Concerning Class - A "Catch Up"

Once again, I've been slacking in the journal entries. Vagina Monologues really took up a lot of my time, but I'll write another entry about that experience. I'm catching up with my entries now.


18 February 2010

Today we performed our monologues. Well, some of us at least. I performed mine. It went ok. I could have done better. A LOT better. I don't know why, but I just couldn't commit. I tried, I really did. I'm going to work on it more, so hopefully it'll be fine. I think part of it is that I was a little shaky on the lines. I mean, I had all of them, but I fell back to my usual "Well I'm not confident about this line, so I'm going to get nervous" thing. I think once I get "solid" on them I'll do great.

We also critiqued each other. I think it's really important to get feedback from your peers, so I'm really glad Peter told us to do that. I think it's eye opening to get feedback from so many people as well, because lord knows Peter doesn't have the time to give all of us a ton of notes. Seeing so many different takes and perspectives on acting is really interesting. Some groups also read-through parts of their scenes.



23 Febuary 2010

We basically did today what we did last week. More people performing their monologues, others doing their scenes. DeAndre and I have our scene. It's the first few pages of Danny and the Deep Blue Sea by John Patrick Shanley. I really like the scene a lot. In the beginning and most of the middle it's very conversational and somewhat guarded between the two characters, but then near the end it becomes very twisted and sick, especially for my character, Roberta. I'm really excited.



25 Feb 2010

In class today we did a really Suzuki-esque exercize/ approach to characterization. I remember doing this during the callbacks for Hotel Cassiopea my first semester at state. The general idea is that you get your body moving and focused on one task, then you create "statues" from a neutral position. the movement should be completely organic and not pre-meditated at all. The whole thing was extremly physical and tiring, but still cool. After awhile, Peter told us that we would characterize one of the statues we created and use it for our scene. I really liked that, especially because the statue I came up with really coincided with how I had originally wanted to characterize Roberta. (Completely unintentionally, mind you. It was a very interesting coincidence.)

I really like that we're doing exercizes about physicality. I think it's often overlooked by actors our age, especially if it's "just" for scenes. It makes me aware of every facet of the character, from mentality to physicality to irks or compulsions our character has due to possibly scarring experiences they encounter.

God I love theatre.



2 March 2010

We continued work with our statue characterizations today. I'm really enjoying all of this. We took the characterization even further this time and incorporated the other characters into it, meaning that we basically walked around the room and greeted one another. I liked doing this because it actually made me think outside of the lines I have or the statue I created. My character received her own voice in that moment. We also got with our scene partners and did some contact improv, which I really enjoyed. I had done some earlier this semester in my Improv class with the Larlhams. It was a really intersting experience.

DeAndre and I did a read-through of our scene today as well. We didn't do much of it, but Peter said he really enjoyed it for us. He said that he liked what I was doing vocally and the choices I was making already, which is cool. He also said that she's a very intelligent person, which I agree with. I want to try to show the audience that Roberta is a really intelligent person, even though she's really hurt and messed up.

On another note, I've come up with a list of plays I'm going to read. (Finally.) I've been putting it off, but I may as well start now. They're basically just plays that I've been wanting to read anyway, so it's a good excuse. Expect a few play entries soon. And my Vagina Monologues paper/ experience thing. And other stuff.