Thursday, March 4

Morning classes were canceled today because of our opening of Machinal last night.


ACTING
We started off by talking about the opening of Machinal. We talked aboiut things that we learned from working with a new director. I commented that I think we all went through different processes on this project, as our roles varied so greatly (in type, in setting, and in size). One play, but eleven very different actor experiences.

Newbie said that one of the things that helped her in the show was a comment that I made to her once: you have to fight for your happy ending. It always helps me, especially in dramatic works. It helps me to focus on my need, and to try to have a positive goal in mind. After all, the character has no idea how the play is going to end; the character just wants everything to work out in their favor.

Notes I took during scene work included:
- to work with status, focus on how the character uses space, how the character views time, and how the character uses eye contact with others.
- have the impulses to move and speak at the same time
- The Reality of Doing = don't pretend to pretend (if there's a real door in the room, try to use it to make your entrance from. If you're digging through a purse in a scene, make sure you have things in the purse to dig through; etc.)

At one point while D-Train and O.D. were working on their Julius Caesar scene, Acting Professoressa had them start the scene from the top, but they weren't allowed to say consonants. They had to play the scene with all their intentions and actions, but only using the vowels. It was HILARIOUS!!! And I think it worked. The next time they ran it (with consonants in), they played more with the words, and had a better concept of assonance. Awesome.


MACHINAL
Machinal Director is still in town for a few more days, so he gave us notes after the show. It's kind of nice to have that, actually. I haven't gotten notes after an opening night since... undergrad, I think. I like it. It's a good reminder that even after the show has opened, we're constantly in a state of process, and always need to be working making things better.