Thursday, September 25

UNDERSTUDYING
We got our understudy assignments today! I've been assigned to Paulina in The Winter's Tale and Béline in The Imaginary Invalid. I'm completely amped! I had put in a formal request last week to understudy someone in Winter's Tale because of my Shakespeare geekdom, and my request was granted!

I've only read Winter's Tale once, and it was back in high school so I'm not crystal clear on everything that goes down, but I remember Paulina as being a strong, loyal, serious woman. I don't know Imaginary Invalid at all, but I've been told that Béline is a two-faced gold-digger, and is a comedic role. Two very different sorts of characters, but equally awesome. I feel incredibly blessed.


MOVEMENT
I had a "tutorial" today, which is a one-on-one session with a professor. We discussed my movement goals and physical history. She told me that she thinks I'm flexible, which is sort of weird to hear. I don't think of myself as flexible, as my hip sockets aren't (i.e. I can't do the splits or put my leg behind my head or anything... When I straddle, my legs only hit a 90-degree angle). But apparently my back, knees, rib cage, and shoulders are flexible. I said that my movement goals are to have better form, be able to have better control over my hip sockets, and to be able to learn a back-walkover. She thinks I need to focus on gaining arm strength as well. She asked if I'd ever waltzed, which I really haven't. I suspect it's because she wants to use waltz as a way to correct my form.


VOICE
In trying to correct my "t" and "d" sounds, I have apparently over-engaged my jaw. *frustrated* Killer and I have a tutorial time set up with our professor next week to get started on our sibilant "s" corrections.

I know some of you want to see video of tremoring, but I can't help you yet. There are two really awful videos on YouTube (search for "Fitzmaurice tremoring") of girls attempting to do it for a class... badly. I don't have a video camera... I know "Two-Shots-Up" has video capabilities on her camera. Maybe at some point I'll get her to take a video of me doing it so that I can show you exactly what it is. But I warn you, you're going to think that I've joined a cult or have demons escaping from my body or something, because it looks completely nuts.


ACTING
I had a complete emotional breakdown today in acting class, and it was every bit as embarrassing as I feared it would be. I'm pretty sure that this is now the third time in five weeks that I've cried in front of my classmates, and I'm terrified that I'm going to get a reputation as being the pathetic girl who cries all the time.

I was doing an exercise involving finding impulses from outside yourself, and I just don't get it. After doing it twice to no success, I started crying. And it wasn't because of criticism; I can handle criticism. Nay, I ENCOURAGE criticism (actually, I quite literally did that yesterday). I started crying because I just DO NOT UNDERSTAND.

With so many things that I'm learning right now, in all my classes, I see the things I'm doing wrong. I am usually unable to correct them, but I know what I'm doing, how it's wrong, and have some form of vague idea how to work on it. But with this? I have absolutely no clue. (Actually, I think that's also the reason that I'm more frustrated with my "s" sounds than my "l", "b", and "t"; at least with the other sounds, I sort of know where things are amiss.)

I'm sure I'm biased from being the one in the situation, but I felt that my exercise was way harder than the other ones that were given out today. And I also think that going first was probably not the wisest decision in the world. I really need to learn not to volunteer for things without having a proper idea of what I'm getting myself into.

I think I'm going to try to meet with the professor after class tomorrow. I'm just so very, very puzzled. And I hate that feeling. It's incredibly aggravating.


ANALYSIS
My group (Two-Shots-Up, Wifey, D-Train and me) presented our Ibsen biography project today. I think we were all initially a little uneasy that it was supposed to be 40-minutes long, but we were fine on time. In fact, I think we all could've spoken for longer than we did. I'm pretty proud of how it went.

We have to read The Wild Duck for next week. I'm not really familiar with Ibsen, so I'm looking forward to it. D-Train says he thinks I'm going to love it. We'll see.