#i am not built for acting and theatre but it is VERY fun to analyze personally

[tyrianludaship]

yk i always loved how in robin and gary's livestreams as medic and heavy, they always give them such dorky wholesome personalities, like those excitable fun grandpas, i'm surprised i don't see them characterized that way more often in fanworks

I think it's because the two recognized how fun it'd be to bounce off each other if they did since i recall gary being a improv actor at one point (and currently a teacher for that kind of acting!)

(insert ramble here along the lines of 'improv being the ability to adapt to another person's ideas without fully rejecting it' '"yes and" instead of a "no" being the ultimate rule of improv' yadda yadda)

[jerron-jrb-blog]

How has media shape who you are today?

Discuss what it means to say that an identity is “socially constructed.” How do media technologies and content play a role in this construction?

To answer this question we have to understand a couple of terms. Media, and few terms from the the seven models, such as socio-cultural, Cybernetic and Phenomenological. It is really important not to say that identity and personality are the same, they may share some similarities but our personality actually come from our identity. First media is/are the modes of storage and delivery of a shared meaning. Which at its core is the exchange meaning or information, to communicate by sending and receiving information.

Socio-cultural is a when people or a groupe communicate to either to replicate, reinforce or even challenge the social order. This model questions the traditions, value and roles in a community. One could say that this is the foundation when talking about identity being socially constructed. An example of that was the civil rights movement, the beginning of the feminist movement. Chapter 1 of the Devereaux readings states “globalization, technological change and the restructuring of media ownership underscoring many of the questions that have been asked about the media as...raising new kinds of issues for all of us our roles…”. Cybernetic is another tradition of communication that media analyst look at to see what influences and restrains the flow of new information. This can construct or destruct a person's morals how they act around people, if they have access to technology to get new information. Phenomenological is very important because it is how we communicate using our senses. This doesn't mean only our five senses but how we feel on the inside also. An example of that is the sense of security, or depression, anxiety. When it comes to social construction we can use phenomenology when talking to someone who when through a traumatic experience. Now when we say an Identity is socially constructed and how media technologies and content help shape that identity we need to look at the (1) who is the viewer and audience; (2) who is producing or who is the messenger and (3) what is the context of this message.In late September during a out lecture we touched briefly about how ads use gender and sexuality when it comes to selling a product when analyzing the GAP photo. I am a black man, I have been socially constructed to fail and end up in the prison system because of I lived in low income neighborhood and am from the lower class. I also should be afraid of the law enforcement because most large black males are up to no good. To fight against this I am disgustingly happy and I am really respectful and I don’t want to be perceived as a thug or hooligan. I kept face; according to communication theorist, face or facework is what a person does in certain situations so people won’t think that person is a bad person. Everyone has face and every one gives face. An example of  a person giving face in a stressful situation is James Bond. Bullets flying, high speed chases, winning at a casino card games...through all of that he has a stoic look on his face. We can look at society and how the raise young boys in masculinity.  Being told “boys don’t cry” or “man up!” In a documentary the The Mask You Live In it talks about the toxicity of masculinity in society and how it is literally killing boys because boys are not taught to express their emotions because being the worst thing a man can be view as is weak.   This is true for all types of communication and with that we can look at how identity is constructed by society. Sturken and Cartwright said Analyzing images and built spaces according to what we believe to be the intentions of their produces”(54) But it is important to remember that in this giant world we live in, their are a lot of sub cultures and societies/ communities that identities in those respective areas are being constructed differently.

      2. How is your identity constructed through commodities? What commodities make up your commodity self? (Hint: nearly ALL media content/technologies could be considered commodities)

We have to look at the all powerful media and ask ourselves as we start to analyze and break down my identity we need to see what makes it up and look how it shaped my habits, behavior. The foundation of my identity is that I am a 23 year old, black male. Now we are going to look at what other things make up my identity I come from midwest of the United States and reside most of my time while not at school in central Wisconsin  but southeast Wisconsin and come from a family of seven. My parents are married and have been for 29 years and both went to college. My parents taught me to be strong but patient, kind but firm. I would also say I am a product of the 90’s. Now looking at these few things let us look and analyze the information from above.

I am a 23 year old black male. Looking at this we can see that I am of college age but it might not have been easy. Living in America I have easy access to different technology. Also I was a product of the 1990s in america so I watch a lot of pokemon, along with  Disney’s Recess, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Disney Channel, Adult Swim, Black Entertainment Television(BET), MTV and the content I got while watching these program is to be yourself and have fun and enjoy life while you can. That is a huge reason I act the way I cat today. Because of the shows I watched as a kid I am who I am today. Those shows taught me that it is important to be kind to everyone even when it's an enemy. Also to don’t take life too seriously if I do am I really living so I live each day with a “I don’t give a fuck” attitude. Looking at that I’m a black male in America we can look at the news media on their content and how it shaped my identity.

When I was younger I thought that I was suppose to be loud, rude, illiterate, thuggish and end up in jail. But also look at the the same television network from above and some of the shows they had also shaped my identity. The Cosby show was about how a black family, that reminded me of my own family, looked and acted. I related with that because My mother is the real life Claire Huxtable and also that you don’t have to believe everything that came on the news.

Continuing with my identity I am from the midwest of the United States and from Wisconsin. My middle school was a pilot school to see what education would look like if every student had a laptop and some of the questions asked in my hometown were “how are they going to learn with computers?’, ‘it's just going to be a distraction.’ ‘they should stick to paper and pencil.’”. But when I asked my dad about the idea of every student he thought it was an excellent idea. He then told me when he was in high school and college he wished he would have taken those intro to keyboarding and computers seriously because his job requires that he know how to use a computer. Looking back at his experience I can proudly say that I learned a lot from doing homework online and and it honestly got me ready for high school and college. Understand how my commodity self came to be. But also we should look at the people behind it see who their audience was/is. Another commodity that has helped shaped my identity was the bible. I am a son of a pastor and that was a big part of who I was as a person but when I got to high school and started acting in plays that really changed me. Being in a theatre major for awhile. I learned a lot about how theatre (according to theatre historians) was the first type of media and how theatre really reinforced the focus or idea of the media is to inform society about itself. So Theatre and reading the bible are the two biggest influences and made me who I am today.

     3.Pick one of these commodities and analyze how it is advertised. What sort of ideological/discursive framing is being employed?

Society is so vast and one does not have the funds to research and study society as a whole. But we can look at smaller groups and how they communicate with people when it comes to selling their product. I will be talking about the effects media has on  a smaller scale. “Audience research puts human experience at the centre of our enquiry”(Stokes 174). In class we talked about ideology and disclosure and I want to focus on both, but for now let us look at ideology or institute.

Ideology is way society governs itself and perpetuate modes of behavior and acceptance and interaction. We are going to how companies use it to advertise. Now defined by in our Sturken and Cartwright Ch7 reading “Advertisements present an abstract world, often a fantastic one, that is not situated in present but the imagined future”(265). The institute of advertising know that most customers are smarter than they look but some if not all ads usually use art, culture jams and other forms of entertainment. Even when it comes to representation of gender and sexuality in advertisements.

The two photos above are current ads for women athletes that show how to be a top athlete. On the left you have a nike ad and in the add we can see a women running with headphones and with text saying “Ladies first, men second” now the more important text is on the bottom “Join the Men vs Women Challenge ”This is an institute that has been around since the beginning of the feminist movement, whose is better boys or girls? The discourse comes in when someone reads the nike ad and automatically think boys. One of the first things I learned about media is that the job of the media is to inform society about itself. And I feel that the media above is a great to stir conversation.

The ad on the right is about female empowerment. A female soccer player doing some footwork and the text says “I Kick balls. Deal with it”. The ideology is being challenged because of what the text is saying. It showing the women are more than housewives or a cute, quiet doll playing girls. It shows that women know how to play sports and are not going to stand to be told what they can and cannot due. and behind this is about Not if boys are better than girls but can men and female athletes be equal.

Chapter 2 of Sturken and Cartwright tells us how viewers make meaning. They say that production of meaning “involves at least three elements besides the image itself and its producer: (1) the codes and conventions that structure the image and that cannot be separated from the content of the image; (2) the viewers and how they interpret or experience the image; and (3) the contexts in which an image is exhibited and viewed.”(49).

Work Cited

Alex Ingersoll - Communication 106 Lectures

Devereux, E. (2014). Understanding the media (3rd ed.). London: Sage

Mark Tolstedt - Communication 107 Lectures.

Stokes, Jane. How to Do Media and Cultural Studies. SAGE Publications LTD,2009.  Print

[msbrittanykay-blog]

My Play Narrative/History

Since I was a child, my sense of play has always been about roleplaying. I loved to assume and take on different roles and play make-believe. Any playdate, recess or time spent with a sibling always included the game of “house.” A game, where you take on the role of a different family member…”you be the mom and I’ll be the baby”, were often the rules or parameters set out. This roleplaying evolved as I grew and I loved to create “shows” that I would often practice upstairs during a family dinner and then perform them for my parents and siblings. They would take on the role of the audience and I as the storyteller. These performances ranged from choreographed dance routines to full on musicals. They entertained my notions, much to my brother’s annoyance. These early games really defined my play personality, which in turn made up a great deal of my identity and the career path that flowed from it. This idea is further expressed by Stuart Brown, who says, “we are built to play and built through play. When we play, we are engaged in the purest expression of our humanity, the truest expression of our individuality” (Brown 11).

My individuality is split into two “play personalities.” Brown describes The Storyteller as using their imagination to “experience the thoughts and emotions of characters in the story” that “imagination is the key to the kingdom of play” (56). I would say this personality accurately describes me from childhood to my present self. I am always using these storytelling elements; from common conversations with friends to adapting and getting into the shoes of a character. This play personality helps me bring play to any kind of activity, especially to my role as a teacher. The Storyteller persona allows the way I interact with my students, family and friends to be silly and carefree.

I also assume the role of The Director. I have been a natural leader since childhood, directing my friends into routines and skits during recess. I am definitely a “born organizer” (Brown 55), whether hosting a party, producing a play or organizing social outings for my friends. This play personality has helped me become more analytical in my career as an actor, making me able to see the big picture or major themes of a play. This self awareness has also made me respect the actual directors within a performance and appreciate their perspective on the role I play as part of their team.

The beginnings of play  and my persona in my childhood led me to a discovery  that the notion of make-believe really existed in theatre and movies. I could actually become another character and fully immerse myself into someone else’s story. The ultimate make believe!

I began acting professionally as a child. I found solace in plays at summer camp and after-school community theatre groups.  When I was nine years old, I signed with an agent. That sense of childlike play, that freedom to take on another role and become someone else, became a professional occupation. Yet as a child those jobs were still fun and playful. I was never forced by helicopter stage parents to stay in the industry and work. They would constantly check in with me and ask, “are you still having fun?” That’s what was most important. And I was having fun. I loved being on set, in front of a camera or on stage in front of a crowd. That rush and the experience of role-playing were things that I found joy in. That sense of enjoyment began to form crucial parts of my identity. Brown questions, “it is any wonder that often the times we feel most alive, those that make up our best memories, are moments of play?” (11). So many of my monumental childhood memories are from my experiences of being on stage or behind a camera. I think I was very successful as a child because I took huge risks and lost myself in the “work”. Though it is possible that since there weren’t any real life risks, it was easier to take those chances. Working didn’t have any effect on whether or not I would pay my rent, after all.

I did miss being a kid though. I got to high school and wanted to really be there. I felt like I lost my sense of play at that time. I yearned to spend summers at camp or go to my friend’s parties. It was only later,  in my high school’s drama department, that I re-discovered why I had loved acting all of my life. There were no casting directors sitting behind a table or hopeful parents to disappoint or any sort of pressure. I could just live in the moments of play.

When it came time to choose the focus of my post secondary education, I didn’t want to do anything else. A degree in theatre and drama studies seemed where my heart wanted to go. Much to my father’s disappointment (although I was independently funding my degree with my childhood earnings), I went to the University of Toronto joint theatre program with Sheridan College. The struggles involved in maintaining  grades, dealing with class politics, and being forced into a kind of daily competition I hadn’t previously experienced, changed my idea of acting for the worse. My sense of freedom in play was eroded by my teachers, directors and classmates. The constant fight to reach some impossible state of perfection clouded my judgement and thoughts. The joy I found in acting started to dissipate under the strain.

As an adult actor, the risk is greater, the pool of competition is way bigger and the opportunities are nearly nonexistent. The actual time you get to be an actor in a show is less and less as time goes by, and most of my opportunities to perform are when I audition for parts. It means more now when you don’t book a job and the nervous anticipation around auditions feels larger now than it did as a kid. Many people in the Toronto theatre scene are creating their own work, which I could and should be doing, but my life gets filled up by other work and the freedom to create (like that of play) seems like less of a viable priority.

As an adult, my career has taken many paths, both in the education sector and the professional acting world. Both lives exist under the same umbrella of the performing arts, as I believe one informs the other. Teaching drama was something I had always done at summer camps and it just made sense to diversify my skills as an adult. In the Toronto theatre scene, you can’t just make it as an actor. You have to have something else that pays your rent. And yes, I served as a bartender and gave out free samples of shampoo on the street, but I felt like I could achieve much more than that in life. I decided to go to teacher’s college to legitimize my trade. It has been a wonderful choice. My teaching career continues to evolve and grow much like my theatre career.

Acting has always been my livelihood, something that has been associated and ingrained within my identity for so long. Acting is playful, yet as an adult it seems less like play. There is more at stake and because of that, I have somehow lost my happiness within it. The goal of my PlayQuest is to understand and analyze how my work can be playful again, how I can bring that same sense of play I had as a child actor into my adult practices. I want to find that sense of freedom I experienced as a child to just let go and be, without worrying about whether I get the job or not.

Since I am currently not in a show, but will be having frequent auditions throughout the course, I want to document my preparation process. I want to find ways to make my auditions and my craft more fun and find ways to reestablish joy into my practice as a performer. My progress will be an ongoing self-reflective journey that I will document in writing, video blogs and scripts. I will try out a series of strategies to make my work more playful not only using the theories from our readings, but finding ways each week to integrate fun into my preparation or explore my craft. These strategies will range from working through material with friends, taking Masterclasses with established directors, singing/acting lessons, and creating a Tumblr blog to document it all. The reason I chose a Tumblr as my container because it is a “microblogging and social networking website…” designed to “ find and follow what you love” (Tumblr.com).  It allows me to find other other multimedia posts to gain inspiration and motivation for this quest. I can repost what I find on other Tumblr blogs to pursue and probe my creativity.

This explorative quest could hopefully create a low-pressure situation to just explore and play. Wish me luck!

Reference: 

Brown, Stuart. (2010). “Chapter 6 Playing Together,”  Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul.