Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Thanks for staying for the obligatory consolation stage. I hope you feel better.

OMG! I am SO happy to be back at school!!!!!! WHEEE! Today was Theatre History and Acting with Leon, and yesterday was Stagecraft with Mike! I'm so jazzed about everything!!! Like seriously, this is going to be THE best year for me!

Today, in TH, Leon gave us the awesome lunchtime theatre project...basically we have to adapt a historical play (my group is doing The Changeling) to modern times, and then block it, tech it, and we go up in early October! WOO! Leon is determined for us to do as MUCH theatre as humanly possible this year...which is TOTALLY fine with me, lol! As well, Burton frpm Theatre One in town wants to use Mal Theatres for his little mini workshops that go up in December! So auditions for that are on Wednesday, and I have four things going for me: A) I've worked with Burton before. B) Burton LIKED working with me before. C) Leon is pretty much Burt's contact for this, and Leon LOVES working with me! and D) I'm the best ever? So, Leon gave us all monologues in acting today to study and do for this audition and he's going to help us all with them...I was one of like six who stayed after today to have him help us right away...he thought my slash and beating was good, but my verbs sucked (my words, not his, :P) so I gotta go back and find better ones...I need a verb dictionary! lol! My monologue is called Ashes to Ashes and it's about this lady who's husband took a cigarette and jabbed it into her face seventeen times. I picked it because of this one image in it that totally applies to my life:

People care only until they feel better. They seldom stay past the first good cry.

When I read that I was like, omg, so true...

So anyways, that's pretty frickin awesome. As well, I was in the bookstore and found this sweet play by Timothy Findley called Elizabeth Rex...it's so good so far! I'm only about halfway through but it's all about the way Elizabeth, who had to reign the way a king would to keep the throne, dealt with her femininity, especially after condemning her former lover to death, and the way an actor who plays female roles in the Lord Chamberlain's Men (William Shakespeare's theatre company) deals with his impending death of syphilis, and how a man who has made a living out of acting like a female has to face mortality like a man. So far, it is excellent!

So I have to jet, because I have an old english-language play to wade through and think up some cool way to adapt, AND try to memorize some of my monologue, do some laundry, take a shower, and eat some dinner. :) my life is complete.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

that sounds so freakin awesome, and alana LOVES watching the Mal plays. *excited face!*

Laura said...

!!!! school rocks doesn't it.

a great verb dictionary is a book called "Actions: The Actors' Thesaurus". It's basically required at CCPA because we all use it and need it...plus it's only $20 new! Maybe find a used copy too for cheaper on amazon.ca

WOO

My school this year isn't having us do a ton of live performances this year...we're focussing more on our training..it was one of the common complaints last year- too much classtime occupied with rehearsal time...but i love being on stage, so i know you'll have a fun year!

is theatre one a full equity company now?

and explain "slash and beating" to me! it sounds interesting haha.

Anonymous said...

I'm so going to find that dictionary! That's awesome!

And slash and beating is just a way to kind of dissect the script and remind you of pauses, give you chance to make your own pauses and give it your own kind of flow, and separate the beats of actions and whatnot. Ross taught us and hoestly it doens't do a whole lot for me, but it helps a bit with cold reads.

Queen of Hearts said...

hahaslashing and beating my be usefull but it so isn;t interesting .... maybe itis for a actor... but not this techie

VivaLaPinto said...

btw ^^^ was me, alleah, NOT Amber, :P!

VivaLaPinto said...

also, theatre one is a full equity company but they hire non-equity actors for crap roles...which is fine for me because it means by the time I'm ready to go for my apprenticeship, they'll know me pretty well.