Lewis & Clark Moodle

We rehearsed our final scene on Sunday in the black box. The first aspect of our rehearsal was figuring out our set and what props we might want to include. Judging from our script we decided that we didn’t need to many material items within the scene. This is because in the beginning of the play Dennis’s apartment was described as one that could be theoretically packed up within 30 minutes. However, there were essentials that were mentioned in the script like a couch, chair, a bed that was laid out on the floor and a kitchen aid. We also decided that we would be moving within a fairly small space, since it is supposed to be a studio in New York that doesn’t have enough space anyway. We ended up setting up our general set, which our scene will take place (picture below).           

Additionally, we read through all our lines and tried to figure out the spatial relationship we will maintain throughout certain spots in the scene due to the plethora of emotional states that our characters go through during this time.

We rehearsed our final scene on Sunday in the black box. The first aspect of our rehearsal was figuring out our set and what props we might want to include. Judging from our script we decided that we didn’t need to many material items within the scene. This is because in the beginning of the play Dennis’s apartment was described as one that could be theoretically packed up within 30 minutes. However, there were essentials that were mentioned in the script like a couch, chair, a bed that was laid out on the floor and a kitchen aid. We also decided that we would be moving within a fairly small space, since it is supposed to be a studio in New York that doesn’t have enough space anyway. We ended up setting up our general set, which our scene will take place (picture below).

Additionally, we read through all our lines and tried to figure out the spatial relationship we will maintain throughout certain spots in the scene due to the plethora of emotional states that our characters go through during this time.

Everything is going well here with Andrew and I.  We're going to do our best on Monday to play our first 2 minutes.  Wish us Luck!!

Who is your character?

Hal is a semi-hip, somewhat good looking, twenty-eight year old ex grad student who was doing his Ph.D. He plays the drums in a band composed of the math department. Their band is terrible and their hit song is called “i” (lower-case I, they stand there doing nothing for three minutes because lower-case I is an imaginary number). Hal also teaches and does his own personal Research. Robert who is Catherine’s father was Hal’s doctoral advisor. Robert passes away and leaves all his undiscovered work behind and since Hal was in Roberts “Infinite” program he is studying Roberts work.

Growing up in Hawaii I never really watched much movies besides the ones that were popular at the time and when I did watch movies none of them took place in Chicago. So, I knew nothing about my scene and what it would looked like. I decided to watch a youtube video to get a better visual (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxcsY93rjCw). After watching the video, I felt like the scene would take place outside on the porch and also in the house to use the phone. The vibe of the porch and the house should feel old and a little run down. Another limitation of growing up in Hawaii was the lack of exposure I had to mainland people. To really understand a character, I think it's best to know their background. But, because I've never been or met someone from Chicago this was a huge challenge for me. I overcame this challenge by watching movies/videos of people from Chicago. Last limitation I had being from Hawaii was the type of clothes we wear. In Hawaii all I wear is board shorts and a T-shirt, I had no clue what people in Chicago wear. To fix the problem, Ayisha and I did a little research by google imaging what people would look like at that time.

As we come to an end! I would like to give a huge shout out to this entire class. It has been a joy seeing yal twice a week and working with you! As Tuse and I wrapped up last weekend (I forgot to blog... shhh don’t tell Rebecca) I remember we took a moment right before we started our rehearsal of silence just appreciated our characters Sharon and Mary. We spent a lot of time in our last rehearsals really thinking about the different layers of our characters really making sure we added in the complexity, the drama and sass both Sharon and Mary bring to the table. This task was a bit difficult at first but the more we rehearsed the easier it became to image how just who Sharon and Mary are as people. Tuse and I really worked hard to embody these women and I hope that shows in a few hours. In our final rehearsal we felt like sitting at the picnic table was not creating that strong connection we were looking for so we changed it to sitting on the floor with the table behind us. In this progress we learned to truth our gut and do what feels right while thinking about what Mary and Sharon would do.   

This week Casey and I have been really trying to work on our use of space and blocking in our scene. Rebecca gave us some great advice that we have been taking to heart, which was finding a reason why you move and what is your intentions doing so. We have been struggling with knowing when to move, which causes our scenes to have wasted movement. However, when we took, the advice Rebecca gave us it really helped develop our scene and especially the stakes of our characters.

Another thing we have been working on is the status of our characters. For both of us, our natural personalities are a lot different from our characters, and it has been a process to adapt. We have been doing a great job dropping into our characters and focusing on our choices. The last thing we have been working on is listening and making our script sound organic. Sometimes we tend to anticipate our lines and just say them without listening to each other.

Nevertheless, we have gained great feedback for our scene and have been ingraining our critiques into our rehearsals. We are continuing to improve our scene and are excited to perform our final product soon!

Last rehearsal Virginia and I went to church... literally we rehearsed in the Chapel and it helped so much with dropping in and blocking for the BB. I really recommend doing a rehearsal in a space that is like the one your characters are in in the scene. It helped me a lot with dropping in. 

What I have been struggling with the most is taking the same risks I take during rehearsal when I am performing in class. I am going to try to take even more risks during the next rehearsal and hopefully our coaching session with Rebecca will help me make more dynamic choices.

Having Virginia as a scene partner has been so helpful because I really feed off her energy and seeing her be really dropped in helps me drop in too. 

I'm so sad that this semester is coming to a close because it means we all won't be in class together anymore I love being in class with you all and I'm going to miss it so much!! 

Our second round of dress rehearsals in front of the class went extremely well! We really are making huge strides in pinch-ouch movement and concerned moment to moment actions. One of the key moments for me in the dress rehearsal was when Griffin accidentally spilled water on my shirt as he said he was willing to go out for the night. It was an accident but one that could totally have happened in the conversation between Ben and Kenny. It forced me to be more explosive and dynamic in my response. On the same note, Griffin really worked the scene where he crushed the beer can and decided to go out. Focusing on moment to moment he really changed the way he visibly makes a decision to go out for the night. Really strong improvement for both of us! 

Looking forward for rehearsal strategies, I need to work on enunciation a great deal more. During the dress rehearsal, I focused on enunciation after Rebecca pointed out how I slur my words. This is something I have gotten my whole life and is actually a reason I took the class in the first place. When rehearsing, I was so focused on enunciating, I accidentally said Griffin's line! I will record myself and intentionally focus on how I sound to address this problem. Griffin is working on stopping unnecessary pauses. He got that comment from Rebecca and started working it during the dress rehearsal and I immediately noticed a significant difference in how I reacted to him! Getting rid of those pauses forces me to be more "dropped in" to the scene. Addressing these two concerns, the two of us can really create a final product that we're proud of!  

We have been working on exaggerating in our rehearsals since last performance. We think it has worked out some of the weird blocking sections, and has put us more into the given circumstances. We have developed our characters more as budding love then us just having a friendship. 

We also have been working on really considering why we are saying the lines, and not just repeating the lines because they are our lines. This has lead us to be more intentional in our body language and movements throughout the scene. 

Annika has worked on really telling a story with her monologue with facial expressions, and really being into her moment to moment during this. I have worked on actively listening with both movements and facial expressions during her monologue. Also still working on dropping in in the beginning of scene, so we are doing some experimenting with that. 

Can't wait for our second rehearsal!!! 

CRAZY that we have to perform our scene in a week. Time truly flies when you're having fun.

In our last rehearsal, we tried the laser game we played in class last week. The pros of this game are that it forces you to listen and react when your partner is speaking. The cons, of course, are that it's hilarious and it's hard to remain serious while kicking at your partner. Our next move was to walk through blocking slowly and deliberately, trying to really think about why we might move to a certain place or look at each other at a certain time. In other words, we walked through the scene trying to be really deliberate about our actions and the reasons behind our actions.

We have another rehearsal scheduled for this afternoon, and we have a few things planned. First, we have to really consider where we are in relation to each other and to the audience. I think we have a real problem sometimes considering how things look from an outside perspective.

This process has been a lot of fun. Rehearsing is like homework that we actually look forward to, but is somehow much harder than other work. We can't wait for the final performance! It'll be  areal hoot.

-Ellen & Sydni