Sunday, April 26

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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


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

My notes from Wednesday were:

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


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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

(click picture to enlarge)

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


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


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

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

D-Train & Killer, The Foster Portfolio


Me (Disco), Find Me a Dream


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


Two-Shots-Up and Thrill, Miss Temptation


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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

Tuesday, April 21

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

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

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


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

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

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

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


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


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

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


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

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

Thursday, April 16

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

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

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

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

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


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



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

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

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


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


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

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

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

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

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

Man, acting is fun!

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


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

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


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


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

Thursday, April 9

Movement
We continued working on our West Side Story stuff.

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

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


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

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

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

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


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


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

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

Tuesday, April 7

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


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

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


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

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

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


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


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


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

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

Thursday, April 2

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


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

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

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


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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

- We have to work decisively and boldly.

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

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


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

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


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

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


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

Tuesday, March 24

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

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


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

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


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


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

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

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


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

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

Thursday, March 5

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


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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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


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

Analysis Professor wrote the following quotation on the chalkboard:

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

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

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

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

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

Thursday, February 26

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

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

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


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

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

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

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


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

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

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


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

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

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

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

Wednesday, February 25

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


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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

- Attack everything with the strongest possible intentions.

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

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

- Play verbs

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

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

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

- Bring personalization to the thoughts.

- Stay connected to your partner even in silence.


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

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


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

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


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

Tuesday, February 17

I've been down a computer the last couple of days, but I have borrowed one of my roommates' computers (2nd-year NP. I also live with 3rd-year HK). And now I have a lot to catch up on!


Understudying
Saturday morning was our official full understudy run for The Imaginary Invalid, and it actually went really well! I didn't forget my lines or my blocking. There were no really major flubs by anyone, actually. We were pretty awesome. A bunch of other 1st, 2nd, and 3rd years came to support us, as well as one of my donors and one of my friends.

Really, it just felt great to be on stage again. It feels like it's been eons since I was last in a real play on a real stage... and it was a marvelous feeling. This is what I'm built for.

Afterwards, Analysis Professor (who directed it) gave us notes. The biggest note was to stop playing the comedy, and instead to play the objectives. If you try to make a joke work, it won't. It's a good piece of advice for any comedy.


Theatre
I went to see The Winter's Tale again on Friday. I'm still not sure that I've got everything down blocking-wise (although I'm doing better on the lines than I was the last time I saw it). We'll have our understudy rehearsals for that next weekend.

I also went to a student-produced Love Late Night on Valentine's Day. A bunch of students (1st, 2nd, and 3rd years) did songs, scenes, monologues, sonnets, and choreography all based on the theme of love.

The best part of the Love Late Night? At the very end of it, Iceman invited his girlfriend on stage... and PROPOSED!!! It was the sweetest thing ever! And she said yes! (Well, nodded, actually... but it was a yes.) Congratulations Iceman & Icegirl!


Tech
On Sunday, several of us were called for set load-in for Miss Julie. Luckily, it went pretty fast (despite the fact that we had to move a really tall platform and some staircases). Today we had the props load-in, which literally took about 7 minutes. I hope strike goes as easily.


Movement
Today was the first day of our tumbling unit! SO EXCITING!

Movement Professor gave us a handout giving some information about the tumbling unit...

The objectives and goals of this unit are:
1. To become habituated to taking new risks, through risking in new physical activities, or in improving skills you already know, in new ways. The habituating of physical risk strengthens the actor's ability to embrace emotional risk onstage.
2. To work on physical skills that you may use in your career, particularly within contemporary productions, which are often highly physical and use these forms of movement.
3. To habituate ways of doing tumbling and lifts that are safe for your body, so that you can do those moves as you grow older without injury.
4. To continue to work on partnering and ensemble skills and creation of a sage environment for creative exploration, through spotting each other, watching each other, and helping each other. These skills apply directly to professional rehearsal situations and should be practiced at all times.
5. To gain strength, flexibility, range of movement, and increased coordination. Tumbling and acrobatics quickly strengthen core, arm, and leg strength. They also help actors to become more in control of their bodies at all times, and increase actors' facility in picking up physical material. This last prepares actors for dance.

Every day you will go through a series of moves and strengthening activities. The class will progress together at the beginning of the unit. As you get better, I will begin to individuate degree of difficulty for the moves, and people will be required to do different things. At no time should anyone think that they are not doing well, unless they hear so from me. You will develop, safely, under my supervision with my mind and eye constantly on your body and form, looking out for your safety.

Here are three rules that must be followed:
1. Never do anything that you do not feel ready to do, even if I ask you to. Tell me so. Your body will tell you when it wants to move on.
2. Keep all talking to an absolute minimum and keep your eyes on your classmates' progress. Be careful about distracting people working on the mat.
3. If I shout, "STOP!", stop safely, but immediately. It means that I see something dangerous that must stop immediately, for your safety. I make that call, not you.

No one has EVER been injured in this unit, save for a few strains. Follow these rules, listen to the directions, make required changes to your old form, and you won't be injured either. You will also progress more quickly.

She added to that the idea that we should never give each other notes in class. Getting notes from each other as well as the professor will most likely only prove confusing, and could lead to endangerment.

Today, we started with some fast and furious warm-ups after our daily rope-jumping. Then we went into our first bits of tumbling on the mats (which wasn't all that tumb-ly -- we're starting slowly).


Voice
We got our IPA tests back, and it seemed like everyone did alright. I rocked mine, and I was so relieved!

We started doing a bunch of things involving humming into our faces. At one point, we all sounded like cicadas, which was pretty amusing. And at another, Voice Professor sounded a bit like a tea kettle.

The humming is supposed to be light (easy quality), high (in pitch), and forward (from the front of the face). It's also supposed to leave space within the mouth, as though you had closed your lips onto a sound that you were making.

There was one thing we did that we decided was a "laser triangle hum". We're supposed to practice that tonight.


Acting
My scene with O.D. was a bit off today. It was disappointing to me, as it had been going really well lately. For some reason, I was completely contracted through the beginning of the scene. I thought that it was the character doing it at first, but now I'm not sure if it was the actor or the character... I don't know. It felt terribly wrong.

We discussed my character. There's this idea that she might fit the Marilyn Monroe archetype, and also that she doesn't like to be alone.

Movement Professor attended class, and gave me a lot of notes. I'm still locking my knees (which I still can't feel). She also said I'm thrusting my head forward. She said that part of the way through the scene my alignment shifted into a better position and my inner-tempo picked up (which was a good thing). She said to watch for facial tension, as that's a good indicator that something is going wrong in the rest of me.

She also said that I need to practice getting in and out of chairs while wearing a dress. I have to do this at home so that I won't be awkward about it in scenes (Angela does not wear a lot of dresses; "Hildy", my character, does.)

O.D. was told to start playing "up and out, like a fountain or a flower", which I thought was a neat note.

Acting Professor said that if you get to a spot in one of these exercises where you know you're not being truthful, you should take a second and "just resign", allowing yourself to drop out of the scene so that you can come back into it and receive truthfully.

We also discussed correcting things like knee-locking while in a scene without dropping character. If you notice a technical glitch in the scene, then ignoring it is as detrimental as denying any other impulse. If you don't correct your knee-locking/vocal quality/facial tension/etc. when you notice it, you're going to end up thinking about it for the rest of the scene and missing your other impulses as a result.

It's hard to have off days, but it's important to know that you learn just as much from them as you do from good days.


Analysis
I did not finish my Titus Andronicus paper (partially due to my computer issues, and partially due to my inability to prove any thesis). I went and discussed it with Analysis Professor for a bit today. I have a good understanding of the play, but not great footing to write this paper. I'm going to keep working on it and hope that I get a better grasp on it by next class.

We watched a video of The Wooster Group's production of The Emperor Jones by Eugene O'Neill. It's apparently Brechtian in style. Mr. Jones was portrayed by a white woman in black-face. Frankly, I thought it was a visual migraine in film form. It was aurally and visually assaulting. I understand the goal of that style (to try to force an audience to reexamine the play taking other things into consideration --which, in this case, was supposed to underline the racism inherent in the writing), but I don't find it to be particularly successful. I was covering my ears (because the sound was so hostile) and looking away from the screen frequently in order to make it through.

Thursday, February 12

Movement
I have to say, our alignment work is really working. The last few class days, when I've gotten in my car at lunchtime, I've had to adjust my rear-view mirror up (and then down a little the next morning). I didn't really think about it... but then I realized: after alignment work, I'm TALLER. My spine is lengthened or straightened or something. If that's not proof that our alignment training works, I don't know what is.

I was partnered with D-Train and Two-Shots-Up today to observe each other's alignment. Both of them said that they could really tell a difference between how aligned I am now in comparison to when I got here. And I can really see it in some of my classmates, too (D-Train thinks he's grown a full inch and a half. And O.D. is SO much more even than he used to be).

Our alignment work today involved using exercise balls. It made me dizzy and tired, but in the end, my back felt AWESOME.

We have a "check-up" tomorrow (which is the Movement Class equivalent of a test... sort of) to make sure that we've learned everything properly.


Voice
I did really well on my IPA stuff today. Turns out, my Voice Professor will accept "children" with a "sit", "met" OR "gum" vowel at the end (I wrote all three on my paper... and I decided that I think that "sit" makes the most sense).

I think I've gotten to a place where I can hear all the vowels, but it's often a matter of whether I have already learned the Standard American pronunciation or the General American one (we're being tested in Standard American, which is a dialect in and of itself... it feels pretty foreign a lot of the time).

We have our official test tomorrow (the one that gets graded). As long as I don't make any stupid mistakes (like using an "h" in a word like "honest" where it's silent... or using two "l"s in "tallest" when it's only one "l" sound), I should be fine.

ETA: Also, it turns out I'm pretty good at saying the vowel in "voice". It's supposed to be an "aw" + "ih", as opposed to an "oh" + "ee".


Acting
O.D. and I did our full story for the first time today. When it started, I received him as being creepy and weird, so I (or, rather, my character) evolved into being someone who was ready to fight if attacked. And from there, she changed entirely. Instead of being someone who was settling and lost, she was manipulative and sarcastic. It felt really truthful (and actually made total sense), but when it finished, I felt like I'd done something wrong.

Acting Professor encouraged it entirely. He said that it was the first time that O.D. and I had really found the "Vonnegut" in the story. He says that Vonnegut's writing (like O. Henry before him) has "no sentimentality whatsoever", but people project it onto his works a great deal. He said that we found a way to make it clear that the characters were misunderstanding each other. So that's cool. If that's the case, then I really had been misinterpreting the story. I hope that we can reconcile what we found today with things that we've found in past runs.

A couple of other cool things happened today. Thrill found a way to be calm as an actor while playing a nervous character. And Killer found a way to get to an upset, emotional place as a character while being comfortable and happy as an actor. It showed how well the technique we're learning is working.


Analysis
The class had been divided into three groups to present parts of Titus Andronicus: plot, character, and imagery. I was in the imagery group.

Iceman and I did tag-team presenting on the mythology imagery. I thought it went pretty well (although really, we could've spent another half hour on mythology if time had allowed, easily).

I'm going to try to start working on my paper on Saturday, as it's due Tuesday. Wish me luck.


Understudying
Killer went on for Imaginary Invalid for the third time today, which means he can officially put the role on his résumé without calling himself an understudy. Awesome! I went to see it again (to watch the blocking once more in preparation for the understudy run-through on Saturday morning), and he did a great job. It looks like Thrill might go on as Young Shepherd in The Winter's Tale tomorrow night. I'm praying for him. :)

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~

Friday, February 6

Two day catch-up!

Movement
We've been continuing with our Eginton Alignment work, and have now also begun to incorporate Fitzmaurice voice work into it. It involves a lot of lying on the floor, and a bit of tremoring.

I'll be honest; most of the things that we're working with are so minute in scale that it's hard for me to feel them. But after class when I look at my alignment in the mirror, the effect is massively evident. I'm already straighter than I was even just 5 days ago. It's pretty great.


Voice
Yesterday we focused a lot on two pairs of vowel sounds that are tricky to distinguish whether you should use the diphthong or not.

e (alien) vs. eI (pay)

&

o (obey) vs. oU (dough)

In general, it seems like if the word starts with those vowels, there's no diphthong, but if the vowel is anyplace else in the word, there is a diphthong. But don't quote me, because I'm sure there are probably exceptions to that.

We've been doing a lot of self-testing now, where our Voice Professor (or the substitute we had today, who is actually the woman I'm understudying in The Imaginary Invalid) will read off a words, and we'll attempt to put them into IPA on our own. I've done fairly well, actually. The only words that have tripped me up so far have been "lawnmower" (I used a diphthong for "ower" instead of a triphthong) and "loudest" (I used the "met" vowel for the second syllable, but it apparently should be the "sit" vowel).


Acting
Today was totally Breakthrough City for my classmates. People are doing seriously beautiful work. It's pretty great to witness it.

O.D. and I did a chunk of our scene yesterday, and it went pretty well. I've still been doing the scene in the costume from Wednesday and no glasses (because contacts didn't exist in the time period, and there's no way my character would've worn glasses to a party).

My classmates said that my character's backstory is becoming more evident in the scenework as I'm connecting to the material better. It feels good.


Analysis
We discussed Lear with our substitute teacher (she works in the admin). I think I have a pretty good handle on the scene we're supposed to be paraphrasing.



By the way... I never posted pictures of my floral design from Acting class, so here it is (taken two days after I made it, so it was already sort of dying).







Oh, and Iceman took a picture of me on Vocal Rest at the Blur strike. Proof that I'm an obedient student.

Tuesday, February 3

We were back to a normal class schedule today after a week of workshops. To be completely honest, I miss the workshops. They were a lot of fun. But now it's time to get back to the rest of my training.


Movement
We're going into our unit focusing on alignment for the next two weeks This is to help us learn a way to align ourselves and prepare for physical characterization transformation (externally). We're also focusing on combining the alignment with Fitzmaurice Voicework. And it's also to prepare us for easeful tumbling and acrobatics (our next unit) by learning more about our own anatomies and how to move at ease on a subtle level (with will make it easier to make corrections to form, and will allow us to take greater risks).


Voice
Still working on IPA stuff.

I seriously, SERIOUSLY do not understand that whole "honest/father" thing I wrote about yesterday. Luckily, it seems that I'm not alone in that. Most of my classmates are equally confused, which is somewhat reassuring.

Today we learned four new IPA vowels. The tricky thing is that they're actually technically all the same sound, but they have different markings. The sound? "Uh".

You might already know one of the indicators of this, which is a "schwa" (ə). This is used on unstressed syllables (like the first vowel in "apartment", the middle of "grenadine", or the end of "sofa"). The second is a "hut" (ʌ), which is the same thing but for stressed syllables (like the first in "hugging", the middle of "alumni", or the end of "corrupt").

The other two are used if the "uh" sound is followed by an "r". If it's stressed or one-syllable (like "girl", "unfurl", or "earnest"), then it's one symbol (ɜː), and if it's unstressed (like "lighter", "evergreen", or "other") then it's another (cannot find symbol).

So our homework for tonight is to find 2 examples of each of those (which I just realized that I accidentally did while writing this blog post... I'm awesome) and IPA them.


Acting
Our Movement Professor is going to start attending our Tuesday Acting classes, and today was her first day coming.

In our scene work, we've started to discuss making things repeatable (as they would need to be if you were actually in a show). The idea is that whatever "choices" you would make need to be justified through inner-technique. If you record your given circumstances in a way that involves them, then they will become inevitablilies. Therefore, you will not be making choices while acting, but rather the choices will be making themselves.

Our Acting Professor says that perhaps the worst crime of translation that has ever been committed in the world of theatre was the title of one of Stanislavski's books. The English title is "Building a Character", which my professor says is something that Stanislavski fought against. He wanted actors to be organic. The proper title should be something like "Growing a Character" or "Creating a Character". The idea of building or constructing anything is a mistake.

O.D. and I did a little snippet of our scene, but it didn't go particularly well today. Not having rehearsal costumes screwed things up a bit. Additionally, my Movement Professor said that my alignment was way off (more than usual), and that I'm going to be limited as an actor until I can fix it. So I guess I'm really going to have to work in the next couple of weeks.


Analysis
Our professor is still out of town, so someone who works for the Rep theatre ran our class today. She was really great, and we took on the next chunk of King Lear pretty slowly, reading it aloud (hey, when you've got a classroom full of actors, you might as well use them).

Thursday, January 22

You know, for the most part, I'm pretty good at keeping my life organized and everything under control. But every now and then I have a week when I just feel generally out of whack. This is one of those weeks. I blame the fact that I still don't have my Winter's Tale understudy lines down, and the show opens tomorrow (which means if the actress breaks her leg tomorrow, I'm on). A legitimate reason to freak out, I think.


Movement
More movement monologue work. We did them with two people moving simultaneously while everyone else watched and tried to identify patterns that were developing (as it's a lot harder to notice them when you're doing it). The pairs would do the monologues a couple of times, and then the class responded with things we noticed. Then the pair would go one last time, keeping those elements in mind.

I went with Big Show. We were told that we had good kinesthetic response (meaning that we were reacting to what the other was doing), but to be honest, I hadn't paid much attention to that (as it wasn't really the goal of the exercise). I was told that my physical vocabulary is pretty "acrobatic". One of the patterns that has come out is "lunging", and another is being in the same position on the floor at a specific piece of text.


Voice
More vowel work.

The type of speech that we're learning is called "Standard American Dialect", which, frankly, doesn't seem very standard at all. We're learning to say words like "Glorious", "Warrior", "Florida", and "orange" so that the first vowels are the same as the "aw" sound in "law" or "caught". We're also going to learn the "ask list", which are words where the "a" vowel needs to switch from sounding like "apple" to a "middle a", which sounds somewhat British ("ask", "last", "dance", and "ghastly" are some of the words on the ask list).

My professor says that the hardest vowels to identify the differences between are the ones in "law", "honest", and "father" (yes, those are three different vowels), so we're going to have to be careful when learning them and look things up a lot in our pronouncing dictionaries.

Our homework for tonight is to come up with 10 words each for the vowels in the words "who", "would", and "law", and to IPA them.


Acting
We continued doing etudes with our Vonnegut texts. I think O.D. and I were doing a pretty good job, until the point where the text ended but the scene didn't. We ran out of recorded (i.e. memorized) things to say, but had to stay in the scene (we only end things when our professor says "thank you"... or sometimes when one of the characters exits the room/stage). It's not always easy to stay with the scene in these situations, because you (as an actor) KNOW what happens later in the story, and you become reticent to break from it.

O.D. and I added some more lines of improvised dialogue to the end of the scene (pretty well, I thought), but the energy had definitely changed. I guess that's something to work on for tomorrow.

Our professor started leading some of our classmates through the same sorts of lines of questioning with their characters as he has been doing for our Person Observations. These aren't necessarily questions that you can answer from the text (just as with the observation ones they're usually false memories that you're developing on the spot).


Analysis
We started discussing King Lear today, and my inner-geek rejoiced!

We began by addressing things that make this Shakespearean text different from the other plays we've analyzed thus far (language, structure, imagery, rhythm, etc.). Our professor also brought up the convention of compressed action in Shakespeare (i.e. when a character witnesses something, and then says she's written a letter about it... even though she never left the stage and there was no time for her to have written it).

It looks like King Lear is going to lead us through the pathways of Religion and Nature. Interesting stuff.