Perseverance

March 16, 2007 by  

Thinking about the the last six weeks of the semester (and next two years) I wrote the below letter to my classmates:

I have been thinking about the group a lot this week. These next six weeks (plus the two years after that) are going to be crazier than what we have experienced so far and a test on us as individuals and as a group.

I read an article from David Mamet last night, from the latest Backstage (Mar.15-21). He talks about why he thought the majority of the original members of the company he started are still working. He boils it down to the ideals that created “the company culture” and how those ideals was the knowledge that was being taught. He wasn’t teaching acting, but something deeper than that.

The ideals he mentioned in the last paragraph (see below) of the article are something we as a group (and individuals) need to grab with two hands and not let go. When I read it last night it felt like a slap in the face. I immediately had Karen read it and without hesitation she said, “That is what you [the group] need”. We are being challenged in ways we are not use to and did not fully expect when entering this program. What matters is how we respond. That is the knowledge that will serve us as people and actors for the rest of our lives. In these tough times it will be easy to complain that a teacher is acting unfairly. It will be easy not to show up for class that we think is insignificant. It will be easy to not give my all on a project because I think it is stupid or the teacher is being ridiculous. It will be easy to not prepare because I “got away” with it last time and was not called on it. It will be easy to complain about a certain role, play, director because I rather be working with someone else. The easy road will not serve, so I ask us to lean into, and participate fully, in what will be harder because there is where the knowledge and our true education it to be found.

The last paragraph reads:

“The evolved lesson of that culture [ideas held by Mamet's company] included: Be prepared, be early, never complain, help your fellows, figure it out, and your capacity for work is vastly greater that you suppose. Those who found those lessons taxing, or uninteresting, went home; those who found them exhilarating stayed on.”

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CW/Classes/Auditions

February 25, 2007 by  

Now that “The Country Wife” is over I am back to full focus on classes. The show was a mixed experience for me. Personally I was able to work on a British accent which was something I needed in my toolbox. I believe it was one of the worst plays I have acted in. The production itself was beautiful, but the play it not that good, and since it is fused with so many references that only pertain to that time period it is hard for a modern audience to truly enjoy it.

Classes are getting busy. We have been working on emotional preparation in acting class. One partner is in the room with independent life, while the other partner must enter with news that causes them to be emotionally full and then must continue on with there independent life that they came home to originally do. This exercise is for us to explore the wide range of territories of emotion. At times the classes have been hilarious, sad, scary, exciting, just to name a view.

The cast list have been posted for the last two main stage shows for this semester, two original MFA III plays. The eligible actors came from the MFA II and I class, as the MFA III actors are busy with showcase. There were six male roles (three in each show) and nine male actors auditioning (4 in the MFA II class and 5 in the MFA I class). I was not selected to be in these shows. The good news is that I will be able to have Spring Break off. I am not done with shows yet, as they have four original one acts from the MFA II and I playwrights, and since there are only three guys left who are not in shows, the other males will definitely be used in those shows.

In other audition news I had my first New York audition for The Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey. One of our classmates brought in a breakdown on Wednesday saying that auditions were being held Thursday and Friday. With such a late notice we were afraid the audition slots would be full. I, along with my fellow classmate Sasha Kaye, were able to get two slots for Friday afternoon. The audition itself went fine. I am thinking they want actors for the whole season and not just the summer so I am not expecting to hear from them. The good news is we were able to be seen and begin a relationship with the staff. Joe Discher, Associate Artistic Director, mentioned that he comes visits the third years in the Industry class and his assistant had seen “The Country Wife”, which are all good things as I begin to try and build industry relationship on the east coast.

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Pictures from “The Country Wife”

February 14, 2007 by  

Below are some pictures taken from the crew up in the booth during our photo shoot.

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Opening of The Country Wife

February 3, 2007 by  

We had the opening of The Country Wife. It was good show with a good audience that got more into the show as it went on. It took the first act for them to get use to the language and story (unfortunately the half that I am in) and by the second act they were really enjoying it.

I personally like the preview show better. That is the night all the Mason Gross students are invited and our first audience. The good part of that is that you have your fellow classmates in the audience so there is a real warm connection. With that comes the aspect that they will react is ways a paying audience will not. There is usually much more laughs for the preview show as they react to their classmates on stage.

All in all things are going well, just sixteen more shows to go. Below is a picture of me in my rehearsal costume. They had me cut my hair and only keep the goatee so I would have younger cleaner cut for the show. The second picture is of the set. It is a early picture and the set now has more components. I think we are taking production shots next weekend and I will post those when I get them.

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First Year pt. II (aka Second Semester)

January 21, 2007 by  

The second semester is shaping up to much different from the first for various reasons. I was nervous in starting this semester. I knew more would be asked of us and the work load would increase.

The first major difference is what I have been recently talking about, “The Country Wife”. I am honored to be in a mainstage show as a first year, but this is definitely the hardest show I have ever done. Each actor has to integrate heightened movement and speech with specific intentions to lines that are very stylized (think along the lines of Shakespearean text). As a first year we are not given the tools to juggle all these things. The good thing is that some of these other pieces are beginning to be specifically worked on. We met our speech coach in a tutorial this last week. It was decided the dialect would be between an elevated Skinner/Mid-Atlantic and just below a full British RP. As speech is my weakest part of my instrument it will be interesting to see where I can land with this. The Alexander teacher has been to a couple of rehearsals and has given me some great tools to help bring the movement aspect together for my character.

Another blaring difference is the schedule. My voice teacher asked me to take a yoga class to help with breathing and flexibility. Rutgers offers these classes for free and I am taking yoga three times a week. With that added to my full schedule I get out each day around 6pm and have an hour to run home, shower, eat and then get to rehearsal at 7pm.

Another aspect that is a difference is that I believe I am changing as a person. I have a sense that I am beginning to open up as a person in my acting class. A big push in acting class your first year is to learn have to live truthfully and fully on stage. We just finished our first scene in class this last Friday and I think it went well. I could not have asked for a better scene partner. Our connection came easy and became a foundation for us to dig deeper into meaning and therefore create the fullness that is asked of us in the scene. I feel myself being peeled like an onion and slowly being pulled apart, all a good thing. I hope that I can continue to be open to where I will go as a person, which is the foundation for m work as an actor.

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Country Wife Rehearsal

January 10, 2007 by  

We are in the middle of the second week of rehearsal and things seem to be moving along. The first week consisted of table readings. There were times that we got through twenty five pages in four hours! As tedious as that sounds, it was helpful to walk (and sometimes crawl) through the material to make sure we understood the characters and circumstances. Unfortunately about half of my lines were cut. Many of my lines did not have to do with the thrust of the plot, and since the original play is three hours long, the lines were cut for time and clarity. I understand why there were cut, but a part of me is bummed because the scenes that were cut brought insight to who my character was and why he was in the show. All part of the business.

This is week is spent on blocking and as the director, Cigdem Onat, calls it, sketching out the scenes. I have had the last two days off as I am not in Act IV and most of Act V. We sat around the later part of rehearsal on Monday and the director talked to us about some of our characters. Some actors have found many parts of their character this early in the process while other actors are still treading through the murky water. I feel I am somewhere in the middle. I feel I understand my character and am continuing to explore what all that means.

I feel a little distant from the overall production. As much as I am apart of it, I feel I am on the outer circles. This is occurs from the fact that since it is such a big cast (7 men and 7 women) time is spent on the main characters and therefore the supporting actors do not get as much time working with the director. This causes me to continually check in with myself to see if I am executing the actions and thoughts that I think represent my character. I am taking the stance that if the director has not said anything to me that I am progressing in a manner that matches her vision. Time will tell if that is working for me.

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The 13

December 22, 2006 by  

We are officially done with the first semester. It has been a wild, crazy, hard, fun first semester. I leave for LA on Saturday and will return Jan. 2nd and immediately begin rehearsal. The general feeling during the end of semester evaluations was pretty good. We all have things to work on, but the teachers seemed pleased with our work.

Two males in the second year will not be returning. One was asked to leave and the other is taking a medical leave of absence. Even though we do not have classes with them, their absence will be felt. In light of that I was thinking about my class. We have become very close. I think we are coming together as one cohesive unit without losing the individuality of each person. In fact we are all pretty different and I think that makes us a great group. I have spent 40-60 hours a week with these people, and now that I am on vacation I have this feeling like something is missing. The feeling like there are twelve parts of me scattered across the U.S. for the next three weeks. I feel that I am not completely whole. The break is much needed, but I will be glad to get back to the 13.

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The Country Wife

December 8, 2006 by  

Well you know how I said that I don’t think I had to worry about “The Country Wife”, the first show for next semester. Well I was wrong because I was cast in the show. Originally the role was given to an MFA III actor, but that actor had to back out due to finical problems. At the end of acting class last week our teacher told the class to recheck to call sheet as there were going to be changes. I never gave it thought as I assumed the role would go to either a MFA III or II actor who was read at the call backs. Later that day I was called by a fellow MFA I who saw the call sheet and my name on it. The ironic thing was I was never called in to read for the play. The only time I auditioned for the director was my brief two minute monologue. It came to my knowledge that our Head of Directing and Acting, have some say in casting and someone must of thought I could do it.

I was honored to be cast in a mainstage show and am looking forward to working with some MFA III and II actors that we hardly get to see. The likes of Christopher Halladay, Nick Farco, Julie Cotton, and Teresa Stephenson, to name a few. We have our first read through this Sunday and we begin rehearsals January 2nd. As classes don’t resume till the 14th, we all have to come back early. Luckily I already booked the flight to come back on the 2nd as Karen has to go back to work.

You can read more about the Country Wife at the Wikipedia link. Also below is the picture of the costumes designed by Samantha. She is a third year costume designer and this is her final project. You can click on the photo to see a larger image. My costume is on the far upper right. Yes, the one with the feather in the hat.

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Thanksgiving Break

November 24, 2006 by  

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.

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Catching Up

November 11, 2006 by  

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.

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