Assignment/Activity
Title— Mentor/Sage Monologue
Year—Freshman
Skill— Creative
Portfolio Category— Social
Awareness
During this project for our Drama class
(or Oral Interpretations), we had to go out and find an elderly person
(preferably over 60) and interview them for class. We then had to present a
monologue as them, based on our interview and what values or perspectives our
individual had. This resulted
in some really well done monologues, but also in a lot of comedic results. For example, Matt
interviewed his elderly, African-American female neighbor (who was
coincidentally wearing a shower cap and long light pink gown). But along with
laughing, this project made me think about everyone as a separate individual.
I’m not sure if social awareness is
the right category to put this in, but it fit the best. Listening and
watching people present, it made you think about their distinct personalities
(what they were changing to act older), as well as the perspectives that they
represented respectfully.
What I mean by this, is that everyone
has their own look, their own style, their own perspective on life. Although I’m
not sure if it’s possible to judge someone accurately by a single event, it’s
really easy to. Watching people
on stage, one notices things. Not everyone is a perfect actor, and
you see things that could be improved – but only if you know what they’re like
normally. Kenneth, for
example, is always a joy to watch – but he has his own style. He’s always
somewhat upright, and bright…he doesn’t make a good depressed person. Patrick, on the
other hand, brought a lot of himself into his performance – a kind of dreamy
stupor he has about himself. I’m not saying these diluted these
performance. I’m just saying that you can tell a lot about the way a person
carries himself, and how they make decisions. And that to me is one of the
most important things you can learn about a person.
Listening to them, you got an idea
of the priorities of the elder generations. One thing brought to my
attention was that a lot of the
interviewees chose to talk about war experiences, whether they fought or on the
home front. Mine included. When I was
presenting, I really had to work that in – how affected he was by WWII. He was
very animated and open with me, and I had to portray his lifestyle post-war
effectively. It was hard for me to do, because in my lifetime there has never
been a true war like WWII in America.
It made me think about how people are
shaped by their surroundings; these people would never be the same. And all because
of tragic events during their lifetime they had no control over. It made me
lucky for where I am today, and the relatively easy path I’ve taken to get here. It’s something
that’s given me a new perspective: things are always worse somewhere else. It’s helped me
deal with a lot in life, but it also causes me to get extremely annoyed and
frustrated very quickly when people complain about iPods, or iPads, or anything.
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