Thursday, October 1

Highlight of my day? I made up some example sentences for the 1st-years' voice class. Earlier in the week, I wrote one for "g-l" endings:

"I giggle as I Google a gaggle of geese wearing goggles."

Tonight, I made up sentences with "t-l" and "d-l" endings.

- "I put on the kettle, and ladle a puddle of pancake mix onto the griddle."
- "A little kid'll waddle and toddle to get a rattle."
- "On American Idol, Paula would coddle, Randy was subtle, Kara would riddle, and Simon would battle."
- "They huddle like cattle as they meddle and tattle."
- "After my car was idle in the middle of Tuttle, I put the pedal to the metal."

Fun, fun.


VOICE
Voice Professor said today that we should buy highlighters and colored pencils because of how much we're going to have to mark on our texts during out upcoming scansion work.

Voice Professor prefers that with short lines in Shakespeare (aka lines that are in prose but have fewer than 5 feet) that we take the pause (of equal length to the missing syllables) AFTER the line. (Voice Professor calls this pause "howl at the wind" time, meaning that you're not JUST pausing, but also using that time for non-verbals)

In Voice class, when we come across an Ecphonesis "O", Voice Professor wants us to pronounce it as "O" (as opposed to Acting Professoressa who says we just need some sort of vocalized exclamation).


MOVEMENT
We did some leg stretches to prepare us for ballet using the bars. Movement Professor says that I have "ideal turnout", meaning that my toes can go out to opposite sides naturally and my legs have a lot of rotation. So that's good...

But as a result, I have to be really careful not to let my feet "sickle" when I'm trying to point them. Unfortunately, I'm still kind of confused about what "sickle" means. Movement Professor said that it has to do with keeping the line of from the hip socket to the foot, but that's not a concept that's easy for me to grasp. D-Train tried to simplify it for me by saying that I was over-curving my foot in the point, and after that, it seemed I was doing it right. But then Movement Professor said I had to make sure not to sickle when my feet were flexed, and then I got really confused.

We did more contact improv without mats. I was partnered with All-the-Way for the first time ever, which was fun. Both of us are used to being lifted more often than being lifters, so we had a couple of comedic off-balance moments. It was pretty entertaining. The only person left in class that I haven't been paired with is Two-Shots-Up, so I hope I get a chance to do so tomorrow (as tomorrow is our last day of contact improv -- *tear* -- before moving onto a 6 weeks of ballet).

I forgot to mention something that happened yesterday, so I'll mention it now. The boys were excused from class 30 minutes early so that the girls could have instruction on how to walk in high heels on stage. So entertaining. I'm wearing high-heel boots for one of my characters in The Mystery Plays, so I wore those. Movement Professor showed us a "Country Club" walk, a "Runway" walk, a "Power" walk, and a "41" walk (which is our code for how to walk like loose women). It was a ton of fun, and good bonding time for the five Ladies of '11.


ACTING
We ran Helen a few times, and it's going well, I think. Acting Professoressa said, "The chorus is doing so well, and it's such a big help in this play." I wrote it down because I'm in the chorus. ;)


MYSTERY PLAYS
We blocked some more of the first act. I show up in a couple of random "move on props" or "walk across stage" kinds of ways. Then we blocked my first scene as Amanda the Agent. I get rolled out sitting on a desk, which is way more fun for me than a 24-year-old should admit to. I may or may not have squealed "wheeeee!" while doing it.

The Director (Head of Program) says his goal is to get the entire play blocked by the end of rehearsal on Sunday. *fingers crossed*