Quotations: Volume 17

Here are some of the educational, inspirational, and humorous quotations from my classes this week:

(during an Analysis class group presentation on the Elizabethan monarchy)
Iceman: I made a poster. (proudly holds up colorful homemade poster)
Analysis Professor: Ooh! I love visual aides.
Iceman: I went out and bought Crayola markers for this.
Director A: Oh, yeah. You're in grad school now!

Thrill: (referring to Iceman's poster) You gotta work on your letters, man.
Iceman: My letters? (examines own handwriting on poster) But I wanted it to be organic and not too uniform... Oh, whatever. I'm still an actor.

"Being able to apply a note immediately is like gold for an actor." - Movement Professor

"The difference between performing and not performing is allowing in an audience." - Movement Professor

"[O.D.], did you go through a coma a second ago, because I just went through this." - Voice Professor

(skimming through words in the pronouncing dictionary) "'Eurodisney'?! SHUT UP!" - Me

"The essence of a gingersnap is the molasses." - Iceman, explaining what "finding the essence" in observation work means to him

"You are much wiser on the subconscious level than on the conscious one." - Acting Professor

"The only mistake is to check yourself into the police station instead of going to the zoo." - Acting Professor, when discussing freedom in our Person Observations

"That's where you need to get. To where you are not playing the character, but where the things around you are playing the character." - Acting Professor

"Do not underestimate what is already happening between you and your character." - Acting Professor, saying that character development begins with what your subconscious absorbs in the first reading of the script

"The most difficult thing is when everything is known and nothing is left unknown. Then your intuition will have no place to work, and the creative process is all intuition." - Acting Professor, on why it's bad to know too much about the character you're playing

"The answers to all these questions are already in you, without you having to be able to answer. Maybe your brain doesn't know it, but maybe your liver does." - Acting Professor, on not consciously knowing everything about the character

"With this homework, we have to be very, very clear. What is essential, and how to do it. What is bulls***, and how not to do it." - Acting Professor

"Some people prefer to e-mail, but they're... what's the word? Misanthropes?" - Tech Instructor, explaining why he wanted to meet with us in person instead of writing to us (paraphrased)

"[All-the-Way], you take up way too much paper. I need you to write smaller." - Voice Professor, teasing All-the-Way for her tiny writing

"It has a plummy quality. More of a roundy-round." - Voice Professor, explaining the vowel in "law"

(coming up with examples of words with the vowel of "law/caught/all/etc.")
Voice Professor: Or McGraw. Like that dog that takes care of us.
Two-Shots-Up: That's McGruff.
Iceman: He takes a bite out of crime.

"By the end of the year, when you read a text, you'll hear me yelling at you. And that's important." - Analysis Professor

(commenting after movement monologues, which utilize improvised movement)
Movement Professor: And [D-Train], you got so high off the ground in that tour jéte!
D-Train: I did a dance move?
Movement Professor: Actually, it was a stag leg leap into a tour jeté. It was a man move. A very manly move.

(D-Train and Newbie start giggling as D-Train records a line)
Acting Professor: Why do you have the giggles?
D-Train: I just get the giggles with [Newbie].
Acting Professor: This is serious business. Isn't it?
D-Train: [Acting Professor], you're being so Russian right now. I have no idea what you're trying to say.

"Is an actor about independent creative process, or is being an actor about being a trained monkey? Only a crazy director will say that, above all else, an actor needs to be obedient." - Acting Professor

(During an etude, Two-Shots-Up whacked Thrill's arm with her thick wooden bracelets)
"You have to kiss it now... (sees Two-Shots-Up kiss Thrill's arm) Good..." - Acting Professor

"I wanna hear that again. It was somethin' about... somethin'?" - Iceman, after completely missing what Voice Professor said

(as Acting Professor was entering the classroom)
Iceman: Ladies and gentleman, I present to you, [Acting Professor]!
(the class cheers as though he's a celebrity)
O.D.: Oh my God, oh my God... Will you sign my notebook?
(Acting Professor laughs as he signs the notebook)
O.D.: Ah! I got his autograph!
(Acting Professor bows head)
Two-Shots-Up: Woo! Take it off!