Lewis & Clark Moodle

Solena and I have been practicing our scene and have even managed to secure some extra time with our teacher in order to improve. We've gotten down our own characters but need to make the text work for us building up to the argument in our scene which is not only heavily layered but a mark of where control is lost between the two sisters.

We're going to visit the prop shop soon as we're trying to sell the 'porch' aesthetic and we're currently debating trying to incorporate some sort of boundary line for the porch, to make a clear limit to the amount of space we can utilize. 

Overall, I think we're in the last part of the long haul. Most of the work is done and al there is to do is practice sand improve the little things. 

T-minus 5 days until the final... Sheesh this semester has flown by. Well I guess they do say that time flies when you're having fun!  

This week, Caitlin and I worked on a few of the suggestions that we received after our in-class dress rehearsal. Some of these things included being mindful of volume, making sure that we're breathing during our partner's lines, and waiting to really feel the impulse before carrying out a physical action. On Monday, Caitlin and I were able to receive some private coaching from Rebecca during our 1-on-1 session. This was really helpful! We were able to improve on all of the items just mentioned, as well as brainstorm some new ideas regarding blocking and timing of the scene. Additionally, Caitlin and I agreed on scheduled days that we would meet up during reading days to rehearse more. I think that, considering where we are now, and with those few extra rehearsals, our final performance is going to go really well!

Alexa and I have had an amazing time in this class. It has pushed us out of our comfort zones as well as challenges our own abilities. Neither of us have ever done acting before and this has been a great experience. After our second dress rehearsal Alexa and I are feeling pretty confident about our final. We still need to work on and fine tune some things, but we are headed in the right direction. For me, I need to do a better job at hearing my partners lines, taking it in and then responding. I usually rush through a performance because I get super nervous with everyone looking at us, but I am working on it. Alexa needs to work on the opposite. She needs to work on not taking as much time in between lines and having an immediate reaction to my line. We plan on going outside and running around while rehearsing our lines. Doing something active as well as going to a space where we feel comfortable fully yelling our lines. We have some trouble with volume here and there during our performance and want to fix that for our final. 

First of all, DOES ANYONE HAVE CROCS I CAN USE? IF SO PLEASE EMAIL ME (sierragleason@lclark.edu)! I’d like to use them for this scene. The costume shop didn’t have any.

We had a rehearsal this evening in the Black Box, and we just ran the scene a couple of times, because we had a time constraint issue (directing scene rehearsals needed the space). 

Our goals for this rehearsal were to try out the costume and set items that we had, and to get more comfortable and grounded in the scene. I, for one, am having a hard time getting truly grounded in the scene, and I am happy to say that today, progress was made! I think having the set and costumes really helped both of us drop into the scene better. We also learned that the set and costumes work!

We also fiddled with the tempo of the scene, which came up experimentally during the rehearsal. After one of our runs, we both noticed that the tempo of the scene appeared to be very slow, and it drained some of the energy. So for our last run, we decided to pick it up intentionally, and it actually felt better. The pauses that we have developed in our scene make sense, and we both feel good about their placement, but I think that sometimes we were drawing it out. So running the scene at a faster tempo was a good experimental idea, and we will implement this during our rehearsal tomorrow!

Heyyo everyone! I love seeing all of your guys' pictures and videos. Seeing these different processes has inspired some creative ways for me and Zach to really embrace our characters outside of designated practice time. Woohoo, I am so excited!

We met tonight and finally have the whole script down without error. It is exciting to move away from the paper and really get into the specificity of our actions. We are now focusing on adding movement to our scene. It was pretty stagnant before. We have brainstormed a lot of ideas to help the scene come alive. These actions require a bit of a different setup than we had before. We are adding a chair alongside a table that I can set my stuff on. The reason we are doing this is because I now (Kayleen) have a place to go away from Doug but then when I need to get closer to him physically, but also emotionally, I can do so. 

We practiced today in front of my softball teammates which was really fun for me. This was really helpful too. I find that it is easiest for me to be Kayleen when in the black box/ most comfortable being seen acting. But when I am pushing past this comfort, I found it harder to find myself in Kayleen. I think this is because parts of her role hold some emotions that I don't often show around my friends. We have more of a goofy dynamic. Ultimately, it was a nice challenge that we found rewarding. It helped us to really dig deep into finding "Kayleen" and "Doug" when most uncomfortable. 

Zach and I are meeting tomorrow morning, to run through our scene, with our props. It should be really fun! I hope it goes well.  

Oh yes. One other thing that has been pretty fun in this whole process, is the development of Doug's weary weirdness and Kayleen's subtle drunkenness. It makes for a pretty fun but also complex scene. 

Today is the last day of class, Manu and I are performing our final rough draft. In order to prepare, I've written down the transcript of our scene and run lines with friends multiple times. Manu and I have reviewed the script and discussed where we want our physical action cues. Since we haven't practiced in the black box I'm interested to see how these cues transfer from principle to practice. After that, at some point, we will be meeting with Rebecca which should be enlightening.

Charlotte and I have met a couple times to work on our scene, and while it's far from perfect we're making a lot of progress and are feeling good about it. We've made a lot of progress with lines and especially our physical actions. Our biggest issue right now is with navigating blocking off set, we've been using desks and tables as mock set pieces until we're able to practice in the black box. 

I've still been struggling with a few final lines but I'm confident I'll have them down soon. Aside from that I'm a little worried about our final in class rehearsal tomorrow as I seem to be losing my voice, luckily it's not too bad yet and hopefully it'll be better in the morning. 

I feel really connected to the characters we're playing and am excited for our final performance.