Tuesday, November 17

VOICE
Voice Professor gave us monologues that she spliced together from The Importance of Being Earnest, which we will be working on with the British RP dialect. The female one is as follows...

GWENDOLEN:
Yes, I am quite well aware of the fact. And I often wish that in public, at any rate, you had been more demonstrative. For me you have always had an irresistible fascination. Even before I met you I was far from indifferent to you. (Jack looks at her in amazement) We live, as I hope you know, Mr. Worthing, in an age of ideals. The fact is constantly mentioned in the more expensive monthly magazines, and has reached the provincial pulpits, I am told; and my ideal has always been to love someone of the name of Ernest. There is something in that name that inspires absolute confidence. The moment Algernon first mentioned to me that he had a friend called Ernest, I knew I was destined to love you... Jack?... No, there is very little music in the name Jack, if any at all, indeed. It does not thrill. It produces absolutely no vibrations... I have known several Jacks, and they all, without exception, were more than usually plain. Besides, Jack is a notorious domesticity for John! I pit any woman who is married to a man called John. She would probably never be allowed to know the entrancing pleasure of a single moment's solitude. The only really safe name is Ernest.

Our transcription for that passage (aka the British pronunciation IPA of it) will be due on Friday.

We discussed a couple more one-off pronunciations of words in RP: been & again.

Voice Professor says that using a tapped or flipped medial "r" is our choice, but it doesn't happen with great frequency. The word that most often has a tapped/flipped "r" in RP is "very".

We learned the difference between Full Transcription (all words completely transcribed) and Narrow Transcription (Full Transcription plus all diacritical markings).

At one point, when we were all reading aloud the "Signature Sentences" for RP, apparently, I sounded like I was speaking with a Southern American dialect. Voice Professor says it's because I need to tighten up my vowels.


TAP WORKSHOP
Dance Instructor is back this week, to teach us a workshop in tap dancing. I very much like tap. I took it for many years in my childhood, and had to break it out in high school for a show. I love its percussive nature. It's kind of like making music and dancing at the same time.

Of course, I haven't done it for about 10 years, so I'm pretty rusty. But it's nice to know the basics already.

Dance Instructor says that the thing I need to work on the most is getting grounded again. Right now, I'm jumping around too much instead of keeping my weight into the floor (which probably has a little to do with the fact that I have high-heeled tap shoes, a little to do with how enthusiastic I am to be tapping, and a little to do with my body having forgotten how to tap).


ACTING
Acting Professoressa recommended that we try to obtain a copy of the book Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare by Isaac Asimov.

We continued reading Cymbeline out loud. We got through most of Act III, if I remember correctly.

Acting Professoressa seemed to dislike my interpretation of Imogen in Act I, Scene vi. Oh well.

Favorite Cymbeline line of the day...
"I am glad I was up so late, for that's the reason I am up so early."
- Cloten, Act II, Scene iii


THE MYSTERY PLAYS
The show closed on Sunday. Everything went really well. I already miss the show, as strange as that may sound. It's weird to not be performing right now (I'm typing during the time that would've previously been showtime... I think we would've been around my second scene as Amanda the Agent right now).

I took some pictures of my costumes in the dressing room, but I can't find my camera. They will be posted at a later date.