Class

So. Back to classtime journalism. I guess.

On a completely different note, I'm listening to Gorillaz new album Plastic Beach. (More specifically, "White Flag".) If you get a chance, seriously listen to it. Or youtube it. Legit.

So I was told I need to be more in-depth about my class journals. Which is hard for me, since I'm just watching scenes, and I personally don't want to critique people in my journal. I feel that any constructive criticism I give should be left between me and the student. This is because I'm just a student, and I feel that even though I've been doing theatre for 6 years, I don't need to go blabbering about my opinions of other people's acting abilities. I'm still learning myself, so what right do I have, you know?

That's just my personal view. I'm all down for constructive criticism, but not in such a public fashion.

That being said, I really don't have much to say about our first week back. Turns out there were a lot more kinks in the whole "online" part of the class than I thought there would be. Some people had some technical issues, others didn't even do the work at all. I suppose that's because a lot of us have heard stories about the previous times this was tried. We heard that someone didn't even do any of this and he passed with a B, so I guess they thought it would be treated the same this semester. I guess not though. Eh.

People have been doing scenes and stuff. DeAndre and I worked our butts off the first week back. We originally thought we would work-through the 8th, but he and I were both really sick so we didn't. Instead we performed it full-on today. We brought props and costumes, and we nailed it. Or I thought so, at least. We got grades we weren't expecting. It sucks, since I know I did my best, but apparently it's still not good enough for some. I guess I can't let it get to me though. Not everyone is going to like what one does. The scene was really tough for me, and I know that given the time and resources we had, I did all I could do with it. I was really proud of DeAndre, too.

Today I also found out that Ryan Heath is my scene partner. It should be fun, I'm excited. We talked about doing a comedic scene, and Ryan suggested doing one from "Rumors". I completely agreed. Even though I did it in high school for a show, I know that I've completely changed as an actor. I've gotten a lot better, and I want to approach the scene differently than how the performance was directed. I want to make it more organic and real and less "showy". Ryan and I decided to do the opening scene of the play between Chris and Ken. It's a really fast-paced scene and somewhat farcical, it should be really fun.

I also have to get a second monologue. I guess I'll look over my journal entries and see if I like anything. I was thinking of doing a comedic monologue, I don't have a contemporary comedic that I really feel strong about. I don't know. We'll see.

Turns out that Ryan and I will be performing the same day we do our monologues. Originally it was just our scene, and then the next class we had to perform our monologues, but Gina is the maid of honor in a wedding (Yay Gina!) and was planning to leave the day she had to perform her scene. I figured if I was in that position, I'd want someone to switch with me (I mean seriously, maid of honor is a big deal.) so Ryan and I said we would switch scene days. I dont mind switching, I mean it's not like we've been planning on performing that day, we were just assigned it today.

Midsummer opens relatively soon. We're finally finalizing all the blocking and such, and rehersals have been going good. I may do some tours of the theatre for the kids seeing the show, which should be fun. I did it for Twain, and I had a really good time. Plus I'm helping Chris Wollman and C.J. do the orientations for the incoming freshman and transfers this summer. I'm super excited about that. I can't wait to see the incoming people. I hope there are a lot, seeing as so many people are graduating this year. Seriously.