Thursday, November 20

Movement
We started off by doing some ballet-esque combinations across the space, which then transformed into waltzing. Most of us aren't great at things on our first try, but get the hang of it eventually.

I think we completed learning our alignment series today. The boys were wincing in pain throughout, as that trainer kicked their butts yesterday.


Voice
We did an exercise with what my professor calls "the muscles of shush" (the psoas major, the psoas minor, and the transverse), which are the muscles you're supposed to use when making a "sh" sound.

We worked more with the Standing Tremor, and I did a lousy job of spotting Killer. His weight is a lot further back than mine is on that one, and I kept thinking he was about to fall when he was actually completely fine. Oh well. Luckily, O.D. was able to take over spotting duties for me.


Acting
Today was a total off day for me. I don't really know why. Just everything I did seemed wrong.

First I brought in an observation. I've been observing a person, and I'm supposed to try to capture her "essence", as opposed to her physical and vocal identity. I chose a woman who is actually rather idiosyncratic, which is making it tricky. The goal right now is to sit in a chair and to THINK as the subject, not portray them. We're supposed to build the character from the inside out, but I'm worried that I'm getting hooked into the outside, so I keep preventing myself from giving in to my actions.

My scene with D-Train was the first to go today, even though it's chronologically at the end of the play. I think we were both a bit thrown off by that, as yesterday we watched all the other scenes first and had a lot built up in us already. Today just felt... off.

And then at the end of class, I did my scene with Thrill. All-The-Way pointed out that I was completely off-voice for it, and my professor said that I didn't fully yield to an automatic movement (I was jostling my leg) and let it affect me (he thinks I wanted to stand up at that point).

It's so frustrating to feel like you perfectly understand everything one day, and the next day be unable to apply it to the level that you know you can.


Analysis
We discussed From Up Here, which is a brand new play. It was just produced for the first time in May, and I don't think it has even been published yet. I haven't made up my mind as to whether I like it. I think we're sort of being groomed out of making that decision. Rather, we're supposed to answer whether the play achieves what it sets out to do. And I think, with this play, that it does.