4/21/09

Tuesday, April 21

Movement
We went over what we will be doing in our Movement Showing tomorrow. We're going to start with some of our tumbling things. Movement Professor asked each of us to make a list of ten things that we would like to do in the showing. (I'm just doing things I like to do, like donkey kicks and flopping fish... some people are focusing more on things that they are proud of, like combat crawls and torpedoes).

After that, we'll do our West Side Story dances.

If anything ends up being videotaped, I'll link to it on here... but I don't know if that's going to work out or not.


Acting
Voice Professor was sick today, so we had Acting Professor twice.

O.D. and I first ran our scene in the morning. Acting Professor told us "don't rush" at the beginning of it, which is probably why it ran so much more slowly than usual. Apparently I missed an impulse to stand up at one point (which was disappointing to hear... I've gotten a lot better about not missing impulses as the year has gone on, and that's a note I haven't gotten in a while).

We ran it again in the afternoon, and it just felt kind of off. My character got drunk a lot faster than usual, and I'm not sure why.

I'm still nervous about the characterization aspect of this piece. Sometimes when I do it, I find myself using what I call my "big girl voice", and sometimes I find myself using my "little girl voice". I'm not sure if one is a stronger choice for the character than the other. I talked to Big Show about it during Three Postcards. He said that he thinks I'm probably doing the right thing by not making a decision on it and letting my voice be whatever it wants to be on any given run. So I'm just going to trust my creative subconscious and try not to freak out too much.


Analysis
We discussed Paradise Street by Constance Congdon. It's incredibly complicated. I generally root on the side of female playwrights and casts that are more than half female, just because both are somewhat unusual in comparison to the norm. This play? Entirely female cast. Call me sexist, but that makes me happy (as 80% of the roles in theatre are male and 80% of actors are female...).


Tech
Three Postcards had a "Pay What You Can Tuesday" performance tonight, so we had a good-sized audience. They weren't afraid to laugh or clap. It was nice.

Being backstage in the dark can take its toll on tech crews. Sometimes we joke on the headsets a little (we try not to do it when cues are being called). It makes the job a little less monotonous.


Movement Tutorial
I forgot to mention that I had my final Alexander Tutorial last Friday. It went quite well, I thought. Movement Professor and I reviewed the tape that we've been making all year of my progress in standing and walking neutrally. It's incredible how much my body has changed over the course of the last eight months. I'm really rather proud of it.

Movement Professor says that I do a lot of things with my body that are dangerous and I need to stop. Going en pointe without shoes on, touching my elbows together behind my back, walking on my kneecaps, and tucking my toes underneath my ribs; those are just a few of my fun Gumby tricks that I have to leave behind for the sake of my physical health. Because really, I don't want to have knee-replacement surgery at the age of 30.

1 comment:

Tim said...

How the HECK do you tuck toes underneath your ribs?