2/12/09

Thursday, February 12

Movement
I have to say, our alignment work is really working. The last few class days, when I've gotten in my car at lunchtime, I've had to adjust my rear-view mirror up (and then down a little the next morning). I didn't really think about it... but then I realized: after alignment work, I'm TALLER. My spine is lengthened or straightened or something. If that's not proof that our alignment training works, I don't know what is.

I was partnered with D-Train and Two-Shots-Up today to observe each other's alignment. Both of them said that they could really tell a difference between how aligned I am now in comparison to when I got here. And I can really see it in some of my classmates, too (D-Train thinks he's grown a full inch and a half. And O.D. is SO much more even than he used to be).

Our alignment work today involved using exercise balls. It made me dizzy and tired, but in the end, my back felt AWESOME.

We have a "check-up" tomorrow (which is the Movement Class equivalent of a test... sort of) to make sure that we've learned everything properly.


Voice
I did really well on my IPA stuff today. Turns out, my Voice Professor will accept "children" with a "sit", "met" OR "gum" vowel at the end (I wrote all three on my paper... and I decided that I think that "sit" makes the most sense).

I think I've gotten to a place where I can hear all the vowels, but it's often a matter of whether I have already learned the Standard American pronunciation or the General American one (we're being tested in Standard American, which is a dialect in and of itself... it feels pretty foreign a lot of the time).

We have our official test tomorrow (the one that gets graded). As long as I don't make any stupid mistakes (like using an "h" in a word like "honest" where it's silent... or using two "l"s in "tallest" when it's only one "l" sound), I should be fine.

ETA: Also, it turns out I'm pretty good at saying the vowel in "voice". It's supposed to be an "aw" + "ih", as opposed to an "oh" + "ee".


Acting
O.D. and I did our full story for the first time today. When it started, I received him as being creepy and weird, so I (or, rather, my character) evolved into being someone who was ready to fight if attacked. And from there, she changed entirely. Instead of being someone who was settling and lost, she was manipulative and sarcastic. It felt really truthful (and actually made total sense), but when it finished, I felt like I'd done something wrong.

Acting Professor encouraged it entirely. He said that it was the first time that O.D. and I had really found the "Vonnegut" in the story. He says that Vonnegut's writing (like O. Henry before him) has "no sentimentality whatsoever", but people project it onto his works a great deal. He said that we found a way to make it clear that the characters were misunderstanding each other. So that's cool. If that's the case, then I really had been misinterpreting the story. I hope that we can reconcile what we found today with things that we've found in past runs.

A couple of other cool things happened today. Thrill found a way to be calm as an actor while playing a nervous character. And Killer found a way to get to an upset, emotional place as a character while being comfortable and happy as an actor. It showed how well the technique we're learning is working.


Analysis
The class had been divided into three groups to present parts of Titus Andronicus: plot, character, and imagery. I was in the imagery group.

Iceman and I did tag-team presenting on the mythology imagery. I thought it went pretty well (although really, we could've spent another half hour on mythology if time had allowed, easily).

I'm going to try to start working on my paper on Saturday, as it's due Tuesday. Wish me luck.


Understudying
Killer went on for Imaginary Invalid for the third time today, which means he can officially put the role on his résumé without calling himself an understudy. Awesome! I went to see it again (to watch the blocking once more in preparation for the understudy run-through on Saturday morning), and he did a great job. It looks like Thrill might go on as Young Shepherd in The Winter's Tale tomorrow night. I'm praying for him. :)

2 comments:

Daniel Boughton said...

Where'd the 'three x understudying' come from? I would still put it as (u/s, performed) - but I'm interested in the idea.

Angela said...

Daniel -- I was under the impression that it was an Equity rule.