Lewis & Clark Moodle

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. 

This week Tuse and I sent time together looking at short clips of Detroit on Youtube. 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. 

Cheers,

T & T  

For our scene in Proof, we thought it would be best to start by developing a moment prior to when our scene begins. In our scene, Hal walks up to the front door and then wanders around to the back door where Claire answers the door. This gives us an excellent opportunity for physical action before our text. By looking up possible sets this could give us an idea of how we want to lay out our scene. We thought by adding this moment before would help us be more grounded and add more depth to the scene. Also, this would articulate our destinations clearly to our audience.

The picture above is an accumulation of shots from various Proof scenes done in real life. We drew inspiration from these photos and got a key insight on what kinds of things we wanted to incorporate into our scene. Likewise, we got some ideas on how we want to dress to portray our characters. Nevertheless, these images became extremely helpful in adding a more detailed picture of the act Proof by not having only literal examples.

As we are working through the process of memorizing our script, we have become more familiar with our characters. Going further, our goal this week is to build a strong foundation with confidence in our script and with the organization of our scene. From past assignments, we have found that emphasizing familiarity with our lines is important to be able to start incorporating physical actions and utilizing information from our beat analyses to expand our scene into a moment that is believable and authentic.

Medford Oregon is not considered racially diverse by most of the people who live there. It is predominantly white, with nearly no population of color other than the large hispanic population. This is a trend which is easily explainable. Medford's economy is based largely off of farming. Seasonal workers came to work on the many pear orchards and vineyards that make up the farming industry around Medford. These seasonal workers eventually stopped being seasonal and became legal citizens in Medford, and many of their children now work at lower income jobs in Medford, although some still do work in the orchards or as day laborers. It is clear where redlining has occurred when a map of Medford outlining different people of color live. The gentrification of many of Medford's neighborhoods is obvious when you visit these redlined areas. There are cops patrolling the streets at all hours of the day and night, houses are deteriorating,  people are smoking on lawn couches, and theres a high school for troubled teens in the center of it all. This is the west side of Medford. My grandpa explained to me that the houses in these areas were once very nice, and that people actually chose to live in these neighborhoods. Now the rich have moved to the East side of Medford. There are private schools, doctors offices, and very little police presence on the East side. The East side is also being newly developed. It is clear to anyone watching how the rich moved from west to east as the poorer minorities moved into the West side of town. This is made even more clear when looking at things such as food stamps, household income, and employment status. The West side has less money, more food stamps, and less employed. It also has more hispanics. Why is this? Just as African Americans went north during the Great Migration in search of a better life, so too did hispanics go north from South America. The same results were sees as in the Great migration, the new minority was taken advantage of financially. This created an even greater disparity in wealth and eventually a physical divide between the poor and the rich. 

Rehearsing our lines

Over and over again

Ugh no end in sight

I take on a role

To create a new being

Character arrives

Callie loves Sara

Two women who don’t know how

To be together

Becoming Callie

Is about understanding

Her struggle and life

I am tired and warm

I want to sleep but I must

Keep studying lines

Studying Sara

Learning her quirks and her tics

Becoming Sara

Repeat repeat re

Peat repeat repeat repeat

Repeat Repeat re….

This play is so great

The dialogue is nice, also,

I get to smooch Kaia

Being gay with Trump

Is great preparation for

Being nineties gay

Kaia kicks booty

She’s so good at learning lines

What a great partner

We get to create

A whole world within the text

We are the makers

Acting forces a

New awareness of myself

What do my hands do?

I wish we had props

This is not a pullout couch

I am on the ground

How to imagine

That everything is different

Really it’s all the same

Motivating to

Study lines is like pulling

My own teeth out eeeee

Time flies when you act

In class rehearsal is good

Is there enough time?