Class --> Rehearsal

Today's class was substituted with scene rehearsal time. Devyn and I met in the usual classroom spot at 3PM and then we went off to a deserted room in PBK to rehearse.
Devyn had a bit of a headache, and so we started off rehearsals with several minutes of traction. We did this by laying with our heads and necks hanging off of the stage.
This felt really good -- I'd had a bit of a headache too, and stretching the muscles felt nice. However, my headache did continue to follow me around for the rest of the day -- lying down did nothing, water did nothing, and so I later caved and took some Advil.
Anyway, back to rehearsals. I think it is going well. We are getting more comfortable with the characters and finding ways to incorporate aspects of their personalities into the more ambiguous parts of the scene.
I'm looking forward to when we are completely off-script. However, we still tend to revert back to the script on the last couple of pages of the scene.

In my personal life, I have decided to undergo a medical detox program. This renders me extremely tired. So far, at least. I'm including this information in case I am uncharacteristically exhausted in the next three weeks. That is why.

Catching up

I saw a play that was required of us to go see. This was a few weeks ago, but I forgot to blog about it then. So, I will blog about it now. This play was a make-up for Rhinoceros. I believe it was called "Harmony." The play appeared to be about some sort of love triangle. It felt like a window into a foreign world with the pure and virginal ideals of the female protagonist. This young woman seemed shocked, traumatized by a man that behaved "badly." Perhaps I am a bit jaded, but I'd like to walk into that play and say "get used to it."
The play was okay. I wouldn't necessarily want to see it again, but I'm glad I experienced that aspect of W&M student culture.
Preparing for Montage is going okay. Devyn and I met at the end of last week to practice our lines and we are meeting in the library again tomorrow. I find that the quick lines are easier to memorize. That sounds obvious, but what I mean is that I could remember 500 lines if they were divided into one liners and I received cues every other line from Devyn or my acting partner. However, trying to remember 10-20 lines (a monologue, or a long paragraph) is so much more difficult. I find that when our practices get interrupted, it is because we have reached that point in the script where one of us has an extensive amount to say.
I want to be comfortable with the memorization of the lines, and learn them like the back of my hand, to be able to concentrate on the delivery of the line. When I am "reaching" for a line, it screws everything up. We have a funny scene and I don't want to ruin the humor of it by awkwardly pausing every other second to try to remember my line.

Dear Spring Break, come back please?

Today would have been a good exercise for an insane asylum. But I guess it is also good for actors in training. I "yipped" like a dog, or something hopefully close to that effect. I learned that I bore easily after 10 minutes of a repeated activity. I also learned that the floor is unforgivingly dirty. That said, today had some positive notes. It was fun to act out "cars" with Chris. Running with your eyes closed in an enclosed space requires trust. But it is really fun when you do it. The tip of the tongue exercise and humming exercise was helpful because it was reminding me of a prior lesson -- helping it stay fresh in my mind.
The class is becoming more stressful than I originally anticipated. The list of assignments keeps growing. Between all of my other classes and after school activities, doing the scene and blogs would certainly be enough to keep me busy. I have more homework for this class than for any other class, which is not what I expected at all.
Well, it looks like a long night in Swem for me tonight. Joy. Spring break.... why did you leave me?

Scenes, take 1

Today we performed our scenes for the class. I really enjoyed watching the other students perform. It was interesting to see the different versions of Frankie and Johnny and the different dynamics of the relationship. In certain scenes, the combination of students led to the portrayal of Johnny as the more dominant person in the relationship. In other scenes, Frankie appeared to have the more dominating personality. From the script, it definitely seems like Johnny would have a more loud, powerful, overbearing personality. That's the way I read it, anyway. One of the reasons I enjoyed Stewart's portrayal of Johnny is because it came off like Johnny almost had a quiet, creepy confidence to him. The strength of the words became shocking when aligned with his casual demeanor. But in a cool, intriguing way. Anyhow, it was mostly the variations of the characters that were interesting to watch. I thought the first scene was the funniest and don't know if I would have the balls to fake climactic sexual noises in front of the class. I would probably have to drink a little first. So, a little admiration goes out to those two.

Devyn and I performed our scene from Montage. We have been practicing lately, but it has been hard to stay focused during our rehearsals. It's basically most definitely time for vacation. However, the scene went okay. I like working with Devyn and I really like our scene. The professor told me to be more deliberate in my actions as the character, so I guess I have to do some more thinking about her sensitivities/defenses/sense of humor and which ways she would respond to what.
Initially, Devyn's song for whistling was a toss-up between "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and "Barney's Theme Song" but now that we are playing 12-14 year olds... maybe we could switch it to some Justin Bieber song? That assumes that the play takes place in the present time and Bianca's and Ericca's portion is a projection of the future. We've got to work that out, which scene takes place when.

Francis also mentioned my back issue and said if I were serious about it, that a chiropractor or physical therapy would be in my interest. Well, I'd like to address that: I'm obsessive about fixing this thing. Sometimes to an overly aggressive point. But I do chiropractic stretches daily, enrolled in a corrective chiropractic program (corrected my whiplash and scoliosis by a few degrees - still in it). I work so hard at this because I've learned that quality of life is so impacted by state of health. Perceptions, moods, immunity... it all changes based on physical health. I want to have a good, happy life, and that's why its worth it to me to invest my time and energy to fixing the most visible threat to that. I welcome any suggestions or any information that could ever possibly help me with posture/scoliosis.





The question to address: what did I learn about myself as an actor.
I learned that sometimes I can be more in the moment than others. It is helpful to be able to react to Devyn, and then it's just like we are having a conversation. Then it's easier to forget about the audience. Other times I feel like I am reciting a line and it must sound ridiculously scripted.