Performances
The Chocolate Factory!!
Willy Wonka by Roald Dahl is one of my favorite books. Charlie Bucket, the protagonist, gets selected as the successor of Willy Wonka to run the chocolate factory. Among the five kids who were blessed with the opportunity to tour the factory with Willy Wonka, Charlie is the only one who had not been distracted by the alluring machines and candies in the factory. And he is the only one who remains honest by confessing that he tried the Fizzy Lifting Drink secretly. As his behavior is recognized by Willy Wonka, Charlie becomes the successor and saves his family from poverty.
As a student, I am fascinated with acting. Practicing after an arduous day at school always makes me think how nice would it be to take a nap at home at the moment, but it is the feeling of achievement after practices or performances that keeps me going.
On October 21st through 23rd in 2021, our club performed the best theater performance I've ever done. We played Willy Wonka, my favorite story! More excitingly, I got the chance to play the protagonist, Charlie Bucket. Charlie is the character I had always wanted to resemble because of his pure and heartwarming virtue. We had spent an incredible amount of time practicing.
This is the picture of Charlie holding the Golden Ticket for touring Willy Wonka's chocolate factory!
Musical Performance:
The Wizard of OZ
With this being the second play that I have had a significant part in, I was a little bit more relaxed than when I performed my part in the Wizard of Oz. Unlike how I was tensed up in the prior experience, only willing to get my lines out, this time I had significantly improved in the area where I expressed my emotions about the character through not only the lines but also facial and bodily expressions!
At first, I shied out often when I was put in a situation where I had to convey emotions through non-verbal components. I think that maybe that was because I felt a sense of vulnerability and weakness whenever I did so. However, I changed that by having the mindset that if done properly, facial and body expressions will enhance the viewing experience of the audience by helping them emphasize with the character. And that was one of the major purposes of the play itself! This thought helped me overcome my anxiousness, and helped me improve significantly as an actor as well. This was a great experience, and I hope to participate in more plays in the future!
Theater Performance:
The Real Women of Mother Goose
With this being the second play that I have had a significant part in, I was a little bit more relaxed than when I performed my part in the Wizard of Oz. Unlike how I was tensed up in the prior experience, only willing to get my lines out, this time I had significantly improved in the area where I expressed my emotions about the character through not only the lines but also facial and bodily expressions!
At first, I shied out often when I was put in a situation where I had to convey emotions through non-verbal components. I think that maybe that was because I felt a sense of vulnerability and weakness whenever I did so. However, I changed that by having the mindset that if done properly, facial and body expressions will enhance the viewing experience of the audience by helping them emphasize with the character. And that was one of the major purposes of the play itself! This thought helped me overcome my anxiousness, and helped me improve significantly as an actor as well. This was a great experience, and I hope to participate in more plays in the future!
Theater Performance: The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon
I remember that since I was very young, I had always loved the Brothers Grimm fairytales, especially the frog prince. And when I was informed that I had gotten the part of the Frog Prince in this exciting compilation, I was more than honored but also felt pressured by the thought that I most definitely could not ruin this amazing storyline.
There is a saying that subtle amounts of pressure actually enhance the performance levels of people. That was exactly the case with me since the slight bit of queasiness and nervousness really helped me do my best. The character Frog Prince is a victim of a spell, who faces the need to find a princess to help him. I felt that this was quite contradictory to many other fairytales, where the male character is the saver and protects his princess. This made it harder for me to act, because the fact that this was not a common storyline meant that there were less precedents for me to utilize as an example.
Despite the challenge, I tried my best by interviewing older students who have had similar situations as myself and also watching many videos with main characters with similar developments. After all this, I was able to confidently portray the character of the Frog Prince, and received multiple compliments about my acting! I wish to further expand my acting range by trying out even more challenging and uncommon narratives in the future!!
Spring Showcase
In school as far as I think, people who gain attention from others are those with a silver tongue, those with good grades, or those with athletic talents. Some of my schoolmates fit into these categories, and they are always surrounded by people, chatting about all those exciting things. Although I participated in numerous music competitions outside of school that they know of my musical skills, but students at my school generally don't know much about me as a musician. This is why I decided to participate in this year's Spring Showcase, which I didn't participate in before because I was thought practicing vocal skills and instruments were more important.
Of course I was going to give a musical performance, but deciding between singing and playing an instrument was my primary concern. Eventually, I decided to sing along the music because students of my age generally learn an instrument or two since they are young, so I needed something distinct to express my characteristic. When I told my friends that I was going to participate, one of my friends said, "Hey, I thought we were going to sit down and watch other people performing!" Although I felt sorry for him, I really didn't want to finish my middle school life as an ordinary kid that no one remembers after entering high school. I chose "How Far I'll go from Moana" that everyone would 100% know. I just couldn't wait to see my classmates applauding after my performance.
I sat behind the curtains and talked to people who were also participating to relieve my anxiety. The emcees were calling the participants one by one. After they were finished, the crowd gave a round of applause, and the emcees called the next participant. After a period of everlasting time, I was standing on the stage. It was a somewhat different experience from most of the competitions I competed in. Most of the competitions were targeted to crowds that didn't know me, but today's showcase was for me.
2022 Pianistar Studio Concert
My experience here in the 2022 Pianistar Studio Concert was unique in the sense that the two songs I were playing were completely different genres and styles with different time periods as well, and that I was playing them back to back.
Prior to this, most of my piano recitals had a theme- whether it designated a specific composer or at least a time period or a style. And in rare cases where they did not, I went conservative and chose them for myself. Although that led to me doing organized and well-put-together performances, I always have had the desire to go a little bit more experimental. I thought that this recital was a perfect opportunity for me to do so, and I went ahead and chose two very distinct pieces!
One thing that challenged me most during the preparation for this concert was that the modern, more contemporary mood that I had formed during the first piece had to be abruptly stopped and replaced with the romantic mood and melody of Burgmuller in the second piece. However, practicing to do this also improved my overall attentiveness to musical emotions as a piano player!
I learned from this experience that sometimes I have to step out of my comfort zone to improve. I will definitely be faced with challenges that I have never faced before, but it would also give me the chance to strengthen areas that were quite "weak" prior to that experience. I would gladly do something like this again!
Community Service
Voice Recital Program
Giving back to the community may sound like something very grand. And it really is, except sometimes much can be done by an everyday experience that isn't all that challenging!
I learned this by participating in the Voice Recital Program for seniors as a part of the neighborhood community service. Because singing has been my thing ever since childhood, and it is no longer a challenging activity but a more everyday routine, I initially thought that plainly singing for the elderly would not mean much. However, my thoughts were wrong. Doing something I was already confident and adept at often lead to better results for both the receiver and the provider of the service.
Watching the elderly genuinely enjoy my performance and seeing music help them relax was an experience I could never forget. After this performance, I felt the utmost drive to practice even harder to make myself even more fluent in this activity, since the higher my skills were, the better I could help people in this kind of way. They would enjoy it more, and I also, as a performer would find it easier to touch their hearts through music if I were even better. Looking back, this experience was very valuable to me in the sense that it helped me push myself to always find room to improve and be better.
70th Annual Junior Bach Festival
