MOVEMENTDue to our special Voice class dedicated to Audition feedback, we had Movement first today. It would've been more nostalgic, if we weren't in such bad moods.
When we got to school today, we all seemed pretty exhausted. It probably had to do with the fact that we had rehearsal for The Greeks until ten last night, and we're totally not used to that.
We took our "falling up/falling down" partner work (which also involves partner balance), and began using it in a similar way to how we generally use "Little Bears". After that, we started putting our Shakespeare stuff to work.
Each person has started memorizing a Shakespeare speech that they enjoy and connect with. While moving with our partners, we started using our text. The texts had nothing to do with each other, but they told a story anyway. I haven't gotten to go yet, but I'm pretty geeked for it.
AUDITIONSYesterday, we had quick meetings with Movement Professor to discuss her notes on our physicality during auditions. The notes she gave me were:
- I'm working with my body well now
- I have "an actor's body" now. Or, at least, I'm a lot closer to having one than I was before.
- I need to keep energy moving through my hands and out through my middle fingers. Right now, my fingers curl into something closer to fists than straight fingers when I'm not paying attention. She advised that I look at dancers, because the difference between ones who have mastered their fingers and the ones that haven't is apparently huge.
- The biggest thing I need to work on is getting stronger. She says this is particularly true of my legs.
- During my audition, she said I was present "in the room". This is a good thing. She says sometimes when people audition it feels like their head is in a different building than their body.
- I need to make a simpler, more human connection with the audience before beginning my pieces.
- I need to work on letting the characters arriving, as opposed to jumping into them (which is a very difficult thing to do when you know that someone is timing you with a stopwatch)
- Physical shifts were a little too slow in my classical piece. Impulses should occur in the body first.
- I didn't lock my knees at all! YAY!
- My head was freely forward and up.
- She loved that my classical piece was ambitious.
Today, in lieu of Voice class, Head of Program and Voice Professor met with us to discuss auditioning and things that we need to improve on individually.
General appearance notes:
- Wear fitted clothing.
- Look good and be comfortable.
- Do not wear things that are too fashionable.
- Do not wear things that are distracting (such as neon colors, ill-fitting clothing, clothing with writing on it, things that are too trendy, or anything that might make someone pay more attention to the outfit than the person wearing it).
- "Wear what makes you feel good without looking like a hoochie-mama."
- "You do not need to go overly conservative [with clothing], but you don't want to be radically liberal."
- Don't dress for the part; dress for yourself.
- Look at your outfit from behind to make sure that it's good from all angles.
- Wear a palette that is semi-neutral. Avoid neon colors and busy pattens.
- Err on the conservative side; they'll pay attention to you, not the clothing.
- For callbacks, wear clothes that you can move in.
- Avoid all writing on clothing
- Don't wear shorts.
- Don't wear jeans.
- Don't wear tons of jewelry.
- At a callback for a period piece, women should probably wear skirts or dresses with capri leggings underneath.
General introduction and behavior notes:
- The most important thing is to communicate an authentic sense of self. Engage your personality fully and completely, and show it off.
- Do not use a dialect.
- Do not be late; it makes you seem completely undependable from the start.
- Engage the people in the room.
- Don't show too much of your prep work. You want to be PREPARED, not PREPARING.
- Don't do anything too weird or out of the box. It's memorable for the wrong reasons. It makes you look like an "artiste", and hard to work with.
- Make the first moment really professional and really connected.
- At the end, say "thank you" and leave carefully (so that they can call you back if they need to for some reason).
- Be careful of MOOD! Do NOT let them know that you are depressed/nervous/disappointed/etc.
General acting notes:
- Don't get locked into a pure profile.
- Don't leave eyes glued to imaginary "other" in the scene.
- Energy must go outward
- Whatever you've been working on with your acting (e.g. drilling clear consonants), you can work on it in the morning before your audition, but then LET IT GO. Otherwise, you end up forcing the thing you're working on too much and losing the truth of the pieces.
- Don't let nerves stop you from being truthful.
General monologue selection notes:
- The goal is to choose material that reflects you and a natural sense of self.
- Be authentically connected with greatest ease and clarity.
- Don't do a piece you've worked on in a show. Or, if you must, don't assume that all your work is done.
- Before the audition, ask yourself some questions about the monologue to keep you connected to it: Why do I like the piece? What is this character saying and doing that I understand? (See if you could talk ABOUT the monologue for 5 minutes, and then put all the information you said back into the piece when performing it.)
- Avoid narratives. They leave you without much of an action.
- Pieces comprised of rhymed couplets are probably not the best idea.
- Avoid pieces that are too physically comedic.
- Avoid anything where the audience might be concerned for your well-being.
- Stop panicking about showing off in pieces. It's more important to pay attention to your authentic self.
My individual notes were:
- My outfit was great.
- In my first piece, I placed my invisible scene partner a little too far over to the side.
- In my contemporary piece, I had great, specific focus and a clear "other" to talk to.
- They said my contemporary piece fit me as a person perhaps best of all the monologues. It's a great piece for me, and they said it let me shine.
- My classical piece is a good piece for me, but not necessarily for auditions. They said it's in too high a state of emotion, and that they were paying more attention to the plot than to me.
- I stood on a chair for my classical piece, and Head of Program advised me against it; he said it made him concerned for my physical well-being.
- My pieces contrasted well.
- I asked if my Classical piece would've been better served if I had ended it earlier, and they said yes. They also said it would help if I could find greater ease in who the character is as a human being, OUTSIDE of the circumstances of the monologue.
MOVEMENT TUTORIALI had an
Alexander Technique lesson today. It involved a lot of me trying to stand from a chair and sit in the chair properly while keeping in alignment. I had to do something similar in undergrad, and I wasn't particularly good at it back then. I'm improving a lot now. Movement Professor also helped me to stand more aligned. It turns out I'm putting my weight too far back now (it was too far forward when I got to grad school, but I am the Queen of Overcompensation).
ACTINGWe finished blocking
Andromache and
Electra today.
Andromache is SO FREAKING LONG. I swear, I think it's three times the length of the others. I hope it moves at a good clip once we're off book and getting faster impulses.
We had an additional rehearsal of
Electra from 7pm-10pm (but we were all getting a little loopy, so Acting Professoressa graciously let us out early... Dude, The Greeks are hard).
