Lewis & Clark Moodle

Iris and I rehearsed a few times during this week and I think it went really well. The things we focused on were memorization and provoking the character. We ran through the scene over and over which helped out a lot because by the end of our practice, we memorized almost the whole scene. After working on that, we started looking at the lines that needed to be said differently. I remember Iris asking me how she should say “I think you’re upset and exhausted” in order to make my response more powerful. I told her that she just needed to get under my skin and  emphasize the “I” which then would make me emphasize my “I was FINE until you got here”. We talked about how this scene is a sister relationship scene so going back and forth with our lines as if we were real siblings would help us tell the story without just showing. 

Thank you for your undivided attention!  

MOMENT BEFORE

I tried to focus a lot on the moment before when I planned my costume and my reaction going into the scene. Catherine has just slept with Hal - someone she likes and she has just affirmed that neither of them regretted what was essentially one nightstand. She's happy and trusts Hal enough to give him the key so he can find the proof. 

Then, Claire comes in. It's the morning of her leaving and Catherine wants everything to end on a good note and so, we dive in.

SET

That's how we planned the set too. A porch setting, open and homey but the two sisters sit with a table separating them. There is a distance to breach and it only gets bigger. I wanted the set to remind me how to behave. Claire and I are separate, even if we bridge the gap. 

HOW TO BE GROUNDED?

 Catherine and I had a lot of stuff in common. For example, I am intimately familiar with the concept of selling a family home and moving into the unknown during a tumultuous period in one's life. So, when I act, I am trying -  to some extent - to draw on the petulant child that I was when I experienced the same thing. I found that my acting is best when there is something that grounds me at the moment. Unfortunately, this emotional connection to  Catherine's predicament seems to make my space out during performances and forget my lines. 

. I don't want anything like what happened at rehearsal to happen during my preformance and forgetting lines like that in the middle of a preformance has never happened to me. So, I've put into place three different methods in order to familiarize myself with both the lines and the distractions that come with being in the spotlight. 

SOLUTIONS

One, I've videotaped myself saying my partner's lines so I can respond to them in real-time. 

(The video itself is apparently too large to attach to this document)

Two, I've made a map of how the conversation goes, explicitly writing down the lines I am prone to forgetting.

Three, I've practiced the lines with several different people and in multiple different paces so I don't get distracted.

We'll see how it goes.

Unfortunately I don't feel like trying to write in prose this week, so I'll just spill what we did at our rehearsal last night:

Two full hours of repeating the scene and chatting to try and figure out why we keep dropping some lines.

A few laughs scattered here and there when we mess up.

Huffs and sighs complaining about why we don't want to go even though we're ready.

A full conversation about food and what we like and don't like.

Going over missed parts as many times as we could.

Even more complaining about not wanting to go.

Now go back and read the first letter of every line.

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Honestly, this week's prose started off unintentional but after I saw what I started to write and the way I was writing it, I had to make it a poem thing. At our rehearsal last night, we mostly focused on out memorizations and making sure that we had all of the words down before we put it up on its feet. As we were moving around and putting emotion into it, we found that there were a couple of lines that we kept dropping, but never the same ones in the same run of the scene. We decided to chalk it up to the fact that we were overthinking the scene, because we wouldn't realize something was missing until the scene was over. We ran it twice before getting sidetracked and had a full on conversation about food, specifically Mexican food and baking (cause I like to bake, and I'm going to bake a special treat for finals to share). Once we got back on track, we ran it probably 7 more times, pausing after each one to see if we missed any lines. Once we were able to run it 2 times in a row without messing up, we called it good, promising to study lines more before our performance today (woo.). I think everything will go pretty well. We know the stuff, we have the set, props, and costumes. All we have to do is get the nerve to actually do it. And that isn't too hard. 

Right?

Yesterday, Keshav and I did our final in-class dress rehearsal. Leading up to our performance, we had some trouble with blocking and incorporating a physical action component. Having a hospital waiting room as our setting creates many limitations in terms of movement. The script also doesn't provide many movement cues, so we had to get a little creative and decide where movement made scene. When we rehearsed the night before, we played with the idea of seeing at what parts of the script we felt the impulse to move. As a result, we decided to have Callie get up and try to leave out of fear after Peter begins interrogating her. 

I feel like we still have a lot of work to do with the blocking, as well as not trying to solely play the "opposition." I'm really excited to see how our final performance turns out!

As we have really started to master our lines, Julie and I are starting to decide on how we want to say our lines and express ourselves within the scene. Every time we rehearse, the scene is a little bit different than the last. Because the scene is so emotional, we feel as if each time the scene brings out different emotions from us. This iterative process is really helping us make some decisions with how we want to make the scene ours. 

We hope everyone is doing well in this hectic time of the semester!

I'm writing this blog entry on the heels of another rehearsal with Charlotte. I've really been enjoying the scene and memorizing lines has gone well for both of us, baring a few lines here or there. All considered, I think we did very well this past performance in class today! I was surprised at how well I knew the lines and how engaged with the material of the scene I was. Personally, I still need to work on remaining grounded in the scene. I often have this tendancy to wander and pace when I'm speaking, but I feel like in order for me to really activate my lines I need to remain stationary and use the rest of my body to articulate my emotions. 

All in all, I'm very excited for our final performance. Me and Charlotte have alot of rehearsals planned, so we should be quite prepared for the final showing.