In honor of the first day, I wore my brand new glitzy shirt:
Totally appropriate, I thought. :)VOICE
I'm so used to writing about Movement first in these blog posts, but this year my days begin different. Voice comes first. In some ways, it's kind of nice. A slower way to start the morning. Less intense than a nine o'clock date with a jumprope. But it's going to be weird for a while (especially the transition of going from the physically relaxed state of Voice class straight into the rope-jumping and dance whatnot).
We have a Standard American Dialect Exam on September 8th, using passages from the short story "Lady with the Lapdog" by Anton Chekov. We were instructed to review our IPA in preparation for this.
This semester we will begin work with British RP (i.e. Received Pronunciation) dialect. I'm pretty geeked for it.
MOVEMENT
We have to buy the book How to Learn the Alexander Technique by Barbara Conable. We also need to get dance clothes and a couple of pairs of dance shoes. Why? Because this is the semester where we dabble in tap and ballet. Lastly, we have to obtain small dumbbells for some sort of strength training. (Movement Professor recommended that females get somewhere between 3-8 lbs, so I think I'm going to get 5 lbs. Males are not supposed to get more than 15 lbs.)
ACTING II
The new class on my schedule! Our instructor (whom shall be known henceforth as Acting Professoressa) went around the room, shook our hands, and welcomed each of us to the second year. Pretty great.
In the three hour class, I took 7.5 pages of notes. I won't subject you to all of them, as I'm sure they'll come up as the year progresses.
She said that over the summer, her puppy jumped into water, and for a split-second she was worried. But the dog instinctively began to paddle. Acting Professoressa said that she wished that we, as actors, could have witnessed that moment. She said, "She didn't go into her head and figure it out; she just did it." She says that we need to use our intuition and impulses in the same way.
We were all assigned three individual projects. The first is a "Cultural Anthroplogy Project" on Classical Greece. The second is the "Adopt-A-God" project. The third is the "Great Actor Series". We all have different assignments.
Cultural Anthropology Project
Me - WOMEN: marriage, divorce, child-rearing, housekeeping
All-The-Way - BEAUTY & DRESS
Big Show - RELIGION: gods, shires, oracles, festivals
D-Train - DEATH: funerals and the postmortem journey
Iceman - THE MILITARY
Killer - VALUES: common threads
Newbie - LOVE, SEX, HOMOSEXUALITY
O.D. - SLAVERY & FREEDOM
Thrill - RECREATION: free men's amusements, children's games, etc.
Two-Shots-Up - EATING & COOKING: banquets, drinking
Wifey - HEALTH & MEDICINE
Adopt-A-God
(preparing to have a personal relationship with the gods)
Me: Hera
All-The-Way: Artemis
Big Show: Apollo
D-Train: Poseidon
Iceman: Zeus
Killer: Hades
Newbie: Athena
O.D.: Dionysus
Thrill: Ares
Two-Shots-Up: Aphrodite & Eros
Wifey: Demeter & Persephone
Great Actor Series
Me: Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923) & Eleanora Duse (1859-1924)
All-The-Way: Sarah Siddons (1755-1831)
Big Show: John Gielgud (1904-2000) & Laurence Olivier (1907-1989)
D-Train: Edmund Kean (1787-1833)
Iceman: David Garrick (1717-1779)
Killer: Edwin Forrest (1806-1872) & William Macready (1793-1873)
Newbie: Henry Irving (1838-1905) & Ellen Terry (1847-1928)
O.D.: Richard Burbage (1567-1619)
Thrill: Thomas Betterton (1635-1710)
Two-Shots-Up: The Booths -- Junius Brutus Booth (1796-1832), Edwin Booth (1833-1893), & John Wilkes Booth (1838-1856)
Wifey: Charlotte Cushman (1816-1876)
Our homework for tonight is to reread the introduction to The Greeks (which we read over the summer), and to read a handout on "Greek Period Style".
As is tradition, I had Acting Professoressa take a "first day of the semester" photograph of my class. They kindly obliged.
Back row: Killer, O.D., Iceman, Newbie, Wifey, Big Show, ThrillFront row: All-The-Way, D-Train, Two-Shots-Up, Me
And the goofy shot!
Back row: Killer, O.D., Iceman, Newbie, Wifey, Big Show, ThrillAnd the goofy shot!
Front row: All-The-Way, D-Train, Two-Shots-Up, Me
4 comments:
I got all geeked out to read this post.
It's hard to tell in the picture - did you cut your hair?
My last hair cut was in May.
I'm lovin the shirt!!
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