Lewis & Clark Moodle

After I got feedback from the two-minute showing, I was really trying to find a good way to portray how business people rebound after a long night of drinking. So I tried to do all the research I could, without actually getting drunk myself. So, as my family is in the wine industry, I asked a family member how she dealt with hangovers when she had important meetings she needed to attend. She told me to drink LOTS of water, get some food in your stomach as soon as you wake up, take two Advil and avoid caffeine at all costs. according to her, caffeine can help at first but it will make you crash hard later on in the day. I found that interesting because my character is offered coffee twice and rejects it both times, so this might actually be the reason for it!

I also started thinking about my clothing. As Claire is a professional woman, I imagine she would have an ensemble of pantsuits and working dresses, but I also thought about how this is her traveling home after morning the death of her father.  She might not be wearing something so professional. I needed to find a balance. So I actually wanted to ask the class, what do you guys think? I could go for sweaters and a nice pair of jeans, or the same jeans and a button-up? I know that I want to use a long black coat that I have for the scene too, but it's just the top that I'm questioning. 

I also feel a bit worried about doing the full performance. I know that I can do it, it's just actually getting up there and doing it. I think that because I forget everything over the break, I don't feel as ready to do it now. But I guess that I have to buck up and do it! Does anyone have any helpful words of encouragement? Gifs/pictures of baby Yoda that can help relax you? I'm open!

As we near our final rehearsal days, Jake and I have been solidifying certain beat changes. For instance, we will rehearse all the way through once, then we will rehearse beat to beat. This has been helpful for us because it allows us to really understand each beat and see it apart from the others. I am already realizing it has lead to stronger shifts within our scene which create a more natural feel. 

Also, we have been solidifying certain physical action that best convey our tactics at any given beat. The creative process behind this has actually been very easy. I usually begins with one of us deciding a physical action and then, based on our knowledge of characters and given circumstance, we allow our initial reaction/impulse decide the next physical action or we use the pervious action as a que for the next. It rally begins to flow very naturally rather than trying make a physical action work at a certain point. It is a bit less overwhelming when the scene is able to create these moments for physical action rather than needing to search and search for alternative paths. 

After the rehearsals on Tuesday, we have really grasp the rest of the text in the book, so now we have to finalize all the physical action and blocking that occurs towards the ending of the scene. 

Reminder we're doing scene 2 from proof.

this is what we're imagining the setting of the scene is.

We focused mainly on blocking with this rehearsal as it pertains to beat changes that we've observed. We confirmed that my (Claire) passive action will be veggie prepping (will need knife and cutting board prop) and that Johanna (Catherine) will be eating/ playing with food thats on the table in front of the couch and I will be talking to her from the kitchen counter initially. Both of us will use our passive actions to fill empty space or 'awkwardness'  between Claire and Katherine that results from the intensity and the passive aggressive nature of their interaction.  When Claire confronts Katie about the police coming by last night she will step out from behind the counter top to face Katherine in the living room. At a later point in the confrontation after Harold Dobs comes up, Claire will pick up a champagne bottle laying sideways on the floor a few feet away form the couch. Things come to a head when Claire exclaims "YOU called THEM" then a little more fighting then Catherine says "well people are nicer to you" and that line triggers Claire's sympathy/ protective older sister persona to come out and with that she sits next to Catherine on the couch and asks her if she wants to come to New York. With her second to last line "I'm PERFECTLY OKAY", Catherine stands up to face Claire (still sitting) and that's the blocking skeleton! I feel like every time we run the scene, we gain even more insight into each character's internal attitudes towards themselves and each other and as a result the delivery of the lines, the space between the lines and the action that goes with the lines becomes more like a reflex or a reaction to the context. Happy with the progress! 

Because of happenstance Manu and I did our beat analysis and learned our lines independently. When we did meet to rehearse the scene for class it went extremely smoothly, we both knew the first two minutes very well. I will add that perhaps because we learned the lines independently we did not fully block the scene and while one of us said our monologues the other kinda just sat there listening, we do not yet know what physical action can be done along with our counterparts monologue. This is definitely something to work on. We also practiced having an audience, we preformed our scene in front of two of our friends. 

I posted this to my personal blog on Nov. 26th, Manu just informed me that it was not on the messaging board 

Ethan and I have not met up to practice since our dress rehearsal on Tuesday. Of course, that is not to say that we have not worked on the scene. In fact, we have been using Thanksgiving break to contemplate over our theatrical choices independently. We were given lots of constructive feedback during our dress rehearsal, and we needed time to digest all of it. 

One piece of feedback that deeply surprised me is when Rebecca stated that this was the most grounded she has seen me. The method I tried to use to become grounded was to avoid eye contact with the audience. I did not think this would work because if you avoid looking at the audience, you are acknowledging that the audience is there. Going out of your way to avoid looking at the audience could be just a dangerous as staring directly at the audience. So now I am not really sure how to treat the audience when I am acting.

Another realization I had from doing the dress rehearsal is that my back was turned to the audience. I need to find a way to fix this. Someone suggested going around the chairs to the other side. I appreciate this piece of advice, but I am not sure if that would appear natural for the character. To me, the most realistic thing to do in this situation would be to take the shortest beeline path to where Ethan's character is lying down. This is a problem that I need to think more about.

Our second week with rehearsals I belive has gone very well. We weren't able to get a lot of time in together (due to Thanksgiving break) but I and Devin wanted to make sure to keep on practicing our lines. As I have mentioned in our last blog, we wanted to make sure there were not too many long pauses where it can be awkward. During our practice time(before break), we wanted to limit the number of mistakes involving lines. I believe we're on the right step to having a good 5-7 minute presentation. Really excited to be able to work with Devin because I understand how hard he works. 

Throughout the break-even though Devin and I live a distance from each other. We really couldn't be able to practice our physical actions together and had to rely on our own personal work. For me, I was able to spend some time over the break and practice lines with my sister where she was Avery from "The Flick", and I was Sam. 

Gabe and I performed our scene two weeks ago, and I thought it went great! I remember having great chemistry with Gabe and feeling very grounded in the scene. The stakes were high and the given circumstances were real both to the actor and the audience. I have loved working with Gabe as he is very methodical and thoughtful in his approach. 

There are a few things we need to work on: Catherine's interaction with Robert before Hal arrives, Catherine's reaction to Hal's slamming of the door, Hal's behavior and intentions with Catherine, and Catherine's offering of  champagne to Hal. I'm sure there are more but that is all I can think of at the moment. 

Gabe and I have been discussing our scene and we are beginning to realize how complicated and awkward our characters really are. Catherine is proving to be a greater challenge than expected because she is so closed off to the other characters, I happen to feel very closed off and distant with Catherine as an actor. I hope I gain a sense of Catherine's mannerisms and emotional makeup in our upcoming rehearsals. 

Julie and I haven't been able to rehearse together because we've been away for Thanksgiving (I have rehearsed with my Mom though). However, we have considered our given circumstances and the atmosphere of the scene. We've been looking up hospital waiting rooms in order to get an understanding of what they look/feel like. Here are some pictures that we found:

In general, the atmosphere is very sterile, cold, and sad. The chairs are uncomfortable, the room is dark, it smells like chemicals, all indicative of discomfort. We will work on considering this in our scene. 

Hope everyone is doing great and had a great Thanksgiving!