Thursday, November 19

VOICE
We recited texts after Paul Meier on his CD, trying to get all of the RP sounds.


TAP WORKSHOP
KEEP IN MIND: Today was Day 3 of our tap workshop. Most people in the class have never done tap before, so the fact that we're doing the things we're doing is really quite impressive.

We did what Dance Instructor says is "what people will do at an audition when asked to do a Times Step." We had already learned singles, doubles, and triples. This one goes:
Stamp; hop shuffle step; flap step
(and then the next stamp comes RIGHT after the step... There's a beat between the stamp and the hop)

We also started what Dance Instructor called "Rhythm Tap". I think he said what we were doing was an "essence" (I might have the word wrong... it started with an E)

He called this combination the "Bus Stop" step, because it's something that you practice while waiting for the bus.
flap heel heel brush heel toe heel

(It's a backwards brush... For some reason, I want to call it something else... Like a pick-up? Or a spank? Are those the same thing? Are they even real terms? It's been a LONG time since I've tapped, and I can't remember anymore.)


ACTING TUTORIAL
I met with Acting Professoressa at lunch. At our reading of Cymbeline, she says I've been pushing too much, and that I need to trust the text more. She was worried that I was vocally trying to play an emotional state. I wanted to meet with her about it to try to correct it as soon as possible. I think I've figured out how to correct it.


ACTING
We finished reading Cymbeline. It was a wild ride. And a lot of fun.

It actually makes me wish that I had some sort of class or reading group where people just got together and did table reads of plays for fun.

(NOTE: If such a place/group/class exists -- ANYWHERE -- please tell me so that I can get in touch with someone to figure out how it is run... Maybe in the future I can replicate it.)


Favorite line of the day:
"Hang there like fruit, my soul,
Till the tree die."
- Posthumus, while embracing Imogen after they've been reunited

Thursday, November 5

VOICE
We went through with each person reading the entire text of our Portia sonnet, and then getting individual notes, based on the scoring that they'd chosen.

My notes were:
- Don't make the word "even" in "And even now, but now," operative
- Remember to pitch-match downward again after the parenthetical "my lords!" (I have decided to raise my pitch for that parenthetical instead of dropping it, as I think that it gives greater momentum for the end of the speech.


MOVEMENT
We started getting some choreography today, which is always nice. I do dig choreography.


MOVEMENT TUTORIAL
Movement Professor and I worked on my pirouettes. I can do inside turns just fine, but outside turns get me all off-balance and not turned out with the leg that's in passé.

There are so many things to think about during ballet that it's hard for me to do them all at once. When I was working with Movement Professor one-on-one, there were times when she said that I did things perfectly, but it was only after she reminded me of like 3 things that I'd forgotten about my position.

It's tricky. But at least I know that it's physically possible for me to do it... it's just a matter of getting my mind on the right page so that my body can match it.


ACTING
Chapter 3 of Playing Shakespeare is Language & Character. It's really so much better when you watch the DVD. And not just because young Roger Rees was hot (although he totally was... and young Ian McKellen... and young Patrick Stewart...) It just makes everything far more understandable.

We went over more sonnets, including mine. At the end of class we were still debating things on mine, so we're going to start with it again tomorrow.

On a side note, I have to submit three in-verse Shakespeare monologues next Wednesday that I might do for class. I'm looking for something comedic (which doesn't often go together with verse)... I have to bring in 3-5 pieces. If you have any suggestions, by all means, send them my way.


THE MYSTERY PLAYS
No news on this front. Just wanted to remind you that I'm still performing this every night after my classes. Which is why I'm so tired this week, I think. Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday.

Friday, October 30

VOICE
Voice Professor recommends that we get off-book for our Portia monologue as much as possible over the weekend, as our exam is next week. While getting off-book, we have to memorize our scoring as well as the actual text.


MOVEMENT
Movement Professor is back! We showed her the jazz routine that we had been working on with Dance Instructor while she was gone. She seemed excited about it, and I think she's going to continue working with us on it.

Man, one day back in ballet was all it took to make my core muscles a little sore again. Crazy stuff.


MOVEMENT TUTORIAL
I had a mid-semester conference with Movement Professor over my lunch break. We talked about my frustrations during our stretching unit. I think she and I are both glad to be past that. She seems pretty happy with my progress in ballet work, and I am, too. Ballet is fun.

She showed me what I was doing wrong with my 2nd-Position tondu (or however you spell that). I was putting my leg too far back. So that's an easy fix. Also, I'm going too low in my pliés right now, but I can fix that, too.


ACTING
Two-Shots-Up gave a presentation about the Booth family as part of The Great Actor Series. Junius Brutus Booth was the father of Junius Brutus Booth Jr., Edwin Booth, and John Wilkes Booth (who, of course, became more well-known for assassinating President Lincoln than for his acting). Edwin Booth was a brilliant and famous actor, but it was hard for him to find work after his brother went nuts. Interesting stuff.

We had all read the first chapter of Playing Shakespeare by John Barton, and discussed his concept of The Two Traditions. We also discussed the pros and cons of contemporizing Shakespeare.

After that was our Rhetoric lesson. Here's a list of rhetorical devices from one of our many hand-outs.

BUILDS
Straight Builds
Shared Builds

COMPARE & CONTRAST
Antithesis
Oxymoron
Paradox

DOUBLE ENTENDRE
Pun
Bawdy

FOCUS
Asides
Soliloquies

IMAGERY
Simile
Metaphor
Apostrophe
Personification

REPETITION
Beginning
Ending
Length

RHYME
Rhyme
Half-Rhyme
Historic Rhyme
End Rhyme

SOUND
Alliteration
Assonance
Onomatopoeia


We went through explanations of all of these, as well as several examples. After that, Acting Professoressa passed around a basket with quotations from various Shakespearean plays, and we all got to pick a couple out, and then try to identify the devices present in that text. It was fun.

A couple more things that we discussed that weren't on that sheet:

- "Thou" was a less formal address than "You". It's important to note when characters switch back and forth between the two. (like Lady Capulet does in Romeo and Juliet, III, v)

- Choose against making questions rhetorical. It's not very active, and therefore not useful in persuasion. It's better to make them real questions.


Acting Professoressa has asked us to try to be off-book with our sonnets by Tuesday.

Thursday, September 17

MOVEMENT
Due to our special Voice class dedicated to Audition feedback, we had Movement first today. It would've been more nostalgic, if we weren't in such bad moods.

When we got to school today, we all seemed pretty exhausted. It probably had to do with the fact that we had rehearsal for The Greeks until ten last night, and we're totally not used to that.

We took our "falling up/falling down" partner work (which also involves partner balance), and began using it in a similar way to how we generally use "Little Bears". After that, we started putting our Shakespeare stuff to work.

Each person has started memorizing a Shakespeare speech that they enjoy and connect with. While moving with our partners, we started using our text. The texts had nothing to do with each other, but they told a story anyway. I haven't gotten to go yet, but I'm pretty geeked for it.


AUDITIONS
Yesterday, we had quick meetings with Movement Professor to discuss her notes on our physicality during auditions. The notes she gave me were:
- I'm working with my body well now
- I have "an actor's body" now. Or, at least, I'm a lot closer to having one than I was before.
- I need to keep energy moving through my hands and out through my middle fingers. Right now, my fingers curl into something closer to fists than straight fingers when I'm not paying attention. She advised that I look at dancers, because the difference between ones who have mastered their fingers and the ones that haven't is apparently huge.
- The biggest thing I need to work on is getting stronger. She says this is particularly true of my legs.
- During my audition, she said I was present "in the room". This is a good thing. She says sometimes when people audition it feels like their head is in a different building than their body.
- I need to make a simpler, more human connection with the audience before beginning my pieces.
- I need to work on letting the characters arriving, as opposed to jumping into them (which is a very difficult thing to do when you know that someone is timing you with a stopwatch)
- Physical shifts were a little too slow in my classical piece. Impulses should occur in the body first.
- I didn't lock my knees at all! YAY!
- My head was freely forward and up.
- She loved that my classical piece was ambitious.


Today, in lieu of Voice class, Head of Program and Voice Professor met with us to discuss auditioning and things that we need to improve on individually.

General appearance notes:
- Wear fitted clothing.
- Look good and be comfortable.
- Do not wear things that are too fashionable.
- Do not wear things that are distracting (such as neon colors, ill-fitting clothing, clothing with writing on it, things that are too trendy, or anything that might make someone pay more attention to the outfit than the person wearing it).
- "Wear what makes you feel good without looking like a hoochie-mama."
- "You do not need to go overly conservative [with clothing], but you don't want to be radically liberal."
- Don't dress for the part; dress for yourself.
- Look at your outfit from behind to make sure that it's good from all angles.
- Wear a palette that is semi-neutral. Avoid neon colors and busy pattens.
- Err on the conservative side; they'll pay attention to you, not the clothing.
- For callbacks, wear clothes that you can move in.
- Avoid all writing on clothing
- Don't wear shorts.
- Don't wear jeans.
- Don't wear tons of jewelry.
- At a callback for a period piece, women should probably wear skirts or dresses with capri leggings underneath.

General introduction and behavior notes:
- The most important thing is to communicate an authentic sense of self. Engage your personality fully and completely, and show it off.
- Do not use a dialect.
- Do not be late; it makes you seem completely undependable from the start.
- Engage the people in the room.
- Don't show too much of your prep work. You want to be PREPARED, not PREPARING.
- Don't do anything too weird or out of the box. It's memorable for the wrong reasons. It makes you look like an "artiste", and hard to work with.
- Make the first moment really professional and really connected.
- At the end, say "thank you" and leave carefully (so that they can call you back if they need to for some reason).
- Be careful of MOOD! Do NOT let them know that you are depressed/nervous/disappointed/etc.

General acting notes:
- Don't get locked into a pure profile.
- Don't leave eyes glued to imaginary "other" in the scene.
- Energy must go outward
- Whatever you've been working on with your acting (e.g. drilling clear consonants), you can work on it in the morning before your audition, but then LET IT GO. Otherwise, you end up forcing the thing you're working on too much and losing the truth of the pieces.
- Don't let nerves stop you from being truthful.

General monologue selection notes:
- The goal is to choose material that reflects you and a natural sense of self.
- Be authentically connected with greatest ease and clarity.
- Don't do a piece you've worked on in a show. Or, if you must, don't assume that all your work is done.
- Before the audition, ask yourself some questions about the monologue to keep you connected to it: Why do I like the piece? What is this character saying and doing that I understand? (See if you could talk ABOUT the monologue for 5 minutes, and then put all the information you said back into the piece when performing it.)
- Avoid narratives. They leave you without much of an action.
- Pieces comprised of rhymed couplets are probably not the best idea.
- Avoid pieces that are too physically comedic.
- Avoid anything where the audience might be concerned for your well-being.
- Stop panicking about showing off in pieces. It's more important to pay attention to your authentic self.

My individual notes were:
- My outfit was great.
- In my first piece, I placed my invisible scene partner a little too far over to the side.
- In my contemporary piece, I had great, specific focus and a clear "other" to talk to.
- They said my contemporary piece fit me as a person perhaps best of all the monologues. It's a great piece for me, and they said it let me shine.
- My classical piece is a good piece for me, but not necessarily for auditions. They said it's in too high a state of emotion, and that they were paying more attention to the plot than to me.
- I stood on a chair for my classical piece, and Head of Program advised me against it; he said it made him concerned for my physical well-being.
- My pieces contrasted well.
- I asked if my Classical piece would've been better served if I had ended it earlier, and they said yes. They also said it would help if I could find greater ease in who the character is as a human being, OUTSIDE of the circumstances of the monologue.


MOVEMENT TUTORIAL
I had an Alexander Technique lesson today. It involved a lot of me trying to stand from a chair and sit in the chair properly while keeping in alignment. I had to do something similar in undergrad, and I wasn't particularly good at it back then. I'm improving a lot now. Movement Professor also helped me to stand more aligned. It turns out I'm putting my weight too far back now (it was too far forward when I got to grad school, but I am the Queen of Overcompensation).


ACTING
We finished blocking Andromache and Electra today. Andromache is SO FREAKING LONG. I swear, I think it's three times the length of the others. I hope it moves at a good clip once we're off book and getting faster impulses.

We had an additional rehearsal of Electra from 7pm-10pm (but we were all getting a little loopy, so Acting Professoressa graciously let us out early... Dude, The Greeks are hard).

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.

Tuesday, March 3

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

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

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

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

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


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

Here are some of my sentences...

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

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

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

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


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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

Sunday, January 25

I have officially been put back on vocal rest by my Voice Professor as of about 15 minutes ago. After having a sore throat all week, I started really losing my voice last night. So now, no talking and lots of hydrating until further notice.

Anyway. Being under the weather made me spend a lot of the week resting when I could, so I'm a little behind on this... Back to Friday...

Movement
We finally did our movement monologues individually as performed pieces. I went first, which was nerve-wracking and uncomfortable. I was so worried that I was doing it wrong. But no, this is the kind of thing that you CAN'T do wrong.

After performing, we gave each other positive feedback, talking about our physical vocabularies and individual strengths. My professor said I had excellent "port de bras" (which is a dance term referring to the "carriage of the arms"... I looked it up). I'd write the other comments, but it feels to braggadocious to type out my compliments.

It was a very cool assignment, in retrospect. I learned a lot about the ways in which I habitually move, as well as the physical patterns of my classmates.


Voice
It turns out, I have a weird vowel shift that most people do not, and I cannot for the life of me figure out how I got it.

We started discussing the vowel in the phrase "God's hotdog". All three of those "o"s, in Standard American Dialect, should be pronounced as the same vowel -- the "o" sound in "honest".

In contemporary American speech, many people have started shifting their "honest" vowels so that they sound more like the "a" in "father". (If you're reading this and can't tell the difference between those vowels, you're not alone. They're similar vowels, and the shift is very common. We just can't learn it because it makes our speech sound too modern, which is limiting.)

I, however, somehow got the opposite shift. Instead of turning my "honest" vowels into "father" vowels, I sometimes round them too much and turn them into "law" vowels. So when I say "God's hotdog", I get "God" and "hot" correctly, but for "dog", I might as well be saying "dawg".

The three vowels in question appear in the phrase "tall coffee latte". "Tall" = "law", "coffee" = "honest", "latte" = "father". But I say it wrong, because I say "coffee" as "cawfee".

You know what other word I apparently say wrong? "Wrong". I put the "aw" vowel in, instead of the "honest" vowel.

My professor thinks it may have something to do with the fact that I grew up in the Midwest. The "honest" => "father" vowel shift is heavily present there, so I over-compensated by going in the opposite direction.

I think this is going to take a long (another word I can't say yet) time for me to correct.


Movement Tutorial
I met with my Movement Professor over my lunch hour. She filmed me walking, on the same tape that we've been using all year. Then we watched what my posture and walk used to look like versus what they look like now.

OH. MY. WORD.

I look like I have a completely different body than I had before. I cannot tell you HOW MUCH closer to neutral I am. And it was so weird to see, because I didn't notice the change happening. More than that, I didn't realize exactly how messed up I looked when I got here. And it's so great to see that the alignment work I've been doing on my own has really been making a difference.

I've apparently evened out the weight I put on my legs now, my feet are in parallel, and they're no longer too close together (rather, they're perhaps a bit too far apart, because I have a habit of taking a note and running with it... it results in a lot of overcompensation, but it's not going to be hard for me to pull back on this one).

My new list of things to focus on:
- opening through the sternum
- letting my face "float"
- bringing my feet underneath me
- stop thinking so much about my lower back (yay! I've improved enough that I can focus on other things!)
- breath into my sides and my back lower ribs (right now the front of my rib cage is expanding far more than the rest of it)


Acting
O.D. and I went first with our Vonnegut scene, and I just wasn't in it. When the conversation begins in the short story, Hildy (my character) is crying. Then during the conversation, she starts crying again and Andy (O.D.'s character) has a line referencing it. But I just can't do it.

My professor says that I don't have to put pressure on myself to cry at the beginning of the scene. He also says that if I "record" that I have to cry, the only reason that it won't happen is if I'm ignoring other impulses that my subconscious is sending to me. If I ignore it sometimes, it will stop working consistently. He (and Killer) said that I had denied an impulse to stand up at an earlier point in the scene, which is why I couldn't reach a state of "I am."

The second time we ran the scene, it was much better. I still didn't cry, but I didn't care to. O.D's line became about the reaction that I had, rather than the reaction that I was "supposed" to have, and there was a lot of life and truth in it.

I am hopeful that it will continue to bloom and grow, bloom and grow forever.


Theatre
I went to see The Imaginary Invalid again last weekend, which was the first time that I had seen it since the opening. I think it's gotten funnier since I saw it last (or maybe it just seemed that way because I hadn't heard the jokes in a while).

The opening of The Winter's Tale was on Friday, and it was the first time that I had seen the show entirely tech-ed. I have to say, it's pretty spectacular. And intimidating.

I went and saw Blur again last night, and I'm so glad I did. I thought it was even better than the last time I saw it (which was opening night). It's great to be able to observe actors continuing to develop their characters throughout a run.


Understudying
I'm pretty sure that I'm ready to go on as Béline in Imaginary Invalid if -- God forbid it should ever happen -- the actress gets sick. But Paulina in Winter's Tale is another story. If I have to go on for her any time soon, I'm seriously worried that I would ruin that show.

As an opening night present, I gave both of the women I'm understudying (the woman who plays Béline in Invalid also plays Hermione in W.T.) Airborne, cough drops, tissues, and hand sanitizer. I included notes telling them "Break a leg (but not literally)", and telling them to "Stay healthy!" (I also gave those things to my 3rd-year roommate, who is playing Perdita, and is also Hallie/Marguerite in Inventing Van Gogh.)

I've been working on my Paulina lines diligently, but man, they're rough. A challenge that I've had with both of these understudy roles is that they're commanding women who lead the scenes they're in. Therefore, most of my lines are not reactionary, making it more difficult to remember the cues for them (especially considering that I'm learning them alone, with no scene partner to feed me the aforementioned lines). An additional difficulty with Paulina is that many of her lines are similar to each other (for example, "...think anon it moves." & "...think anon it lives."), and if I confuse them, everything else gets thrown off.

Today (Sunday), we had our first understudy run for The Winter's Tale (which I did with the hoarse and meager voice I had, before being put on vocal rest). So much of the blocking changed during tech. Paulina is suddenly sitting on a different chair, entering on the opposite side of the stage, crossing on a different line, etc. The lighting is specific, so our blocking has become so as well (standing a foot away from your mark in any direction could leave you in shadow). I feel as though all the rehearsals I attended in December did me little good by practical measure. Still, I'm glad that I went to them. I think it helped me to get more in tune with this production's interpretation of the character.

Anyway. As long as Paulina doesn't get sick next week, I'm sure it'll all turn out just fine.


Tech
I've been doing box office, which I've rather come to like, actually. It's like a cross between two of my previous employment experiences: a customer service desk at a mall, and filing medical records. As long as I smile and alphabetize correctly, everything is a piece of cake.

Tonight is the Blur strike, so I'm called for that. I attached a sticky note reading "I'm on Vocal Rest" to my shirt with a bobby-pin. I hope it all goes quickly, because after that, I'm going to come home, hydrate, and sleep.


Workshops
This is recruitment season for the conservatory, which means some of the professors are off at auditions in New York, Chicago, and Las Vegas for the next couple of weeks trying to get a new class together (which is SO WEIRD... I feel like I just got here). In their absence, we are not having regular classes, but are instead in workshops.

We're having an "On Camera" workshop and a "Stage Combat" workshop. The 2nd-years are also having their certifications for hand-to-hand combat this week. And apparently, some directors are coming from our school's main campus (which is about a 4.5 hour drive away from our MFA Acting campus) to work with us in some capacity (although I'm still vague on that).


My upcoming schedule is:

Tuesday, Jan 27 - Thursday, Jan 29:
9am-12pm - Stage Combat
1pm-5pm - On Camera
(and on Wednesday, 7pm-8pm - Box Office)

Friday, Jan 30
9am-12pm - Stage Combat
2pm-5pm - Stage Combat
7pm-11pm - Meeting with Main Campus film directors

Saturday, Jan 31
1pm-5pm - On Camera
7pm-11pm - On Camera

Sunday, Feb 1
1pm-5pm - On Camera
7pm-11pm - On Camera



Phew! I think that's everything.

Silently yours,

~A~

Monday, January 5

I am so anxious to get back to classwork, you have no idea.

I went to the school today and did etudes with D-Train, Iceman, and All-The-Way for about an hour, which was pretty great. I've been doing work on my own, but it really isn't the same thing. My creative subconscious needs more room to stretch than my living room allows.

After that I met with Two-Shots-Up (she's understudying Angelique) and the 3rd-year who is understudying Argan to work on Imaginary Invalid scenes. We made it through Act I, and I think we're doing pretty well. I'm still paraphrasing, but it's not nearly as bad as it was even a few days ago. I'm really quite pleased.

The weird thing is trying to recreate someone else's performance in a way that is truthful for me, but also close enough to the original that it wouldn't throw off anything in the play. The actor I'm understudying is really well-trained (she actually graduated from my program a few years ago), and I'm just not up to her skill level yet. I'm just going to do the best I can, and hope that it's sufficient.

I went out with Two-Shots-Up to try to buy shoes for our Ballroom Workshop (which starts on Thursday, I believe), but the store was closed. Just one more thing to do tomorrow, I guess.

For our Acting class, we have a "Character Development" assignment that we'll be working on this semester. It sounds like we'll be adapting characters from literature and creating scenes based on that text. The texts we've been assigned are collections of stories by Kurt Vonnegut called Welcome to the Monkey House and Bagombo Snuff Box. We're supposed to focus on four stories from each one. I've read the ones from Monkey House in a Word document that Killer somehow tracked down. I just got Snuff Box in the mail today, so hopefully I can read those tomorrow. We're supposed to let our professor know which characters we're drawn to.

I had a Movement Tutorial with my professor last week to work on what she calls "The Daily Dozen" alignment exercises. There are some that she has decided I don't need to do because my upper body is already open and released. But some of the ones focusing on my spine and lower body she wants me to do twice a day. They're not strenuous by any means, but it's difficult for me to feel when I'm doing things properly with my spine or psoas muscles right now. It's a challenge.

I just got my Anatomy Coloring Book in the mail that my professor recommended I get. She wants me to start with the spine, followed by the pelvis, and then the femurs. Hopefully it will help me to understand my body better.

I've been watching floral designers on YouTube and reading about it online, as I haven't been able to watch any yet. I'm hoping to see some in person in the next couple of days. I already see a potential problem with my props... I don't want to use real flowers, as that would be very expensive. But fake flowers just don't move the way real ones do (especially since I think I'm going to focus on exotic design, which involves things like puncturing and folding leaves). And I'm not sure of a good way to cut the stems of fake flowers... This could be tricky.

I think I'm also supposed to read The Emperor Jones by Eugene O'Neill for Textual Analysis class before Thursday, but I haven't started it... Whoops. Hopefully I'll be able to do that Wednesday. Wish me luck.

I'm off to do some Chekov exercises, try to move my spine, and read some Vonnegut!

~A~

Wednesday, November 12

Movement
Two of the Viewpoints/Text groups presented today, and both of the performances were terrific. Seriously. It was intimidating. My group is going on Friday.

We spent part of class doing a variation on God/Creature that I like. But working with my text in this way is so jarring to me that it makes me completely mess up my monologue. I keep saying lines in the wrong order, or just forgetting completely comes next. I'm going to have to drill it next weekend.


Voice
I don't remember the last time my body was as confused as it was today in voice class. I can do a rib swing. I can use my lower abdominals properly to create sound. But when I try to put those steps together, my body will have none of it. I can't figure it out for the life of me. My Voice Professor told me not to work on it on my own, for fear that it might end up throwing me even farther off track. I hope it goes better tomorrow.


Acting
We spent a long period of time discussing our observation assignment. It was an interesting talk about finding the essence of the other person (not just physical tics), adding your essence to it, and coming up with a third thing. My professor said that in order to truly portray a character, you have to know what they would do in any situation, not just what you observe them doing (or, in the case of a play, not just what they do in the script).


Singing Tutorial
I totally had the day wrong and showed up late! But it worked out fine. I've officially chosen "Stranger to the Rain" from Children of Eden, and I'm really rather excited about it.


Homework
I had two rehearsals with my Viewpoints group. One at 8am, the other at 11pm. We're going to have a couple more run-throughs of what we've got before performing on Monday morning. *fingers crossed*

Friday, November 7

Movement
We worked more with our handball tossing today, and it was more successful than yesterday (thank goodness).

We continued working a game called "Master/Slave" (which she sometimes calls "God/Creature") in conjunction with the texts of our "movement monologues". At first, Master (God) was saying the words in such a way that they could control the movements of the Slave (Creature). By the end it switched so that the Master was doing movements to change how the slave said their words. It was really neat. And it's our homework for the weekend to continue work with that.


Voice
We continued working with Rib Swing in partner pairs. Once I raise my soft palate, it's so easy now. The biggest thing I struggle with is staying relaxed in my shoulders while expanding my rib cage, but I'm getting better at it.


Movement Tutorial
My walk has gotten significantly better since the last time we taped it, even with my present injuries. My homework assignments are:

- Learn to lead with my left leg instead of my right.
- Step out further with my left leg to prevent my gait from getting too narrow on one side.
- Keep my head free, forward, and up.
- Allow sacroilleatic articulation (no clue how to spell that, but I know what it means).
- Connect my psoas muscles through the body.
- Remember to allow my arms to move even when I'm concentrating on 5 other things.

The tendonitis in my right hip socket got pretty bad today after God/Creature, and now it's painful to walk. It's especially painful to drive. Something's wrong with my illeacus (again, no clue how to spell that, but I know where it is... and it's not pleasant).

My movement professor wants me to start walking 20-30 minutes every day (on a treadmill or otherwise) from now until January 1st in order to strengthen my legs. She wants me to be less prone to injury by the time we start tumbling next semester. She says she's going to have me sit out from several activities in the next couple of weeks, which I find incredibly frustrating. And I know that some of my classmates hate it when I sit out, and point to it as me not being a part of the ensemble, which upsets me more than I can say.


Acting
We discussed how our worst fear has to be damaging our relationship with a partner onstage. You are only as good as your partner. If you bring your partner to where they need to be, then you will have a good performance. If you attempt to act in spite of them, then you will not look any better than they do.

We did text etudes for the remainder of class, and they went really well.

Big Show & Wifey had a really intense etude involving divorce that left both of them in tears and me completely breathless. They really gave themselves over to it, and it created something beautiful.

I did three rounds with The Pro on a piece of text, and all three times it rang out REALLY differently. And I was really happy with how it went. I think that it's safe to say I'm on the road to recovery where my bravery is concerned, and I couldn't be happier about that.



Well, I must be off. Wilder! Wilder! Wilder! calls!

~A~

Friday, October 24

D-Train and I ended up having a successful spying excursion at a Starbucks. There were about 5 couples around when we got there, but we picked the same one. And before we left, Two-Shots-Up and Iceman arrived at the same place for the same assignment.


CAPOEIRA WORKSHOP
I sat out for all of Capoeira in order to baby my injuries. But I watched, and I think I still learned.

The Mestre (big cheese) came and gave instruction, and then later we had a Roda with the 2nd-Years. The Mestre has three rules when playing:

1. Don't get hit.
2. Don't cross kicks.
3. Don't stop moving.

He says that when Capoeira is played (danced? fought?) correctly, it should look like a kitchen mixer, where the blades are folding in towards each other but never actually touch.

He said that a kick is always a consequence of a dodge, and that Capoeira has to be played defensively more than offensively. He also reminded of the importance of speed (he even broke out the science class principle of Force = Mass x Acceleration) with kicks. And he emphasized the importance of not being afraid, but just reacting on impulse (ah... I see how this fits into acting training...).


MOVEMENT
I actually participated a bit, albeit very carefully. For one Viewpoints exercise that's normally done on your feet, Wifey and I did it in chairs (she has a knee injury right now, so we're a good pairing). I realized that I've been confusing Kinesthetic Response with Spacial Relationship, as I often feel the need to fill in dead space. As a result of being confined to the chair, I learned the difference. So something positive came out of my injuries after all.


ACTING TUTORIAL
I'm not sure that I should call it a tutorial... I requested a meeting with my Acting Professor to check in on my progress. I've had some really great work in class, but my progress feels like a rollercoaster, and I know that some days are steps back.

He said a lot of things that were hard to hear, but I'm sure that I needed to hear them. He said that I need to work more on my own outside of class. He thinks that my head is in my classwork, but he's not sure if my heart truly is. He also said that the best way that I can contribute to making our class into an ensemble is to work as hard as I can and set a good example.

I thought I was working hard. I thought my heart was in it. I felt blindsided and confused. But I know that I want to learn this, so if that's what I need to do, then that's what I need to do.


ACTING CLASS
We had an exercise that required us to work as an ensemble. It didn't go well.

Our professor gave us a stern talking-to. I felt embarrassed and upset. I started crying. I wasn't the only one.

We took a break, came back, and did our last ever batch of the "Shakespeare on Vacation" silent etudes. I did one with O.D. where I was in "I Am" for most of it.



HOMEWORK
Over the weekend, I'm meeting with a group and Director A. for a Viewpoints assignment for Movement. I'm also going to be working on my Wild Duck paper. And I have to read a bit of Chekov.

And it's also my birthday weekend, and there's a Halloween party... Life is complicated. :)

Thursday, October 16

MOVEMENT
One of our home-study assignments has been the "Cunningham Big Back Stretch". I haven't mentioned it because it's a multi-step stretch and I'm not sure that I can properly explain it without demonstrating it. But I figured I should mention it. So there you are.

We worked on our Capoeira kicks today. Our Capoeira workshop is next week, so we've got to get whipped into shape before then. Those kicks take a lot out of me.

We've also started doing some exercises that are related to Viewpoints. My professor was in the very first Viewpoints class that Mary Overlie ever taught (Anne Bogart was one of her classmates). We're doing this thing where everyone walks around the room with the idea that they're standing on an imaginary grid and have to make 90-degree turns... Like most of my classwork, it's hard to explain, but it's pretty neat.


VOICE
We had our destructuring (tremoring) exam today. I can't think of anything that I did wrong, so I assume I did well on it. But I guess I'll find out sooner or later.

We started focusing on "r" sounds (the "ruh" as in "red" or "right"). My tongue is doing the correct thing during it (pointed toward the back of my aveloar ridge and flicking backward), but I'm worried that I'm using my lips in the sound creation (which you're not supposed to). I spent some time tonight saying words that start with "r" sounds while smiling, to make certain that my lips were not involved. Hopefully, that will help.


ACTING
We did exercises as a group to begin class, which I was glad about. They really do help to instill the idea of ensemble while simultaneously putting us into contact with our creative centers. I dig them.

I had an etude with Thrill today that I thought went particularly well. Our scene ended up being about a couple who had just moved into their first home. And while I've had etudes in the past that I thought were more interesting, dramatic, or fun, I think this one had more honesty in it.

The goal of an etude is to get to a state of "I Am", where you are no longer acting, but truly living. The reason I think I hit "I Am" today is that after the exercise ended, I couldn't remember half of what happened or why it happened; it had just happened. I didn't force anything, I didn't create anything, I just lived it. It was neat.

The other etudes today all got pretty heavy. Two-Shots-Up started crying in one when All-The-Way was apologizing for an unknown accident. D-Train tried to cheer up Iceman after the death of his mother with a clarinet that he bought for $5 (which turned out to be broken). Killer was moving out of The Pro's apartment after a bad break-up. And then O.D. was trying to comfort Big Show when a dinner party he was planning brought up the pain of his friend's death.

Our professor said today that if a scene feels like it's dragging on for too long, it's usually not because people aren't picking up their cues, but rather because they're not following their impulses. He also said that the most important gift for an actor to have is the possibility to completely adopt the life of someone else (a point that was raised after Big Show mirrored O.D.'s body language and physical state exactly while in an etude).

Tomorrow, we have an "etude exam" (although I'm not really sure if etudes are something that you can have an exam on... but then, I'm just a student here). A couple of our other professors are probably going to show up to watch, which of course will be a bit nerve-inducing. I hope we can all do as well as we've been doing all this week. There has been a lot of really good work in the last few days, and I'd love to be able to keep it up.


ANALYSIS
I don't think I understand The Wild Duck, but I've decided that I like it. It's quite the reverse of A Doll House (strange, as they were both written by Ibsen), where the play shows how destructive lies can be and how important it is that truth come out. In The Wild Duck, lies are what save people, and truth is a negative, destructive force.

Our paper analyzing the action of The Wild Duck is due next week. And for Tuesday we're reading Joe Turner's Come and Gone by August Wilson.


MOVEMENT TUTORIAL
It wasn't really a tutorial, but I'm going to call it one. It was a mid-semester review with my professor to discuss my progress in the class. She says she can tell that I've been working hard, and says I've already made improvements with my alignment. But, because I'm flexible, she says I hyper-extend body parts a great deal (particularly my spine).

She says the biggest things that I have to work on are my form and my kinesthetic awareness (knowledge of where my body is in space). While my flexibility will help me with some things when we get into tumbling (she says she thinks I'll be able to do some bends and flips well), my lack of form and awareness will prevent me from doing others (she predicts that handstands are going to be difficult for me, as they require your body to be in a single plane in space, and I won't be able to feel whether I'm in one or not).

Thursday, October 9

Last night I somehow managed to find 14 states of being, read The Wild Duck by Henrik Ibsen, and bake brownies. I call myself victorious.

MOVEMENT
We worked on our psoas whatnot, which I still can't feel. But I do think that my abs are less engaged than they were before, so maybe my body is adapting and I just don't know it. *shrugs*

We practiced our Capoeira kicks. My professor said that I did one of them particularly well, which is funny, as I thought I was doing it completely wrong. I keep mixing up which kick is which, and I can't figure out how you go into them from "ginga" (the basic step). Ah well. I'm sure I'll get it sooner or later.

We talked a little about the methods of learning in the class. Our professor explained that when it comes to movement, our progression is not linear. We have to trust that all the things that we're learning will add up. We have to come to class each day with a "beginner's mind", ready to learn. She said it's like we're building a violin from scratch. We have to find the right wood, the right shape, the right angles, the right glue... and once we put it all together, we'll have an instrument that's ready to make music. (The instruments, of course, being our bodies.)


VOICE
Our focus tremors today were Dying Cockroach and Half-Plow. I quite like both of them. Sadly, though, I've been a little gun-shy about Half-Plow ever since the day that my knee violently hit my nose. Now I'm afraid to let my legs anywhere near my face, and when my tremor starts to get intense, I feel the need to stop it.

Both my Movement Professor and my Voice Professor have discussed "code-switching" recently. There's this idea that's sort of like compartmentalizing, so that even though we're in neutral, we have the ability to find our non-neutrals in case social climates or roles call for them. My Voice Professor is originally from Boston and says that when she visits her family, she starts dropping "r" sounds. But as soon as she's at school, she code-switches back to neutral. It's nice to think that we can learn what neutral is without completely giving up who we are or what experiences we came in with.

Today, we finally started learning the breathing that we've been preparing for these last six weeks. It's called "rib swing", and I think I've already gotten the hang of it. I'm very lucky, as I have a flexible rib cage and am able to expand it a great deal already (the costume shop told me that the difference between my measurements with relaxed rib cage and "expanded" rib cage was massive). For me, Rib Swing isn't much different from the huge inhalations I take at the doctor's office when I'm examined with a stethoscope (but apparently I'm unusual in this).


MOVEMENT TUTORIAL
Over lunch I had a movement tutorial to discuss my walk. My movement professor videotaped me walking from a few different angles, and then videotaped me standing from a few different angles. I'd actually done the same sort of thing in undergrad, so it wasn't all that weird to me.

She then gave me some "homework" of things to try to adjust in my normal walking. First of all, I lock my knees whenever I'm standing still, which then makes a jarring movement when I begin to walk. I always begin to walk with my right leg, and I don't put enough weight on my left leg. My right hip swivels out to the side. And my pelvis, as I already knew, tilts too far backward. She said that this is just the beginning. Next time I meet with her, she expects that I will have done my best to correct those things so that we can move on to even more problems with my walk.


ACTING TUTORIAL
I met with my Acting Professor to discuss my "memory of physical action" exam from last week (where I made an imaginary peanut butter and banana sandwich). His comments were mostly positive, and very encouraging. I was quite proud of my progress with that exercise, and it was nice to know that he recognized the work I put into it.

He said the biggest thing that I need to work on is recording the sensation of food and drink in my mouth at the end of the exercise in a stronger way. He also said that, while I was able to have a sense of general ease in the exercise, that ease did not carry over to my lips. Apparently, I hold tension in my lips. Who knew?


ACTING
We spent the first hour (it's a 3-hour class, daily) discussing our work from yesterday on archetypal gestures. We had an interesting (and at times frustrating) conversation on the differences between archetypes and stereotypes. I'm not sure that we all came away with the same understanding... Oh well. I have my own definitions, and I'm comfortable with them.

We started doing a brand new breed of etudes, which I'm excited about. In the past, our etudes have been dialogue-based. Starting today, they were silent, and we had no given circumstances going into them. The scenes created themselves. I haven't gotten to try them yet, but it was neat to watch them unfold.

Our professor said that if, at the end of an etude, you want to try it again, then that's usually a good indicator that nothing "real" happened the first time around. I actually kind of wanted to argue that point, but I didn't. But in the past, when I have a really great etude, I want to do another. When I have a bad etude, I want to sit down and watch other people do them for awhile until I can figure out what I was doing that was unsuccessful. *shrugs* Maybe I'm just weird.


ANALYSIS
My Analysis Professor was back today, and we picked up class exactly where we left off. We tried to pinpoint the action of A Doll House. The ideas that we ended up with were things about "taking responsibility" and "revealing truth". Neither of them felt quite right to me, but I couldn't come up with anything better. I think I'm actually sort of terrible at this analysis stuff. A lot of times I end up arguing against the best answers. I think I'm better at finding reasons that things seem wrong than finding evidence to support anything. It's for this reason that I'm terrified about our upcoming paper on The Wild Duck. I'm trying to put it out of my head for the moment.

Wednesday, October 1

MOVEMENT
We were told really early on in the semester by both our movement and voice professors that we are no longer allowed to do sit-ups or crunches. Apparently, those exercises strengthen muscles that we're trying to learn how to release in order to have better vocal production and freer movement.

Today we started attempting to learn a new thing called "psoas sit-ups". Do you know where your psoas muscles (pronounced like "SO-az") muscles are?



Don't try to touch it with your hands, because it's not possible. They're inside your body. Basically, they start in the front of your body near your groin, and extend to the "floating" ribs (the lowest ribs at the back of your rib cage... the ribs that don't extend to the front). Trying to use those muscles that you never knew you had? REALLY HARD. I can't feel them at all. And my professor wants us to relax our rectus abdominus, which I'm pretty sure is impossible.

Today we were trying to learn HALF of the psoas sit-up. Just the roll-down part. This is how it works: You lie on the floor on your back, with your feet on the ground and your knees pointed toward the ceiling. Then you do the first part of a sit-up, so that your upper-body is up by your knees. You put your hands on your stomach and begin to sort of jiggle your stomach in an effort to not let your abs engage. And then, while doing that, you try to lay back down, only using your soaz muscles. I can't move 6 inches towards the floor without my abs kicking in. I don't know how I'm going to learn this. *sigh*


VOICE
We're trying to improve our "final z" sounds in pluralized words. This is hard for me, as I have a tendency to use "s" sounds when "z" sounds are appropriate. Think you know the difference? Say these words aloud and see which final consonants you think are "z" and which are "s":

1. boys
2. asks
3. owns
4. caps
5. pushes
6. fits
7. cries
8. laughs
9. oils
10. hunts
11. ices
12. bats

Did you do it? The correct answers are as follows: All the odd numbers are "z" and the even numbers are "s". Apparently, plurals should only sound like an "s" when the final sound of the word is a consonant (not a vowel) that is not sibilant ("s", "z", "sh", "zh", "ch", and "j") and not voiced (non-sibilant voiced = "v", "g", "b", and "d"). That means the sounds "f", "k", "p", and "t".

I use "s" sounds where I shouldn't. See all the examples above? I use "s" for all of them right now (or, in the case of "cries", it's sort of an "s/z" blend, which is also incorrect). Lots of work ahead!


VOICE TUTORIAL
Killer and I finally had our meeting with our voice professor on our overly-sibilant "s" sounds. With most people, over-sibilance is caused by having a tongue that is too flat in the mouth, but that doesn't seem to be my problem. I put my tongue too far back on my alveolar ridge (the ridge in the roof of your mouth). So my tongue is closer to where you make the "sh" sound than the "t" or "n" sound (which is where it's supposed to be). Also, I put way too much breath behind my "s" sounds, and make them too long. The effect? My "s" sounds turn out really hissy, like a snake.* Our professor gave us some lists of words with "s" and "z" sounds at the beginnings, middles, and ends of words so that we can practice on our own. It's a long road ahead, but gosh darn it, we're going to make it!

*(Confession: part of me sort of thinks this is awesome. Maybe I could talk to snakes in Parseltongue like in Harry Potter. But I'll correct it, because I'd rather be an actor than a Slytherin witch.) < /geekdom >

ACTING
The rest of us did our memory of physical action exercises.

Iceman: cleaning up a broken bottle
Me: making a peanut butter and banana sandwich
Two-Shots-Up: doing laundry by hand
The Pro: preparing for a dinner party
D-Train: preparing to grill
Thrill: lifting weights

People gave me a lot of really great criticism that I'm excited to work on. Some things were little, like that I unscrewed the cap of the milk jug in the wrong direction. Some were big, like that my imaginary plate changed heights frequently. We get to all do our exercises for one last trial run tomorrow, and then our exam performance is Friday.

MUSICAL THEATRE TUTORIAL
The 1st and 2nd years have a musical theatre workshop later in the year with this really awesome music director from New York, and we all have to choose songs and get to work on them before he gets down here. We have 2 half-hour lessons before then. Most people seem to use their first lesson to decide on a song (a lot of us have gone in with multiple song options), and the second to really learn how the accompaniment and the vocal part work together.

I went in with like a thousand songs, because I really didn't know what to go for. Randy (who is coaching us before the workshop) called me something today that no one has ever, EVER called me: a soprano.

I have only ever sung Alto II in choirs. I have a good low-range (I can sing down to the F below middle C without being warmed up. Warmed up, I can usually hit the C. I have, in the past, hit the A below that), so that's where I always get placed. Besides, I'm a good musician, so having me on harmonies works out fine. But Randy says I have a three-octave range. He says I should change my résumé to say mezzo-soprano, because it reflects better potential than the label "alto". Awesome.

I ended up singing parts of 6 songs for him (which seems excessive, but he wanted to try them all). We've narrowed it down to three, and he says any of them would work out well.

- "Stranger to the Rain" from Children of Eden (which I think I'm leaning towards at the moment)
- "One Hundred Easy Ways (to Lose a Man)" from Wonderful Town
- "Here I Am" from Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

If you have any opinions on these, feel free to vote in the poll underneath the music player, and leave other notes in the comments section.


Now I'm off to read A Doll House, do some tremoring, practice my "s" sounds, and try to find my psoas muscles. Ciao!

~A~