The Best Show Ever, Humbly Speaking: A Solo Performance of My Own Design

Abstract

Erica MatthewsGraduate Thesis – The Best Show Ever, Humbly Speaking Jeffrey Fracé 11 March 2021 During my first year in the Professional Acting Training Program (PATP), L. Zane Jones asked my class to share our artistic statement. And there I was, a first year graduate student who couldn’t answer this simple question. I’m embarrassed to say that this was the first moment I truly thought about my intentions of being an artist. I’ve always known that I loved to act, but I never considered how I wanted my acting work to affect the world. Starting with our intentions is extremely important. It’s what connects us to our work. It creates value and becomes the “why” that pushes us pass our limits. Ever since that day, I’ve been on a quest to answer this question and the PATP served as an experimental lab for me to discover just that. Within this experience, I realized that the reason I’m in the PATP is not to only grow as an actor, but also to grow as a storyteller. To learn different forms of storytelling so that I can one day inspire the world. To help share stories about the black community, with emphasis on powerful black women. However, in the midst of celebrating my new discovery, I began to question if the audience would accept me if I told those stories. They tell you not to bring up religion or people will reject you. They tell you not to be “too black” or people will reject you. They tell you not to speak with your natural dialect or people will reject you. They are telling people not be themselves if they want to be accepted. My anxieties grew deeper realizing that my intentions did not line up with who “they say” I needed to be. Since then I’ve had numerous conversations with artists who’ve expressed this same fear. Why do we need validation to tell the stories we were created to tell? We crave validation because we fear not being accepted. In that moment I decided that I was going to create The Best Show Ever, Humbly Speaking: a story about an actor who tries to gain success by seeking her audiences approval, but later realizing that true success happens only when she lives in her authentic truth. The Best Show Ever, Humbly Speaking was originally written for my inner clown, who was created in Play and Clown with Jane Nichols. Because my inner clown loves to please the audience, she became the perfect person to help me play with validation. The skills I learned in those classes combined with the skills I learned in Comedy with Valerie Curtis-Newton, allowed me become intentional with my jokes and the type of comedy used to further the story. Alexander Technique with Catherine Madden allowed me to be affected by my environment and to fully embody the physical transformation of the character throughout the show. Voice with Bridget Connors helped me to find the character’s vocal transformation and the ability to incorporate archetypes in the character’s journey. Speech with Scott Hafso helped me to create a clear distinguish between Erica’s speech in the beginning to Erica’s natural speech at the end of the show. Viewpoints with Jeffrey Fracé helped me find ways to block my show by exploring spatial relationship, shape, repetition, duration, and tempo. Also while editing my show, I relied highly on spatial relationship when determining cuts and angles. Acting for Camera with John Jacobsen helped me find more appropriate beat work that would better serve my performance for the camera instead of live theatre. Shakespeare with Amy Thone and Singing with Scott Hafso both helped me create a new style of storytelling for the end of the show. I love the poetic writing style that Shakespeare brings to his work and I also love how in Singing, the characters need their songs to express themselves. I took those styles of storytelling and decided that if the character finally finds her rhythm at the end of the story, this new rhythm should also be reflected by a new style of storytelling. After performing my thesis solo show, something I wonder is how effective my use of repetition was because although repetition is a great tool to use in comedy, it could easily bore your audience. Overall, I am happy with the discoveries I’ve made while creating this show and most proud that my intentions were connected. The Best Show Ever, Humbly Speaking is simply an ode from an artist. We live in a masked society where everyone is afraid to be an outlier in fear of judgment. This show is about shining light on those fears. It’s about trusting ourselves and our purpose. It’s about persevering. It’s about providing representation for little black girls. I thank the PATP for allowing me a safe space to discover myself as an artist. The training I’ve gained over the past three years will live in me for all of my future endeavors. I am now a better storyteller because of you. Thank you.