Start of Second Year

September 6, 2007 by Dennis Baker 

The first week is almost over and things are beginning to shape up. I am excited with our new acting class taught by Billy Carden. We are going through A Challenge for the Actor by Uta Hagen. It will be a fresh change from the Meisner focus we had the first year. It is very useful to have a book that goes along with the class. We are currently treating it as a workbook and will be going through the exercises.

We also continue in one more year of Meisner. We will be working on impediments and opposite point of view. I am not looking forward to it all that much. It will be stretching, but I am concerned at the moment that the impediment work will get me in my head.
We are also working with the Michael Checkov technique. I do not know much about it so I will update as we get more into it. We also continue with dance as well as voice and speech. The last class we have is a dramatic literature course with the famous and talented playwright Lee Blessing. He seems like a down to earth guy and the class should be fun. I have been focusing more on being conscious of my speech work. We had general auditions last night and later in the evening I was called by a director telling me that my speech was clear and it was noted by people in the room. That felt good.

I was cast in Diary of Anne Frank. I was hoping not to do that show as I have already done it in the past. The role is only in two scenes (it will be a continuation of The Country Wife were I spent nearly a whole act sleeping backstage). I knew it was coming as I had a feeling the director was going to cast me in the role and when I did not get cast in the first show of the season, that was what made it a for sure thing in my mind. As always I will try to do my best with what is given to me and keep telling myself I am not at graduate school to be cast in plays but to do the work and learn from the training.

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Related posts:

  1. Thanksgiving Break
  2. First Year pt. II (aka Second Semester)
  3. Catching Up
  4. The Country Wife
  5. The month of April

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Filed under: Acting, Graduate School, Rutgers

Comments

6 Responses to “Start of Second Year”

  1. B on September 17th, 2007 12:31 am

    I understand that the Meisner approach is being softened a bit now at Mason Gross…is that really so?

  2. Sam on September 20th, 2007 11:08 pm

    Can I just ask you a question? You are probably very talented and definitely have a proper physique to be an actor, but the trailer for “Nostalgia” …. The acting is horrible… Noone is “organic” or believes in anything they are saying. They are “showing”everything. Just a question, what do your teachers say about these performances?

  3. dennisbaker on September 21st, 2007 11:30 pm

    B, graduate students take a Meisner class the first two years of the program. I would say the approach is not being softened. They realize that Meisner is not the only approach hence why we also study other methods.

  4. dennisbaker on September 21st, 2007 11:34 pm

    Sam,

    I will not speak about the other actors on “Nostalgia” as that is not professional. The teachers do not comment on our past work. We do PLENTY of work in our classes for them to comment and critique.

  5. SV on September 26th, 2007 3:29 am

    is this your last year of graduate school?

  6. dennisbaker on October 3rd, 2007 11:13 pm

    SV,

    This is my second year of a three year program.

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