It feels as if we've been running around like chickens with our heads cut off. We've been trained to give tours of our Production Building, our Mainstage, and Stage II (the theatre where the smaller, edgier shows and the Player shows are) in which we are tested. We've been dutifully searching high and low for monologues for our monologue workshop series. We've started rehearsals for our fall show/one of our tour shows. We've been attending the ballet and jazz classes twice a week. We've been attending rehearsals understudy rehearsals. We've had IPA workshops and Fitzmaurice workshops and playwriting workshops. And it's not like we have it nearly as busy as Players in past years.
Usually, the Players are in the Mainstage shows, some, even 2 Mainstage shows in the fall. That is in addition to the 4 shows we are rehearsing and performing! Due to budget cuts and a script not totally ready for performance (it has been replaced by The Glass Menagerie, not too shabby, eh?), the 5 new Players aren't able to be cast in a Mainstage show. When we were first told this in the middle of the summer, we were all a little disappointed, but then so many learning opportunities have opened up.
I've mentioned before, everyone here is willing to learn and everyone is willing to teach. The job-in (people who aren't part of the resident acting company) dancers have been teaching us back-to-the-basics ballet and jazz. Dancing is one skill that make most of the Players pee their pants, but twice a week we are doing barre work and stretching. We are improving our dancing and vocabulary so when that dreaded dance audition comes, we will kick its butt...with a turned out foot of course. It's amazing how much people have improved just within the last couple of weeks, not to mention how sore I am from not dancing for 4 years.
A former Player turned resident actor is leading us through a Fitzmaurice workshop. Fitzmaurice is a voice technique that focuses on total relaxation of your muscles to facilitate free breathing. It's pretty fascinating. Basically it's doing really uncomfortable yoga positions until your muscles start shaking, or "tremoring" in Fitzmaurice terms, then relaxing the rest of your muscles to allow the tremor to travel your body. We had an hour and a half workshop one night, and afterwards, I could breathe and speak so well! Just wait Alisa, I'm gunna be a good breather yet. I know it seems pretty new age, but if you are at all interested, here's a website http://www.fitzmauricevoice.com/.
The director of our first two shows and the two shows in the fall, John Hardy, has been giving playwriting workshops. He has his PhD in playwriting and is a great actor and a diligent dramaturg. He's pretty gosh darn a genius. Here's his website, http://johnhardytheatre.com. I have learned soo much about the inner workings of a playwright's mind and have started collecting ideas for a play of my own. I can't believe I have the balls to even consider writing a play. That would have never happened before the Barter.
Our artistic director, Katy Brown, has offered to do a Monologue Workshop series with us throughout the fall. We gave her a list of all of our monologues and she told us what kind of monologues we needed, what monologues were overdone, etc. She knows, she has done the casting for the entire company for a while. My assignment was to find 3 contemporary monologues, ones without accents, by last Saturday. Now, finding monologues was always something I never knew how to do. I used to be so unsure, but having to find them this summer, I now have confidence and found some pretty good ones. We've also been assigned a partner each week to have coachings on our monologues. This is when I realized I do actually know something about acting. I can see and express all of the lessons we've learned throughout our time here. It's also really great to have an environment where we trust our peers to give sound, non-catty, advice. This week our assignment was to put a contemporary monologue up on its feet. We show them tomorrow, wish me luck!
The play we are doing in the fall and will eventually take on tour is The Call of the Wild. Some of you may have read the book by Jack London and you may ask, "how can you write a play about a book told totally from the perspective of a dog?" It can be done, I tell you. Cathy Bush (http://catherinebushplays.com/), our resident playwright, has written a kickin play. There are probably about 30 characters, but only 6 actors. It's going to be awesome. I play a mexican, 2 dogs, a husky, an irishman, and a wolf.
It's amazing how much I grew during The Reluctant Dragon and not even know it. You may remember in previous blogs how frustrated I was with not being able to talk during the play, but unbeknownst to me, it made me grow leaps and bounds as an actor. Our first rehearsal, I dove into the world of the play with such abandon. I couldn't believe how many problems I gave my character to solve and how much I gave my character to do. When I say "giving my character problems," I'm simply talking about giving my character motives. What does the character want from the other people in the scene? What physical obstacles does the character have to move around? Stuff like that.
Another skill I took away from Dragon was the ability to be aware and respond to other people's movements onstage. It's actually frighteningly scary how two people can be so in sync with one another.
Well, that's all for now. Until next time...
Friday, September 2, 2011
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
On a Positive Note...
It seems as though my last couple of blogs have been on the cloudy side. My time here has been anything but overcast (you see what I did there?). I'm learning so much about myself. I've changed how I view acting and, basically, how to live life.
I live with over 30 people, and work with many more, who come from all walks of life. One of our Stage Managers used to own a bakery and has just recently started working in the theatre. Our playwright in residence, who wrote "Princess and the Pea" that we just closed a couple of weeks ago and wrote (based on the book) "Call of the Wild" that we'll be doing in the fall, used to be a lawyer in New York. The year between her college and her Playerdom, Rebekah (another year round with me) worked at the Pennsylvania Renaissance Fair and Lenscrafters. In addition to their main jobs--acting, directing, coaching, stage managing, costuming, painting, building, dancing--these people are song writers, artists, writers, designers, bone marrow givers, Muslims, Jews, Christians, jugglers, instrumentalists, parents, grand-parents, homosexuals, Pagans, spouses, and the list goes on and on.
It's amazing how rich lives can be. I've learned here to dedicate fully to what you are doing, live in the moment, and always do it with passion. Never pass an opportunity up and never allow yourself to regret. The situations and events in our lives when we feel that useless emotion--regret--are what shape us into living breathing human beings.
Experience new, different, scary, terrifying, mortifying things. Our Player Projects are great examples of this. In our showings, which is nearly a week away, we are all doing the most scariest things we could think of. Even though this is making all of us quake in our boots and we may still be struggling with our skills, everyone's going to clap and cheer, because we tried. We're taking a leap towards fear, and are being congratulated for it. I wish all artistic communities I'll ever be a part of will enable me to face unknowns with abandon.
I've always taken myself too seriously, always been worried how I would be perceived and nervous that I wouldn't be good enough. That I would disappoint. You will always disappoint if you don't cannon ball--or bellyflop--in and try with all of your might. I used to feel sorry for people who "failed;" now, I'm envious of them.
I'm trying my hand at writing. First, I want to start with song writing, and, eventually, write stories or plays. In the past, I've tried to write or draw but stopped because I was my toughest critic; it wasn't good enough. I want to be able to express myself without the regard of other people. I want to experiment with being vulnerable. I'll probably fail, but at least I know I attempted. I want to just do something and hope there is beauty and art in my effort.
Don't worry, I haven't become some flighty arteest who wears all black and cuts herself. I'm still my regular old self; I'm just cultivating and embracing fearlessness.
If you're reading this, I really appreciate it. At first I started blogging to let y'all know how things were going, but now, writing and reflecting is very therapeutic.
Also, I'm coming home in a little less than two weeks. I can't wait to see you all!
I live with over 30 people, and work with many more, who come from all walks of life. One of our Stage Managers used to own a bakery and has just recently started working in the theatre. Our playwright in residence, who wrote "Princess and the Pea" that we just closed a couple of weeks ago and wrote (based on the book) "Call of the Wild" that we'll be doing in the fall, used to be a lawyer in New York. The year between her college and her Playerdom, Rebekah (another year round with me) worked at the Pennsylvania Renaissance Fair and Lenscrafters. In addition to their main jobs--acting, directing, coaching, stage managing, costuming, painting, building, dancing--these people are song writers, artists, writers, designers, bone marrow givers, Muslims, Jews, Christians, jugglers, instrumentalists, parents, grand-parents, homosexuals, Pagans, spouses, and the list goes on and on.
It's amazing how rich lives can be. I've learned here to dedicate fully to what you are doing, live in the moment, and always do it with passion. Never pass an opportunity up and never allow yourself to regret. The situations and events in our lives when we feel that useless emotion--regret--are what shape us into living breathing human beings.
Experience new, different, scary, terrifying, mortifying things. Our Player Projects are great examples of this. In our showings, which is nearly a week away, we are all doing the most scariest things we could think of. Even though this is making all of us quake in our boots and we may still be struggling with our skills, everyone's going to clap and cheer, because we tried. We're taking a leap towards fear, and are being congratulated for it. I wish all artistic communities I'll ever be a part of will enable me to face unknowns with abandon.
I've always taken myself too seriously, always been worried how I would be perceived and nervous that I wouldn't be good enough. That I would disappoint. You will always disappoint if you don't cannon ball--or bellyflop--in and try with all of your might. I used to feel sorry for people who "failed;" now, I'm envious of them.
I'm trying my hand at writing. First, I want to start with song writing, and, eventually, write stories or plays. In the past, I've tried to write or draw but stopped because I was my toughest critic; it wasn't good enough. I want to be able to express myself without the regard of other people. I want to experiment with being vulnerable. I'll probably fail, but at least I know I attempted. I want to just do something and hope there is beauty and art in my effort.
Don't worry, I haven't become some flighty arteest who wears all black and cuts herself. I'm still my regular old self; I'm just cultivating and embracing fearlessness.
If you're reading this, I really appreciate it. At first I started blogging to let y'all know how things were going, but now, writing and reflecting is very therapeutic.
Also, I'm coming home in a little less than two weeks. I can't wait to see you all!
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Restlessness
You know that anxious restlessness that comes along with the end of summer? This year, it's hittin' hard. I don't know if it's because we've had more time off, or if my brain is confused and is nervous for the up coming school year (which, of course, isn't happening).
I've been antsy. I find myself driving to Bristol, the town 10 minutes away, to try to calm me down, but the endless trips to Target aren't the trick. I think I've always felt this way around August, but usually coined it as before-school jitters. But I'm not going back to school in 3 weeks like the rest of everyone else, I'm living life and becoming an adult. Is this what adulthood feels like?
It doesn't help we're going on vacation in 2 weeks. Everyone around here sees vacation as a light at the end of the tunnel. Not that we don't like the work we're doing (I'm still loving every day here), but most of us are in an artistic rut. The huge walls and barriers we knocked down at the beginning and middle of the summer were great leaps in furthering ourselves as great actors. Now, however, the walls are stronger and harder to overcome. This may be due to our lack of rehearsal where we get intense individual attention every single day, or maybe the constant go of being a Player is wearing on people. Whatever it is, we all seem to think vacation will be able to cure it.
During my Player Project meetings, I've had a hard time getting rid of my strengths so I can let a natural, unforced acting take it's place. My voice and my expression being some of them. Acting should flow freely and not be manipulated or indicated in anyway. However, for 22 years of my life, I depended on my voice, presence, and expression to show what I was feeling, not actually experience what was happening to the character.
My mentor keeps on me, making sure I have outward stillness and inward expansion. What does that mean? Well, think about it. When normal people speak, they don't frantically raise their eyebrows or make huge frowny faces (theatre and performance people excluded), and if they are it's coming from a real, truthful place. Nothing is contrived. Seriously, pay attention to yourself when paying attention to a conversation, you're not thinking "I should furrow my brow because this upsets me" or "I'm going to raise my eyebrows because I'm surprised." No, your face automatically responds to the emotion and psychological state of your being. Ok, that sounds a little new-age mumbo jumbo, but it's true. On stage, you don't need to be doing anything besides pursuing an action and being open and reacting to any and all stimulus. This is when performers become mesmerizing; the audience on edge wondering what the performer will do next.
I attribute my overuse of expression to show choir. Even my voice teacher in college would say "feel, don't show." It's so difficult. Every moment on stage I feel as if I look uninterested. I'm trying to hold on to a safety net, only letting go finger by finger.
On Sunday, my mentor told me to not indicate ANYTHING and pretend like my monologue was improv'd. It worked. Suddenly I was in the character. The lines I have known by heart for nearly a month were lost until the exact moment I needed them. I was in the moment and raising the stakes of the situation and finding problems my character had to solve. It was amazing. After about a 3 week slump, I was finally getting somewhere.
This was a little ray of sunshine on the otherwise tense and fidgety phase I'm going through. I would give anything to sit at a table outside, sip coffee (which I have grown quite fond of here), and watch passers by that have no connection with theatre. People who can remind me there is life outside of all of my acting shortcomings.
But, soon, this phase will end. Not only am I making steps towards acting improvement, but vacation is coming up sooner than we all realize and the summer is coming to a close. This means 9 Players leave our company, and there is only 6 of us left. I will miss all of the old and summer Players. Each and everyone of them has taught me so much. With them gone, the responsibilities weigh great on only 6 shoulders.
In three weeks, we will be running to the fear at full speed, and I'm ready to accept the challenge.
I've been antsy. I find myself driving to Bristol, the town 10 minutes away, to try to calm me down, but the endless trips to Target aren't the trick. I think I've always felt this way around August, but usually coined it as before-school jitters. But I'm not going back to school in 3 weeks like the rest of everyone else, I'm living life and becoming an adult. Is this what adulthood feels like?
It doesn't help we're going on vacation in 2 weeks. Everyone around here sees vacation as a light at the end of the tunnel. Not that we don't like the work we're doing (I'm still loving every day here), but most of us are in an artistic rut. The huge walls and barriers we knocked down at the beginning and middle of the summer were great leaps in furthering ourselves as great actors. Now, however, the walls are stronger and harder to overcome. This may be due to our lack of rehearsal where we get intense individual attention every single day, or maybe the constant go of being a Player is wearing on people. Whatever it is, we all seem to think vacation will be able to cure it.
During my Player Project meetings, I've had a hard time getting rid of my strengths so I can let a natural, unforced acting take it's place. My voice and my expression being some of them. Acting should flow freely and not be manipulated or indicated in anyway. However, for 22 years of my life, I depended on my voice, presence, and expression to show what I was feeling, not actually experience what was happening to the character.
My mentor keeps on me, making sure I have outward stillness and inward expansion. What does that mean? Well, think about it. When normal people speak, they don't frantically raise their eyebrows or make huge frowny faces (theatre and performance people excluded), and if they are it's coming from a real, truthful place. Nothing is contrived. Seriously, pay attention to yourself when paying attention to a conversation, you're not thinking "I should furrow my brow because this upsets me" or "I'm going to raise my eyebrows because I'm surprised." No, your face automatically responds to the emotion and psychological state of your being. Ok, that sounds a little new-age mumbo jumbo, but it's true. On stage, you don't need to be doing anything besides pursuing an action and being open and reacting to any and all stimulus. This is when performers become mesmerizing; the audience on edge wondering what the performer will do next.
I attribute my overuse of expression to show choir. Even my voice teacher in college would say "feel, don't show." It's so difficult. Every moment on stage I feel as if I look uninterested. I'm trying to hold on to a safety net, only letting go finger by finger.
On Sunday, my mentor told me to not indicate ANYTHING and pretend like my monologue was improv'd. It worked. Suddenly I was in the character. The lines I have known by heart for nearly a month were lost until the exact moment I needed them. I was in the moment and raising the stakes of the situation and finding problems my character had to solve. It was amazing. After about a 3 week slump, I was finally getting somewhere.
This was a little ray of sunshine on the otherwise tense and fidgety phase I'm going through. I would give anything to sit at a table outside, sip coffee (which I have grown quite fond of here), and watch passers by that have no connection with theatre. People who can remind me there is life outside of all of my acting shortcomings.
But, soon, this phase will end. Not only am I making steps towards acting improvement, but vacation is coming up sooner than we all realize and the summer is coming to a close. This means 9 Players leave our company, and there is only 6 of us left. I will miss all of the old and summer Players. Each and everyone of them has taught me so much. With them gone, the responsibilities weigh great on only 6 shoulders.
In three weeks, we will be running to the fear at full speed, and I'm ready to accept the challenge.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Two Months
I can't believe it's been almost 2 months since I've posted on here. So much has happened to me and I've learned and grown unbelievable amounts. All of my time has been spent either in rehearsals, shows, meetings, or just hanging out with people, blogging has been at the bottom of my priority list.
Coffee has never had an effect on me as it does in Playerdom. It's not that I don't have the opportunity to sleep, it's just after finishing at 11 or 12 at night, I want my social time. Usually I do get into bed around 2, which for the summer is an acceptable time to hit the sack, but I'm up for fight call (rehearsal before every show to ensure no injury or death, haha) for our player show at 9 am.
I love doing the Player shows. It's like a cup of Folger's. Seriously, everyone drags their butt out of bed and arrives at fight call groggy, but after half hour (the required time before any show for the actors to get dressed, basically prepare themselves for the show) we are ready to put on an awesome show.
Rarely in a young actor's life does one get to perform a show for 20 times, but we get to. Before being a Player, I would've been tired of doing a show. Now? I could do shows 100 more times and never get bored. They teach us here to always experiment, to never let a show get easy for you. There is never a goal in which there is an arrival point; the actor is always searching for ways to go deeper in the world of the play. (By "world of the play," I mean totally succumbing to the character's thoughts, goals, surroundings, etc.)
Some experiments I've done to keep my characters in the world have been...never letting my vocal production be untruthful; moving only when my character needs to move; pretending I lost a son, and wondering if all of the people my character came across was my son; visualizing my surroundings; having the same inner monologue (what my thoughts are saying, such as, "give me money") throughout the entire play; doing my actions and saying my words at the latest point of attack; give my character sexual thoughts; give my character violent thoughts; being open to stimulus; having a secret; changing the volume at which I'm speaking; having the goal of my scene partner to look at me or touch me...etc.
These all seem like miniscule experiments, but they made a load of difference in each performance. I was discovering new things every show. It was soo cool.
This "never arrive" theory, I've applied to other aspects in life as well. You never arrive at some goal in learning, or finding happiness. To take things, or--in a larger sense--to take life, inch by inch is a much feasible task than yard by yard. Also, knowing that there is always more to explore, in whatever you are doing, so many possibilities open up.
We have a saying here, "live moment to moment." It basically means having trust in this moment so fully, that trust will allow you to focus and allow depth within that moment. Don't be thinking about what comes afterwards, just focus on the task at hand, and the character's, or your, intentions will come across. Human's can't multi-task, it's a proven fact, so why should we expect our characters to? (Or vise-versa)
As far as learning and developing goes, now I feel I'm at a stand still. I made such great strides at the beginning of the summer, now I'm not noticing the tiny steps I'm taking to getting rid of Cami, and delving further into a character. It's frustrating. I keep telling my Player Project mentor, that I feel I'm on the edge of a breakthrough, but it's not coming fast enough. It may be because we aren't rehearsing a show now. Being the end of the summer, we only have "The Reluctant Dragon" shows in the morning and no rehearsals until after vacation week. It may be because I don't speak in Dragon (I'm the right arm of the Dragon, way fricken awesome).
It's amazing how what you learn by rehearsing a new play can be applied to the show you are performing every day. We never have a chance to breathe. An hour after the opening production of "The Princess and the Pea" we started rehearsing our next show. We were sprinting earlier in the summer, and now that we are walking; we aren't getting much of an artistic workout.
Even though I'm taking itty bitty tiny steps towards becoming a better actor, I feel I'm still making progress. I've been trying towards progress with all of my might. My director told us a story about one of the Resident Actors who spoke to some college theatre students. (This is paraphrased, but the gist is still there) They asked "How do you make things important to your character night after night?" The actor replied with, "Will power. 'Cause if you don't have will power, go find another profession."
Boom.
Coffee has never had an effect on me as it does in Playerdom. It's not that I don't have the opportunity to sleep, it's just after finishing at 11 or 12 at night, I want my social time. Usually I do get into bed around 2, which for the summer is an acceptable time to hit the sack, but I'm up for fight call (rehearsal before every show to ensure no injury or death, haha) for our player show at 9 am.
I love doing the Player shows. It's like a cup of Folger's. Seriously, everyone drags their butt out of bed and arrives at fight call groggy, but after half hour (the required time before any show for the actors to get dressed, basically prepare themselves for the show) we are ready to put on an awesome show.
Rarely in a young actor's life does one get to perform a show for 20 times, but we get to. Before being a Player, I would've been tired of doing a show. Now? I could do shows 100 more times and never get bored. They teach us here to always experiment, to never let a show get easy for you. There is never a goal in which there is an arrival point; the actor is always searching for ways to go deeper in the world of the play. (By "world of the play," I mean totally succumbing to the character's thoughts, goals, surroundings, etc.)
Some experiments I've done to keep my characters in the world have been...never letting my vocal production be untruthful; moving only when my character needs to move; pretending I lost a son, and wondering if all of the people my character came across was my son; visualizing my surroundings; having the same inner monologue (what my thoughts are saying, such as, "give me money") throughout the entire play; doing my actions and saying my words at the latest point of attack; give my character sexual thoughts; give my character violent thoughts; being open to stimulus; having a secret; changing the volume at which I'm speaking; having the goal of my scene partner to look at me or touch me...etc.
These all seem like miniscule experiments, but they made a load of difference in each performance. I was discovering new things every show. It was soo cool.
This "never arrive" theory, I've applied to other aspects in life as well. You never arrive at some goal in learning, or finding happiness. To take things, or--in a larger sense--to take life, inch by inch is a much feasible task than yard by yard. Also, knowing that there is always more to explore, in whatever you are doing, so many possibilities open up.
We have a saying here, "live moment to moment." It basically means having trust in this moment so fully, that trust will allow you to focus and allow depth within that moment. Don't be thinking about what comes afterwards, just focus on the task at hand, and the character's, or your, intentions will come across. Human's can't multi-task, it's a proven fact, so why should we expect our characters to? (Or vise-versa)
As far as learning and developing goes, now I feel I'm at a stand still. I made such great strides at the beginning of the summer, now I'm not noticing the tiny steps I'm taking to getting rid of Cami, and delving further into a character. It's frustrating. I keep telling my Player Project mentor, that I feel I'm on the edge of a breakthrough, but it's not coming fast enough. It may be because we aren't rehearsing a show now. Being the end of the summer, we only have "The Reluctant Dragon" shows in the morning and no rehearsals until after vacation week. It may be because I don't speak in Dragon (I'm the right arm of the Dragon, way fricken awesome).
It's amazing how what you learn by rehearsing a new play can be applied to the show you are performing every day. We never have a chance to breathe. An hour after the opening production of "The Princess and the Pea" we started rehearsing our next show. We were sprinting earlier in the summer, and now that we are walking; we aren't getting much of an artistic workout.
Even though I'm taking itty bitty tiny steps towards becoming a better actor, I feel I'm still making progress. I've been trying towards progress with all of my might. My director told us a story about one of the Resident Actors who spoke to some college theatre students. (This is paraphrased, but the gist is still there) They asked "How do you make things important to your character night after night?" The actor replied with, "Will power. 'Cause if you don't have will power, go find another profession."
Boom.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Beauty, and the Beast of a technical show.
My last entry was on acting, but that is in no way where I've spent the majority of my time here at the Barter the past couple of weeks.
I am on the run crew for Disney's Beauty and the Beast. For those of you who don't know what a "run crew" is, they are the people who run the show backstage. I've never been on run crew, and the trust, the friendships, the responsibility required from us is so great. It's probably one of the most character building jobs I've ever had to do. Not only am I learning a whole different skill set, one I've been aware of though never fully appreciated until now, but I'm learning responsibility, and most importantly, how to treat everyone working in the theatre with respect.
The show is technically difficult. So much magic; it took us 3 hours to get through the prologue. For three days, we went scene shift to scene shift, cue to cue trying to put the show up on its feet. We were afraid the show wasn't going to get finished. By Thursday night (our second night of Tech) we hadn't even gotten to the 2nd act. The show opened Saturday. We actually did it. It was tough, but we did it.
Since then, the show has gotten smoother and smoother, but, sometimes, really terrifying things happen. Like things that can kill people. It's terrifying. Going into detail would take too long to explain, but I can say this, I've apologized many times.
As far as my daily schedule, I get up at 8:30 for my 9:30 "Pigs" call, get done with the show at 11, maybe have an hour for lunch, go to our crew call for Beauty and the Beast at 12, finish with that show around 5, have maybe an hour and a half for dinner and then another call for B&B at 6:40, and finally get done with the day, after doing our post-show duties, at 11 at night. We had three days of this last week. It was exhausting.
Luckily, for our sanity and health, they are teching the other Mainstage show this week, for which we are not a part of. So my days are pretty chill, a "Pigs"show in the morning, "Princess and the Pea," our new play, rehearsal in the afternoon, and working on my player project or doing laundry at night.
I've been here a month, and though Abingdon is becoming a home, I still get homesick.
I miss and love you all.
I am on the run crew for Disney's Beauty and the Beast. For those of you who don't know what a "run crew" is, they are the people who run the show backstage. I've never been on run crew, and the trust, the friendships, the responsibility required from us is so great. It's probably one of the most character building jobs I've ever had to do. Not only am I learning a whole different skill set, one I've been aware of though never fully appreciated until now, but I'm learning responsibility, and most importantly, how to treat everyone working in the theatre with respect.
The show is technically difficult. So much magic; it took us 3 hours to get through the prologue. For three days, we went scene shift to scene shift, cue to cue trying to put the show up on its feet. We were afraid the show wasn't going to get finished. By Thursday night (our second night of Tech) we hadn't even gotten to the 2nd act. The show opened Saturday. We actually did it. It was tough, but we did it.
Since then, the show has gotten smoother and smoother, but, sometimes, really terrifying things happen. Like things that can kill people. It's terrifying. Going into detail would take too long to explain, but I can say this, I've apologized many times.
As far as my daily schedule, I get up at 8:30 for my 9:30 "Pigs" call, get done with the show at 11, maybe have an hour for lunch, go to our crew call for Beauty and the Beast at 12, finish with that show around 5, have maybe an hour and a half for dinner and then another call for B&B at 6:40, and finally get done with the day, after doing our post-show duties, at 11 at night. We had three days of this last week. It was exhausting.
Luckily, for our sanity and health, they are teching the other Mainstage show this week, for which we are not a part of. So my days are pretty chill, a "Pigs"show in the morning, "Princess and the Pea," our new play, rehearsal in the afternoon, and working on my player project or doing laundry at night.
I've been here a month, and though Abingdon is becoming a home, I still get homesick.
I miss and love you all.
Monday, June 6, 2011
It's been a while since I've posted...
So I'm going to split up these next few entries. We'll start first with our acting.
We Tech'd and opened our Player show "Three Little Pigs" last week. It was fun to do a less stressful tech (as opposed to Beauty and the Beast, more on that later). All throughout the week before I "rehearsed the play" during tech. Now "rehearsing the play" is reading through the script and really delving into what the character is doing. I probably spent at least an hour during each of our Tech days for Beauty rehearsing, reading, jumping into this imaginary world where Wolves crave pork and pigs are architects. It helped so much. By the time "Pigs" tech came around, I was discovering new things and totally giving myself up to the character. So much so, my director didn't yell at me, but actually complimented me! It was awesome.
Our first performance went well. We've rehearsed this play for 3 weeks, yet performing for a bunch of tiny people who's feet can't touch the ground from the theater seats. For one, some jokes are for the adults; the kids don't quite get everything. Another thing, kids love falling, running, slapping, dancing, basically anything physical and most of them laugh for the sake of laughing. Babies cry, a lot, and often when you aren't delving deep enough into the play. This is when you really kick it into Piggy gear. And the last thing that's majorly different, there are bodies soo close to you (it's in a thrust theater). One performance we've had, a girl kept stroking the arm of one Pig who was "handcuffed."
The hardest part of putting the show up on it's feet, is trying to keep the "actor" out and the character in. It's been so long since I've done a show for more than just a couple of runs, and keeping the world of the play alive is a constant struggle. Our director was giving notes after our 3rd show, and he said to me "wasn't your best work, huh?" I knew he was going to say that exactly. You see, the things I discovered while "rehearsing the play" during Tech became stale and old and I was expecting those discoveries to work every time. But that never works out. You constantly need to push those this-is-how-I-did-it-last-time thoughts out of your brain so new discoveries can be made.
Another hard thing about doing the shows is our directors aren't always there to gauge our progress or call us out if we weren't bringing our best. We have to take the responsibility for ourselves to push ourselves towards the unknown. It's up to us to put on the best show possible.
One of my favorite part of doing the shows are the meet and greets we get to do with the kids. They are so cute! Friday, an entire school came with pig t-shirts with pig faces on the front and tails on the back and pig noses!
All right, I'm exhausted. We start rehearsing for our next Player show, The Princess and the Pea, tomorrow. :)
We Tech'd and opened our Player show "Three Little Pigs" last week. It was fun to do a less stressful tech (as opposed to Beauty and the Beast, more on that later). All throughout the week before I "rehearsed the play" during tech. Now "rehearsing the play" is reading through the script and really delving into what the character is doing. I probably spent at least an hour during each of our Tech days for Beauty rehearsing, reading, jumping into this imaginary world where Wolves crave pork and pigs are architects. It helped so much. By the time "Pigs" tech came around, I was discovering new things and totally giving myself up to the character. So much so, my director didn't yell at me, but actually complimented me! It was awesome.
Our first performance went well. We've rehearsed this play for 3 weeks, yet performing for a bunch of tiny people who's feet can't touch the ground from the theater seats. For one, some jokes are for the adults; the kids don't quite get everything. Another thing, kids love falling, running, slapping, dancing, basically anything physical and most of them laugh for the sake of laughing. Babies cry, a lot, and often when you aren't delving deep enough into the play. This is when you really kick it into Piggy gear. And the last thing that's majorly different, there are bodies soo close to you (it's in a thrust theater). One performance we've had, a girl kept stroking the arm of one Pig who was "handcuffed."
The hardest part of putting the show up on it's feet, is trying to keep the "actor" out and the character in. It's been so long since I've done a show for more than just a couple of runs, and keeping the world of the play alive is a constant struggle. Our director was giving notes after our 3rd show, and he said to me "wasn't your best work, huh?" I knew he was going to say that exactly. You see, the things I discovered while "rehearsing the play" during Tech became stale and old and I was expecting those discoveries to work every time. But that never works out. You constantly need to push those this-is-how-I-did-it-last-time thoughts out of your brain so new discoveries can be made.
Another hard thing about doing the shows is our directors aren't always there to gauge our progress or call us out if we weren't bringing our best. We have to take the responsibility for ourselves to push ourselves towards the unknown. It's up to us to put on the best show possible.
One of my favorite part of doing the shows are the meet and greets we get to do with the kids. They are so cute! Friday, an entire school came with pig t-shirts with pig faces on the front and tails on the back and pig noses!
All right, I'm exhausted. We start rehearsing for our next Player show, The Princess and the Pea, tomorrow. :)
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Serving the Audience
One of the Barter Player's mottos is to "Serve the Audience," meaning, because we are now professional actors, the work we do is to serve the paying customers. It is no longer for our benefit as it was in college. We cater to the folks shelling out money for a night of entertainment. A way us Players do it is through run crew.
For those of you who don't know what run crew is (Grandma), they are the invisible performers who make all of the scene shift magic happen. It's intense. We had our first scene shift rehearsal tonight, 4 hours long and we didn't get to Act II. Despite the amount of time it took, it actually went really well.
It's not as if I didn't have respect for the people involved with technical theatre, I just never had a chance to experience it. When we were getting oriented with the space, I was terrified. So many integral parts that so many people would get mad at me for screwing up. I remember running sound for our school play my sophomore year in high school; it was a lot of responsibility to take on and a lot of pressure. Now, while pushing on Belle's room or setting props for Gaston's tavern, I feel the same pressing weight of responsibility.
Despite being anxious about it, I'm excited to take all of this on. It's another way we can serve the audience, another way I'm learning about the theatre.
As far as rehearsals for "Pigs", we have no more until tech next Tuesday. We had our final run through today. I'm trying to not "act," but it's hard. There are these blocks getting in my way of totally giving myself up to the world of the play. In the week I have before tech, my goal is to practice facing the unknown and using my imagination to keep Cami out of the character.
One of the members of the company watched our run through today. On our way home, the company member said they had learned a lot. We asked what it was and they said "No matter how absurd the circumstances of the play, you can still make it believable." That was encouraging; we've done our job. Yes, it's ridiculous to play a role in which you are eating whole pigs and you have the ability to blow down houses, but if you wholeheartedly commit in the world of the play, anything is possible.
I better get to bed, we have full on Beauty and the Beast 10 of 12 (more for us on crew) for the next 3 days. And then we open with 2 shows on Saturday. It's going to be the longest week of my life.
For Grandma: Tech is when you run the show from scene change to scene change, run light cues, focus lights, work spacing etc. Usually grueling work where you are at the theater all day and everyone gets really frustrated with each other. Hope that helps!
For those of you who don't know what run crew is (Grandma), they are the invisible performers who make all of the scene shift magic happen. It's intense. We had our first scene shift rehearsal tonight, 4 hours long and we didn't get to Act II. Despite the amount of time it took, it actually went really well.
It's not as if I didn't have respect for the people involved with technical theatre, I just never had a chance to experience it. When we were getting oriented with the space, I was terrified. So many integral parts that so many people would get mad at me for screwing up. I remember running sound for our school play my sophomore year in high school; it was a lot of responsibility to take on and a lot of pressure. Now, while pushing on Belle's room or setting props for Gaston's tavern, I feel the same pressing weight of responsibility.
Despite being anxious about it, I'm excited to take all of this on. It's another way we can serve the audience, another way I'm learning about the theatre.
As far as rehearsals for "Pigs", we have no more until tech next Tuesday. We had our final run through today. I'm trying to not "act," but it's hard. There are these blocks getting in my way of totally giving myself up to the world of the play. In the week I have before tech, my goal is to practice facing the unknown and using my imagination to keep Cami out of the character.
One of the members of the company watched our run through today. On our way home, the company member said they had learned a lot. We asked what it was and they said "No matter how absurd the circumstances of the play, you can still make it believable." That was encouraging; we've done our job. Yes, it's ridiculous to play a role in which you are eating whole pigs and you have the ability to blow down houses, but if you wholeheartedly commit in the world of the play, anything is possible.
I better get to bed, we have full on Beauty and the Beast 10 of 12 (more for us on crew) for the next 3 days. And then we open with 2 shows on Saturday. It's going to be the longest week of my life.
For Grandma: Tech is when you run the show from scene change to scene change, run light cues, focus lights, work spacing etc. Usually grueling work where you are at the theater all day and everyone gets really frustrated with each other. Hope that helps!
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