Angela Learns to Act

Thursday, November 12

2009-11-12T10:24:00.000-08:00

VOICE
Our "cheat sheets" for the RP dialect are due Tuesday.

We started listening to a dialect CD from Paul Meier, and taking notes on the various rules of RP. Some of them are WEIRD. Did you know that the Brits pronounce "lieutenant" as "leftenant"? Totally weird.

Voice Professor says that when you're working on any text that involves a dialect, it's important to use all your resources. Check the Ask List. Check the pronunciation dictionary. Check the dialect book and CDs. Use the IDEA site. Talk to people with the dialect.

MOVEMENT
We did some bar work, and then moved on to further blocking in our ballet routine. I have some more complicated moves with Thrill than I've done in ballet. It's going to take some time for my body to get used to, but I'm excited.

ACTING
We spent the entirety of class looking at monologues for people.

All-The-Way's possibilities:
- The Tempest; Miranda; III, i
"Alas, now pray you."
"I do not know one of my sex."
(strange cutting)
- The Two Gentlemen of Verona; Julia; IV, iv; ln 180
"A virtuous gentlewoman, mild and beautiful."
(love it! Great casting for All-the-Way. Lessons embedded in the piece. Discovers, works through, and decides.)

Two-Shots-Up's possibilities:
- Antony and Cleopatra; Cleopatra; I, iii
"Pray you, stand further from me." (created monologue)
(Great monologue! Done a lot. Perhaps not QUITE old enough, but do-able)
- Cymbeline; Imogen; III, iv; ln 74
"Why, I must die."
- The Tempest; Miranda; III, i
- Cymbeline; Imogen; III, iv; line 46
"I false? Thy conscience witness! Jachimo..."
(perfect age to play it)
- All's Well That Ends Well; Helena; III, ii; line 98
"Til I have no wife, I have nothing in France."
(Acting Professoressa LOVES this piece)

Iceman's possibilities:
- Henry IV, Part I; Prince; I, ii; line 195
"I know you all, and will a while uphold..."
- Henry IV, Part I; Hotspur; IV, i; line 111
"No more, no more! Worse than the sun in March..."
- Richard III; King Edward; I, iv; line 103
"Have I a tongue to doom thy brother's death."
(Epic, and not done often)
- King Lear; Edmund; I, ii
"Thou, Nature, art my goddess..."
(overdone)
- Cymbeline; Posthumus; II, v; line 1
"Is there no way for men to be, but women must be half-workers?"

Wifey's possibilities:
- The Winter's Tale; Paulina; III, i; line 173
"What studied torments, tyrant, hast for me?"
(overdone)
- Titus Andronicus; Tamora; II, iii; line 9
"My lovely Aaron, wherefore look'st thou sad?"
- Richard II; Duchess; I, ii
"Finds brotherhood in thee no sharper spur?"

O.D.'s possibilites:
- Othello; Iago; I, iii; Line 383
"Thus do I ever make my fool my purse."
(overdone)
- Othello; Iago; II, iii; line 335
"And what's he then that says I play the villain,"
- Richard III; Richard of Gloucester; I, ii; line 227
"Was ever woman in this humor woo'd?"
- Richard III; Richard of Gloucester; I, ii, line 151
"I would they were, that I might die at once..."
- Henry VI, Part III; Richard; II, i; line 78
"I cannot weep..."
(no 'Need')
- Henry VI, Part III; Son; II, v
"Ill blows the wind that profits nobody."
(Talking to dead body means eyes are too low. Too heightened emotions for auditions)
- The Two Gentlemen of Verona; Proteus; II, iv; line 191
"Even as one heat another heat expels."

Thrill's possibilities:
- Othello; Othello; V, ii
"It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul;"
- Othello; Othello; V, ii, line 259
"Behold, I have a weapon;"
- Titus Andronicus; Aaron; II, i; line 1
"Now climbeth Tamora Olympus' top,..."
- Titus Andronicus; Aaron; II, i line 103
"For shame, be friends, and join for that you jar."
- Titus Andronicus; Aaron; IV, ii; Line 87
"Sooner this sword shall plough thy bowels up."

D-Train's possibilities:
- Hamlet; Hamlet; I, ii; line 129
"O that this too too sallied flesh would melt,"
(done a lot)
- Hamlet; Hamlet; II, ii; line 549
"O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I..."
(overdone and too long... But he could start it at "Am I coward?" and go to the end, and it might be fine.)
- King John; Lewis; V, ii; line 78
"Your Grace shall pardon me, I will not back."
(done a lot)
- Henry V; King Henry; I, ii; line 259
"We are glad the Dolphin is so pleased with us.

And as for me...
I brought in a Goneril, a Lady Percy, a Phebe, 2 Helenas (Midsummer, not All's Well), and 2 Isabellas (recommended by Acting Professoressa). All were shot down except for the one Isabella that I really didn't like. So it looks like I might actually do a cutting of Constance from King John, even though it's an overdone speech. We shall see.

THE MYSTERY PLAYS
We had a lovely talk-back.

Wednesday, November 11

2009-11-11T10:24:00.000-08:00

VOICE
We started learning how to learn a dialect, based off of our books by Paul Meier.

A few handy links:
- Online IPA Charts
- The IDEA Site; The International Dialects of English Archive (where you can listen to recordings of native speakers of dialects and accents from around the world)
- Vasta: IPA Fonts (where you can download IPA fonts)

Voice Professor started teaching us how to make our own "dialect cheat sheets" with lexical sets. She says that it's important to avoid using words that you have difficulty with in Standard American as your basis for words in other dialects.

We discussed the difference between "dialects" and "accents". If the speech is based on something that is in the English language, then it's a dialect (Australian, Irish, British, Deep South, South Boston, etc.) If the speech is based on something that is a foreign language, then it's an accent (Italian, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Swahili).

MOVEMENT
We started blocking solo/duet sections of the ballet piece that we're going to do for our end-of-the-semester open class (aka "Showing"). It was a little weird, as both All-The-Way and Newbie were out sick/injured. I'm partnered with Thrill. So far, we're just doing a kicky-leg thing. We'll see what happens.

ACTING
Acting Professoressa says that we didn't do the best job on writing out "point-of-view" stuff in our sonnet papers. She says that POV should be basic truths, that are in the form of first person dialogue. So my POV on my scene partner should not be "He is the man I'm going to marry." It should be more like, "I love you, but you always let me down when I need you the most." She also said that most people needed to make bolder choices.

She gave us a great list of "sensual (non-literal) verbs" to use as "doings" (aka actions/tactics). Maybe at some point I'll get ambitious and type it up for you (I'm more likely to do it if someone leaves a request in the comments).

We went on to Thrill's sonnet (#12), which he's still working on getting a solid scenario for. He came in with a couple of new ideas:
- He and his wife are the last people in the Panther party. She wants to continue the Party by working hard and advocating for it. He wants it to continue by having children and raising them to be the next generation of Panthers.
- He is convinced that his son will be the next Messiah/messenger from God.

I don't know if he fully fleshed out his idea yet, but I loved how interesting his scenarios were.

Iceman's sonnet is getting a little more solidified now (#145). He needs to prove he's a man to his father. His father heard his fiancé complaining about the upcoming wedding, and now doesn't approve of the wedding, and thinks his son is an idiot.

Good advice from Acting Professoressa:
- You need to answer this question for yourself: After you deliver this monologue, what do you want the other person to do?
- Make sure your need isn't too altruistic; you need to have a personal connection to it (and perhaps personal gain from it) to make it strong.

The second half of class was spent trying to figure out what monologues people should use for our next assignment. Here's a list (and whatever notes I jotted down near them)

D-Train's possibilities:
- Henry VI, Part I; Young Clifford; V, ii
"Shame and confusion!"
(Shank is promising, but beginning high emotion is hard.)
- The Comedy of Errors; Antipholus of Syracuse; III, ii
"Sweet Mistress, what your name is else, I know not..."
(Acting Professoressa thought it would be good for D-Train to have a lover monologue)
- Richard II; King Richard; IV, i
"Ay, no, no ay; for I must nothing be."
(perhaps end at "in an earthy pit")

Big Show's possibilities:
- Julius Caesar; Brutus; II, i
"It must be by his death..."
(active, has a task, beautiful language)
- King Lear; Edgar; II, iii
"I heard myself proclaimed..."
(not as interesting)
- Macbeth; Macbeth; I, viii
"If it were done, when 'tis done..."
(stop at "tears shall drown the wind"?)
- Hamlet; Claudius; III, iii
"I like him not, nor stands it safe with us..."
"O, my offense is rank..."

Killer's possibilities:
- The Two Gentlemen of Verona; Proteus; II, iv
"Even as one heat another heat expels..."
- The Two Gentlemen of Verona; Proteus; II, vi
"To leave my Julia - Shall I be forsworn?"
(pay dirt: he makes a decision)
- Henry IV, Part I; Prince Hal; III, ii
"Do not think so, you shall not find it so,..."
- Henry VIII; Wolsey; III, ii
"Cromwell, I did not think to shed a tear..."
(Killer too young, but it does have a strong 'Need' and POV)
- Romeo and Juliet; Romeo; III, iii
"Tis torture, and not mercy..."

Newbie's possibilies:
- The Taming of the Shrew; Katherine; IV, iii
"The more my wrong, the more his spite appears."
(Short. Katherine doesn't have good things to use as audition pieces. We can do better.)
- King Lear; Goneril; I, iii
"By day and night he wrongs me"
- King Lear; Goneril; I, iv
"Not only, sir, this, your all-licensed fool."
(using a cut that I made, which puts it with more text from later in the scene)

Tuesday, November 10

2009-11-10T10:23:00.000-08:00

VOICE
Today we had our spoken exam, in which we attempted to speak our individual scoring for the Portia monologue we've been working on. I think I did alright. I hope.

MOVEMENT
We started off by lifting weights. Last year, I did a little bit of lifting when I had an injury that prevented me from jumping rope. At the time, I started with 5 pound hand weights, and then moved up to 8 pounds... But now, I've decided to scale back to 3 pound weights. And even with just the 3 pound ones, it was tough. For a lot of the stuff, we end up holding both weights in one hand anyway. Some people in my class are starting with 10 pounds.

We moved onto ballet after that. Honestly, I can't even remember most of what we did in ballet. Mostly reviewed stuff that we have learned in past weeks. The new things were more about combinations than new steps.

ACTING
We started off with watching the DVD corresponding to Chapter 5 of Playing Shakespeare, which is all about "set speeches" (aka monologues/soliloquies). Here are some notes I took during today's class (most of which are just reiterations of things we've discussed previously):

- Don't play the mood; play the need/intention
- Make discoveries. Everything is more interesting if you're discovering it in the moment.
- When addressing the audience in a soliloquy, choose one person (or areopagite) at a time to speak to.
- Make sure to hit all antithesis
- Keep "landing" lines
- Have an active inner life, and stay engaged in the scene
- Don't get your motor going by doing something artificial, like panting. It's a trap. and it's irritating to the audience.
- Go for the argument.
- Act on the lines
- Pick up cues
- Avoid being "woolly" (unclear)
- Clarity is our first obligation
- Is the outcome of your need immediate and verifiable?

Set speeches generally can be broken up into three sections:
1. React to what has just happened
2. Explore the ideas that have just come up
3. Arrive at a conclusion (or decided that you can't possibly come to a conclusion)

We turned in our sonnet assignments, in which we were to define all of our given circumstances (including partner, scenario, point of view, and inciting incident) and our tactics (aka "doings") for each of the four sections of the sonnets (three quatrains and a couplet). I think, in retrospect, that mine are all totally wrong...

We had to come up with "literal doings" and "sensual doings". I have sonnet 115. My doings were:

Q1: to comfort/to stroke
Q2: to engage/to grab
Q3: to bait/to tug
C: to excite/to massage

We'll see if any of those stick. Today, we went over Killer and Thrill's sonnets, and a lot of things changed while working with them. So who knows?

THE MYSTERY PLAYS
I did something really stupid backstage during the show today, and as a result, I was a second late on one of my entrances. It wasn't actually that big of a deal (the stage manager didn't seem to even have noticed), but it was really upsetting to me. I've been doing the show for two weeks, and for the most part things are running smoothly. It's unnerving to think that I could still do something like that. But I guess it's a good lesson about theatre: you always have to be on your A-game.

Quotations: Volume 39

2009-11-09T09:00:00.000-08:00

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

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

"Never neglect inflection... Words to live by."
- Wifey, after mentioning that she had neglected to mark some of her inflections in her monologue

"Don't say it's awful. It's called learning."
- Movement Professor, in ballet

"Don't try to think about this logically. It doesn't really work that way."
- Movement Professor, in ballet

" Try to keep some sparkles in your eyes. It helps you do ballet, actually."
- Movement Professor, in ballet

"In my experience, the people who do the best at auditioning are those who find a way to enjoy it."
- Acting Professoressa

"Miss [Acting Professoressa], would you try that again, but this time try it as a pregnant... donkey."
- Acting Professoressa, giving a hypothetical example of how one might be given ridiculous direction during an audition

"Everyone in New York has to carry their life with them, but you just can't come in like Mother Courage and Her Children."
- Acting Professoressa, on not bringing in a ton of stuff to an audition

"Before you come in, just say to yourself, 'F*** 'em.' You're there to solve their problems."
- Acting Professoressa, on auditioning

"Do you know how often you're sitting behind a casting desk and you have half an hour left and haven't seen anyone who looks like they could play Bob Cratchitt in a heartbeat? And if you give it to them, they'll love you."
- Acting Professoressa, on auditioning

"The great speeches are great speeches because they're great speeches. You don't have to ignore them because you want something unurual. It's like, why would you choose to take a jalopy instead of a limo?"
- Acting Professoressa, on choosing a Shakespeare monologue

"Assume that people like you. Always, if you can. Not if someone's driving a truck over you... But in general, in life. We never really know what people think of us, so why not just assume that they like us?"
- Acting Professoressa

"If you can imagine being Macbeth, then you can imagine yourself doing an Adagio. And if you can imagine doing an Adagio, then you can do an Adagio."
- Movement Professor

"That's a special kind of double-dipping. A 'double-dripping', let's call it."
- Acting Professoressa, on continuing to work a note you've already taken to a point that you go too far

(when trying to determine whose sonnets we had already heavily delved into)
Acting Professoressa: ...and [Iceman] claims he already went. (raises eyebrow incredulously)
Iceman: Jedi mind trick. This is not the sonnet you're looking for.

(Acting Professoressa began to clarify All-The-Way's scenario for her sonnet)
Acting Professoressa: So your 'Need' is to break up with... what did you say his name was? Horatio?
All-The-Way: Liam.
Acting Professoressa: Right. Liam.

"Always choose to be a mensch."
- Acting Professoressa

"He's torturing me. No, wait, I'm torturing myself. I'm doing it to myself... 'Therefore, buddy, all the more reason we should break up. I'm not into torture.'"
- Acting Professoressa, on All-The-Way's inner-monologue for Sonnet 61

(while discussing Big Show's scenario for Sonnet 97)
Acting Professoressa: I thought that 'Need' worked well. To get her to come home. (to the class) How did you feel?
O.D.: (to Big Show) I'd come. I'd come running.
Big Show: Next time we break up, [O.D.], I'll make sure to read this sonnet to you.

"It's like a rond de jambe crossed with a tilt-a-whirl."
- Angela, describing a bit of choreography in Movement class

(discussing Two-Shots-Up's work on Sonnet 62)
Acting Professoressa: How do we account for the first eight lines of the poem being her talking about how vain she is?
Angela: She prob'ly thinks this sonnet's about her.

"Well that sounds like a f***ing sarcasm-fest. Is that what you were intending?"
- Acting Professoressa, on Angela's original too-harsh premise for Sonnet 115

"It's like she's writing, '[Big Show] and [Killer] disagreed with me.'"
- Big Show, when Acting Professoressa was noting something down in class right after a Big Show and Killer disagreed with her

"God, don't you just want to get on that set with a pair of scissors and cut her hair? And cut John Barton's hair?"
- Acting Professoressa, talking about an actress in the Playing Shakespeare DVDs

"You're going to go off the railroad tracks unless you start with a 'Need'."
- Acting Professoressa

Friday, November 6

2009-11-06T10:23:00.000-08:00

VOICE
We spent class doing a full warm-up, complete with like a week's worth of tremoring. Hoo, boy.

MOVEMENT
Today, we got to revisit Contact Improv (in preparation for our open class, also called a "showing", at the end of the month). And it was AWESOME.

My first pairing was with Killer. Movement Professor wanted us to work together because we both have a good sense of humor in contact improv. At one point, something happened with my body in a flip-over-turn-around sort of way that my classmates have been referring to as "when Angela turned her body inside-out". It was fun, but I have no idea what happened, and certainly wouldn't attempt to replicate it.

My second was with D-Train. It started off kind of slow, but by the end it was really goofy, and as some of our classmates mentioned, "all about butts" (which I didn't notice while in it, but that's what they perceived from the outside).

The final one I did was a trio (my first ever!) with Two-Shots-Up and All-The-Way. It felt like we were the Graces, or muses or something. Very Botticelli, and surprisingly more sensual than the pairings I had with guys earlier in the class.

Trios in general were neat to watch. D-Train, Iceman, and Thrill had a particularly acrobatic and athletic one. Wifey, Killer, and O.D. did something that Movement Professor compared to demons at the gates of Hell. Cool stuff.

ACTING
Wifey started us out with a "Great Actor Series" presentation on Charlotte Cushman, who was probably the first American-born female stage star. Her mantra seemed to be "Devotion and Work", which I thought was lovely. Ms. Cushman played a lot of male roles in theatre, including Romeo and Hamlet. And she was a lesbian who traveled with her partners in tow, which our class thought was really interesting, as you don't often hear about lesbians who were (at least somewhat) out of the closet in the 1800s.

We read chapter 10 of Playing Shakespeare in preparation for class, and then watched the corresponding DVD segment, which I think of as "The Battle of the Shylocks" (I think it's actually called "Exploring a Character" or something like that). David Suchet and Patrick Stewart had both played Shylock under the direction of John Barton in different productions. And although they agreed on several things (that Merchant of Venice has anti-semitic characters but is not an anti-semitic play; that Shylock should not be played as a sympathetic character or a hero; that Shylock is an outsider; that Shylock is a bad Jew, whom other Jews would not have approved of), their interpretations were wildly different.

D-Train explained the differences between Shylocks in a way that I found to be true, and related it back to Artistic Director's theory on "needs". He said that Stewart's Shylock was fighting for Self-Respect (status and what others thought of him) and Suchet's Shylock was fighting for Self-Worth (identity and integrity).

And a great piece of advice from John Barton:
"Look for ambiguities, and play them."

We finished talking about my sonnet, which is #115.

Sonnet 115
Those lines that I before have writ do lie,
Even those that said I could not love you dearer:
Yet then my judgment knew no reason why
My most full flame should afterwards burn clearer.
But reckoning Time, whose million'd accidents
Creep in 'twixt vows, and change decrees of kings,
Tan sacred beauty, blunt the sharp'st intents,
Divert strong minds to the course of altering things;
Alas! why, fearing of Time's tyranny,
Might I not then say, 'Now I love you best,'
When I was certain o'er incertainty,
Crowning the present, doubting of the rest?
Love is a babe, then might I not say so,
To give full growth to that which still doth grow.

We were trying to come up with a scenario, and inciting incident, and a need for me to work with when playing it. We went through a lot of possibilities (including trying to convince my lover that I should have an abortion, or that he needed to grow up, or that I wanted to have a baby...), and I felt most secure with a suggestion that Newbie made.

So. I'm speaking to my fiancé. It's the morning of our wedding, and he has cold feet. He tells me he thinks that all the poems I wrote him before mean nothing and he thinks we're going to fall out of love with each other. I speak the sonnet to try to convince him to go through with the wedding because, while the future is uncertain, I believe that our love is going to grow.

It's not a 100% perfect fit, obviously, but it was definitely the most active, positive, and playable thing that we came up with. I think it's going to work well for the assignment. As D-Train said (paraphrasing one of his lines as Orestes from The Greeks), "It made all things clear, and plain, and simple." And I think that's exactly the goal with Shakespeare.

Acting Professoressa asked us to nail down some of the benefits of working on sonnets this way. Some of our ideas:
- defining the specificity of the situation. (because it things aren't specific for the actor, they won't be clear to an audience)
- keeping the stakes high
- learning not to work against the text
- make the language your own
- start with a 'need'

THE MYSTERY PLAYS
The show has been going well. I'm still learning things about my characters, which is fun. And the unexpected happens, as it always does in live theatre. Like the night when my bluetooth phone flew off my ear while I was playing Amanda-The-Agent. I rolled to it in my office chair, grabbed it off the floor, "checked" to see if it was still working, put it back on, and finished the scene. Good times.

I can't believe that we only have another week of it. It's going to be weird not to have this show any more. I really love it.

Thursday, November 5

2009-11-05T10:22:00.001-08:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wednesday, November 4

2009-11-04T20:22:00.001-08:00

VOICE
We finished speaking the 3rd and 4th sentences of the Portia monologue individually. My notes were:
- make sure that the word "converted" has a light medial "t" (as opposed to a "d" sound)
- don't let your voice press

Our exam is going to be Tuesday. We are to bring our dialect books on Wednesday.

MOVEMENT
We did "adagios" for the first time, which are slow sequences involving things like arabesques. I totally loved them. It's like kicking in super-slow-motion. And, well, I love to kick. Arabesques? They're my new favorite thing.

We did some waltz-based stuff, too, where we were crossing the floor in pairs.

After class, Movement Professor came up to me and just said, "Yes." I asked her what she meant. She said that I'm getting it and really improving. And she said my "lines" are looking great. I was so excited!

Man, I love ballet.

ACTING
Acting Professoressa said that if some emergency arises in the middle of a Shakespeare performance, the actor usually says, "More of this will come anon," before exiting. I had previously heard of actors substituting forgotten lines with, "I am amazed and know not what to say."

We watched the 2nd chapter of the DVD Playing Shakespeare, which we had already read. It was on 'using the text'. I didn't agree with all the scansion choices made by the people in the video (like the suggestion that "Good Queen, my Lord, good Queen, I say good queen," from The Winter's Tale should be TEN STRESSED SYLLABLES in a row. I understudied the role of Paulina last year, and I would NEVER stress every syllable in that line! It would lose all meaning!). But it was interesting...

I think the best lesson that I got out of this chapter was something that I've extrapolated on more than they discussed it, which is the REASON that we work so hard to do all of this work on Shakespeare. We, as actors, have to go through hell analyzing everything, scanning all of it, knowing what every word means and how it connects to every other word... Because if we do it, then the audience won't have to. We do all this work to make it as accessible to them and easy to understand as possible. Everything we're doing, we do it so that the audience can get the story, just as we would want in any play.

If having to do tedious, insane work is going to make it easier to convey a story to the audience and have them understand it? Then I'm all for it. Of course I'll do it.

We went through a few more of people's sonnets, analyzing them and trying to figure out their "other" (who the character is talking to), "need" (aka objective), and "doings" (tactics).

Tuesday, November 3

2009-11-03T20:32:00.001-08:00

VOICE
We've been going through our Portia monologue, one person at a time, one sentence at a time. My biggest note from Sentence 1 last week was to not have a downward inflection on the word "better" (which can be tricky, since it's trochaic and at the end of a clause).

Today, in Sentence 2, my notes were:
- Don't put too much weight on the word "me".
- Don't put too much weight on the word "learn" (especially tricky since, in one instance, I'm expanding the word to two syllables)
- Put more weight on the word "commits" (since, right now at least, I have it marked as operative)
- Make sure to take all marked breaths (especially the last breaths before enjambment when I CAN'T breathe) to avoid rib squeeze

A lot of people seemed to be having difficulty saying the word "dull" correctly (so that the "uh" vowel is really present). Voice Professor said that they're going to have to drill it.

In the last chunk of text, there are several lists in the same sentence. Voice Professor says to release the build of each list when it ends, and certainly before starting the next list, so that the sentence doesn't become ridiculous.

MOVEMENT
Ballet, ballet.

We learned a new step called "pas de cheval", which means "step of the horse" (but Movement Professor told us it's more the step of a "tiny pony"). It's comprised of other steps we'd already learned (coupé, developpé, and tendu).

Movement Professor helped me a bit before class, and said that my second position tendu turn-out is getting a lot better.

ACTING
Oh my goodness, I have SO MANY NOTES from this class today. I might fall asleep while typing them all... But I'll try to get as much down as I can before passing out.

We started with Killer's "Great Actors Series" presentation, which was on William Macready and Edwin Forrest, who had a rivalry that led to the Astor Place Macbeth Riot. Acting Professoressa said it was the best presentation she had ever seen on those men. Yay Killer!

One great note I wrote down today, I unfortunately didn't write down the context of... but it's great wording, so I'll share anyway. Be so adept that you can adapt.

Acting Professoressa told us to remember the word "embellishment" or "embroidering" in reference to over-playing things, and to avoid it. Don't feel that you have to demonstrate the language (for example, by illustrating with hand gestures). Just DO things to people.

We are supposed to bring in possibilities for Shakespearean monologues to work on next week, and our discussion about the monologues also went into how to have a successful audition. So here are my lists of notes...

On our monologue assignment:
- Either choose something that you want for your audition repertoire, or choose something that you probably wouldn't be cast as but really want to discover in yourself.
- If you plan to put it in your audition portfolio, make sure that it's actually good casting for you.
- Choose something in verse
- Aim for 60-90 seconds long (it can be longer for this class if you really want it to be)
- It must be active and not narrative
- Don't choose anything that requires an answer from an invisible partner
- Go for the star of the show. It doesn't have to be a famous speech, but it does have to be important.
- Bring in 3-5 pieces

Things that you should have in your "back pocket" audition portfolio:
- A classical dramatic monologue
- A classical comedic monologue
- A classic contemporary dramatic monologue (think O'Neill, Miller, Williams, etc.)
- A modern comedic monologue
(Those are the big four. The rest are also good ideas...)
- one joke (short and sweet)
- one poem
- one "hot right now" monologue (from a play that is brand new, or currently being done on Broadway, etc.)
- one "off the wall" piece
- one British dialect piece
- one other dialect piece
- one monologue from a movie

Advice on Auditioning...
- Come in, announce your pieces, and do your pieces. Structure it like a short 1-Act (or 2-Act, maybe) play
- Even if someone has already announced your name, it doesn't hurt to repeat it
- Walk to one spot where you can introduce your pieces and talk to the director & posse (if they feel like talking). Walk to a new spot before beginning your first piece. Walk to another spot before beginning second piece.
- If you get direction, especially if it's direction you don't fully understand (like, "Do it again, but this time, do it like a pregnant donkey. And more purple."), walk to a new place before starting. It helped them psychologically to see a difference, even if you're not changing much.
- Props should only be things that can fit in your pocket (like a letter)
- Don't ever correct the stage manager (like if they say your name wrong... the people have your résumé and can see what your name is. Don't worry about it.)
- Don't use a dialect piece unless they have asked for one.
- Make sure that you can really plug into your "need"
- In soliloquies, you may use the audience as your scene partner. Just not the director. Try to use the costume designer or an assistant or someone if you must.
- Knowing the focus of your pieces is important. There is inner-directed focus, other-directed focus, and outer-directed focus. Other-directed is usually the one to aim for when choosing audition pieces.
- Don't go nuts adjusting furniture before your scene so that it's perfectly under the light.
- That said, do try to stay in good lighting. But don't go nuts over it.
- Don't pick pieces where you're running around like a maniac, especially if the action doesn't make sense out of the context of the play (like, if the character is being chased or something)
- Don't make the shock value too high. They will be paying more attention to the fact that you're swearing and talking about violence at 9am than they'll be paying to you.
- Don't make elaborate costume changes between pieces
- Don't come in wearing a cleavage-bearing cocktail dress. You don't want them to think of you as an exhibitionist
- Don't come in wearing any sort of joke costume for attention (such as a clown nose)
- Don't put your "other" on a chair or on the floor. Keep your eyes UP.
- Whenever you go to the theatre, take notice of potentially useful monologues for the future, and look them up when you get home.
- If you don't have the sides for an audition, go SUPER EARLY
- Actually, go early anyway. Try to see the space you're auditioning in
- With auditioning, practice makes perfect. Audition a lot.
- Know that you are the potential solution to the director's problems. You are valuable.

Advice about acting as a career
- In general, never go anywhere without a headshot/résumé in your purse/backpack/briefcase. You never know whom you'll meet on a train, at the dentist office, or in the gym.
- Have "monomania" about your career. This is a business. You are the product.
- You will get more work from directors you have worked with than from auditions you go on. Every director that you get to work with is a huge connection that you should foster. Don't be a pest, but write thank you notes.
- Start a file system about auditions. After every audition, write down what you auditioned for, the date, the character description, who you met (casting directors and the like), and what you wore (so that, if you get a callback, you can wear it again, or at least something of a similar style vein).
- Remember that the theatre world is a very small universe full of erudite people.
- You will not get points for memorizing incorrectly. Do not paraphrase.
- Project an image of professionalism.
- Be the kind of actor who is good to have "in the room" and whom directors want to be around
- Don't bad-mouth ANYONE. This guy might be that guy's cousin. You don't know. Also, you want to be thought of as discreet, not as a gossip.
- Find a way to relax before auditioning/rehearsing/performing. Acting Professoressa suggests being hypnotized (as actors, we're probably very suggestible)
- Aim for a state of alert relaxation
- Assume that they people like you.

THE MYSTERY PLAYS
The show is going well. Week 2, baby! A couple of my scenes were particularly on-target tonight, which felt great. I hope it continues to go well.

Quotations: Volume 38

2009-11-02T13:42:00.000-08:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Friday, October 30

2009-10-30T23:02:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

BUILDS
Straight Builds
Shared Builds

COMPARE & CONTRAST
Antithesis
Oxymoron
Paradox

DOUBLE ENTENDRE
Pun
Bawdy

FOCUS
Asides
Soliloquies

IMAGERY
Simile
Metaphor
Apostrophe
Personification

REPETITION
Beginning
Ending
Length

RHYME
Rhyme
Half-Rhyme
Historic Rhyme
End Rhyme

SOUND
Alliteration
Assonance
Onomatopoeia

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

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

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

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

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

Thursday, October 29

2009-10-29T10:37:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wednesday, October 28

2009-10-28T23:16:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

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

And now, I'm off to bed.

Tuesday, October 27

2009-10-27T21:06:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Big Show and D-Train)

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

(Iceman, O.D., and Newbie)

(O.D. and Newbie)

Quotations: Volume 37

2009-10-26T20:09:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thursday, October 22

2009-10-22T20:26:00.001-07:00

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

Then we moved into breathing.

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

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

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

CANNOT BREATHE: At enjambment

USUALLY BREATHE: At colons and semi-colons

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wednesday, October 21

2009-10-21T20:00:00.000-07:00

VOICE
Today was our first day playing around with "operatives", which are the words in a sentence that you really use/play in order to get the point across and obtain your need. They are usually the most important words in the sentence.

Here are some things we discussed about identifying operatives:
- There is a vague, often broken "Rule of Three", which states that there are no more than three operatives per sentence.
- Look for active verbs, as those are a good place to look for operatives
- Frequently words that come at/near the end of a sentence are most operative.
- Avoid marking operatives that are close together, as one usually detracts from the other.
- "Red Houses" (phrases/images in which more than one word needs stress) count as one operative.
- Look to the direct object, as that is sometimes an operative.
- If you stress everything, you're stressing nothing, and the effect is assaultive to the audience.
- If a word is something that you wouldn't bother typing in a text message (or sending in a telegram), then it's not going to be operative.
- If an image/concept/word has already been established in the speech, then it does not need to be reestablished with operatives.
- Lists often take care of themselves and don't require operatives because of the natural build. Occasionally, the last item in the list will contain an operative.

Voice Professor is also allowing us to use "colored words", which are not operatives, but carry a little extra weight.

MOVEMENT
I asked questions about the things we've been learning because I keep forgetting what they're all called, and which term applies to which move. Here are the things we've discussed so far (that I can remember):

- battement
- chassé
- dégagé
- demi-plié
- frappé
- pas de bourrée
- pirouette
- plié
- port de bras
- relevé
- rond de jambe
- tendu

MYSTERY PLAYS
There was a lovely picture of Newbie and O.D. in a local paper today!

Woo-hoo!

We had a rehearsal from 1-4pm, in which we got notes, ran the show, and got more notes. My big note with Amanda-the-Agent was "don't get bored" (I over-corrected from last time, when I was too excited). My big note with Lucy-the-Lawyer was "don't start a new beat on the last line."

The lovely crew of 1st-years moved all of our set and props during our dinner break, and we began the slow, arduous process of tech-ing this very complicated show from 7-11pm. It's going to be a rough week.

Tuesday, October 20

2009-10-20T13:41:00.000-07:00

VOICE
We continued scoring our texts, which included:
- Putting brackets around complete thoughts (full sentences)
- Putting asterisks at the end of verse lines that contain enjambment (which is when there's no punctuation at the end of the line and the thought flows into the next line)
- Putting boxes around antithetical words and connecting the boxes with a line
- Numbering items in lists
- Putting parentheses around parenthetical statements

We also spent some time on inflection, which was a new topic for the day. Here's my chart:

INFLECTION
. (period) = downward
! (exclamation point) = sustained OR upward OR downward
? (question mark) = upward (in Shakespeare)
, (comma) = upward OR sustained
: (colon) = sustained
; (semi-colon) = upward OR sustained
- (dash) = sustained

NOTE: There is no relationship between downward inflection and vocal energy.

Tomorrow we're going to head into operatives. Voice Professor has already warned us that it's going to be a tension-filled lesson.

MOVEMENT
Movement Professor is out of town, so our Waltz/Tap Instructor stepped in for the day to work on ballet with us. We also did some jazz things, including combinations across the floor with different focuses.

I have to say, I really love this dancing stuff. It's so joy-inducing. And even when I'm screwing it up, it still makes me happy. :)

MYSTERY PLAYS
We did a run in front of several 1st-Years who are going to be working crew for us in various capacities. Exciting! It actually went pretty well (and no one seemed more shocked than our director).

Lucy, my lawyer character, really started feeling like a person today. She's growing, and I'm relieved. Amanda, my agent character, is still a little disjointed, but she's getting there.

Voice Professor handed me the following notes:
- "...read about this wreck thing..." - unclear
- "this is buzz" - z more strongly
- Amanda's voice is wonderful! Know that she uses glottal attacks in her "dialect", which sounds exactly right for the character you've created. Your job is to take extra care of your voice since this falls into the "vocal extreme" type category. Great work!
- Excellent use of speech to carve out character + really tell the story
- I'll (this was a note on the vowel sound I used being too Midwestern)
- "You were afraid that your father..." - operative (it's italics)

My notes from the Director were:
- Amanda needs to pick up cues, especially in the first two scenes, and really move things along. (Voice Professor clarified that this is NOT a note about pacing, but just about external cuing).
- Amanda should not get too excited about Burke Denning's treatment
- Lucy needs to help energize scene and move it along

THEATRE
Over the weekend, I had TWO opportunities to see the 3rd-Year Class in action.

On Sunday night, I went to In Progress: The London Monologues. As part of our program, students go to London for 6 weeks to study during the summer after 2nd-Year (which means I'm going in May!). One of the classes we take there is a writing class, in which students end up writing a 20-minute monologue. Five members of the 3rd-year class did a Late Night show to let us see what they've been working on.

The monologues were SO GOOD. Oh, wow. I laughed, I cried, I loved. I am simultaneously excited for and terrified of the writing class in my future. I hope I can write something as interesting, funny, and moving as all of them did so successfully.

The second show was an ensemble piece of interview-theatre that the entire 3rd-Year class compiled/wrote/performed, called Life in the Middle. It was so much fun! I went to the Monday matinee in which the majority of the audience was comprised of middle schoolers (some of whom had been the ones interviewed for the project). It really transported me back to my middle school days (1995-1998, for the record... which suddenly seems not that long ago). I am incredibly proud of them. :)

Quotations: Volume 36

2009-10-19T02:00:00.000-07:00

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

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

"I have excellent peripheral vision. I trained with [Movement Professor]."
- Voice Professor

"Let's look at punctuation. Does everyone know what a comma is?"
- Voice Professor

"(quoting her handout)Exclamation Point: A mark of punctuation used to indicate excitement or emotion.' I took that straight from 'Conjunction Junction'. I didn't know how else to say it."
- Voice Professor

"Angela's saying just because you go off your diet doesn't mean you pig out all the rest of the day."
- Voice Professor, after I had tried to avoid the use of un-iambic meter in a line that had started with a trochee

"What's a Montague?"
- Iceman, making a joke after Voice Professor asked if there were any words we should look up in the Juliet monologue we're working on

"Ballet is a woman."
- Movement Professor

"If I screw up, just follow [All-The-Way]."
- Movement Professor

"I can't say this when the boys are here, but through ballet you can have the experience of rapture."
- Movement Professor

"Angela looks like a Muppet."
- Acting Professoressa, when Angela came to class wearing purple and black striped tights under her dress

(during rehearsal for The Greeks)
Acting Professoressa: [Thrill], you're swaying back and forth like a palm tree in a hurricane.
Thrill: Yeah, I got caught in an air conditioning draft there.

"This is work that you should begin the minute you wake up in the morning."
- Acting Professoressa

"Get connected before you enter. You've got to be in the zone."
- Acting Professoressa, on not just jumping in and out of character

(three unfamiliar men walked into the theatre while we were on break from Greeks rehearsal)
Iceman: (to the men) Hello, fellas!
(the men smile)
Angela: (whispers to Iceman)Who are they?
(the men leave)
Iceman: They're my new friends, that's all.

"Now listen, there were a surprising number of good things that happened today."
- Acting Professoressa, after Tuesday's run of The Greeks

(after Acting Professoressa had told D-Train that she wanted to work with him more on some Orestes stuff, and asked if he could meet on his lunch hour the following day)
D-Train: I don't know that we need to work it, or if I just need to answer some questions for myself and just let it grow in my stomach.
Acting Professoressa: If it's growin' in your stomach, I don't want to have anything to do with it.

"Could you please do that linking-ly? I just made up a word."
- Acting Professoressa

"Don't bounce Clytemnestra's head, is the note."
- Acting Professoressa, to Big Show after Wifey mentioned that she's getting abused while being a corpse

"They'd be like, 'Oh, somebody's rhyming. I guess it's my entrance.'"
- Voice Professoressa, on how rhyming couplets are often at the ends of speeches in Shakespeare plays because they were used as cues to off-stage actors who didn't have the whole script

"I don't care where you are. You could be on f***ing Coney Island, just come in on cue."
- Acting Professoressa

"Spit, don't dribble."
- Acting Professoressa, to O.D. regarding an action of his character of Peleus in Andromache

(to Killer about why, as a soldier, he shouldn't push Menelaus out of his way even though he's angry)
"It's about status. You know, I wouldn't go up and push [Artistic Director] out of the way. I might push Angela out of the way. (sees that Angela looks confused as to why she's being pushed) I'm only kidding. (beat) It's a status thing."
- Acting Professoressa

"Remember, characters in classical plays think fast."
- Acting Professoressa

(After both Stage Manager and D-Train had trouble tearing gaff tape, and decided to just make the pieces longer)
D-Train: Guess I just have to be smarter than the tape.
Head of Program: Now there's a chore for ya.
D-Train: An impossibility, really.

(to Angela, regarding the line "Now, what's your saint of a mother's address down there? I want to send her a fruitcake.")
"It has to be harder. B****ier. 'I wanna send the b**** a f***in' fruitcake.'"
- Head of Program

(to Angela, regarding the line "Now, what's your saint of a mother's address down there? I want to send her a fruitcake.")
"That's just what you do in times of tragedy. You send fruitcake. Everyone loves fruitcake."
- Head of Program

(the day after Voice Professor attended a rehearsal of The Greeks, she gave us feedback)
Voice Professor: You know, the work was very interesting. I was very interesting in the storytelling.
D-Train: Really?
Voice Professor: I know. I was surprised, too!

"[O.D.] fell into a trap yesterday that is worth mentioning because everyone can fall into it at some point. I call it being seduced by your own voice. 'I love my voice. I love hearing my voice. I lover hearing my voice on the stage.' Don't let that happen. Don't be one of those actors."
- Voice Professor

"It's like this...(uses hand motion to demonstrate voice concept) If my hand can do it, then my voice can do it, right? That's my motto."
- Voice Professor

(to Wifey, regarding use of a prop
"F*** the scarf. It got in the way of the cue. (beat) (aside to Angela) Never took a note like that before, 'f*** the scarf.'"
- Acting Professoressa

"Why are you looking on the bright side of this, [All-The-Way]?"
- 1st-year LB, after a conversation where All-The-Way and D-Train tried to convince 1st-Year LB that it was actually a positive thing that his paper on The Wild Duck is due much earlier than ours was last year and told him to "look on the bright side"

"This is actually a really good time to be boring. You've gotta be boring sometimes. I just wish you wouldn't do it in front of me. And now you're never allowed to be boring again."
- Head of Program, after a boring run of the first act of The Mystery Plays

(in Voice class before The Greeks, Voice Professor decided to dedicate the class time to a luxurious, thorough vocal warm-up.)
"Destructure. (looks at clock and sees that we have tons of time in class, and no other task to get to, and then laughs) Forty minutes to destructure."
- Voice Professor

"Angela, you are a great actress."
- Acting Professoressa

"[Iceman], you need to move it along as The Caretaker. That was a five-act opera. A good one, but a five-act opera."
- Head of Program

(referring to Iceman as The Caretaker)
Head of Program: You were stopping at every clause.
Voice Professor: At every comma.
Head of Program: Even more than every comma. Every clause. It's like they used to say about trains in the thirties, when they made all the stops: 'This train stops at every tree!'
D-Train: Were you alive in the thirties?

"You have to make a lot of deposits into the pause bank before you can make a withdrawl. And right now most of us are overdrawn with our pauses."
- Head of Program

(after D-Train was asked to put on kneepads while we were running a section where he trips and falls)
D-Train: These are going to make me crazy all day.
Head of Program: Well, it'll be a short trip.

Sunday, October 18

2009-10-18T06:11:00.000-07:00

ACTING
I didn't mention this before, but I really want to have a record of it... On Friday, before The Greeks, Acting Professoressa asked us all into the women's dressing room, and knighted us all as "great actors" using a light-up plastic sword. It was one of my favorite moments of grad school thus far. I loved it.

MYSTERY PLAYS
I love this play. Seriously, I do. It's two fascinating stories in one. I'm really excited to perform it.

That said, I am at a challenging place in rehearsal right now, and some days it's pretty frustrating. I feel like I'm not doing anything right. Neither of my characters is where I want her to be yet. And I know I'll grow into them more in the next week, but it's not easy to make it through this stage of the process.

Our Assistant Stage Manager is 1st-year LB, and he's been doing a great job taking line notes for us. Most of mine right now are paraphrasing (saying "alright" instead of "okay", or "don't do this to me again" instead of "never do this to me again"). Through the course of the day, I got 16 line notes (which, especially considering that I don't have a ridiculous number of lines, is way too high). I have a lot of work to do.

Voice Professor came to rehearsal on Saturday and handed me some notes after the run:
- "I know all I am is your agent" - unclear
- "As soon as I come up with something" - this was difficult to understand
- Angela, excellent work! In both pieces.

That last line made me feel better. At least I'm doing SOMETHING right.

We have rehearsal today from 12pm-5pm. And then tomorrow, mercifully, we have a day off. And I think my mind needs it.

Friday, October 16

2009-10-16T18:00:00.000-07:00

THE GREEKS
To say I am proud of my class would be an understatement. I adore my class. I am in awe of my class. And I feel honored to be able to be on stage with these people and work alongside them. They inspire me. I love them.

We had a pretty full house, which was exciting and invigorating. And after weeks of delivering lines to empty seats where the areopagites supposedly sat, we had actual PEOPLE to talk to. It was AMAZING. I think it pushed everyone to the next level in their work. It's incredible just how much it helps to have an audience.

Everyone stepped up their game. It was great to watch, and even better to work with.

And it was such a high! It felt so great to perform (even though technically The Greeks is a "showing" and not a "performance"). I felt good about the work that I did. Of course, I wasn't perfect (like the point when I went into glottal fry while yelling "Kill me -- come on I'm ready -- but leave my son alone!"), but I never will be. Acting is not about perfection; it's about trying to be truthful under any circumstances (including extreme ones, like The Greeks). I think I found some of that truth. And it felt right.

Thank you to everyone out there who came to support us!!!

~A~

Thursday, October 15

2009-10-15T15:11:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness. The Greeks? TOMORROW. Crazy. How did that go by so fast?

VOICE
Voice Professor started off by giving us notes about the run of The Greeks she attended yesterday.

Last time she attended (I think it was two weeks ago?) my notes were:
- Be sure you're not pressing on your larynx to achieve lower pitches. Allow your pitch range to play with freedom
- Yes, allowing your voice to play freely from top, very good
- "months" (this was a clarity note)
- "we women love that" - vocal drop out
- "slaves" - vz
- "to deal with silly women" - rib squeeze, tight in throat
- yelling is good, but be sure to breathe often enough
- "alive" - v
- beautiful open s & l your voice! (refers to sending and landing)
- ? "furrow" ? (this was a clarity note)

And this time? My notes were very positive! Yay improvement!
- good use of voice technique when using volume
- clear precise speech without being over focused on speech - great!
- very good use of ONE VOICE today, incorporating head resonance, forward placement, AND body resonance.

She also said that I had "great screaming and yelling technique", "beautiful use of pitch range", and that it was "dynamic and interesting" and "not limited".

YAY HOORAY! I am so much more confident going into tomorrow's showing as a result. :)

She also gave general notes:
- watch out for glottal attacks
- be loud more selectively
- make sure to speak to people in the audience as individuals (like Caesar talking to one general at a time) when addressing the areopagites. (She said this is a good note for ANY time that you're talking to the audience in a show)

Completely unrelated, I also just found the notes Voice Professor gave me after my Screaming/Yelling exam and can't remember if I typed those up... so here they are:
Chew and Shakes the hum - excellent, forward
Triangle followed by Twinkle Twinkle - excellent, very forward
Head roll with light high forward hum - sound is perfect (release your face)
Screaming on breath, on voice - excellent, good soft released neck, supported, slightly back and down
Yellong on text on breath, on voice - excellent, open, no tension

MOVEMENT
I actually really like ballet. When we finished class today, my body felt so long. I feel taller. And my arms feel longer. I don't know. It's a neat feeling.

Movement Professor says I keep bending my knees when I shouldn't be, but I still haven't figured out how to feel it.

On the plus side, thanks to my usual kooky flamingo-like stances, I'm really good at holding a passe for a long period of time. It's nice to be good at something.

Oh, and the most fun thing we did today? Jumping. Just up and down, in different ballet positions in our ballet shoes. I don't know why, but it was SO joy-inducing. I seriously could not stop giggling. (Just one more example of me looking like a freak in front of my classmates... it's a good thing they're used to me.)

ACTING
We teched the show, thanks to Tech Director and Stage Manager. The young actor playing my son came in today, which was really helpful for me.

Acting Professoressa said her biggest note for me was Trust yourself. That seems to be a theme around here for me lately.

Other notes included:
- You can be still.
- Make sure the element of topping is present in fight with Hermione
- "I was famous once" - operative is "famous"; don't hit "once"
- Don't let beat about Neoptolemus get disjointed
- Don't look up when referring to the goddess Thetis. We only look up when calling upon the gods, not when referencing them.
- On "I have sent my little son away and have hidden him, and written to old Peleus", use the lines to reassure the areopagites that everything within your power has been done
- "They warned us that might happen" - this is not a new beat
- "Yet you're just like your mother" - lost vocal energy
- "I am in your power" - hit "power", not "your"
- "I am not going to crawl to you" - keep vocal energy up and be defiant
- When Peleus says "...too old for the gods to bother with me.", don't move until after he's completely done with the line
- Say "Look, this is my son." while looking at son, not at areopagites.
- In Helen, only take one step on "Of course you are."
- In Helen, don't forget to say "aww" when Menelaus says his line about "the image"

MYSTERY PLAYS
We ran Act I, and it didn't go particularly well. Especially not for me, apparently.

The Director (Head of Program) says that everything I'm doing as Amanda needs to be way bigger, because right now it's boring. Due to the style of the first act (think "graphic novel"), we cannot be simple or naturalistic. Everything has to be larger than life, and painted with big brood strokes. He has encouraged me to "take control of Joe, manipulate Joe, know what's best for Joe, do it."

I know I can do it. I look forward to taking another crack at it on Saturday. It's going to be great.

General notes he gave included:
- Look for growth from one scene to the next
- Believe in the size and weight of the stuff you're dealing with
- Be big, outsized characters

A really great piece of advice from Head of Program that we got tonight was about exiting the stage. He said that when exiting, you have to make sure that where you're going is more important than where you are, and what's off-stage is more important than what's on stage. You can never look bored when walking off-stage.

Wednesday, October 14

2009-10-14T16:03:00.001-07:00

First off, Big Show told us yesterday that if he ever becomes a billionaire, he's going to give money to everyone in our class. O.D. requested that I post that on the blog as record that it happened, just in case. Although I'm not sure how well something written on a blog will hold up in court, but it's a nice idea. (Everyone pray that Big Show is secretly related to Warren Buffet, okay?)

VOICE
We talked a bit more about assonance, alliteration, repetition, irony, antithesis, and rhyme.

Voice Professor highly recommended that we read Freeing Shakespeare's Voice by Kristin Linklater.

Code-switching between classes is difficult for me right now. "Antithesis" is completely different for the Shakespeare we're using in Voice class from The Greeks we're doing in Acting class, and it's tripping me (and some of my classmates) up big time. It's really frustrating to think you know something and then to be told that you're doing it wrong, and to have to learn it a new way. But I guess that's what grad school is all about; re-learning things in ways that are going to help me be a better artist.

Voice Professor says that there are both broad and narrow definitions of antithesis, and that it changes depending on with whom you are working.

Our take-home written exam (due next Friday) is to completely score a Portia monologue from The Merchant of Venice. I started working on it at rehearsal tonight.

You see me, Lord Bassanio, where I stand,
Such as I am. Though for myself alone
I would not be ambitious in my wish
To with myself much better, yet for you
I would be trebled twenty times myself,
A thousand times more fair, ten thousand times more rich,
That only to stand high in your account,
I might in virtues, beauties, livings, friends,
Exceed account. But the full sum of me
Is sum of something -- which, to term in gross,
Is an unlessoned girl, unschooled, unpractised;
Happy in this, she is not yet so old
But she may learn; happier than this,
She is not bred so dull but she can learn;
Happiest of all, is that her gentle spirit
Commits itself to yours to be directed,
As from her lord, her governor, her king.
Myself and what is mine to you and yours
Is now converted. But now I was the lord
Of this fair mansion, master of my servants,
Queen o'er myself; and even now, but now,
This house, these servants, and this same myself
Are yours, my lord's. I give them with this ring,
Which when you part from, lose, or give away,
Let it presage the ruin of your love
And be my vantage to exclaim on you.

Our homework (for Friday, I think she said) is to type up the monologue with space between the verse lines to make scoring easier, look up the words that we don't know, and start trying to do scansion on it.

There are a couple of lines that are tricky scansion-wise. In the line:
"But she may learn; happier than this,"
There are only 9 syllables (and therefore 4.5 feet... which is not allowed).
Normally, short lines indicate that there's a pause after (or before, in some philosophies) the verse line. But since this line occurs mid-sentence, that doesn't make sense. I've actually come across this monologue before, and I know that problem is sometimes solved by stretching out the word "learn" to take up two beats. Therefore, it's my instinct to do that, but this is on a TEST, so I don't want to just guess. I think it also might be possible to put the pause at the semi-colon, as that indicates a shift in thought, but we haven't been instructed that this is allowed. So... yeah. Don't know what I'm going to answer that one with.

The other one that bothers me:
"Is now converted. But now I was the lord"
There are 11 syllables, so it could have a random three-beat foot in the middle, or it might just have a feminine ending, but I really don't think that "the" would be stressed over "lord". My first instinct was:
- / -/-. - / / - - / (iamb, iamb, pyrrhic, spondee, anapest)
But it feels like I shouldn't hit "I"...
Then I tried:
- / -/-. / / - - - / (iamb, iamb, iamb, trochee, anapest)
I chose this due to context. She's saying "Even now, I ruled over this place", so I kinda think that both "but" and "now" can be emphasized. But it just feels wrong.
So my next shot is:
- / -/-. - / -/ -/ (iamb, iamb, anapest, iamb, iamb)

Well, we'll see. I'll just keep trucking.

ACTING

We did a run of The Greeks, and Movement Professor and Voice Professor were able to attend, and one of the members of the Rep company did as well. It was nice having a few friendly faces in the audience. :)

It actually felt like a good run today. All of the three plays.

One of the things that Acting Professoressa has asked us to focus on is how to get from what she calls "Reality #1" (aka your own life, circumstances, and point-of-view) to "Reality #2" (aka the character's life, circumstances, and point-of-view). She says that figuring out how to make that transition (and what a person needs to do to make the transition easier) is something that every actor has to figure out for themselves.

My notes for today included:
- Linking (specific lines)
- Landing (specific lines)
- Faster blocking cue
- More vocal energy on "Except that we hide it better"
- Don't focus out/up at nothing during monologue (a habit I think I picked up in Mystery Plays rehearsal, where that is actually what I'm supposed to do), but instead stay focused on an areopagite
- On "You must have courage, old man", help him, don't condescend
- On "Now I see I have more power than men", make sure it's a discovery

MYSTERY PLAYS
I had another costume fitting today. It was pretty geek-ify-ing.

In rehearsal, we worked Act I. The director (Head of Program) wants my character Amanda to be pretty intense. It's hard to keep her in this really heightened state without feeling like I'm just playing anger or playing b****iness. I haven't really found my own personal way into it yet. At least, not in the first two scenes. In her third (and final) scene, I feel like you see a really different side of her, and it's a side that I truly understand and connect with.

(1st-year Acting Professor, if you're reading this, know that I don't normally talk about my characters in third person; I just have to on the blog for the sake of clarity.)

Tuesday, October 13

2009-10-13T21:20:00.000-07:00

VOICE
Ah, the joys of scansion.

We discussed:
- punctuation
- enjambment
- scansion
- defining sentences
- parentheticals
- antithesis
- alliteration
- assonance
- consonance
- onomatopoeia
- rhyme
- rhymed couplets

And our homework is to take the Juliet monologue we've been working with and mark:
- scansion
- sentences
- enjambment
- parentheticals
- antithesis
- look up any words of questionable definitions

MOVEMENT
Today was the "ladies only" class day ("gentlemen only" is tomorrow, so I won't have class). We worked on ballet stuff. We learned 4th and 5th position (I think Movement Professor briefly mentioned 3rd, but I can't remember it for the life of me right now). We learned grande pliés (previously we'd only done demi-pliés). We learned frappés (it turns out that they aren't just drinks at Starbucks). It's all very exciting.

Sometimes, I feel things in my body incorrectly. Movement Professor kept telling me that I was bending my leg during tondues today, but I couldn't feel it at all. Due to the fact that it's entirely unconscious (and apparently I wasn't able to prevent it even when I was consciously working on it and still couldn't feel that it was wrong), I sort of want to say, "I'M not bending my leg, my LEG is bending my leg." It's not like I'm intentionally doing it wrong; I just can't figure out how NOT to do it wrong.

ACTING
We're coming down to the final stretch of The Greeks. Our one and only performance is on Friday (at 4pm, and it's free... so if you're local, COME!).

My notes from today included:
- I have gotten to a place of more stillness in my monologue, and it's very good
- Make sure to actually have the sensation of feeling hot before grabbing prop fan
- Enjoy combat with Hermione more. It's at least a little bit invigorating.
- During "I am a Trojan woman" speech, get the rush of a Redbull, have power in legs, and be proud of it.
- Land lines
- Don't paraphrase
- In the line "It is in me", use the vowel of the word "in" more.
- Have more ease in the opening
- Don't play point-of-view in the opening

MYSTERY PLAYS
After working the end of Act II, we did a run of it. I thought it went pretty well, considering how few chances we've had to work on it thus far.

The most notable thing about rehearsal happened in the last 5 minutes. We were spoken to about how to be more professional in rehearsals. Embarrassing that it had to happen, but it's always good to have a reminder.

Quotations: Volume 35

2009-10-12T11:20:00.000-07:00

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

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

"Naughty, but that's how the theatre industry works. Lie, and make friends."
- Ella Hickson

"That sounds great! Come on in. Someone totally unreliable. That's exactly what we need."
- Tom (one of the actors in Eight), paraphrasing how he was hired for a job under ridiculous circumstances because of being an actor

"Put a lot of faith laterally in your own generation."
- Ella Hickson

"If you get enough people to say you're a good writer, then you're a good writer."
- Ella Hickson

Ella Hickson: Spend an unhealthy amount of time on the internet.
(the entire 2nd-year class looks at Angela)
Angela: Oh, I'm all over that one.

"There's no point to you impersonating what they already have two billion of."
- Ella Hickson, on why Americans shouldn't fake British dialects when auditioning in the UK

"[O.D.], your cues are very sluggish. What do I have to do? Should I bring in my cattle prod? I'll bring in my cattle prod. I save it for special cases."
- Acting Professoressa

"You are trying to raise the wretched child's confidence. You're bringing her up the evolutionary ladder a rung or two."
- Acting Professoressa, to Angela regarding Andromache's relationship with Hermione

"She doesn't know how to behave. She needs to go back to human school."
- Acting Professoressa, to Angela regarding Andromache's relationship with Hermione

"You are an intractable 'don't' 'not' jumper... onto."
- Acting Professoressa, to Angela

"The phrase is friend of mine. It is not friend of mine. Not 'your' friend as opposed to other people. Like Jimmy Carter's friend."
- Acting Professoressa

"I am [Acting Professoressa]. I am not Lucy Bananas who works down at Carr's making sandwiches."
- Acting Professoresa, demonstrating to O.D. how Peleus needed to be more declarative with his status

"When you're in grad school that's the first thing to go, is perspective."
- Acting Professoressa

"[Newbie], it's better, but there are some places where you're bleeding bitch. That's my phrase for when you're too knowing."
- Acting Professoressa

"I love sheep. They're so cute, but they smell funny. Have you ever smelled a sheep?"
- Two-Shots-Up

(when talking about decidedly non-school things at the top of class, someone mentioned not knowing what our schedule was for the week as a result of the Ringling International Arts Festival)
"I'd like to talk about this. Okay. There is class today. Despite what is happening right now."
- Voice Professor

(after a maintenance guy brought in a ladder to the Voice studio, saying he intended to remove the blue gels currently covering the fluorescent light that we can't turn off)
D-Train: I think we should burn his ladder.
Voice Professor: That's a hard thing to burn.
D-Train: Well, it has to disappear.

"I'm not quite sure that we needed more s*** in this room, either."
- Iceman, on the ladder that the maintenance guy had left adding to the clutter in the Voice studio from rehearsals of The Greeks and Mystery Plays

"I love what you've done with the piano, by the way. It just keeps getting better and better."
- Voice Professor, on how the piano in the Voice studio is currently covered with weird props from The Greeks

D-Train: I'm glad we didn't do scansion today. (beat) F*** scansion. (beat) That's a dactyl.
Voice Professor: (laughs) Yes, it is.

"There's a teacher in you. There's a tormentor in you. There's an imaginative sadist in you. [...] You have to be able to make a connection with, shall we say, your dark side in addition to your light side. And if someone comes up to me and says, 'I'm sorry, Ms. [Acting Professoressa], but I couldn't possibly imagine killing my mother,' then I'm sorry, but you can't be a classical actor."
- Acting Professoressa

"'I am a murderer.' It's a discovery. It's, 'Oh my God... I'm an Episcopalian.'"
- Acting Professoressa, explaining that one of Orestes' lines cannot be a statement even though it's a fact, because he's just now coming to terms with it

"See, yes, this is the problem I've been having. What level of gayness are we talking? Blow torch? Flame-thrower? Napalm? Just how flaming am I?"
- Big Show, on one of his characters in The Mystery Plays

"Delicious mountain air doesn't attack you; it hugs you."
- Director JW, to Newbie during Mystery Plays rehearsal

"You've got a pad and paper, good good, and you've got a tripod, and you've got a memory. We're all set up."
- Director JW, during Mystery Plays rehearsal

"When you gays were doing it, like, not gay at all, I was like, 'It's gayer!'"
- Newbie, about a scene in Mystery Plays between D-Train and Big Show

"Assume that everyone in the audience is a gay man. 'Oh! Men's Health! We know what that means, don't we.'"
- Head of Program, to D-Train during Mystery Plays rehearsal

"You straight boys have this problem: you think that smiling at people makes you look gay. It doesn't."
- Head of Program, to D-Train and Big Show during Mystery Plays rehearsal

"When I get sent to jail for murder, I gotsta take up visual art. It's either that, or take up bodybuilding and white supremacy, and I hate working out."
- Director JW, making a joke during Mystery Plays rehearsal

ETA:

"We have so many jokes. So many stupid jokes. And new ones every day. I would say, as a rule, if you don't have new stupid jokes every day, maybe you've gotta change up something."
- Mike from Elevator Repair Service, on how to survive as an ensemble

"Whoever refuses to go away."
- Kate, on who becomes a part of Elevator Repair Service

Thursday, October 8

2009-10-08T21:26:00.001-07:00

All classes were canceled today, as were rehearsals. Why?

The Ringling International Arts Festival

SO COOL.

I saw six plays today. Four of them were written by students. One was Peter Brook/C.I.T.C.'s Love Is My Sin (which is a show with two actors and one musician, which is comprised entirely of text from Shakespeare's sonnets). And the last was the workshop premiere of Elevator Repair Service's The Sun Also Rises (Part I).

After the show, ERS came and talked to my schoolmates a bit about their process as a company. The thing I think I loved most about them was that they seem to have a lot of fun with creating their art. When Iceman asked what advice they had for working as an ensemble (as my class has to do so much this year), one of them said: "We have so many jokes. So many stupid jokes. And new ones every day. I would say, as a rule, if you don't have new stupid jokes every day, maybe you've gotta change up something."

When asked how they became part of the group, it sounded like most of them did through happenstance (one guy was cast because he looked like another guy who was leaving; one guy did sound for them before being cast; one gal was cast in the role of a receptionist because she had been working in their office as a receptionist... and they've all been doing work with ERS ever since), one of them said, "whoever refuses to go away." I think that's a great way of looking at being in the arts. The people who refuse to go away, who will never throw in the towel, those are the ones who get the work. :)