Run to the Fear

"Run to the Fear" is a common saying around the Barter Players.  One way we run to our fears is through Player projects.  Our player project is a homework assignment of sorts that we work on throughout the entire summer.  This past week, we had a meeting with the Artistic Director and discussed the things we are terrified to do in front of people.  Most of the Players are doing projects involving singing and dancing (lucky!), but mine is going to be a whole different beast, dialects.

I am awful at dialects.  I actually tried all last semester, when driving by myself, to read street signs in different dialects.  Not to offend anyone, but I sounded like a mentally challenged deaf person.  Some have a gift of picking up people's speech patterns, not me.  This fear of having to speak in dialects was revealed to me in our first rehearsal Wednesday, when our acting coach asked a few of the characters to speak in a German and Spanish accent.  Luckily, I wasn't one of those characters; I would have no clue on where to even start.  

So, when in my Player project meeting, I mentioned my fears.  Improv, raw acting, being vulnerable, and dialects.  The Artistic Director said,  "don't you know a lot about dialects from studying opera?"  My answer was, "nope."  I mean, I've had to sing in many languages, but applying the rules to English is hard.  She said, "that's your project right there."

I guess one of the roles I'm understudying has a German accent.  This is terrifying.  I'm awful at German.  Never have I ever thought German was a beautiful language and I hated singing in it.  Also, it was my last semester of Diction and it was real early in the morning....  However, the past three days I've been watching countless YouTube videos about a German dialect and trying to rack my brain of all of the rules of German diction.  

I'm hoping, by August 14th, when we have our Player project performance, I'll be able to comfortably speak in at least 5 different dialects.  We were to send a project proposal to the Artistic Director and I proposed this: to learn 5 different dialects and 2 monologues and have a roulette-type performance where I didn't know which dialect goes with which monologue.  Throughout the summer, it'll be my responsibility to contact the diction coach they have on staff and get the materials I need to not look like a total idiot at the end of the summer.  

On another note, our acting coach is out of town doing a one man show, so our sole responsibility has been understudy work.  I'm understudying the Wardrobe in "Beauty and the Beast" (I have to wear 3+ inch heels to be able to see over the pvc-piped costume) and Trudy, a German secretary, in "Elvis has Left the Building."  The latter is a play that was read at last year's Appalachian Play Festival that is held here every summer.  It's fricken hilarious.  

The two women I'm understudying are Marnee Hollis, an actress who was in Broadway's "My Fair Lady" in the early 90's, and Mary Lucy Bivins, a resident actress of the Barter who's probably pushing 70.  It's so cool to have these women to look up to.

The past 4 days since I've blogged, I've been watching rehearsals and run-throughs, diligently taking notes and trying to learn words and music, just in case I have to fill in at some point during this rep (ahh!).  We were informed that usually, there comes a point in the summer where everyone has to understudy...

As far as my Player duties, I've been in the Player shop (conveniently located in the basement of the Inn) sewing.  I've learned how to hem, tack, and reminded how to use a machine.  Also, on Friday, I did rep for the first time.  For those of you who don't know, that means switching the set over from one show to the next.  Here, learning something new everyday is an understatement.  

Theatre is such a small world.  Our Technical Director, Mitch Critel, went to UNL for his undergrad and has worked for the Nebraska Rep.  He hired Byron Hunt, who also went to UNL.  One of the dancers for Beauty and the Beast, Abbey Elliott, is from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and was in Follies and choreographed for Theatre Cedar Rapids.  She also went to Milikin with soo many people I know.  Audrey, another year round Player, worked at Big Fork, Montana with Zac Parker.  It's kind of 

ridiculous.  

I got really homesick for the first time Friday night.  I was grocery shopping at Krogers, and got this sick feeling.  All I wanted was to be shopping at the 50th and 'O' HyVee.  Of course I miss all of y'all back home, but I know we'll always be there for each other.  Our relationships will not suffer because I'm far away, but only get so much stronger.  Long phone calls also help :)  

Well, that's all there is here.  Today's plans are going to the Rec Center (which is free to all Barter employees), then sewing and watching a "Beauty and the Beast" run-through, and ending the day with a monster birthday bash in the Shakespeare Garden (the area behind the Inn where someone keeps trees and bushes nice for us).  

I love you all.