Tuesday, February 9

We're finally back to normal classes, and I'm totally relieved.

I'm also still totally sick. I carried a box of anti-viral tissues with me all day and... I'm out of them. Yes, that's right. I went through AN ENTIRE BOX OF TISSUES in ONE DAY. Yeah, it's not pretty.



VOICE
We were originally supposed to have a cold reading workshop this week, but it's been bumped due to Head of Program's schedule. So as a result, we spent the class period working on our transcriptions of our Play It Again, Sam scenes into a General New York dialect. I finished my transcription mid-class and gave it to Voice Professor. She says she'll check it and give it back to me tomorrow. (She, for the record, is also sick.)

MOVEMENT
We've started with our "30 interesting facts" group presentations on Restoration. All-The-Way, Killer, and Iceman started off with their presentation on Italian and French Restoration. Then D-Train, O.D., and I talked about Spanish Restoration and Golden Age. We ended up running out of time, so O.D. will be finishing his facts tomorrow.

Over the last couple of weeks, All-the-Way (who is assisting the costume shop for her student assistantship this year) has helped everyone in the class get costumes for our baroque dance and restoration monologue unit. We are supposed to bring in our fans/snuffboxes/handkerchiefs and outfits this week.

We also have the assignment to find a picture of a type of Baroque lace, and a type of dog, and also create a character name for ourselves (the three should be inter-related).



ACTING
We hadn't seen Acting Professoressa in about an eon, as she's been off doing recruitment. She spent the first part of class talking all about her recruitment adventures, and using them as examples of what to do and what not to do in auditions (mostly what not to do... you'd be shocked and amazed at some things people do...) I don't have the energy to type everything up right now (I seriously took 6.5 pages of notes just on that), but maybe over the weekend I'll get a chance to do a post on the subject.

We discussed what we've been doing in her absence (Roy Hart, Stage Combat, and Machinal). It was nice. A little like Show & Tell crossed with therapy.

After that, we actually got to work. We're now getting on our feet with the Shakespeare scenes she assigned before she left. Today, Wifey and Two-Shots-Up started working on their All's Well That End's Well scene.

Big Show and I have been working on our Richard III stuff every chance we get. I hope we do alright.



MACHINAL
I was only called for the first 30 minutes of rehearsal for the ensemble exercises. We have officially moved into the theatre now (which wasn't hard to do, as we don't really have a set). We played the "move chairs into a word" game again today, after not playing it for a long while, and ended up spelling "FORT". It wasn't bad at all.

Quotations: Volume 48

Here are some of the educational, inspirational, and humorous quotations from my classes this week:

(Disclaimer: quotations are often taken out of context and may not accurately reflect the way they were originally intended)



Stage Combat Instructor: Let's say, worst case scenario, what happens if you actually get kicked in the yummies?
1st-year GP: It'll look real!
Stage Combat Instructor: Well, yes, it'll look real, but that's the goal.
1st-year KC: Tony Award!

"We're not saying, 'We're fight people, and you must bow to our whim.'"
- Fight Master

"When you hear the inner monologue of a fight, it's usually either, 'Aha!' or, 'Oh, f***!' It just goes between those two."
- Fight Master

"It's like when people say all the words of Shakespeare and think they've done verse."
- Fight Master, on sometimes people think that by doing all the moves of stage combat, they've actually done a fight scene, even though they're not telling the story at all

"Shakespeare wrote, 'They fight,' not, 'A fight'. It's who they are that makes it important and interesting."
- Fight Master

"You can't stop pursuing your Doing because you're out of choreography."
- Fight Master

"Follow your d*** instincts, man!"
- Fight Master, to O.D.

Killer: (as he throws a punch) BAM!
Fight Master: Don't say bam.

"Don't take reactions to the floor. The floor didn't pay to see your face."
- Fight Master

"Impact becomes a given circumstance."
- Fight Master

"It's like a piece of paper that's on the floor of the stage that actors keep walking by, but they ignore it. But the whole audience sees it, and wonders why the actors aren't acknowledging it."
- Fight Master, on how the audience has seen you get punched in the jaw, and therefore you need to continue to have pain from that punch

"Change the beat, move your feet."
- Fight Master

"We're trying to see if you learned a fight, or how to fight."
- Fight Master

"We want to be worried for the character, never for the actor."
- Stage Combat Instructor

"I've blocked fights where people bash babies' heads into walls, but you never lose an audience faster than when an actor actually spits on another actor's face."
- Stage Combat Instructor, on why you shouldn't do real spitting on stage

Fight Master: You have to follow through with the punch after the knap, so that you look like a fighter. We don't want you to look like a knapper. A knapper? I think I made that up.
Angela: I'm a knapper, not a fighter.
Fight Master: Make knaps, not war.

I'm Sick

Sorry for the lapse in blogging. I'm totally sick right now (if I were one of Snow White's dwarves, I'd be Sneezy).

My whole class passed our Stage Combat actor-combatant recognition whatever-they're-called exams. :)

We return to regular classes this week... which means we're about to be way more exhausted than we have been the last two weeks... Which means I've gotten sick at pretty much the worst possible time. (All-The-Way, Killer, Two-Shots-Up, and Voice Professor have all had whatever I have as well)

I hope to get back to blogging this week, but I make no promises.

All good things,

~A~

Thursday, February 4

STAGE COMBAT WORKSHOP
We've now blocked our entire exam fight, which is cool. In order to do so, we had to review safe ways of falling, elbowing, strangulation, throwing, etc.

The fight goes kind of like this:

- Person A pushes or shoves Person B.
- Person B pushes or shoves Person A.
- Person B slaps Person A with their left hand, and Person A does a clap knap (they use their hands to make the sound of the slap)
- Person A backhand-slaps Person B with their right hand, and Person B does a clap knap.
- Person A walks past Person B and bumps their shoulder as they go by.
- Person B puts their upstage hand on Person A's downstage shoulder to stop them.
- Person A pivots around, and raises their upstage arm to meet Person B's extended arm, and then throw it off.
- Person A uses their right (upstage) fist to try to punch Person B, which Person B blocks with their forearm.
- Person B uses their left (upstage) fist to punch Person A in the latissimus muscle.
- Person B uses their right (downstage) fist to try to punch Person A, which Person A blocks with their forearm.
- Person A throws a punch to either the back of Person B's head, or to Person B's right ear. Person B does a clap knap.
- Person B takes a couple of steps backward
- Person B preps for a sidekick (by chambering the leg at the knee), and then kicks, and Person A uses both hands to block it.
- Person B tries to take a big swing at Person A, which Person A blocks with both forearms.
- Person A tries to elbow Person B, but Person B steps in towards them.
- Person B reaches around and begins to strangle Person A.
- Person A reaches a hand up through the crook of Person B's arm to get away.
- Person A turns around and punches Person B. Person A uses a slip-hand knap.
- Person A pulls Person B's hair
- Person B reaches over Person A's shoulder to get into a grappling position.
- Person B flings Person A around
- Person B knees Person A in the stomach twice.
- Person B pushes Person A, and Person A falls backwards to the ground.
- Person A tries to side-kick Person B, and Person B avoids.
- Person A tries to heel kick Person B, and Person B bats it away.
- Person B steps in toward Person A
- Person A kicks Person B in the groin
- Person B falls to their knee
- Person A tries to crawl away
- Person B grabs Person A's shoulder and throws them back onto the ground
- Person B begins to strangle Person A
- Person A uses their arms to break Person B's hold
- Person A throws Person B off of them.

And from there on out, we can block whatever we want in order for our scenes to make sense and for the right person to "win".



SEARCHING FOR EDEN
I went back to see it again today, because 1st-Year JaS had to go on as an understudy for Adam. (As in Adam of "Adam and Eve"... in a two person play.) It's the largest role that an understudy has had to go on for at our theatre in YEARS, so a bunch of us who had time went to support him. He totally rocked it, and made the Conservatory proud. Great job, JaS!

MACHINAL
Another one of our "usual" games is a "switch places" game. We all stand in a circle, and one person makes eye contact with another, letting them know that they're going to take their place in the circle. The person starts walking, and the person they've made eye contact with has to find someone else's spot to take. The goal is that people are always moving, and that no one ever gets to anyone else's spot before they've found someone to switch with. It might not sound complicated, but it really is, as you kind of have to see a couple of moves ahead... And then the Director throws someone a tennis ball... And WHILE all the other trading spaces stuff is occurring, we have a second objective of throwing the ball around. So you're constantly looking around to see if someone is making eye contact with you, either to take your spot or to throw you a ball. We're getting better at it, but it does require a great deal of concentration.

We started blocking the Prologue, sort of. At the beginning of the play, a woman talks about her journey to work on the subway, so we're going to stage it as part of our production. We haven't gotten very far on it yet, but I'm interested to see what direction it goes in.

Wednesday, February 3

STAGE COMBAT WORKSHOP
We continued with our pushes, shoves, slaps, and punches.

We also started working on kicks (including groin kicks, which seem to be a real people pleaser), chokes, and contact punches (where you end up actually touching your partner... just in a safe, non-painful way).

We began getting the blocking for what will be the 2nd-years' exam fight. It's similar to the one that the current 3rd-years did last year, but it has some new moves in it. It'll be fun to work on. My partner is All-The-Way, and I think we're going to have a good time with it.



THEATRE
I went to the matinee performance of The Life of Galileo, because I wanted to see it again before it closes and this might have been my last chance (depending on what my Machinal schedule turns out to be like). It was sold out, so I ended up sitting on the stairs in the mezzanine.

I cannot remember if I mentioned, but I saw The Search for Eden: The Diaries of Adam and Eve last week at the matinee. The actors in it are both graduates of my conservatory, who are now married to each other, and they are also playing Jamie and Cathy in the Rep's production of The Last 5 Years right now. They do Eden some days, and L5Y on others, and to complicate it further, the husband is also in Galileo. Such demanding schedules! But they're totally pulling it off. I particularly liked the second act of Eden. They seemed really connected with each other in it.


MACHINAL
The way rehearsal has been running lately is sort of like this.

- We start with the whole cast/class (clast?) sitting in chairs in a semi-circle, facing the Director and Stage Manager. We are sitting on the edge of the chairs, with our feet on the ground, and our hands resting on our legs, as though we're ready to jump to our feet at any second. (It's a Russian thing, apparently.)

- Director tells us to close our eyes. He claps once, and we internalize our circles of attention, trying to hear only sounds being created from within our own bodies. He claps twice, and our circle of attention widens, so that we're listening for any sounds in the room. He claps three times, and our circle of attention shifts to sounds made outside of the room and outside of the building.

- Sometimes then he asks us to extend an arm and draw a circle in the air, and tells us to try to see the circle, in a specific color. Once we can really "see" that circle, we are supposed to lift our other arm to draw another, and try to see BOTH circles. If we can get that, then we try for a third. (Honestly, it's really hard for me to do two circles... I've never tried the third)

- Director says to pick up our chairs and move around the room. The Clast takes a second to sense each other, and then attempts to stand up as one, turn to face our chairs as one, lift up our chairs as one, and begin walking as one. Then we have to try to "fill the space", while not walking into each other, and "find a tempo", meaning that we all have to be moving at roughly the same speed.

- Director claps, and we all stop wherever we are. Then we try to put down our chairs as one, and sit in our chairs as one.

- As soon as we're seated, someone says "A", someone else says "B", someone else says "C", and soforth. We have to try to sense when someone in the room is going to speak a letter so that no two people are speaking at the same time. If two people do, then we have to start over at "A" again. We try to remember our letters, as sometimes we then play a game with them in which we have to spell a sentence by clapping whenever our letters come up in the sentence, and collectively hitting our laps whenever there's a space.

We do other, different exercises depending on the day. Today they included:

- We put up a wall (it's a black hinged flat). One person stands on each side of the wall. The person on one side is the "initiator". They have to take a position and an action, and then call the person on the other side of the wall. The "follower" has to try to sense what the initiator's position is and mimic it while saying their name. (Way easier said than done.)

- Repeat the Rhythm - . Sometimes it's that one person makes a rhythm and then the class repeats it, with each person doing one clap. Then when the conductor person claps, we have to change the direction that the rhythm is going in our line of claps

- Add to the Rhythm - One person starts a basic rhythm with their hands (clapping or snapping). One by one around the circle, everyone finds a way to contribute to the rhythm using their hands. Then we add to it one by one with our feet, and finally we add to it one by one with our voices.

- Choreographer - One person stands at the front of the group and dances to a piece of music in a way that they think everyone can follow. Today was my day to be choreographer, and as soon as I got up, my classmates made jokes like "No back bends!", and asked me not to do certain things that are in my movement vocabulary that are not in theirs. But no worries. I know my class really well, and I know what they will and won't be able to handle. The Director played "Back in the USSR" by the Beatles, so I choreographed to that. I had a blast, and a couple of them told me after that they had fun following me, so I think I did an okay job. :)


We started blocking Scene 4, which is the hospital scene. In it, Newbie has just given birth, Iceman is her husband who is trying to cheer her up to no avail, I am the Nurse, and Big Show is the Doctor who thinks I'm incompetent.

I really like the way the scene is going. I'm almost hesitant to write about it on here, because I don't want to ruin anything for the people reading this who might end up seeing the show... But anyway. I like it, and I was happy to get a chance to work.

Tuesday, February 2

STAGE COMBAT WORKSHOP
Robert, our awesome combat instructor, is back for the week. :)

The 1st-years and 2nd-years are in the workshop together. The 2nd-years will have our actor-combatant recognition exams on Sunday.

Today, we just did some basic things: pushes, shoves, slaps, punches, and blocks.

The hardest thing for me in stage combat is keeping my legs bent and my center of gravity low.

I was having trouble remembering that in punches, you have to lead with the soft knuckles, until Newbie reminded me of something we discussed last year: when you punch (you're aiming toward the invisible parrots on your partner's shoulders; Roy on the right, Larry on the left), imagine that you're holding the handle of a beer mug, and you don't want to spill your beer. In other words, your fist is vertical. It helped a lot.


MACHINAL
The Director said something today at the beginning of rehearsal that I liked. He said that in order to prevent a depressing play from becoming a depressing night of theatre, we as artists have to come at it with a sense of playfulness.

We're blocking the first of my scenes tomorrow. I'm going to try to be as playful as possible.

Welcome Prospective Students!

Hello to all prospective MFA Acting students! I know that some of you have found my blog in search of information about graduate school audition season. And some of you probably got this blog from my grad school professors at URTAs. So I welcome you. :)

If you are in the middle of the audition process (or the interviews, callbacks, visits, offers, whatever), you might want to read this post that I wrote last year:
Advice for Grad School Hopefuls

I don't write about anyone by name, and I don't say the name of my program. Why? To make it a little less easy for people to find the people I write about using search engines. Just because I'm comfortable having a search for my name yield results from this blog, doesn't mean my classmates or professors should have to have the same mindset. Because really, when someone types "Bob at Awesome Grad School" into Google, it's perfectly understandable if Bob wants his professional credits to pop up before the stretches he does in movement class. The point isn't to be completely anonymous, or to hide anything from readers, but to be as professional as possible.

If you're interested, of course, you can find out what school I go to without a lot of effort. (hint: check out my personal website.) And of course that photo on the side bar serves as a handy Rosetta stone to break the Nickname Code for the friends and family of each student, who might want to know what they're up to.

I also contribute to Backstage.com's Unscripted, which is a blog written by a bunch of actors from around the country. On Angela Acts, I write more about the day-to-day of being in grad school. On Unscripted, I write more about thoughts I have on acting, and things that affect me as an actor. To read my posts, click here.

If you want to know when I post, follow me on twitter @AngelaActs. I have twitter auto-update whenever I post something new on Angela Acts OR on Unscripted, so you'll always be in the know. You can also be my fan on Facebook, which is where I usually send out invitations to shows I'm doing and other exciting and fun things going on in my world.

I love theatre, I love being in grad school, and I love my program. If you have any questions about why grad school was the right choice for me, what grad school is like, or why I love my program, feel free to email me at:
AngelaActs(at)gmail(dot)com

(I format it like that so that web-crawler spam whatnot won't be able to read it)

Anyway. Thank you kindly for visiting my blog. I hope it helps you on your journey.


All good things,

~A~