In Silence
Amira S.
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(Spoiler alert: Please watch video before reading.)
This began as a written piece, something between a poem and a dialogue (although in a sense, it's also a monologue) that alternates its way down the left and right sides of the page as it progresses. I never thought I'd perform it aloud outside of causally in my school's Poetry Club, but in winter 20-21 I decided to film it when our Drama Club officers announced we'd still have our two annual talent shows despite distance learning, just digitally, with pre-recorded acts and officer bits compiled together for a YouTube livestream.
It's been a habit of mine in high school to perform my poetry for Drama Club's Talent Showcases, and as I considered participating that year and wondered how to add some interest to a filmed poetry performance so that it wasn't just me talking at the camera, I realized what a great opportunity this would be to do "In Silence," which, if onstage, would be tricky to pull off without it appearing differently than intended -- but if in video format, I could really bring the idea of a person's internal dialogue to life, with slightly different personas but yet the same face and voice. And this would call for more than just reciting it: I'd get to act!
So I jury-rigged a camera set-up which involved a desk chair and tape, and filmed the piece in my bedroom closet (A closet was the setting I'd had in mind when writing it). It was somewhat different than anything I'd done before or have since: different from reading it, different from acting from a script -- I had pure dialogue with just one written "stage direction" (an italicized "(An invisible smile)" which in performance became a visible smile) besides the punctuation, and the playwright's vision in my head. The finished result is something I'm glad to have had the experience of creating, worth the time it took to prep, to act and re-act all the lines, and to edit. I hope you enjoy it!
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If I couldn't explore or express my creativity, I'd likely die of boredom or explode from pent-up emotions/ideas/etc. It lets me connect with others when regular words/behavior won’t suffice, handle my inner struggles, have fun -- and it gives me a life purpose: to impact people with what I create.
