Analysis: The Final Project

Submitted By hemminngway
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The Final Project

Rewind time five months ago and you have my roommate Colin and I getting something to eat discussing the future semester goals and what not. He seemed particularly happy about one specific class; Race On Stage. He thought in this class would be an acting class rather than one of scholarly merit. Somehow he managed to convince me to sign up for this class, and I honestly can’t complain. What made this class so special was that it is an experience, not just a grade. The feelings and thoughts that were provoked during our discussions were so authentic and genuine. Prior to this class I had never been to a play, and was quite delighted to find out that I actually really enjoy going to plays. I never could have imagined how volatile that classroom would get in the beginning of the semester. Prior to this semester I was extremely negligent to such clearly evident social constructs such as the color line, I’m happy I am now aware of these things. Honestly though, I was going through some hardships at the beginning of the semester that may have undermined my attention I have given towards some of my classes like this one. I completely regret it though, the plays that I did attend I thoroughly enjoyed, the articles I did read were extremely informative and influential pieces, and the in class discussions were awe-inspiring.

For our final project we decided to do monologues of the epic movie Night Watches Us. We really were unsure about what direction to go about so we thought that this would be a good vehicle for some of us to express some of our feelings. I had the luxury of being Marcus, played by the charismatic Anthony Mackie. I had not seen the movie but one of our group members recommended that it would be a good project because it was such an influential film. I have seen some of Anthony Mackie’s previous films and always admired how charming he seemed to be. I thought this film did a tremendous job of portraying a very realistic situation during the post civil rights movement. It was tremendously well shot and all of the actors were able to transcend their characters. The Roots did a tremendous job on the soundtrack, also it is always intriguing to watch a film that takes place in your hometown. Marcus was without a doubt my favorite character in Night Watches Us, unfortunately my monologue did not do his character justice. It was a lot tougher for me to channel my inner Marcus/Anthony Mackie than it was for some of my other group mates. I think not having experienced racism and essentially being blind to the color line for most of my twenty-year existence played a significant role in my writers block for Marcus. For my portrayal of Marcus I wanted to emphasize the even-keeled attitude of Anthony Mackie, at the same time being witty and philosophically elite. I also wanted to end his life on a good note thus I had him becoming the father figure for Iris and marrying Patricia. I tried to speak calm and confidently but I can’t recall successfully doing either of these things. I was in shock of how good some of my groupmates monologues were. As I was presenting I