Masterclasses and Field Trips
Fall Trimester
DATE EVENT did not attend not useful > > > >very useful
Sept. 15 & 19 Online Portfolio Workshops x 1 2 3 4
Mr. Gromak
Sept 29 Carolyn Paine x 1 2 3 4
MasterClass
Oct. 14 Coffeehouse x 1 2 3 4
Oct. 15 CAP Masterpiece pages due x 1 2 3 4
Oct. 20 Ramita Navai x 1 2 3 4
Masterclass
Oct. 22 Danny Elfman/Tim Burton x 1 2 3 4
Hartford Symphony, Bushnell
Oct. 26 The Piano Lesson x 1 2 3 4
Hartford Stage
Oct. 31 Michael Astrachan x 1 2 3 4
Masterclass
Nov. 1 CAP Masterpiece comments due x 1 2 3 4
Nov. 11 & 12 The Crucible x 1 2 3 4
Theater at Watkinson
Nov. 18 Fall MUSICAL Concert x 1 2 3 4
Music at Watkinson
Recommended (but not required) Events
Nov. 9 Kenhinde Wiley 1 2 3 4
Wadsworth Atheneum
Nov. 9-13 Film Series: Photographers on Film 1 2 3 4
Wadsworth Atheneum
Event Reflection
Ramita Navai Masterclass Reflection
After reading City of Lies for Global Studies over the summer, I was waiting for a chance to meet Ramita Navai and listen to her viewpoint on living in Tehran. This masterclass gave me just that and more. Going into the masterclass, I was expecting a view that was critical of the United States and of the way media portrays Tehran. However, Ramita was very open-minded and gave an objective opinion of not only the lives of people in Tehran but also the relationship between Iran and the rest of the world. The discussion we had was thought provoking and I appreciated how Ramita took other people’s views into account when explaining why and how she wrote City of Lies.
The explanation of how City of Lies was written was my favorite portion of the masterclass. It amazes me how Ramita put herself at risk in order to keep others safe while reporting a story to the world. The lengths in which Ramita went to ensure each person she interviewed was safe shows just how committed Ramita is to providing one hundred percent accurate stories about life in Tehran. I also respect how Ramita Navai pushed past conveying any of her own ideas and emotions to put the individual characters in the spotlight and focused on their thoughts and ideas without letting her own thoughts cloud her writing.
This masterclass has had a much different influence on my work then I thought it would have. Normally when I approach project, I often do not look at the entire culture surrounding the piece of artwork, rather I often focus on the story that the piece of art is conveying. This masterclass has shown me that the people are what make a story or artwork truly remarkable. An individual’s unique story, what they are hiding, what they are expressing, what they are thinking, all influence how a piece of artwork is made even more so then the environment that the artwork or person is subjected to. This has brought me to think about the individual who made a sculpture and why they made it.
Winter Trimester
Event Reflection
Colleen Fitzgerald Masterclass Reflection
I am not really a person that does much physical activity besides working out once in awhile. That being said, I almost never dance unless at a concert. The master class with Colleen Fitzgerald seemed, before going to it, like a bad idea. After all, I have zero experience dancing and the master class would be about just that, dancing. However, Colleen structured the master class in such a way that even me, a person that dancing is foreign to, can enjoy and learn something from the class.
What stood out to me the most was the portion of the class dedicated to acting with a single prop of our choosing. I chose a hat, an object I figured would be able to translate well into almost any environment. Colleen then had us break into groups and act out the scene the other groups would create. Not only was this a fun exercise, this was also a very interesting way of introducing both acting and dancing to those of us who have very little prior experience, easing us into these forms rather than dropping us in head first and expecting us to know what to do.
The exercises in the beginning that had us moving around were much different that what I expected. Colleen has us run, then walk, run again, make no right angle turns, only right angle turns, and more. The combination of these movements helped to loosen us up and become more relaxed and comfortable in the room. We then moved on to portraying how various people would move in different situations. This was my favorite portion of the master class. Each person embodied a different version of the various people we were representing, each representation unique from the rest. I thought that it helped spark creativity and made us all comfortable acting with each other.