Ariana Journal 2

What was the name of the piece you saw? (one sentence)

• The Fringe Performance I saw was “How to Shave in Six Easy Steps”.

Describe the final moment of the piece? What happened? (four sentences) 

• The final moment in the piece was pretty heartbreaking. After he was finished with  talking about the death of his father, he starts to try to turn the mood around and ensure that the audience knows that they are loved and worth it and all of these positive sayings. Then he starts cleaning the shaving cream off of the stage and the table and once again tells the audience how fabulous everyone is.

If you had to ascribe a moral to this piece, what would it be? Why do you think that? (four sentences)

• The moral I think this piece gives off is that even when life puts you through all it can to knock you down, you have to find your way through it all and come out stronger. This performance gives examples of that when the actor was explaining his relationship with his parents, more specifically, his father and the processes they went through to teach him how to shave. Then how the passing of his father affected him and then also finding himself in his new identity as they/them.

What was an element you enjoyed about the piece? Why did you enjoy it? (six sentences)

• An element about this piece that I really enjoyed was his courage to be so detailed about his past family life and then about his current gender identity. Most people would be afraid to go up in front of a bunch of people that they do not know and talk about their gender or sexuality. Even just sharing personal events in your life, some people are so closed off they can't do that. I respect his bravery, although it must not have been easy, to go up on stage and perform a performance that he wrote himself.

What was an element that confused you? Why did it confuse you? What could have been done differently to make it clearer to you? (six sentences)

• An element that confused me was the way he went back and forth between the two elements of the performance. I understand that is probably what he was trying to accomplish. I feel as though he was using “the process of shaving” as an excuse to try to tell people a story and not have them just focus on that. Including the steps of shaving throughout the performance kind of kept the audience together and probably made the actor less nervous telling his stories. I think the actor could have been more clear in telling the story if he did not stop every few minutes in between a story to tell the audience another step in the shaving process. I understand that is mainly what the play is about but personally once someone stops telling a story midway through, I can’t really recall what the first part was when they continue. 

What did the character WANT? (one sentence)

• The character wanted to instruct the audience, step by step, on how to shave, while including things from his past/ family life and how they affected him in between the steps.

What tactics or actions did they use to get what they wanted. (three verbs)

• Dramatize, Elucidate, Intrigue

Did you enjoy their performance? Why or why not? (three sentences)

• I did enjoy the performance. I think it definitely took a lot of effort and strength to go up on stage and perform how he did. Especially with all the conflicting social norms he was trying to introduce in his performance.

What moment in the piece did you feel the most connected to the performance? Describe it. (six sentences)

• The moment I personally felt the most connected to in the performance was when he brought up the fact that his dad passed away while he was at school. I can unfortunately relate to this because my step dad also passed away when I was younger. I had just come home from school and luckily, but not knowing, had one last conversation with him before he passed. That day and the following weeks and months ahead were very hard for our family. Even though it was over 5 years ago now, although we are all mostly healed, there are some days where it hurts just as bad as the day it happened when we think about it.