Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!
Well, I’m in the final semester – the end is in sight but so much to do before I cross the finish line. I just returned from winter break, which was a much needed reprieve from a hectic schedule of balancing grad school and real life back in Baltimore. Over break, Eli and I and our friend Jay took a trip to see Eli’s step-brother in Thailand. The trip was unbelievable and we had an amazing time over there. That, combined with time with friends and family, celebrating Eli’s graduation from his MBA program, and wedding planning, all made it hard to come back to school. But I’ve made it through the first week so I think it’s going to be alright. Here’s an update on my classes:

CLASSES

Collective Conscious: Actor, Director Ensemble
I’ve been learning a lot about directing in this class – specifically on how my vision become clear and how it can be communicated effectively for an audience. We continued working on the Shakespearean sonnets throughout the semester, and presented an evening of Shakespeare’s sonnets called “14 Lines”. In the show I performed two sonnets (one as a worn out tired mother delivering the speech to her crying baby and the other as a New York janitor at a night club delivering the speech “My Mistress Eyes..” to the audience). I also directed a sonnet as well. The show turned out much better than anticipated as it felt a bit confusing to get together. In addition to this project, we were assigned a published playwright to report on and a student playwright to work with directing a first staged reading of a new play they’ve written. This semester we’ll be acting and directing in some one-acts by Harold Pinter, Edward Albee, and others. We’ll also be working with SLC Alum and writer/performer Clay McLeod Chapman to present his short story/monologues as a full show. I’m excited about both of these projects as the material is great. More to come as the semester progresses.

Comedy Styles & Performance
After concluding my work on my scene from House of Blue Leaves, I was assigned a monologue from the George S. Kauffman play “Man Who Came to Dinner” and later on in the semester a scene from Noel Coward’s “Private Lives”. The work in this class has focused my comedic instincts and pushed me to find clarity in my physical work as well as the choices I make with my characters. This semester we’re moving further back in time, looking at Moliere, Shakespeare, Restoration Comedy, and Greek Comedy.

Creating Original Theatre Today
During this semester, we focused on exploring the various components that are involved in making theatre in a physical way: time, space, repetition of and retrograding movement, use of props, etc. We did solo performance studies throughout the semester and ended our work by using elements of all of our pieces to create one longer piece that used two other class members as performers. I worked with my friends Rachel and Colleen and we were able to create three long pieces that linked together seamlessly from one to the other. I discovered a lot about creating new work and how to trust myself and my ideas as this work is still new to me. I enjoyed the work a great deal but have had to drop the class due to a time conflict with another class. I may audit the class still one day a week when possible.

Making New Work
This class has been fantastic. While we played with different ideas for pieces at the beginning of the semester, our work turned towards a piece that we decided to create for World AIDS Day. I worked as a director and a performer on what turned out to be a 20 minute piece, which seems short but is really challenging when you’re creating the whole thing from scratch. The piece turned out to be beautiful and really moving. We called it “Handle with Care” and had various poems, statistics, text, song, and even jokes and all of it was tied together through a myriad of boxes which held the “belongings” of a person who may have been affected by AIDS. I was really pleased with the show and the audience response was really positive.

Theatre Outreach
This semester I’m continuing on with my placement at Westchester Community College but this time I’ll be assisting with two sections of Acting I classes. I loved working with the class in the fall and after just the first day working with my two new classes, I’m really excited to have the chance to retry some of my lesson plans and create new ones for this term.

Performing Arts for Social Change

This class was a huge challenge for me but ultimately invaluable for my work as a teacher and as a theatre artist. I ended up gearing my project on poverty in inner city Baltimore and finding a way to alleviate it through student involvement in theatre. This was a small part of it:
Vision: To get children out of poverty in Baltimore City by ensuring them the opportunity and means to go to college.
Mission: We will use the performing arts to empower children to get out of poverty over their lifetimes by keeping them out of the streets and in a safe, creative environment, develop their creativity, critical thinking, language capacity and social skills and provide them with the aptitude and opportunity to go to college.

This is a huge project plan and after researching I began to get dismayed by the massive scope of the issue. However, I’d like to keep working on my project in hopes to bring it to life down the road.

Acting for the Camera
This semester I added a new course, Acting for the Camera. As you can imagine, we are learning about film acting. I had my first class and did a cold read of a scene from the movie Happiness. I think it’s going to be a good class for me. I’ve gotten so used to playing character roles that something like this will push me in a different way. It should be fun to try it out on camera (and we get to keep the tapes... though I can’t promise I’ll share them with you).
Course Description: We will focus on basic principles of camera acting, script analysis (using both original and published works), understanding character and type, comprehension, and creative construction of a solid foundation for camera work. The methodology is Meisner based. The second half of each semester will be dedicated to putting a film scene on its feet within, but not constrained by, the specific parameters of the camera lens.

Other Classes

My other classes, Alexander Technique and my independent study on Actor Pedagogy, are also going well. It’s nice to have a forum to discuss teaching methods, especially as we have a faculty mentor, Fan Sheier, whom I adore. Mid way through the semester, I joined Rachel, Colleen, Justin, Paola, and Eric (all second year grads) in their work on another independent study. They had worked together on a project last year which carried over into the fall. Since they were finished with that in September they wanted to move on to a new project and asked me to be a part of it. We’re basically creating a show from scratch but while it may have a story and such, there will be no spoken word to it. In fact it was inspired by a show created by Charlie Chaplin’s grandson, James Theirree who does amazing shows with almost a circus feel. We will be working on this show throughout the semester and plan on presenting it at the end of the year.

SHOWS

Ramona Quebranto

Ramona Quebranto, Paola’s show that I played in, went really well. I was pleased with how it turned out and enjoyed working with the cast. Paola did a tremendous job both as writer and playing the role of this tormented women Ramona. When Ramona ended, I had a week before I jumped into Urinetown.

Urinetown

We are almost at the end of the rehearsal process for Urinetown now and will go up February 4th. I’m really excited about this show. Our cast has been a blast and we’ve had a lot of fun playing with these ridiculous characters. The set looks fantastic and I’m looking forward to seeing how everything comes together with the lights, costumes, etc. If you want to come, performances are February 5,6, and 7 at 7 pm. There is no charge for tickets but please let me know if you're coming so I can reserve you seats.

Shakespeare Naked
As I mentioned in my first blog, we’re putting on Romeo & Juliet this year. But at that time, I didn’t realize that I’d be directing it! I love to direct but while I’ve been at Sarah Lawrence, I’ve tried to focus more on my acting than anything else. However, this year I wanted to jump back into the directing seat just for a few projects and since Rachel (last year’s director) was interested in acting this year, I stepped up to the plate. I’m a bit nervous as I’ve never directed a full length Shakespeare play but I think it’s going to be a great opportunity to play and explore with this group of girls.

Lampoon
Lampoon is going well. I was appointed as the Member Liaison so I am in a bit of a leadership role this year. I want to scale back my crazy schedule this spring if I can and give myself a bit more time for Lampoon and our big show in the spring. We’ll be doing some improv shows and writing sketches for the show as well in the coming months.

OTHER STUFF

Cross Country went really well. I love coaching and this gave me a nice chance to do it again, especially as it works out well with my schedule and keeps me in shape running with the undergrads. I’ll continue coaching this spring but without a formal season in place. Eli and I are planning to train for a half marathon this spring. I had wanted to last fall but had some trouble with my knee and had to stop for a while. But it’s doing better and I’m ready to get back out there.

Last semester got really crazy. Between school, theatre, the wedding, our trip to Thailand and Cambodia, the house, etc., etc. I was feeling the pressure. This semester I need to continue with wedding planning and school but now the job search has to begin full force. I’m exploring all options that come my way in hopes to find the right position for me. Keep your fingers crossed… or better yet, let me know if you hear of anything worth checking out!

Alright, back to work. Until next time…

Falling into another year...

Can it really be October already? School is back in full swing and there’s so much going on!

To begin, I’ll recap on the summer. In the seemingly short time I was at home, a lot of great things happened. First and foremost, I got engaged! This is probably not news to most of you. Eli proposed at my parents’ house in St. Michaels with the whole family there. We were out on the pier when he popped the question. My family knew it was coming so once he got on his knee I heard cheers from the lawn. It was really fun to celebrate with everyone and hear about all the scheming behind my back to keep it a secret. We’re going to have the wedding down there next June. In addition, we bought a house in Canton this summer. It’s a great spot and we’ve had fun making it our own. We moved in only weeks before I had to come back to school so besides painting, we haven’t done a whole lot but it’s getting there. I miss being in Baltimore, but it’s nice to have a real home to go back to. I look forward to the day when I’m not lugging my things back and forth all the time!

This summer also marked the opening season of the theatre company I’ve started with Ron Giddings. I was thrilled to perform in Standing O’s first show, the musical On the 20th Century. It was a real challenge to put that show up but it turned out well. Reviews were positive and audiences seemed to enjoy themselves. Our second show, John & Jen, was also a hit and was well-received by audiences and critics alike. We have one more show this season, Retreat from Moscow, before making plans for next year. It’s a crazy process but we’re learning a lot. It’s tough to be away at school while all this is going on but the year is already flying by so quickly!

Back to school… again.

This year I’m taking a variety of new classes. I also had to jump right back into the various projects and groups I was working with last year. The beginning of the year was a whirlwind of auditions and meetings but things are getting to be more routine now. Here’s the line-up of course descriptions for this year:

Collective Conscious: Actor, Director Ensemble (Kevin Confoy)

- A specific approach to performance that unifies director and actor in a common understanding of the central metaphor of a play. In addition to script analysis, comparative study of styles, and regular in-class performance, students will present work as part of the Theatre program season. Over the course of the year, each student will be required to direct and perform. Open to serious students who have an interest in both directing and acting.

This class has been really interesting so far. Our first project has focused on Shakespearean sonnets – directing and performing them. My teacher is really interesting and has great ideas about directing. I think I’m going to get a lot out of this class – it’s already given me a new perspective on approaching the directing process.

Comedy Styles & Performance (Christine Farrell)

- This is a scene study class for students interested in the great comedy traditions in theatrical history. In the first semester, students will work on Greek comedy, commedia dell’arte, French farce, and Restoration comedy. The second semester begins with the British style of Noël Coward and Oscar Wilde but is devoted to modern American playwrights. The great comedies of the 1930’s and 40’s as well as current Broadway and off-Broadway writers become the focus of this semester’s scene study.

We’ve begun the class with modern plays and have been paired up to work on scenes. I’m working on a scene from House of Blue Leaves, a great play by John Guare. What I like about this work is we really focus on creating the scene moment by moment both physically and emotionally. Comedy is so particular and requires a lot of attention to detail in order to really highlight the comedic moments.

Creating Original Theatre Today (David Neumann)

- This class is a hands-on exploration of how to build a theatre piece from scratch. We will focus on the use of organized movement in live performance blending dance-making principles with text from both theatrical and non-theatrical sources. While pursuing one’s original voice in performance, the goal of this class will be to integrate one’s disparate courses of study in a theatrical context presenting both solo works and group collaborations to the campus. In addition to the scheduled class time, students will be required to attend rehearsals of Mr. Neumann’s professional engagements in New York City.

I’m loving this class. We have such a creative group of people in the class. The focus so far has been on studying theatre with relation to space and time in theatre. It’s so interesting to look at how paying attention to space and/or time can really affect a piece of theatre. I’m interested to see how we begin to create more work from these ideas.

Making New Work (Shirley Kaplan)

- A performance ensemble lab where the creative process and global forms and styles are presented and explored. Techniques include using research of past and present world theatrical movements. Methods of vocal and physical work will add to interdisciplinary collaborations in order to explore sources of inspiration for new work. Using connections that cross cultural and media traditions, the group will create and present weekly projects. Open to actors, dancers, visual artists, writers, musicians, filmmakers, and directors.

Much like the previous class, this course is very much free form and forces you to think outside the box and look at making theatre from scratch – using ideas, music, images, current events, etc. to inspire all kinds of theatre. Both these classes are great for me as they really force you to tap into your creative brain and see what happens with the freedom to experiment and play without the hindrance of expectations and results steering the work.

Theatre Outreach (Shirley Kaplan & Allen Lang)

- Developing original, issue-oriented dramatic material using music and theatre media, this course will present the structures needed for community extension of the theatre. Performance and teaching groups will work with small theatres, schools, senior citizen groups, museums, centers, and shelters. The productions and class plans will be made in consultation with the organizations and our touring groups. We will work with children’s theatre, audience participation, and educational theatre. Teaching and performance techniques will focus on past and present uses of oral histories and cross-cultural material. Sociological and psychological dynamics will be studied as part of an exploration of the role of theatre and its connections to learning. Each student will have a service-learning team placement. Special projects and guest topics will include use of theatre in developing new kinds of after-school programs, styles and forms of community on-site performances, media techniques for artists who teach, and work with the Sarah Lawrence Human Genetics program.

You might remember that I got involved in this last year, teaching theatre at a school in the Bronx once a week. This year I wanted to get some experience teaching at the college level so I asked for a higher ed placement. I’m now teaching one class a week at the Westchester Community College. It’s an Acting I class full of over 24 college students. The class is only 50 minutes long so it’s a challenge to create a lesson plan that can accommodate the size of the class and the needs of the curriculum. However, I really love the group I’m working with. Many of them are brand new to theatre which makes it really exciting for me to see them grasping the concepts and jumping into the exercises we do. In addition to this class, there are a number of other projects I may be working on, including a traveling performance troupe to take a show to various area schools and a program at a school in Yonkers where we would work with parents on theatre exercises and performances to help them better understand what they’re kids are experiencing and get parents and kids to work together on projects. There is also a new school in Yonkers called The Graham School, a union-free school district for at-risk youth, grades k-12. More info is on their website if you’re interested: http://www.greenburghgraham.org/index.html. My teacher has asked that I help design the arts curriculum for that program as currently they have no theatre offerings and are really excited about bringing arts to the school. More to come on that.

Performing Arts for Social Change (Paul Griffin)

- In today’s world, theatre is increasingly defined as a commercial enterprise. This course will examine the use of theatre for social change, examining its history, practices, theories, role, and production. Discussions will include an examination of approaches to using theatre for creating personal and social change and the key elements of successful projects. Interactive class sessions will include participation in a creative theatrical process involving community building, team building, conflict resolution, social analysis, and scene creation. Each student will be expected to develop a coherent theory of change and construct a viable performing arts-based project “blueprint.” Students will also visit one Saturday rehearsal of the City at Peace project in New York City, a nonprofit using the performing arts to empower teenagers to transform their lives and communities.

Years ago, a very talented student came to Oldfields and told me about an organization she had been involved with in DC called City at Peace. After watching her grow artistically at Oldfields and hearing about the amazing program to often, my ears perked right up when the organization’s founder, Paul Griffin, came to speak to the grad students last spring. He told us all about the work they do and I was immediately intrigued. When I heard he was teaching a class this year, I had to take it. I’m hoping to not only learn about how the performing arts can create changes in society but also to create a structure and plan for a program I can develop and run through Standing O and reach out to kids in the Baltimore/Annapolis area.

Alexander Technique (June Ekman)

- The Alexander Technique is a neuromuscular system that re-educates and enables the student to identify and change poor and inefficient habits, which may be causing stress and fatigue. With gentle hands-on guidance and verbal instruction, the student learns to replace faulty habits with improved coordination by locating and releasing undue muscular tensions. This includes the ease of the breath and the effect of coordinated breathing on the voice. An invaluable technique that connects the actor to his or her resources for dramatic intent.

I took this class first semester of last year but had to drop because of a second semester course I wanted to take. However, I’m thrilled to be back in it. It’s a great class and is a constant reminder of how important it is to have physical freedom and ease when working and when just going about my day to day life. If you ever have the chance to take a class in Alexander, definitely do so.

Actor Pedagogy: Theory & Practice in Teaching Acting

This is an independent study that my friends and I created this year. We’re all looking to teach acting at some point after graduation so in this course we’ll examine various methods of acting training and observe techniques used by teachers at Sarah Lawrence and possibly other local colleges and universities. I’m hoping to use this as a means to begin creating my own teaching philosophy and molding the techniques I’ll use in my teaching later on.

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Other stuff

I’m involved in two shows this semester. The first is a play written by one of my peers, Paola Irun. Paola is from Paraguay and wrote Ramona Quebranto, a play about a Paraguayan woman’s struggles in her life. I play Ramona’s uptight, religious Godmother, the mother figure in Ramona’s life. It’s an interesting play and it’s great working with the people involved. We present the show during the weekend of October 25th so it’s quickly approaching.

After Ramona Quebranto, I will begin working on the musical Urinetown playing the role of Little Sally. From Wikipedia: Urinetown is an award-winning satirical comedy musical that pokes fun at capitalism, social irresponsibility, populism, bureaucracy, corporate mismanagement, and petty small town politics, as well as advocating environmentalism. Urinetown rejects musical theatre convention, parodying successful Broadway shows such as Les Misérables, Evita, Annie, West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof, and even satirizes its own significance. In reverse pantomime style, the unconventional plotline shatters audience expectations of a pleasant ending. Urinetown website: http://www.urinetown.com/flash/index.html. We’re performing this show in February so more details to come.

I just finished my first directing gig at school. I was asked to direct a staged reading of a play by Eric Meyer, another playwright in my program. The play is called The Scavengers and is layered with complex characters and an interesting story. We presented the reading last week to an audience and then followed up with a talk back for the playwright. It was cool to work directly with the playwright and the actors so you could find out so much about the piece from him as you went along. Eric wrote An Off-White Afternoon, the show I was in last spring, so I had a sense of his previous work.

Shakespeare Naked is back up and running. We auditioned and selected a very talented group of new members to replace those who moved on after graduation or went abroad. This year we’ve decided to work on Romeo and Juliet as our show. We will begin working together this week but won’t begin rehearsals until after winter break for a show to go up around spring break.

Lampoon, the comedy improv/sketch group I’m in, also held auditions and picked our new members. We’re working on a few things this fall, including improv shows and a fast-paced sketch show that we’ll write and perform in a week’s time focused on events and news from that week. I think we’ll be putting that up some time at the end of this month – hopefully right around election time.

This year, I’m working at the sports center again but I’m also the assistant coach of the Cross Country team. We practice three times a week in the mornings. It’s great to be coaching again (since I did a lot of that in college) and it’s really nice to have more motivation to get up and run in the mornings. We have a fun team of students with us who are all really eager and supportive of one another. The season officially ends at the end of October but I’m hoping to stick with them as we have a group that wants to train for a half-marathon. That’s been a goal of mine for a long time so I’m really hoping to give it a whirl this winter.

Well, that’s what’s going on so far. It’s crazy but the year is going well. School is good, wedding plans are taking shape, and the job search has begun. Please keep in touch when you can. Hope all is well!

Curtain Call

I’m in the final week! I can’t believe it’s already down to days. The last few weeks have been crazy. Since coming back from spring break, life has been pretty overwhelming. I honestly think I’ve hit my limit at points and am in the midst of one of the craziest times I’ve had doing theatre (or anything for that matter). But I can see the end in sight – thank god.

An Off-White Afternoon

I couldn’t have enjoyed working on this show more. We had a fantastic ensemble of people working on the production – the actors were talented and very focused, the writer, Eric Meyer, was terrific to work with giving us insight into the play and allowing us to find our own realities within the situation and characters he created, and our director, Colleen Sullivan, was a joy. I think she may be one of the best directors I’ve ever worked with. She has great instincts and clear ideas about the play, but is very open to and encourages exploration with her actors. Rehearsals were playful and engaging. We were constantly trying new ideas and discovering more about the play and the characters, even during the performances, which I think is the key to good work. The show was a huge hit and we’re actually thinking about performing it more either this summer or next year around the city. I’ve put up some pictures from our rehearsals and from the show below this post.

Lampoon Live!
I did it! I made it to Saturday Night Live! Well, not really, but it was close. Our sketch comedy show was this weekend and it went really well. This was the first time Lampoon has done a show this big and one that is considered a main stage show (meaning we get full financial and technical backing on the production). I had a blast working with the cast and we were all really enjoying the show (both on stage and watching from backstage). Our sketches ranged from political satire to television parodies, to historical sketches. I played Hillary Clinton in a couple sketches and Samantha from Sex and the City as well. Pictures to come!

Song Night
This was a blast. Song Night was a total hit with audiences and all of us were really excited about our performances. I ended up singing two solos - You Don’t Know Me (Ray Charles) and Breaking Down (from the musical Falsettoland) – as well as three duets – Dos Vedanya (Pink Martini), Kiss You Off (Scissor Sisters), and Sometimes I Wish I Had A Gun (Mink Stole). We also ended the show with a disco medley in which I sand Disco Inferno (Burn, Baby, Burn). The show had a ton of energy and even though it was a bit long (over thirty songs!), the audiences stayed with it the entire time. I am so glad I took this course – I’ve learned a lot and have grown as a performer from it.

Trojan Women
The city of Troy has been destroyed… finally. We performed three shows this weekend and all went very smoothly. It’s been a long haul for this show- we’ve been rehearsing a lot. I love the cast I’m working with and we’ve really created an interesting piece – it is very barely staged and most movement is driven by impulse so the show changes every night. But it’s a very draining play – as a chorus member, we’re on stage the entire time and because we are the women of Troy, the emotions are high and the circumstances are very extreme. Friday night was particularly tough as I went from performing that straight to Hamlet – talk about a long, depressing evening between the Greeks and the Danes. Though the production itself wasn’t one of my favorites, I really enjoyed taking that class. It made a huge impact on my acting, but also affected my life in larger ways. The focus of the class was on staying in the moment and acting from physical and emotional impulses rather from your mind. The ideas behind it are simple but not so easy to carry out. I’ve already noticed the work carry over into my other shows and work in acting classes. I hope to bring the exercises from this class into shows and classes I teach in the future.

Hamlet
We opened Hamlet last weekend with two performances – one inside and one outside. Overall I think it went well. I was really nervous about it because we didn’t have a lot of time to rehearse the week of and when we did rehearse it was not running so smoothly. I’m a bit disappointed that I haven’t had more time to give to it. It’s such a challenging play and a difficult role to take on. I’m happy I did it and feel that it was worthwhile but it was a stretch to pull off. I saw the guys’ show the other night and it was fantastic – very very different than our interpretation though. We had a show Friday night and then one on Saturday – that performance was a bit different. Each cast (male and female) was split in two and paired up with the other group. So in my Saturday cast, I worked with half girls and half guys (whom we’ve never rehearsed with before). The show was really interesting – it was extremely different as the characters had been interpreted differently by the male actors. We had to go with improvisation to explore the relationships and dynamics of the scenes as we went along. It was strange to perform in this way and I think, should we do it again next year, we’ll try another structure for the combination performance. I’m relieved to be finished with Hamlet. Despite the stress of it all, my first full length Shakespeare show was a fun.

Comedy Night
Stand-up comedy… much harder than it looks. Most of the focus of the work is actually writing and fine tuning the routine. It’s been interesting to learn about the structure of stand-up and really difficult to apply it. Last night we performed at a bar in the lower east side of Manhattan and tonight we bring the show back to Sarah Lawrence for two nights. I was really nervous about how my set would turn out. I was still making changes to it up until the hour before I went on. We had a great audience though and people seemed to enjoy the show. Everyone completed their set with no major glitches. We meet for class today and will talk about/fix any problems that need attention. Overall, I feel good about it. I’m surprised at how my routine has changed throughout the process but I am proud of how it turned out.

Puppetry Night

The roaches in the shoe store are coming along. We perform tonight and tomorrow before Comedy Night. Every time we run it we find more details or problems to fix. It’s a frustrating process and feels funny to have worked so hard on a ten minute piece. I am happy with it though and feel I’ve gotten out of it what I wanted. We’ll see how tonight goes.

Theatre Outreach
My students from the school in the Bronx came to campus on Wednesday to perform the pieces they have been working on with us. They all did such a great job and despite having very little time to put it together, they seemed ready and excited about performing. I was really proud of them for their work. It’s hard enough to get up there in front of your peers but especially hard when it’s a piece you wrote and created. We had a picnic outside and the kids played around the quad. I hope I can do this again next year in some form. It was frustrating to see how much potential is there but how little time and resources are available to encourage their talents. Now that I have a better sense of the way it works, I can structure the classes more effectively.

Curtain Call
Classes are wrapping up this week. Many of my classes ended in a performance so after tomorrow, things should be easy. We have another episode of Radio Drama tonight and tomorrow (after Comedy Night) and then I’m done with shows for the year!

This year has been a whirlwind and I’m ready for the summer. I’m looking forward to recharging for next year. This summer I’ll be working in Baltimore and rehearsing for our first show with Standing O – the theatre company Ron Giddings and I are starting. I’ll also be back up in NY for a week teaching comedy/comedy writing at a writer’s workshop with my comedy teacher. If you’re still with me, thanks for reading. Enjoy the summer!!!

An Off-White Afternoon - Final Dress Rehearsal

Tech Week for An Off-White Afternoon

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

As it’s already spring break, it’s finally time for another blog. Things have been really crazy up in Bronxville so there’s lots to share. I know this one is very long but they’ll only be one (maybe two) more blog(s) before the end of the year, so take your time. Enjoy!

CLASSES

Comedy Workshop

This semester we’ve been exploring different styles of comedy, particularly focusing on discovering our individual comic styles and how we bring out the most in the characters we play. We learned about commedia dell arte, which is an improvisation based form of theatre that originated in Italy and was popular from the 16th to the 18th century. It was based on stock characters, similar to the stereotypical characters you might find in any number of sitcoms today. Each actor had a particular role they played and would perform various scenarios through improvisation. Much of the form involved masks as well – typically half masks. It’s a blast to perform and really interesting to see how the masks can influence the actors. When you watch them, it almost seems like they transform into different people – really wild to see. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commedia_dell'arte

We’ve also been doing slapstick, exercises developed by Jackie Gleason, comic and straight character scenes, writing sketch comedy, etc. It’s been fantastic. All the work has been geared towards finding our comic voice. One exercise we did was to think about stereotypes from our lives or from the places where we grew up and to present/imitate them for the class. For instance, some of mine included the Baltimore Hon, the lacrosse jock, the prep girls, etc. We then had to choose one of these characters and create a monologue performance with them. I chose the “hon” and had fun making references to playing keno, drinking natty boh, etc. You can take the girl out of B-more but you can’t take the “hon” out of the girl.

Last week we were writing sketches based on current events – I was assigned to sports so ours is on Roger Clemens (old story by now but still in the news). After break, we’ll begin working towards our stand-up. We’re going to perform our stand-up routines at a nightclub/bar in the city before performing at Sarah Lawrence. All are welcome to come (and hopefully laugh… hopefully).

Singing Workshop

I’ve worked on a lot of new songs since school picked back up, including “Black Horse and a Cherry Tree” (KT Tunstall – that was a total bust), “Strongest Suit” (from Aida), “Holding to the Ground” (from Falsettoland), Medley of “Do Right Woman/Do Right Man”, “You Can Leave Your Hat On”, and “R-E-S-P-E-C-T”, “Twenty Something” (Jamie Cullum), and “Big Ass Rock” (from The Full Monty). Additionally, each of us was given a composer to research and present. We had to perform three of his/her songs in class this week. I was given Burt Bacharach, which made me laugh at first – think Austin Powers cameo – but it was great to work on his stuff. I chose to do “(Don’t Go) Please Stay” (made famous by the Drifters), “Walk On By”, and “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again” (both Dionne Warwick hits). When we return from break we’ll be bringing in disco songs in hopes to create some sort of disco group medley for the show. We’ll then start going through songs we’ve performed throughout the year and choosing the ones for the final show. I’m really excited about this performance.

The Trojan Women…

My class with Ed Sherin started to work on our production of Trojan Women. I’m one of the women in the chorus. While I was disappointed not to be playing a more challenging role, I’m beginning to find that the chorus of women (there are 6 of us) allows us a chance to really explore ensemble work. It’s a tough play to rehearse because the women are basically moaning and crying the whole time but we’re starting to find more fun in it. Let’s hope so or this might feel like a very long show to watch 

Acting the Poetic Text

In Poetic Text we’ve moved on to more contemporary plays. I started off the semester with a scene from Mrs. Warren’s Profession by George Bernard Shaw. Since then I’ve been working on a scene and a monologue from Uncle Vanya (Chekhov) playing Yelena, and an excerpt from For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf by Ntozake Shange (we’re all working on pieces from that play, technically “choreopoem”- it’s a great piece if you’re not familiar with it). I think I’ve really come far in that class. When I look back on my work in the beginning of the year, I realize I was much more stilted in my acting. I’m sure it’s a combination of the classes I’ve take, but it’s nice to notice more ease when I perform.

Acting Shakespeare

This semester I added a new course – Acting Shakespeare. The title is pretty self explanatory, so you can guess what I’m doing in the class. For the first half of the semester we’ve been working very intensely on two monologues – one from Hamlet (I’ll never escape this play), which we work on with student directors from the class, and one from Romeo and Juliet, which we work on with John, our teacher, during various classtimes. It’s been really great. I’m doing “Oh what a rogue and peasant slave” from Hamlet and “Gallop a pace…” from R&J. It’s nice to play both Hamlet and Juliet in one class and I’m learning a ton from John. He is the head of the theatre department and has been at SLC for a few years now. He was the artistic director at Milwaukee Rep Theatre for a long time and has tons of experience directing Shakespeare. John’s a phenomenal teacher and has helped me understand how to approach the text and to really enjoy it. We presented the monologues on Thursday and will start up with scenes after break.

Puppet Central

Ahh, puppetry. It continues. Actually, despite my fear of this semester (namely creating a 10 minute puppetry piece from scratch- maybe it seems easy but, to me, it’s not), I’m really enjoying the whole process. While we had the option to work alone, I opted to pair up with my friend Elizabeth. I liked her initial concept for our piece and wanted to enjoy the process rather than stress on my own about it. So, the idea for the piece came from an experience Elizabeth had in the city. She was looking at shoes in a boutique window when out of this fancy boot came a roach. Not one. But lots of roaches started streaming out. Disgusting, creepy.. but a funny idea for us. And so we begin to discover the secret life of roaches. Our piece is sort of cartoonish, using a variety of puppetry styles, as we show the lives of roaches at night. It becomes a story about the roaches coming out of shoes after sunset, raiding the bakery next store at night, playing in the shoe store window, the shoes awaking and beginning a battle with the roaches, and all that ensues thereafter. It’s a bit outlandish but we’re having a lot of fun with it. I still can’t get over how much work even such a short piece requires. We’re aiming to have our pieces built by mid April and then we’ll rehearse till we present them for audience the last week of school. I’ll never look at roaches the same again.


Theatre Outreach

This semester I’m continuing to teach at the bilingual school in the Bronx on Wednesday mornings. I work with 8th graders and a special ed class. This semester both classes have gone on field trips to the MET so their pieces that we’re working on are all inspired by artwork they’ve seen at the museum. It was interesting to see what they were drawn to and what stories they created from the art. The students are creating short plays based on the ideas and will even bring the performances to Sarah Lawrence in the spring. It’s so great to work with them. With the 8th graders it’s tough to keep them focused and on task as there are so many of them in the space where we work but they’re managing to keep on track. I wish I spoke better Spanish. They use English and Spanish and occasionally I’ll pick up on what they’re saying but it would be nice to be fluent. It was pretty funny though. In the special ed class, the kids I was working with were speaking Spanish to each other and one girl told the other to shut up. They laughed for quite a while when I called her out on it – they thought I couldn’t understand any of it.



Extra Stuff

In the beginning of the semester I was spending all my time working on our grad show, Red Lover Blue Wedding. I can honestly say that my role in Pinter’s The Lover was the most challenging I’ve ever taken on in a full production. Not only was the emotional content draining and demanding, but the blocking left me in a whirlwind on stage. As we performed the piece, which we split into three separate “acts”, we used our blocking to remove the set from the previous play and bring on set pieces for the following. This made the blocking very choreographed and timing essential. Additionally, as I was playing “Petey” in Fairytale Wedding, I had to jump from a mentally/physically tormented housewife to Peter Pan in an instant. Overall, the experience was worthwhile. I learned an awful lot and felt good about my performance.


Hamlet is going well. We’re just getting off book and on our feet in rehearsals. It’s really interesting to be working on this show with all women – the dynamic is completely different and we’re finding a lot of elements to the play that we hadn’t noticed before when the roles are traditionally cast. Claudius is a tough role but I’m looking forward to playing him. We plan to perform the show at the end of the year and will most likely hold performances outside, just as Shakespeare was originally done. It’s going to be a great show.

I’m also working on a show called An Off-White Afternoon. It’s a great show written by one of my fellow grad students in the program. We’ve got a fun cast of five and a terrific director (also a grad). It goes up soon after break so we’re about midway through the process. What was really exciting was reading through scenes and discussing the text since Eric, the writer, was still tweaking/adding/deleting parts of the play as we went along. We’re doing the show with a very bare set, actually with the audience on stage with us. It should be an interesting production.

Lampoon is going strong. We started the semester creating various improv forms to use in our shows. Our first show was inspired by the Choose Your Own Adventure books. We had the audience give us a title to the “book” and based the show on that title. We were given “The Untameable Savage” as the title. I ended up playing the hero of our adventure story, a dirty old man taking various tests to win the hand of his love, “the savage woman from Canada”. It was a pretty funny show and audiences loved it. Our second one was last week. This form is based on the classic Murder Mystery drama. We begin the show as a normal show but with the use of one prop given to us by the audience. Suddenly the lights mysteriously go out. We play as if this is a mistake and we continue the show as ourselves. When the lights come up the performer who had been holding the prop is seen “dead” on the ground and all the lampoon performers are suspects. We then go on to solve the mystery by re-enacting scenes from the performer’s life to establish motive, plans, suspects, etc. It’s pretty funny – a lot different as we play ourselves rather than characters – but the audiences liked it. In addition to creating these forms, our big task at hand in the show in April. I mentioned before we’re doing a sketch show similar to Saturday Night Live. As a group we’ve written over 70 sketches. We met last week to vote on which ones to have in the show and then we’ll begin rehearsing after break. It’s a crazy process but a lot of fun.

I can hardly believe how fast the year is going. Just last week I had dinner with prospective grad students visiting for next year. It seems like yesterday when I was in their shoes. And, what’s funny too, is that when the admitted students come to visit in April (the undergrads), I’ll represent the theatre department in a performance of the play Night of the Leaping Terror, a play written by one of the undergrads in the program.
As I look back on the year thus far, I’m amazed at all that I’ve learned and all the experiences I’ve had. There are definitely many difficult aspects to doing grad school full time, but all in all, I think it was a good move for me. I’m anxious to see how the rest of the year pans out.

This summer I’ll begin work on the first production with Standing O, the theatre company Ron Giddings and I are starting. We’re producing a musical called On the 20th Century. You can check out our website for more info. I’ll send out more information on that soon. We just held auditions this weekend and have a fantastic and very talented cast on board for the show. I was thrilled with the turn out and am excited to get working on that when I return in May.

So, that’s it. On that note, I was ready for spring break. I’m home till March 30 and then back to the chaos. If you’re celebrating St. Patty’s Day, hope you have fun. Keep in touch!

Red Lover Blue Wedding