Lewis & Clark Moodle

So, this week Isam and I were able to perform the first half of our scene to the class, it was a really great experience. We both got the opportunity to run through it live with an audience and that was a true blessing! We thought that we executed our performance and our grounding very well, which we are stoked about. However, I learned that I must rethink my character of Sam and be more insecure/masking my power over Avery in this scene. With these notes in mind, I am excited to attack the character of Sam in a different light and try to execute the character to the best of my abilities. Isam and I are planning to meet Sunday to rehearse the scene before our performance on Wednesday.  

Today Martin and I had a very fun idea before we started rehearsal. Martin is in charge of Bachata club and on Tuesday he hosted a pod night. My roommate and I went and he taught this really fun Bachata number. 💃Before rehearsal, we decided to dance together to see if it would help our intimacy within the scene. It definitely did.☺️ We found it to be so much easier tapping in to our emotions and reacting to each others movements because we did that using a language that we both know and feel comfortable with. 💃With partner dancing it's about trust but also signals. I felt comfortable asking Martin to position me with a little more firmness while we were dancing because I was having trouble remembering some steps but since I was following, I just needed him to physically tell me where I needed to go (Yes, he was a pretty great leader😎). With that added pressure, I knew where I needed to go. It was fantastic! 🙂It was such a fun way to open up rehearsal but also helped us both snap into character more easily. We already trust one another but this exercise helped that trust to grow even more which ultimately added to the comfort level of our scene.  

Martin worked a lot on intimacy but he also focused a lot on where to put the beer bottle. 🍼 Props can be hard sometimes in that way because there are times he feels like it's more natural to have it in his hand but there are also times when he needs to move and not have a bottle in his hands. 🚶. Finding that balance has been tricky. We're working it out though! 

Good job to everyone on the first round of scenes! See you all on Monday 👏

So, this week Ziantae and I were able to reserve the Black Box on Tuesday night, which was so crucial because we were performing on Wednesday. We were definitely kind of nervous for the performance, so we wanted to try and tone out/perfect our movements. That was our main focus for this rehearsal because we felt like we knew our lines pretty well.The performance went pretty good, hopefully. The feedback we got from Rebecca really helped, and I would say we are looking forward to continuing practicing, memorizing, and performing.

Today we tried a new approach in getting into character specially since our scene gets intimate at times. We addressed this by dancing together before rehearsing, we are basically getting more comfortable with each other. 💃

While dancing, Lauren asked me to give her some more pressure as I was leading. This helped her react to the direction and movements we were both doing. We used this to our advantage in this scene as both of us felt like we could trust one another to give emotions and to react to them. 🤗

An important part for me during this rehearsal was figuring out when I need to put the beer bottle on the floor and when do I need to pick it up. This gives me more mobility on the scene and helps me get more into the character. 🍼😎

We are excited for you all to see it on Monday! Woohoo! 😎😊

THIS IS THE BLOG FROM LAST WEEK BUT I THINK I POSTED IT IN THE WRONG PLACE!!!!

This week, my partner and I worked on analyzing the beats in our script and were able to write what each character was going for in each beat. I feel that although analyzing beats can be an easy concept, my partner and I had some conflict because there were times where I might have thought the shift of beat was changing and my partner did not and vise versa. Overall, we were able to identify where the main beats should take place. We also went through our script and learned a little bit more about each character and the given circumstance. This helped us to get more in the scene and to play the role of the character rather than just acting out the scene. Knowing more about each character and the given circumstance, makes the needs and wants of each character more clear is what we learned. Besides doing tableware with my partner this last week, we also practiced our script which I feel like we're having a hard time memorizing because of the specificity go the situation and because we need to practice more of being in the shoes of the character rather than just saying the lines. 

THIS IS THE BLOG FROM LAST WEEK BUT I THINK I POSTED IT IN THE WRONG PLACE!!!!

This week, my partner and I worked on analyzing the beats in our script and were able to write what each character was going for in each beat. I feel that although analyzing beats can be an easy concept, my partner and I had some conflict because there were times where I might have thought the shift of beat was changing and my partner did not and vise versa. Overall, we were able to identify where the main beats should take place. We also went through our script and learned a little bit more about each character and the given circumstance. This helped us to get more in the scene and to play the role of the character rather than just acting out the scene. Knowing more about each character and the given circumstance, makes the needs and wants of each character more clear is what we learned. Besides doing tableware with my partner this last week, we also practiced our script which I feel like we're having a hard time memorizing because of the specificity go the situation and because we need to practice more of being in the shoes of the character rather than just saying the lines. 

Our second rehearsal of scene #11 from Stop Kiss was once again in-person at my apartment, a day or two after we'd  performed the first two minutes in front of the class. I felt pretty good about how we'd done, and my biggest goal for this rehearsal was to apply the feedback we'd received from Rebecca and our fellow classmates. I realized I'd been upping the stakes of the exchange between Sara and Callie too early on, because as Rebecca said, my character Callie should be trying to avoid a fight instead of rushing into one. Slowing down the emotional pace of the scene gave me more opportunities to find little physical actions within the scene to make it more authentic, like picking up Sara's discarded jacket from the apartment floor and hanging it up. My next steps will be to fully memorize the remainder of the scene, and to figure out what props we want to use for Callie's cluttered apartment seating area. 

For our next rehearsal, we'll try to take some photos/videos as well. 

Isabel and I met at my apartment last week to have one of our first official rehearsals for Stop Kiss Scene 11, and spent a lot of the time working out the blocking of the scene for the first two minutes (in order to help us prepare for the first in-class showing on Monday). I think it'll be helpful to reserve some time in the Black Box so we can get a better sense of the space, figure out what furniture we'll use, etc. We were both pretty fully memorized, so a lot of what we did was finalize our beat and action notations for each of our lines. After we'd finalized that, it became much easier to convey the right emotions once I had a better sense of what my character (Callie) was trying to achieve as the scene went on. 

Ryan and I had Rehearsal this morning in the Blackbox and have a few hours set aside this weekend before our second showing Monday! One challenge we faced this morning was getting into our scene. Even after taking an extended moment before I found myself inclined to smile and float. Rehearsal is so much fun, especially in the company of friends, so stepping into a serious/intense head space can be challenging. By the end of rehearsal I was feeling a lot more grounded and the scene started to fall back into place. We added a new row of chairs (AND A COFFEE MACHINE) to our set, and I'm very excited to work on our new blocking! Can't wait for the showing on Monday

Here's a handstand and a handshake to bid you adieu

A week and a half ago Erika and I met up to put together our 2 minutes before our performance on Wednesday. Before getting into our bodies, we went over the structure of beats and talked about our action verbs and how we wanted that to affect our scene. We also worked on memorization and walking through the blocking that was in the text to make it feel less awkward! The most challenging aspect of our rehearsal process was navigating the objective/ obstacles relating to the fight that happens in the scene. Since we both knew how the scene was going to end, it was hard to get out of the mindset that we were going to have a fight and came into the scene with our guards up.