Site blog

by Julie Goldberg - Wednesday, 11 December 2019, 7:59 PM
Anyone in the world
It's so cool to see the way Lucas and I improve over time. I like seeing how the tension of the scene heightens with every practice. We practiced the scene yesterday, and we both gained a better understanding of the subconscious thoughts we have with every line. Prof. Lingafelter gave us thoughts to keep in the back of our mind so that each line is like a "punch" to the other person. This method really helped a lot with becoming grounded in the scene, and that in turn helps Lucas because it is then easier for him to respond to me with grounded emotions!

One thing we struggle with is understanding our emotions in the scene. I think I need to constantly physically picture someone I personally know through that hospital door. I need to think of a time in which I defended someone close to me for this to work. Also -- I sometimes compare my scene with other people's scenes and start to become insecure that I'm not good. But I throw these thoughts in the garbage can because we are making progress and our scene is going to be great!

Since this is our last blog post, I want to say thank you to everyone for putting in so much effort and making this class fun.

Associated Course: TH113-01/19FA
 
by Devon Franklin - Wednesday, 11 December 2019, 7:07 PM
Anyone in the world
The last dress rehearsal was very fun I believe for the both of us. We went into the rehearsal a lot more confident about the characters we have taken on. We practice a few times through and really set out some of the back and forth action we wanted to add to increase the natural feeling of the scene. We both have are new to this acting experience and it has been amazing to see the growth and progress we've made. It is clear the purpose and intention of our roles and thus making it simpler to act on impulse and truly feed off your counterpart, completely immersing yourself into the situation to the point where you can't feel you're acting. During the days before our final, we will still have our one-on-one meeting with Rebecca which should be enlightening to see and try some more advanced techniques to present an even better scene come Monday. We also want to meet again after the one-on-one to rehearse and totally grasps the concepts we may here from Rebecca. This class has been an amazing experience, pushing us out of our shells and into the light. I guess that's the only way we shine! 
Associated Course: TH113-02/19FA
 
by Emily Wagner - Wednesday, 11 December 2019, 2:24 PM
Anyone in the world

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. 

[ Modified: Wednesday, 11 December 2019, 2:24 PM ]
 
by Alexa Hanson - Wednesday, 11 December 2019, 2:16 PM
Anyone in the world

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! smile 

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!


  

Associated Course: TH113-02/19FA
 
by Caitlin Gallagher - Wednesday, 11 December 2019, 11:01 AM
Anyone in the world

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. 

Associated Course: TH113-02/19FA
 
by Sierra Gleason - Tuesday, 10 December 2019, 11:27 PM
Anyone in the world

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!



Associated Course: TH113-01/19FA
 
Anyone in the world
Adrian and I just performed our full scene today in class and it went much better than expected. We had been rehearsing two days before and we were struggling with memorization, listening and responding and blocking. We also met with Rebecca for an individual session before our performance and we received a generous amount of notes and revisions. I am surprised but pleased to say that our scene went well and I feel much more confident heading into the final performance. We still need to work on blocking and feeling more grounded. Is anyone else struggling with blocking? 

-Charlotte 
Associated Course: TH113-02/19FA
 
Anyone in the world

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. smile 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. 

Associated Course: TH113-01/19FA
[ Modified: Tuesday, 10 December 2019, 7:58 PM ]
 
by Ethan Tolpin - Tuesday, 10 December 2019, 9:57 AM
Anyone in the world

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.

Associated Course: TH113-02/19FA
 
by Adrian Gillmore - Monday, 9 December 2019, 11:42 PM
Anyone in the world

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. smile

Associated Course: TH113-02/19FA