2nd Day ThreeThe Business

CLASSES:
Audition: We met with Kate Godman for the first time. In addition to teaching our class she is the casting director at the Intiman Theatre. A lot of common sense discussion on how to present yourself for auditions. Much of this was reminders auditioners are human, and you don't want to make them uncomfortable and you do want to present yourself as someone they'd want to work with. We worked on entrances. Coming in and saying something like, "Hi, I'm Scott Maddock. I'll be doing Oscar from The Odd Couple and Iago from Othello. I got a not I've never gotten before. Move around a little bit. While it is good to have a big presence, it is also good to be less imposing when being personable for a more conversational setting. I'm to pick a modern monologue to work with. Geesh. I'll go through the monologues Jessica recommended last Spring.

Movement: Started working on pieces for the 'slapping' etude. Shuffles, stamps, and flaps. More neutral mask work. After class George told me my mask work was very nice, that I didn't seem at all like someone new to mask. It is subtle work which I enjoy, and it was nice to have confirmation I took something away from the work last year.

Tutorials: These didn't happen, so we still don't know what they are about.

Acting/Verse/Text: Hal had us doing exercises. The first involved splitting the class and each half counting off the alphabet, so each person had 3-4 letters. There was a stomp, clap, stomp, push with the right hand. On the push you said your letter. We spelled "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog." When there is a space the whole class says "Space." Our half went first, then the other half, both of us getting about halfway through. It is an exercise we'll be repeating. The point, at least for now is that everything in the exercise is dead simple. Doing them all at once is another thing entirely. It will be like that as we learn Shakespeare techniques and processes. Hal stressed again tonight, that it really is easy, as Shakespeare is a genius (we agreed to agree with this last week, regardless...). He gives you everything you need to play the part, once you learn how to decipher it.

We did more exercises in four groups, each group picking the four names which seemed the nicest, butchest, nastiest, and something else. Then we voted as a whole class on the nicest and butchest names. The exercise was to show that some names carry meaning for us in their associations or sound. We did something similar with advertising slogans. Again all the double meanings, verbal conceits -- alliteration, assonance, rhyming, figures of speech -- are as much a part of advertising as it was for Shakespeare.

The importance of words we think we know today was demonstrated using Sonnet 135. He read this to us. Read it now if you want the affect, before reading on. We then discussed the different meanings of will. Hal told us the other usage in Shakespeare's time. The male or female genitalia. That does change the meaning. (Sonnet 136 uses the same multiple meanings of 'will'.)

This is going to be an exciting class.


OBSERVATIONS/CLICKS:
All these monologues to analyze in different ways and learn are making me very nervous. Probably because right now I'm working extra long days for another few days....