In the musical Company it was very interesting to see the variety of different

characters, and most of all, the variety of different couples. To me, that was the most
catching because each character was a different part of different kinds of marriages and
there were multiple kinds of relationships as well as stages in relationships. My favorite
couple was Sarah and Henry played by Kortney King and Chase Essary. I liked them
because they showed the competitive and fun side of marriage, as well as the internal
struggles both people face and how they now have to face them together as couple, two
who have become one. But my favorite character was Paul played by Josh Whitaker
because he was the supremely sweet guy, which is the kind almost every girl wants, but
then he wasnt good enough for the one he loved. All of these characters have intense
internal lives that are twisted and complicated, and because of that I loved the play.
The play didnt seem half-assed, but there was something about it that didnt
have me totally convinced the characters werent themselves, but simply being played. I
halfway believed it and halfway didnt. Bobby, though, played by Harland Eldredge, had
me convinced the entire time. I could tell he took a lot of time to really consider the inner
life of his character, and he seemed totally separate from his true self. One moment I
felt this the strongest is when he is contemplating whether getting married and being
with someone is really the best thing. I feel for a scene like this you would really have to
think about what the character is feeling and maybe channel some emotions of your
own. It seems hard to portray the thoughts and feelings of another character when so
many people struggle to communicate their own emotions and feelings, so to me this
seemed to be a part that he knew would be difficult and he worked very hard on. As for
other characters, I felt they were very good at staying in the scene, but many of them

had moments that it felt like they werent as committed to the acting as their peers, and
when they would walk off of stage, they would stay in character until they got to the door
a lot of times and I found that distracting. I noticed that sometimes the actors would
speak to each other while exiting through the door, and I felt that it would have been
better had they remained quiet or in character.
Another actor I thought was very good was Alexis Barnett who played Jenny. I
felt that she never fell out of character, and that she had a good through line of action
throughout the play. Even though she didnt have the biggest role, it seemed that she
still put a lot of thought and effort into the character and thought about how she would
act in certain situations. I wouldnt be surprised if she had all of the characters physical
and vocal intonations written out like we did at the beginning of the semester.
In Hamlet I found myself completely immersed throughout most of the play. Its a
play I have studied a lot in high school and have thought deeply about, and seeing the
different ways that they played the characters made the controversy and debates about
the play awaken inside of my thoughts. Allie Babich, who played Hamlet, made the
choice to play Hamlet as insane all the way through the production, but it also
developed throughout the play and intensified. I always chose to believe that Hamlet
became mad gradually through the act of pretending to be, and did it so well that
eventually it arose within himself and became true to him, but Allie played him as though
he had been that way for a while and even before the play began. I loved the conscious
choices she made about Hamlet to get across who she believes he was.
Besides that, almost all of the characters were remarkable at staying in
character, even when playing multiple different characters. Another of my favorite actors

in the show was Jacob Mundell as King Claudius, and I liked him mostly because hes
missing a hand. I liked this aspect because it added something unique to the kings
character and I started thinking, What if the king really didnt have a hand? What if he
lost it in battle or something? So I thought it was very interesting to see how Jacob
used his personal qualities to bring new adverse qualities to the character.
I also really enjoyed Natalie Blackmans performance as Ophelia. Ophelia is my
favorite character in Hamlet, and so i really enjoyed seeing how she interpreted Ophelia
and her circumstances. Ophelia always seems to be the victim of the people around
hers choices. I really like that she played rather whimsical, but also as though she knew
everything. She made Ophelia seem more as though she wasnt just a dumb girl who
fell for the romances of a young prince, but rather that she had a brain that just got
pulled in multiple directions by her father and Hamlet and Claudius. She gave Ophelia
more substance than that, which I like because Ophelia, to me, is much more complex
than what she appears. I dont see her as just another character in the play, I think she
holds a much higher purpose, and that is to embody the confusion and the chaos within
the play and show the results of these menacing games people play with each other.
She is the eye opener in the show, and I felt Natalie portrayed that well.
Other than that, the only thing I didnt like much about the play was being able to
see behind the scenes and seeing all of the prop movement and changes going on. It
was very distracting from the actual performance, and with Hamlet that isnt the best
because it is so dense that it needs to all be taken in and pondered over, so the props
being able to be seen took away from the effect of the play and distracted from the
deeper meaning of the text.

Before taking this acting class, I didnt think much about character development
and I didnt realize that there were multiple ways to play one character. After learning
this, I find it much more interesting to watch the conscious choices actors make to
define their characters and see all of the different ways one character can be
interpreted. Its also very different seeing it acted out than it is reading a play. When you
read a play, you certainly make your own assumptions about who a character is, but to
see it actually acted out before you in a way that you never thought of is a whole new
experience in that it brings to life all of these thoughts and possibilities going through
your head. Its no longer just an idea, but youre seeing it in action; youre seeing these
aspects of the character actually in the character rather than just thinking that thats how
the character is. Overall, I would say taking an acting class has definitely changed my
perspective on what it takes to run a show and develop a character.