Saturday, March 12

Unplugged Festival
The press release for the upcoming Unplugged Festival hit the internet today, so I think that means I am now allowed to announce my casting. The festival is to workshop new plays, culminating in readings.

I will be in Some of the People, All of the Time by Jamie Pachino. It will be directed by Artistic Director (he is also directing Las Meninas that I'm in, which opens this coming week).

The description in the press release is:
A priceless collection of Japanese art surfaces and two rival art dealers struggle to find out the truth about the collection's history. Nothing is quite as it appears in this compelling story of passion, art and double dealing.

The performance of this one will be Thursday, April 14 at 2:00pm.


Las Meninas
We had a rehearsal on stage with our set earlier this week (it's unusual to have that happen before tech here, because there are other shows in performing in repertory on the same stage). And as a result of that rehearsal, I'm pretty sure that this is going to be one of the craziest tech periods I've ever had.

The set is mechanized (which is REALLY COOL, by the way), so it might take some time to get the cues down. Also, the actors are moving the set, and several of the entrances onto the set are more narrow than we had been anticipating. Also, some of the wider entrances open up from hidden double doors to the set, and so each time we move large furniture (like beds) through them, there have to be two people holding the doors open so that they are FULLY open, or else the beds won't fit. Not to mention that we're doing all of this in period costumes and platform shoes (one of the main characters is supposed to be a little person, so the rest of us are in platforms to help make him look smaller).



Boeing Boeing
We were sold out for Boeing Boeing earlier this week. We've done it on Wednesday and Thursday, and we're doing it again on Saturday. After that (as a result of Las Meninas tech/opening week), we won't do it again for a long stretch of time.

Monday, February 21

Las Meninas
The rehearsals for Las Meninas are going well. We have blocked the entire show, and run each act separately... and we don't open for another month.

I've been going on as an understudy for all or part of most rehearsals. I'm understudying Acting Professoressa in her two roles as The Queen Mother & The Mother Superior. Because of her teaching schedule, when we rehearse from 11-4 or 12-5, she has to leave at 1:30, and I'm her for the rest of the day. Also, she's been off on recruitment (auditioning students for the incoming class of 2014... oh my!), so I've been playing her roles while she was out of town. At this point, I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that I've been in her roles more than she has.

On the one hand, that's great: understudies don't generally get this much rehearsal, and I'm further along in learning the lines/blocking than I would be otherwise. But on the other hand, it's tough: because I'm playing my own character AND her two characters, I get confused a lot. I keep missing one entrance as the Mother Superior because I'm already on stage as my own role, a Lady-in-Waiting. (My understudy can't attend most rehearsals because she's in classes). I feel like I'm letting everyone down.

Wifey, Thrill, and Two-Shots-Up all have HUGE roles in this show, and they're rocking them. As the Artistic Director (who is directing this show) said, Las Meninas is the show this season where there are students in the main roles, and the Equity cast is supporting the students. It's neat to see. I'm super proud of them.


Boeing Boeing
The show has been a lot of fun. We only perform it about once a week, which is tough (quite a memory exercise). But I love it when we do perform it. Our audiences have been terrific, and we've been sold out or close to it for every performance we've had, which is awesome.

I have 5 assisted changes during the show, which I am making with the assistance of two lovely ladies named Deborah and Michelle. Deborah is our costume crew, and Michelle is wigs/hair/makeup. All of my changes involves hats/headpieces/wigs getting put on or taken off, so Michelle does that while Deborah helps me with costume pieces/accessories/shoes/props. It's kind of crazy. But the funny thing is, when I tell people who have seen the show that I have 5 assisted changes, they can't think of any of them! A couple of those changes are SUPER FAST, but the stuff happening on stage is so dynamic that the audience doesn't realize that I just changed out of my (incredibly complex) air hostess uniform and into a nightgown in 20 seconds.


Donor Brunch
The 3rd-Years had our annual brunch with donors this past weekend. It was lovely. It's amazing to be in a room with that many people who love and support you.

I mentioned to them that I'm working on moving to London, and I need a way to do it and be legally able to work. If anyone reading this has any suggestions or ideas, please let me know.


Showcase
We have chosen our scenes for our New York Showcase in April, and have started rehearsing them. I'm doing a scene with Two-Shots-Up and a scene with Thrill, both of which are comedic. I'm happy with what I ended up with.


The Thrill of the Chase
We did a free staged reading of a play my boyfriend wrote while he was visiting me from London. We had a great turn-out, especially considering that we did mostly word-of-mouth advertising. The reading was fantastic (and I'm not just saying that because I was in it). People seemed to be really affected by the piece (which is dark and twisted), and I'm STILL getting comments from them about it, and how glad they were that we did it. I'm glad we did it, too. :)


The Love Late Night
The 4th Annual Love Late Night was a huge success. I did a monologue that I wrote myself. D-Train and 1st-Year SB did a scene that my boyfriend wrote. We had a great time.

Saturday, October 2

Antigone Now


At this point, we're all just exhausted. We're working through the entire show about three times a day, and it's emotionally exhausting.

It's also really hard on our bodies and our voices. We're well-trained (thank GOD!), so we're being as careful as we can be, but this takes its toll anyway. We sit on metal chairs motionless. We stand motionless. We kneel. And I scream half of my lines. It's intense.

I've been hydrating more than usual (I usually hit 10 cups of water a day) and eating honey. I've been resting my voice whenever possible. I've been lying down whenever I get a chance. But it's tough.

Director said today that we need to be more consistent in our emotional connections during the play. I think that right now, we just really need a day off (which, fortunately, we get tomorrow.)


~A~

Friday, October 1

It's October? Seriously? How did that happen?


Class

I read a scene with All-the-Way that I used for a competition when I was in undergrad. Head-of-Program seemed to like it (and thought that it was a particularly good fit for me), so he said to keep it around as a possibility. I have to tell you, I felt AWESOME about that.

All-the-Way & O.D. did a scene that was quite funny, but Head-of-Program thought it was too prop-heavy to bring to Showcase. He also said that he thinks someone has suggested this scene every year, and they always have to rule it out in the end.

Thrill & Iceman did a scene that required too much background information.

Two-Shots-Up & Wifey did a scene (perhaps the only non-comedic scene that anyone has brought in thus far). It was a good scene, but Head-of-Program didn't think it was evenly split between the two characters.

Killer & All-the-Way did a scene that Head-of-Program liked, but he thought it wasn't right for All-the-Way. He said to hold onto it, and maybe try it again in the future with Wifey.

Dude, this is complicated.

We've been having conversations about headshot photography as a class, but it's complicated. We have different ideas about what headshots should be (and how much they should cost). And we all have different schedules. I don't know how this is going to work out. I'm praying that we have a good solution for everyone.


Antigone Now

My notes include:

- The 1st prologue was weak

- After Creon's intro, move with motivation, not just because we're obediently following our blocking ;)

- By "naturalistic", our director seems to mean "struggle to come up with the words you're about to say"

- During the prayer, get more charged as it goes

- The final run (of three) was the best run we've done so far

- We shouldn't be working to make a word into something that it already is (or, as the director put it, "making butter buttery")

- Change the word "mama" to "mother". Change the word "daddy" to "father".

- After the prayer, get determined on the lift
(we all come together to lift Two-Shots-Up in a crazy cool way)

Thursday, September 30

Antigone Now

Voice Professor has attended some of our rehearsals as our vocal coach. Here are some of the notes I've gotten from her:

- On the line "We're through with wailing": grabbing in the throat. Remember expansion in heightened emotion and when increasing volume.

- Be cautious of glottal attacks on initial vowels. It sounds find, but it's stressful on the voice.

- Use final "z" sounds. Especially in lines like, "Crossing rivers and oceans, cities and ruins, mountains and plains...", and "He makes cities where there was swamp and wheat fields where there was forest. He builds factories where there was jungle and mighty freeways where the prairies stretched."

Wednesday, September 29

Antigone Now

We started rehearsal early, in a brand new space.

Because this is a touring show, we have to get used to performing it in all sorts of different spaces. And today, we tried one out.

In mid-October, we will be performing on the second floor of a museum, in what is sometimes used as a gallery. It's a huge, echoing chamber of a room. They will be putting in a platform for us to use as a stage. But we have a much shallower space to work in than we're used to. So we had to change some of our blocking. And I kept wandering off the edge of the stage (which is not yet clearly marked). Whoops!

My notes included:

- Don't fall off the stage!!!

- When doing "Desire" speech, align self with DSR corner of the square

- Back up when doing Creon speech chair rotation.

- x US of Newbie on "Poor Babies" line.


That sort of thing.


We're going to have to do this (to some extent) in EVERY new space before performing. It's going to be insane.

Tuesday, September 28

Antigone Now

Here are my notes from today's run (from Voice Professor):

- Don't give up on your text when someone is cutting you off. Your line is still important. Don't drop volume. Don't anticipate being cut off.

- On the word "lost", don't glottal stop. Make sure to plode the "t".

- My "Aphrodite" monologue was "exemplary".

- In general, using voice very well.



We talked briefly about things that we should expect while touring the show. We are expected to always carry an ID. Some of the schools are doing background checks on us. Luckily, I think we're all pretty safe.

Sunday, September 26th

LATE NIGHTS

There are 2 performances of Red Light Winter today. By the time you read this, you'll still be able to make it the the 8pm performance tonight (Sunday). It's free, and it's excellent. I have a brief cameo in the pre-show, so come say hello.

There was a performance on Friday night that was extremely well-attended. The space only seats about 60 people, so we had a standing-room-only situation, and had to (sadly) turn some people away. I hope they can make it tonight.

It's a seriously great show. Iceman directed it, and it stars All-the-Way, D-Train, and Killer. Come if you can. It's worth seeing.

(Note: This show has nudity and sexual content.)



ANTIGONE NOW
Rehearsals have been going fairly well, except that half the cast is under the weather.

The show was fully blocked by Tuesday. It's a short play, so we made it through quite quickly. Now, we're mostly just running it and doing work-throughs.



UNDERSTUDYING
As a 3rd-year, I have understudy responsibilities for the Rep, just as I did in my 1st-year. Our understudy assignments were posted on Friday, which it felt like we'd been waiting for forever.

I'm understudying the Queen Mother/Mother Superior in Las Meninas (bonus: the actress playing those roles is my 2nd-year Acting Professoressa! How cool is that?). I'm also understudying a role in Deathtrap: a Hungarian psychic named Helga. You may have heard about Deathtrap recently, as it just opened on the West End (and there's a decent chance that it will be transferring to Broadway) starring Jonathan Groff (of Spring Awakening and Glee fame). Our theatre magically got the rights to do it JUST BEFORE the rights were locked up by the West End production. So we are the only other theatre (that I know of) that is being allowed to do it this season. So that's kind of cool. I'm really excited for my understudy roles.

And you know what else is kind of awesome? Someone is understudying ME this year! One of the 1st-years is understudying me in two different shows in the season. I've never had an understudy before. Ever. This is crazy.

Monday, September 20

Antigone Now

We've had rehearsals the last 3 days. We've been doing Straight-6s (meaning that we do 6 hours of rehearsal, with a 20-minute dinner break somewhere in the middle).

The show is already mostly blocked, which is great. It's starting to take shape. I had another costume fitting on Saturday. The leads had a photo call this morning.

It's so hard to blog about the rehearsal process. The things I think of are things that mean nothing out of the context of the rehearsal.

Voice Professor has attended a couple of rehearsals as our vocal coach. The notes I've gotten from her include:

- Too choppy
- Falling into vocal pattern
- Watch the vowels on the phrase "our old king"
- Don't get stuck in upper register

But I corrected those pretty quickly, I think.

We've been told that tomorrow a news crew is coming in to shoot some B-roll of our rehearsal for a story they're doing. I just got an e-mail now saying that I'm called from 1:30pm-7:00pm.

Friday, September 17

3rd-Year Class

We have such a long to-do list before Showcase.

I'm in charge of getting the wheels rolling on our website. We might have to purchase Dreamweaver, or another sort of website design program. Or we might end up hiring someone to make it for us. So I'm looking into that.

The Student Rep Board traditionally allocates some funds to the 3rd-years being able to buy some new plays to read for Showcase scenes, provided that the plays then get donated to our Conservatory Library, so that all three classes can benefit from them. We have to figure out what plays we'd like to request.

We're still figuring out head-shots... I hope we can all agree on everything.

We also have to discuss as a class who we might want as a graduation speaker (far in advance, I know... we don't graduate until May). It can be someone we've worked with, or an alum of the program, or even just someone in the business whom we'd like to meet. We have some ideas, but no consensus as of yet.

Also, we have to coordinate how to set up brunch after graduation. All-the-Way is heading up that project.

We read a few scenes to try them out for Showcase. One was pretty good, but needs to be cut. One was way too long. A couple of them were too much exposition.

A sent a few scenes out to some of my classmates last week, but I don't know how right they are for our needs. It's hard for me to read a play and know how something will work out of context.

Fundraising/Late Nights

Next week, there are going to be three performances of Red Light Winter by Adam Rapp. It's a student-produced Late Night event (although they're not always all that late...). Iceman directed it, and it stars All-The-Way, D-Train, & Killer. Two-Shots-Up & I will be appearing in non-speaking roles.

Antigone Now

Today was (finally!) our first day of rehearsal.

We started things off with a short "meet-and-greet", of all the cast, crew, & production team. It was fun. And it made me feel really good about this project.

Antigone Now by Melissa Cooper is an updated version of Sophocles' classic play, Antigone. The theatre is putting it up as an educational outreach project. We will be touring it around the area, mostly to area high schools. In the past, it has been difficult for schools to get the funding to get buses to come see theatre, so we're going to them! We'll be performing throughout the month of October (and rumor has it, the show is quite popular and we might end up booking into November). There will be a talk-back after every performance.

We started rehearsal with a read-through. The cast is:

Antigone: Two-Shots-Up

Ismene: Newbie

Creon: Iceman

Chorus Leader: Wifey

Chorus: Angela, All-the-Way, Killer, O.D., & Thrill

We did a read-through first. After that, the chorus wasn't needed much. We ended up getting out a bit early. A pretty successful first day, I thought.

Tuesday, March 2

Voice Professor canceled class today so that we could have a little extra rest before our tech/preview day.

MOVEMENT
We got together to work on the pavane as a class. It's going just fine.

After that, I worked with Movement Professor individually on my restoration Stuffed Turkey monologue. She likes what I'm doing with it. I keep worrying that I'm going to move my body too much, or not stay in counterpoint between movement and text. Movement Professor said something like, "Why do you keep worrying you're doing it wrong? You're not doing it wrong. Maybe I don't tell you enough that you're doing a good job. But you are. You're doing a good job." So that helped me to relax a bit.

I've blocked the first 15 lines of the monologue (which now involves me falling to the floor). I have 25 lines total, so I have to block the rest on my own before Friday (which is when we're showing them to our classmates).


MACHINAL

The weekend of tech was fine. Actually, it wasn't bad for me at all. I'm only in 3 out of 10 scenes in the play, so it was just a lot of sitting around for me. On Sunday, we did 2.5 runs of the show, which I think takes a lot out of Newbie (she has the largest and most emotionally exhausting role in the play), but she was a trooper.

Today, we spent the afternoon figuring out kinks in tech stuff, and then had our preview performance. We had a pretty full house, and the audience seemed to be really rocked by it. I went out to the lobby after the show, and several people were so affected by the show that they all just stayed around the theatre, talking to each other about it. I'm so excited by that, I can't even tell you.

Here's a video about the show:



I'm excited for opening!

Friday, February 26

VOICE
More work on our New York dialect scenes. Big Show, Thrill and I are off-book now. I think we're doing pretty well with the dialect. Our exam is on Tuesday, so I think we'll be able to run it during Tech this weekend.


ACTING
Big Show and I did our scene, and Acting Professoressa said that I finally hit my character on target. She asked what I was doing differently. Honestly, I'm not 100% sure... Part of it is that I've been so worried about playing anger, playing sadness, playing bitterness... and as a result, I hadn't been allowing myself to FEEL those things. I'm allowed to FEEL them; I'm just not allowed to play the problems. So now I've given myself some freedom back. It was the least frustrated I've felt with that scene since... well, ever.


MACHINAL
Tech. Oh man. Well, we have costumes now, which is cool. We're doing 10-out-of-12s tomorrow and Sunday. Pray for us.

Thursday, February 25

VOICE
Voice Professor was out today. We did our warm-up along with a recording that we have of her.

After that, I got together with Thrill to work on our New York dialect scene. Big Show left instead of working with us, so Thrill and I traded off reading his lines.


MOVEMENT
The first 30 minutes of class, Movement Professor worked one-on-one with All-the-Way figuring out all the counts of the Pavane (she's our dance captain for the assignment). Then she worked with all the girls showing us the counts.


ACTING
In Iceman & Newbie's scene from Measure for Measure, I play a servant with exactly one line: "One Isabel, a sister, desires access to you." And then he tells me to send her in, and I leave. Not exactly a pivotal role. But Acting Professoressa wanted me to say what my "Need" was in the scene alongside the others, nonetheless. So we ended up with the idea that my need was to be the best servant that the world has ever known, and to just sort of disappear into the background (which she liked to Anthony Hopkins in The Remains of the Day). So backstage, I was trying to get into character, and then I came out and bowed, but Iceman's back was to me and he didn't see me bow to him... so I just kept bowing instead of saying my line. And then I was so nervous about not being the best servant ever, that I screwed up pretty much every word in my ONE LINE. I think I said, "Isabella, one Isabella, a servant, wants access to thee." COMPLETELY wrong. Everyone just started laughing. It was a disaster.

Anyway. That was the most memorable part of acting class for me today: screwing up a scene that I was barely in.


MACHINAL
We're starting to tech. The Director warned us that this is going to be a vicious tech process, and that we're going to have to use every minute of it. Let the games begin.

Wednesday, February 24

VOICE
I regret to say that today was the first time in my 3.5 semesters of graduate school that I have missed class time… I came into Voice class very late today. I apologized to Voice Professor, who was very kind about it (because I’m not a repeat offender, and because I’m quite solid on the New York dialect, which is what I was missing).
We continued reciting the most interesting lines from everyone’s New York Dialect scenes. Things are going pretty well. Our exam is going to be on Friday.

MOVEMENT
We spent an hour on the Pavane. I now dance with Iceman, D-Train, and Killer.
After that, we showed the first couple of sentences of our “Stuffed Turkey” monologues. I worked with Wifey and Two-Shots-Up on our actions last night in the dressing room during our downtime in rehearsal. I’m pretty excited about this assignment. So far, everyone has found some very entertaining motions to use.
The next few Movement Classes are going to be private lessons. Mine is on Tuesday, so I get the next two days off from Movement.

ACTING
It’s hard to know what to write everyday about Acting Class (and about Machinal, actually) I guess because it’s the kind of stuff that I absorb more than the stuff I take notes on. And additionally, a lot of times notes I take are ones that I’ve taken before, but that I now need to apply under different circumstances. And on days that I’m not working through my scene, it feels weird to blog about other people’s stuff…
The only notes I wrote today were:
- Listen
- Linking sentences is good, but don’t do it at the expense of punctuation
- Land

MACHINAL
Today was our “crew run-through”… which means that it’s the first time that most of our 1st-Year Crew has seen what we’re doing with the show. I saw Head of Program, Movement Professor, and Voice Professor in the audience as well.

I took a weird risk with the Matron tonight, and mocked Newbie's character. Director didn't like it.

With the Nurse, I've gone through a bunch of different iterations. Tonight, Director thought I was too empathetic, and need to get back to being more annoyed.

I got three notes from Voice Professor. One was about an inflection, and the other two were about landing operative words.

Tuesday, February 23

VOICE
We started with a warm-up, which was nice.

Then, on to New York dialect. We worked on some sentences that were proving difficult for various people in their scenes, and then everyone in the class recited them.

MOVEMENT
We started with the Pavane. My primary partner for it is Iceman, which is awesome. I don’t get to work with Iceman nearly enough. But aside from that, well, the Pavane isn’t a terribly exciting dance. It’s not very difficult, and it moves very slowly. I think we’re doing it for a sense of the style of the period, and the opportunity to find how to be individual in a period style while doing choreography.
After that, we moved on to our Restoration monologues. Eventually, they will be filled with very specific actions with our props. They’re packed with so many actions that Movement Professor calls them “Stuffed Turkeys”.
The monologue I am working on is from The Rover (or The Banish'd Cavaliers)" by Aphra Behn (one of the first female professional playwrights). I'm playing Angellica Bianca. Here's a description of the scene:

"Angellica Bianca, a famous courtesan, experiences love for the first time by falling for the philandering cavalier Willmore. In this scene, brandishing a pistol which she holds to his breast, she expresses her anger and sense of betrayal after having found him paying court to another woman."

And here's the monologue:

You said you loved me.
And at that instant I gave you my heart.
I'd pride enough and love enough to think
That it could raise thy soul above the vulgar
Nay, make you all soul too, and soft and constant.
Why did you lie and cheapen me? Alas,
I thought all men were born to be my slaves,
And wore my power like lightning in my eyes;
But when love held the mirror, that cruel glass
Reflected all the weakness of my soul;
My pride was turned to a submissive passion
And so I bowed, which I ne'er did before
To anyone or anything but heaven.
I thought that I had won you and that you
Would value me the higher for my folly.
But now I see you gave me no more than dog lust,
Made me your spaniel bitch; and so I fell
Like a long-worshipped idol at the last
Perceived a fraud, a cheat, a bauble. Why
Didst thou destroy my too long fancied power?
Why didst thou give me oaths? Why didst thou kneel
And make me soft? Why, why didst thou enslave me?
Ah, sir, ah, sir, I yet had been content
To wear my chains with vanity and joy,
Hadst thou not broke those vows that put them on.

Now, originally the character I was creating for myself for this unit was COMPLETELY different, but it wasn't going to work with this monologue. So I changed some things.

Originally, my dog was a chihuahua, and my name was "Lady Buttermuffin".

Now my dog is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, and my lace is Venetian Needle Point Plat. I think my name is going to be "Madame Felicia Featherotica".

Movement Professor took us through a series of questions that we were supposed to answer with our characters in mind. It was something like:
- looking at your lace, come up with four adjectives to describe it. Then, find a way to turn those adjectives into adverbs. (e.g. 'wild' => 'wildly')
- You (as your character) are walking through a garden and you come across an object. What sort of object is it?
- The object that you have found in the garden: what sort of condition is it in? (describe in one word)
- You come to a wall. Do you try to get over it? Do you ignore it and go back? Do you look for another way around?
- What is your [character’s] favorite color?
- If you (as your character) were an animal, what kind of animal would you be?
- Walking through the garden, you find a broken tea cup. What do you do?
- When you dream, are your dreams “fantastical”, “everyday”, or “frustratingly boring”?
- Look at the picture of the dog you’ve chosen. What is the dog’s favorite thing to do?

Then she led us through how we were to use the answers.
- The adverbs you’ve come up with, the animal you chose, and the things the dog likes to do are all descriptive of the way the character moves.
- The object you find and the condition you find it in inform the character’s point of view.
- The way you deal with the wall shows how ambitious the character is.
- The favorite color of the character shows their feelings on sex. (If magenta is one end of the scale and cold blue is on the other, like temperature.)
- The way you deal with the broken tea cup shows how you think about death.

(I don’t remember what the dreams mean.)
Our homework is to come up with counter-point movement with our fans/snuffboxes/handkerchiefs for the first couple of sentences in our monologues. It’s okay for movement to be literal. The movement must not happen at the same time text is happening. We have to treat them as two separate languages, and we can only use one at a time to communicate.
Movement Professor said that if at any point during the time that we’re doing this work you feel bored, that you should stop. She says that actors are good at continuing to do things that they find boring for very long periods of time, but that it’s not actually beneficial to do that. If you’re bored, it’s probably because you’re frustrated or angry about something, so you should figure out what the problem is and try to solve it. And then find a way to make what you’re doing fun and interesting.

ACTING
Big Show and I did our Richard III scene again. I feel like every time we do it, I’ve gone too far in one direction or the other. One day the note is that I need to fight more, and the next day my note is that I’m fighting too much. One day I’m too aggressive, and the next I’m too passive. It’s frustrating. Acting Professoressa says we’re getting closer, but I feel like I just can’t nail down where the lines are in this scene.
I’m looking forward to the comedy scenes… I feel like they’ll be more fun to work on somehow.

MACHINAL
We did a slow work-through of the show. The Director seems to be pretty happy with where we are. I tried out some new things for The Nurse, and he seemed to like them. So that’s good. Tomorrow is our run for the crew. Tech week is upon us.

Friday, February 19

VOICE

We started speaking our New York dialect scenes. I’m working with Big Show and Thrill. I think I'm doing alright.


MOVEMENT

The men showed their snuffbox moves.

We did something with a salon. People had to enter the “room” one at a time, and make a grand entrance before greeting each other.

At one point, we had to have a secret lover, and find ways to communicate with them using our body language, facial expression, and props. I decided that Thrill was my secret lover, and as I was communicating that to him, it became clear that he had chosen me as his as well! Very fun.

We also worked on handshakes, and gentlemen kissing ladies’ hands.

We started working on the Pavane. My dance partner is Iceman. It’s moving super slowly right now.


ACTING

Acting Professoressa had people working today write their “Need” in one cogent sentence on the chalkboard. It was a way of making sure they’d really nailed down what their goal in the scene was, to try to keep their stakes high and their words active.
Other notes of the day:

- There’s a difference between aggression that comes out of hate than the aggression that comes out of hurt.

- Don’t pick up your cues TOO soon, as you might be missing an important piece of ingormation that really needs to land on you.


MACHINAL

We did our “designer run-through” today. It was attended not only by the Director, Stage Manager, and ASM (1st-Year GP), but also:
- The sound designer
- The lighting designer
- The costume designer
- The set designer
- The costume crew (1st-Year AS and 1st-Year GK)
- A prospective student who is visiting the program right now (It’s recruitment season!)

It kinda felt like an audience, which was cool.

I think the run went pretty well. I’m in Scene 4 (the hospital) and Scene 9 (the jail). Scene 4 has been going well for a while now, and feels like one of the tightest scenes at the moment. Scene 9 has taken a while to find its footing, but I think we’re finally on the right track. This was the first time we’ve run it when I actually felt pretty good about it after the fact.

Thursday, February 18

AUDITIONING WORKSHOP

Our final day of the auditioning workshop.

I asked a question that led into a whole long conversation. The topic? If you realize at an audition that the play you’re auditioning for is something that you are opposed to doing (because you are unwilling to do something that the play calls for, or because you’re morally opposed to the play, etc.), how do you gracefully back out of it? As it turns out, I’m not the only person that this was a problem for.

The short version of the answer: if you know you won’t take it, don’t audition for it. If it’s a question of nudity or smoking or something, you can say that it’s something you have a problem with. If it has to do with you not liking the play, DO NOT OFFEND THEM BY TELLING THEM THAT. Consider blaming your schedule instead. If you are in a situation where you cannot get out of it any other way, say, “I’m very sorry. I think I need to pass.” Be as polite as possible.

Other notes I took included:

- By knowing plot points, you should recognize the internal structure of the scene. Use that to know what the character has to communicate, and what the story exists to do.

- Know your individual issues going into an audition (do you need to memorize sides? Do you need to practice your “s” sounds? Etc.), and spend time taking care of them for yourself.

- Have the script in hand -- even if you memorized your side -- unless otherwise instructed. If you don’t have it in your hand, it looks more like a performance than a work-in-progress, and sends a subconscious message to the director that they will not be able to direct you to do different things with the scene.

- Be capable of listening without taking pauses for more responses



MOVEMENT

We are now coming to class in our full restoration regalia. Very fun. Remind me to take pictures.
We do walking and greeting each other, as well as snubbing, and grand reverénces to the King. We do a little work with the barre.

Our assignment from last week was to come up with actions with our fans (ladies), handkerchiefs & snuffboxes (gentlemen). We started showing our fan and handkerchief moves today.

Movement Professor didn’t love most of mine. She says I need clearer a “beginning, middle, end” of each action. Also, some of mine look “too contemporary”. Oh well. I’ll keep working.



ACTING

Lately, Acting Professoressa has been relating her thoughts on the Olympics to her thoughts on class.

- These athletes train and train and train because they want to be the best _____________ in the world. If we want to be the best actors in the world, we have to do the same.

- These athletes are obsessed with their training, and sacrifice a lot in their lives for their sports. We will also sacrifice for our art.

- When figure skaters fall (after all that training, sacrifice, passion, and their families and countries depending on them), they have to get right back up and try to keep going without taking any time to dwell. We as actors must do the same when things go wrong, either in our scenes, or in our careers.



We had a discussion during the scene-work about not contradicting the “script demands” that are between the lines of text.

Wednesday, January 17

AUDITIONING WORKSHOP
Yesterday around noon we got an e-mail of a PDF version of the play that we’re using for this workshop, and were expected to read it last night, and prepare two sides for the character we were assigned to “audition” for. The play is called How to Pray, and I was assigned the main character, Faith.
Today I got a chance to read in class. Head of Program said that I did quite well with a challenging scene for auditions. (The challenge of it being to prove that as an actor I could connect with a partner, while playing a character who was avoiding connecting with another character.)
The notes that I personally got were:
- Don’t overuse smiling as a tactic. Even if it is a specific choice, it starts to look like a crutch/default/generalization (a.k.a. “the smiling disease”).
- You don’t have to show that you’re listening to the partner. You can just listen.
Other notes I wrote (about others, and about the process) included:
- Don’t start pacing. It has nothing to do with your intention and weakens the audition.
- Make the scene all about the Reader (not about you). Since the directors are watching you, then you appear active, and the scene seems like it’s about you.
- If the script is unpublished, ask for the script beforehand. Ask if you can pick up a hard copy, or if they can send you a PDF.
- Look for ways that you can control the scene, instead of waiting to see how the Reader is going to control it, or expecting the Reader to do certain things for you.
- Have a way to be in the scene from the very beginning. Don’t find the conflict mid-scene, because you might not get that far before they cut you off.


MOVEMENT
We continued showing our external characterization work.


ACTING
More scene work.


MACHINAL
We did our first full run of the scenes tonight. It seemed to go pretty well.

Friday, February 12

VOICE
We had a "vocal production" day today. Which means tremoring (destructuring), restructuring, and general warm-up sorts of things. Then we worked again on vocal extremes (screaming and shouting).

MOVEMENT
Today, we finally got to put on our Restoration outfits in class! I'm sure I'm going to be totally sick of it in like two weeks, but for now, the novelty of it is still totally fun. Thrill paired his outfit with bright orange shiny tights that I totally LOVED (I want a pair for myself!). Iceman has the best shoes; black heels with HUGE white bows on them.

We started working on behavior, including how to greet others when walking past, or how to snub them. We started working a little with fans and handkerchiefs.

Our homework is to come up with 9 distinct actions with out fans/handkerchiefs to express 9 action verbs.


ACTING
More scene work.

MACHINAL
I'm not fully confident in what I'm doing in this play yet, nor do I fully know what story we're telling, but I'm on board. I think it's going to be a really cool production.

Thursday, February 4

STAGE COMBAT WORKSHOP
We've now blocked our entire exam fight, which is cool. In order to do so, we had to review safe ways of falling, elbowing, strangulation, throwing, etc.

The fight goes kind of like this:

- Person A pushes or shoves Person B.
- Person B pushes or shoves Person A.
- Person B slaps Person A with their left hand, and Person A does a clap knap (they use their hands to make the sound of the slap)
- Person A backhand-slaps Person B with their right hand, and Person B does a clap knap.
- Person A walks past Person B and bumps their shoulder as they go by.
- Person B puts their upstage hand on Person A's downstage shoulder to stop them.
- Person A pivots around, and raises their upstage arm to meet Person B's extended arm, and then throw it off.
- Person A uses their right (upstage) fist to try to punch Person B, which Person B blocks with their forearm.
- Person B uses their left (upstage) fist to punch Person A in the latissimus muscle.
- Person B uses their right (downstage) fist to try to punch Person A, which Person A blocks with their forearm.
- Person A throws a punch to either the back of Person B's head, or to Person B's right ear. Person B does a clap knap.
- Person B takes a couple of steps backward
- Person B preps for a sidekick (by chambering the leg at the knee), and then kicks, and Person A uses both hands to block it.
- Person B tries to take a big swing at Person A, which Person A blocks with both forearms.
- Person A tries to elbow Person B, but Person B steps in towards them.
- Person B reaches around and begins to strangle Person A.
- Person A reaches a hand up through the crook of Person B's arm to get away.
- Person A turns around and punches Person B. Person A uses a slip-hand knap.
- Person A pulls Person B's hair
- Person B reaches over Person A's shoulder to get into a grappling position.
- Person B flings Person A around
- Person B knees Person A in the stomach twice.
- Person B pushes Person A, and Person A falls backwards to the ground.
- Person A tries to side-kick Person B, and Person B avoids.
- Person A tries to heel kick Person B, and Person B bats it away.
- Person B steps in toward Person A
- Person A kicks Person B in the groin
- Person B falls to their knee
- Person A tries to crawl away
- Person B grabs Person A's shoulder and throws them back onto the ground
- Person B begins to strangle Person A
- Person A uses their arms to break Person B's hold
- Person A throws Person B off of them.

And from there on out, we can block whatever we want in order for our scenes to make sense and for the right person to "win".



SEARCHING FOR EDEN
I went back to see it again today, because 1st-Year JaS had to go on as an understudy for Adam. (As in Adam of "Adam and Eve"... in a two person play.) It's the largest role that an understudy has had to go on for at our theatre in YEARS, so a bunch of us who had time went to support him. He totally rocked it, and made the Conservatory proud. Great job, JaS!

MACHINAL
Another one of our "usual" games is a "switch places" game. We all stand in a circle, and one person makes eye contact with another, letting them know that they're going to take their place in the circle. The person starts walking, and the person they've made eye contact with has to find someone else's spot to take. The goal is that people are always moving, and that no one ever gets to anyone else's spot before they've found someone to switch with. It might not sound complicated, but it really is, as you kind of have to see a couple of moves ahead... And then the Director throws someone a tennis ball... And WHILE all the other trading spaces stuff is occurring, we have a second objective of throwing the ball around. So you're constantly looking around to see if someone is making eye contact with you, either to take your spot or to throw you a ball. We're getting better at it, but it does require a great deal of concentration.

We started blocking the Prologue, sort of. At the beginning of the play, a woman talks about her journey to work on the subway, so we're going to stage it as part of our production. We haven't gotten very far on it yet, but I'm interested to see what direction it goes in.