Friday, March 5

VOICE
Today, we embarked upon our next great Voice class adventure... The Irish Dialect!

This is definitely the hardest dialect we've learned. There are way more signature sounds than the others, and they're not all easy to hear/identify. A lot of the dialect shifts seem to have to do with placement in the mouth, and less lip rounding. And there is a danger of going too far with a lot of the shifts.

So far, the shifts we've started learning are:
1. In the "strut" lexical set (things with the "uh" vowel), the vowel shifts to the sound in "could". So the words "putt" and "put" are homophones (i.e. they sound the same), as are "pus" and "puss".
2. In the "trap" lexical set (things with the "short a" vowel, like in "apple"), the vowel shifts to the vowel in "father".
3. The "lot" and "cloth" sets don't shift for Americans or Brits.
4. The "thought" set ("aw" vowel) goes to the vowel of "father" (long a) or the vowel from the "ask list". There is less jaw release in this than in American speech.
5. This is a rhotic dialect, which means that the sound of "r" is pronounced (as opposed to British RP, where it isn't usually). It's actually a harder "r" than in American speech. But if you go too far, you sound like a pirate.
6. This dialect shifts the "ask list" vowels the same way that British RP does.
7. In the "goat" set (the long o in "No Joe, don't go") it can go to a pure "o" sound instead of the diphthong that Americans use. If using the diphthong, the lips are not as far forward.
8. In the "face" set ("Eight great stage plays are playing today"), the diphthong is sometimes turned into a long, pure vowel. (For some reason, it seems to help me to think of the "eh" vowel, even though that is NOT the right vowel at all... I'm weird.)
9. The "price" set ("I like my pie") shifts in a similar manner to the way it did in the New York dialect. It has less lip-rounding than in American, and isn't quite as "aw" as New York.
10. The "mouth" set has two possible shifts. One is a really light shift, and the other is more dramatic. In the heavier shift, the word "out" sounds the same to me as it would if a Canadian said it (which I know from years of watching Degrassi and Avonlea). I like saying that, so I think I'm going to choose the dramatic shift.
11. The "goose" set is made with less lip-rounding than in RP or GenAm. (There is full application of liquid-u where it would be applied in RP.)

That's as far as we've gotten. Yes, there's way more.

(Side comment: If I'm doing my shifts correctly, the American pronunciation of the word "lawyer" sounds quite similar to the Irish pronunciation of the word "liar". And I think that's hilarious.)

We got our scenes for our dialect exam (which won't be for several weeks). They're from Juno and the Paycock by Sean O'Casey. It looks like the dialect was sort of "written in" by the author (e.g. "ud" for "would", "throuble" for "trouble", "gradle" for "great deal", "oul' wan" for "old one", etc.), which makes trying to make the shifts in a good and proper way harder for me, as I have to try to figure out what they're saying and write it in a more standard way before I try to shift it. I'm doing my scene twice, once with Killer and once with Iceman.


MOVEMENT
We turned in our requests for our Commedia characters in the next unit. Our homework for break is to make a list of 10 interesting facts about the characters.

Movement Professor said a long time ago that she'd like me to work on a Colombina character (perhaps Servetta), but I decided to request Vittoria instead. I really liked the descriptions I found of her movement. "Lack firm contact with the earth. Feet invariably in ballet positions, creating an inverted cone. Chest and heart heavy. They are full of breath, but then take little pants on top. Sometimes when situations become too much for them, they deflate totally."

Vittoria is sometimes a zanni (which is what the wacky servants are called... "zanni" is the origin of the English word "zany"), and sometimes one of the Innamorati (paired lovers). Big Show chose one of the innamorati as his character, so I have a feeling that I'll be paired with him.

We showed off our Stuffed Turkey monologue progress today. It was so fun. Movement Professor really liked what I've done with mine. She said I was doing great with the "rule of three" in my movements for the monologue, and that she was glad to see that I was already "acting" it and not just hitting the movements. I'm geeked. Everybody did great. So funny. I'm excited to work more on them and see what everyone comes up with.



ACTING
We got our comedy scenes today!!! WOO-HOO!!!

1. Two Noble Kinsmen (II, ii)
Palamon - O.D.
Arcite - Thrill
Keeper - Iceman
Emilia - Newbie
Woman - Two-Shots-Up
(Stage Manager - Killer)

2. The Taming of the Shrew (II, i)
Petruchio - Iceman
Kate - Wifey
Baptista - Big Show
(Stage Manager - Big Show)

3. The Comedy of Errors (III, ii)
Antipholus of Syracuse - Killer
Luciana - All-The-Way
(Stage Manager - Thrill)

4. Much Ado About Nothing (IV, i)
Benedick - Big Show
Beatrice - Two-Shots-Up
(Stage Manager - D-Train)

5. All's Well That Ends Well (IV, ii)
Diana - Angela
Bertram - D-Train
(Stage Manager - Newbie)


I'm SUPER excited. Oh man. I could use more comedy in my life. :)



My other notes from class were:
- Ask for help without playing the problem
- Don't play the problem; fix the problem
- Characters have to choose fight or flight when in danger
- Before being in danger, characters are sometimes on alert beforehand (keep in mind for suspicion/paranoia)
- Nothing should be canned (stale, prepacked...); Everything should be fresh


MACHINAL
In case you're curious, people around here seem to like Machinal. Here's a review:

REVIEW: Gripping new look at classic ‘Machinal’


Machinal Director gave me a note after the show tonight to change my blocking at one point for the nurse. I'm terrified I'm going to forget it before tomorrow, so I'm typing it as a reminder to myself. Upon my second entrance as the nurse, I will cross UPSTAGE of Newbie and Iceman. UPSTAGE. UPSTAGE. UPSTAGE.

Okay. I think I've got it.