Lewis & Clark Moodle

After the feedback from class on Tuesday, Tiffany and I worked on the maintaining the energy in both our scenes. We started our rehearsal with the distance exercise we did in class last week. Being the furthest apart and yelling our lines at each other was super effective because it let us both release our voices when running through the scene. The note for both of us going into the final scene was to 'share our voices with the audience' and I think this exercise definitely let us do that.  

What we got from looking at videos of our play before was that Detroit was a comedy, so we had been struggling with how to play that in our previous rehearsals. Knowing now that we shouldn't be looking at it like a comedy or like we have to try to be funny helped us move forward with making Mary and Sharon's relationship more genuine.

I've been working on the Magic/If of my character (Sharon) to figure out how each beat changes through her monologue (especially because she's vulnerable and a little crazy on top of being a loosely recovering drug addict). I spoke to a friend about the complexity of her character and they suggested I watch a show called Shameless, whose main character has similar given circumstances as Sharon (they're both poor and broke and trying to do better, and failing). Seeing the way this actor played these given circumstances helped me understand Sharon's vulnerability better. I'm excited to see how this works in our future rehearsals     

I am an avid backpacker, skier, rafter, and hiker. There is always one trend which confuses me. Where are the minorities? Outdoorfoundation.org reports that "Consistent with previous years, minorities lagged behind in outdoor participation. In general, Caucasians had the highest participation rates and African Americans had the lowest" (Outdoor Participation Award 3). What is the reason behind this disparity? It seems as though most minorities choose to spend their time doing other activities rather than be outside. One explanation for this may be the cost of outdoor activities such as skiing and backpacking. More expensive outdoor sports might be hard to afford or justify spending money on for economically lower class citizens. We have learned in our readings that many of the poorer citizens in America tend to be minorities, or their families previous generations were part of the lower class. It is not that minorities don't want to participate in outdoor activities, it's that lower economic class citizens cannot afford it, and many minorities are of a lower class. If the current minorities are of a lower class, then it is granted that they are going to be less likely to spend money on luxury items such as skis or backpacks. Minorities have historically been oppressed, allowing for no culture or history of leisure time or ability to spend exorbitant amounts of money on outdoor equipment. There is also no history or tradition in their families or friends of going camping, backpacking, skiing, or hiking. This is an issue. It can be difficult to see the value in outdoor sports if there is no outside influence to inspire people. It is very important that everyone has access to the outdoors in order to become excited about it and inspired to vote in a way that reflects this inspiration. So how do we close this gap in outdoor participation? I believe that this will be solved through programs and camps that start a history and culture of minorities engaging with nature. 

There is a reason why people of all classes and economic standings should have quick and easy access to the outdoors. Being outside is proven to be the best way to connect with nature and to care for it. A connection with nature is crucial when accounting for our current environmental situation. In order for the world to change it's ways there needs to be an internal drive within each person. This wont happen if people are not able to see and interact with what they are saving. Outdoor sports is one example of how people can get this inspiration. However as I just discussed, there is not enough money in the lower class to participate in this industry. In order to do that we need to have some way of raising money to help the lower class engage with nature. This could be done by increasing taxes to create more government programs aimed towards getting lower class citizens outside, or by finding new, cheaper ways for people to get in touch with nature. This could be through public gardens, parks, or opening more land owned by the government to the public for people to get the connection they need to become inspired to protect the areas they love.

Virginia and I met today to solidify blocking for the entire scene and to work on moment to moment.

We used the exercise that we did on Tuesday, where we lay with our heads next to each other, to run through all of our lines once first.  Our characters are best friends and are really connected in the scene, so it was important that we established a feeling of closeness and being two young friends hanging out.  Our scene takes place after the girls have already spent an entire day together, so we wanted to get into that headspace of being with a person we spend a lot of time with and are comfortable around.  This helped us be grounded and helped with listening later on.

We met in Howard because the BB was in use, but we were still able to set up the furniture so that we could block as if we were in the BB.  We took Rebecca's advice not to move unless we had a reason and to use the space between us to show the characters' relationship.  In the intimate moments of our scene we sit next to each other, when we argue, we are farther apart and standing up.  Our blocking gets more natural the more we pay attention to the character's intention.  

We practiced the kiss at the end of the scene for the first time today.  We have a fairly easy kiss because it is supposed to be awkward, so it's easier to play than a passionate one.  That moment is really dramatic, so we're playing with pauses and body language to make it as dramatic and realistic as possible.  We are also working on our objectives during the scene because it's all leading up to the kiss.  Virginia is trying to be more flirty so that her objective is clear and I am trying to work on establishing the power dynamic so that it seems like I am trying to impress Virginia because she is more confident than I am.  The power dynamics are really helping us with moment to moment and figuring out why we say certain things.

I am struggling with keeping my voice consistent throughout the scene.  I play a character who is much younger than I am, and I'm trying to figure out how to convey that in my voice without overacting.  I've tried approaching it by really dropping in to the scene and my character and if I really feel like my character, I'll naturally say my lines like I'm a 16 year old.  But I find that even when I'm really dropped in, my voice changes throughout the scene from normal to younger.  Is anyone else experiencing something similar, and if so do you have any advice?

I'm so excited to show you all tomorrow and hear your feedback!

Rehearsal this week has been especially challenging. We are attempting to put everything together, remembering all our lines, figuring out our blocking of the scene and trying to have a reason to say each line. Balancing all of these with the full script can get a little overwhelming at times as well as finding time to rehearse. 

We are both super excited to perform tomorrow and get some great feedback on what we can do to improve our scene. I look forward to seeing what everyone else percieves of my choices I have chosen for Claire as well as being confident with my higher status. Also EVERYONE GETS TO HEAR ME YELL!!! Can't wait for tomorrow y'all! 

An important part of the acting process is to really know the character you are playing. That is something we tried to focus on a lot. Taking a look at intentions of our characters and how they interact or feel about each other was only the first step. Another interesting part was actually practicing the play separately. For me personally, it was very interesting going in between practicing with Sydney and my friends outside of class. We had friends who were there to help us memorize our lines during the times when we couldn't meet.  

I believe the different people brought a new perspective for both of us to think about. You have to think about how your character would react to different tones, tempos, and even the "loudness" of the voice. All intentions stayed constant and the motives and the drive remained the same yet something was different. This helped to get the lines memorized but also opened the opportunity to be freer when practicing with Sydney. I was also able to think about the character a bit more. It built a connection with the character that allows me to be the character as cheesy as that sounds. 

The moral of the story is that working from different perspectives helps to find the heart of a character and they can help build upon that to make it your own alongside your partner. Again, sorry for sounding cheesy. 

This week in our rehearsals, we are still trying so hard to not just memorize the lines, but also listening and responding. We both have had previous notes on not just saying lines, but really listening to what your scene partner has to say as well. We feel like if we can really try to listen to our partner that the scene will be more moment to moment, and have more of a “pinch, ouch” feeling.

One thing we are struggling with this week is the beginning of our scene, and making it flow more realistically. We both agreed that the story telling part in the beginning can become a little more awkward because of the lack of action while the rest of the scene there is a lot of movement with more conversation. Last week we had the note that we didn’t really start to drop in until there was movement with the conversation, so that is how we are planning to drop ourselves into the beginning.

As a side note, rehearsal has really been a struggle because I lost my voice on Friday, and seemed to only regain it back on Monday… It’s been a process, but has allowed us to work more on the movements in the scene.

This week's rehearsal has started to see some serious improvement between Griffin and I. Only a week ago, we were stumbling through lines for the first two minutes and didn't even think about blocking. Now we are entirely off book and already have some blocking figured out for parts of the scene.

Throughout rehearsal, both Griffin and I try to make the other actor react naturally to our actions. This is especially true for how Griffin negotiates his more passive Ben compared to my loud, energetic Kenny. For example, there's a line where Griffin asks me, "are you supposed to be drinking that?" While we were rehearsing, I was walking around and Griffin was sitting down. With no warning, he got up and looked me in the eye and delivered the line. I wasn't expecting him to do that. He challenged my characters authority and forced me to react the way I would when someone calls me out. By getting this natural reaction from me, Griffin's acting methods made for a better blocking product.

My own process in memorizing lines has been filled with annoying my friends and funny stories. Griffin and I have only so much free time to meet together and it feels unfair to make him listen to me try to memorize lines. My friends, on the other hands, I have no problem forcing them to listen me lecture them. My roommate, not my closest friend in the world but a friend nonetheless, had some choice comments about my acting. While I was running through the script at the Bon with a friend he kept on trying to distract me and kept saying I was doing a bad job with the script. At the end of the scene, I needed to use the book to get through the speech at the end. As I was finishing up the speech, I put down the book, looked to my left and said "oh shit" several times as indicated in the script. My roommates response to this was, "what is it? whats up?". I was so excited I told him "screw you I'm a great actor" and got up and left for a minute. The guy saying I was a bad actor had just been convinced by what I was doing!!

My own experience trying to memorize lines is filled with stories like this where I act in spaces in public with friends often to mixed reactions from those around me. This process seems to be working for me, however, and Griffin is also doing a great job getting his lines memorized so we're in a really great spot!

Ellen I spent a while crafting the last half of our scene. With the stakes so high, we worked on what feels the most natural for physical actions and how are bodies are in relationship with the text. Which is so hard. We recorded one of our practices to see what looks awkward and what works. It feels like being on the inside of the scene, we have the best insight for feeling what works, yet also have the hardest perspective to look in and notice things we don't usually see. Does that make sense? We hoped this video would help to workshop from both inside and outside the scene, but even watching it back I still feel like I'm on the inside. So, we just keep practicing , and as we do, its kind of beautiful how changes come in a fluid and natural way as we get more into character and the setting. 

Personally, I still feel like i'm struggling to sink into the scene at the beginning. I can feel myself as we go, especially the second half really sink in. So, how do I mentally but myself in the scene without actually doing the scene. How do I use the moment before to help me with this? Especially in a hurricane of before nerves. Anyone have any tips or advise on the moment before and getting yourself into character and the scene? IT'S SO HARD.

This week was good! We finished blocking both of our scenes, and were able to run through them both pretty successfully! The memorization on the first scene we had down well and the second scene was much shorter, making the process go quicker. The challenge of our second scene is that it will be harder to get into the moment since we don’t have any props or scenery in the scene. It is just us walking together almost filling space until we kiss. 

The feedback on our first scene was good--to slow down a little bit and not rush the scene because we were going so fast. I think that slowing it down will not only help us with playing the scene more honestly, but also to take our time to develop our characters and really drop in.

Our biggest challenge this week is the kiss!! As close friends, Alec and I may be a little awkward, which we think fits the scene, but we worry that we will be too awkward! To do this successfully, we need make sure we are completely dropped in to our characters and let go of who we are outside of it. No laughing allowed. Looking forward to getting feedback on our second scene today!

This week Tuse and I sent time together looking at short clips of Detroit on Youtube (Sunday, Monday and Wednesday). We also sent a lot of time practicing our lines as well as developing our characters because we both have monologues. This week we found ourselves struggling because Detroit is a "comedy." We are not completely sure how to make our scenes funny because the conversations our characters are having are very serious. We cannot wait to perform on Thursday so we can get lots of feedback on how to improve.