Tuesday, April 20

Today was the Voice showing, so there was no Movement class.


VOICE
I started the showing with a demonstration of a British RP dialect, using the monologue from The Importance of Being Earnest that all the ladies in my class worked on earlier in the year.

After that, we all did our New York dialect scenes from Play It Again, Sam in chronological order. Voice Professor said she's never had a group show New York before, so I think that was fun for the audience members (many of whom have seen several past showings).

Finally, Wifey & Big Show did their Irish dialect scene from Juno and the Paycock

Then we moved on to the 1st-years! They had an IPA-a-thon (which is a sort of relay race where the teams are trying to properly IPA words that have been pre-written on the chalkboard). They also did their Standard American monologues from The Wood Demon (ah, memories!). Finally, they worked with vocal extremes, shouting a scene from Cowboy Mouth. They did great work! Oh, I'm so proud.


ACTING
There's so little time left before our Acting showing. It's kind of insane. But the scenes are going well. Tomorrow we're coming in early for "tech" (which is pretty much "lights up, lights down; music start, music stop").

General notes:
- Take the transition from Reality #1 to Reality #2 seriously. There is no magic formula. You are responsible for figuring out what works for you.
- KISSING 101: Don't make a tepee with your bodies; don't knock your partner off balance; don't have to keep moving/traveling

Richard III:
- "Cousins, indeed." - lower voice, feel outrage, don't use upper register
- "Well then..." - innocent
- "What were I best to say" - this was in the right ballpark today
- Build -- needs work

All's Well:
- Nice work from both
- work on seeing the ring
- rethink the skirt


MOVEMENT MEETING
I met with Movement Professor for a sort of end of the year conference. Here are the notes I took:

- maintain strength, always
- stretch properly, always
- keep working on awareness of form
- use a mirror when preparing for period work
- never let them see you sweat... have a good poker face
- keep doing ballet
- when dancing, focus on the knees up (my feet do the right thing, but my body is approximating)
- look at movement in 3D, not 2D (don't watch instruction in a mirror)
- work on kinesthetic sense and better visual sense
- Go home on day 1 of rehearsal and work on any specific physicality that the director asks for
- keep facial neutrality while receiving notes (otherwise it's distracting to the director, and makes them wonder what I'm thinking, as I have a very expressive face)
- turn body toward director during notes
- don't say "thank you" when getting notes; it makes some directors uncomfortable. Say "okay" instead.
- do meditative breathing
- do the Daily Dozen alignment exercises
- Try to enter a flow state.

I will have my next alignment lesson on Thursday, April 29 from 1:30pm-2:15pm (even though technically, the year will be over by then).


SHOWCASE RUN
The 3rd-year students are doing a NYC showcase in a week. Yesterday, they did their showcase scenes for us! They're terrific, and I'm super proud of them. They're going to rock. :)