Three Postcards Food: The Contest!

I thought it would be fun to see if my readers can guess what the food I prepared for Three Postcards actually is. What's real? What's fake? What is something other than it is? Leave your guesses in the comments section, or email them to angelaacts@gmail.com. The person who I think has the best guesses will win a prize. :)

So here are the food things that I was in charge of preparing for every performance of the musical Three Postcards, along with what they were supposed to represent. Happy guessing!!!



"Seafood mousse with mushroom caps and fried grapes"



"Cream of fennel soup"



"Cornish hen with bulgar wheat"



"Veal paillard"



"The duck"



"Rum-flavored apple aspic"



"Coffee and cream"

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.

Friday, April 17

Voice
Our voice showing went splendidly. We had a decent turnout, which is always nice.

It started with Thrill and I doing the first half of the first scene we did from Cowboy Mouth to demonstrate our work with Sending & Landing. D-Train and Two-Shots-Up did the second half of the scene.

After that, we all spoke chunks of our Wood Demon monologues. This was to demonstrate our work with Standard American Dialect.

My chunk was:
"You're angry with me because you think I married your father for selfish reasons. I give you my word of honor, if that means anything to you, that I married him for love. He attracted me as a scholar and public figure. It wasn't real love, it was quite artificial, but it seemed real enough at the time."

Finally, we did an "IPA-athon". We were divided into two teams, and we had to take words that were written on the chalkboard and race to write the way they would be written using the International Phoenetic Alphabet in a sort of relay.

The second years showed off their work with dialects. I'm so excited to do that next year! I hope we get to do "deep South" like they did. (Dialect work in the 2nd year often has to do with the mainstage shows for your 2nd and 3rd year and what they will require).


Acting
The Board of the theatre stopped by for a bit and watched Thrill and Two-Shots-Up do their Vonnegut scene. They did a great job, despite the added pressure of an audience. I was proud of them.

My scene with O.D. ran differently than usual. I totally seduced him, which makes sense, actually. But I think we lost some of the triviality of the scene, and I think Hildy (my character) ended up being too intelligent. I think the sexuality and manipulative nature were getting better, though. O.D.'s character suddenly really because the solution to all of my problems, and the rest of the scene became like a hunt for me.

I've had a few good days of class, which makes me nervous. I hope that my bad day doesn't strike the same day as our Showing.

(By the way, I changed the time of the Acting Showing in my previous post. It is now 3pm on Friday the 24th.)


Tech
The show ran smoothly, and we had a pretty good house.


Reunion
This weekend is the 50th Anniversary Reunion weekend for the Conservatory. Last night there was a sort of open mic night. I met a bunch of past grads (mostly from the classes of 1978, 1980, and 1981, it seemed). Some people sang (including All-The-Way, 3rd year BB, and 3rd year DM), some did mime, some did story-telling, one played a washboard... It was a lot of fun.

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)


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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.

Wednesday, April 15

Movement
We added on to the "partnering" section of our West Side Story dance (the part where I dance with O.D. and Big Show). Now after my assisted back-walkover, I have a lift that involves a scissor kick, the boys drop into push-up positions with me pushing on their backs, and then we get up into something that Movement Professor has been calling an "X" (legs and arms extended so that the body is in an x-like shape). I hope it looks cool. It's pretty fun to do, I have to say (even though the whole thing is in about 8 counts).


Voice
We started working with a new scene from the play Cowboy Mouth for the purpose of learning how to do it as an "intimate scene" without the audience losing what we're saying. Killer and I were the first guinea pigs to give it a go. Voice Professor had someone being an audience member 10 feet in front of us, someone else sit in a place in the room where they couldn't see us (she called it "the obstructed view seats"), and a third person sit outside of the room, behind the door (so we were forced to project and articulate).

For me, the biggest problem was not getting my voice to a place where it could be heard and understood; the problem was trying to do it in a way that made it still seem realistic that I was sitting on a loveseat with Killer's head in my lap having a conversation with him. Way, way harder than I thought it would be.

Some people had the opposite problem. The scene seemed intimate to the 10-feet audience, but the obstructed view and out-of-room audience were missing words and phrases and had to work to pick up what was being said.

Tomorrow we're (theoretically) going to try it on the mainstage (instead of having to create these bizarre obstacles, we'll probably just have people in various parts of the house).


Acting
I was nervous about our first day back with our Vonnegut scenes, but it went really well. Acting Professor told me last week that my subconscious was working on the character the whole time I'd been focusing other things because my inner-artist knew that I was returning to the project. I didn't fully believe him at the time, but now I know he was right. Hildy made sense to me today in a way that she didn't before Spring Break. I'm excited to keep working with it.


Tech
Tonight was opening night for Three Postcards, and it was a smashing success. Everything went pretty smoothly (aside from a couple of almost-disasters that happened in the 30 seconds before the show started). I'm proud to be working on this show. It's really lovely.

Tuesday, April 14

Movement
We did a lot of leaps and skips across the floor. My leaps are getting pretty good, I think.

Unfortunately, the leaps did not help my I-slipped-in-a-puddle-and-have-leg-pain situation.

We reviewed our West Side Story stuff. We're going to add onto it tomorrow.


Voice

We went out onto the main stage for our Wood Demon pronunciation exam. (The same stage that most of us were in Winter's Tale on this past weekend.) We went one at a time. I thought I did pretty well with the pronunciation. I got an email last night from Voice Professor with my notes:

it means - glottal attack
should - sh was whistle
as for me - glottal attack

So it wasn't perfect, BUT none of my notes were pronunciation-based, and that's what the exam was focusing on, so I count it as a success.


Tech
We didn't have afternoon classes so that those of us doing tech could go to the other theatre. (Big Show and I are on props, All-The-Way and Wifey are on costumes, Killer is on lights.)

We had the Preview performance at 8. There was a decent-sized audience, and they really seemed to love it. Woo-hoo! We open tomorrow.


~A~

Monday, April 13: A Week in the Life

So my week has been pretty complicated. Want to see the schedule of the life of a grad student? Here's what mine was last week:

TUESDAY
8:30am - 9:00am - frost cake for Iceman's birthday, head to school
9:00am - 10:25am - Movement
10:35am - 12:00pm - Voice
12:15pm - 12:45pm - Student Rep meeting
12:45pm - 1:00pm - construct set for Chekhov work and get into costume
1:00pm - 4:00pm - Acting
4:10pm - 5:30pm - Text Analysis
5:30pm - 6:00pm - group meeting with O.D. and Two-Shots-Up regarding Mr. Marmalade
6:00pm - 11:15pm - rehearsal for Three Postcards
11:30pm - 12:30am - homework while Skyping with boyfriend

WEDNESDAY
9:00am - 10:25am - Movement
10:35am - 12:00pm - Voice
12:00pm - 1:00pm - study Winter's Tale lines, type blog post from day before, eat lunch
1:00pm - 1:30pm - group meeting group meeting with Director A, D-Train, O.D., and Two-Shots-Up regarding Mr. Marmalade
1:30pm - 2:00pm - construct set for Chekhov work and get into costume
2:00pm - 5:00pm - Acting class
5:15pm - 5:45pm - move props for Three Postcards from classroom building to Historic theatre
5:45pm - 6:20pm - dinner break
6:30pm - 11:00pm - rehearsal for Three Postcards
11:00pm - 12:00am - group meeting with Director A, D-Train, O.D., and Two-Shots-Up regarding Mr. Marmalade
12:15am - 1:00am - bake cake for Two-Shots-Up's birthday while doing homework and Skyping with boyfriend

THURSDAY
9:00am - 10:25am - Movement
10:35am - 12:00pm - Voice
12:00pm - 12:30pm - go home to retrieve laptop, type blog post, eat lunch
12:30pm - 1:00pm - construct set for Chekhov work and get into costume
1:00pm - 4:00pm - Acting
4:10pm - 5:30pm - Text Analysis (my group's presentation on Mr. Marmalade
5:30pm - 6:30pm - dinner break
6:30pm - 11:00pm - first day of tech for Three Postcards
11:15pm - 12:00am - homework while Skyping with boyfriend

FRIDAY
9:00am - 10:25am - Movement
10:35am - 12:00pm - Voice
12:00pm - 12:30pm - watch video tape of Winter's Tale in student lounge to brush up on lines before understudy run
12:30pm - 1:00pm - type blog post, eat lunch
1:00pm - 1:30pm - meeting with Acting Professor
1:30pm - 2:00pm - construct set for Chekhov work and get into costume
2:00pm - 5:00pm - Acting (final day of Chekhov work, with invited audience)
5:00pm - 6:30pm - dinner break
6:30pm - 11:15pm - rehearsal for Three Postcards
11:30pm - 12:30am - reviewing lines for Winter's Tale

SATURDAY
7:50am - leave to pick up D-Train
8:00am - 8:45am - warm-up for understudy run
9:00am - 11:50am - Winter's Tale understudy run
11:50am - 12:00pm - notes from Voice Professor regarding Winter's Tale understudy run
12:00pm - 12:30pm - drive to Burger King, get food, eat lunch in car on way to rehearsal
12:30pm - 5:10pm - tech for Three Postcards
5:20pm - 6:40pm - dinner break, talk to roommate, type up "Quotations" blog post
7:00pm - 11:15pm - tech for Three Postcards (we were actually called until 12:00am, but got out early)

SUNDAY
10:30pm - 11:30pm - Easter Mass
11:45pm - 12:15pm - grab lunch, head to theatre
12:30pm - 4:00pm - tech for Three Postcards (this was originally supposed to be a 12:00-5:00, 7:00-12:00 day, but was drastically shortened because 1. Tech was going well, 2. They didn't want to actors to wear out their voices)

MONDAY
Sweet freedom
(a.k.a. time to blog about how complicated the last week has been)

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Saturday morning was the final understudy run for Winter's Tale, and it went really well. Afterward, I was on a massive Shakespeare-high. It feels so great to perform that work. And playing Paulina gave me this sense of power and authority. She's such a bad-a**. It was awesome. I hope that someday in the future I can play that role for real.

One of my donors came to watch the run, which made my day. :)

Voice Professor was there to watch and give notes (normally it would be Analysis Professor, but he asked her to cover for him because he's in tech for Three Postcards, which he directed). Her notes to me were:
"Angela. Excellent. Good sending and landing from upstage. Beautiful work."

I'm very proud of that. Especially since earlier in the day I had gotten this e-mail from her regarding Friday's final Chekhov day, which she attended:

hi Angela

i very much enjoyed hearing your 1st year class selected scenes from the three sisters! i did take a few specific word pronunciation notes, but mostly i listened for overall voice/speech issues. keep up the good work! namaste, [Voice Professor]

-sometimes you fell off vocal energy on your final words
-you cannot throw lines away and go off-voice, we must hear what you are saying; you need to act "outward" not "inward", even with a character like masha, or you will fall into a trap of not being able to be heard and/or going off-voice

I have a feeling those notes had a lot to do with the nervousness that Acting Professor commented on the day before. But I'm glad to know that once I got on the stage in the big theatre, I didn't have any vocal issues. I think the class notes were mostly the result of an off-day. I just need to be aware that going off-voice is a danger for me, and do what I can to combat it.

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I've been in tech for Three Postcards this weekend, and it has gone pretty well.

Big Show and I are responsible for putting together all the food props. For this play, that involves:

- 1 Rob Roy on the rocks
- 2 lillets with twists of orange
- 1 bottle white wine
- 1 bowl of cream of fennel soup with parsley
- 1 seafood mousse with chives and crackers
- 1 roast duck with rice, chives, cherries, cranberry sauce, and honey
- 1 Cornish hen with Bulgar wheat, parsley, asparagus, carrot, and honey
- 1 veal paillard with rosemary, rice, asparagus and carrots
- 1 rum-flavored apple aspic with apple slices
- 2 cups of coffee

Can you keep a secret? We're using half fake food and half real food, and the majority of the real food is not actually what it's representing. SHHHHH!

Not only do we have to put all the food on plates, but we have to put them on with specific presentation so as to give the appearance of them being from a fancy restaurant.

Of course, this means our job also involves a lot of clean-up.

- 6 spoons
- 6 forks
- 4 knives
- 3 rocks glasses
- 3 water glasses
- 4 white wine glasses
- 2 martini glasses
- 1 tumbler
- 2 coffee cups
- 2 saucers
- 3 dessert plates
- 3 entree plates
- 1 soup bowl
- 1 wine bottle
- 1 creamer cup
- 1 ramekin
- 1 tray
- 1 pitcher
- approximately 24 fake pieces of food
- 1 tub (that we carry things in)

Now, let's talk about the complications of the theatre we're in...

1. The only area where we are allowed to handle food is on the second floor. The theatre is on the first floor.
2. There is no dishwasher.
3. There is no sink in the designated food preparation area.
4. The only three available sinks are in single-stall bathrooms; 1 is in the men's dressing room on the 2nd floor, 1 is in the women's dressing room on the 2nd floor, and 1 is on the first floor but has no place to put the dishes after washing them or drying them.
5. The refrigerator and the microwave are both on the second floor.

So basically...
It's impractical to wash dishes downstairs, since we need them upstairs (and because it's the smallest bathroom and tricky for 2 people to maneuver in, and has no space to put all the dishes). There are three women in the show and most of the crew is female, so the bathroom in the women's dressing room is constantly in use. Therefore, we've been using the sink in the men's bathroom.

That's right. All those things above (somewhere near 70 items, although I typed that list from memory and might be forgetting something) I am washing by hand in a shallow bathroom sink, aided only by a bottle of dish soap and a sponge. I wash things, put them on the seat of a chair in there, and then Big Show picks them up, dries them, and sets them down on the seat in the shower stall. We have to do all of this before the two men in the play are called (or, at least, before we're too much of an inconvenience to them).

At least Big Show is around to help now. When I first started, it was just me. Then when he came on board, he was pretty ill, so we made the decision that he should stay away from all dish-washing and food preparation in order to protect the health of the cast. He's now well enough that we've decided that he can dry the dishes (I'm still doing the washing), and he can mix the drinks. I'm still handling all of the food preparation on my own for the time being.

I'm also transporting most of the food on my own from upstairs to downstairs, most of it mid-production. The coffee, for example, needs to be made in the middle of the show. Three of the dishes (the soup, the mousse, and the aspic) need to be refrigerated until just before they go onstage. That means I have to carefully time when I have the ability to go upstage and am not needed backstage (either to give props to the actors or take them from the actors) to make the trips to prepare and transport the food items.

My legs are getting a workout.

And, although food production and dish washing are the largest parts of my job, that's not all I do. I have to do a couple of quick prop exchanges with one of the actors. And Big Show and I also have to do all the prop presets... which include napkins, menus, a wine list, coats, replacing a battery in an electric candle (which needs to be done before every show, as it only lasts about a show and a half), pushing in chairs in a way that doesn't affect the shape of the tablecloth, etc. It's not that it's difficult; it's just a lot to do.

While I was rushing around on Saturday to get the food, I didn't notice that a leaking water cooler on the 2nd floor had left a huge puddle on the tile floor, so I slipped and fell. I hurt my ankle and my leg in the process. Not significant injuries, but enough that it makes all the stairs trips a little less simple and a little less pleasant. I hope that having today off will give me a chance to recuperate.

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The first preview for Three Postcards is Tuesday night (we're getting out of afternoon classes to finish tech), and it opens Wednesday. If you're in the area, I hope you'll be able to come and see it. It's really a fun show, and I'm proud to be working on it.


All good things,

~A~

Friday, April 10

Movement
We started a different dance for West Side Story that is going to somehow lead into the other one. Big Show and I are partners. Different pairs have different blocking. For example, some girls do a pencil turn before going into a lift in first position, but I skip the pencil turn and Big Show lifts me in second position (which is apparently a more difficult lift for the guys, but Big Show is super strong).

I finally did the back-walkover move with O.D. and Big Show, and it worked out perfectly. I'm really excited about it.


Voice
We finally put the entire Wood Demon monologue together. Voice Professor gave me two notes on my read of it:

1. more "t" in the "at" of "looking at me"
2. unvoice the "wh" in "When"

As a general note to the class, she said to make sure to "go up for the 'l' in 'sensible' nice and hard."

Our exam is on Tuesday. I'm not worried about it.


Acting
I had a private meeting with Acting Professor to discuss my progress. He said to keep up the good work. He also said that in Act IV, some people are "getting drunk on emotion" and stopping the flow of their impulses, and that I should not allow myself to do that.

Class started with notes from Thursday's run from Movement Professor, which included:

- when the scene changes from one focus of attention to another, do not allow the relay of energy to get dropped
- when silent, you need MORE attention and outward energy
- our heads are falling back in down (instead of "freely forward and up"), especially when sitting in chairs
- more upright carriage without it being tight
- don't get stuck in vocal patterns
- when turning head, don't cut off the response from the body (there should at least be some spiral)

Acting Professor gave one general note... Reach into deeper calm. Prepare in advance. Don't be nervous.

Several 3rd-years came to our run, as well as Voice Professor.

At the end of the run, we got notes. Acting Professor said that I was nervous all through the 1st Act, and halfway through the 4th Act. When I got to the line, "The birds are migrating already. Swans. Or maybe they're geese. Oh, you happy things!", I finally settled into things (he said that was the best it had ever been), and was fine from there on out. He said that I need to know about myself that nerves creep into my work.

I was disappointed that the last run we had of this didn't go as well for me as it had been going (especially since this was the one time we had an audience). But I guess it's just a learning experience. And maybe now I'll be less nervous during our Showing in a couple of weeks.


Tech
I did a lot of sitting around in the dark, aside from prepping food and washing dishes. Big Show is sick and we don't want him to get any of the actors sick, so at the moment I'm doing all of the dish washing and food preparation alone so that he won't contaminate anything with his contagion (Tangent: did I just paraphrase Adriana in Comedy of Errors? That sounded familiar and I'm not quite sure why).

While sitting backstage I read Machinal, which is one of the plays we'll be doing next year. I had seen it before, but never read it. I'm really excited about it.

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.

Wednesday, April 8

Movement
We did a lot of warming up, stretching out, and combinations across the floor. We then went back to our West Side Story choreography. There's a section where people pair off to do lifts and whatnot. Newbie jumps into D-Train's arms, Iceman dips Wifey, etc. There are 5 females and 6 males in my class, so I end up being the gal with two guys. We just blocked our move today. I'm going to do a back bend and then the guys are going to come over and catch me, and then lead me into a back walkover. We did it slowly today, but I think it's going to be really neat once we get the hang of it.


Voice
We went into the next section of our Wood Demon monologues. My notes today were:
- glottal attack on the word "at" (in "It seemed real enough at the time")
- need more of the middle "l" in "calculating"
- over-correcting the vowel in "man" (away from my midwestern vowel) to the point that it now sounds British
- need to make the first vowel in "already" have the "law" vowel

For tomorrow, we have to prepare the remainder of the monologue. Our exam was going to be Friday, but Voice Professor decided that it would be unrealistic to expect that. The test has now been bumped to Tuesday.

Our Voice Showing (a.k.a. the open class at the end of the semester that people are allowed to attend) is apparently Friday the 17th. I can't believe it's coming up so quickly. It feels like we just got back from Spring Break.


Acting
This is our last week of Chekhov work before we go back to our Vonnegut projects. I'm a little sad about it. I'll be sad to see it go.

Newbie and I have switched as Masha and Anfisa mid-class the last two days. Tomorrow and Friday we know that we'll be doing Act I AND Act IV, so we thought it would be good to do the whole through-line of the characters at least once. Tomorrow she will be Masha and I'll be Anfisa, and on Friday we'll switch.

Acting Professor pointed out today that Masha's whistling (that annoys Olga so much) is actually breaking some sort of Russian superstition about whistling in the house (which is strange, as Masha describes herself as being superstitious).

Acting Professor says that, in general, we're touching each other too much in this play, tapping each other's arms and patting each other's backs. He says that it's becoming a theatrical cliche as opposed to being true to the lives of the characters.


Tech
The whole class had a tech call today to move the props for Three Postcards to the Historic theatre, which is across the street from our building (unlike the main-stage theatre and the theatre that the 2nd-years usually use, which are both in the same building as our school). It didn't take very long.

It was strange having rehearsal in an actual theatre tonight instead of having it in the studio (where Voice and Acting II are taught) that we've been in up until this point. It's a neat space, but it's clear that it's going to present some challenges. The space absorbs sound, so the actors have to pay attention to their positions on stage as well as their diction and projection. As tech, we don't have a lot of wing space, and we're not allowed to touch many things. Also, the theatre doesn't normally allow any food in it whatsoever because it's a historic space (the theatre itself is like a museum exhibit), but the show takes place in a restaurant and involves a great deal of food. Therefore, we have to be EXTRA careful, and the food storage and preparation areas are less convenient than in our usual theatre. Also, there's no good place to wash dishes (and there are a lot in this show).

We start tech weekend tomorrow night, so I'll be even busier than usual over the next several days. Wish me luck.

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).

Friday, April 3

Movement
We started choreographing a dance to some music from West Side Story. It was all kinds of fun, actually. I'm a musical theatre geek, and I love to dance... So I'm all for it. :)


Linklater Workshop
We were all pretty sore, so our Instructor was gentle on us.


Acting
We did a run of Act IV, and I was on Másha duty. At the end of the run, acting Professor said that it was "45 minutes of good honest work and 15 minutes of technical glitches." What that meant, of course, was that the Act SHOULD take 40-45 minutes, but ours took an hour.

I had been worried about the run beforehand, because I just felt so drained from the week, and I didn't know if I had enough in me to be Másha (who is depressed and upset through the whole act). But I recorded ease, and full freedom. I went into the run with the idea that I was going to let Másha be whatever she was in the moment, and not stress out about whether I was going to cry or scream or anything. So it was probably the most muted I've been as Másha. But Acting Professor seemed to like it anyway. I'm glad that I decided to do it honestly instead of pushing. It might not be the best I've done it (or will do it), but I don't feel negatively about it, and I'm glad for that.

Acting Professor reminded us that Chekhov is either heroism or vulgarity (and triviality). They both have tragic masks. Lyricism does not, and has no place in Chekhov's work.

He also said that we cannot underestimate the importance of the baby that's on stage during parts of this Act.

Movement Professor observed class and gave me the following notes:
- Keep breathing even in stillness.
- Good timing.
- Voice falls off at the ends of lines in moments of high emotion, followed by a sigh. This could be the result of exhaling the impulse instead of using it on the line.
- Make sure to use the physical sensation of touch when interacting with other characters physically. (This was a note for everyone.)
- Try to take the run (I run to Vershínin) on one exhalation.

I don't normally get a lot of breathing notes. I discussed it with Movement Professor afterward, and we think that it has something to do with the dress I've been wearing. It's incredibly tight in the chest region, which was intentional to provide the sort of structure that the clothing of the time would've included. But it's preventing me from taking a full rib swing, running out of breath near the ends of lines, and then trying to catch my breath (hence the sighing). I'm going to try to get a new dress before Tuesday so that it won't be a problem anymore.

On Tuesday, we're going back to Act I, and I'm going to be Másha. I'm really looking forward to it. I think Act I is going to be a lot richer now that we've found everything we have with Act IV.


Tech
ASM-ing Three Postcards is pretty fun so far, though I don't have to do much at this point. I'm on book and giving lines when the actors need them. I set the props before the run. I wash the glasses after the run. I like it. It's nice to be in a rehearsal room. And the music is actually pretty catchy. Good times.

We start tech next week.

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, 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.

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~

Wednesday, January 7

I went to a flower shop today to watch some floral designers in action. It was actually fascinating. I was observing two women simultaneously, and they were super nice to me, and explaining every part of their processes step by step. And then when we got into discussing event-related flowers, one of them made me a boutonnière on the spot to demonstrate how complicated the process is if you're doing it well.

I also went to some local jungle gardens (man, I love Florida) to observe some animals for class. I should say "hang out with" more than observe. I petted a white male peacock, and a newly-hatched flamingo (which was shockingly huge) tried to eat my map. I think I'm going to focus on the flamingos, as they were all really friendly and active. I tried to look in their eyes and understand their psychology, but it's just REALLY not the same as it is with people.

I've been having email conversations with our Tech instructor. Apparently he no longer needs me on costumes for Miss Julie, so I'll be on box office for a bit longer. I'm a little disappointed, as I was looking forward to costumes, but oh well. I might be planning a Late Night this semester (I emailed people asking if they'd want to do the musical The Last 5 Years with multiple actors playing each of the characters, and I've gotten a healthy number of responses), so this should give me more time to figure out if that's going to work.

He also asked me to let my class know that we're going to have weekly meetings with him this semester.

I've been reciting my Imaginary Invalid lines while driving, with the hope that I'll get them stuck in my head better that way. Our understudy rehearsal is on Saturday (yes, we only get the one rehearsal), and the understudy run of the show (in front of whatever schoolmates and professors feel like coming) is on Sunday. Which is insane.

Saturday, December 20

Yesterday several of us were called in to the Scene Shop at 9:30am. Being a 1st-year means getting to help with load-ins for shows. So we loaded in the set for the 2nd-year class production of Blur by Melanie Marnich. Fortunately, it didn't take all that long.

This morning we finally had our readthrough for The Winter's Tale. Reading Paulina was really fun. She's a powerful lady. There are still SO MANY PARTS of that play that I haven't fully memorized the text on, which is scary... But I'm sure I'll get it once I put my full focus on it (lately I've been concentrating on my Imaginary Invalid lines, as it opens in two weeks).

I went to Winter's Tale rehearsal in the afternoon, and they did a run of their Act I (which is Shakespeare's Act I, Act II, and Act III). It went pretty well. And I only had to change a small amount of the blocking that I'd already written down. So that's good.

Tonight I've got Box Office duties for This Wonderful Life, then an Imaginary Invalid rehearsal, and then the closing party for Barnum.

It's crazy how much theatre has all been going on at once here. The 2nd-years are rehearsing Blur. The Repretory theatre is rehearsing Inventing Van Gogh, The Winter's Tale, and The Imaginary Invalid (all of which open in January). Barnum is running in the main theatre, and This Wonderful Life is running in the Historic theatre. I don't think I've ever been around this much theatre in my life. It's extraordinary. :)

Thursday, December 11

Today was a big day for the 1st-years. It was our first ever round of assessments.

Assessments happen at the end of the semester, for your first four semesters.

Basically, you walk into a room and sit at a table with your Analysis Professor (who is also the head of the program), your Acting Professor, your Voice Professor, your Movement Professor, your Tech supervisor, and the 2nd-year Acting Professor. Then they go around the table, reading written statements on how they think you've done over the course of the semester. They tell you positive things, as well as what you need to work on. Afterward, you get to keep a copy of their written statements.

Assessments are also the point in time where they notify you if you're being put on probation or released from the program.

I was probably more nervous going into it than I should have been. It ended up being fine. The only negatives mentioned were things that I was already aware of. Completely painless (unlike ripping off a band-aid, which ALWAYS hurts, no matter what school nurses say).

My favorite comment from my assessment was this one: "Angela is that rare actor who truly enjoys receiving notes and jumping in to implement them immediately."

I'm quite proud of that.



The 1st-years also had a meeting today with the head of the program. One of our classmates (The Pro) has decided to leave the program (he made his decision before assessments, not as a result of them). Therefore, the understudy and tech responsibilities that he had before are now going to be divvied up among us. I think I'm going to end up doing Costumes for Miss Julie now. (Which is fine with me... There are only three characters, so how hard could costumes be?)

Wednesday, December 10

Today was the day I finally sang in our musical theatre workshop. And I turned into a total basketcase as a result. I was weeping hysterically in front of all of the 1st AND 2nd years. Let's just say it was not my finest moment. But I survived. I guess that's all that matters.

I FINALLY got to go to a rehearsal for The Imaginary Invalid (which is good, since I'm understudying a main character and the show opens January 2). Unfortunately, I couldn't go to all of it, as I had Box Office duties. I feel a bit over-scheduled at the moment. I think it should get better next week after our workshop is over.

Our first semester assessments are tomorrow. I'm not really all that nervous. I think I know the things I'm doing well with and the things I need to work on. Hopefully I won't get any curve balls.

Saturday, December 6

The class of 2011 has successfully completed the first semester of grad school. And no one died. (Although a couple of us haven't mastered the concept of not blinking when photos are being taken.)

(Platform Row: All-The-Way, Wifey, The Pro, Iceman, D-Train.
Ground Row: Me, Killer, O.D., Two-Shots-Up, Thrill, Big Show.)

Well, I suppose I should play a bit of catch-up, after skipping the last couple of days...

So here's most of what happened Thursday and Friday...

Movement
Thursday we did Acting work in Movement class. We did scenes from the play that we used in our Showing (Late: A Cowboy Song by Sarah Ruhl) as though they were etudes. Our Movement professor did side-coaching and gave us feedback from a Movement perspective.

She told me I wasn't breathing (when I WAS! I swear!), which she amended to say that my breathing was too shallow. By the end, she said I was breathing lower. She also said that I have a tendency to lock my knees (I bad habit of mine both on and off stage). And that when I turn my head, I'm not letting my eyes and head go a different direction from my body (rather, I'm moving everything as one unit). I had no idea I was doing any of that... More to work on, I suppose.

She also warned D-Train and I of "rushing to touch" in our etudes. She said that sometimes, going straight to touching your partner is a sign of nervousness, and for some people it's a default (also known as a "habit" or a "crutch").

She told some of my classmates that they had too much tension. She said something about how a kinesthetic response to releasing tension can actually create impulses. It was interesting, but I'm not sure I understand how to apply it... But that's probably because I'm the opposite of tense...

In lieu of Friday's class, we all had private meetings with our professor to discuss our progress. She knows I'm working and appreciates my positivity in class, but she says my body needs a lot of work. Most people in my class need to loosen up, but I'm TOO loose (hence why I've never gotten a note about tension). She wants me to build muscle and have a better concept of where my arms and legs are in space.

I told her that the thing I think I need to work on the most is my endurance. I'm great at giving everything I have to an activity, but then I'm worn out after a very short period of time. She says we'll get there.


Voice
Thursday was spent preparing for Friday's exam. Our exam was on "sending and landing text". Basically, our professor walked around, put one hand on your side and one on your stomach, and had you recite the first part of "Twinkle Twinkle". I think my body has figured it out now, so hopefully I did alright.

The tests here are so strange, when you think about it. They're not things you study for, so much as they're things you TRAIN for. You rehearse. You practice. But study? Nope.

Over the break, we've been told to keep reviewing our consonants and continue to work on finding space in the back of the mouth.


Acting
On Friday, we spent the entire 3 hour class just talking. We discussed everything that happened in everyone's etudes during the showing. He said there were moments of "great artistic polarity". And I wrote down that he used the word "ascetic", though I can't recall why. He seemed proud of us. I was, too.

Then we discussed our assignments for over the break.

First of all, as always, we are expected to be doing our "scales" over break (15 minutes a day of Chekov exercises).

Our primary assignment is to observe a professional skill well enough that we could recreate it on stage. We have to find someone to observe who is "not just a craftsman, not just a master, but an ARTIST." Their job has to be their calling, and they have to treat it as an art. (Which would involve certain finesse and economy of movement that someone who just KNOWS HOW to do it wouldn't possess.)

The exercise is to develop our skill of handling props on stage.

In the past, other students have observed professions such as:
- baker
- barber
- costumer
- florist
- hair stylist
- instrument repairman
- make-up artist
- massuese
- mechanic
- pedicurist
- phlebotomist
- pizza maker
- sushi chef
- tattoo artist
- wig maker

Our professor's "dare" profession for us was surgeon (although the prospect of recreating that in class seemed complicated... All-The-Way suggested stitching up a banana).

Anyway, dear readers, if you have any suggestions on professional skills for me to observe, please let me know.

The other observation assignments don't have to be QUITE as well-prepared when we get back. One is to observe an animal (I guess I'll be going to the zoo...). The other is to observe an inanimate object (my first thought was a pair of scissors, but then I realized how complicated that might be physically).

Lastly, we've been told to pay attention to other actors (in television, film, and stage) as they deny impulses. It's not really a formal assignment. We're just supposed to notice how they WANT to do thing, but DO another (either because they've been directed that way, or because they're fighting against it).


Analysis
On Thursday, we discussed Men of Tortuga by Jason Wells. It's an excellently written play, but I didn't really connect with it until we talked about it in class. It's a political thriller, about some men who have hired someone in order to assist them in killing a member of the opposition.

And Friday, I turned in my paper on Something You Did. It was about 6 pages (which is SHORT for that class... one of my group-mates wrote over 20), but I'm pretty confident that I said everything that I needed to say.

Really, I'm not worried. I don't care about grades here. I care about the education. The training. And as I know that I have the thought process right and care articulate it verbally, it doesn't matter all that much to me if I'm not as successful at it in writing.


Tech
My new assignment for Tech Crew is... Box Office. Which isn't really like Tech at all. I think I'm actually going to miss real tech. Oh well.

I had my first Box Office duties Friday night. I just had to go in and help at the Will-Call window for about an hour. I'm scheduled to do it again for tonight. Hopefully after that I'll be able to sneak in to the production of Barnum (starring Brad Oscar -- I keep passing him in the parking lot, which is vaguely surreal, as I've known who he was for awhile). I'm really excited to see it. The other show that the Rep is doing is This Wonderful Life (which is a one-man stage version of the movie It's a Wonderful Life). I'm pretty geeked to see that one as well.


Understudying
My understudy work kicked in to high gear today. We had the first understudy read-through for The Imaginary Invalid in the morning. The understudy cast is me, Wifey, O.D., D-Train, Two-Shots-Up, Killer, The Pro, and two 3rd-Years. It was a lot of fun, actually. Director-A is the assistant director for that play, so she'll be in charge of the understudies.

I also attended 4 hours of an 8-hour rehearsal of The Winter's Tale today. Unfortunately, the character I'm understudying didn't have a ton to do in that rehearsal. I think she'll be on a bunch tonight, but I'll be in the Box Office. Oh well.




So now "break" begins. But is it really a break when I have plenty of responsibilities and just as crazy of a schedule as ever?

~A~


P.S. We had to take a goofy picture, too.