Thursday, September 10

VOICE
We've started doing these "forward placement" positions for warm-ups where we do moderately-high-pitched humming, and then "chew" the hum, and then "shake" the hum. One such position is kind of the "cow", and the other I heard someone call the "dying frog".

Our steps for preparing Head Resonance and Forward Placement:

1. Open the Five Floodgates (which we discussed last year)
2. Support
A. Blow through lips with support
- unvoiced
- voiced
B. Blow through tongue with support
- unvoiced
- voiced
C. Trill tongue with support, up and down and swirling around the pitch ladder freely
- unvoiced
- voiced
3. Light High Forward Hum
A. Massage mask of the face, eyebrows, under cheekbones, circles on sinuses, skull
B. Alternate chewing and shaking the hum with support
- hands and knees
- squat
- rolling up and down the spine
C. Head rolls with hum with support
D. Triangle: establish with support, feel it, stretch the triangle off forehead keeping light high forward hum and send it keeping focus and support
4. "Heeeeee" with shimmy up and down pitch ladder letting it fly free


MOVEMENT
Today, we played with the fun giant rubber balls that are in the classroom, and it was SO MUCH FUN. I was rolling around mine, flipping over it, balancing on it, picking it up, attacking people with it... It was stupendous.

After that, we went on to Little Bears, but now we're starting from a standing position, and we're incorporating the idea that the two people can choose to follow their own impulses instead of shared impulses (so there's a layer of potential conflict added in). Also, if we were observing, we were allowed to stand (which was actually really cool... it gave me a whole new perspective on the work -- literally!).

For next week, we have to get two pieces of text:
1. A short, narrative poem. Preferable one that doesn't rhyme. Should have a beginning, middle, and end to the story. We must connect with it and enjoy reciting it.
2. A short part of a Shakespeare speech that we really like. Memorized.


NEEDS WORKSHOP
Artistic Director led us in another workshop regarding "needs" (our first was last year) to help prepare us for The Greeks. He likes to call the workshop "What to Do Until Inspiration Comes". The basic needs we came up with (pay attention, 1st-years who read this blog!):

- Security
- Love
- Self-Worth (includes identity... i.e. what you think of yourself)
- Self-Respect (includes society's opinion... i.e. what others think of you)
- Freedom
- Manhood/Womanhood
- Relieving Guilt

I once again tried to make a case for Manhood/Womanhood being a subcategory of both "Self-Worth" and "Self-Respect" ("power", for example, is a subcategory of both), but Artistic Director (and, indeed, most of my class) wasn't having it.

I brought up idea of a need involving "legacy" (which is, of course, where my character's need in Andromache lies), and we decided that it could go into either Self-Worth or Self-Respect, depending on the character. (For example: Two people tell a charity that they want to make huge donations in their Wills. One wants a posthumous plaque commemorating their generosity; the other wishes for the donation to be anonymous. The first person is more after Self-Respect, and the second is more after Self-Worth.) It seems that most altruistic actions end up in one of those two categories as well.

Artistic Director suggests that in the beginning of work, you can dissect a piece by stating:
[beat action/tactic], in order to [scene need], in order to [play need].

For example:
charm, in order to win her over, in order to hang onto manhood.

Putting a strong verb before the need (like "hang onto", "get", or "prove", instead of "maintain") raises the stakes.

Ways to attempt to "Relieve Guilt" include: justifying, denying, rejecting, transferring.

Artistic Director says that to play a crazy character, a good way to start is to change your need frequently, so you seem all over the map and no one knows how to handle you.


ACTING
We started blocking Helen. I'm in the chorus, and we're still sort of figuring out how the chorus is going to interact with Helen. On the one hand, we benefit if people believe her side of the story. On the other hand, we've been listening to her complain for 17 years. So far, we're doing some experimenting.

Tomorrow, we're going to move on to Electra and try to do some more basic blocking stuff for that.