GIN Presentation Journal

I think the presentation went very well! We had created something last class where we started with a tableau, then Alex and Pinto would say a quote from a famous person. After this we would spread out and different people will go in the middle and say their monologues or just two or three lines from their monologues and then go. We would end in the tableau again and Alex and Pinto would repeat their quotes and we would end. Personally, I didn't like the idea; I didn't thought it was original or impacting and I think that with the theme being human rights, we could really do a presentation where we really shocked the people and left them thinking about our presentation. 

So we came to school on Friday at 2pm and the teacher basically told us that we had to practice or invent something new in the next 30 minutes because we where going to present at 2:30, so of course I panicked. It a very important presentation if you think about it, its 400 students from different countries looking at you and I really wanted people to see how amazing our  theatre program is. 

So when we got to center stage  we decided to take control of the situation and just invent something else that was much more efficient and well-made than what we had done last class. To be completely honest, I liked the challenge the teacher gave us because it was going to help us in our creative skills and not only that but to work quickly and efficiently together. 

So our idea was to basically come out from different parts of the audience (as if we were part of the public) and place ourselves throughout the stage. Alex would start with his J.F Kennedy quote and then each person would say one impactful line from their monologues. So for example, Alessa said: He was pushing and pushing and pushing! Then I would say I just want my son back! and on and on and on. This part of the presentation was going to end when I said my line, we would count to three and we would break to the sides. Then Alessa would start with her entire monologue; after her went Daniela and Nikolas that had integrated their monologue together, after them went Javier who also said his entire monologue, and after Javier I went and I just said the first 3 lines from my monologue because I thought it was going to be more efficient and it highlighted the basic theme of my monologue. So what I said was this:

"My name is Christine Collins. On March 10th 1928, my son, Walter Collins, disappeared. A 5-month investigation lead to a boy being found in Dekalb Illinois. They told me and all of you that this boy was my son. He is not my son. Please, I beg you, I just want my son back".

It told her story and the end was shocking and sad, which helped me portray my emotions and the teacher also liked it and thought it was good because I just said what was important. After me would go Mary with a quote from an important person and then she would look at us and we would start saying our lines from the beginning while we came close to the edge of the stage and we would keep saying our lines until we were all in the line at the edge of the stage. Then, Daniela would scream and we would put our head down and the light would be turned off and we would be over. 

We practiced it two times and we didn't come up with any problems so we were kind of confident about the technical aspect, however we all were kind of scared and afraid that we would mess up our lines, well at least I was, even though I didn't say my entire monologue. However it all turned well and people really seemed to enjoy it, at least that's what my friends told me. In my opinion, I think it went very well because no one forgot their lines, everybody was in character, and we all were trying our best. 

So I was very proud with our final product and how the presentation turned out, however, I do think that with a little more time, we would have done an amazing presentation which could have been more effective, maybe we could enter with candles or we could have costumes on which would have helped to transport the audience into a different time and moment. Still, it went well.

At the end the teacher told us that after this, we could choose if we wanted to present our monologues on Monday or not because she had already seen a lot of them in the GIN presentation and last class when we presented, so I really didn't see the reason on why presenting again because I really did the best I could in the GIN presentation and I wanted to it to stay that way.