Grad School - Week 1

First Year Acting Intensive

This past week the dream team of ’13 spent 45+ hours working on ensemble building, acting, and orientation for school. We covered the course work for a standard “Acting for Non-Majors” in five days. It was a strange combo of playing the games (involving some kind of degree of improv, usually) with learning the what/how/why behind it (the “why” being something you would rarely tell students when you teach it to them).

I won’t get into details, because that would simply take too long, and I don’t want this to become something that’s too prescriptive or a day by day breakdown. Committing to that would be impossible.

Anyway, there are many goals and outcomes of the intensive. But after six days of living in the theatre, the nine of us (and a couple others) are quite close. I don’t know a whole lot about everyone, but we’ve been staring into each others’ eyes, doing cold readings while squeezing a partner’s hand (or exploring their face with our hands). Needless to say, we’re quite an ensemble of such variety. Some of us are movers, and some aren’t. Others of us can sing rock the house. The next 60 weeks of training will be about learning about weaknesses, capitalizing on strengths, and getting “gooder sooner.”

A “trick” that the training requires is to recognize WHY things are working well (or aren’t). We have to learn about the nitty gritty details that can make us efficient, savvy actors. We’re talking about LORT theatres, directors, how Houston works, AEA, non-profit/for-profit, etc. In addition to that, we’ve been doing ab workouts, a kempo P90X video (kicking and punching for an hour), light tumbling, and beginning Suzuki work (which is a giant core and lower body workout). This has been a whirlwind so that we can hit the ground running with an intense shared experience and vocabulary when we officially start classes.

On Friday, we showed the following to faculty, students, and staff:

·         A pair of contrasting monologues (about 2 minutes each)

·         30 Seconds of Standard British

·         A verse and chorus of a song a capella

Afterwards, there was a reception. I talked with some professors, alumni, and undergraduate students (quite a few undergrads have told me they loved my selections over the past couple days). Before we were released, J (the head of our program) held us back and had us rank everyone’s performances (privately). It’s a little nerve-wracking, but it’s a way for J to gauge our sensibilities and tastes.

THEN: FALL SEMESTER AUDITIONS

We had three minutes to present two contrasting monologues and 16 bars of a song (or “Happy Birthday”). It went ok for me. But my Friday night showing went much better. I may have misjudged one of my pieces, but it’s not the end of the world. I don’t think I showed enough of a contrast.

Anyway, I was called back for EVERY SINGLE SHOW this semester:

Zombie Prom

The Trial of Ebeneezer Scrooge

The Hot L Baltimore

Our Lady of 121^st Street

Each call back meant waiting around for a good two hours (at least). I think my callback for The Hot L Baltimore went the best (and that’s what I want to be in anyway). It’s hard to tell. But now, I’m back in educational theatre. There are variables that extend beyond any show (it’s an intricate puzzle to fit everyone in the casting). But it’s safe to say that I’ll be in something. And if that doesn’t work, they’ll configure a small studio show catered to any actors who may be “left out” from substantial casting.

We start classes today.

I’ve got Acting, Voice & Speech, and a TA course (Intro to Theatre with 400 students in a giant lecture hall).

I’m learning LOADS already. I’ve got lots of notes that I’ll sift through, and I’ll sit down and evaluate how my performances/auditions/callbacks went