Wednesday, September 9

VOICE
We spent the day on forward placement and head resonance, which has proven tricky for me thus far in my training. I talked to Voice Professor a little after class. I think that I lose all my forward placement when I try to prepare my vocal support and body resonance. Since those things come relatively easily for me, I asked if I could try skipping over those parts of the warm-up for a little bit to see if it helped. She said that at this point in the training, we can begin to start tailoring things to our own needs, so I can go ahead and experiment with it. I hope it will help. I've noticed that I have more forward placement in daily life than I do in class, so it's not impossible... it's just a challenge.

Next week, Voice Professor is going to demonstrate using a Neti Pot for the class. Most people seem to be familiar with the concept, but I've never done it. I'll let you know how that goes.


MOVEMENT
Our class is STRONG, man. We did really difficult stretching stuff today for a good 45 minutes of class, and that was post jumping rope. We're pretty awesome.

Little Bears again! Today I was paired with O.D., whom I've never worked with before with this stuff. I'm not as strong as most people in my class, so he can't grab onto my body the way he occasionally does with other classmates (koala-style), and he's not as flexible as I am, so we can't just tumble in tandem like I occasionally do with other classmates. It took a little bit of time before we found a common movement language, but we got there.


ACTING
We started the process of blocking Andromache. The tricky part of this? The first 2+ pages is me alone on a platform delivering an exposition-y monologue to the "areopagites" (a jury of people, who are unwittingly played by the first few rows of audience members). Because the scene is just me, I was alone on stage while Acting Professoressa and my ten classmates sat in the audience of the theatre. A little bit weird for me. After working for about an hour (and only getting through about half the monologue), we took a break, and when we returned we skipped ahead in the script to a place where other characters started entering the stage. Thank goodness. Acting Professoressa said that she and I will meet another time to finish working on the monologue.

Andromache has a really different feel to it than Electra. In Electra, the chorus is a group of Electra's loyal supporters. In Andromache, there are women who are slaves like Andromache (Newbie & Two-Shots-Up), and the others are soldiers. In Electra, people go on offense, but Andromache is mostly about defense (at least, for me it is). I'm pretty stoked about both of them.

We're going to begin blocking Helen tomorrow. Yay!

Sunday, April 26

Well, ladies and gentlemen of the internet, it's official: I am out of classes for the summer. My first year as a graduate student is quasi-officially over (although I still have Conservatory-related tasks that I'm responsible for until the middle of May). As has been said to me several times this weekend, I have now earned the "M" in my MFA.

I kept meaning to write posts over the last few days, but it turned out to be one of the busiest weeks of my semester (and I had the misfortune of being under the weather). I figured that my faithful readers would understand.

So let's see how much of the last week I can remember well enough to summarize...

Movement
We had our Movement Showing on Wednesday morning, and it went splendidly. The 1st-years showed off our West Side Story choreography, and then some of our tumbling skills. Big Show successfully did a dive-roll over 4 people, which I believe set a new class record (I have a feeling that Thrill could pull off the same feat, but he decided to do his front flip instead). I did a couple of assisted back-walkovers, a dive-roll over Two-Shots-Up, some arch cartwheels, flying fish, rotating back-bends, donkey kicks (that turn into handstands for a brief time) and other things that I didn't think I could do just a few short weeks ago.

The 2nd-years demonstrated their Commedia Dell'Arte work, as well as their Restoration-style "stuffed turkey" monologues, and a Menuet. It was SO COOL watching them. I'm excited to start the 2nd-year and apply movement to my acting in a new, more stylized fashion. I think it's going to be a fun challenge.


Analysis
Analysis Professor says that we need to keep reading 4-5 plays a week for the rest of our lives. It's a pretty daunting task, actually. I just got 3 plays in the mail yesterday, so I'll try to read those this coming week. After that, I guess I'll just have to start hitting up libraries more often.

He said that even if you think the playwright put something into the play "for no reason", as an actor you can't PLAY "no reason"; it's important that you be able to analyze a text properly so that you can discover the reason.

He also reiterated something that I learned in undergrad (and that is, to some extent, common sense). As an actor, you have to believe that every role you play is the protagonist. If you play Osric in Hamlet, you have to believe that it's a play about a servant who has to convince the Prince to engage in a fencing match.


Voice
This week, Voice Professor really just gave notes on our Acting scenes.

My notes from Wednesday were:

- good shifting vocal actions
- voice is overall forward -- great
- strong final consonants -- great
- "no music for me" <- off-voice
(translation: I didn't have good vocal energy on that line)
- "sixties" <- s-kst-z
(translation: I needed to work on the consonants in that word)
- "girls" <- z
(translation: I said the final "s" as an "s", but it should be a "z")
- "questions" <- z
(translation: I said the final "s" as an "s", but it should be a "z")
- S+L very good
(translation: I did well with Sending and Landing the text)


I tried to work on them that night. My notes for Thursday were:

- excellent sending + landing
- very clear strong shifts in vocal action
- "forge and foundry sales company" -- this was unclear
- Arlin Border - make this very clear 1st time you say it - it's unexpected. Or is it 'v'?
(translation: in the scene, I'm engaged to a man named Arvin Borders. Because it's not a name you expect to hear, I have to be especially clear when saying it the first time, so that the audience knows what we're saying the other times.)
- "question" - t
(translation: when I said it fast, it sounded like "queshun")
- "little children" - l
(translation: I wasn't being clear about the final "l" sound in "little")


Acting
On Wednesday, my scene with O.D. started with our characters in conflict for some reason. We were both angry and sarcastic. At the end of it, Acting Professor said, "Yeah, and why not, I say. Why not?" He meant that there was no reason why our characters COULDN'T be bonding over their anger and common hatred for the pipe industry, even though it's not written into the story that way. I'm glad that we explored it as a possibility.

Acting Professor said that from the point that something clicks our scene, we have to "move it." Once the audience knows what the ending is going to be, it's better to let things roll quickly and get there. When the conflict is still strong, we can take our time more. But when we hit the transition, we have to drive it home.

He said it was a "very adult piece today, without this kind of 'roses sentimentality'." He said we were much clearer in taking impulses and making shifts.

At our showing on Friday, our piece didn't run the same way at all. In the beginning, I (Hildy Matthews, that is) was nervous that my fiancé (Arvin Borders) was going to leave me. By the end of it, I realized that it didn't matter, because I could replace him with Andy Middleton (O.D.) and the seduction began. It wasn't the most sexual the scene has run. It wasn't the most aggressive. It wasn't the most sentimental. It wasn't the most anything. Perhaps that means it was truthful. I hope that's what it means.

It felt pretty good. And I was glad to have so many people around giving their support (professors, donors, friends, 2nd-years and 3rd-years).

My classmates rocked in their scenes, and I was so very, very proud of them. We've grown so much together.

After it ended, Acting Professor said that our group has been the most challenging class he has ever worked with. He said that we have gone on a journey, and come incredibly far from where we started. He said that makes it especially hard for him to say goodbye to us. He said that his door is always open to us in the future. I plan to take him up on that.


Pictures
My camera broke a few weeks ago, so I was worried that I might not have any photos to post... I would like to thank Pat Baer, who was so kind to take pictures of our Showings, and send them to me.

(click picture to enlarge)

So here's a group shot of my classmates and the professors who have been so dear to us over the last year:
Back row: Acting Professor, Thrill, Big Show, Wifey, Analysis Professor, Iceman, Me (Disco)
Middle row: Movement Professor, Killer, Newbie, D-Train, Voice Professor, Two-Shots-Up
Front row: O.D., All-The-Way


And the requisite goofy shot:
Back row: Acting Professor, Thrill, Big Show, Wifey, Analysis Professor, Me (Disco)
Middle row: Movement Professor, Killer, Newbie, D-Train, Iceman, Voice Professor, Two-Shots-Up
Front row: Tech Instructor, O.D., All-The-Way


Acting Professor talking to us as a group one last time:

L to R: Me (Disco), Acting Professor, Movement Professor, Thrill, Wifey, Iceman, Newbie, O.D., Killer, All-The-Way, Voice Professor, Two-Shots-Up, Big Show, D-Train

D-Train & Killer, The Foster Portfolio


Me (Disco), Find Me a Dream


O.D. and me (Disco), Find Me a Dream


Me (Disco) and O.D., Find Me a Dream


Me (Disco) and O.D., Find Me a Dream


Iceman and All-The-Way, The Long Walk to Forever


Iceman and All-The-Way, The Long Walk to Forever


Iceman and All-The-Way, The Long Walk to Forever


Iceman and All-The-Way, The Long Walk to Forever


Two-Shots-Up and Thrill, Miss Temptation


Iceman, Two-Shots-Up, O.D., Killer, and All-The-Way; West Side Story Suite


All-The-Way, Killer, Big Show, me (Disco); West Side Story Suite


Thrill, Newbie, D-Train, Wifey; West Side Story Suite


Our big strong men! Iceman, Thrill, D-Train, Big Show, Killer, O.D.; West Side Story Suite


Iceman, Wifey, Two-Shots-Up; West Side Story Suite


Iceman (doing Lizard?), Killer (doing Frog?), and All-the-Way; Tumbling


Two-Shots-Up goes into a 2nd-position headstand as D-Train spots; Tumbling


O.D. in a 1st-position headstand; Tumbling


1st and 2nd years bowing together at the Movement Showing; Me (Disco), 2nd-year AG, Iceman, 2nd-year BW, Two-Shots-Up, Big Show, All-the-Way, 2nd-year KFH, 2nd-year KS, 2nd-year SG, O.D.

Tuesday, April 21

Movement
We went over what we will be doing in our Movement Showing tomorrow. We're going to start with some of our tumbling things. Movement Professor asked each of us to make a list of ten things that we would like to do in the showing. (I'm just doing things I like to do, like donkey kicks and flopping fish... some people are focusing more on things that they are proud of, like combat crawls and torpedoes).

After that, we'll do our West Side Story dances.

If anything ends up being videotaped, I'll link to it on here... but I don't know if that's going to work out or not.


Acting
Voice Professor was sick today, so we had Acting Professor twice.

O.D. and I first ran our scene in the morning. Acting Professor told us "don't rush" at the beginning of it, which is probably why it ran so much more slowly than usual. Apparently I missed an impulse to stand up at one point (which was disappointing to hear... I've gotten a lot better about not missing impulses as the year has gone on, and that's a note I haven't gotten in a while).

We ran it again in the afternoon, and it just felt kind of off. My character got drunk a lot faster than usual, and I'm not sure why.

I'm still nervous about the characterization aspect of this piece. Sometimes when I do it, I find myself using what I call my "big girl voice", and sometimes I find myself using my "little girl voice". I'm not sure if one is a stronger choice for the character than the other. I talked to Big Show about it during Three Postcards. He said that he thinks I'm probably doing the right thing by not making a decision on it and letting my voice be whatever it wants to be on any given run. So I'm just going to trust my creative subconscious and try not to freak out too much.


Analysis
We discussed Paradise Street by Constance Congdon. It's incredibly complicated. I generally root on the side of female playwrights and casts that are more than half female, just because both are somewhat unusual in comparison to the norm. This play? Entirely female cast. Call me sexist, but that makes me happy (as 80% of the roles in theatre are male and 80% of actors are female...).


Tech
Three Postcards had a "Pay What You Can Tuesday" performance tonight, so we had a good-sized audience. They weren't afraid to laugh or clap. It was nice.

Being backstage in the dark can take its toll on tech crews. Sometimes we joke on the headsets a little (we try not to do it when cues are being called). It makes the job a little less monotonous.


Movement Tutorial
I forgot to mention that I had my final Alexander Tutorial last Friday. It went quite well, I thought. Movement Professor and I reviewed the tape that we've been making all year of my progress in standing and walking neutrally. It's incredible how much my body has changed over the course of the last eight months. I'm really rather proud of it.

Movement Professor says that I do a lot of things with my body that are dangerous and I need to stop. Going en pointe without shoes on, touching my elbows together behind my back, walking on my kneecaps, and tucking my toes underneath my ribs; those are just a few of my fun Gumby tricks that I have to leave behind for the sake of my physical health. Because really, I don't want to have knee-replacement surgery at the age of 30.

Thursday, April 16

I would like to invite those readers who are in my community to attend our "Showings" in the next several days. Showings are more like "open classes" than "performances". It's just a chance to see the kinds of things that 1st and 2nd year students have been working on in our classes this semester. If you're interested, they are...

Voice Showing (1st & 2nd years)
Friday, April 17
11am-12pm
(Allen Studio, 2nd floor)

Movement Showing (1st & 2nd years)
Wednesday, April 22
10:30am
(Movement Studio, 1st floor)

Acting II Showing (2nd years)
Thursday, April 23
3:30pm-5:00pm
(Allen Studio, 2nd floor)

Acting I Showing (1st years)
Friday, April 24
3pm-5pm
(Cooley Studio, 2nd floor)


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Movement
We started by running our West Side Story stuff. The first time we ran it, my section with O.D. and Big Show went abysmally wrong. I think we've fixed it now... I hope, I hope.

Acting Professor came in, and we began what we will be working on for the final two weeks of class (side note: how did we get to the final two weeks of class so quickly?). We're working with bringing Psychological Gesture and Viewpoints work into the characterizations for our Vonnegut scenes.

Acting Professor led us through a psychological gesture exercise, first working with our characters from Three Sisters as those are fresher to us at the moment. I kept being convinced that I was doing it wrong (despite Acting Professor saying that the only way to do it wrong would be to stop doing anything). It should be interesting to apply it to character work.


Voice
We went into the big theatre to continue our work with intimate scenes. Unfortunately, Killer and I didn't get to work on the mainstage (because we went yesterday). But Voice Professor has assured us that we'll be the first to go next semester (as our Voice training will pick up exactly where we leave off).


Acting
Acting Professor told me to write the following on my blog: Costumes help actors transform. He says he doesn't understand why this isn't obvious to actors. If you are in sweatpants and a t-shirt, you will not be able to fully realize the reality of playing, say, a 1960s actress at a country club (which is my character... I've been doing it in a green rhinestoned cocktail dress and high heels as of late). He recently heard a teacher say that if you put a kid in jeans, he'll act like a kid; if you put a kid in a suit, he'll act differently. The same applies to actors. Your clothing informs you of a lot, consciously and subconsciously.

Yesterday when O.D. and I did our "Find Me a Dream" Vonnegut scene, Acting Professor timed it. He said it was only 8 minutes long (far shy of our 15 minute maximum). It feels so much longer than that, because there's so much life being played out in it. It's really pretty cool actually. We got great comments yesterday (about how at times the space really transforms in our scene, and about how it was a "satisfying artistic experience"), so I was a little nervous about how it would run today.

Acting Professor said that the most successful parts of the scene were when things ran differently than they had before. The less honest parts were when I tried to do something the way I did it yesterday because I knew it had been successful before. He said it was clear that I was perfectly happy to do the scene a completely different way each time, and that I should give myself the freedom to do just that. I raised the issue of consistency, wondering if it was problematic that I have difficulty repeating things from previous performances/rehearsals in a truthful way. He said that the most important thing is to play it truthfully. He says that, whatever might end up happening in the scene, the character I've created is consistent. She might not do the same things every time, but she is always Hildy. Now that I have her in me, I can be free in what I do with her.

The other great piece of feedback that I got today is that Hildy should be more physically aggressive than Andy (O.D.), because we can gather from the text that she is far more sexually experienced. I hadn't put that into the character, and I'm excited to work with that concept tomorrow. I think it'll add a lot to the scene.

Acting Professor also said it's important that Hildy realizes that all the weird, awkward behavior from Andy is a result of him finding her attractive. She needs to know that she has this effect on men. She needs to use it to her advantage.

Man, acting is fun!

(By the by, Acting Professor did a pretty great Marlon Brando impression today that made us laugh.)


Analysis
We discussed In This Corner by Steven Drukman, which is about professional boxer Joe Louis. I really enjoyed the story.

I'd write more about these new plays we're discussing, but it's difficult to explain things out of context, and I assume that the people reading this blog are unfamiliar with most of these new works.


Tech
The show went well, but there was a very small audience, and it was a pretty quiet audience. (Note to audiences: it's okay to cry, laugh, applaud, or otherwise have an emotional response to a play or musical)


Theatre
Tonight was the closing performance of Inventing Van Gogh. I snuck in after I was done with Three Postcards for the night. I only saw the last 20 minutes or so, but it was beautiful. It had grown so much since the opening (and I thought the opening was pretty terrific). I was so pleased for the actors. It was lovely, and the audience loved it. What a great way to end a run.

Wednesday, April 15

Movement
We added on to the "partnering" section of our West Side Story dance (the part where I dance with O.D. and Big Show). Now after my assisted back-walkover, I have a lift that involves a scissor kick, the boys drop into push-up positions with me pushing on their backs, and then we get up into something that Movement Professor has been calling an "X" (legs and arms extended so that the body is in an x-like shape). I hope it looks cool. It's pretty fun to do, I have to say (even though the whole thing is in about 8 counts).


Voice
We started working with a new scene from the play Cowboy Mouth for the purpose of learning how to do it as an "intimate scene" without the audience losing what we're saying. Killer and I were the first guinea pigs to give it a go. Voice Professor had someone being an audience member 10 feet in front of us, someone else sit in a place in the room where they couldn't see us (she called it "the obstructed view seats"), and a third person sit outside of the room, behind the door (so we were forced to project and articulate).

For me, the biggest problem was not getting my voice to a place where it could be heard and understood; the problem was trying to do it in a way that made it still seem realistic that I was sitting on a loveseat with Killer's head in my lap having a conversation with him. Way, way harder than I thought it would be.

Some people had the opposite problem. The scene seemed intimate to the 10-feet audience, but the obstructed view and out-of-room audience were missing words and phrases and had to work to pick up what was being said.

Tomorrow we're (theoretically) going to try it on the mainstage (instead of having to create these bizarre obstacles, we'll probably just have people in various parts of the house).


Acting
I was nervous about our first day back with our Vonnegut scenes, but it went really well. Acting Professor told me last week that my subconscious was working on the character the whole time I'd been focusing other things because my inner-artist knew that I was returning to the project. I didn't fully believe him at the time, but now I know he was right. Hildy made sense to me today in a way that she didn't before Spring Break. I'm excited to keep working with it.


Tech
Tonight was opening night for Three Postcards, and it was a smashing success. Everything went pretty smoothly (aside from a couple of almost-disasters that happened in the 30 seconds before the show started). I'm proud to be working on this show. It's really lovely.

Tuesday, April 14

Movement
We did a lot of leaps and skips across the floor. My leaps are getting pretty good, I think.

Unfortunately, the leaps did not help my I-slipped-in-a-puddle-and-have-leg-pain situation.

We reviewed our West Side Story stuff. We're going to add onto it tomorrow.


Voice

We went out onto the main stage for our Wood Demon pronunciation exam. (The same stage that most of us were in Winter's Tale on this past weekend.) We went one at a time. I thought I did pretty well with the pronunciation. I got an email last night from Voice Professor with my notes:

it means - glottal attack
should - sh was whistle
as for me - glottal attack

So it wasn't perfect, BUT none of my notes were pronunciation-based, and that's what the exam was focusing on, so I count it as a success.


Tech
We didn't have afternoon classes so that those of us doing tech could go to the other theatre. (Big Show and I are on props, All-The-Way and Wifey are on costumes, Killer is on lights.)

We had the Preview performance at 8. There was a decent-sized audience, and they really seemed to love it. Woo-hoo! We open tomorrow.


~A~

Friday, April 10

Movement
We started a different dance for West Side Story that is going to somehow lead into the other one. Big Show and I are partners. Different pairs have different blocking. For example, some girls do a pencil turn before going into a lift in first position, but I skip the pencil turn and Big Show lifts me in second position (which is apparently a more difficult lift for the guys, but Big Show is super strong).

I finally did the back-walkover move with O.D. and Big Show, and it worked out perfectly. I'm really excited about it.


Voice
We finally put the entire Wood Demon monologue together. Voice Professor gave me two notes on my read of it:

1. more "t" in the "at" of "looking at me"
2. unvoice the "wh" in "When"

As a general note to the class, she said to make sure to "go up for the 'l' in 'sensible' nice and hard."

Our exam is on Tuesday. I'm not worried about it.


Acting
I had a private meeting with Acting Professor to discuss my progress. He said to keep up the good work. He also said that in Act IV, some people are "getting drunk on emotion" and stopping the flow of their impulses, and that I should not allow myself to do that.

Class started with notes from Thursday's run from Movement Professor, which included:

- when the scene changes from one focus of attention to another, do not allow the relay of energy to get dropped
- when silent, you need MORE attention and outward energy
- our heads are falling back in down (instead of "freely forward and up"), especially when sitting in chairs
- more upright carriage without it being tight
- don't get stuck in vocal patterns
- when turning head, don't cut off the response from the body (there should at least be some spiral)

Acting Professor gave one general note... Reach into deeper calm. Prepare in advance. Don't be nervous.

Several 3rd-years came to our run, as well as Voice Professor.

At the end of the run, we got notes. Acting Professor said that I was nervous all through the 1st Act, and halfway through the 4th Act. When I got to the line, "The birds are migrating already. Swans. Or maybe they're geese. Oh, you happy things!", I finally settled into things (he said that was the best it had ever been), and was fine from there on out. He said that I need to know about myself that nerves creep into my work.

I was disappointed that the last run we had of this didn't go as well for me as it had been going (especially since this was the one time we had an audience). But I guess it's just a learning experience. And maybe now I'll be less nervous during our Showing in a couple of weeks.


Tech
I did a lot of sitting around in the dark, aside from prepping food and washing dishes. Big Show is sick and we don't want him to get any of the actors sick, so at the moment I'm doing all of the dish washing and food preparation alone so that he won't contaminate anything with his contagion (Tangent: did I just paraphrase Adriana in Comedy of Errors? That sounded familiar and I'm not quite sure why).

While sitting backstage I read Machinal, which is one of the plays we'll be doing next year. I had seen it before, but never read it. I'm really excited about it.

Thursday, April 9

Movement
We continued working on our West Side Story stuff.

Voice
Voice Professor says that we need to be perpetually drilling our "str-" and "dr-" combinations. If we don't, we'll lose the skill.

In our Wood Demon monologues, we did the final chunk. My only note was that I should link the phrase "minor role", using only one "r" for the two words. Voice Professor says I'm doing well saying the "ih" in the middle of "happiness" without it sounding weird (the middle vowel, in Standard American Dialect, is the same as the vowel in "sit" and sounds very strange to us).


Acting
We got notes on Wednesday's run. Acting Professor that in general it was good, and that the atmosphere was really coming in. Here were some of our notes:

- the sisters and Chebutykin should have more fun teasing Andrey about his crush on Natasha
- every one of the characters has their own convictions, and is not easily swayed. We all have to know when we're siding and against each of the others
- When Masha walks into the house, she knows that she would rather live there than where she does. Vershinin feels the same way.
- If we kiss someone as a greeting, it should be three kisses (cheek, other cheek, cheek), because it's more Russian.
- We should all have handkerchiefs
- We need to treat the baby doll in more as if it is a real baby
- the end of the piece was sagging and we started letting the pauses come in again... we can't do that. We have to work through it, renewing the impulses if we need to

We ran both Act I and Act IV. I was Anfisa, and Newbie was Masha.

Friday will be our last day of Three Sisters. We'll get notes first, and then I'll be Masha and Newbie will be Anfisa. Voice Professor is attending class, and it sounds like some of the 3rd-years might stop by as well (which will be neat... they did the same play when they were 1st-years).


Analysis
We read Mr. Marmalade by Noah Haidle. I was in the group presenting this one. It was difficult for us to control the conversation, because people were so active in trying to bring up different perspectives on the text. It's a fascinating play. It's about a little girl who has a cocaine addict imaginary friend whom she upsets by befriending a suicidal 5 year old. I'd love to see it someday.


Tech
Last night was the first day of tech for Three Postcards. Big Show and I are on props, and they're complicated because it's all food. We had to learn the fancy-restaurant-style plating of each of the dishes, and we have to recreate it each night.

The trickiest thing tech-wise for this show is the lighting (it's a difficult space to light), so that's taking a lot of time. I'm sitting backstage on headset in the dark, trying to be helpful but not having much that I can help with. Ah well.

Wednesday, April 8

Movement
We did a lot of warming up, stretching out, and combinations across the floor. We then went back to our West Side Story choreography. There's a section where people pair off to do lifts and whatnot. Newbie jumps into D-Train's arms, Iceman dips Wifey, etc. There are 5 females and 6 males in my class, so I end up being the gal with two guys. We just blocked our move today. I'm going to do a back bend and then the guys are going to come over and catch me, and then lead me into a back walkover. We did it slowly today, but I think it's going to be really neat once we get the hang of it.


Voice
We went into the next section of our Wood Demon monologues. My notes today were:
- glottal attack on the word "at" (in "It seemed real enough at the time")
- need more of the middle "l" in "calculating"
- over-correcting the vowel in "man" (away from my midwestern vowel) to the point that it now sounds British
- need to make the first vowel in "already" have the "law" vowel

For tomorrow, we have to prepare the remainder of the monologue. Our exam was going to be Friday, but Voice Professor decided that it would be unrealistic to expect that. The test has now been bumped to Tuesday.

Our Voice Showing (a.k.a. the open class at the end of the semester that people are allowed to attend) is apparently Friday the 17th. I can't believe it's coming up so quickly. It feels like we just got back from Spring Break.


Acting
This is our last week of Chekhov work before we go back to our Vonnegut projects. I'm a little sad about it. I'll be sad to see it go.

Newbie and I have switched as Masha and Anfisa mid-class the last two days. Tomorrow and Friday we know that we'll be doing Act I AND Act IV, so we thought it would be good to do the whole through-line of the characters at least once. Tomorrow she will be Masha and I'll be Anfisa, and on Friday we'll switch.

Acting Professor pointed out today that Masha's whistling (that annoys Olga so much) is actually breaking some sort of Russian superstition about whistling in the house (which is strange, as Masha describes herself as being superstitious).

Acting Professor says that, in general, we're touching each other too much in this play, tapping each other's arms and patting each other's backs. He says that it's becoming a theatrical cliche as opposed to being true to the lives of the characters.


Tech
The whole class had a tech call today to move the props for Three Postcards to the Historic theatre, which is across the street from our building (unlike the main-stage theatre and the theatre that the 2nd-years usually use, which are both in the same building as our school). It didn't take very long.

It was strange having rehearsal in an actual theatre tonight instead of having it in the studio (where Voice and Acting II are taught) that we've been in up until this point. It's a neat space, but it's clear that it's going to present some challenges. The space absorbs sound, so the actors have to pay attention to their positions on stage as well as their diction and projection. As tech, we don't have a lot of wing space, and we're not allowed to touch many things. Also, the theatre doesn't normally allow any food in it whatsoever because it's a historic space (the theatre itself is like a museum exhibit), but the show takes place in a restaurant and involves a great deal of food. Therefore, we have to be EXTRA careful, and the food storage and preparation areas are less convenient than in our usual theatre. Also, there's no good place to wash dishes (and there are a lot in this show).

We start tech weekend tomorrow night, so I'll be even busier than usual over the next several days. Wish me luck.

Tuesday, April 7

Movement
We continued to block our West Side Story movement piece. The guys have some pretty athletic quick stuff in the beginning. It looks difficult to count. The girls' stuff isn't too bad so far. We'll see what happens.


Voice
Voice Professor came back after our week of Linklater. We discussed the differences between Linklater training and Fitzmaurice training (which is what we study here). One of the major differences to me is that Linklater is more emotion-based than Fitzmaurice work. We discussed how Linklater is the preferred method to teach to younger actors, and is the predominant course of study in undergraduate training. Some people in my class had a lot of Linklater training coming in (I had some, but not tons), so they thought it was interesting to return to that work after several months of working on something else.

We resumed work on our Wood Demon monologues. In the first several sentences of my monologue, the only note I received was that I need to put more "v" into the word "love".


Acting
We ran Act I of Three Sisters twice. I was Másha for the first run, and Anfísa for the second run.

I got a new dress for Másha that allows me to breathe better. Acting Professor said that I settled into the beginning nicely. He said that I can give myself the freedom to put me feet up on the couch, which I have been refraining from doing because I didn't know if it was appropriate for the given circumstances. Aside from holding there, my feedback was all positive.

I really love our Chekhov work. It's a lot of fun, and we're all growing a great deal as a result of it.


Analysis
We read The Bullet Round by Steven Drukman. It involves a white rapper and the violence inherent in his lyrics. There's a gun that shows up throughout the play (and is used at the end), but Analysis Professor pointed out that the language in the play is somehow more assaultive than the gun is.


Tech
It was our "crew invited run" for Three Postcards, which means that all the people who will be teching the show get the opportunity to see it tech-less before it begins tech stuff. It went pretty well. I sent out some intense and specific line notes after the Sunday run, and the cast implemented a lot of them in the run. They're working really hard, and I'm proud of them.


Theatre
I went and saw Murderers by Jeffrey Hatcher on the main stage on Friday. It's three 30-minute monologues delivered by characters who have committed murder (or are planning to) at a retirement community in a fictional Florida town (one that sounds similar to the one I'm living in). It was very funny, and I was glad I went.

On Sunday night, I went to see a Late Night reading of Drip Away, which was written by 3rd-year DP. It was fantastic. Unfortunately, several rehearsals were going on at the same time as the production, so most of my compatriots were unable to attend. The one downside of having so much theatre going on simultaneously at this program is that it's hard to see everything, especially when you're working on other things (which you usually are).

Friday, April 3

Movement
We started choreographing a dance to some music from West Side Story. It was all kinds of fun, actually. I'm a musical theatre geek, and I love to dance... So I'm all for it. :)


Linklater Workshop
We were all pretty sore, so our Instructor was gentle on us.


Acting
We did a run of Act IV, and I was on Másha duty. At the end of the run, acting Professor said that it was "45 minutes of good honest work and 15 minutes of technical glitches." What that meant, of course, was that the Act SHOULD take 40-45 minutes, but ours took an hour.

I had been worried about the run beforehand, because I just felt so drained from the week, and I didn't know if I had enough in me to be Másha (who is depressed and upset through the whole act). But I recorded ease, and full freedom. I went into the run with the idea that I was going to let Másha be whatever she was in the moment, and not stress out about whether I was going to cry or scream or anything. So it was probably the most muted I've been as Másha. But Acting Professor seemed to like it anyway. I'm glad that I decided to do it honestly instead of pushing. It might not be the best I've done it (or will do it), but I don't feel negatively about it, and I'm glad for that.

Acting Professor reminded us that Chekhov is either heroism or vulgarity (and triviality). They both have tragic masks. Lyricism does not, and has no place in Chekhov's work.

He also said that we cannot underestimate the importance of the baby that's on stage during parts of this Act.

Movement Professor observed class and gave me the following notes:
- Keep breathing even in stillness.
- Good timing.
- Voice falls off at the ends of lines in moments of high emotion, followed by a sigh. This could be the result of exhaling the impulse instead of using it on the line.
- Make sure to use the physical sensation of touch when interacting with other characters physically. (This was a note for everyone.)
- Try to take the run (I run to Vershínin) on one exhalation.

I don't normally get a lot of breathing notes. I discussed it with Movement Professor afterward, and we think that it has something to do with the dress I've been wearing. It's incredibly tight in the chest region, which was intentional to provide the sort of structure that the clothing of the time would've included. But it's preventing me from taking a full rib swing, running out of breath near the ends of lines, and then trying to catch my breath (hence the sighing). I'm going to try to get a new dress before Tuesday so that it won't be a problem anymore.

On Tuesday, we're going back to Act I, and I'm going to be Másha. I'm really looking forward to it. I think Act I is going to be a lot richer now that we've found everything we have with Act IV.


Tech
ASM-ing Three Postcards is pretty fun so far, though I don't have to do much at this point. I'm on book and giving lines when the actors need them. I set the props before the run. I wash the glasses after the run. I like it. It's nice to be in a rehearsal room. And the music is actually pretty catchy. Good times.

We start tech next week.

Thursday, April 2

Yesterday's post, in case you hadn't realized, was an April Fools Day joke. So APRIL FOOLS! I will indeed be keeping up with this blog... Or at least attempting to do so. It's tricky sometimes... Which is why I'm so behind...


Movement
Last Thursday, Movement Professor gave a great speech all about how we should be looking at graduate school. It was really fabulous, and I couldn't possibly recreate it here, but here were a few of her points:
- It's a luxury to have the opportunity to attempt things that are scary, difficult, or impossible for us.
- The way we treat things in class is the way that we're habituating the way we handle things for our careers.
- We need to face challenges with openness and creativity, not skepticism and analyzation.

We've gone back to tumbling a bit. I can do dive-rolls over a person. All the guys in my class can do dive-rolls over TWO people (Thrill has even done THREE!). It's very impressive.

I can go into an arch (or a "bridge") position and then walk in circles using my hands and feet. It's pretty cool, I think, although it may have been the reason that I messed up my back last week...


Voice
I'm having trouble with glottal attacks, particularly with sentences that begin with vowel sounds. Voice Professor recommended that I practice saying vowel-words with an "h" sound. Then I can subtract the "h", but keep the feeling of it. Also, linking words together can help prevent glottal attacks because it continues the breath. Glottal attacks can only occur when you stop the breath on its journey.

We discussed that the word "a" is almost always pronounced as a schwa ("uh").

We don't have normal Voice class this week in favor of a Linklater Workshop (more on that later). Voice Professor gave us a list of things to work on with our "Wood Demon" monologues while she's gone (such as putting the tongue at the tip of the alveolar ridge on the word "selfish").



Acting
Another great speech we had last week came from Acting Professor. March 27th is "World Theatre Day". Acting Professor reminded us that it's important that we take our art seriously, because it is only when we take it seriously that the world takes it seriously. He had Big Show read Augusto Boal's message in honor of the occasion. (You can -- and should -- read it here.)

And, as always, there were just a bunch of pieces of wisdom that we've learned:

- Acting Professor pointed out that in Three Sisters, we see characters dealing with trivialities in lieu of handling their major problems. In life, we often only take the parts of things that we know how to deal with, and we let go of the other things. We sit, we eat, we talk, we drink tea... and meanwhile, our destinies are being decided.

- When entering the theatrical space, Acting Professor says it's important that you enter as though you came from somewhere. Don't come from backstage. Don't exit to backstage. Understand where the character came from and where they're going.

- When you're working through text in units, try to begin in moments where there would have been pauses in the text (sustained or preparatory). They make good points to mentally delete.

- As actors, we are trying to take deep, complex things and make them simple, but still truthful. The mistake is making them primitive and shallow. That can cause us to be truth-like instead of truthful, life-like instead of alive. We must not ignore the passions in the play to take the easy road of playing emotions.

- We have to take energy from our partners, the space, and eventually the audience. If we hold, we'll be cutting ourselves off and only yielding to inner-impulses, which are not inexhaustible. We must be in constant touch with the world around us, no matter what is happening.

- Some of us (Thrill, Newbie, O.D., and me) are working with older characters in this piece. Acting Professor says it's important not to play these characters using external characterization. We're not going to worry about physical age, but rather what age the person's SOUL is. We are still concentrating on essences, and we should not attempt to spoon-feed the characters to the audience.

- We have to ask ourselves how deeply we practice our technique. If you practice it deeply, you will be able to use it deeply. If you practice it somewhat, you will only be able to use it somewhat.

- We always need to give ourselves 100% freedom. It's not good to just be comfortable and safe at 30% freedom. We need to take risks and be bold in order to learn.

- When recording, it's important that we work on the side of the inclusive, mentally recording all stage directions.

- We have to take the given circumstances in as mines that we set in our paths, so that we'll have reasons to explode in the scenes.

- When we get notes, we need to take the notes and do them. We need to take them very seriously and work on them.

- We need to respect our colleagues, and respect their time. This includes their time in our scene work. We should not be indulgent in our pauses.

- We have to work decisively and boldly.

- Don't pause unless Chekov says to pause. He tells you when to pause. If you pause elsewhere, the written pauses will no longer be meaningful.

- The voice of your professor saying things like, "Very good... Just let it..." as side-coaching mid-scene needs to become your inner-voice.


Analysis
We read Big Love by Charles L. Mee last week. The best conclusion we came to about the action was about embracing humanity in its variety. It confused me.

Today, we discussed These Shining Lives by Melanie Marnich. I greatly enjoyed it. We got into a class discussion about whether it the action was rooted in workers against the system, or women against society (I was in the former group... pretty much all the men in my class were in the latter).


Linklater Workshop
For this week, Voice Professor has gone up to our school's main campus, and a voice professor from up there has come down to us. They're familiarizing the other's students with their own specialties (so the undergrads are getting a crash course in Fitzmaurice and tremoring, and the grads are getting friendly with Linklater).

We've done a lot of work with opening up the throat, as well as freeing the tongue and the jaw. It seems that Linklater work and Fitzmaurice work are just different ways of accomplishing the same goals. It's good to have options in your toolbox.


Tech
Tonight was my first night as Assistant Stage Manager (ASM) for the musical Three Postcards. I'm excited about it. :) It was only their first run-through, but the actors already seem to be in a really great place. I can tell that the rest of my semester is going to be exhausting as a result of it, but I think it's going to be fun.

Wednesday, March 25

Movement
We did stretching and alignment stuff.

Then we went into a Theatre Complicité exercise called "Find the Game". By receiving the other people in the ensemble and looking for the will of the group, you figure out the rules for a game that you're making up on the spot. It took us a couple of tries to get the hang of it, but then it was a lot of fun.

We played another game that Movement Professor called "The McDonald's Game". We took all the exercise balls of various sizes and put them in a clump, and then stood around the edges using our knees to hold the balls in place. We created sort of a bouncy, large ball version of a ball pit at a Play Place. And then one person would go in the pit while the rest of us protected them and kept the balls inside our circle. It was great fun! I think I enjoyed being an edge person just as much as I liked being in the middle. It brought me a great deal of joy.


Voice
We went through the guys' monologue and discussed the IPA.

Then, we went into the concepts of linking and blending in sentences... whether you should double-plode consonants that are in adjacent words (like "real love" or "minor role", whether you can leave both syllables of the word "because" in context, whether you can put words together so that some letters almost switch words in your head ("don't you", "real enough", "but you're").


Acting
I was Másha and Newbie was Anfísa all class. We're going to switch tomorrow.

We ended up getting through all of Act I, and it was a blast.

It's funny how clear things in the script become once they're on their feet. I thought that Másha didn't want to go to a party with her husband because she hated him. But once we started playing the scene, the reason I didn't want to go to the party was so that I could stay and flirt with Vershínin. How obvious!

Acting Professor said to us:
- Allow yourself to go with the flow
- Trust yourself
- Work on your lines at home, and then don't worry about them when you're on stage... Whatever comes out, comes out.

Tuesday, March 24

I think that part of what makes my program so special is the relationship it has with the community. There's an Adopt-A-Student program in place, and as a result, we develop close relationships with people around. Today, we were given the very sad news that a woman who was a large supporter of our program and our theatre passed away over the weekend. She was wonderful to me, and I am heartbroken over the loss.

That put a bit of a dark cloud over my first day back to classes.


Movement
Movement Professor, sensing that our bodies were not ready to go straight back into tumbling, did stretches with us for the majority of class.

We also worked with "Clouding". It's a group activity in which the group lifts one person, and then supports their body as they move in space. It's kind of like crowd surfing, but way cooler. I was a little too nervous to be clouded today, but I'll probably go tomorrow.


Voice
We went over the female monologue from The Wood Demon today, and will go over the male one tomorrow. We asked questions about pronunciation. All-The-Way and I had the most... I actually still have more (I never asked about "laughing", for example), but we ran out of time. Voice Professor came up to me after class and encouraged my question-asking, saying that it results in everyone coming to a clearer understanding of the IPA work. So if we have time, maybe I'll ask a couple more questions tomorrow.


Acting
We worked on Act I of Three Sisters using the costumes we found over break. All the guys playing officers (Big Show, Iceman, Killer, and Thrill) got matching uniforms out of props storage. I think they might have originally been used as marching band uniforms, but they work for our rehearsal purposes and they look pretty great (side note: men in tight white pants = hilarious).

I started as Másha and Newbie started as Anfísa, and then we switched. Másha is pretty depressed and weird at the beginning of the play, which is lucky because I was already in a similar emotional state when we began.

We ended up getting about 2/3 of the way through Act I. Kulygin (O.D.) and Natasha (Wifey) haven't made their entrances yet, but we'll definitely get to their parts tomorrow.


Analysis
We started by discussing more of Caucasian Chalk Circle after getting our papers back. We then compared it to our latest read, Orestes 2.0. Brecht took problems his society was facing and set them in the past in order to get his audience to look at them with a sense of disconnect. Mee took a myth from the past and modernized it in order to achieve a similar effect.

We're going to spend one more day on Orestes 2.0, and then move onto another Mee work: Big Love. The full texts of both plays can be found online (LEGALLY!) here.

Friday, March 6

As of right now, we are officially on Spring Break. Of course, we still have a lot to do... but classes will resume in two weeks time.


Movement
We started doing backward rolls from standing. Then we started a new thing called "The Flopping Fish". It involves starting from standing, backward rolling up to a Candle position (legs straight in the air, balanced sort of on your shoulders), throwing your legs over your shoulder to complete the roll, and ending up with your stomach on the mat but your back arched and your arms out. It's a lot of fun.

By the end of class, Thrill was doing dive-rolls that made it look like he could throw himself over a car. It was incredible. And several people (like Big Show and Iceman) have gotten pretty good at walking on their hands. Two-Shots-Up did it across the full length of our mats!

With a little assistance, I can do a back-walkover. I think that if I keep working on it, I'll figure out how to do it on my own, but right now I definitely need a couple of spotters supporting me.

I got up into a handstand during donkey-kicks, and stayed up with the help of a couple of spotters. I think I could stay up on my own, but Movement Professor wanted to make sure that my back was straight.

I finally figured out how to do the special cartwheel that ends facing forward with an arched back. Very exciting.

My one-handed cartwheels are still pretty ugly, but I can get around. Movement Professor suggested that I grab the back of my shirt with the hand I won't be using, and that helped me to not follow my impulse to use it. I think the only thing that's holding me back is fear. Once I get over that and can straighten my legs, I'll be good.

It's unbelievable how strong we've all gotten in this tumbling unit. Wifey was whipping through her backward rolls today like they were nothing. D-Train has some of the most wagon-wheel-like cartwheels I've ever seen. Newbie and O.D. can do forward rolls really well even though they've both had significant spinal surgeries. Killer has figured out how to do a successful cartwheel despite his setback of having a heavy pelvis. All-The-Way makes every move she makes look graceful, no matter how awkward it may be when first explained.

I think we're going to do more acrobatics after break. Should be fun. I hope I'm ready for it, because it's so exciting when you can nail these things.


Voice
I had a thought today on how to say the word "north" with the Standard vowel that we're supposed to use. You say the word "gnaw" and then add an "rth" (yes, the vowel really does sound like that in the dialect we're learning). It works. :)

Here are my favorite example sentences of the day:
- "Be sure to fear scary star warriors." - Two-Shots-Up
- "Peering in the fair port, I see the scar on the cocksure captain." - Iceman
- "There are hairy pears." - Wifey
- "Look here. There is the poor little whore. How much do you charge, whore?" - Thrill
- "Here there are more poor people on tour where Northern beers are made." - Killer
(I'm a pretty excellent sentence maker, but I think Killer is my second-in-command... he used ALL the r-coloring vowels TWICE in ONE SENTENCE! Impressive stuff.)

Voice Professor gave us monologues from The Wood Demon by Anton Chekhov to work on over break from a Voice perspective. We are to look up the IPAs for all the words we are unsure of, and try to get as off-book as we can. After break, we will be having an oral exam to check our pronunciation work.


Acting
We worked with the first part of Act I of Three Sisters sort of in the same way we do études. Newbie and I traded off on who was playing Másha, and the other would play Anfísa (the nurse, who is a minor character). O.D. and D-Train stepped in for minor characters as well. Wifey and Big Show were audience members, as their characters hadn't gotten on stage yet (neither had O.D. & D-Train's characters).

It was a lot of fun, actually. I've been in classes since August, but today was the first time that I've done a scene in Acting class with more than one of them. It was so great!!! There's so much to receive and react to with that many people on stage at once. It really felt like we'd started creating a whole world. I can't tell you how excited I am to continue to work on this project.

Our homework for over break is to try to get off book for Act I and Act IV (which are the two acts we'll be working on for class), and to obtain rehearsal costumes that are appropriate for our characters. Másha is described as wearing a black dress in the first act, but Acting Professor recommended doing research into what the silhouettes would have been like in that time period.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, ladies and gentlemen, faithful readers and stumblers, commenters and lurkers, one and all...

If I'm not posting much in the next couple of weeks, you'll know why. I'll be homeworking, going over my understudy lines, and taking a little bit of time off. And I'm ready to rest... at least for a little while.

All good things,

~A~

Thursday, March 5

We had THREE prospective students yesterday, and I was guiding around two of them. It's a little weird because I remember doing it a year ago (OVER a year ago, actually; I think I came to visit on February 26... bizarre). But it's kinda cool to have observers.


Movement
I stayed in the yoga tripod position for like 12 seconds today! Trust me, it was exciting. My previous record was 3. I'm getting stronger, and my balance is improving.

We attempted to do cartwheels in which we hit our feet together at the top... I was not very successful. It just made me fall out of them faster and on strange angles. I hope I'll get it soon.

It was perhaps the, oh, second time all year in Movement that I've been able to do something really well that other people struggled with: going into a back-bend from a standing position. I have a crazy back, so that's my favorite physical skill/quirk. I think we're going to do back walk-overs after break... I really, really, really want to learn how to do one. I hope my body can.

We tapped our feet together at the tops of our donkey kicks. Mine are so much higher and straighter than they used to be. I'm excited about that, too.

Unfortunately, my hip flexors are acting up again. If I'm in a straddle (even a mild one) for too long, they just start cramping. I feel like they prevent me from doing a lot (although realistically, it's a few things, and it's not everyday). Can't I have them surgically removed? Or fortified with metal like Wolverine from the X-Men? I think that would help a great deal.


Voice
Voice Professor called me out early in class for pushing myself to do something before I was ready. I've been really working on my forward placement, but I'm putting a lot of pressure on myself to get it right. I started working with it before my voice was fully warmed up. She reminded me to be fair to myself.

We recited sentences for all the vowels. Here are some I made up for the "apple" vowel:
- Angela asks for lavendar and marjoram.
- Alabama has bad taxes.
- Danny from Alaska laughs at Adam.

And here are some entertaining sentences for various sounds that my classmates came up with:

"Captain Laugh-a-lot can babble during a battle." - Thrill
"Don't toy with me, boy; I'm royal, boy!" - Thrill
"The cran-apple stand sat alone in Candyland." - Big Show
"'Ey' is a bad way to say 'hey'." - O.D.
"Andy and Janice vanish." - O.D.
"Here there are more poor people." - Killer's way of using all 5 r-colored vowels in one sentence.


Acting
We got our casting for our Chekhov project of Three Sisters.

All-The-Way: Irína
Big Show: Vershínin
D-Train: Andréy
Disco (Me): Másha
Iceman: Solyóny
Killer: Túzenbach
Newbie: Másha
O.D.: Kulygin
Thrill: Chebutykin
Two-Shots-Up: Ólga
Wifey: Natásha

You'll notice that Newbie and I are both playing Másha. There are only 4 major female characters in the play, and Acting Professor didn't want anyone to get stuck playing a minor role, so he double-cast the part of Másha. He had to double-cast some of the 2nd-years last year in The Seagull, so I was sort of expecting it. I hope Newbie and I don't feel cheated by the whole thing, but I think it's going to be fine. And I have a feeling that we're both going to have a lot of fun with Másha.

Acting Professor gave us a run-down of important Russian history, including the back-story of why Chekhov's Intelligensia are such moral, nobel people. I didn't know any of it previously, and it was pretty fascinating. Makes me want to go on Wikipedia and read more. Perhaps I will do so over our upcoming break.


Analysis
We discussed Caucasian Chalk Circle by Brecht. I'm a pretty smart cookie, but this is a difficult play to read and keep track of.

Analysis Professor wrote the following quotation on the chalkboard:

"There are questions of man to dream, as in Pirandello, and man to thought, as in Shaw, but Brecht is concerned with man to man." - Joseph Chaiken

Part of Brecht's philosophy as a playwright was to go against everything that Aristotle wrote about playwrighting in Poetics, so I was pretty surprised that this play exemplified one of Aristotle's concepts: the events of the story have to be both surprising AND prepared for (or probable). It sounds like an oxymoron, but it makes sense when Analysis Professor explains it.

Director J pointed out that Brecht doesn't only try to alienate his audience, but rather he tries to emotionally engage them first. After all, alienation is fine, but you have to have something to be alienated FROM.

We threw out a lot of concepts of the play in trying to nail down an action. Justice, ownership, redefining responsibility beyond the scope of one's experience, disregarding the self, and sacrificing. I'm not sure that we really ended up with a solid action, but I have a better understanding of it now than I did going into it (which is good, because our paper on this play is due Monday).

The class will meet again after our break. By then, we are supposed to have read A Nearly Normal Life and Orestes, both by Charles L. Mee (whom Analysis Professor refers to as "Chuck").

Tuesday, March 3

Movement
Movement Professor told us that she had consulted her doctor recently, and he had recommended that she take daily multi-vitamins and Omega-3. Food is grown more quickly these days than it used to be, and as a result does not have as many vitamins in it. Movement Professor therefore recommended that we all supplement our diets with these things.

She also said her doctor advised her to eat 5 times a day, and to always include a carb and a protein. She told her doctor she wasn't sure that she could do that, but he said that the between-meal snacks don't have to be big. A snack might be a piece of cheese on a triscuit, or a few almonds and a saltine.

My left-handed cartwheels are getting a LOT better. The hard part is still form. When I learned cartwheels as a child, I learned that you start by facing the direction you're headed, and end up facing the direction that you came from. The way we're learning now, you face the side the entire time (like a star, an X, or the spokes in a wagon wheel) so that you can do multiple cartwheels in a row. My right side is getting pretty good at this, but on my left side I still end up twisting mid-cartwheel to face backward.

I'm getting better at doing my forward rolls the way Movement Professor instructed, so I started doing them from standing yesterday. I got a little nauseated from all the tumbling, so I didn't try dive-rolls, but almost everyone in my class did yesterday (I volunteered to be one of the people they were diving over).

Note to self: do not wear shorts again during tumbling. Scrapes up legs and leaves weird mystery bruises.


Voice
We worked with the diphthongs we'd made sentences for, and went back to the "apple" vowel. My sentence was "[Iceman] asked for his gal pal's hand on Valentine's Day." I thought it was pretty clever (since it's true).

Here are some of my sentences...

"like" diphthong
- I exercise my tight thighs at nine.
- I fly my kite high in the sky.
- I smile psychologically while saying like.

"pay" diphthong
- Dane ate Jason's cake.
- David stays away from the ballet.
- Make my grape flavored shake with whey. (I call this one "the Jamba Juice order.")
(All-the-Way pointed out that "The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain" -- used in My Fair Lady -- was good for this one as well.)

"oil" diphthong
- Disloyal boys annoy coy Joyce.
- Roy broils soy burgers in oil.
- The noisy boys have annoying voices.

the "sink/sing" sound (sounds like "ing")
- Starlings are singing and spreading their wings.
- Unwrapping things with inked paper and string.
- I'm thinking of things that bring the spring.


Other
Because this is tech/previews/opening week for Miss Julie, our afternoon classes (Acting and Analysis) were canceled. And we do not have Voice or Movement on Wednesday.

As a side note, I recently stepped on a scale and learned that I've lost a chunk of weight since November, just from eating a little more healthily and being active in Movement class. I suspect that I might be a little taller, too, so I'm going to have to measure myself one of these days.

I volunteered to be in costume at an upcoming dinner event that the Development Department is hosting to benefit the theatre. The theme is related to the play The Devil's Disciple, which is currently in rehearsals. The director, Tony Walton, will be a special guest. I got to go to the costume shop and try on some pretty dresses from the time period. I'm so excited! It's been so long since I've been in a cool costume for anything. (If anyone reading this blog is attending the dinner on Saturday, March 14, I'll be there. Please say hello!)


Voice Tutorial
I set up a tutorial to work with Voice Professor on my "forward placement" (I've also heard it called "head resonance") because it's very difficult for me to do at the moment.

I met with her yesterday during the time that I would have normally had Acting class. She says that the things my placement falls back on the most are the "sit" vowel, the second halves of diphthongs, and the consonants "k" and "g" (which I've been working to adjust since the fall... I know HOW to make them in my mouth as opposed to my throat, but I forget a lot).

She also said that she hears me occasionally put my tongue in the wrong place when I'm producing the sound of "a schwa with r-coloring", like the end of the words "sire" and "tender" (I was using Paulina's Winter's Tale speech that starts, "What studied torments, tyrant, hast for me?" for the tutorial). I need to produce them with the tip of my tongue, not the middle.

Another thing that's challenging for me is that I keep increasing my volume when I move my placement forward. Voice Professor is concerned that I'm mentally linking the two, and they're not the same thing.

That said, she seems confident that I'm going to figure it out. And if she thinks so, then I think so, too.

Friday, February 27

Voice
We had Voice class first today (the 2nd-years were doing some sort of Commedia dell'Arte performance with Movement Professor at that time). It was a little weird to have Voice first. I guess we'll have to get used to it, as our schedule is flipped in our second year.

Voice Professor thinks that people use too wide of a vowel on the word "like" because it's a happy word, so it pulls some kind of psychological trigger to smile. (Which provoked me to make up the sample sentence, "I smile psychologically while saying like."

Our homework is to work sentences using the diphthongs of "like", "pay", and "oil", as well as our "ing" combinations (the "i" should sound like "sit", not "green").


Movement
I did forward rolls from standing! I was a little worried at first, so Movement Professor came over and spotted me, but it ended up just fine. In fact, I think I'm actually BETTER at starting them from standing than I am at starting them from the ground.

Movement Professor let some of my classmates begin dive-rolling... over her. I was nervous for her, but they did really well!

We also worked on backward rolls. I'm kind of a disaster at those, actually. I can roll backward, but apparently I'm not doing it in a safe way. And when I try to correct it, somehow I end up sideways... No idea how.

There was also a new variation on cartwheels today that involves you springing up with an arched back. My body couldn't figure it out.

We were getting into "bridges/arches" at one point. It's really easy for me to bend over backward from a standing position, but Movement Professor doesn't want me to for right now. She'd prefer that I get up into a bridge from the ground, as it will help to strengthen my arms.


Acting
We continued our "story time" method of going through Three Sisters, and shared some of the images that came to us. I didn't say most of mine, because I was worried that they didn't make any sense. "A giant chicken with its feet cut off," for example. The ones I did mention were "water flowing out of the cracks in a vase," "smoke from a chimney joining smoke that was already in the air from burning houses down the street," and "a fish bowl with water and sand, but with fish painted on the outside of the bowl instead of fish inside." No, I don't know what any of those things mean (or IF they're related to Three Sisters), but that's what came to me. Fortunately, my classmates came up with some images that seemed just as disconnected as mine.


Theatre
I went to see Visiting Mr. Green tonight, and I'm so glad I did. It was really a beautiful play about two men finding common ground in their dissonant lives, and trying to find a way to handle the dissonance that religion and ideals can create within families.

Thursday, February 26

Movement
People have started doing forward rolls (somersaults) from standing positions. I'm not doing it because landing on my shoulder freaks me out (although it's apparently safer than landing on my upper back, which is what I'm used to).

I'm getting stronger already. Doing the combat crawl today was a piece of cake in comparison to last week. Christina's Crawl (which is a sideways combat crawl) is still really hard though. Luckily, I have a feeling that one isn't going to come up too much in my acting career.

I got into the yoga "tripod" position in a properly balanced way for the first time today! It was really exciting.


Auditioning Workshop
I was the last person to go today, so I had the benefit of hearing the comments for everyone else before I went. As a result, I did well. The thing that I have to work on is controlling my movement without moving into a state of rigidity (because on my first go, my knees locked and I wasn't really free enough movement-wise). But still, I'm happy with how I did.

Some key lessons I picked up during other people's tries:

- Make one sentence interchanges as active as longer monologues
- You are allowed to take a moment to drop into coherence before you begin. Just don't take longer than 30 seconds
- When preparing, read the text out loud and get the language into your mouth with ease
- Read the ENTIRE PLAY, not just the sides
- Determine the character's point of view
- Find action verbs for the character to pursue at specific moments in the text
- Do your research on the text (particularly into words/phrases/concepts you don't know)
- You don't owe the Reader in the same way that you would a scene partner; it's perfectly acceptable to steal a scene instead of sharing it
- Thank the Reader when you're done; it shows that you're polite and professional
- You CANNOT be tentative in your choices
- Pay special attention to making the text at the top of the scene come alive

We're learning the difference between "audition technique" and "rehearsal technique", which really are two different things. "Audition technique" feels a little more manufactured and less organic, but it's something that we need to have under our belts in order to get work.


Acting
We took turns using Three Sisters for story time. One person would read EVERYTHING (dialogue, stage directions, everything) while everyone else listened and allowed themselves to think in abstract imagery, and then another person would read. We weren't supposed to follow along in our texts, but I HAD to after about 3 pages. I just kept feeling like I couldn't stay focused on the story without reading along, and I kept getting confused.

At the end of the act, we'd write down our images. I felt like mine were stupid. Like melting ice cream cake, pink dresses in a brown closet, or an overcoat that was missing buttons. I'm not sure they had anything to do with the text. Maybe I was doing it wrong?

We only got through the first two acts. We'll be reading the last two acts tomorrow in the same fashion.


Analysis
We continued to discuss Mother Courage and Her Children. We tried to come up with an action for it, but I don't think we fully nailed one. The first thing thrown out was "to survive (at any cost)", but we became less sure of it as the discussion continued.

Our next assignment is to read Caucasian Chalk Circle by Brecht. We'll have to write papers on that one.

With Brecht, we're supposed to find the difference between what the action is, and how the play asks us to judge the action. I think I understand it, but it's a pretty confusing line to draw.

Killer had a really interesting idea about how scenes are introduced in Brechtian scene introductions might have been a predecessor to "coming attractions" and "next week, on LOST". I thought it was a cool insight.

Wednesday, February 25

A few members from the incoming class of 2012 have accepted their offers already! It's simultaneously exciting and strange. I can't believe it's been a year since I accepted my own offer.


Movement
We've been continuing to do stretches and tumbling. The stretches are actually the more tiring part of the class to me.

The big news is that we've started doing more daring things. Tuesday, half of the class was allowed to start attempting one-handed cartwheels. I really, really, really wanted to try, but my Movement Professor said I should give it another day. Then yesterday she said I was allowed to go, but suddenly, my body didn't want to anymore. I ended up doing a variation on it; I can get around if my legs are bent (what Movement Professor refers to as "baby cartwheels). It's still pretty scary, even though logically I know that I'm completely safe on the mats.

Yesterday we started trying to kick up into handstands, and then tried to walk on our hands. So far, Big Show has been the most successful in that endeavor. Thrill and Two-Shots-Up are also doing pretty well. I can kick up into a handstand for a few seconds, but if I try to move, I fall over backwards. It's because my lower back arches in the handstand and I can't really feel it. Oh well.


Auditioning Workshop
We've been having a workshop for the last couple of days with Voice Professor and Analysis Professor on how to audition well.

The first day, we mostly discussed concepts, and did a little cold (extremely cold) reading. Then people were assigned roles in the two plays we read to prepare well.

Yesterday, five people tried to actually audition, and our professors critiqued them and gave advice to all of us on the process.

- It might be a good idea to make a personal connection to the people in the auditioning room first. Ways to do this include, "Did you see the first story in the newspaper today?", "Do you mind if I use a chair/stand?", or asking a TEENY TINY question about the text (but that can get dangerous... you don't want to ask a question that is going to make them think you're unprepared).

- You can suck up, but only if it's quick, clean, and appropriately placed.

- If a dialect is written into the text, at the audition it's not about the dialect, but rather about the rhythm.

- Everything you do has to be about the connection you have to the text and to your scene partner (the Reader).

- Attack everything with the strongest possible intentions.

- Make sure you're paying attention to intentions, not attitudes.

- Avoid tells/defaults/crutches (over-use of hands, going off-voice, smiling, etc.)

- Play verbs

- You have about 3-4 lines to get the attention of the director, so start off strong

- Nobody expects you to memorize the sides; they jst don't want you looking down the whole time.

- If you're given an adjustment, don't ask a lot of questions. Don't act like it's the dumbest direction you've ever gotten. Just adjust. You simply say thank you, take the note, and move on. You may ask a question if you need clarification, but never, ever, ever comment on the note.

- Bring personalization to the thoughts.

- Stay connected to your partner even in silence.


Acting
We've gone back to our "primal" Demidov text études. Acting Professor reminded us that we should be getting together to work on these on our own. He said that our job as actors will never be done, and that working on these is the best way to help develop our new reflexes.

Our next unit will be our Chekov Project. We will be reading Three Sisters and working on a couple of acts of it in class to develop characters. Acting Professor says that he believes that it is the "only true polyphonic ensemble play" that Chekov created.


Analysis
We had a discussion on what we think the goal of theatre is after having read Brecht. Most of us have unchanged opinions from the beginning of the year ("to educate", "to inspire", "to heal", "to entertain", "to incite change", etc.)

We began our discussion of Mother Courage and Her Children, and started relating the concepts of war and economy to our present society.


Theatre
I went to go see The Imaginary Invalid on Tuesday night. I don't really NEED to go see it anymore. I've got the part ready to go, and the show closes on Sunday. But I really WANTED to see it again. I've spent a lot of time with this play, even though I haven't actually been in it. I'm going to be sad to see it go.