Day Twenty OneA Little Plateau

CLASSES:
Movement: I was apprehensive, as my back was only starting to feel better after last Sunday. It was pretty sore by the end of the class work out which will be an intense first hour from here on out. We are getting to physical comedy, for the Commedia dell'Arte we're going to start working on, and need more class time for that work. It was a fun class for me, but I was worried I'd set myself right where I was a week ago because of the discomfort. The back started feeling better later in the day, and was much better the following day. The existing hurt was simply sending messages I could hear, which kept me from hurting myself all over again.

Our assignment for next Sunday is to work within the room (described last Tuesday), scoring short texts he gave us. I'll be working with David and Trina for this exercise.

Speech: We finished up with the Omnish monologues, which marks the conclusion of Omnish as our focus though it will continue to be a tool for exploration and warm ups. We used the rest of the class quizzing IPA consonants. I need to start studying the IPA symbols more, so I can use them later.

Voice: Our last session with Brennan. We did something very similar to the grid work with Kate on Friday. About half the class worked it individually, traversing from one point to another on the stage. The length of the phrases and frequency of the direction changes engendered helps inform you about the character. How solid, determined, confused, etc, they are.

Acting: We did a warmup similar to Friday, again with music, and ran all of the scenes in order. We'd worked our scenes quite a bit the last week, and it paid off. The first scene was the only one which didn't have notes about rising action and making changes. It was startling to hear John say, "This is a note for everybody but the first scene..." We had notes, but the struggle and work we did paid off. We spent at least six hours outside of class working our scene. This Friday we'll be doing the same thing again, working with John, and Robin who is only with us on Friday. Then -- sniff -- we'll be done with Pinter.

OBSERVATIONS/CLICKS:
Both of us in the Pinter scene felt we'd been struggling, and we worked pretty hard and finally learned to give each other feedback, with art taking precedence over fretting about hurting feelings or seeming dictatorial. To be honest I know it was my issue, though I expect it isn't an easy thing for most. The action is a tough thing to learn, and we are all struggling with it, and we're told by instructors it won't get easier for a while.

Something I've been working with since the end of the first quarter of Meisner I believe is helping with this. I've mentioned it several times in my main blog, watching Jack Lemmon in Glengarry Glen Ross after I'd done the same scene. I thought I'd struggled to find three, maybe four changes in the scene. Lemmon (who acted circles around the brilliant Kevin Spacey!) often changed as many times in a single line. I suspect looking for those changes has given me a rough beginning for finding actions. It is nice something is going right!

I was exhausted. I'd mostly caught up on my rest, but I'm having trouble remembering to drink enough water during the day. I've started making a point of drinking a big glass or two of water while I get ready in the morning, but I'm still in the habit phase, and restarted in the morning. It helped but the lingering effects had me feeling ucky all day. I started feeling apprehensive about acting class before Noon rolled around.

I felt tired, stupid, disconnected. Eight hours after the apprehension set in we were finally on our feet for our scene. I was also very much looking forward to it -- internal conflict maybe? I was bummed at myself for missing some opportunities for change, got a note on anticipating a bit (dropping a few intentions early) and I caught myself fidgeting. John of course caught me fidgeting too, telling me to remember to make use of my size on stage all the time. It was the difference between planting myself and fidgeting which he noticed saying I'm getting much, much more into my body but I was shifting back and forth at times. Anyway I went into it feeling pretty crappy. Getting on the boards I all the uckiness dropped away, I focused, enjoyed myself, and did a much better job than I'd expected. I do like being on the boards. I thrive.

Progress is good. I feel I'm progressing well, albeit slowly, and I hope it never stops. Maybe someday I won't feel like I'm the village idiot. That's a fun way of saying, someday I will feel like I'm a strong, competent and professional level actor. I've felt nearly there a few times, only to realize I was no where near where I yearn to be. I know it will happen some time. It wasn't all that long ago I was able to call myself an actor, then an artist, and even more recently where I was perfectly at ease making those statements.