Tues Dec 7 Journal

Today we had a nice long rehearsal.

Everything was productive, there was not a minute that I thought "Oh man this is going nowhere."

We started out rehearsing in Yost. I'll stop here and diverge into a rant about space. This process has been relatively conflict-less, except for the space issue. I know that this is an issue that will not necessarily be solved as I continue in theater stuff like professional venues or other theaters. This is an issue that will always be present where two or more want to put on a show. But it always gets me: I always get frustrated that there's not enough good spaces, or there are too many people wanting the same thing, the same space, the same leader to give feedback.

But. Having said that, it was a great rehearsal that I got a lot accomplished. I really enjoyed having another set of eyes in particular. It was rewarding to have another person sit and enjoy the scene with a critical eye. I forgot how being directed feels like because its been a few months. That is such a satisfying feeling you know? Having someone give you an idea that you can totally see that it will work bfore you do it, and then once you implement it its even better than what you thought it was going to feel like. This is why actors are so self-absorbed I think: all those good feelings about 'feeling' the part and having someone tell you that its right HAS to get to one's head after a while.

I'll watch my pride.

Tues Nov 30 Evening Rehearsal

This rehearsal was a time for solid overall advancement with our scene. We continued to solidify blocking and memorization both.

Just today I realized that this scene takes place very early in the morning. They have all just come from a party that went late into the night. And now they are going to meet people that they don't really know. It is a very odd situation. Something I probably haven't and will never go through. It makes the scene have a very different feel when you take this into account. I'm surprised I let that valuable bit of info slide away. How do we act differently when we've been up for a very long time? That hour of the night will of course have things happen you aren't expecting.

I tried interweaving this a bit more tonight at our rehearsal. It was a little difficult I think partly because I'm still a little shaky off book. I'm not totally sure of myself to let the character do the talking. Which is another thing I must get over in the next few days. Or sooner. Once the lines are said fully by the character: thats when the magic happens.

Tuesday Nov 30 IN CLASS rehearsal

Today we had almost an hour to work on our scenes in class. Jacob and I were lucky enough to have the stage for the entire time.

We did some good work today. Our scene is all memorized. We just had a few slip-ups, but besides the occasional bliff, we got through it. I was also surprised at how much we had retained blocking-wise. Its amazing at how much physical memory takes over at a time like this.

We are trucking right along and I like the spot we are at. Today I realized how fun it is (again) to relate with other characters onstage. I felt my character relating as Nick to George. Not Jay reacting to Jacob. Its such a simple idea, but yet it gets me every time. There is a certain energy that is created when two real beings interact as two OTHER real beings on stage.

Its the magic of theater.

Catch up Journal

Sitting here at The Brew I realized that I wanted to journal about my scene. Very unlike me. I thought I should just write a quick entry about my own personal advancement with my scene.

I have been working on memorization and I anticipate our rehearsal tomorrow to run somewhat ruggedly, but mostly off book. This excites me quite a bit, as I feel so much more free with character and the show in general. When I get away from the script I am able to go deeper with exploration of character in movement and emotional involvement. It is this processing and this exploration that gives me the most energy. I think it is because it has the excitement of performance but the open space and freedom of a rehearsal.

At the same time however, I am swamped. And I wish I could spend more time on everything, but I cannot. I am not Superman. This makes me not wish for the coming days.

This is all I wanted to say, just that I'm looking forward to, but also dreading this week.

Journal for Tues Nov 23

Yesterday we were able to make a lot of progress on our scene. We started out working together on memorization stuff. We read through it and were able to get the first few pages memorized. I was amazed at how fast it went. After we worked through some memorizing we put it up on its feet.

The run went well, and we tweaked some stuff blocking-wise. Our movement has actually turned out to be quite good if I do say so myself. I was a little worried about it a few days ago, but now I think we have swam through all the pre-blocking guessing.

I think now I will be able to immerse myself in this show a bit more. I found already during yesterday's rehearsal that because I was no longer in 2 other shows on top of this scene, I was able to understand my character and the show and the plot as a whole. I like to be able to relax into the part, and I don't think I could do that with all the other on stage demands that I was dealing with earlier.

Tues Nov 16 Journal

Jacob and I met on Tuesday to go over initial blocking. We first chatted about what kind of movement, the ground plan, how we move, when we move, etc so we could have some sort of framework to run it off of. We ran through it once, paying attention to where our instincts took us, then talked about what felt good, what we liked, etc. and altered the frame a little more. It was a simple process but was quite useful in my opinion.

I'm finding that once again, the same issue for me doing these student run-no specified director-come up with it between the two of you-scenes is backing off to balance the creative 'genius'. I constantly have to remind myself that my opinions on how the set should look are not necessarily the best ones. It's an ongoing struggle to curb myself back a bit in order to not dominate. But to do it in a way that is not hindering to my creativity.

The scene is coming together. We are finding things on stage that are impossible to find sitting down researching. I like that feeling-when you have done the background and it just flows. Its not quite at the flowing part yet, but it will be.

First meeting

Yesterday afternoon during class was our first meeting.

These first few meets are always a little hazy because both actors have to

1. figure out how the other works

2. figure out how to marry the two separate work-ethics

3. carry out the 'work plan'

Plus, its not necessarily guaranteed to work out perfectly the first time. So there's a lot of trial and error before the 'acting' work even begins.

This is where we are now.

We started out with just a clean read through. It was interesting to see how our styles of acting (just voice acting in this instance, we were both seated) jump together to make the characters. I can already feel the previous character work I did (the many pages of the character bio online) worm into my conscious.

I'm going to go off on a tangent here and talk about conscious/subconscious.

This concept of acting in the conscious/subconscious is somewhat new to me. Well, new enough that I hadn't put a name to it. So now, as I work through the beginnings of a script again and start to mil about in my own way, I'm finding that yes, actually, it does work to start thinking of the character consciously, and I can already feel myself wanting to learn about this man so I can go 'off the book' character-wise and lines.

Now I'm back on summarizing.

After we did a first read-through, we chatted about the play in general. Very general stuff like overall outline, previous action, ideas of characters so far, and cutting of the script. We went back to the script and read through it one more time. It was like night and day. The lines made more sense even after the short talk about the generalities of the story. I'm thinking that not all the rehearsals will make these leaps, but it sure would be nice.