Thanksgiving Break

November 24, 2006 by Dennis Baker 

We have made it to Thanksgiving Break! We needed it!

Things are progressing along, once we get back there will be two weeks of class left followed by a week of finals. Most of our classes are saying that we will not have finals, but we will have evaluations where we sit in front of all our professors, oh that will be fun.

We got our first scenes in acting class. I did not get a chance to see to many people’s scenes, but I got one that was done by other students in my previous Meisner class. Remembering back to that class the scene was not one of my favorite’s, but I’m excited to work with my classmate and I am sure it will grow on me. We are suppose to begin to memorize by route so when we are in repetition we are not “acting out” how we think the scene should go.

Speech still continues to be the class where I am having the most difficult time. Especially the once a week class with the Skinner speech teacher. Since we only have the class once a week for an hour and half, most of the work is done outside of class, which is tough. Speech is hard to work on by yourself as you are never quite sure if you are saying the sounds properly. I am going to spend some quality time this weekend reviewing and trying to nail down some of the sounds I am having trouble with.

We had our general auditions last week. We are eligible to audition for shows for next semester. We auditioned for all the directors in the general audition, and then we are called back on a per show basis, depending if the director wants us to read for a certain role. Those directors who attended last Monday were the two MFA I directors as well as the MFA II and MFA III director. Also in attendance was Amy, the head of directing, and the guest director for the first main stage show next semester, “The Country Wife”.

We were originally told not to worry too much about being cast in “Country Wife” as it is a style piece and we don’t work with style until the second year. Well we heard the director does not want to work in style, but I am not expecting much as usually this is the last show the MFA III actors are in before they spend all their time focusing on their showcase.

Filed under: Acting, Graduate School, Rutgers
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Catching Up

November 11, 2006 by Dennis Baker 

So much has been going on in the last couple of months and it has been hard to get the time into to blog. Below is my attempt to catch up on all that is going on.

Weekend Retreat
The retreat went well. I am still not sure what we fully got out of it. The lodge was amazing and it was a good chance to be with my classmates out side of the classroom. Our main work was done with Lenard Petit. We explored relationships through the physical. We also had the chance to explore some of Lloyd’s movement. Overall it was a time to sink deeper into who we are as a group.

Classes
Our midterms have passed and my review was at expected. The teachers met together and then we sat down with Deborah on an individual basis. My speech is my biggest problem (which I knew). Other than that she said I was doing well in acting class. My moment-to-moment work was fine and I now needed to begin to sink into it. I am currently still trying to wrap my head what that means. She also complimented me saying that they normally do not accept students with previous Meisner experience and that she enjoyed the fact that I am open in the class. I expressed my desire to start on a fresh page with no assumptions about the work and that I was glad that showed through.

It seems in acting class we are hitting a wall. We are suppose to create a private space on stage where we do an activity that is difficult, has meaning, and has to be done in a short amount of time. When everyone goes up there seems to be parts of those components missing. The work is not living in us truthfully and therefore our moment-to-moment work is not clear. Our assignment for Wednesday is to tighten this elements up and I am not sure quite how to do that yet.

The next two Mondays in acting class we will be working on our monologues for the general auditions coming up. The MFA I actors are eligible to audition for shows beginning in the second semester. The process works by performing a monologue in front of all the directors and then when each show is ready to audition the director calls in the actors they want to see. I have two contemporary monologues I could perform, I will know more after Monday which one I will do. The first show of next season the “The Country Wife”, a Restoration comedy. Since it is a period piece with specific speech and movement, we as first years will probably not be in the show as we learn period speech and movement in our second year.

Filed under: Acting, Graduate School, Rutgers
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Off the Press

November 3, 2006 by Dennis Baker 

The article I wrote for Backstage/Backstage West is published and online.

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I am including some links to online resources that was left out of the article:

www.urta.com: Your guide to group auditions for graduate schools. It is a good place to get a list of some graduate schools. Know that there are many schools that have MFA programs that are not apart of U/RTA.

http://www.actorslife.com/MFA.html: Are you not sure if you want an MFA? Read this article to see if helps you make your decision.

www.technorati.com/: You can research other blogs by subject. Enter your search and see what other people are blogging about MFA programs and the audition process.

http://actinglikeakid.blogspot.com/2005/11/college-foractors.html: An unofficial ranking of some of the top graduate programs.

http://theatre.uoregon.edu/MFA.html: A list of MFA programs (some schools not listed).

http://www.christopherhalladay.com/blog.htm: A blog of Christopher Halladay’s experience studying at Rutgers University.

http://tedstephens3.wordpress.com/: The blog of Ted Stephens III. He shares his experience of attending graduate school at the University of Florida.

http://www.esperstudio.com/final.html: Article about MFA programs written by William Esper, published in Backstage in 1993.

http://bbs.backstage.com/groupee: You can chat with other actors who might have experience with a certain program or is auditioning for graduate schools.

Filed under: Acting, Auditioning, Graduate School
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