Thursday, April 9

Movement
We continued working on our West Side Story stuff.

Voice
Voice Professor says that we need to be perpetually drilling our "str-" and "dr-" combinations. If we don't, we'll lose the skill.

In our Wood Demon monologues, we did the final chunk. My only note was that I should link the phrase "minor role", using only one "r" for the two words. Voice Professor says I'm doing well saying the "ih" in the middle of "happiness" without it sounding weird (the middle vowel, in Standard American Dialect, is the same as the vowel in "sit" and sounds very strange to us).


Acting
We got notes on Wednesday's run. Acting Professor that in general it was good, and that the atmosphere was really coming in. Here were some of our notes:

- the sisters and Chebutykin should have more fun teasing Andrey about his crush on Natasha
- every one of the characters has their own convictions, and is not easily swayed. We all have to know when we're siding and against each of the others
- When Masha walks into the house, she knows that she would rather live there than where she does. Vershinin feels the same way.
- If we kiss someone as a greeting, it should be three kisses (cheek, other cheek, cheek), because it's more Russian.
- We should all have handkerchiefs
- We need to treat the baby doll in more as if it is a real baby
- the end of the piece was sagging and we started letting the pauses come in again... we can't do that. We have to work through it, renewing the impulses if we need to

We ran both Act I and Act IV. I was Anfisa, and Newbie was Masha.

Friday will be our last day of Three Sisters. We'll get notes first, and then I'll be Masha and Newbie will be Anfisa. Voice Professor is attending class, and it sounds like some of the 3rd-years might stop by as well (which will be neat... they did the same play when they were 1st-years).


Analysis
We read Mr. Marmalade by Noah Haidle. I was in the group presenting this one. It was difficult for us to control the conversation, because people were so active in trying to bring up different perspectives on the text. It's a fascinating play. It's about a little girl who has a cocaine addict imaginary friend whom she upsets by befriending a suicidal 5 year old. I'd love to see it someday.


Tech
Last night was the first day of tech for Three Postcards. Big Show and I are on props, and they're complicated because it's all food. We had to learn the fancy-restaurant-style plating of each of the dishes, and we have to recreate it each night.

The trickiest thing tech-wise for this show is the lighting (it's a difficult space to light), so that's taking a lot of time. I'm sitting backstage on headset in the dark, trying to be helpful but not having much that I can help with. Ah well.