Back to school...

Happy New Year!

2009-01-22T13:39:00.000-08:00

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...

2008-10-06T06:57:00.000-07:00

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.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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

2008-05-12T04:45:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-21T22:27:00.001-07:00

Tech Week for An Off-White Afternoon

2008-04-21T22:25:00.001-07:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

2008-03-17T13:44:00.000-07:00

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

2008-02-26T21:16:00.001-08:00

Spring Shows

2008-02-02T12:14:00.000-08:00

Swingin' into Spring

In case you might wind up in the Bronxville/NYC area in the coming months, here is the most up to date schedule of the performances I have until the school year ends. If you are able and/or interested in coming to see a show, please let me know! All tickets are free but I need to put your name on the list to get one.

February

Red Lover Blue Wedding - Theatre Grad Student Project

This performance combines four pieces (two published plays and two works created by grad playwrights in our program). I am involved in two of the four:

The Lover (playing the role of Sarah) by Harold Pinter http://dramatists.com/cgi-bin/db/single.asp?key=641

Fairytale Wedding (playing the role of Peter Pan) by one of our playwrights.

Performance Dates: Open Dress Rehearsal is February 7th at 7 pm and shows are February 8th and 9th at 9:30 pm.

Location: Sarah Lawrence College - Cannon Workshop Theatre

April

Off White Afternoon by Eric Meyer

This is a full length show by one of the graduate playwrights in the program. It's about a husband and wife - the wife (who I play) had had a drug problem and has lapses in her memory. Her husband has memory issues as well and details about events that occurred during these lapses (i.e. possible murder, etc.) comes to light by way of some visitors to the house. Style is slightly absurdist/realism.

Performance Dates: April 10th, 11th, and 12th at 7 pm.

Location: Sarah Lawrence College - Wright Theatre

Night of the Leaping Terror by Ross Wade

A fun, absurd story about a Staten Island zookeeper and his wife as they get a visit from a mad kangaroo that just may be the wife’s dead brother. I play the wife, Myrna. We did this as a staged reading this winter and will present it for incoming students and families on the accepted student visit days.

Performance Dates: April 15th at 2:30 pm and April 16th at 3:30 pm

Location: TBA

Lampoon

Sort of our version of Saturday Night Live. Sketch show with full band.

Performance Dates: April 25th and 26th at 7 pm

Location: Sarah Lawrence College - Cannon Workshop Theatre

Hamlet by William Shakespeare

The Shakespeare Naked Ensemble group project. Depending on the date of the performance, you can see the all male and/or all-female version of this classic Shakespeare tragedy. I'm play the role of Claudius.

Performance Dates: Various dates, times, and locations during the weeks of April 28, May5, and May 12.

Location: Various places around campus, inside and outside.

May

Song Night

Cabaret style show featuring singers from my Singing Workshop class.

Performance Dates: May 1st, 2nd, and 3rd at 7 pm (NEW DATES)

Location: TBA

The Trojan Women by Euripides

One of my acting classes is producing this show according to our own adaptation, which combines ideas and translations from various texts of the play. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trojan_Women

Performance Dates: May 8th, 9th, and 10th at 7 pm (NEW DATES)

Location: Sarah Lawrence College - Wright Theatre

"Puppetry Night" - Puppetry shows by the students in my Puppet Central class.

Each of us will be producing a 12 minute piece throughout the semester that we'll showcase here. This is also the same night as Comedy Night so you can catch either or both.

Performance Dates: May 12th and 13th at 7 pm

Location: Sarah Lawrence College - Cannon Workshop Theatre

"Comedy Night" - Stand up comedy by the students in my Comedy Workshop class.

We're also doing a showcase at some bar/nightclub in the city the weekend prior (5/3 or 5/4) but I don't have the details on that yet.

Performance Dates: May 12th and 13th at 9 pm

Location: TBA

Other on-going shows:

Radio Drama Series: Feb. 20th at 7pm & March 12th at 7 pm

Lampoon improv comedy shows

Choose Your Own Adventure: Feb. 21st at 8 pm
Murder Mystery Improv: March 11th at 8 pm

Location: Downstage

Acting in a Winter Wonderland

2007-12-21T09:04:00.000-08:00

One semester down, three to go! Just a few more days and I’m home for a month! Things are really busy these last couple weeks of school – lots of projects and performances on the rise. As I look back on the semester, there seems to be a running theme in so many of my classes. Everything goes back to staying in the moment and being open physically and emotionally. I met with the head of the department for an evaluation yesterday and was telling him how I really feel like I have opened up much more in the past few months than I ever have. He said that there’s been great feedback from my teachers and that they’ve noticed definite changes in my approach – such a great relief to hear that. I know I have a long way to go but I’m started to really see what I need to work on and what I need to do in order to overcome some of my habits. I’m excited to keep evolving and changing in the work as the year progresses… but for now, I’m excited for Christmas and to eat something other than PB&J for lunch!

Theatre Outreach
As I mentioned in the previous blog, I’m working at a school in the Bronx – CS 211 – with two classes – 8th grade and special education. I love it. It’s nice to be working with kids again, just to have a different balance to the week. When I first arrived, the students had just begun to plan out shorts plays they would present at the end of the semester. My 8th grade group had started with the idea of doing a play about immigration, the premise being that four friends try to immigrate to America; one makes it in while the rest are deported. I was amazed that that was just the beginning of their ideas. While the piece was still a work in progress (which is actually the goal of our work), they came a long way in shaping their ideas and improvising the scenes.

The special ed students were terrific. They did a play about a family whose house burns down, they become homeless and another family reaches out to them. It was really touching as homelessness is actually a reality for a couple kids in the class. I love working with them. All of the students in both classes have great energy and ideas. It was great to see the final “performances” and see how excited they were in the end. It really makes me want to consider theatre outreach as part of my career. I’m planning to take the actual course next year so we’ll see how it continues.

And... scene.

My work in comedy, both in class and in Lampoon (the troupe I’m in), has been a blast. We’ve done a bunch of shows, mostly performing long form improv (in which the characters I ended up playing ranged from a male penguin protecting an egg to the maid from Clue to a lunchlady from the Midwest to Jimmy Stewart (and a pretty horrible impersonation at that!) We also tried out some sketches as we’re gearing up for second semester. Next semester we have some big things happening. We’ll continue our usual late night Sunday night shows at 11 – those are more informal (trying out sketches, working on new improv structures, etc.). Additionally we have three shows in Downstage (the student run production company based in the black box theatre) and one in Mainstage. The big show in Mainstage (which basically means it’s really funded by the department) will be very similar to Saturday Night Live with a band and sketches throughout. I can’t wait. I may never make it to SNL (though at the rate they’re going, SNL may not last long enough for me to get there!), but at least I’ll be able to try out the style of it.

In my comedy class, we just worked on an exercise called “Advancing” which was so great to do and watch. Basically we were expected to choose a mundane task and explore the idea of attempting to accomplish that task without ever being able to do so (in other words, things are constantly preventing you from succeeding). We were to set the scene to music, with the idea of the music being your sort of scene partner – you’d base your scene, actions, emotions, character, etc. on the changes and qualities in the music. When watching it, I was reminded of the Charlie Chaplin and other old comedy routines. It was actually very similar to what you might see in a clown routine. It was really neat. I chose to put in contacts as my task and I set it to the song “Mad Russian’s Christmas” by Transyberian Orchestra. It was so much harder than I anticipated – actually taking hours to plan out and rehearse. I wish I could show you all the performances – it was really wild.

Cabaret Style

In Singing Workshop I’ve been working on a variety of pieces, including “Kiss You Off” by the Scissor Sisters and “Cry to Me” by Solomon Burke. The two songs are pretty different but I was really happy with how they went. In fact, while “Cry to Me” is more of a blues song, my teacher suggested I approach it with a sort of Janis Joplin sound and it turned out to be great. This week we did a “Secret Santa” for songs where we picked a name of someone else in the class and had to secretly choose a song for them to sing. I was given “Mouth” (a song that came out in the 90s by Merril Bainbridge – sort of a one-hit wonder... though not much of a wonder). I’m not a huge fan of the song but the accompanist and I played around with it a made it sort of a rock piece so it was a little more interesting.

Toy Theatre

On Wednesday I just presented my final puppetry project. We were working on toy theatre (see link below) and creating pieces based on short excerpts from a Shakespeare play of our choice. I’m used the prologue to Henry V (“O for a muse of fire…”).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toy_theater dia.org/wiki/Toy_theater . It turned out pretty funny – I decided to play on words rather than stick to the true meaning of the text. A guy from class photographed everyone’s pieces so I’ll post them when he sends them out.

An Intuitive & Impulsive Exploration of Text

The class I have with Ed Sherin ended the semester with a presentation of our work from the semester. It was a compilation of over forty monologues and scenes, seamlessly performed one after another without interruption. It was amazing to see how far the actors have come with their pieces. I was really proud of our work and love the technique we’ve been using throughout the term. When we return, our class will be rehearsing for a full scale production of The Trojan Women to be performed in May. This is going to be a huge undertaking, and knowing Ed’s work in the business, I don’t think this will be just some class project. And because no one volunteered to design the set… I’m going to be in charge – good god. I’ll keep you posted.

In my end of semester conference with Ed, he asked about my goals: what I'm planning to do when I leave, why I came to Sarah Lawrence in the first place. It was actually a great conversation. He said that for an actor without an agent, New York is like choosing a slow painful death - a lovely image for any actor.. but a realistic one. There are just sooo many actors all trying for the same roles in this 7 person play or that commercial or what not. And, in addition to the thousands of actors showing up to the "cattle call" auditions, there are hundreds more actors with agents who already have a better show but who still have tough odds. I know this. I've always known it. And I told him that quite frankly I don't want to spend my life waiting tables in New York (though I love this city) and going to auditions day after day after day never knowing when my next steady job will be. I think I'm too practical minded for that. He recommended instead that I research reputable professional regional theatres around the east coast, send out interest letters, resumes, and headshots telling them about myself, what my plans are, my acting work, my teaching experience, my interest in outreach programs, etc. It was really nice to speak with him about this. Just hearing his confidence in my talent and ability made me think I have more of a chance than I often think I do. I don't think in that one conversation i realized my future professional plans but it was nice to really consider making a career that includes acting in a city other than the big apple.

Extra-Curricular...

Flash Gordon

In the radio drama ensemble, we’ve put on two shows so far: Suspense and an episode from Flash Gordon. It’s really different working on these pieces as they are totally character/voice driven. The audiences seem to really enjoy it. This past episode we changed up our structure and decided to set up the actors in front of the audience. It’s strange to actually be in front of them but not acting full out but it’s really great to hear all the voices and sound effects.

Hamlet

The play is cast and the scripts are cut. I got cast as the role of Claudius! I’m really excited. If you’re not familiar with the play, he’s basically the villain. It’s going to be a hugely challenging role but I think I’m up to it. We’re planning to rehearse the play until April and then do a two week run, performing both shows (male and female casts) back and forth with each cast performing about 4 times. At the end of the run, we’re thinking about having a sort of marathon performance when we started mixing up the casts, switching actors midway through the play, etc. It’s no quite figured out yet but we’re getting ideas.

A Staged Reading

Heels in the Sand, the reading I was involved in, went well. One of the faculty members played the part of my mother in the show and it was so much fun to work with her. It’s so different to do a staged reading as it’s all about the vocal and character choices but we had fun. We had a large audience, with many teachers and department members there, which is always good. It was nice to be a part of the creative process of this play. The playwright seemed to get a lot of feedback and ideas, which he will consider as he revises it. Sometimes plays done in these readings are later put into full production through the department. We’ll see…

Time to go home! Thanks for still reading (if you made it this far).

I hope you all have a great holiday. Hope to see you in the new year!

Much love,
Chris

A Full Plate for Thanksgiving

2007-11-19T06:36:00.000-08:00

I thank the pilgrims…
I’m so glad Thanksgiving is finally here. While things are still going well, I’m in need of some time away. My classes are great and I’m getting involved in a lot of various performance opportunities. My living situation is up in the air; I’m considering looking for a new place to live but nothing is definite. Other than that, things are ok. Here’s what’s been happening…

This radio broadcast is presented to you by…
Latest endeavor: I auditioned for a radio drama ensemble called “For Your Listening Pleasure”. It’s a troupe at school directed by an undergraduate directing student. There are seven actors involved, and we will be working to produce a series of five radio drama episodes throughout the year. The first one is called “Suspense” – it’s a series that ran on the radio from 1942 to 1962, presenting nearly 900 episodes. We had our first read through last night. In this episode I’m playing the lead part of Helen Brant, originally read for by Anne Baxter. It’s so much fun to do. Because you are reading, there’s no memorization and very little rehearsal needed. The way the performance works is we, the actors, will be at microphones behind the audience, while the audience faces in the direction of the sound effects person. The entire focus is on the line delivery, character voice, and timing of the piece. It’s a really neat experience and I’m looking forward to working on it. Rachel Sacks, our director, seems to have a good feel for the process and has put together a great ensemble of actors. She will cast each episode as we go along, with the attempt to spread the parts out evenly throughout the year. We present our first show on November 27th.

A bit of history on Radio Drama: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_drama

About the first episode: http://www.old-time.com/otrlogs2/suspensehx.html

Heels in the Sand
In addition to the radio series, I was cast in a staged reading of a full length play written by one of the graduate playwriting students. I’m playing the role of Jade in the play Heels in the Sand – I don’t yet know the whole play but from what I’ve learned it seems to be about a mother and daughter (I’m the daughter) traveling to Israel for what begins as a business trip for the daughter and ends up being an exploration of family history/relationships and revisiting their Jewish heritage. The cast consists of 1 faculty member, 2 grad students, and 2 undergrads, directed by a graduate directing student. While we haven’t had our first read through yet, I’m eager to start working on it. Like the radio series, the rehearsal process is very different from that of a typical production. Again, we have the scripts in hand and need not memorize lines. In some staged readings the actors are limited to stay in one spot; in others, sparse movement and stage direction is added for certain effect. Sometimes simple costume and prop pieces are added as well. The staged reading give the playwright a chance to hear and see how his/her play performs with actors rather than just on the page. Often playwrights and directors of the reading will work closely to effectively communicate the playwright’s vision and sometimes edit/revise the script as needed. The cast and production team are great so I think the performance will turn out well. We perform December 17th.

Theatre Outreach

When accepting the staged reading role, I spoke with one of the theatre teachers who helps to coordinate casting of the staged readings throughout the year. This teacher, Alan Lang, is also in charge of the Theatre Outreach program at SLC. While Theatre Outreach is a class (which I plan to take next year), he asked me if I would be interested in working with them on a part time basis. They need a replacement for a student who had to drop her role in the program. I’ll be filling in for her by co-teaching two theatre classes at a middle school in the Bronx. The other student-teacher and I will be teaching an 8th grade class and a special education class. I’m only needed once a week, Wednesday mornings for a couple hours, but I’m excited to be able to do it. Obviously teaching is something I’ve always enjoyed and it will be great to try doing it in a new environment with a whole different genre of students (namely boys.. yikes!). I start working with them after Thanksgiving break and will continue on for the remainder of the year.
*************************************************************************************
Classes:

As the semester begins to wind down, we’re looking ahead to spring. I’m picking up a new course that is only offered in the second semester. Here’s the description:

Acting Shakespeare – “Students will study advanced acting techniques in approaching Shakespeare’s scripts, with special attention on script analysis as a way of unlocking methods for acting the text. In addition, students will rehearse and perform monologues and scenes from Hamlet to be directed by students in the Directing Shakespeare class.”

However, in order to pick up this new class, I need to drop Alexander Technique. I’m disappointed because I really love the class and feel like I’m getting a lot out of it. But I think I’ll take it again next year and continue for the full year.

My other classes are going well. In my puppetry class we spent some time working with marionettes and are now moving on to Bunraku, a form of traditional Japanese puppet theatre. Both forms are very different and really challenging to master. With marionettes, think the scene from The Sound of Music, puppeteers are manipulating the puppets by an airplane rod with strings attached to various limbs and joints of the puppet. Typically one puppeteer controls one or two puppets at once. In Bunraku, no strings are used as the puppet is controlled by three puppeteers. The main puppeteer holds the puppets upright by grasping the spine like rod that runs down the back of the puppet. This person also typically controls the left arm of the puppet. A second puppeteer controls the right arm, and possibly the waist if needed for a particular movement, and the third puppeteer manipulates the puppet’s feet. The picture here is taken from a performance my teacher created called “Hiroshima Maiden”. You can get an idea of how the performers control the puppet. We watched a few clips of the performance on video in class and it was really amazing and beautiful to watch. Operating these puppets (both Bunraku and marionettes) requires an immense amount of focus, choreography, and attention to detail. When doing it effectively, the audience will barely notice the puppeteer as it can be mesmerizing to watch the puppet come to life. And it’s actually a bit of a workout – my shoulders were killing me by the end of class just holding these things up for 10-20 minutes at a time!

One of the classes I’m taking is Linklater voice training. It’s a speech/breath class that has been really helpful to me in my acting, especially when applying it to other classes. Elena, our teacher, has great ways of helping us release tension and find more openness in our face and body in order to allow more freedom in our voices. It’s so great to work with her, and I’m definitely seeing the benefits of the exercises.

In my song class I’ve been working on some new pieces – one really fun one in particular called “I’m Breaking Down” from the play March of the Falsettos. This past week I brought in Elvis’ “Burning Love” as I was preparing to sing it at my dad’s retirement party. I never thought I’d be singing “Hunk a hunk of burnin’ love” in that class but it went over really well – I think they enjoyed watching me humiliate myself more than anything but oh well.

My Comedy Workshop class is really coming along. We’ve been working on the long form improvisation style, most specifically the Harold. We’re preparing for our Harold Night on December 10th, when we perform for an audience along with Lampoon (the comedy troupe I’m in). I’m glad I took the class because while I have a lot of experience in improv, Christine (my teacher) really focuses on mastering the basic ideas that drive all improv – something that is always crucial to good scenes and shows. It’s also nice to approach the work from a different standpoint as her experiences performing are much different than the experiences of me and my fellow Baltimore Improv Group improvisers. I love working with Christine and have been thankful to do so more in Lampoon rehearsals as well. We had our first Lampoon show last night for a late night Sunday crowd. It went really well and we may begin gearing our Sunday night shows towards creating a sort of continuous improvised soap opera with recurring characters and situations. We had the audience give suggestions for one last night and we gave it a go to try out a template for a potential episode. It was fun. I don’t know yet how it will be set up but I like the idea and I think the audiences will respond well to it.

Alright, my time has ended. Off to class. Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Happy Halloween

2007-11-05T06:28:00.000-08:00

Here's the latest...

Shakespeare Got Naked…

We held auditions for our Shakespeare ensemble and had a very successful turnout. We saw 32 actresses and found plenty of talent to fill the ten slots we had available. I am really excited to move forward on this project. We have a strong ensemble and I think each girl will bring a different flavor to the group. More to come.

Are You Afraid of the Dark?

Every year a student run theatre company called Downstage produces a 24-hour play festival. The festival (this year entitled “Are You Afraid of the Dark?”) is comprised of 14 actors, 6 directors, and 6 writers chosen at random from a sign up posted the week before. And as my name was one of those drawn from the hat, I found myself sitting in one of the black bow theatres in the performing arts center on Friday evening (10/26) at 7:00 waiting to see who I would be working with. For each group, the producer of the festival chooses (again at random) the names of 1 director, 1 writer, and 2-3 actors for each of the six groups. Once assigned our teams, all were released for the night while the writers stayed up all night writing the scripts. Each show had the same set of guidelines/restrictions set in place: we all would use the same bare set (three wooden boxes of various shapes for furniture and small immovable black flats with red trim), limited lighting options, and two props (a plastic groucho mask with the big nose and furry eyebrows and moustache and a mardi gras mask); the play had to take place on a Halloween night; the script had to include the line from “The Raven” – “It thrilled me, filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before”; and costumes could only come from the closets of the actors and were only allowed to be black, red, or white. Scripts were due to the producers at 6 am on Saturday morning. Actors and directors were to meet at 7 am to read the scripts and begin work. So on Saturday morning I dug through my closet for any black, white, or red article of clothing and trudged up to the theatre. While the coffee was a nice comfort, the script I was handed was not. I was worried and wondered what our director would be able to do with it. While it is a short amount of time to come up with a good play, I was hoping for something a bit more substantial. Nevertheless, we moved to our assigned rehearsal space and began to work. As the day progressed we learned lines, played around with staging the piece, chose costumes, and prepared for the performance. All the plays were to be performed at two shows that night – one at 7 pm and one at 9 pm. When the dress rehearsal came around, I was nervous. I began to regret my first time on stage at Sarah Lawrence would be acting in this show. We stumbled through the play but got through it. None of us felt good about it and didn’t know how we’d pull it together for the actual performances. To make matters worse, the director of the theatre program was in the audience of the first show and I really didn’t want to embarrass myself in front of him. I don’t know what changed – maybe it was just the energy of the audience or the performance nerves, but somehow the three of us really pulled through. We gave two great shows and felt good about both. Though I never really felt it was a great play, I was happy with how we approached it and had fun with it on stage. I loved the experience overall – I got to work with new people, and to see all the shows come together as they did in such a short amount of time was really impressive.

Tell me a joke.

Anyone have any ideas for a good comedy sketch? Lampoon, the comedy troupe I’m in, works both on comedic improv and sketch comedy. I’ve only been to a few rehearsals but it seems like when working on sketches we throw out ideas that are amusing, interesting, or whatever, and then play around with the ideas doing scenes based on them. They can be based on political issues, celebrity stories, current events, etc. (basically the same sort of idea as you might see on SNL but we don’t do a show every week). Let me know if you have ideas!

Overall the rehearsals are going well. At times it feels a little disorganized but I think we’re still getting into the swing of things. It sounds like we have been given a space to perform (the most difficult task on campus as there are always performances and events going on) on Sunday nights (late night – a 11pm to 12:30 am). We’ll be doing shows there either every week or every other week – improv or sketch and improv. Should be interesting to see how it comes together.

GradWorks

Every Friday the theatre grad students come together for a seminar program. Sometimes we have guest speakers, discussions on required readings, and other such meetings. One thing we’ve been working on is called GradWorks – a production that will be put on solely by the grad students in February. After much deliberation, we finally settled on our plans for the show. We’ll be putting together four pieces – 2 published one-act plays, The Lover by Harold Pinter and Red Cross by Sam Shepard, 1 to-be-written short piece called Alice Blue Gown, and an ensemble piece to be created by the group. We’ll all be playing a variety of roles in the production, from directing, acting, and writing, to playing music, designing costumes, and advertising for the show. I am really excited about it. I’ll be working with the group to create the ensemble piece and I’ll also be playing the lead female role in The Lover (Synopsis at http://dramatists.com/cgi-bin/db/single.asp?key=641 ). I also offered to help with design and perhaps singing as a way of transitioning between pieces. I begin rehearsals this week. We’ll be putting up the show February 8th and 9th.

So…

Things are good. I’m happy with my classes and really have enjoyed working with my teachers so far. I’m beginning to feel the drag of November – it’s always been a tiresome month of the school year but I think Thanksgiving will come rather quickly. Eli and my friend Jason came up this weekend so it was nice to have a break from the routine. They didn’t get in till late on Friday so I made them dinner (a Cuban feast ala Rachel Ray) and went out in Bronxville. Saturday we got lunch in town and then went into the city for the night. Got dinner at a great Moroccan restaurant and met up with some college friends for a birthday party at a bar in the East Village. It’s times like this weekend when I really wish I lived in the city. But I guess if I wasn’t in Bronxville, we wouldn’t have been able to have front row seats to a fight on the train back home that night – lucky for us. Well, it’s about time I did some work this morning. Hope you all are doing well!

2007-10-16T20:24:00.000-07:00

A lot has happened in the past few weeks. I was sad to learn that I did not get cast in either of the two shows I auditioned for but I’m learning how things work and I think it is for the best. I wasn’t really passionate about either of the shows and I already have a lot going on and the plate is filling up. It’s about time – I was starting to watch movies without falling asleep in the first 20 minutes… definitely an indication that I have too much time on my hands. What is nice, however, is that the extra time has allowed me to explore the city, see some shows, work out more, and even take a dance class – I’m taking musical theatre dance… I know you wish you were a fly in the wall of that room. This weekend I got to head downtown … I ended up spending the day in Central Park and exploring the neighborhoods uptown. There was a great dog festival of some kind in the park that was hilarious to watch. I don’t think you can ever get enough of seeing dogs with shoes on all four paws or tiny hooded sweatshirts. Somehow I don’t think Leuven would fit in with that crowd. That night I saw a comedy show in the east village which was pretty good (especially for $5!). On Sunday I became a member of the Westchester county art society. I had been asked to work an event at the school library – basically pouring drinks at an art gallery opening. It was great – I ended up meeting a lot of artists and chatting it up with the locals (I even gave out my digits – to an older woman who wanted me to work for her at her next gallery opening) … not a bad way to make some quick cash, drink wine, and get cultured all at the same time!

I’m funny! Who knew?
Despite my initial disappointment with general auditions, I did, however, audition for the comedy troupe on campus, Lampoon, and was offered a spot in the troupe! This was really exciting for me – while I’ve done a lot of comedic improve with BIG (Baltimore Improv Group http://www.bigimprov.org/ ), I’ve never done sketch comedy (think SNL). Lampoon seems to be a combination of both. We actually had to submit a sketch for the audition, and since I have no experience in that, I was a little nervous about my first attempt at the writing gig. But I guess it worked – let’s all hope to god that my comedy writing improves or this could make for a very long year. Anyway, I meet with the troupe tomorrow night for the first time – more to come!

Getting Naked with the Bard…
Additionally, I have joined forces with three of my fellow first year theatre grad students to create a brand new theatre company on campus. The company is called The Shakespeare Naked and will involve two troupes – one all-male and one all-female. The troupes will practice separately – spending the rest of the first semester working to build and strengthen their work as an ensemble and finally choosing one Shakespearean play for both troupes to rehearse. The second semester will be spent rehearsing the two separate productions, which will be presented to the community in April. We are both working on the same play for a few reasons – one to explore the differences in the single-gender interpretations (obviously cross-dressing is involved as they did back when these plays were first presented), and also to allow us to play as one full company – mixing the casts by either a performance in which the audience decides who plays which character or some other idea like that.

I’m really excited about this project. I believe it’s really a challenging endeavor and I think it will be a big success. Besides my improv group, I’ve never worked in an ensemble based setting – typically I do plays with casts that only work together with the sole purpose of creating a final product so there is little time to develop craft and build a true group dynamic. Moreover, Shakespeare has always been a bit intimidating to me. I don’t have a great amount of experience with it so I know this will push me to explore classical text. It feels like blasphemy to say this around a theatre crowd but for years I really didn’t even like Shakespeare. In the past few years I’ve begun to grow a stronger appreciation for it but it takes time to do so. It’s a shame because so many productions are done badly and are therefore a huge turn off to many popular audiences (which was the case for me). So, our goal (as the company’s title implies) is to strip down the text and really get into the essence of what has made Shakespeare to be referred to as the greatest playwright of all time. The show will be produced with minimal sets, costumes, and props – with direct focus on the acting and themes of the play. Alright – I’ll get off the Shakespeare soap box and move on. Anyway, that’s the big project lately.

-Academia-

Acting Up
Riiight… so besides the aforementioned goings on, I’m still taking classes. Overall, they’re going well. It’s definitely starting to pick up in pace. Currently I’m working on a number of scenes and monologues (and even poems) for a few of my classes – scenes from Othello, Agnes of God, Spike Heels, and Danny and the Deep Blue Sea; monologues from The Altruists, Hamlet, and Look Back in Anger; and poems – “She Walks in Beauty” and Shakespeare’s sonnet 130. I thought it would be tough to keep them all straight – memorizing at least, but I’m getting the hang of it. I think my favorite “assignment” as of yet was preparing and performing “Green Eggs & Ham” by Dr. Seuss (the teacher is trying to get us to play around with rhyme when we work on Shakespeare but since I read the book to my little brother at least 5 times a night for about a year when he was younger, this was like second-nature to me). I do so like that Sam-I-am!

Life is a Cabaret
I’m really loving my Singing Workshop class. We work on a new song every week – any song we want so long as it could possibly be performed in a sort of cabaret setting. So far I’ve sung “Jimmy” (Thoroughly Modern Millie the musical), “You Don’t Know Me” (Ray Charles), “Makin’ Whoopee”, “Bette Davis Eyes” (Kim Carnes), “Rita’s Tune” (Sweet Smell of Success the musical), and the next two are “Knock on Wood” (Eddie Floyd) and “Lost & Found” (City of Angels the musical). It’s a blast – it was a little nerve wracking at first because everyone in the class is very very talented but I’m beginning to loosen up and just have fun with it. If you have any requests, let me know :)

Shadowland
Ahhh puppetry class. Contrary to popular belief, I’m not the most skilled at arts and crafts. Ok, so it’s definitely more involved than tracing my hand and adding colored feathers to make a turkey – that I could do. I just don’t have an eye for shadow puppetry. I appreciate it as an art form – more so now that I realize how inept I am at it – but I think I need to be a little more patient when working with a utility knife (I don’t even think that’s what it’s called – box cutter maybe?) Anyway, I’m currently working on a mini-shadow puppet show with another girl in the class. It involved two characters murdered accidentally and the killer driving off into the sunset with a song from the Pulp Fiction soundtrack in the background. Yeah, definitely a disaster. However, I did have to do a research project and presentation on shadow puppetry styles in China, India, and Indonesia (which turned out to be an hour because my topic was so massive – I really do have a problem with curbing information). So, despite the many hours spent in the library and creating a 50 + page power point, I have learned to love it as an art. It’s really pretty cool and I’d like to one day see a live performance. Point of the story – if you’re ever in China, India, or Indonesia, and the tour guide tries to sell you on one of the many tourist attractions, I highly recommend the shadow puppet shows!

Alright, while I’d love to stay and chat, it’s time for some reading. Hope you all are well. Anyone up for a visit soon? Let me know!

To fill you in...

2007-09-29T20:13:00.001-07:00

As September draws to a close, I figured what better way to spend a Saturday night than to create a blog - I know you envy my life already just in knowing how I spend my night off. So, I have been meaning to e-mail friends and family for a while now to fill everyone in on how the school year has begun. The last time I did anything like this was when I studied abroad and I'd write lengthy (to put it mildly) e-mails about my travels around Europe. So, after recalling how my brother Joe mocked my travel novels, rather than bombard your inbox with e-mails you probably don't want to/have time to read, I decided to create a blog for anyone who is interested in knowing what I'm doing and if it was worth it to invest two years and an exorbitant amount of money into earning my MFA. I hope you enjoy the light reading.

What I'm doing:

I'm at Sarah Lawrence College, a small liberal arts school in Bronxville, NY (just north of the city). I'm going for my Masters of Fine Arts in Theatre with an Acting concentration. There are about 18 theatre grad students total but about 130 undergrads who also take theatre classes. It's a two year program and, while I have very clear ideas about what I want to do with the degree, my hope is that throughout my time here I'll learn and discover new things that may completely reroute my career plans.

For now, if you ask me what my current goals are, I have three ideas:

To teach at the undergraduate level or to teach acting at a conservatory/arts-focused high school.
To serve as an educational director at a professional theatre. While there I'd like to create and run an after school theatre/acting program for inner-city and/or underprivileged children. As a lot of city schools don't have funding for the arts, I'd love to find a way to give kids that outlet.
To act on the professional level (without waiting tables all my life).

Now, with that said, if Saturday Night Live calls me asking to replace Tina Fey, you can assume the aforementioned goals go right out the window. :)

So, how to reach these goals? While my focus is acting, I can also take classes in other theatre disciplines (a major reason I liked Sarah Lawrence) - such as playwriting, directing, design, production, dance, etc. However, for my first year I've stuck to focusing mainly on performance based classes.

I'm taking 7 classes (on average theatre grads take 6 to 8 classes) and private voice lessons once a week. These are the course descriptions of the classes I'm enrolled in:

Acting the Poetic Text: The emotional, vocal, and physical demands of acting in poetic plays are extreme. In order to rise to the challenge of performing in such works, the actor’s instrument must be capable of expressing poetry. The objectives of this course are to explore various techniques designed to tap and release the actor’s raw passion, to develop the physical stamina necessary to perform poetic text, and to work toward creating a performance vocabulary appropriate to the scale of poetic text. Particular attention will be paid to honing the skills necessary to speak complex language with clarity and precision. We will begin with the works of Shakespeare and move backward and forward in time, depending on the composition and the specific needs of the class. The course culminates in a performance project. This class meets twice a week.
Singing Workshop: We will explore an actor’s performance with songs and various styles of popular music, music for theatre, cabaret, and original work emphasizing communication with the audience and material selection. Dynamics of vocal interpretation and style also will be examined. This course requires enrollment in a weekly voice lesson and an Alexander Technique course. Class members will be selected by audition during registration week. This class meets once a week.
Comedy Workshop: This is an exploration of the individual’s comic voice and the classic structures of comedy. It begins with a focus on improvisation and ensemble. Theatre games, status play, storytelling, and the Harold Exercise develop the artist’s freedom and confidence. The second semester introduces the students to commedia dell’arte characterization, vaudeville comic and straight partnering, political satire, and parody. The workshop produces a Comedy Night at the end of the year. Each student performs five minutes of stand-up comedy in a club atmosphere. This class meets twice a week.
Alexander Technique: 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. This class meets once a week.
Linklater Voice Training: Students will begin to open the channels of communication as physical and psychological tensions release. Using technical and imagistic exercises, students will open their connection to breath, develop resonance and range, increase sensitivity to their creative impulse, and strengthen their voice. There are two separate sections (and times) for this course, and each meets once a week
An Intuitive and Impulsive Exploration of Text: A Useful Tool for Actors and Directors: This course strives to release the creativity of each student through intuitive and impulsive responses to text—primarily plays, film scripts, and poems—and to discover the practical uses of this approach to acting and directing in theatre and film. The participants will do exercises, scene work, and a year-end performance with a view toward increasing their ease, imagination, spontaneity, and power. Although physically demanding and largely visceral, the course work will provide an enlarged intellectual and conceptual understanding of acting and performance. This class meets once a week for five hours.
Puppet Central: Through puppetry, this course will develop student’s skills as directors, writers, and performers and encourage the pleasures and rigors of creativity in a performing medium. Students will research and study a global range of puppet styles and forms—Western models like hand, rod, and string puppets, as well as Eastern practices like Indonesian shadow, Japanese Bunraku, among others. Contemporary construction methods and a variety of manipulation techniques will be explored. Students will build a short, original puppet piece from the ground up. They will design and construct the puppets, write the scripts (or scenarios), choreograph, rehearse, and publicly present short works in progress. This class meets for four consecutive hours, which includes a two-hour lab, once a week.

Now that you have the descriptions of the classes, here are my thoughts:

My professors are amazing. They all have incredible backgrounds and expertise. Many of them act/direct/write on a professional basis in the city as well so they're a great collective resource. My comedy teacher, Christine Ferrell, is my newest hero. She's a terrific teacher, is currently acting in a show off-Broadway. Her passions are improv, comedy, acting, and teaching - I want to be her someday. The teacher for the class with the really long name (Intuitive.. bla bla bla) is Ed Sherin. Ed has directed Broadway shows for decades and was the executive producer for Law and Order for ten years. His wife is Jane Alexander (which I had no idea and actually saw her with him last week!) I am excited to get to know all my professors - more to come on them. I do like all my classes. Comedy is my favorite, we're doing improv now and I enjoy working with all the students - very different skill levels but all very funny. Singing Workshop follows right behind (though it makes me nervous - the talent in that class is amazing.. i feel like I'm in an episode of American Idol every Thursday afternoon. The first day of class I realized that we had been expected to bring in a song. I told the teacher, Dave, that I hadn't brought music. He told me to use the audition song I prepared and had me go first to try it out. Thanks. So I sang the song "Jimmy" from Thoroughly Modern Millie. I felt ok about it until everyone after me rocked out some blues number. I learned quickly. Last week I did "You Don't Know Me" (a Ray Charles song) and my next one will be the 80s classic "Bette Davis Eyes" - look out Kim Carnes. Linklater and Alexander Technique are great. Both are very low key, relaxing classes that basically aim to give an actor more ease and comfort yet physical and vocal strength when performing. The poetic text class is challenging for me because we're dealing mostly with Shakespeare, Hamlet to be exact. And Shakespeare has never been my strength - well, I just don't have a lot of experience performing his works. And (don't laugh) but Puppet Central is definitely going to be the most challenging. It requires a huge amount of creativity and a sense for choreography and movement. Next time you see Kermit the Frog, think of me.

When not in class, I also work about ten hours a week at the Sports Center at the front desk. It's pretty easy and it gives me a chance to get work done.

I'm living in Bronxville in a two-floor apartment in a three-story house. It is a 10-minute walk to school and a 5-10 minute walk to town and the train station. The Metro-North Railroad is what I use to go into the city. It's about a 30 minute ride and trains usually leave twice an hour or so. The train is about $11 roundtrip so it's not bad. The town is very nice, almost remind you of The Stepford Wives for its extreme degree of perfection. Good restaurants, cute (but expensive) shops, a handful of bars, a movie theatre, etc. I live with two guys - one graduated from the grad writing program last year and works in the city and the other is in his second year of the writing program. However, I don't see them all that often because I'm on campus quite a bit.

So, how am I doing?

It's definitely been an adjustment. It feels like college all over again except not as carefree. I miss Eli and Leuven a lot, my friends and family, Baltimore, some of my students, having my own place, a steady paycheck. I don't miss dorm parenting, living in the suburbs, driving myself nuts with a 24/7 job, or faculty meetings. I love being so close to the city. I walk everywhere I've seen 2 Broadway shows already, enjoy not driving all the time. I'm anxious to see how the year progresses - work load, shows, classes, etc. I had auditions last week for the fall season of plays. I got called back for a show but will find out tomorrow if I made it. I am also auditioning for the comedy troupe on campus on Monday night. I'll keep you posted.

So, that's the long and short of it (more the long) for right now. Miss you all!!!