, and constructive criticism can come out of them and help me improve my skills. I feel as though I get more out of the workshops outside of class because everyone is definately there to work. I feel as though at the end of class we don't always get enough time to finish reading the feeders or speeches and do it as efficiently as possible. If we got a little bit more time than 15 minutes for the draft workshops I think we could get more out of it in class. But for the most part I think that the draft workshops are serving their purpose and going well.

Draft Workshops

I think that I get a lot out of the draft workshops when we all really apply ourselves and are working hard. I think that a lot of good feedback, suggestions, and constructive criticism can come out of them and help me improve my skills. I feel as though I get more out of the workshops outside of class because everyone is definately there to work. I feel as though at the end of class we don't always get enough time to finish reading the feeders or speeches and do it as efficiently as possible. If we got a little bit more time than 15 minutes for the draft workshops I think we could get more out of it in class. But for the most part I think that the draft workshops are serving their purpose and going well.

Draft Workshops

I think that I get a lot out of the draft workshops when we all really apply ourselves and are working hard. I think that a lot of good feedback, suggestions, and constructive criticism can come out of them and help me improve my skills. I feel as though I get more out of the workshops outside of class because everyone is definately there to work. I feel as though at the end of class we don't always get enough time to finish reading the feeders or speeches and do it as efficiently as possible. If we got a little bit more time than 15 minutes for the draft workshops I think we could get more out of it in class. But for the most part I think that the draft workshops are serving their purpose and going well.

My Speech

In my speech I believe ethos and logos will play a larger part than pathos. In my speech I have used a lot of background knowledge and my voice is confident through out. My speech is about stem cell research and there are many ethical issues that run through out this topic. But through out the duration of my speech I have used logos or reasoning behind my arguments for stem cell research. I have not used any statistics or polls but I have given information on cause and effect. I have spoken about how stem cell research will benefit people and I have used common definitions that everyone I think can agree on. Something that I didn't think of putting in my speech just came in to my mind. I think that pathos might play a larger role than I thought. I have a neighbor whose mother went through Alzheimer's and I think it might strengthen my speech to put this story in there. Therefore I think I am going to use a somewhat equal amount of each to make my speech strong and credible.

My Public Speaking Experience

I have a good amount of experience speaking in front of audiences. I have been in numerous musical theatre productions but I don't consider public speaking because I am not using my words and I am not myself. When I am up there I am speaking as another person; a character. But in terms of what I consider public speaking I have given oral presentations for classes before and back in 6th grade I ran for President and gave a speech in front of my grade. In more recent years I have been involved with a marketing group called DECA. Part of the competitions involve reading a situation and coming up with ana answer to the problem and speaking with a judge for 10 minutes about what you are going to do. You only get 10 minutes to read the problem and prepare so it requires a lot of thinking on your feet. I also went Junior year to DC to lobby with a group I was involved in. I spoke with my senator on an issue that I thought was important. I think that my weakness is that I get very nervous before hand and during sometimes. I don't think it really effects my speech except I might say like a lot or uh. But usually I try to rehearse enough before hand so that this doesn't happen. I am not really sure if there are any other weaknesses that I have although I'm sure it's possible I have more. My strengths are I am that I can project and articulate my words.

My Unit One Portfolio

I think that my Unit One Portfolio could have been better. My blogs could have been more up to date and more in depth. I think that my feeder 1 and 2 were good though. I spent a good amount of time revising and editing both. In writing my Feeder 1 I tried to pay attention to what my group members gave me advice on. I also used the editing process we learned in class to use when you think you are done writing a paper. I used this for my Feeder 2 as well. For every Feeder I wrote an outline and did pre-writing and thinking before I wrote the drafts. I performed effectively in the draft workshops and when I gave advice I tried to give the best advice I could to help my groupmates. I participated in class and arrived on time except for once or twice. I completed all of my feeders on time for the workshops and when they needed to be handed in at the end. The blogs on the other hand I did not complete on time and really should have.
My goal for Unit Two Portfolio is to use my time and manage it better. I would like to procrastinate less and give myself more time before the assignment is due. I would like to do more pre-thinking and pre-writing. I would also like to make sure that all of my assignments are handed in on time and are the best quality I can produce. My plan to ensure this happening is to start the assignment the day I receive it. Write a rough draft of my blogs and then either later that day or the next revisit it and edit it to be posted. In terms of my feeders I would like to handle them the same way except I would like to revisit and edit them more than just a few times. I would also like to go to the writing center and see if that helps also. I think if I put this plan to action I can do a much better job in this class.

My Feelings on Politics

I don't know where to begin writing about my view on Politics. I don't think that I have as much of a knowledge base as I'd like in order to write about it. I feel as though I need to educate myself much more before I deserve to have opinions about it. I know that I am going to vote in the upcoming Presidential Election and I know that I am a Republican. I am also aware that Kerry doesn't stand for anything. He makes a speech that will make one audience happy and then goes to tell another audience something completely contradicting his previous speech. But for the most part, embarressingly enough, that is the extent of what I know. I am going to be watching the Presidential Debates, starting with the one on September 30th. Something that I noticed that helped to reinforce my decision is that Bush's site has difinative plans for the future where as Kerry's site describes how Bush has ruined the U.S.'s relationship with other countries and how Kerry wants to make us stronger. Kerry never gets in to specifics. Politics is something I definately want to learn more about as the weeks before the election progresses.