Quotations: Volume 38

Here are some of the educational, inspirational, and humorous quotations from my classes this week:

(Disclaimer: quotations are often taken out of context and may not accurately reflect the way they were originally intended)


Voice Professor: Let's not pretend. This test is not going to be Friday.
D-Train: (laughs) Let's not pretend. (laughs)
Voice Professor: Well, we've all been pretending that this test was going to be Friday. I've been pretending and believing it. And it seems I was the only one who didn't know over the weekend.

"If you make a mistake, you have to follow through on it. If you take a step on stage, you can't go, 'Oops! I'm not supposed to be there.' If you do, it's Miss Canterowski's third grade pageant, and I don't want my name on it."
- Head of Program

"You can all do this... Oh my God, I just reminded myself of Tim Gunn. (beat) Actually, yes. Make it work!"
- Head of Program

"You are a cog. A cog without which the play cannot work, but you are nonetheless a cog."
- Head of Program

(Acting Professoressa puts down her mug after taking a drink of her sparkling fruit-flavored water and makes eye contact with D-Train)
Acting Professoressa: There is not gin in here.
D-Train: I just thought it was funny the way you put that mug down.
Acting Professoressa: (picks up mug, takes a swig, and feigns drunkenness) Break your sonnet into beats. (winks obviously at D-Train) Three quatrains... and a couplet.

(in a discussion about how literal actions, or "doings", are different than sensual ones, Acting Professoressa suggests that "to lick" would be a good example of a sensual doing.)
Iceman: So, my doing is to lick you?
Acting Professoressa: I'd like you to metaphorically lick with those very words.
Jceman: Um, okay...
O.D.: (to Iceman) Don't worry, man. I won't tell [your wife].
Acting Professoressa: Would you like me to do it for you?
Iceman: Um, okay...
Acting Professoressa: (using "to lick") What was... What was the question?

"You want the meter to inform the poem, but the meter doesn't run the poem."
- Acting Professoressa

"Smile! If you're going to kill someone, you should enjoy it!"
- Movement Professor, while we were working on a step in ballet that she said should be done with enough force that it could kill someone

Thrill: [Acting Professoressa], you're not going green, are you?
Acting Professoressa: Going green?
Thrill: Saving trees?
Acting Professoressa: Oh. I thought you were referring to my complexion.

(D-Train told All-The-Way that while he was on a break from Acting class, 1st-Year Acting Professor had said that D-Train should burst into the middle of his class and ambush the 1st-years while they were doing an etude)
All-The-Way: Was he serious, or was he joking?
D-Train: I don't know. He's Russian.

Acting Professoressa: Okay, who wants to start?
O.D.: (muffled, as his mouth was full) I'll start!
Acting Professoressa: You've got a mouth full of apple. [All-The-Way] will start.

"There's no personification there. 'Sea' is the same as 'toilet'. It's just a noun."
- Acting Professoressa, when someone asked if a line of Shakespearean text involving "the raging sea" was personification

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, October 29

THEATRE
I went to see Life in the Middle again this morning, and loved it even more than the first time. Seriously, it's a wonderful show. I was so moved by it. At one point I laughed and had an audience of middle schoolers staring at me as though I were a freak, reminding me perfectly of what it was like to have the pressure to fit in back in my younger days. At another point, I cried, and Big Show put his arm around me... Trust me, Big Show and I would not have gotten along as our middle school selves, but the fact that we can be good friends is I think encouraging when I think about all the snippets of young lives in the show; they will grow up, they will move on, they will do great things, and I hope that they will be able to put their differences aside and be supportive of each other as individuals one day.

I love the class of 2010. I'm so proud of them.


VOICE
We actually didn't have Voice class this morning (morning classes are canceled for 2nd-Years the morning after an Opening Night... THANK GOD), but I never wrote about yesterday's class, so here goes:

Voice Professor's big advice to the eight of us in The Mystery Plays going into Opening Night? Don't be seduced by the audience. Don't play into them. Don't ham it up. Excellent advice, I thought.

After many classes of trying to dissect our Shakespearean texts and identify rhetorical devices, we started discussing how to actually PLAY those choices.

With operatives, you can emphasize them by changing one of three things:
- your pitch
- your rate
- your volume

Voice Professor advised against over-using volume as the method of highlighting operatives. She said the most useful method is pitch-changing.


ACTING
Acting Professoressa had us start off class by taking turns reading aloud this article from the New York Times: Whispers Offstage? Could Be Actor's Next Line.

We talked a little about The Mystery Plays, and Acting Professoressa had a great piece of advice: when giving other actors compliments, try to be specific.

We moved onto discussing and scanning more sonnets. I got a migraine from frustration. When I got to this school, I really loved scansion and thought I had a good handle on it. But between Voice class and Acting class, I'm really confused now.

Our homework is to figure out two sets of actions/needs/"doings" for our sonnets. The first set should be literal, and the second should be sensual. So, for example, if I am literally trying "to persuade", I might be sensually trying "to juice". If I'm literally trying "to calm", I might sensually be trying, "to stroke". If I were literally trying "to persuade", I might be sensually trying "to lick". Things like that. The goal is to be able to change the partner by saying the poem.

Additionally, we are to read the first chapter of Playing Shakespeare by John Barton.

Acting Professoressa also recommended trying to "walk" the sonnet to get a feel for the rhythm and the irregularities of the text. (Someone -- I think it was Killer -- then made a joke about "Dancing with the Sonnets" that was pretty entertaining).


THE MYSTERY PLAYS
It's nice that the show is open now. It feels freer already. I realized yesterday just how much I truly love this show. It's such a great journey to travel through as an actor, and it has such positive messages. I dig it. And our audiences have seemed to love it, too, which is super cool.

Wednesday, October 28

OH MY WORD! WE OPENED! THE MYSTERY PLAYS IS OPEN!!!

And you only have a window of 3 weeks to see it, so go buy your tickets NOW.

It was exhilarating. I'm so proud of my company. And people were incredibly complimentary and supportive. Yay hooray!

Congratulations to All-The-Way, D-Train, Iceman, Big Show, Newbie, O.D., and Wifey! I love you guys!

And now, I'm off to bed.

Tuesday, October 27

VOICE
We got our scoring exams back today. I actually did shockingly well on mine, considering how confused I was right before I turned it in. We spent most of the class period discussing questions that individuals had on their tests.

Here are a few more notes on our scoring rules:
- You cannot have a full sentence without operatives.
- You cannot use a trochee in the 5th foot. (although I feel like I've seen a line that was entirely trochaic once... I wonder if that would be okay...)
- You cannot use a pyrrhic in the 5th foot.


JAZZ
Movement Professor is out of town (she was asked to perform at Merce Cunningham's memorial), so Dance Instructor (who taught us waltz last year and will be teaching tap later this year) is doing a jazz workshop with us for a couple of days.

I really like jazz stuff. It's very fluid, which is fun, but simultaneously seems to use what Michael Chekhov would call a "molding" quality. And I dig that. I have to say, though, I don't remember the last time I've sweat as much as I did today.


MYSTERY PLAYS
In the afternoon we had a run-through and notes session. Head of Program stressed how important it is to keep everything sharp, clean, energized, and weighted. We need to know what we are responsible for communicating in order to move the story forward.

At night, we had a preview performance. Rumor has it that there were 58 people in the audience (which is, strangely, a number that is significant in the show). It went really well. I'm excited for our official opening tomorrow night. It's a great show, and I'm glad that we're finally getting to share it with people.

I'm especially excited because I think the show has some really positive messages in it.
- Everything happens for a reason.
- God is in everything, even if you don't see him there.
- Forgiveness is easier than you think, and saves a lot of pain.

I'm glad to be telling these stories. I hope that we can tell them well enough so that audiences get as much out of them as I have.

Here are some photos taken at a dress rehearsal on Sunday (unfortunately, I don't have any of me):

(All-The-Way, D-Train, Wifey, and O.D.)

(Big Show and D-Train)

(Newbie, All-The-Way, and O.D.)

(Iceman, O.D., and Newbie)

(O.D. and Newbie)

Quotations: Volume 37

Here are some of the educational, inspirational, and humorous quotations from my classes this week:

(Disclaimer: quotations are often taken out of context and may not accurately reflect the way they were originally intended)


(in a discussion of how to build vocal energy in lists in Shakespearean texts)
Voice Professor: You would probably never emphasize the word "milk" in a list for example.
D-Train: But sometimes you would stress milk in a list if it were funny in context.
Angela: Like, "I need fuses, and kerosene, and dynamite... and milk!"
Voice Professor: Do you say that?
Angela: I was making an example of a list where milk is funny.
Voice Professor: (completely straight-faced) Oh. And it was.
D-Train: (sarcastically, to Voice Professor) That was convincing.
Voice Professor: I don't always laugh when things are funny. Sometimes I just appreciate the humor on an intellectual level.

"[Killer], instead of making this like a 'brain drain', make it 'fun with sound one-oh-one'.
- Voice Professor

"I don't think you'd say 's***' in front of the Queen."
- Wifey, trying to give a modern comparison to demonstrate that Elizabethans wouldn't have said "thou" in formal situations

"You should ultimately do whatever works for you. You might think, 'Brackets around sentences are crap. I'm not doing that.' And that's fine for you and you don't have to. But while you're in my class, you'll put the d*** brackets there."
- Voice Professor

D-Train: This just seems so amazingly technical to me.
Voice Professor: It IS amazingly technical. It's called 'scoring a text'.

Voice Professor: Oh God, help us. We get to operatives tomorrow. Everyone prepare to remain calm. Did everyone hear that?
Class: Yes!
Voice Professor: Good. Prepare to remain calm. Operatives tend to bring up a lot of ire.

"If this scene doesn't keep moving forward, we might as well just hand out a dramaturgical note and all go home early."
- Head of Program, during a rehearsal for The Mystery Plays

"Guys, we probably... we might be able to pull this off. That wasn't too sucky."
- Head of Program, after a run-through of The Mystery Plays

(after D-Train put on sunglasses that his character wears in The Mystery Plays)
Voice Professor: They make him look like Bono.
Head of Program: He does NOT look like Bono. Trust me.
D-Train: Was that a slam?
Head of Program: No. It was a comment on Bono.

(on the scoring assignment due Friday that had been assigned last week, after Voice Professor cut off all possibility for deadline extension)
Voice Professor: If you feel rushed....
O.D.: Then it's your own damn fault?
Voice Professor: Well, there's that.

Voice Professor: I did it on a whim. (she said "whim" properly with the "hwuh" sound at the beginning)
All-The-Way: On a WHim? (emphasizing the "hwuh")
Voice Professor: Yes. My whimsy is so whimsical it's unbelievable.

(after All-The-Way made a scoring suggestion, she clarified that it was just something she wanted to try out)
All-The-Way: I'm acknowledging I could be wrong.
Voice Professor: It's also 'cause I made a face. I'm wicked sorry about that.

(after Voice Professor said something would only be correct in a French dialect)
D-Train: What about Dublin?
Voice Professor: (horrified, as D-Train has accidentally slipped into Dublin in The Mystery Plays for a character that is not Irish) NO! In fact, when we do Irish, you're sitting out!

(after Acting Professoressa started talking about some books that she had on CD-ROMs that she thought we might find useful and might want to purchase)
O.D.: Is this something that we can reproduce?
Acting Professoressa: Are you asking me to do something illegal, Mister [O.D.]?
O.D.: No. Of course not... (trails off)
Acting Professoressa: Scholar [O.D.]?
O.D.: It's for educational purposes.

(after Acting Professoressa explained that people have mapped out the genealogy of characters in Shakespeare's plays, and have mapped out all the locations based on descriptions)
Iceman: It's kind of amazing that people spend their time doin' this stuff.
Wifey: Oh yeah. How else do people get a doctorate?

(during tech, while listening to sound cues that sound bell-like)
D-Train: This soundtrack really needs to have "Carol of the Bells" in it somewhere.
Angela: Oh, it's already in it. This song? It's "Carol of the Bells" played backward. It makes it creepier and more satanic.
All-The-Way: In a minute, it'll say "Santa Claus is dead."

"It's so beautiful... And tragic."
- D-Train, on a sound cue in The Mystery Plays

"How did we get Colette up here?"
- Head of Program, on one of Wifey's costumes in The Mystery Plays

(during a notes session after the final weekend run of The Mystery Plays), after Head of Program has given a note to D-Train)
Head of Program: Do you think you can do that on Tuesday afternoon?
D-Train: (pause) Yeah.
(laughter from cast and crew)
Head of Program: I swear... You are gonna be so lucky if you make it to graduation.

Thursday, October 22

VOICE
We continued with operatives and colored words for a bit. We got a new "hint" about operatives: they are not usually in parentheticals.

Then we moved into breathing.

Marking breathing has proven to be REALLY DIFFICULT for me. I learned breathing a completely different way previously (in First Folio classes back when I lived in Chicago), and letting that go isn't easy. At one point today, Voice Professor said I had "plastered a look of disdain" on my face, which was unintentional and I felt terrible about it. But it's hard to learn one thing so solidly for so long, and then to be told that for this class, it's completely and totally wrong.

So for this class, breathing goes as such...

MUST BREATHE: At all periods, question marks, and exclamation points (even if they're in the middle of the verse-line)

CANNOT BREATHE: At enjambment

USUALLY BREATHE: At colons and semi-colons

ALLOWED TO BREATHE: At commas -- depending on context (even if they're in the middle of the verse-line)

Voice Professor was very clear in pointing out that "breath" does not mean "pause". They are quick catch-breaths.


ACTING
We started off by discussing the value of The Greeks, and how training from our 1st-year both prepared us for and differed from the classical training of the 2nd-year. Acting Professor says that it's kind of like a dance where you learn the steps and then go home and drill them until they become natural.

All-The-Way and D-Train had Great Actors Series presentations today. All-The-Way spoke about Sarah Siddons (the most iconic tragic actress of her time). D-Train discussed Edmund Kean (who was probably the first actor to incorporate his spontaneous impulses into his work instead of relying heavily on technique, and personalized language instead of just orating).

Then we talked about the Shakespearean sonnets that we're going to be using for our next unit. Acting Professoressa says that we do sonnet work to try to blend passion and eloquence (as one always tries to do with heightened language). We are going to make each sonnet into a theatrical event in just 14 lines.

In general, sonnets are usually set up like:
1st quatrain - set out a theme
2nd quatrain - expand on that theme
3rd quatrain - personalize the theme
couplet - twist/button/surprise/summation

We have 154 sonnets that Shakespeare wrote, which are sometimes thought of in categories (which may or may not be historically accurate):
1-126 -- To "The Young Man" (the first 17 of which are urging him to procreate so that his beauty might be preserved
127-152 -- Regarding "The Mysterious Dark Woman", who apparently is a subject of desire for both the poet and The Young Man
153-154 -- A story about Cupid

Here are the sonnets that we will be working with...

All-The-Way: 61
Angela: 115
Big Show: 97
D-Train: 27
Iceman: 145
Killer: 43
Newbie: 18
O.D.: 29
Thrill: 12
Two-Shots-Up: 62
Wifey: 34


MYSTERY PLAYS
Tech is s-l-o-w. This show is really tech heavy, so I think we expected it. But after seeing some of the tech stuff today, I think this show is going to look and sound incredible by the time it's fully cooked.