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 i
s 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!
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 i
s 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'arteWe’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!
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