"Being Robbed"

Fortunately, I have never been robbed in my life. However, I ACTED as a woman who has " been robbed" in the Voice for the Actor class!

Last Wednesday, Stacie made us into pairs, and said. "The next assignment is acting short drama without words with your partner. Remember, just use your vocalizations, not words!" Now, we have been trying to enhance our vocal range. Very low voice, very high voice... If you visit our class when we are practicing vocalization, you would think we are crazy.

We discussed what kinds of topics were interesting. Then, each pair drew a topic they were going to play. My partner was Ron. His major is music. Our topic was: being robbed!! We should play this next Monday(11th.) We discussed our ideas how to make it interesting.
He said," A person who was robbed could become a robber. Isn't it interesting?"
Yeah, it is! I said," Being robbed reminds me of a scene in the Sex and the City. The main character, Carrie, was robbed of not only her purse, but also her gorgeous shoes. (Look at the photo!) How about robbing a pair of shoes? "

We met outside the class, added some ideas, and practiced the play.
Our "being robbed" story is:
One woman (me) walks like a super model. Then, a robber(Ron) whose head is covered by a hood jumps in front of the woman. The woman is scared, tries to give her purse to him, but he refuses. He wants her gorgeous shoes!! Those are more important for her than her purse, so she refuses. But the robber threatens her, so crying, she gives her favorite pair. The robber turns to run away. However, when she sees he looks very satisfied with her shoes, she gets mad. She runs to him, and kicks him like a Karate athlete! ( Like a second photo: this image is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karate I thought I could take advantage of being Japanese..) She takes a glance at "his" shoes which are sporty sneakers, completely different from "her" shoes. She thinks, "Mmmm, these are also good!" and robbs his sneakers! The robber freaks out at her change, and runs away. She wears his sneakers, pulls a hood of her parka over her head, and starts to walk like "the robber."

We acted this story in the class. Their reaction? They burst out laughing when I did the "Karate kick" (I don't know how to call it in English... a Karate kick, or maybe a turn kick?as we call it " 回し蹴り " in Japanese.) to Ron!! Stacie said we did a good job, but the most important goal of this assignment was to use wide ranged vocalizations. Therefore, she encouraged us to use more vocal ranges. Yes, I know it would be better! It's not so easy to get VERY loud or produce STRANGE voice in front of the audience because I am a SHY Japanese girl... But, every students was told "Even really go further!" from Stacie. Every pair acted at least "take two" after Stacied gave us advice.

However, they are studying "theater" major...so, everybody did a great job! It was impressing that they could immediately adjust after Stacie gave them advice. Their acting and vocalzation were getting better! My partner, Ron, also acted greater than our practice. Other pairs' topics: playground, going a zoo, first date, roommate fight, being late for a class, hair cut, job interview, and getting a puppy. My favorite one was "first date!" A boy acted as a JERK who wanted to look cool, and a girl acted as a quiet girl who followed him reluctantly... I thought this couple was a typical teenage couple! The two actors used their wide vocal ranges effectively! When I watched everbody's play, I thought, "What a fun class!! I am watching comic skits by actors-to-be!!"

However, after the class was over, I noticed. What funny is...myself! What I am doing here!? I am only Asian in this class( There are no Asian, African American, and Hispanic. I heard all of them are born in the U.S, and they are Caucasians,)and I think I am the OLDEST...but I acted as a PIG ( see the "Ideal Voice" section,) and I did a TURN KICK to an American boy!? I think I kicked him over 20 times... including our practice. To make our play impressive, I always kicked him with all of my strength. I'm sorry, Ron!!!