Wednesday, February 18

Movement
Tumbling! Turns out, my right side is way more educated than my left side. I was having all sorts of trouble trying to do "ah-oos" (they're sort of like modified cartwheels) on my left side. But then when I tried the other side, it was a piece of cake. Two-Shots-Up had the opposite problem. Movement Professor says that means that I have a right-sided body, and Two-Shots-Up has a left-sided body. All exercises are going to be stronger on our more educated sides.

We learned a way to do cartwheels that is different from the one I was familiar with. We're doing our rotations completely in our side plane, as opposed to facing the leading foot. The idea is that it will better prepare us to do one-handed cartwheels. It's a little tricky to get used to, but I'm starting to get it.


Voice
Voice Professor informed me today that I'm "an adjuster", meaning that I have a tendency to drop whatever exercise we were just working on completely when asked to do another task, in favor of adjusting back to my (incorrect) habits. Drat.

Today it came up when we were working with forward placement, and then she asked me to speak some text. Once she told me that, I spoke the text again with forward placement and did fine. Somehow, I didn't connect that I was supposed to apply the exercise to the text until it was pointed out to me. But at least I think I understand the physical difference between the two. I'm hopeful that I'll start figuring out how to apply it tomorrow.

Voice Professor says that in this part of Florida, February is the worst month for mucus. Which is probably why half of my class sounds a bit phlegm-y right now. Blergh.


Acting
Voice Professor attended class to start giving us vocal notes before our test on Friday.

We discussed how in our current project (adapting short stories into scenes), we're not only focusing on truth for the actor (as we were last semester), but now also have to keep the truth of the character and truth of the author.

Other things mentioned:
- You need to earn your pauses. If you pause after every line, the pauses lose weight and your scene loses momentum.
- You have to release every emotion/impulse, or you end up being cut-off in the scene.
- Impulses can carry you through many lines if you let them. You can't wait for a new impulse for every line, or the scene won't go anywhere.
- You should never hold yourself. You should let out everything you have while you're on the stage. Once a scene is played, you shouldn't want to (or be able to) play it again immediately. If you can, it's a sign that you didn't put everything you had into it the first time around.
- You have to be careful not to enter into a "movement storm", doing random things while on stage, as it could hinder your ability to follow your impulses and connect with your partner (although we have at least one person in our class, Big Show, who does a pretty great job of following his impulses DESPITE his movement storms).
- You can't let there be anything precious about acting a scene. You have to feel things and just go with them.
- Do not portion your breath when acting. It makes your voice passive, undynamic, and small.
- You shouldn't play the problem in the scene; you should solve the problem.

Understudying
I was going to attend The Winter's Tale tonight, but decided instead to go to the student lounge and watch the archival tape we have of the performance. I only watched the scenes that Paulina (the character I'm understudying) is in. I'd watch the scene once. Then the second time, I'd pause at all my cue lines and try to say the correct line. I'd then hit play and see if I got it right. I think I'm doing alright, but the real test will be at our rehearsals this coming weekend.


Homework
For Analysis class tomorrow, our assignment is to read most of Brecht on Theatre and do some research into it. Wish me luck.