Brunetti Musical Theatre Workshop

One of the things that I have enjoyed most here has been the annual Musical Theatre Workshop, with the luminous David Brunetti.

You participate in the workshop as a 1st-year and 2nd-year. As a 3rd-year, I was able to sit back and watch (without nerves!).

And I have to say, it is truly incredible what musical theatre brings out of actors. The majority of the people who enter my program do not plan to have careers in musical theatre. Many have never sung on stage before this workshop. But they show so much courage in the face of something that terrifies them. And that's incredible.

Here are the songs that they performed:

- 1st-year EW: "Getting Married Today" from Company
- 2nd-year JMM: "Highway Miles" by Peter Mills
- 1st-year FR: "I Am Aldopho" from The Drowsy Chaperone
- 2nd-year SDW: "I Know the Truth" from Aida

- 1st-year LT: "A Way Back to Then" from [title of show]
- 1st-year JC: "I've Got You Under My Skin" by Cole Porter
- 2nd-year JaS: "So in Love" from Kiss Me, Kate
- 1st-year CW: "The Bones of You" by Elbow

- 2nd-year GK: "I Miss the Music" from Curtains
- 1st-year JD: "Someone to Fall Back On" by Jason Robert Brown
- 2nd-year MD: "Joey" by Joe Iconis
- 2nd-year KC: "I Can't Make You Love Me" by Mike Reid and Allen Shamblin

- 1st-year JM: "Meeting Across the River" by Bruce Springsteen
- 2nd-year AS: "Out Here on My Own" from Fame
- 1st-year BR: "The Cop Song" from Urinetown
- 2nd-year BB: "The World Will Know" from Newsies

- 2nd-year GP: "Keep Breathing" by Ingrid Michaelson
- 1st-year KC: "If You Hadn't, But You Did" from Two on the Aisle
- 2nd-year LB: "Your Song" by Elton John
- 1st-year SB: "The Alto's Lament" by Zina Goldrich & Marcy Heisler

- 1st-year ZW: "One Song, Glory" from Rent
- 2nd-year TS: "Only the Good Die Young" by Billy Joel
- 1st-year BP: "Quiet" by Jonathan Reid Gealt
- 2nd-year JoS: "Jack's Lament" from The Nightmare Before Christmas

Returning from Silence

I am typing this on my brand new computer. My last computer, the incredible Lady MacBook, passed away. But now that I have a new one, I figured today is a good day to catch up on blogging.


Antigone Now
Antigone Now was a crazy, crazy ride. In about 5 weeks, we did 41 performances of our show. We performed it all over.

Places like:
- high school gymnasiums
- college classrooms
- one high school classroom/hallway
- high school theatres/auditoriums
- college theatres
- our own theatre
- a botanical garden
- a museum gallery
- a museum courtyard (next to a manatee tank)
- a furniture store

I joked that when we started the tour, we were at "beginner" level, and the difficulty kept increasing. By the end, we were most definitely experts.

Challenges that were thrown at us included:
- Small spaces
- HUGE spaces
- low ceilings
- a set that was screwed into a high school stage, which we had to keep jumping over
- a REALLY loud air conditioning system in a high school gym
- a temperamental sound system that sometimes didn't work at the top of the show (which is when we have a sound cue of gunfire that we're supposed to be taking cover from... yeah, that was interesting)
- hot outdoor locations (and we were wearing trenchcoats)
- a tree that kept throwing nuts at us
- one transformative performance space with moveable walls (kind of like the theatrical version of The Room of Requirement from Harry Potter)
- audiences that meowed/laughed/yelled/heckled/texted/popped gum/etc.

And, one challenge that I faced:
Wifey got sick, and with about 40 minutes before call time, I learned that I would be playing her role. I memorized the lines in the van on the way there. I ended up playing her role for 5 performances while she recuperated. And I led the talkbacks for about a week or so past that.

All in all, the tour was a great experience. I learned a lot from it. I had touring experience. I had performed for young audiences. But what I really got a lot out of was the experience of fringe-style performance spaces. Having to adapt our show to each new space on the fly was really neat as a performer. It kept things fresh, even after all those performances.

For sake of comparison...
I'm going to be in Boeing Boeing later this season. It opens in January and runs through April. There will be a total of 28 performances (and I believe that's the longest run in the Rep this season). So 41 performances in 5 weeks? Intense.

I love my class. We did a great job of banding together and working everything out.


Talks
My program has been bringing in people to talk with us about the industry, which is awesome.

A couple of weeks ago, it was Steve Rankin, who got his MFA at my Conservatory and now has a successful career in Los Angeles.

This past week, it was a double header: Hal Linden (aka Barney Miller) and Tim Jerome, both of whom have had great Broadway careers.

Hal Linden graciously signed my 1962 Off-Broadway cast recording of Anything Goes, in which he played Billy Crocker. That recording was the first tape I bought with my own money, back when I was in 4th grade. I listened to it so much that I actually warped the tape. I can't tell you how many times I've sung duets with him on "You're the Top", singing along with the late great Eileen Rodgers.

It's interesting to hear people talk about the industry, although it also generally feels intimidating. So much of the positivity that has graced their lives seems to involve crazy luck. I'm praying that I fall into some of that luck myself.

But they've also had some good advice. Steve Rankin talked about how you have to mentally separate people who work in the industry into "buyers" and "sellers", which was enlightening.



Bonnie & Clyde
Last night was the opening of Bonnie & Clyde, which is a huge, Broadway-quality (and hopefully Broadway-bound) musical. I've seen it in rehearsals and previews. It's really fantastic. And the opening was a lot of fun.

Before the show started, the marketing department asked Two-Shots-Up and me to don period clothing from the Costume Shop and pose outside the theatre in front of some old fashioned cars. People occasionally asked to get their pictures taken with us. I had a good time.


Class
I brought a scene into class yesterday, but Head-Of-Program wasn't crazy about it. Several people have been bringing in scenes. I had one a few weeks back that seems promising, but the ending isn't great... Head-Of-Program said he'll look at re-cutting it for me.


Boeing Boeing
Rehearsals for Boeing Boeing, the next show I'm in, begin on December 14th. I have an Italian Accent lesson with Voice Professor on Tuesday. I've been listening to Paul Meier and trying to learn it on my own. But the Director (aka Head-Of-Program) says he wants my character to be adroit with English, and effortlessly multilingual... which means the dialect I've been working with is far too thick. Last year, I studied dialects as opposed to accents (which means I learned how native English speakers pronounce things in other areas, like NYC and the UK; I have not learned how people who learn English as a second language pronounce things...). Voice Professor says it's the same process of study, but it seems different in my head. It seems as though there would be greater room for variation. I guess I'll find out next week.

Thursday, February 18

AUDITIONING WORKSHOP

Our final day of the auditioning workshop.

I asked a question that led into a whole long conversation. The topic? If you realize at an audition that the play you’re auditioning for is something that you are opposed to doing (because you are unwilling to do something that the play calls for, or because you’re morally opposed to the play, etc.), how do you gracefully back out of it? As it turns out, I’m not the only person that this was a problem for.

The short version of the answer: if you know you won’t take it, don’t audition for it. If it’s a question of nudity or smoking or something, you can say that it’s something you have a problem with. If it has to do with you not liking the play, DO NOT OFFEND THEM BY TELLING THEM THAT. Consider blaming your schedule instead. If you are in a situation where you cannot get out of it any other way, say, “I’m very sorry. I think I need to pass.” Be as polite as possible.

Other notes I took included:

- By knowing plot points, you should recognize the internal structure of the scene. Use that to know what the character has to communicate, and what the story exists to do.

- Know your individual issues going into an audition (do you need to memorize sides? Do you need to practice your “s” sounds? Etc.), and spend time taking care of them for yourself.

- Have the script in hand -- even if you memorized your side -- unless otherwise instructed. If you don’t have it in your hand, it looks more like a performance than a work-in-progress, and sends a subconscious message to the director that they will not be able to direct you to do different things with the scene.

- Be capable of listening without taking pauses for more responses



MOVEMENT

We are now coming to class in our full restoration regalia. Very fun. Remind me to take pictures.
We do walking and greeting each other, as well as snubbing, and grand reverénces to the King. We do a little work with the barre.

Our assignment from last week was to come up with actions with our fans (ladies), handkerchiefs & snuffboxes (gentlemen). We started showing our fan and handkerchief moves today.

Movement Professor didn’t love most of mine. She says I need clearer a “beginning, middle, end” of each action. Also, some of mine look “too contemporary”. Oh well. I’ll keep working.



ACTING

Lately, Acting Professoressa has been relating her thoughts on the Olympics to her thoughts on class.

- These athletes train and train and train because they want to be the best _____________ in the world. If we want to be the best actors in the world, we have to do the same.

- These athletes are obsessed with their training, and sacrifice a lot in their lives for their sports. We will also sacrifice for our art.

- When figure skaters fall (after all that training, sacrifice, passion, and their families and countries depending on them), they have to get right back up and try to keep going without taking any time to dwell. We as actors must do the same when things go wrong, either in our scenes, or in our careers.



We had a discussion during the scene-work about not contradicting the “script demands” that are between the lines of text.

Wednesday, January 17

AUDITIONING WORKSHOP
Yesterday around noon we got an e-mail of a PDF version of the play that we’re using for this workshop, and were expected to read it last night, and prepare two sides for the character we were assigned to “audition” for. The play is called How to Pray, and I was assigned the main character, Faith.
Today I got a chance to read in class. Head of Program said that I did quite well with a challenging scene for auditions. (The challenge of it being to prove that as an actor I could connect with a partner, while playing a character who was avoiding connecting with another character.)
The notes that I personally got were:
- Don’t overuse smiling as a tactic. Even if it is a specific choice, it starts to look like a crutch/default/generalization (a.k.a. “the smiling disease”).
- You don’t have to show that you’re listening to the partner. You can just listen.
Other notes I wrote (about others, and about the process) included:
- Don’t start pacing. It has nothing to do with your intention and weakens the audition.
- Make the scene all about the Reader (not about you). Since the directors are watching you, then you appear active, and the scene seems like it’s about you.
- If the script is unpublished, ask for the script beforehand. Ask if you can pick up a hard copy, or if they can send you a PDF.
- Look for ways that you can control the scene, instead of waiting to see how the Reader is going to control it, or expecting the Reader to do certain things for you.
- Have a way to be in the scene from the very beginning. Don’t find the conflict mid-scene, because you might not get that far before they cut you off.


MOVEMENT
We continued showing our external characterization work.


ACTING
More scene work.


MACHINAL
We did our first full run of the scenes tonight. It seemed to go pretty well.

Tuesday, February 16

AUDITION WORKSHOP
For the next three days, we're doing a workshop on auditioning with Head of Program and Voice Professor.

Today, we got sides handed to us as we walked into the classroom. We had no idea what the play was, or what it was about. Completely cold readings. Fun, fun.

Notes I made included:
- Be careful not to rush through it
- Conversely, don't fill it with pauses. Act on the lines.
- Avoid playing general qualities.
- Make it specific
- Make it focused on the other/the reader
- Know why you have to talk
- If you know that you're not great at reading, read out loud as a habit in life, as often as possible.
- Don't make a choice like, "I want to move", or "I want to ramble". Instead, focus on ease, calm, and clarity.
- If you're in the hallway and have a few minutes to prepare, and you have NO IDEA what a word means, or how it's pronounced, or what a concept you're talking about is, you could use a smart cell phone to search online. Otherwise, it is completely fine to ask a quick question of the director when you enter the room before you begin.
- It's also perfectly okay to ask for a few more minutes to look over the scene if you're a slow reader
- physical characterizations can be small (and perhaps should be), but they must be specific
- Bring in pauses if they are backed by intention, but not just for the sake of changing the rhythm
- Rushing is only okay for certain beats if it supports the intention/action/thought (i.e. 'getting to the point')



MOVEMENT
We worked on external character choices today. Mine was "food stuck in teeth". It sounds so lame in comparison to things other people were doing (like injuries, disorders, or being under the influence of drugs).

We started with exaggerated choices, and then tried to get them down to the smallest we could get them while still having them present.

Angela: food stuck in teeth
All-the-Way: speed
Big Show: Richard III
D-Train: cocaine
Iceman: Buddy Layman from The Diviners
Killer: consumption
Newbie: blocked ears, numb hands and feet, postpartum-related pains
O.D.: developmental disorder & cerebral palsy
Thrill: sprained ankle
Two-Shots-Up: withdrawal from heroin
Wifey: old hip injuries



ACTING
More scene work.

Notes included:
- If you make a mistake, just get back on your need
- in rehearsals/class, explore what happens when you jump on your cues. It might reveal a rhythm to the scene that you wouldn't find otherwise
- body needs to be energized to suggest there is something at stake here
- don't fold arms on stage

Thursday, February 4

STAGE COMBAT WORKSHOP
We've now blocked our entire exam fight, which is cool. In order to do so, we had to review safe ways of falling, elbowing, strangulation, throwing, etc.

The fight goes kind of like this:

- Person A pushes or shoves Person B.
- Person B pushes or shoves Person A.
- Person B slaps Person A with their left hand, and Person A does a clap knap (they use their hands to make the sound of the slap)
- Person A backhand-slaps Person B with their right hand, and Person B does a clap knap.
- Person A walks past Person B and bumps their shoulder as they go by.
- Person B puts their upstage hand on Person A's downstage shoulder to stop them.
- Person A pivots around, and raises their upstage arm to meet Person B's extended arm, and then throw it off.
- Person A uses their right (upstage) fist to try to punch Person B, which Person B blocks with their forearm.
- Person B uses their left (upstage) fist to punch Person A in the latissimus muscle.
- Person B uses their right (downstage) fist to try to punch Person A, which Person A blocks with their forearm.
- Person A throws a punch to either the back of Person B's head, or to Person B's right ear. Person B does a clap knap.
- Person B takes a couple of steps backward
- Person B preps for a sidekick (by chambering the leg at the knee), and then kicks, and Person A uses both hands to block it.
- Person B tries to take a big swing at Person A, which Person A blocks with both forearms.
- Person A tries to elbow Person B, but Person B steps in towards them.
- Person B reaches around and begins to strangle Person A.
- Person A reaches a hand up through the crook of Person B's arm to get away.
- Person A turns around and punches Person B. Person A uses a slip-hand knap.
- Person A pulls Person B's hair
- Person B reaches over Person A's shoulder to get into a grappling position.
- Person B flings Person A around
- Person B knees Person A in the stomach twice.
- Person B pushes Person A, and Person A falls backwards to the ground.
- Person A tries to side-kick Person B, and Person B avoids.
- Person A tries to heel kick Person B, and Person B bats it away.
- Person B steps in toward Person A
- Person A kicks Person B in the groin
- Person B falls to their knee
- Person A tries to crawl away
- Person B grabs Person A's shoulder and throws them back onto the ground
- Person B begins to strangle Person A
- Person A uses their arms to break Person B's hold
- Person A throws Person B off of them.

And from there on out, we can block whatever we want in order for our scenes to make sense and for the right person to "win".



SEARCHING FOR EDEN
I went back to see it again today, because 1st-Year JaS had to go on as an understudy for Adam. (As in Adam of "Adam and Eve"... in a two person play.) It's the largest role that an understudy has had to go on for at our theatre in YEARS, so a bunch of us who had time went to support him. He totally rocked it, and made the Conservatory proud. Great job, JaS!

MACHINAL
Another one of our "usual" games is a "switch places" game. We all stand in a circle, and one person makes eye contact with another, letting them know that they're going to take their place in the circle. The person starts walking, and the person they've made eye contact with has to find someone else's spot to take. The goal is that people are always moving, and that no one ever gets to anyone else's spot before they've found someone to switch with. It might not sound complicated, but it really is, as you kind of have to see a couple of moves ahead... And then the Director throws someone a tennis ball... And WHILE all the other trading spaces stuff is occurring, we have a second objective of throwing the ball around. So you're constantly looking around to see if someone is making eye contact with you, either to take your spot or to throw you a ball. We're getting better at it, but it does require a great deal of concentration.

We started blocking the Prologue, sort of. At the beginning of the play, a woman talks about her journey to work on the subway, so we're going to stage it as part of our production. We haven't gotten very far on it yet, but I'm interested to see what direction it goes in.

Wednesday, February 3

STAGE COMBAT WORKSHOP
We continued with our pushes, shoves, slaps, and punches.

We also started working on kicks (including groin kicks, which seem to be a real people pleaser), chokes, and contact punches (where you end up actually touching your partner... just in a safe, non-painful way).

We began getting the blocking for what will be the 2nd-years' exam fight. It's similar to the one that the current 3rd-years did last year, but it has some new moves in it. It'll be fun to work on. My partner is All-The-Way, and I think we're going to have a good time with it.



THEATRE
I went to the matinee performance of The Life of Galileo, because I wanted to see it again before it closes and this might have been my last chance (depending on what my Machinal schedule turns out to be like). It was sold out, so I ended up sitting on the stairs in the mezzanine.

I cannot remember if I mentioned, but I saw The Search for Eden: The Diaries of Adam and Eve last week at the matinee. The actors in it are both graduates of my conservatory, who are now married to each other, and they are also playing Jamie and Cathy in the Rep's production of The Last 5 Years right now. They do Eden some days, and L5Y on others, and to complicate it further, the husband is also in Galileo. Such demanding schedules! But they're totally pulling it off. I particularly liked the second act of Eden. They seemed really connected with each other in it.


MACHINAL
The way rehearsal has been running lately is sort of like this.

- We start with the whole cast/class (clast?) sitting in chairs in a semi-circle, facing the Director and Stage Manager. We are sitting on the edge of the chairs, with our feet on the ground, and our hands resting on our legs, as though we're ready to jump to our feet at any second. (It's a Russian thing, apparently.)

- Director tells us to close our eyes. He claps once, and we internalize our circles of attention, trying to hear only sounds being created from within our own bodies. He claps twice, and our circle of attention widens, so that we're listening for any sounds in the room. He claps three times, and our circle of attention shifts to sounds made outside of the room and outside of the building.

- Sometimes then he asks us to extend an arm and draw a circle in the air, and tells us to try to see the circle, in a specific color. Once we can really "see" that circle, we are supposed to lift our other arm to draw another, and try to see BOTH circles. If we can get that, then we try for a third. (Honestly, it's really hard for me to do two circles... I've never tried the third)

- Director says to pick up our chairs and move around the room. The Clast takes a second to sense each other, and then attempts to stand up as one, turn to face our chairs as one, lift up our chairs as one, and begin walking as one. Then we have to try to "fill the space", while not walking into each other, and "find a tempo", meaning that we all have to be moving at roughly the same speed.

- Director claps, and we all stop wherever we are. Then we try to put down our chairs as one, and sit in our chairs as one.

- As soon as we're seated, someone says "A", someone else says "B", someone else says "C", and soforth. We have to try to sense when someone in the room is going to speak a letter so that no two people are speaking at the same time. If two people do, then we have to start over at "A" again. We try to remember our letters, as sometimes we then play a game with them in which we have to spell a sentence by clapping whenever our letters come up in the sentence, and collectively hitting our laps whenever there's a space.

We do other, different exercises depending on the day. Today they included:

- We put up a wall (it's a black hinged flat). One person stands on each side of the wall. The person on one side is the "initiator". They have to take a position and an action, and then call the person on the other side of the wall. The "follower" has to try to sense what the initiator's position is and mimic it while saying their name. (Way easier said than done.)

- Repeat the Rhythm - . Sometimes it's that one person makes a rhythm and then the class repeats it, with each person doing one clap. Then when the conductor person claps, we have to change the direction that the rhythm is going in our line of claps

- Add to the Rhythm - One person starts a basic rhythm with their hands (clapping or snapping). One by one around the circle, everyone finds a way to contribute to the rhythm using their hands. Then we add to it one by one with our feet, and finally we add to it one by one with our voices.

- Choreographer - One person stands at the front of the group and dances to a piece of music in a way that they think everyone can follow. Today was my day to be choreographer, and as soon as I got up, my classmates made jokes like "No back bends!", and asked me not to do certain things that are in my movement vocabulary that are not in theirs. But no worries. I know my class really well, and I know what they will and won't be able to handle. The Director played "Back in the USSR" by the Beatles, so I choreographed to that. I had a blast, and a couple of them told me after that they had fun following me, so I think I did an okay job. :)


We started blocking Scene 4, which is the hospital scene. In it, Newbie has just given birth, Iceman is her husband who is trying to cheer her up to no avail, I am the Nurse, and Big Show is the Doctor who thinks I'm incompetent.

I really like the way the scene is going. I'm almost hesitant to write about it on here, because I don't want to ruin anything for the people reading this who might end up seeing the show... But anyway. I like it, and I was happy to get a chance to work.

Tuesday, February 2

STAGE COMBAT WORKSHOP
Robert, our awesome combat instructor, is back for the week. :)

The 1st-years and 2nd-years are in the workshop together. The 2nd-years will have our actor-combatant recognition exams on Sunday.

Today, we just did some basic things: pushes, shoves, slaps, punches, and blocks.

The hardest thing for me in stage combat is keeping my legs bent and my center of gravity low.

I was having trouble remembering that in punches, you have to lead with the soft knuckles, until Newbie reminded me of something we discussed last year: when you punch (you're aiming toward the invisible parrots on your partner's shoulders; Roy on the right, Larry on the left), imagine that you're holding the handle of a beer mug, and you don't want to spill your beer. In other words, your fist is vertical. It helped a lot.


MACHINAL
The Director said something today at the beginning of rehearsal that I liked. He said that in order to prevent a depressing play from becoming a depressing night of theatre, we as artists have to come at it with a sense of playfulness.

We're blocking the first of my scenes tomorrow. I'm going to try to be as playful as possible.

Saturday, January 30

ROY HART WORKSHOP
Today was the last day of the Roy Hart workshop. Totally sad. Carol (the instructor for the 2nd-Years) has been awesome, and we'll miss her. The 1st-Years really loved Saul (their instructor). I wish they could stay awhile longer.

With Carol, we did an exercise with creating random sounds that then evolved into our class standing in a circle and trying to "contribute" to the group sounds. It was freeing and somehow poignant. It made me feel like a part of something larger than myself, which is, I suppose, how one should always want to feel in an ensemble. I liked it. Someone suggested that we should do it as a warm-up before Machinal rehearsals. I hope we do.

We worked on finding different tones in our voices, reciting elongated words. We started with the words "cello", "viola" and "violin" (Iceman had a particularly great example of a voice that has three very different qualities that can be reached on the same pitch). Then we moved on to names. I don't REALLY know how to explain, them, but I'll try.

Maurice: deep, round, full quality
Delilah: soft, open, pretty voice (like I've used in choirs)
Antonio: big brassy belt
Violetta: shallow, nasal, sort of pinched


In my head this week, I started amassing a list of things that my classmates and I have sounded like during our vocal exploration work:

- Steve Urkel from Family Matters
- evil Elmo
- a teapot
- the disposal in a kitchen sink
- Carol Channing
- a motorcycle
- gargling
- a broken blender
- a dying forest creature
- Fran Drescher
- evil witches

It has obviously been a fun week.

Saul and Carol got the 1st and 2nd years together to tell us a little bit about the origin of the Roy Hart Theatre. I won't type it all up now, but they have two websites that you can visit for more information:

- The Roy Hart Theatre Archives
- The Roy Hart Theatre

Then Saul taught us all a song from Ghana, which we sang in a round. Great fun. :)


MACHINAL
I barely had rehearsal today. Rehearsal was going from 1-5pm, and then 7-11pm. But me? I was only called for the first 30 minutes for group warm-up time. Warm-ups went alright today. No complaints.

Friday, January 29

ROY HART WORKSHOP
We came in today with a few lines of memorized text in order to play a version of "God/Creature". This time, the "master/god" was doing movement stuff. The "creature/slave" had to mimic the movements, and let their voice follow the movement. We'd played something similar in Movement class before, and we generally have fun doing it. I was partnered with Killer, which is always nice. We're a good pairing for movement whatnot (although, technically, I guess this qualifies as "voice whatnot", but still).

We went low AND high today, which was fun. We went up to high notes saying "Eat the apple, my dear" in an evil witch voice, followed by evil laughter.

I hit a C3 (the C an octave below middle C) and a D6 (a "high D"), and All-The-Way pointed out that I have a 4-octave range. Really cool. Now, mind you, When I hit the notes at either end of my range, they are not pretty notes. It's like gargling on one end and shrieking on the other. I can really only *sing* from like the F3 (the F below middle C) to somewhere around A6 ("high A"). But it's still neat.



FILM WORKSHOP
The Film Workshop is this weekend, but my class is unfortunately mostly unable to participate, due to Machinal rehearsal conflicts. Today, O.D. and I attended the first part of the workshop with all the 1st-Year students.

We talked for awhile with the film professor about the differences between film acting and theatre acting. She says she thinks that on film, actors are responsible for less of the story. In some ways, this is a luxury. We talked about the difference between depth and breadth in acting.

We did an exercise in which we had to come up with a story from our own lives to tell to a partner on camera, and we had to come up with a backstory and a reason to tell our stories (Acting Professoressa would've approved: basically, we were creating a "Need").

I was paired with 1st-Year JMM. We were filmed sitting next to each other on cubes. He told me his story, and my job was just to listen and react. After his story, film professor said that she thought we were looking at each other too much and weren't open enough. We tried to come up with a reason to look outward more, so I suggested that maybe we were seated on a bus bench. Then I told my story, and 1st-Year JMM listened and reacted. The second time, we didn't look at each other enough, and it seemed alienating.

Also, I told my story with a lot of energy and movement (which is how I tell stories in real life), and it doesn't look right on film. Good to know that I have to tone myself down for film realism (in other words, "real" things don't look real... so I have to become a "reel" version of "real"... or something like that).

It was cool, and I learned from it. I wish we could do more of the workshop. Oh well.


MACHINAL
Tonight was the first night where we worked on a scene I was in! So exciting.

It was the hospital scene, in which I play the nurse. The Director had already given me some homework:

1. Get together with Big Show to discuss the relationship between the nurse (me) and the doctor (him).
2. Look into New York and New Jersey dialects for the nurse.
3. Be "officious". (I had to look it up, so I figured I'd give you a link to the definition.)

Luckily, we've been working on a general New York dialect in Voice class, so I was already familiar with the direction to make my shifts. There are a couple of words that I guessed on (the vowels in "swallow" and "solids"), and a few I made some choices on (making "getting along" into "getting g-along", "brought you" into "broughtcha", "what your" into "whatcha", "different" into "diff'ren'" etc.). Voice Professor attended the rehearsal, and she said all my shifts sounded fine to her.

Our Director really made me feel like my character was important and worth delving into, which I greatly appreciated, as she's only in one scene and could be easily ignored. We just sat in chairs and read the scene. We talked about the point-of-view from each character onto each other one, their backgrounds, their prior relationships, their actions... It was awesome. It made me feel like I'm fully armed to go into the scene now, whereas I don't think I really was before (although I was trying). I'm confident.

And the best thing is, I feel like after that rehearsal, I'm looking at the entire play with new eyes. This is not the play I thought it was when I came into rehearsals. I liked the story that I'd been telling in my head, but I think I like this one even better.

I'm really excited about this show. If rehearsals keep going the way they did tonight, it's going to be a "Can't Miss" kind of show. :)

Thursday, January 28

ROY HART WORKSHOP
We played a game using gibberish that was really quite awesome. We sort of turned into a tribal society... and then I think Thrill became a child... D-Train, Big Show, and Iceman were sort of a gang terrorizing him... Then we ended up playing duck-duck-goose (still in gibberish), then got in a fight again, and finally ended up singing a gibberish version of "Happy Birthday" to Thrill. It was totally weird. But fun.

We explored the girls high ranges today. And every girl in my class hit a C6 (also known as "high C" or "the note that you have to hit to play the lead in Phantom of the Opera). It was super impressive. I think I actually hit a couple of notes beyond it... They sounded more like screeching than singing, but I think that's the goal of this workshop: to explore parts of your voice that you don't usually access, and try to expand your range.


MACHINAL
Our ensemble exercises didn't go quite as well as they did last night... Unfortunately...

It seems to me that the problems that we have had in ensemble exercises generally has little to do with how well we work as an ensemble. Most of the troubles we have arise from things like:
- not everyone is a stellar speller
- not everyone has a perfect memory
- not everyone has a great sense of rhythm

...things like that.

Oh well. We'll keep working, and we'll get better. We always do.

Wednesday, January 27

ROY HART WORKSHOP
3rd-Year NP joined our class today, giving us an even number for a change.

We played an EPIC game of "God/Creature" (a game where one person makes noises and "controls" what the other person does in movement). Two pairs went at the same time, and then the creatures began to interact (but only as their masters allowed them to through vocal cues). It was a ton of fun. All-The-Way was my master, and I got to do movement to interact with Iceman. I loved it. I also loved watching the groups after us give it a go. It was creative and free; two things my class does well.

At the piano, the men explored their "feminine registers", which was pretty sweet. I had no idea that Killer or O.D. have as high of ranges as they do (actually, I think even THEY were surprised by it).


MACHINAL
The only thing I need to say about rehearsal tonight:

We played the chair game again, where we had to spell out a 4-letter noun, one letter at a time, without communicating what the letters or word would be. It's a game we once struggled with, but tonight it came relatively easily to us. And the word we spelled?

H-O-P-E

:)

Tuesday, January 26

We're off from regular classes for awhile in exchange for workshops. :)


ROY HART WORKSHOP
For the week, two instructors from the Roy Hart Theatre in France are visiting to work with the 1st and 2nd year students. (Find out more here and here.)

The workshop seems to be about vocal exploration, and finding out what crazy things our voices can do. Some of the exercises are things that are already part of our classwork, and some are completely different. We were bears. We explored the space with sounds. We used a piano to match pitch while saying things like "Mamma Mia Pizzeria Lasagna", "I love chocolat" and "dark soul". It was really fun.


MACHINAL
Our first rehearsal for Machinal went well, I think. We started with a read-through, and then talked about the director's ideas for the production. It's going to take place in present day, but with an atmosphere of "the world is ending in three days". Instead of making the main character a victim or a villain, we're going to present it without judgment. I'm pretty excited about it.

In the second half of the rehearsal, we did some ensemble-building exercises, some of which we had done at our initial callbacks/workshop with the director. We have to do everything in unison (such as sitting down as one, standing up as one, picking up chairs as one, etc.), which we're getting better at.

We did a lot better at one game than we had the last time we played it, which involved having to use our chairs to spell out a four-letter noun, one letter at a time, without any communication about what the word was going to be. In the workshop, it took a really long time to spell out "PLOT" (and it was quite frustrating). But in this rehearsal, we spelled out "POOL" without nearly as much difficulty. A good sign, I think. The director commented that he notices a lot of growth in our group since he saw us in September. I hope we can continue that road of progress.

Musical Theatre Workshop Videos

So I've finally gotten around to linking to all our clips from the Musical Theatre Workshop with David Brunetti! Thanks to 1st-Year BB for videotaping, and Wifey for putting things online!

Please keep in mind that this is an MFA Acting program. We are not musical theatre performers by trade. We are not trained in singing. This workshop is an exercise in acting WHILE singing. And many of the videos are of people who are petrified of singing in front of people (some have never had any vocal training; some have never sung in front of people before this). But everyone did a fabulous job of keeping it together, and really acting through the song.

Enjoy! (And Merry Christmas, to those who celebrate it!)


Angela - "If You Hadn't, But You Did" from Two on the Aisle
All-The-Way - "Toll" by Jeff Blumenkrantz
Big Show - "Love Is Here to Stay" from The Goldwyn Follies
D-Train - "Love to Me" from The Light in the Piazza
Iceman - "Santa Fe" from Newsies
Killer - "Along the Way" from Edges: A Song Cycle
Newbie - "Practically Perfect" from Mary Poppins
O.D. - "If I Were a Rich Man" from The Fiddler on the Roof
Thrill - "Young and Positive" by Sweet Honey in the Rock
Two-Shots-Up - "You Don't Know This Man" from Parade
Wifey - "Gimme, Gimme" from Thoroughly Modern Millie
1st-Year AS - "That'll Show Him" from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
1st-Year BB - "This Is the Moment" from Jekyll & Hyde
1st-Year GK - "Real Live Girl" from Little Me
1st-Year GP - "Frank Mills" from Hair
1st-Year JaS - "All That's Known" from Spring Awakening
1st-Year JMM - "She Cries" from Songs for a New World
1st-Year JoS - "Try to Remember" from The Fantasticks
1st-Year KC - "Jimmy" from Thoroughly Modern Millie
1st-Year LB - "Ariadne" from The Frogs
1st-Year MD - "The Light in the Piazza" from The Light in the Piazza
1st-Year TS - "River in the Rain" from Big River

Friday, November 20

VOICE
We spent the entire class working quietly on our transcriptions of the monologues from The Importance of Being Earnest.


TAP WORKSHOP
Thanks to Dance Instructor, I think we're pretty solid on our Time Steps now.

At the end of class, he let us do some Swing as a reward for a long week of Tap.


ACTING
We did an exercise where we each recited our sonnets to a partner while physically doing things to them.
First Quatrain: Push partner
Second Quatrain: Pull partner
Third Quatrain: Push partner to the floor
Couplet: Help partner back up

It was actually really helpful in separating the beats of the sonnet.

We each got up and did our sonnets quickly for the class, and then we started working with some people more in depth.

Acting Professoressa keeps trying to instill in us not to emphasize words in the same way we do in daily life. Words to not emphasize include:
- so
- must
- not
- no
- don't
- me
- I
- mine
- myself


Here are some of the verbs that D-Train tested out for his sonnet (#27, if I remember correctly)...

1st: to incise/to laser/to throttle/to grab/to brace/to mold/to squeeze
2nd: to grab/to laser/to pierce
3rd: to stroke
Couplet: to amputate/to draw a line in the sand


Here are some that All-The-Way tried for sonnet #61...

1st: to accuse/to twist his arm/to tug/to stroke/to flick/to test
2nd: to stroke/to question/to plead/to nail/to laser/to wring
3rd: to shake/to wake up/to discover
Couplet: to shove/to say goodbye/to release

Thursday, November 19

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


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

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

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

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

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


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


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

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

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


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

Wednesday, November 18

VOICE
RP (British dialect) is getting easier as we go. I was reciting old monologues of mine on break attempting to apply the dialect to it, and I thought I was doing pretty well, actually. Of course, I thought I was doing pretty well yesterday when people said I sounded Southern, so I might be way off base... But I think I'm getting the hang of it.

We went through the rest of the "Signature Sounds" sentences from our book, trying to nail down the rules for the dialect that we've been learning...

1. A lot of better writers print a lot of little words.
(Focuses on keeping the "t" sound unvoiced, aspirated, released, and plosive... so basically, keeping it as a light, crisp "t" instead of letting it become muddled or like a "d")

2. The tumultuous news assumed the duke fought a duel in the nude.
(This is for the "liquid u". After the consonants t/d/n/l/s and before the [u] vowel, there is USUALLY a [j] sound -- so it's like a "yuh". A good way to hear the difference between a normal u and a liquid-u is to compare the words "beauty" and "booty".)

3. He laughed as he danced to the bath past his aunt in pajamas.
(This is the "ask list", where the vowel shifts from the first vowel of "apple" to something closer to the first vowel in "father". There should be a lot of space at the back of the mouth than we have, and the jaw isn't fully released. You have to consult a dictionary or an RP speaker in order to know what words have this shift.)

4. Paul's daughter Laura is awfully awkward when she talks and walks.
(This vowel is long, round, and open. Voice Professor calls it "plummy".)

5. The first early bird murdered thirty turning worms.
(In the "stir" lexical set, Brits don't pronounce the "r" unless it's intervocalic, aka between two vowels. I refer to this as being "R-less", although the technical term is "non-rhotic".)

6. An enormous tornado tore up the store this morning.
(The "north" set is R-less, making it sound a lot like the vowel in Example #4. Note that in this sentence, the "r" IS pronounced in the word "tore", as the word after it begins with a vowel. More on that in #14.)

7. A star called Marx stole our hearts with his harp.
(The "start" set is R-less, making it sound kind of like in Example #3)

8. Our brother and sister met a lawyer from Denver.
(The "mother" set is R-less, so everything ends on the vowel.)

9. Oak Road is zoned for mobile homes only.
(In the "goat" set, there's a diphthong that glides from a schwa to a U. If you go too far with this one, it sounds really fake and stage-y. This particular sentence also contains the word "mobile" which rhymes with "isle", whereas in most American accents it would rhyme with "dull". This is true of all "-ile" words.)

10. They stopped a lot of nonsense at a college in Watford.
(This is a short vowel. It's the vowel that we're SUPPOSED to use in "God's honest hotdog", but that many American dialects actually use too bright of a vowel on... So it's hard to explain on a blog. For me, the shift is making it a little rounder, and a lot quicker. This sentence also contains "nonsense", which is a "one-off", meaning that it's just one word that you have to memorize the pronunciation of as it doesn't fall under a rule. The pronunciation is like "NON-suhns", as opposed to my home dialect of "NAHN-sehns".)

11. A crowd was shouting loudly down in the town by the fountain.
(This isn't actually a shift for most Americans. We skip over it in class.)

12. Courage is needed for curry in the borough of Durham.
(Instead of r-coloring on the vowels, the "r" becomes a consonant, separate from the vowel. The easiest way for me to think about this is that these words are separated into syllables differently than in General American. Instead of "KUR-idge", it's "KUH-ridge". "KUR-ee" becomes "KUH-ree", "BUR-oh" becomes "BUH-ruh", and "DUR-um" becomes "DUH-rum".)

13. In Paris, Harry shot a sparrow from his carriage with an arrow.
(This vowel is more like "apple" than "air", and it has the same sort of separation of syllables as in Example #12. "PAIR-ihs" becomes "PAH-rihs", "HAIR-ee" becomes "HAH-ree", "SPAIR-oh" becomes "SPAH-roh", "KAIR-idge" becomes "KAH-ridge", and "AIR-oh" becomes "AH-roh".)

14. The Shah of Persia insists that Maria is to never abandon her uncle.
(This example deals with two different shifts. The first is the "linking r" that I mentioned earlier; "never-abandon" and "her-uncle" both need the "r" to be pronounced because it falls between two vowels, so that the words are still understandable. The second is called an "intrusive r"; when a word that ends with a vowel comes right before a word that begins with a vowel, sometimes people put a random "r" in there where there isn't one. You don't HAVE to do it, and just because a character does it sometimes, doesn't mean that they do it EVERY time. In this example, it can be used at "ShahRof", "PersiaRinsists", and "MariaRis". It's a LIGHT r sound; don't sound like a pirate.)

15. We had a lovely, silly party when Billy turned fifty.
(When an "ee" pops up in the final position, RP speakers use either a, "ih" sound like in "sit", or a softer "ee" than we have so that it's almost blended with the "sit" vowel.)


TAP WORKSHOP
Here's what we've gotten through so far:
- slap
- flap
- shuffle
- ball-change
- hop
- heel
- single Irish (shu-ffle hop step; shu-ffle hop step)
- double Irish (shu-ffle hop step; shu-ffle ball-change)
- single Times Step (shu-ffle hop step; f-lap step)
- double Times Step (shu-ffle hop; f-lap f-lap step)
- triple Times Step (shu-ffle hop shu-ffle step; f-lap step)

I've actually learned Times Steps a few different times in the past, and it's slightly different every time, which Dance Instructor acknowledged to be the case. But I like his way best.

Dance Instructor said I did a lot better at being grounded and more relaxed today. I'm glad. :) It was fun.


ACTING
We are now up to the middle of Act IV, Scene ii in Cymbeline.

In every section of the text, Acting Professoressa assigned one person to do a little dramaturgy and be prepared to answer questions about what things mean. She has been calling this person alternately the Maven, the Master, the Scholar, etc. I am the Maven for Act IV, Scene i-ii. In the Folger edition of the text, Act IV, Scene ii spans FORTY PAGES. It's like, the longest scene ever. In some ways, it sucks to be Maven for it (I spent a long time trying to make sense of everything I could so that I'd be prepared to answer questions)... but mostly, it's fun. I have a great love of being the person with the answers. :) (Is that obvious about me from this blog? Probably.)

Tuesday, November 17

VOICE
Voice Professor gave us monologues that she spliced together from The Importance of Being Earnest, which we will be working on with the British RP dialect. The female one is as follows...

GWENDOLEN:
Yes, I am quite well aware of the fact. And I often wish that in public, at any rate, you had been more demonstrative. For me you have always had an irresistible fascination. Even before I met you I was far from indifferent to you. (Jack looks at her in amazement) We live, as I hope you know, Mr. Worthing, in an age of ideals. The fact is constantly mentioned in the more expensive monthly magazines, and has reached the provincial pulpits, I am told; and my ideal has always been to love someone of the name of Ernest. There is something in that name that inspires absolute confidence. The moment Algernon first mentioned to me that he had a friend called Ernest, I knew I was destined to love you... Jack?... No, there is very little music in the name Jack, if any at all, indeed. It does not thrill. It produces absolutely no vibrations... I have known several Jacks, and they all, without exception, were more than usually plain. Besides, Jack is a notorious domesticity for John! I pit any woman who is married to a man called John. She would probably never be allowed to know the entrancing pleasure of a single moment's solitude. The only really safe name is Ernest.

Our transcription for that passage (aka the British pronunciation IPA of it) will be due on Friday.

We discussed a couple more one-off pronunciations of words in RP: been & again.

Voice Professor says that using a tapped or flipped medial "r" is our choice, but it doesn't happen with great frequency. The word that most often has a tapped/flipped "r" in RP is "very".

We learned the difference between Full Transcription (all words completely transcribed) and Narrow Transcription (Full Transcription plus all diacritical markings).

At one point, when we were all reading aloud the "Signature Sentences" for RP, apparently, I sounded like I was speaking with a Southern American dialect. Voice Professor says it's because I need to tighten up my vowels.


TAP WORKSHOP
Dance Instructor is back this week, to teach us a workshop in tap dancing. I very much like tap. I took it for many years in my childhood, and had to break it out in high school for a show. I love its percussive nature. It's kind of like making music and dancing at the same time.

Of course, I haven't done it for about 10 years, so I'm pretty rusty. But it's nice to know the basics already.

Dance Instructor says that the thing I need to work on the most is getting grounded again. Right now, I'm jumping around too much instead of keeping my weight into the floor (which probably has a little to do with the fact that I have high-heeled tap shoes, a little to do with how enthusiastic I am to be tapping, and a little to do with my body having forgotten how to tap).


ACTING
Acting Professoressa recommended that we try to obtain a copy of the book Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare by Isaac Asimov.

We continued reading Cymbeline out loud. We got through most of Act III, if I remember correctly.

Acting Professoressa seemed to dislike my interpretation of Imogen in Act I, Scene vi. Oh well.

Favorite Cymbeline line of the day...
"I am glad I was up so late, for that's the reason I am up so early."
- Cloten, Act II, Scene iii


THE MYSTERY PLAYS
The show closed on Sunday. Everything went really well. I already miss the show, as strange as that may sound. It's weird to not be performing right now (I'm typing during the time that would've previously been showtime... I think we would've been around my second scene as Amanda the Agent right now).

I took some pictures of my costumes in the dressing room, but I can't find my camera. They will be posted at a later date.

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)

Tuesday, October 6

ELLA HICKSON & CREW WORKSHOP
In lieu of Voice and Movement today, we had a workshop. It was a discussion with Ella Hickson (the playwright/director of Eight, which some of my classmates will be performing in as part of the Ringling International Arts Festival this week). Ella is 24, as I am, which makes me feel wholly unaccomplished next to her. She also had some of her cast members who traveled from the UK with her be part of her panel as well.

Some key notes I took down:
- Ella has never cast anyone that she hadn't already met, seen perform, or heard about from a friend/colleague.
- She recommends keeping an eye out for people who are not going into acting/theatre professionally, but who are good "social secretaries" (the kinds of people who like to look good, throw parties, and invite people to things), because they're going to help you make excellent connections (and they might make great producers in the future).
- Try to control your Google hits. If you can get a lot of positive reviews of yourself online, it's going to help you. (The first thing she does after auditioning people is go back home and Google them.)
- Ella's key to the way the industry works: "Lie, and make friends."
- Be proactive. Write letters to every agent around saying, "Come and see me in this show I'm doing." Even if they don't come, they won't think any less of you, and it might impress upon them how badly you want a chance.
- Go to every show you can.
- Sell yourself. You are your own business.
- Don't go meet a big wig of some theatre if you have never seen a show at that theatre.

The cast also advised us of what companies and theatres we should look at while we're studying abroad in London in May (oh my God, I'm going to be in London in May!!!). They said that while we're there, we should try to attend workshops, and that we shouldn't rule out the possibility of auditioning (or even making our own work). They also said not to do a British dialect if we do audition there (as Ella put it, "There's no point to you impersonating what they already have two billion of").


ACTING
We ran the three shows and then got notes. Acting Professoressa says that The Greeks are a crash course in technique, and that we should expect a lot of notes on details. The details are what make us pros, and they make a huge difference.

I'm really proud of the fact that I DIDN'T get notes on some of the things I usually get notes on (things like "playing the problem" or not being likable enough). But I still got a heaping share of them.

- Be unable to say "Troy" without bursting with pride.
- Link everything within each beat.
- Play the need; play the beats. At each new beat, plug back into need.
- Stop paraphrasing.
- At the line, "I am merely pleasant", be pleasant.
- THERE IS NO ROOM FOR PAUSING WHEN TRYING TO SAVE SON'S LIFE! (Acting Professoressa said that it's even stronger than just regular linking.)
- Stop hitting the words "not" and "don't" (a huge habit of mine, apparently).
- And then a couple of specific notes in which I made the wrong word in the sentence operative.

And the hardest note? As Andromache, I say goodbye to my son, telling him that I'm going to die so that he can live. Acting Professoressa wants me to spend some time trying to really understand the concept of loss, particularly loss regarding someone/something that I'm responsible for. She asked if I'd ever had a pet die, but I really haven't (unless you count a goldfish when I was 4...).

I also got a note in Helen today. Apparently I did a "funny walk", and I shouldn't. (I honestly don't even remember doing it... so I guess I just have to be conscious of where my body is in space.)


MYSTERY PLAYS
We got further with blocking the 2nd Act/play, Ghost Children, and then we reviewed everything we've blocked so far.