Return to Narnia 2013

Re-post of my ByTheLamppost blog:

It just so happens that The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe tour cast is making a return to the stage. Almost everyone was able to come back (we miss Katie P!), so we have a new Ms. Unicorn, and an additional new Mr. Tumnus. In a strange turn of events, Edmund has outgrown Peter (and everyone else, for that matter), so the two are switching roles. Jonathan is now Edmund, and Christopher is Peter. Everyone else is much the same. We've had a few pick-up rehearsals in February, and we'll be having more this week, as I (the hardest to nail down, being 2 hours away and in school) am on spring break.

We'll be doing two shows, a matinee and evening show, on April 20th at the beautiful Paramount Theatre in Anderson, Indiana. I'm super excited about doing the show again, but it's extra special to be able to perform in this historical theatre. Here are some images I found on Google:

In other news, the play selected as the children's show (the short play we do for school groups) this spring at Union just so happens to be.....The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe! same script. no kidding. I agreed to assistant direct/stage manage the children's show a while back, before we knew what show we were doing. Of course, I'm also doing costumes. The children's show will run April 29-May 2, with 5 performances. So, I'm assistant directing and acting in (basically) the same show...at the same time...two different productions. It's really fun and exciting to be able to work on the same show with 2 different casts at the same time. It's fun to return to the old cast...everything is so familiar, but also we're also looking to make it fresh and new. It's great to work with a new cast too, to see what they bring to the show and how they make it their own. here's to hoping my brain doesn't explode! 

We'll see you in Narnia!

rehearsal/class 3.13.13

Today I rehearsed my scene with my acting partner, Katelynn. We started working some blocking (how you move from place to place during a scene), since we're both off-book now. We just ran through the scene several times and worked on the movement/flow of the scene.

In class, we worked on the scene and the teacher (Chad) gave us some critique. we barely got past the first beat, but that was fine. it was really great because instead of just working on how we move throughout the scene, we worked more on the motives behind the words, and therefore the movement. So, the GOTE! it was interesting because by the end of class I realized I need to be going a totally different direction with my character. Maybe I didn't realize that because I haven't fully read the whole play (The Glass Menagerie), but I just missed the heart of the character. She's not as selfish as I thought...She's not trying to marry off her daughter in an attempt to keep her own youth alive (or at least that's not the main motive), she truly loves her daughter and wants to see her succeed in life. so instead of her doing everything she can to get self-gratification through her daughter, everything she does is in service of trying to make her daughter succeed because she loves her. whoa. I just missed the mark a little. I really like her being more loving much better, but now I have to go back and rework my whole approach to the character.

Cohen 12-14

Chapter 12 in the Cohen Acting book is about choices. It's about the importance of making bold choices rather than safe ones. The need for bold choices is great because that's what theatre and acting are really about. It's ok to feel out of control or unsafe. the book says to choose:
to find your partner interesting
goals that excite you personally and physically
fears that frighten you personally and physically
to use everything you've got
to touchy your partner
to make contact
to try to smile
to hurry your partner
to be loud
to do something stupid

Some of these are general, and some are for specific exercises.

My favorite quote in the chapter was this:
"Don't be afraid to hurt me, you won't, and do whatever you want, go wherever you want with it, and I'll go with you. I love to be surprised."  ~Meryl Streep, to Kevin Kline on the first day of their shooting Sophie's Choice

Chapter 13 was on stage fright....which I've never really had a problem with.

Chapter 14 was on evaluation and improvement. It gives many common responses (critiques) and what those really mean, and how to respond to them.

GOTE

We've been learning about Robert Cohen's GOTE theory. GOTE stands for:

G - Goal
O - Other/Obstacle
T - Tactic
E - Expectation

The Goal is what the character wants, what they are working toward getting.
The Other is who the character is trying to get the goal from. The Obstacle is what's standing in the way of getting the goal (the obstacle can be the other).
The Tactic is the way the character is going about getting the goal.
The Expectation is that the character is expecting to get the goal. not necessarily that the actor is expecting it, because the actor knows the end of the play and whether the character gets their goal or not, but it is important that the character expects to get their goal, because it is uninteresting/boring to watch someone trying to get something that they already know they can't get.

We're working on scenes from the Glass Menagerie. For our scenes, we should have 3-4 "Beats." Beats are sections with a specific GOT (goal, obstacle, tactic). The beat changes when all 3 change. The scene or play may have an overarching goal/super objective, but within the scene/play the beat changes fairly often.

Acting Theory & Technique

So, stage movement class ended a while back, and I just failed at posting about the end of it. it was really fun and interesting though. We worked with Laban's efforts, the elements, and animals. best class ever!

I'm now taking Acting Theory & Technique, and as part of that I have to write a journal on what I'm learning. So I decided to do my journal entries as blog posts, just in case anyone out there wanted to know what I'm learning. =)