The First Rule of P-Styles...

is that this is an advanced acting class.

The second rule of P-Styles is...you know the rest.

Well, class was alright today. Other than the fact that I didn't really do anything. I sort of wanted to do my monologue again, although I hadn't had a chance to look at it since last class, so I would have been less off-book and probably rusty. Oh well, such is life.

Tech is coming along. Slowly. On the plus side, my costume is the shit.

Hmm, is Act Three about to start?

Everybody's Workin' For The Weekend...

...Everybody wants a new romance. Aah, the 80's. A time I barely lived through.

So, this weekend. Hmm. Busy. NYC on Saturday. Listened to Chris' god-awful collection of 90's music on the way in. Convinced my little subgroup of Jim, Matt and Allie to get pizza for lunch, something they all thanked me for. I miss pizza made by really Italian guys, and I think it gets worse the farther away from New York you go. I've had pizza in the midwest, and it was not good, even compared to pizza in PA (no disrespect intended to Chicago-style pizza, which is a completely different animal. Can you really disrespect a pizza?)

Blithe spirit was enjoyable. I thought it started a bit slowly, but the energy picked up when Angela Lansbury came in, and then it really picked up when Christine Ebersole came around. The ending was absolutely brilliant, which makes up for the slow start. better that than the other way around.

Post-show dinner was good. A bit pricy (it's NYC, what are you gonna do?) but quite filling. Sat with Chris, and witnessed him not get carded when he ordered beer, then watched the waitress try to give his beer to both Billie Jean and me before finally finding its rightful owner. I'll be a little pissed the first time I buy alcohol and don't get carded. I've worked for 21 years to earn that right, dammit.

Sunday. Tech. Oh boy. I don't actually mind tech anymore, because I no longer have a headset on with twenty-ish people looking to me for what to do. Things went reasonably smoothly, although I feel like the addition of costumes will throw a big-ass wrinkle into everything.

Well, I suppose I should get some sleep, since I've got two plays going on and a test. Oh yeah, and something to do with Shakepeare...

As I Like It

Today's class was fun. It felt good to finally get the Shakespeare on its feet, before other people. Always excited to see the new choices that are made once there is an audience to perform for.

Seeing everyone else's scenes was fun. It was enjoyable to see all of the different ways that people interpreted the dialogue, and the comedic energy of the scenes. Looking forward to seeing other people do their monologues (grrr...)

I like the general direction that my scene and monologue are going in, but as everyone's notes indicated, I need to continue to work on making stronger, more exact physical choices, and playing with the very different physical energies of the two scenes, as well as continuing to study the actual meaning of all of the words, both my own and those of my scene partners, so that I can do a better job of acting and reacting. There's a good distance to travel down the road, but I think I can see where it is going.

Things Have Happened, And Are Happening, And May Happen Yet...

No class today. Bummer. Looking forward to presenting what we've done so far on our scene, plus my monologue (ah, Touchstone). But, such is life. We'll be back around on Thursday.

Very excited about my cast for the One-Acts. I assembled a fine collection of funny people, so coming to rehearsal every day will be enjoyable. Plus, we got through casting without too much bloodshed. Only a little, but it's to be expected when you're fitting 15 people into 11 parts spread amongst 3 plays. Now that the ugliness of the audition process is over, it's time for the fun to start.

Finally starting to feel good about where I am for R&G. My energy level is returning after the early semester, and I'm starting to feel the voice and body rounding into shape. There's still room to grow and explore, but I feel miles ahead of where I was a week ago. Plus, now that we have the rest of the court back, we've become our own little mini-ensemble. Armed with swords. Whose bright idea was that?

Wow, this class isn't even half over yet. Yawn...

Holla!

Ah, class. It was good to wrap tongues and teeth around the Elizabethan language a bit. A chance to grapple with the language before actually having to grapple with it. (On an unrelated note, if you ever see a product in a grocery store called a Grapple, which is marketed as an apple that tastes like a grape, don't buy it. It's just an apple with spray-on grape flavoring. It sucks.) I felt like we were going a little fast and getting into a bit too much of a rhythm, without having a chance to handle each phrase as its own separate entity. I know personally I felt like blocks of five or six phrases were all being delivered in the same way even though they shouldn't have been. Eh, such is life...

I'm pumped for my scene and monologue. I get to work with more actors I've never really worked with (save for my time as human scenery), and I get to play Touchstone. Shakespeare's fools are always among his most insightful characters. Woo-hoo for acting!!

Getting a monologue from my shadowing subject has become a bit frustrating. I can count at least three occasions where I've heard a story which would have been perfect, but due to circumstances, I couldn't exactly pull out a notebook and start transcribing. There has to be a better way...

Ah, to rehearsal must I return. God bye you...

More fun than you can shake a spear at (boo...)

Yay for Billy Shakes!!! Eagerly awaiting comedic theatre after the grave emotion of Electra. It should be a wonderful change of pace.

Funderful update: I was able to get the full palms of my hands onto the floor during the falling over stretch in warmup. It's the little things in life.

The packet was informative, although the tone of the writing itself was...umm...uhh...I didn't know Elizabethans were so snarky. There was some good stuff in there, however. Definite things I hope to try to use to inform my speech and manner.

Looking forward to making more acting...