VOICEFrom 10am-12pm, we had our first class with Charmian (who is our Voice instructor here... I asked permission to use her name, and she granted it). She's lovely! She asked us each how we feel about our voices, and what we're working on with them. I told her I feel good about my voice. I asked her to keep an ear out for me falling back into the two old problems that I've worked to correct: forward placement and crisp consonants. I'm doing well with both, but one never knows. And it's always nice to have an outside ear focusing on your issues.
Our homework for her class:
- brush up a Shakespeare monologue to do for class tomorrow (for diagnostic purposes)
- read a bunch of quotes by Patsy Rodenburg and Cicely Berry that she typed up, and find one that speaks to us
- begin memorizing a poem she gave us
Here's the poem:
THE SILVER SWAN (Anon. c. 1600)
The silver swan who living had no note,
When death approached unlocked her silent throat,
Leaning her breast against the reedy shore,
Thus sung her first and last and sung no more:
Farewell all joys, O death come close mine eyes,
More geese than swans now live, more fools than wise.
PLAYWRITINGWe started class with what Mark (our instructor) referred to as "Ball Games".
The first involved us playing a game that I used to play informally when I was younger... Basically, the group can't let the ball touch the floor, so everyone is batting it towards each other. We began how many times we could hit it without it dropping. I think we got up to 48 (but the low-hanging ceiling kept messing up our attempts).
The next game involved one person being the "star" and the rest being the "supporting cast". The Star stood in the center with everyone else in a circle around. The Star batted the ball to a circle person, who batted it back, and then the Star hit it to the person next to them, who then batted it back... and so on, until the Star had completed the circle. It moves quickly, which makes it a bit tricky. We were actually quite good at it right off the bat. Mark seemed impressed.
I really liked the game after that. Instead of batting the ball, the Star could throw and catch the ball to people in the outside ring, and in whatever order they chose. The throwing and catching had to stay in the same rhythm throughout. After the Star threw the ball to someone else, anyone in the circle who wanted to could yell "GO!", the person who had just been the Star would then run out of the way to join the circle. The person who yelled "GO!" would then run to replace the Star and try to catch the ball that was being thrown to the center without the rhythm changing. We got quite good at that one, too, often with the Star changing after every throw.
We then played a variation on Tag. The game was sort of in slow motion, as no one was allowed to run. The person who was "It" had to extend their arm fully to tag someone else. But if an arm was being extended, the person in danger of being tagged could yell the name of anyone else playing, and then THAT person would suddenly become "It". This was, therefore, insane. Everyone started with "two lives". Ways you would lose a life included:
- getting tagged before saying a name
- saying a name when you were not about to be tagged
- saying an improper name (like your own name, the name of the person who was already "It", or someone who was already out of the game... or something random like George. Or a weird amalgamation of more than one person's name as though you couldn't make a decision fast enough).
Once you lost both lives, you then became a part of a wall that gradually crept in to reduce the space for the remaining players. I was not particularly good at the game, so I was a wall member a lot. But it was fun to play, and also fun to watch.
Mark discussed with us the theatrical benefits of each of the games after playing them. (Things like teamwork, focus, competition, drive, kinesthetic awareness, etc.)
Then he recited the text of a scene that he wanted us to each write down.
Woman: That's funny. I can't find it anywhere.
Man: What are you looking for?
Woman: I packed it myself. I just can't remember where.
Man: Where will you go now, (name)?
Woman: Me? To Margaret's. I promised to go there and look after the house. Be a housekeeper or something.
Man: At Marble Arch? That's twenty miles from here. Well, life in this house seems to be over.
Woman: Unless it's in the trunk. Yes, life in this house is over.
Man: And me, I'm off to (place) in a little while, taking the same train. But I'm leaving Mark here. I've hired him.
Woman: Have you?
Man: Last year at this time, it was already snowing. But now it's quiet and sunny. But there's a frost. It's three degrees outside.
Woman: I haven't looked at the thermometer. In any case, ours is broken.
(someone calls for the Man)Man: Coming!
(Man exits. Woman weeps.)Any of the 1st-years reading that scene would immediately recognize it. It's adapted from a scene in the final act of
The Cherry Orchard, which they worked on earlier this semester. Mark changed some of the names and locations for us.
Mark then put us into groups of 2-3 people, and told us to adapt the scene further. He said to go to extremes with it, and see what it could yield with a little play-time. The only thing that he asked us to keep in tact from the original given circumstances is that the Man wants to propose to the Woman, and the Woman wants the Man to propose to her.
I'm in a group with O.D. & Thrill. We decided that Thrill would take Man's lines, O.D. would take Woman's lines, and I would be the director. We had some really creative ideas about where to take the scene, including:
- astronauts on the moon
- soldiers in a trench
- paraplegics in a hospital
- superheroes
- people disarming a bomb
- underwater divers
It was fun. I won't tell you what we came up with just yet (we're presenting it to our class on Wednesday), but I think it's pretty entertaining.
THEATREAt night, the entire abroad program (undergrads and all) were taken to see the musical
Oliver!. I was in a production of it in 8th grade. I played one of the drunk adults in the bar who sings "Oom Pah Pah". I also had a bit role as "The Bookseller". The role only has one line, but the director told me I could feel free to improvise a couple more. I remember being told in one rehearsal, "Angela, that's great, but if you add in any more lines, we're going to have to renamed the show,
The Bookseller!"
Anyway. The set was super-cool. And there were SO MANY PEOPLE in that show. I counted at least 46 children. And they were expertly wrangled, so props to the production team for that. The choreography was great. And it's always nice to see a good spectacle (and believe me, it was a spectacle). But as for the actual performances? They just made me realize how spoiled we are in Florida to be able to work with such great people.
