Thursday, March 5

We had THREE prospective students yesterday, and I was guiding around two of them. It's a little weird because I remember doing it a year ago (OVER a year ago, actually; I think I came to visit on February 26... bizarre). But it's kinda cool to have observers.


Movement
I stayed in the yoga tripod position for like 12 seconds today! Trust me, it was exciting. My previous record was 3. I'm getting stronger, and my balance is improving.

We attempted to do cartwheels in which we hit our feet together at the top... I was not very successful. It just made me fall out of them faster and on strange angles. I hope I'll get it soon.

It was perhaps the, oh, second time all year in Movement that I've been able to do something really well that other people struggled with: going into a back-bend from a standing position. I have a crazy back, so that's my favorite physical skill/quirk. I think we're going to do back walk-overs after break... I really, really, really want to learn how to do one. I hope my body can.

We tapped our feet together at the tops of our donkey kicks. Mine are so much higher and straighter than they used to be. I'm excited about that, too.

Unfortunately, my hip flexors are acting up again. If I'm in a straddle (even a mild one) for too long, they just start cramping. I feel like they prevent me from doing a lot (although realistically, it's a few things, and it's not everyday). Can't I have them surgically removed? Or fortified with metal like Wolverine from the X-Men? I think that would help a great deal.


Voice
Voice Professor called me out early in class for pushing myself to do something before I was ready. I've been really working on my forward placement, but I'm putting a lot of pressure on myself to get it right. I started working with it before my voice was fully warmed up. She reminded me to be fair to myself.

We recited sentences for all the vowels. Here are some I made up for the "apple" vowel:
- Angela asks for lavendar and marjoram.
- Alabama has bad taxes.
- Danny from Alaska laughs at Adam.

And here are some entertaining sentences for various sounds that my classmates came up with:

"Captain Laugh-a-lot can babble during a battle." - Thrill
"Don't toy with me, boy; I'm royal, boy!" - Thrill
"The cran-apple stand sat alone in Candyland." - Big Show
"'Ey' is a bad way to say 'hey'." - O.D.
"Andy and Janice vanish." - O.D.
"Here there are more poor people." - Killer's way of using all 5 r-colored vowels in one sentence.


Acting
We got our casting for our Chekhov project of Three Sisters.

All-The-Way: Irína
Big Show: Vershínin
D-Train: Andréy
Disco (Me): Másha
Iceman: Solyóny
Killer: Túzenbach
Newbie: Másha
O.D.: Kulygin
Thrill: Chebutykin
Two-Shots-Up: Ólga
Wifey: Natásha

You'll notice that Newbie and I are both playing Másha. There are only 4 major female characters in the play, and Acting Professor didn't want anyone to get stuck playing a minor role, so he double-cast the part of Másha. He had to double-cast some of the 2nd-years last year in The Seagull, so I was sort of expecting it. I hope Newbie and I don't feel cheated by the whole thing, but I think it's going to be fine. And I have a feeling that we're both going to have a lot of fun with Másha.

Acting Professor gave us a run-down of important Russian history, including the back-story of why Chekhov's Intelligensia are such moral, nobel people. I didn't know any of it previously, and it was pretty fascinating. Makes me want to go on Wikipedia and read more. Perhaps I will do so over our upcoming break.


Analysis
We discussed Caucasian Chalk Circle by Brecht. I'm a pretty smart cookie, but this is a difficult play to read and keep track of.

Analysis Professor wrote the following quotation on the chalkboard:

"There are questions of man to dream, as in Pirandello, and man to thought, as in Shaw, but Brecht is concerned with man to man." - Joseph Chaiken

Part of Brecht's philosophy as a playwright was to go against everything that Aristotle wrote about playwrighting in Poetics, so I was pretty surprised that this play exemplified one of Aristotle's concepts: the events of the story have to be both surprising AND prepared for (or probable). It sounds like an oxymoron, but it makes sense when Analysis Professor explains it.

Director J pointed out that Brecht doesn't only try to alienate his audience, but rather he tries to emotionally engage them first. After all, alienation is fine, but you have to have something to be alienated FROM.

We threw out a lot of concepts of the play in trying to nail down an action. Justice, ownership, redefining responsibility beyond the scope of one's experience, disregarding the self, and sacrificing. I'm not sure that we really ended up with a solid action, but I have a better understanding of it now than I did going into it (which is good, because our paper on this play is due Monday).

The class will meet again after our break. By then, we are supposed to have read A Nearly Normal Life and Orestes, both by Charles L. Mee (whom Analysis Professor refers to as "Chuck").