The Rules of the Game -- Free Reading

I'm going to be directing a rehearsed reading/workshop of a new play this weekend, so I thought I'd invite pass along an invitation. :)

The reading is FREE!
Saturday, July 23rd @ 8pm
The HuB (First Building)
1413 Boulevard of the Arts
Sarasota, FL

http://www.hubsarasota.com​

*Warning: this play contains strong language throughout and adult material that some may find offensive.

**Please note: seating is limited and will be assigned on a first come first served basis.


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THE RULES OF THE GAME
by Philip Gawthorne

Cast: Sarah Brown, Megan DeLay, Jesse Dornan, Jake Staley and Lindsay Tierce
Directed by Angela Sauer

"Sometimes love is a contact sport..."

You are invited to a FREE rehearsed reading of 'The Rules of The Game', the new play from acclaimed British playwright Philip Gawthorne.

Gawthorne made his Sarasota debut in January with a reading of his play "The Thrill of the Chase" as part of the Asolo Rep Late Night Series. His previous work has been performed at various New York venues such as Atlantic Theater Studios, The Sanford Meisner Theatre, and Manhattan Theatre Source, as well as in London at the Old Vic, Royal Court, and Soho Theatres, amongst many others. Broadcast magazine recently listed Gawthorne as one of the top ten writers in the UK under the age of 30.

This is a rare opportunity to be the first audience at a special preview of his controversial latest play, a provocative exploration of contemporary sexual politics, which follows in the tradition of David Mamet, Neil LaBute and Patrick Marber.


Facebook event: The Rules of the Game

Help Katey & Ron

My classmate (known as O.D.) and his fiancé recently lost most of their possessions in a fire.

They are getting married in September, but have depleted their savings in trying to replace what was lost.

To find out how you can help out, please go to their website.

Help Us Rebuild



Thank you.

~A~

Drunken Shakespeare

D-Train came up with the idea to do Shakespeare scenes in a bar, during which time both actors and audience would be drinking. And last week, his idea came to fruition at a The Closet (which is a vintage/art store called "Everything But the Girl" by day, and a small performance space by night.

I chose to stick to drinking water (no, seriously, I did; Voice Professor taught me well). But I did some Shakespeare anyway. :)

I did a Luciana monologue from The Comedy of Errors (in a very contemporary style), and a Constance monologue from King John (in a New York dialect). I also helped Iceman as a silent Isabella in his Angelo speeches from Measure for Measure, and D-Train as a silent Ophelia to Dane's Hamlet in his "To be, or not to be?" soliloquy.

It was SO MUCH FUN!!! I hope we get the opportunity to do it again.

Two awesome photographers came and documented the event, and I'm completely obsessed with their shots, so I thought I'd share them here!

The first batch came from Scott Braun.












The second group are by Gabriel Hernandez

Welcome Prospective Students!

Hello to all prospective MFA Acting students! I know that some of you have found my blog in search of information about graduate school audition season. And some of you probably got this blog from my grad school professors at URTAs. So I welcome you. :)

If you are in the middle of the audition process (or the interviews, callbacks, visits, offers, whatever), you might want to read this post that I wrote last year:
Advice for Grad School Hopefuls

I don't write about anyone by name, and I don't say the name of my program. Why? To make it a little less easy for people to find the people I write about using search engines. Just because I'm comfortable having a search for my name yield results from this blog, doesn't mean my classmates or professors should have to have the same mindset. Because really, when someone types "Bob at Awesome Grad School" into Google, it's perfectly understandable if Bob wants his professional credits to pop up before the stretches he does in movement class. The point isn't to be completely anonymous, or to hide anything from readers, but to be as professional as possible.

If you're interested, of course, you can find out what school I go to without a lot of effort. (hint: check out my personal website.) And of course that photo on the side bar serves as a handy Rosetta stone to break the Nickname Code for the friends and family of each student, who might want to know what they're up to.

I also contribute to Backstage.com's Unscripted, which is a blog written by a bunch of actors from around the country. On Angela Acts, I write more about the day-to-day of being in grad school. On Unscripted, I write more about thoughts I have on acting, and things that affect me as an actor. To read my posts, click here.

If you want to know when I post, follow me on twitter @AngelaActs. I have twitter auto-update whenever I post something new on Angela Acts OR on Unscripted, so you'll always be in the know. You can also be my fan on Facebook, which is where I usually send out invitations to shows I'm doing and other exciting and fun things going on in my world.

I love theatre, I love being in grad school, and I love my program. If you have any questions about why grad school was the right choice for me, what grad school is like, or why I love my program, feel free to email me at:
AngelaActs(at)gmail(dot)com

(I format it like that so that web-crawler spam whatnot won't be able to read it)

Anyway. Thank you kindly for visiting my blog. I hope it helps you on your journey.


All good things,

~A~

I'm Sick

Sorry for the lapse in blogging. I'm totally sick right now (if I were one of Snow White's dwarves, I'd be Sneezy).

My whole class passed our Stage Combat actor-combatant recognition whatever-they're-called exams. :)

We return to regular classes this week... which means we're about to be way more exhausted than we have been the last two weeks... Which means I've gotten sick at pretty much the worst possible time. (All-The-Way, Killer, Two-Shots-Up, and Voice Professor have all had whatever I have as well)

I hope to get back to blogging this week, but I make no promises.

All good things,

~A~

Saturday, May 9

Hello loyal readers!

I have, in fact, been working on things for graduate school since classes ended. Lots of things. And I keep thinking to myself, "I should blog." But sometimes life gets in my way.

So instead of writing one long, epic blog post listing everything, I'm just going to write little posts with bits and pieces of the things I've been working on, in a belated fashion. :)

Keep checking back for things like:

- meeting Craig Lucas

- watching "Julius Caesar" and "Much Ado about Nothing"

- the Playwrights festival

- Assessments

- our Class Meeting

- pictures of the props I worked with on "Three Postcards"



All good things,

~A~

Monday, April 20

Reunion
The reunion weekend was a total blast. Tons of people who graduated from the program in the '70s and '80s came back, as well as a few more recent grads. It was neat to talk to them about where they've worked (one guy was telling me about a run of a play he did in Siberia), what they've done (we watched one woman's commercial reel... and I'd actually seen two of the commercials), and their memories of the program.

We looked at old photographs, and they explained what the program used to be like. One woman said that the Rep company member who was her mentor was Deanna Dunagan (who recently won a Tony for her performance in August: Osage County). I saw a picture of a woman I've seen perform on Broadway (Jennifer Smith, who played Kitty in the original cast of The Drowsy Chaperone). I also saw a gorgeous picture of Linda Eder acting in the Rep many years ago. It was really neat.

I just kept thinking about the stories I'll tell people when I come back for a reunion someday. About meeting Brad Oscar and Tony Walton. About the quirks of all of my classmates. About the things I learned and the things I laughed at. Or maybe, instead of telling them, I'll just print out the quotations I've kept such extensive records of. ;)


Acting
There are a few concepts that we've discussed in Acting class lately that I haven't written about, so I thought I'd do that now.

During the end of our Chekhov project, we started doing a new thing... Before we enter a scene and a character, we take five minutes to sit (or lay down) with our eyes closed in an attempt to "lose the body" and "lose the face". The idea behind this is to become a blank slate and lose our habitual patterns of movement and expression in order to be free to create something new for the character. Movement Professor said that when we lose the body, we have the opportunity to "embody the soul."

Acting Professor says that, in the same vein as our five minute meditation, the day of a performance you should take a nap.

The work that we're doing with both Acting Professor & Movement Professor is a combination of Mary Overlie's Viewpoints (Movement Professor was in Mary Overlie's first Viewpoints class, alongside Anne Bogart) and Psychological Gesture. We are using this exploration of multiple techniques as a way to "provide food to the subconscious." We are "finding character, not building it."

We've discussed on multiple occasions how important it is to receive from your partners on stage. If you take all of your impulses from within, you will run out of impulses (and energy). You will end up squeezing things out of yourself until you are empty and your performance is heavy.

Acting Professor says that if at the end of a scene you can remember everything that you did but are vague on your partner's work, it's a very bad sign. Ideally, you should remember exactly what your partner did but have amnesia about your own performance. That means that you were receiving and responding.

The notes given to O.D. and me regarding our most recent run of "Find Me a Dream" were:
- Keep the relay of energy going between the two of us all the time, in a loop. Don't let it drop.
- We need to keep living in the pauses and have uninterrupted life.

My personal notes for the run were:
- I didn't lock my knees at the top of the scene, which is very good. :)
- As soon as I started seducing O.D., my knees locked and my back arched, which is bad.
- I had more vocal life in the scene than Movement Professor had ever heard me have before.
- I used a full range of physical tactics, which is good.
- At my entrance, I should not force one emotion or another. What happened to my character directly before the scene is a given circumstance; the way she's reacting to it is not. Also, how it affected her in the moment is not the same as how it will develop.
- O.D. and I do not need to kiss in the scene. Acting Professor says I was "radiating sexuality", and kissing him was somehow redundant.

Friday, April 17

Voice
Our voice showing went splendidly. We had a decent turnout, which is always nice.

It started with Thrill and I doing the first half of the first scene we did from Cowboy Mouth to demonstrate our work with Sending & Landing. D-Train and Two-Shots-Up did the second half of the scene.

After that, we all spoke chunks of our Wood Demon monologues. This was to demonstrate our work with Standard American Dialect.

My chunk was:
"You're angry with me because you think I married your father for selfish reasons. I give you my word of honor, if that means anything to you, that I married him for love. He attracted me as a scholar and public figure. It wasn't real love, it was quite artificial, but it seemed real enough at the time."

Finally, we did an "IPA-athon". We were divided into two teams, and we had to take words that were written on the chalkboard and race to write the way they would be written using the International Phoenetic Alphabet in a sort of relay.

The second years showed off their work with dialects. I'm so excited to do that next year! I hope we get to do "deep South" like they did. (Dialect work in the 2nd year often has to do with the mainstage shows for your 2nd and 3rd year and what they will require).


Acting
The Board of the theatre stopped by for a bit and watched Thrill and Two-Shots-Up do their Vonnegut scene. They did a great job, despite the added pressure of an audience. I was proud of them.

My scene with O.D. ran differently than usual. I totally seduced him, which makes sense, actually. But I think we lost some of the triviality of the scene, and I think Hildy (my character) ended up being too intelligent. I think the sexuality and manipulative nature were getting better, though. O.D.'s character suddenly really because the solution to all of my problems, and the rest of the scene became like a hunt for me.

I've had a few good days of class, which makes me nervous. I hope that my bad day doesn't strike the same day as our Showing.

(By the way, I changed the time of the Acting Showing in my previous post. It is now 3pm on Friday the 24th.)


Tech
The show ran smoothly, and we had a pretty good house.


Reunion
This weekend is the 50th Anniversary Reunion weekend for the Conservatory. Last night there was a sort of open mic night. I met a bunch of past grads (mostly from the classes of 1978, 1980, and 1981, it seemed). Some people sang (including All-The-Way, 3rd year BB, and 3rd year DM), some did mime, some did story-telling, one played a washboard... It was a lot of fun.

Wednesday, April 1

Hello all.

As you may have noticed, it has become increasingly difficult for me to post this blog on a daily basis.

I'm going to begin my work as Assistant Stage Manager on the musical Three Postcards starting tomorrow, and I don't anticipate that my schedule is going to become any more accommodating.

Therefore, I have had to make a difficult and sad decision. Due to my present and upcoming workload, I have decided to discontinue my usage of this blog, at least for the time being.

Thank you for your understanding.

~A~


ETA: APRIL FOOLS!

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.

Meet a Conservatory Student

I recently did an e-mail interview with a local arts newsletter regarding the program I'm in. I thought they were just going to use some quotes for an article, but they ended up publishing everything I sent them (I actually feel a little awkward about the ways in which I phrased things now... Had I known they were using my response in its entirety, I might've composed it more carefully). I thought I'd post it here for posterity's sake.

~A~

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Angela [Last Name] is a first-year student in [the conservatory]. She originally hails from Okemos, Michigan. She graduated from Saint Mary's College in Notre Dame, Indiana, and then lived in Chicago for two years between undergraduate and graduate school. This season, she’s understudying Béline in The Imaginary Invalid, and Paulina in The Winter's Tale for the [regional repertory theatre]. She was on stage crew for Wilder! Wilder! Wilder!. She will also be the assistant stage manager for Three Postcards.

What inspired you to come to [this town] to attend [the conservatory]?
I knew that pursuing an MFA in acting was the right decision for me. Acting is my vocation, and I wanted to be as well-trained as possible. I decided to come to [this town] for grad school because I was impressed with the quality of training I could get here. When I visited the program last February, I was struck not only by the skill of the acting students here, but also by their level of professionalism with their craft. Additionally, this program encourages students to expand as artists individually, instead of attempting to crush them into molds. I knew immediately that this was a good fit for me and would allow me to develop into the actor I wanted to be. After being in classes here for a semester, I know that I was correct in this assertion.

One valuable lesson you've learned so far at the Conservatory?
I've learned a multitude of valuable lessons since beginning classes here in August, about acting and about life. I'm learning to stop performing and to go on to stage living instead. I'm learning how to connect with scene partners and respond truthfully to them instead of just reciting lines the same way regardless of what's happening around me. And perhaps most importantly, I'm learning to give full freedom to my creative subconscious and to allow things to happen without censoring myself.

Three major roles as an actor you want to tackle?
It's difficult to name only three roles that I'd like to play. I think Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream would be a great deal of fun, and would fit well with my psycho-physical rhythm. She's frequently exasperated and vaguely insane, yet it's not difficult to relate to her longing and her frustrations. Many years down the line, I would love the opportunity to play Dr. Vivian M. Bearing in W;t. She is a professor of 17th-century poetry who is dying from ovarian cancer. She tries to use her scholarship to make sense of her physical battle. I feel a deep connection to that character, and hope that one day I am lucky enough to be cast in that role. Third, I think I'd have to say Cathy Hyatt-Wellerstein in the musical The Last 5 Years. The musical is written so that her scenes are in the opposite of chronological order, and I imagine it would be a challenge as an actor to try to take on her journey in reverse. She's a passionate woman who is struggling as an actor and is in a complicated relationship. I've played this role many, many times in my bedroom, singing along with the cast recording. I would love to be able to tackle it in a performance for more than just my stuffed animals.

Goals? Dreams?
My highest goal is just to do great work as an actor. I don't know where that's going to lead me, or what I'll be doing as a result. I suppose that solid plans, security, and stability are things that I'm willing to risk in order to pursue this career. I don't mind that uncertainty at the moment, as I have two and a half years left here to better understand what it is that I need to do in order to put my skills to good use.

Final words?
I am an actor because I feel that this is the way that I'm going to change the world. Theater is my civil service. If people can come to the theater and learn from the stories we tell, then we can change their perspectives. If they can put their troubles out of their minds for a little while, we can help heal their souls. If a busy family can come see a play and have something to talk about at dinner the next night, we can unite them. We can change people's lives in astonishing ways, and I believe that we can change the world. And when the world is in a depressed state, people need the arts more than ever. I'm incredibly proud to be doing what I'm doing.

[The conservatory] is a celebrated 3-year program culminating in a Master of Fine Arts degree. For more than 30 years, tens of thousands of actors from across the continent have auditioned for admission. A maximum of 12 students are admitted each year. In their second year, the students perform in the [Name] Theatre, a 161-seat space designed to create an intimate experience for the audience and actors. Third-year students are seen on the [Name] Stage working with the [Name] Repretory Theatre's professional actors in exciting and significant roles.

Saturday, September 27

As I mentioned before, I have tonsillitis (or possibly strep). I wrote a casual email to my voice professor to let her know. She had told us to contact her if we had any "vocal emergencies", and I wasn't sure if this qualified. Here was her response:

hi Angela,

thanks for your email, it is important to keep me in the loop on these things. you really should be on VOCAL REST, at least throughout the weekend and monday.

this means:

no talking
no whispering
no talking whatsoever on the telephone unless its absolutely essential, like calling your doctor. it's very stressful on your voice
hydrate
drink warm tea, or hot water with lemon & honey
steam

please call me (it will be considered essential since we are discussing taking care of your voice) on MONDAY night on my cell with an update. if you get my voicemail leave me a message & i'll call you back. it's excellent that you went to the doctor immediately. that's exactly what you should have done under those circumstances of white spots.

you can call me before monday if you need any guidance.

take good care!



So it looks like I'll have a few days of silence. *sigh*

~A~