Concluding Statement

Write a concluding statement. Review all that you and your classmates have gathered and written and learned about this term. Write a detailed concluding essay that communicates to your reader where you've arrived. Now that you've traveled through "the world of theater" and stood your ground upon its “foundation” – (sorry), what is the new point of view you have about theater specifically, and art in general? (750 words) .


I am a college freshman music theater major with a dance minor. I grew up in a town that had approximately fifty people plus livestock. The nearest professional theater was an hour and forty-five minutes away. My high school was grades seven through twelve and contained about five hundred students. I graduated in a class of seventy-eight kids. Our “music department” was small and always overlooked because of athletics and “academics”. I started to gain an interest in theater my eighth grade year and I knew that small town wasn’t going to help me learn more; I needed to reach further outside of my comfort zone.
 I came to IUP and became a member of the footlight academy. Since then I have participated in acting learning experiences across the eastern side of the country. But I knew that I didn’t have a strong foundation in the basic aspects of theater. I knew the basic techniques of actors and I knew there were many other jobs involved in a theater company, but I never knew what they all did. I didn’t know that there are a million different ways to analyze a play. When I came to IUP for scheduling this summer, I was excited to schedule Foundations of Theater because I felt a little… under learned.


August 31, 2009: First Day of Classes. I realized how much I truly needed and wanted to learn this semester from my professor and my classmates. We started class by discussing theater in everyday life.
  I discovered how much “theater” we are exposed to everyday. I love to people watch, and people watching is probably one of the most basic forms of everyday theater. In the beginning of the semester we began learning about “What Is a Story?” This opened up my eyes to see all that goes into making a story and stories are what
  plays are based on. According to Wikipedia a story is,” a common term for a description of a sequence of events.” According to the 10:10 Foundations of Theater Class a story is the retelling of an event. Stories are life. Our lives are entirely made up of infinite stories.
 But now, what makes up a story? Stories are made up given circumstances. In a story there are characters, relationships, history, back stories, inciting events, action, location, rules of this world, conflict, and dramatic transformation. Once we practiced an intro to analyzing stories, we began to look at the five basic elements of theater; Storytelling, costuming, spectacle, symbolic gesture/behavior, and temporal interplay between the audience and the performer. Starting out learning the most Basic element of theater really allowed me to get a grip of what was in store for me next. I was afraid we were going to jump into a bunch of stuff I knew nothing about (due to lack of theatrical education at United High School). But I was so excited to be able to take such baby steps and really look deeply into certain things.


We then progressed in the semester by learning about theatrical origins and genres. We learned how theater across the globe has similarities, but the traditions and the styles are all very unique. We learned about two very basic genres; comedy and tragedy (we even learned about the combined tragic comedy.) During the course of this semester and our learning processes we had several discussion posts about our own thoughts and findings on the subjects we were learning. I would be so happy and content with what I found and discovered for myself, then I would read my classmates posts and I would see there is so much more to look at. There are so many possibilities of how to view subjects related to theater. By reading everyone’s discussion posts, I have learned to look at things in many different angles. By looking at plays and situations from several different ways, you will discover many other possibilities which will lead you into a world of discovery.

We then learned all about the main jobs in the theater; the actor, the producer, director, stage manager, costume designer, etc. I worked with Steve in studying the actor and the producer. We made a documentary on Brian Jones and Richard Kemp and we interviewed them to help teach the class what they do as a producer and an actor. In doing this project with Steve and then observing everyone else’s, I not only learned more about the job descriptions, but I learned more about myself. I learned that I want to have a very wide variety of skills in the theater, whether it is acting, singing, dancing, designing, directing, managing, I want to try it all.

We analyzed The Importance of Being Earnest and The Glass Menagerie. I enjoyed reading and studying these dramas because, again, I could not only see myself grow in my analytical views of each, but I could also watch my classmates grow in different directions which in turn opened my eyes even wider with curiosity. By the end of this semester, which flew by oh so very fast, I was so much more learned about play analysis, the basics of theater, and the basic job descriptions in theater. By expanding my knowledge of such basic aspects of theater, I truly did travel through “the world of theater” and stand my ground on its “foundation.” My new “point of view” on art and theater has only grown into a further fascination. I have been opened up to so many ways of viewing topics that I am so intrigued and I can’t wait to learn more about this subject that I am so passionate about for the rest of my life.