Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett

I read Waiting for Godot next. I have to say that this show was really hard to get through for me. the absurdist nature of the show and the writing made it difficult for me to really get enraptured by the text. I feel that if I were to have seen the show, it would have been a different story.

Waiting for Godot is the story of two men, Vladimir and Estragon, who are both waiting for a man named Godot. The two men often speak rather poetically to one another, and reference past events in their lives and time together almost lovingly. In the first act, their waiting is interrupted by a man, Pozzo, and his slave, Lucky. Pozzo seems to be a rather well-off character as opposed to his counterpart, however by the end of this scene Pozzo insists that it is Lucky who is running their relationship. Two two then leave Vladimir and Estragon, who continue their waiting. A boy soon shows up, who tells them that Godot will not show up that night. Saddened, Estragon and Vladimir say that they will come back tomorrow to wait.

The next night, Estragon and Vladimir continue their waiting, and once again open the scene with poetic speech and seemingly irrelevant banter. And, once again, Pozzo and Lucky show up, however this time Pozzo is blind and Lucky is dumb. Pozzo insists that they have never met before, leaving Vladimir and Estragon at a loss. After Pozzo and Lucky exit, the same boy shows up, and once again tells Vladimir and Estragon that Godot will not show up tonight, but will surely tomorrow. Vladimir and Estragon ask him if he was the same boy as yesterday, and the boy insists that he is not. The show closes on Estragon and Vladimir saying that they will leave, and the curtain falls on their stationary forms.

I really think that this show would be difficult to put on or work on for me, merely because it is so absurdist and poetic. I really love the text and the way it's written, however I cannot grasp how one would act in this production. I would love to see this play in the theatre, as I think it would be very entertaining and though-provoking.

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Labyrinth of Desire by Caridad Svich

So I finally printed out my script for Labyrinth of Desire, the season opener next school year. When I auditioned, I had skimmed the show for the "important parts", aka all the female characters, and had hardly read the other parts. I did this because I could only check out the script for an hour, so I figured I should just skim and get the general plot line rather than worry about all the minuscule ideas and not finish it. So, after a trip to the library, I finally printed it out and read through it.

The play centers around Florela, a young woman who's fiance, Alejandro, has left her to woo the daughter of a duchess (my character, Laura). Florela, mad with jealousy and love, decides to follow Alejandro and foil his chances of getting anywhere with Laura. Laura, on the other hand, is overwhelmed with love letters and suitors trying to win her hand in marriage, however nearly all of them are only after her mother's money. Through a series of events and masquerades, Florela and Laura fall in love with one another, and the show ends with Laura picking Florela as her bride.

I find the show to be rather interesting, both textually and in the storyline. The text is written almost classically, as it is very poetic and heightened. This show should be really interesting to work on as far as memorization goes. In addition, I think that this play showcases the themes tolerance and acceptance in a comical and "easy to digest" way for the audience. I really feel that it is important to make these themes easy for an audience to accept, especially if they don't agree. The show eases them into acceptance, and I feel that it is a really good strategy in writing.

Altogether, I'm really excited to start working on this show, and I feel that it will be a really good experience for me and my theatre career.

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We Wait: A Song Cycle in Two Parts by Thomas Hodges

Last semester, I had the pleasure of performing a first draft of We Wait by Thomas Hodges for Skull & Dagger's Night of One Acts. (Click here to watch some of the performances. - You have to be logged into facebok, then click the Wall tab.) It was such a fun experience to work on, and I loved every moment of it. A few weeks ago, Thomas sent me, along with some of the other performers (and some new ones!), a revised version of We Wait, now a two act play/ song cycle. I had never really had the time to read it until now, and it's been sitting on my list of things to read, since Thomas said he'd like to have the first read-through at the end of this month. So, I finally picked it up and read it.

Tears were welling up in my eyes by the end.

Thomas has an incredible talent for painting a vivid image and evoking emotion with words. He masterfully takes the audience on a journey through the stories of various individuals, and illustrates a different way of viewing the world. I have to say that even though Thomas is my friend, I would be just as moved even if he wasn't. He is so incredibly talented with everything he does.

With We Wait being a song cycle, I honestly didn't know all the melodies to all of the songs, however I feel that this didn't take away from my experience with the script at all. Some of the songs in it were used in the previous version, and a lot of them are new. I'm very excited to hear the melodies to the new songs and see who will be singing what.

Many of the monologues in We Wait are gorgeous, and one in particular struck my attention. The show opens on a character, The Poet, who throughout the play recites a poem in their journal. Thomas has told us that we would most likely be switching characters throughout the show, so The Poet is represented by more than one person. I really like the idea of multiple people being connected by a common ground, whether it be a personae or a poem. I find that in life, so many of us harbor the same fears or secrets, but none of us know it because we keep it under us. This shared text between multiple people is gorgeous, and I really love the way it connects the entire play together.

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More Journaling Catch Up.

I should really start journaling on a regular basis. It'd be a lot easier for me to if I actually had a working laptop, but that's besides the point. The point is is that I need to catch up on my journals. I'll go by the dates, it's easier for me.

A couple of weeks ago (27 April) everyone had finally picked out their scenes, and we all read though them. I noticed that a lot of people picked comedies, I really enjoyed a lot of the choices. Some of them seemed a little off-kilter, but that's just my personal taste in scene choices. I suppose you ought to do the off-kilter ones in a classroom setting so you can be prepared if you ever have to do on in a cold read. Altogether I'm excited for this round of scenes and monologues. I have a feeling that it'll be fun. Ryan and I are doing well with our scene, and I'm confident that we'll do great.

April 29th, we began doing work-throughs for the first half of the class. Each person either did their scene or their monologue. However, Ryan and I didn't have to do either because we switched with Gina and DeAndre. I'm totally ok with that, haha. I'm liking many of the choices people are making with their performances, a lot of people have grown already in the course of a semester. We all took notes and Peter decided to run class a little differently; he would pick two people after each performance to give notes and then he would give his notes. I think this method is a lot better than how it went before the midterm, because now it's a given that people will really pay attention to a scene rather than make up some bs note to give them for credit in the class.

After our furough day May 4th, class resumed on the 6th. This time Ryan and I both performed our scene and monologue. I, personally, was a little shaky on both because Peter was in a "Hurryuphurryuphurryupfinishfinishgogogogogo." kind of mood, so I was purposely trying to be faster and it flustered me a bit. Other than that though I did ok. I hadn't really worked on my monologue previously, and I think it showed. I started pulling back old characters that I've done before, and that's way bad. I need to build a new character for this performance, and it's silly of me to instinctually fall back onto something I did before. The scene was ok as well, I feel like with more direction it would be better. I'm really pleased with all of the feedback I'm getting from my classmates, it's really helping me see parts of the character or scene that I didn't really pay attention to before. This time around the notes are really helpful, and I'm really appreciative of it.

And finally, there's today. Today in class the first group of students went to perform their scenes. I was really impressed with everyone and a lot of the choices they made. So many of the pieces transformed completely, I really liked it. I can't wait to do my scene with Ryan next Thursday, it'll be fun. We just need to work on it some more, but I'm sure it'll end up being great.

Midsummer opened on the 30th of April, and closed on the 8th of May. We had such an amazing run! The show was sold out almost every single night, and we got a standing ovation to a full house closing night!!! (That's 500 PEOPLE. Holy shoot.) It was such an experience to work on, I loved it, and I'm sad to see it go. I've been reading some reviews about it, and a lot of people really liked it! I read Brittany's review of it, and she mentioned me! It made me feel really good, especially considering that I had a very few amount of lines. It was so nice of her to include me in her review, it really brightened up my day.

OH YEAH!! I ALMOST FORGOT! I got into Labyrinth of Desire!!!!! It's the season opener next school year, I'm so excited!! I got a lead, the character Laura. She really reminds me of Jasmine from Aladdin, in the respect that she has a bunch of suitors that she's not particularly interested in. She's also intelligent and witty. I'm so happy to be working on the show, it'll be so much fun. I've always wanted to do a show in the Experimental, also. The other two mainstage shows I've been in have been in the Don Powell, so it's about time I did a show in the Experimental. Rehearsals start August 16th, so I'll still have a nice summer break. I think I'll need a nice distraction around that time too, since John is most likely moving to LA in August.

John and my one year anniversary was this weekend, too! Yay! C: <3

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A Midsummer Night's Dream - Reflection

This semester I got to perform in my second mainstage show here at SDSU, A Midsummer Night's Dream directed by Peter Larlham. The entire production was set in the 60’s, with the mortals representing more conservative dress, and the fairies with a more of a hippie influence. In addition, much of the production was set to music composed by Thomas Hodges. I found this to be a very appropriate choice, since the play is written in verse anyway, and it really brought out the poetry of the show.

Working on this show was such an experience within itself. I have to say that I truly learned a lot about working in a larger-scale production. All of us were expected to have our lines memorized by the first rehearsal, and we immediately started blocking. Every single rehearsal was very “no-nonsense” in the respect that once it was time for rehearsal to start, it started and didn’t stop until we weren’t called anymore. There wasn’t any time for being late or goofing off, which I really liked. A lot of the time, the blocking changed from rehearsal to rehearsal, but it all came together in the final weeks. This was by far one of my favorite productions I’ve worked on in my theatre career, and I’m really sad to see it end.

In the production, I played Peaseblossom, one of Titania’s fairies. I had a small amount of lines, but I still had to work really hard during rehearsals. I find that sometimes it’s harder to be a character with few lines, because you still have to stay in the scene and pay attention even though you’re not speaking. Sometimes it can be hard to continue to pay attention to what’s going on, especially with Shakespeare, but this production really taught me how to stay within a scene. In addition, I got the opportunity to sing in various numbers and perform dances, which I really enjoyed. I haven’t done a lot of song and dance in a production as of late, and it really helped me remember how to project while doing a lot of movement.

Two actors that I believe went above and beyond were Anthony Simone as Oberon and Gracie Lee Brown as Titania. I had the pleasure of being in rehearsals with these two from the get-go, and they really impressed me. They had nearly all their lines down verbatim for the first rehearsal, and I was really amazed with all the hard work they had already put into this production. In addition, they managed to have very “larger than life” personas that complimented their colorful costumes, rather than letting themselves get lost in them. They took control of their voices and really projected and commanded attention as soon as they walked on stage. They created great characters for themselves, and I really enjoyed their performances.

In addition, I found that Alyson Shepard as Peter Quince was a very noticeable performance. When I first saw the cast list, I was a bit confused at Peter’s choice to cast Alyson as Quince, since I had only seen Quince performed by a man, but when I saw their first rehearsal, I instantly knew why. Alyson was utterly hilarious as Quince, and took on the role of a woman who’s trying to command a bunch of men who aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed. She perfectly portrayed her objectives and made it clear that she was trying to take charge, and her performance at the end in the “play within a play” was very comical.

Altogether I found that Midsummer was a very rewarding performance, not only for me as an actor, but also as an observer/ audience member. I was very impressed with all the hard work my piers did, and we all came together to create a beautiful show.

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Final Monologue, Scene Work, And More

So last Monday I performed my monologue for it's final grade for Peter. I thought it went pretty well. It was really awkward for me, since it was in an office and he was about two feet away from me and the space was pretty tiny. It was just kind of awkward and it threw me off. I got an A, which is cool, but I know I could have done better. I just didn't know what to do in the space, you know? I didn't want to act like I would in a larger space because I'm sure that would have been annoying and a bad choice. It was very weird for me. I kind of lost the characterization that I had found. That's something odd for me; I can perform perfectly in classrooms and audition rooms and such, rooms that have been designated as "acting spaces". But when I get thrown into a different environment, it gets me off- kilter. It's more of a socialized thing, I suppose. I don't know, it's odd.

Tuesday in class more people did their final scenes and monologues. I really want to start working on new monologues and scenes. I really like getting new material to work on, especially scene work. I'm excited to see what everyone else ends up doing. It's always cool to see people play different characters than something they played before. I like seeing the changes people make with themselves to make different characters. Also the scene and monologue choices people make interest me. I like seeing plays that I haven't heard of. But it's also cool to see the well-known ones and see the actors' take on it.

I finally picked out my next monologue. It's from Women of Manhattan by John Patrick Shanley. It's pretty funny, and I enjoy it a lot. I'm looking forward to working on it some more. I haven't had the chance to read the play yet, but I'm going to soon. I really like Shanley's work, and I'm looking forward to reading this next play. I've hardly had time to read plays lately because of Midsummer, that show is eating up my time like nobody's business.

Even though there was a furlough last Thursday, Ryan and I met to start rehearsing and blocking our scene. I'm really excited for it. We both started memorizing a lot of it as well. We broke the scene into beats and we managed to get through a hug chunk of it. It was just frustrating because some people yoinked the experimental from us even though that's where our class was held, and by the time we got it it was time for another class. Regardless, I'm really enjoying working with Ryan, it's really fun. Everything is super easy and fun to do.

Today I have tech for Midsummer, so we'll see how that goes. It's a really light-heavy show, so we'll probably be there for ages. Guh. Even if I don't do anything, tech always really tires me out. Seriously. Something about it just makes me want to fall asleep.

Midsummer opens next Friday, April 30th! Go see it!

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tempODYSSEY Review

This semester, ALTO (A Liberated Theatre Organization) put on the show tempOdyssey. I was really excited for this production, as I heard it was a really good storyline. tempOdyssey is about a woman named Genny (Baily Neil), who leaves her hometown to be a temp in another city. Genny believes herself to be a "goddess of death" of sorts, and urges her fellow temp (played by Jared Stovell) to stay away from her. He, smitten with his own idea of being untouchable, doesn't comply, and Genny ends up breaking his neck and killing him. The play is written very well, and really takes the audience on a journey that is not only hilarious, but thought-provoking.

I was really impressed by Jared Stovell in this show as what the text refers to as "Dead Body Boy". Jared was very impressive in his acting, simply because he played "normal" so well. He wasn't outrageous or weird, and the "normal" quality he portrayed in his character really helped the story go along smoothly and provide a nice contrast to Genny's character.

I found that while some actors in the show just played into the roles that they are often given and stayed in their "comfort zone", I was still impressed by the show and what it had to offer. I really enjoyed seeing this performance, and I really think this was an excellent choice for ALTO this year.

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