Finding Edges

CLASSES
Audition:
I worked my third monologue, the second modern one. I thought about doing a second Shakespeare, but opted against it. All the time we're spending on Shakespeare makes it seem apropos, but the time involved made it untenable. I wanted something I'd have time to do a quarter or even half decent preparation job on. This one definitely came out the best of the three, and I hope doing more work on the other two will set me up with three decent monologues.

Kate recommended we never mention an audition to friends, as we are all in competition. I probably won't follow that advice. I've passed on leads to friends when applying for high tech jobs. I just figure the networking and social potential is better than the chance I'll lose the specific position to someone I give a lead to. And you have to audition a lot more for a role than a job in high tech, at least if you're competent and have a reputation for playing well with others. Maybe I'll get more jaded, but I'd be more likely to think cool, I didn't get the part but so and so did. Better than a stranger.


Movement:
We spent the better part of the class warming up with tennis balls. Learning to juggle, which in the past I could never do more than a few cycles using tennis balls. They are so light and bouncy it is hard to learn with them. Actually having instruction helped, and while I'm certainly no whiz I improved a lot. I think I got up to twenty tosses before losing my balls. :) Then we worked with tossing a ball from behind over our shoulder with both hands, bouncing and trapping with our feet, bouncing and catching off the wall, then again off the wall, floor, or up in the air with a full spin around before catching. Lots of different permutations and playing, all aimed at control of direction and force. And learning to relax. We didn't attain brilliance, but it was a good exercise, and keeping at it was a surprisingly vigorous work out.

Then we played with running up a nearly vertical eight foot ramp, with people lowering it when we reached the top, so we could continue climbing and standing into an upright position and walking back off the other way. It was an exploration for another project at Freehold. It was kind of flattering knowing we are considered the advanced folks who can be used to explore options for a production.

When I ran up the ramp I really concentrated on being light and running up the ramp instead of sort of a running vault off the surface . I most likely have the strength and weight to easily knock it over even with a couple of the other strong guys anchoring the ramp. One very funny thing happened. The ramp is very steep, with a roughly 2.5 foot base for an eight foot inclined surface. (Laid the other way it is not steep at all.) I of course can just reach the top of the ramp standing, but really using the image of lightness going up I was able to easily and softly get my feet planted near the top. So, there I am holding the top edge with my hands, and my feet planted a little below. I was thinking about how I should subtly walk my feet back down as the ramp was tilted down so the guys holding the ramp would have less weight to deal with. Then everybody started laughing. I had gotten my weight so far up the ramp that it went nearly straight down, planting the base of the ramp so firmly they couldn't tip it.


Speech:
We switched this class from Tuesday evening to Sunday for the rest of the quarter, making for a more tiring schedule on Sunday's 11.5 hour day. The tutorials were moved to Tuesday evening, meaning we'll have the opportunity to get to some sleep when we don't have a tutorial on Tuesday. Or, a chance to rehearse with a scene partner as long as we're already at Freehold, which Lori and I will take advantage of.

We drilled the detail model, focusing on consonants. This is something I'll do more of when I am done with this program. I think it will help, and it is something I'll have more time to work into my day.


Acting/Verse/Text (John/Amy):
God, I was apprehensive for this class. We had a blast working the Petruccio/Kate scene on Friday, but Trina and I weren't able to get together to work the scene on Saturday. Working with Trina is fun, and in rehearsal she has a very specific idea of what she wants to do. Not much chance to get in other ideas edgewise, but it works well for me as it is provides different things for me. We did work some of my ideas too, so it wasn't an unbalanced situation. Trina, like myself has a pretty high threshold for physical contact, so as we got into working the physical score we got more comfortable and had more fun.

We had a great time working the scene tonight, and this is really embarrassing. Amy and John complimented us on how our rehearsal outside of class really showed, especially Amy, in the incorporation of the work and feedback we'd gotten on Friday. A lot had to do with work we'd done earlier in the week, in getting very physical while holding onto actions and lines. It is definitely the kind of scene where the physical score is at least as important as the lines. Well, we didn't cop to our scheduling difficulty. It was delightful and surprising secret.

This was our last time with this scene, and it has been damn fun, though wracking for me. It is highly physical, even for Shakespeare, and quite bawdy. When our gestures or actions on each other elicited the "Oh God's!" and gasps due the racy nature it was very satisfying and built the energy. As did the reaction to the menacing bit where I have caught Kate's hand as she tried to punch me a second time and pulled her down by the wrist so our arms are parallel and I'm talking right in her face and I say, "I swear I'll cuff you, if you strike again." The physicality really helped with the menace, and that was very charged place to be and heightened the humor of the rest of the scene, because Kate is then walking a dangerous tightrope. I don't think I've ever successfully played at being dangerous, and I think it worked pretty well. It was satisfying and delightfully creepy at the same time.

It was wonderful watching the rest of the class work their scenes. Everybody was wonderful, and a few brilliant. I'm looking forward to our performances.

I get to be MacBeth (Act 1, Scene 7) for our recital scene this quarter. It is one of my favorite plays, and I am pretty excited.

OBSERVATIONS/CLICKS
I don't why this has been so nerve wracking lately. I'm not stuck in suckage land, though I did feel that way for a couple weeks. I'm excited with how I'm moving forward. Maybe that is part of it. Am I approaching a threshold where I'll be at crossroads? Right now my level of talent, training, and experience make a regular day job an unquestioned requirement for me. It is also a comfortable place, and there may be a bit of subconscious fear in approaching a point where I could or should make a career change. Even though I know it would be a year and a half at a minimum, that possibility is in my thoughts.

Then again, it may just be the busy schedule and allergies catching up with me. The truth I suspect is somewhere in between. I'm getting into a better space, as demonstrated by keeping up on this journal. Though I probably lost most of the three or four readers who were interested in it.