Tuesday, February 10

Hello to all prospective students of my grad school! I understand that some people have been directed to this blog by my professors. If you have any questions (seriously, anything... no matter how random), by all means, email me. I usually respond to emails as soon as I get them. angelaacts(at)gmail.com


Movement
Today our alignment work focused on our arms. We did one thing that made most people's hands tingle. And we've now learned The Fish, which is a tremoring position that we hadn't learned in Voice class (it's seems like it's a position that requires supervision; I can see how someone could get injured if they weren't being careful).


Voice
We spent the day doing self-testing. The words we're practicing with seem to be getting progressively more difficult. The words I messed up today were "arrow" (I used a schwa with r-coloring, when I should've used a linking-r because it's intervocalic) and "jury" (for the middle vowel, I used the one in the word "stir". It's actually supposed to be the vowel in the word "would").

We briefly discussed when to use "liquid-u" sounds (which is when you say a "y"-ish sound before a "u"). The general rule is to use liquid-u sounds after the letters "t", "d", "n", and sometimes "l" (hence why "Tuesday", "duty", and "new" have them, but "crew" doesn't).

We also discussed the regional substitution of the "sit" vowel for the "met" vowel. For example, in some parts of the country, "pin" and "pen" sound the same (also "tin/ten", "tint/tent"). It happens in words that are spelled with "en" and "em". For example, one of my classmates used the "sit" substitution in the word "September". If you have that substitution, it's something that you have to pay special attention to when learning lines (I suppose "attention" and "when" are good examples, actually).

Tonight our homework is to review the vowels of "all", "honest", and "fathers".


Student Rep
My student rep meeting today was when I was informed that my professors now know about my blog. *waves to Analysis Professor* Luckily, they don't plan to sue me. :) But I did get a couple of "Don't you dare put that on your blog!" comments during the day.


Acting
We discussed how important it is to be fully accepting of the character you're playing. If you can find a way to love the character, that is 90% of your success.

Our professor also said not to keep your foot on the break in your acting unless you're doing film work.

When recording our lines (which is sort of like memorizing them... but not), it's important to keep openness through the chest, a sense of expansion, and to continue to send and land with the voice. If you do this as you're putting the lines into your brain, you will continue to do it with those things in mind during the scene without having to focus on them.

My scene with O.D. went pretty well, I thought. We ended up doing far more of the scene than we had anticipated (3 pages more than we had recorded, in fact... but the lines just started saying themselves).

Our Movement Professor attended class today. She let me know that I was locking my knees from the moment I stepped on stage. It's still really difficult for me to neither lock my knees nor bend them. I feel a little unstable (which is probably because I'm not connecting my psoas muscles through my body properly). But I'm working on it.

I was told to record keeping my hands away from my face, and without tensing my hands. At the moment, I'm not recording enough ease. I was also given the note that I need to be more comfortable in my costume (I thought I was comfortable in it... but apparently it's not reading that way). I also need to make sure I'm sending and landing all my lines (which is not always easy to do when you're in an intimate scene).


Analysis
We discussed Act 4, Scene vi of King Lear, which was the scene that we had researched, dissected, summarized, and paraphrased for class today. Our Analysis Professor refers to it as being "the most meta-theatrical scene in all of Shakespeare." In the Elizabethan era, most scenery was created through descriptive language, as opposed to actual sets. In this scene, a man (Edgar, disguised as Poor Tom of Bedlam) is trying to convince a blind man (Gloucester, his father) that they are on a very high, very dangerous cliff. In actuality, they are on level ground. The scene is therefore written in a way that allows Edgar to fool Gloucester with his description, but allows the audience to understand that they are not, in fact on this imaginary cliff.

We're presenting various aspects of Titus Andronicus on Thursday. I'm in the "Imagery/Mythology" group with All-the-Way, Wifey, and Iceman. And then I have a paper on the action of that play (using the imagery from my research to support it) due Monday.


Understudying
Today was a big milestone for my class; it was the first time that one of us has had to go on for an understudy role. Killer went on for Claude DeAria in The Imaginary Invalid. Several of us went to see it and support him. He did a really terrific job, and made us incredibly proud. CONGRATULATIONS KILLER!

Our Imaginary Invalid understudy run is on Saturday morning at 9am (yeesh... I'm not used to having to act that early in the morning). I know Analysis Professor will be there, and some of the other professors might be as well (as well as donors, classmates, and friends). I'm actually looking forward to it. I think I've got it pretty well down at this point. I think it'll be fun. And getting to act on that stage will be a total thrill.

I'm going to try to see The Winter's Tale again tomorrow. I haven't seen it since opening night, so I really need to.


All good things,

~A~

Tuesday, October 14

I finished my first notebook full of class notes on Friday and have started a new one. Considering that I only have 4 classes, and one of my classes is very difficult to take notes during (Movement), it's pretty insane that I've gotten through one already. But I can't help it. There are just so many things that I want to remember. And it's not even just about being a good student. It's not about grades. It's about really learning the material and trying to have as much of it recorded as I possibly can. I love these classes so very much, and I don't want to miss a thing.


MOVEMENT
I finally talked a little with my professor about the weird pains I've been having. I told her about how my intercostals (rib-connecting muscles) cramped up after Rib Swing. I told her about how my right calf and thigh have been cramping up all weekend. She suggested that I do some "cross body stretching" in order to try to relieve it. I might end up meeting with her assistant over lunch tomorrow. She also recommended that I go see a masseuse. I'd MUCH rather get acupuncture done, but she thinks I should try that second... Is it weird that I'd rather have needles stuck in me than have someone touch me? (Wait; don't answer that.)


VOICE
Today we focused on front tremors in preparation for our exam on Thursday. These are Cobra, Bow, and Camel-Arch (it would normally also include Arm position, but we're not being tested on that one until we learn Standing tremors). These have been three of my most dreaded positions. But today they were alright. I think the reason I hate Cobra is that when I get a tremor, I'm terrified that I'm going to drop myself and face-plant into the mat. It's hard to give myself over to it fully. But I did get a tremor there today. I also got the biggest tremor that I've ever gotten in The Bow, which was exciting.

Camel-Arch still wasn't doing anything for me whatsoever, so I asked my professor if I could modify it by putting my hands on the floor instead of on my ankles when I bent back (see here for a picture of what it usually looks like). I showed her, and she said I could try it, but she thought I was leaning too far back. The energy in this is supposed to go forward out of your sternum. So I asked if I could put my hands on my calves instead of my ankles. I showed that to her, and she approved. And you know what? Suddenly, I LOVE the Camel-Arch! I don't think I could get a tremor in that position to save my life, but it completely opens up my breathing. I felt like the air in the room changed consistencies into something more breathable. It was unbelievable.

I guess my professor was right when she said to keep revisiting the tremors you don't like. You really can find new things in them.


STUDENT REP
Today was the day that we got information about the Equity Membership Candidacy program, and I'm STOKED! Basically, actors have their own union, called Actors Equity Association. Getting in is kind of a pain, but I will now officially be earning points towards getting in. By the time I graduate from here, I will be in the union, which is something that most graduate programs cannot offer. Some people in my class are already in EMC and have points built up, but this is brand new for me. It's so exciting!


ACTING
When I got to class, there were no chairs set up in our usual configuration. So we all just started playing an impromptu game with a ball. Sort of a cross between "dodge ball" and "monkey in the middle". I didn't really understand if there were rules or not... Our professor came upon this spectacle, and turns the ball passing into an exercise in giving and receiving (Have I mentioned that my acting professor is a genius? Because he is).

After that, we spent the rest of the afternoon doing the silent etudes (which rarely end up being silent... but they start off that way). Before you begin, you're supposed to "delete" (or "forget") that they have to be silent, and that something is going to happen that will cause a change in the relationship.

I think the most important thing I got from the etudes today came out of one with Iceman and Killer. When the silent scene started, it felt like they were brothers. As it evolved, it started feeling like Iceman was a father and Killer was his son. By the end, it seemed obvious to me that Iceman was some sort of counselor or therapist trying to help Killer with his problems. The relationship had three distinct forms before either said a word.

The lesson in this is that relationships are living, developing things. Status changes during the course of a conversation, like a rollercoaster. There are times when a son has status equal to his father... and that's not wrong. It's part of the truth of the scene.

We also discussed the difference between premeditation in these exercises and truly following impulses. If moves are calculated, then they're not coming out of an artistic center. If you're planning what you do before you do it, then you're in your head, and you're not truly living.

The last two etudes of the day were between me and Big Show. Both of them involved sexual tension. As our acting professor mentioned before, often something that doesn't get closure in the first etude will come out again in the second.

The entire time we were doing the second etude, I KNEW that he was going to kiss me before the scene ended. So my impulse was to play it a little hard-to-get. Because I knew it would happen, I was NOT going to initiate it; I didn't have to... or so I thought. I was just waiting for him to kiss me. But we never did. When the scene ended (after a very long, game-filled etude), we were staring into each others eyes with our foreheads and noses touching. We never quite completed that kiss. Despite that, what came out of the etude felt incredibly exciting and intense. It showed us that sometimes beating around the bush is more interesting than diving right in. (Although I think some of our classmates had been rooting for the kiss to happen and were disappointed that it didn't... heck, I was a little disappointed myself. There was so much build up!)


ANALYSIS
In both A Doll House and The Wild Duck, there are examples of how Ibsen manipulates the audience into believing that one thing will happen, and then providing them with something else entirely. This is mostly a result of the characters having shifting motivations.

We also discussed how the symbolism within the play has to do entirely with the psychology of the characters. It shows us their opinions on things. It has very little to do with the expectations of the audience. It doesn't matter what a "wild duck" means to the audience. It doesn't even matter what it meant to Ibsen. What matters is how the different characters interpret it.


In general, I was really proud of my class today. We definitely put a lot of our plan to become a better ensemble into action today, and we had success with it. I hope we can keep it up.

Tuesday, September 30

I've been on vocal rest since Saturday, and I've been doing quite well, if I do say so myself.

Wifey and I did our Beach Solitude homework together. And by "together", I mean we got out of the car, walked to separate parts of the beach, and tried to ignore each other's existence for the next 2 hours. Luckily, my silent state made it a little less tempting for us to try to communicate during that time.


MOVEMENT
In movement class today, a capoeira instructor named Andrea came in to start us off with some basic moves. We learned 5 different kinds of kicks (none of which I can pronounce -- but I didn't have to, because of this vocal rest) among other things. She also brought in a bunch of nifty instruments used in capoeira and demonstrated them. I thought it was pretty awesome.


VOICE
We have officially started working on The Bow and The Camel Arch tremor positions. I'm a little worried that I'm never going to find a tremor in either of them.

This is The Bow:


This is The Camel (aka The Arch):



Both of these positions come very naturally to me (most likely because of my over-curved spine), which is why I have a difficult time finding tremors in them. I don't feel energy flowing through me to sustain these positions. My body likes them. My voice professor used me as an example for The Camel (apparently my version is relatively graceful), and said that while I might never tremor there, I should feel an opening in my chest and shoulders as a result of it. So at least that.


STUDENT REP MEETING
Very little actually happened. Being a student rep? Sort of a piece of cake so far. It just means that I have a cramped lunch hour once a week.


ACTING
We're having exams on Friday over our "memory of physical action" exercises, so we'll be seeing a lot of those this week (many of which will be repeats). Today we saw:

Big Show - repairing a flat bike tire
Killer - replacing the lamp in a Source 4
O.D. - relaxing in a hot tub
All The Way - planting flowers
Wifey - vacuuming

I was originally thinking that I'd share "doing laundry", "putting away laundry", or "steaming clothes" (can you tell what's been on my mind this weekend?), but seeing as how our exam is this close, I think I'm just going to stick with "making a peanut butter and banana sandwich". That way, I'll be able to get feedback on it twice more before the exam.


ANALYSIS
More project presentations. The "Conventions of 19th century theatre" group finished up, and then the "naturalism" group did an inventive skit for theirs. We'll begin discussing A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen on Thursday.

Tuesday, September 23

MOVEMENT
We've been doing specific breathing exercises, and have now learned "breathing one" through "breathing four". Don't ask what they are, because frankly, I keep mixing them up. We were assigned some readings, but they're not due until next week so I'm not going to read them tonight.


VOICE
Well, it turns out there are two more consonants that I'm pronouncing incorrectly: T and D. Apparently, mine are "splashy" instead of "crisp". I asked my professor why it is that every time we discuss a new consonant, I'm saying it wrong. She said that other people are, too, but that I'm the one who's willing to admit it. She also said I was good at self-diagnosis. So I guess that's good... Killer and I have an appointment with her next week to begin work on our sibilant S sounds. The class got a list of words to practice reciting tonight, but honestly, I can't say anything without judging myself anymore.


STUDENT REP MEETING
All we found out was that the understudy assignments SHOULD be posted Thursday. But that if we're really unlucky, it might not be until Thursday NIGHT. Bah!


ACTING
Two more "memory of physical action" exercises. Big Show did "repairing a bicycle tire". The Pro did "making coffee and cereal".

We started doing work with "psychological gestures". Basically, we allowed our entire bodies to do actions in the air, such as "push", "grab", "reach", "drag", and the like. At one point we were "pushing" air towards a partner. I was paired up with D-Train, and being in a sort of physical conversation with him really changed the way my body-mind was viewing the pushing. Then, without moving, we used our minds to attempt these sorts of gestures telepathically. It sounds a little strange, but it was actually really neat.


ANALYSIS
We got our Oedipus papers back. I DIDN'T FAIL!!! I didn't get an A, either, but still. I'm going to rewrite it this weekend (which we're allowed to do on this one).

We spent a long period of time discussing the possible action in Women of Troy. I think we ended up with something along the lines of "to retain dignity". Frankly, I don't understand how that's the action of the play at all. Those women spend the whole play weeping, mourning, and being anything but dignified. But I suppose "to weep" or "to mourn" would be incomplete... Oh well.

My group has a 40-minute presentation on Thursday regarding biographical information on Henrik Ibsen. I went to the library with D-Train tonight to collect information, but there's just SO MUCH to digest. Hopefully, my group will be able to get together tomorrow night to make sense of everything. Wish us luck.

Tuesday, September 16

VOICE
My Movement professor has the flu, so we had a super long voice class today instead, and we were combined with the 2nd-years for part of it. It was so crazy being in the room with them for tremoring. The 1st-years are still working on finding spontaneous breath, but the second years are now on vocalizations while tremoring. And they do a bunch of tremor positions that we haven't learned yet, including one where they're STANDING UP (totally crazy!). I think that most of the 1st-years were pretty distracted by it, but I thought it was kinda neat to see what we're aiming towards.

We did some jump-roping, but only for like 3 minutes. Totally a piece of cake. D-Train says he's pretty sure that we've been jumping for 7 minutes every day, not the 5 that my Movement professor has claimed...

We got our tests from Friday back, and I totally rocked mine. I was relieved, as my first test grade in that class was a bit of a disappointment. We also got some homework back. I disagreed with my professor on the pronunciation of the word "fissure" (I think it has a "zh" sound in the middle, like "pleasure", but according to her pronunciation dictionary it should be an "sh" like "pressure"). We also took a practice test on IPA consonants, and I'm now confident that I know what I'm doing with that, which is always good.


STUDENT REP MEETING
The only real notable thing was that the head of the program told us to congratulate our classmates on our auditions. He said he was pleased, and that everyone had done well.


ACTING
We started off with a couple more Physical Memory exercises. Thrill did "a round at the shooting range" and D-Train did "making tea".

We spent a fair amount of time doing an exercise sitting in circle. Two people were in a pair, and one had to ask the other a question. But not just ask it; ambush them with it. The goal of the question was to get past the superficial level of question-asking and ask the other person something that would surprise them, and that they'd have to have some sort of a connection to.

As the exercise went on, we got better at it. Things that seemed to cut through that first layer included, "Do you have a hair color preference on girls?", "When was the last time you cried?", "Why do you need to be perfect?"... The question I asked that seemed to work the best was, "How do you think I feel about you?"

I totally denied an impulse when I was answering, though. I felt so weird about it that I actually went and confessed to the professor a couple hours after class had ended. He said it was alright, but to try to follow my impulses tomorrow.

The question series that I wasn't completely honest to was something along the lines of "Do you get a sense of security from your hair?" (I said "sometimes") and "Is that why you're afraid to cut it?" (I think I said that was partially it).

I won't tell you the thing that sprung to mind, but I will tell you the reason I censored my response: the first thing I thought of made me sound pathetic. It made it seem like I have really low self-esteem. I didn't want them to judge me for it.

I have to get over that fear of being judged by my classmates/colleagues. We're going to be an ensemble. I have to be able to trust them. I can't close myself off from things or try to protect myself. I need to allow myself to be vulnerable around them.


TEXTUAL ANALYSIS
I turned in my paper on Oedipus Rex, which was horrible. I disagreed with my own thesis, and I know that I did a horrible job of proving it, despite my best efforts.

I think I spoke too much in class. I'm just really not sure what our professor wants from us, and I didn't want to just sit there and act like I did. I hate feeling helpless like that. I know I'm a pretty smart cookie, but I just don't always know how to prove my points. I'm so much better at disproving things and filling the role of devil's advocate. *sigh*

We started discussing Women of Troy by Euripides (also called The Trojan Women). I have to admit, I was a complete basket-case when I read the play yesterday. I was reading it aloud, and I was weeping so much during one of Hecuba's early speeches that I literally had to put the play down for an hour and come back to it with a clear head. I have absolutely no idea what the action of this play is going to be... "To make people miserable?" "To destroy lives?" "To make Trojan women weep uncontrollably and mutter incomprehensible vowel sounds like oeee and eaaa?" No clue.

We were assigned groups for presentations in the coming weeks. I'm in a group with D-Train, Two-Shots-Up, Wifey, and one of the 2nd-year directors to present the biography of Ibsen. The other groups have "naturalism" and "conventions of 19th century theatre".

I stayed after class to talk to the professor for a bit. I told him my concerns about my paper. He assured me that he thinks I'm closer to getting it than I think I am. He also said that if I missed the mark completely, he'll let me re-write it. So at least that.

Tuesday, September 2

It was another long day for me. Classes from 9:00am-12:00pm, student rep meeting over my lunch break, classes from 1:00pm-5:30pm, dinner break, and then tech call from 6:30pm-9:00pm.

MOVEMENT
We got our tests back from last week. It was pass/fail (thank goodness), and I passed. There were a lot of positive notes on my test (things like "GOOD!", "Yes!" and "very good observation from book"), but the word "Why?" appeared a lot (we had a short amount of time to take the test, so I guess I wasn't as complete in my answers as I should have been).

Jumping rope is getting easier. It's still exhausting, but I don't feel like I'm going to die now, so that's good. We did a bit of Suzuki work today, and also began coordination exercises. For awhile we hand to walk around the room balancing a stick vertically in our palms. Then we had to throw handballs towards a partner, looking into the partner's eyes, both throwing and catching one-handed.

Our homework is to continue the handball exercises for 20 minutes with a partner before tomorrow. I'm meeting "The Pro" at school before class to do it then, as we both really just wanted to go home after tech call tonight.


VOICE
I got my voice test back as well. I didn't do tremendously on it, which I guess I had been expecting (not that I did abysmally... just not as well as I would've liked). I got the "destructuring" part just fine, but I really don't understand "restructuring" yet (probably because we haven't done it). Oh well. It's only the first test. And I really need to get this perfectionistic streak out of my system fast, because it won't be possible to keep it up in a couple of months anyhow.

We started doing body-rocking in the style of Roy Hart today. It's hard to explain (as I'm sure I'll say about the majority of things I do in my voice class), but basically you lie down and allow movement to originate in your feet in a way that rocks your entire body. It felt really great, actually. But then we started trying to draw circles with various body parts while rocking, which really just hurt.

We tried a new tremoring position today, but my back didn't like it, so I just went back to the pelvic tremor that worked so well for me last week. And the pelvic tremor? HUGE physical response to it. My entire body shook so violently that parts of it were lifted off the ground, and my breath became entirely spontaneous. It was simultaneously terrifying and THE COOLEST THING EVER.


STUDENT REP MEETING
Not all that thrilling. We began discussions on how to use funds. And we clarified information about our upcoming auditions. (First years don't actually get to be in shows, but we act as understudies for the huge Equity shows.)


ACTING
We began doing "etudes" today. Etudes are like small scenes of acting improvisation. This is NOT the same as improv comedy. It's more like you get a small amount of given circumstances (such as a couple lines of dialogue, a physical position, or a relationship), and you build a scene off of that. It's not meant to be funny (although it occasionally is), but truthful.

Later in the day, "O.D." commented to me that he sensed me take on characteristics of "fear" and "being childlike" more than once in my exercises today. I noticed those qualities in one of my etudes, but not in the other... I don't know. Maybe that's just where my psyche was this afternoon. I just hope those things aren't crutches that I have to work through. Although if they are, I suppose "O.D." deserves my gratitude for pointing them out to me early, so that I can work on fighting them from the start.

We discussed how bewilderment and uncertainty are important for actors, and also how a lot of accidents turn out to be blessings. It was a good class.


ANALYSIS
We had a whole discussion on how people confuse the themes of a play with the action of a play. My professor declared that we're not looking for nouns or statements when describing the action of a play, but rather verbs. So, for example, Hamlet is not "man vs. himself" or "passion and humanity", but would be something more like "avenging". (Okay, that was a horrible example, because I don't think avenging is a good verb... but hopefully you get the idea).

We learned about Praxis/Poesis/Theoria... Although don't ask me to explain them, because I'm still fuzzy on them. We discussed probability and necessity, but I'm still not 100% on what those refer to, either. And then we went into the importance of cause-and-effect, which I think I actually understood.

For homework, we have to do research into some figures from the family of Oedipus. And we also have to determine what the very first choice Oedipus makes (in the play, NOT the myth) is.


TECH CALL
My first assignment was to paint the floor in front of the first row of the small theatre black with "O.D.", and I think we did a pretty great job (although "Iceman" left a footprint in our work later, but meh). Then it was unfolding and refolding legs (curtains), loading flats into a van, and unloading the flats into the scene shop.

The scene shop is a union shop, and it is the BIGGEST FREAKING SHOP I HAVE EVER SEEN. Seriously. I thought I'd seen big shops before, but they were NOTHING like this. It was incredible. It looked like an airplane hangar. So cool.


Anyway. I should probably reread chapters 1&2 of "One Voice" before tomorrow's lecture.

G'night!

~A~