Well children. All has been well in the world of CMU drama. Things have really been busy lately so I haven't been able to post. I audition in a little over a week (Wednesday at 10 specifically) so send good thoughts my way that day.Here's a quick class overview then a story:
Movement: This week is pilates week because our wonderful teacher is gone because the play he's directing opens this week. Today was our first day and it was pretty simple but challenging. Our substitute (who trains our usual teacher) is precious! She has a dancer's body and this short, cute blonde hair. It will be a fun week, and hopefully she'll rekindle the rockin' bod that Matt created.
Audition: Monlogue city USA. We just work monologues everyday and get ready for the audition. It's fun but can get boring watching other people.
Acting: So fun! We're into our scene work now. We work hard on our scenes in effort to get selected for "scene night" which is the night before auditions. Drama Faculty is invited to watch your scene work as well as the rest of CMU. My partner is wonderful and we're working hard... so fingers crossed!
Drama Lit: Oh lord. Here's the thing: I love this class. I hate what we're doing. We're studying Epic Theatre, aka, Brecht's turf. Now for all my CCC girlies, I know you're right there with me in my Brecht hate, but let me reiterate my hate. I hate Brecht. I hate him so much. I hate everything he stands for. I hate that it's all based around an idea not a story or characters. I hate that it involves the audience. I hate that it's basically a sermon in play format. I hate it. There's that. I could go on, but I feel like I'd be more productive otherwise. Anyway, we're still analyzing how Epic theatre has had affects on contemporary theatre... (it only fuels my hate for Brecht.) (that was the last hate shout out, I swear)
Voice & Speech: Working with the phonetic alphabet now and Shakespearian sonnets. We had to write our name (and other stuff) phonetically and I had to call my mom to ask how to say my name. Is it Muh-kenzie, Mack-enzie, mick-enzie? We agreed on Muh-kinzie. So that's that. Our teacher said if we can get all our work done this week we might work on dialects the last week. That would be fun. I hope it happens.
Styles: This class is so wonderful. I love the teacher, love the kids. It is so fun. We start with a fun Shakespeare-ish warm up. Like the other day we called each other Shakespearean insults then got into monologues. My Helena monologue is a beast to conquer... or at least I feel like it is. We hit it hard again tomorrow, so hopefully I'll make some progress!
Directing: We are the Viewpoint capital. Viewpoints are cool. They're designed to get you "thinking like a school of fish". For instance: in one exercise (in groups of 5 or so) you try to all jump, stop, or turn around at the same time with no leader. Viewpoints incorporate tempo, duration, kinesthetic response, repetition, shape, gesture, architecture, spatial relationship and floor pattern. One excercise we walked in a grid, others (for kinesthetic response) we lined up 5 chairs and moved on impulses, another one we lined up in a column and essentially made up a dance (person by person) then performed in different groups. One exercise I really liked was we got with a partner and made 7 different poses that had to run in the vein of "coming together and moving apart". Then our teacher threw in the surprise of adding text. Then from that we had to move from pose to pose (smoothly) with text. It's a great way of approaching staging and interesting tableaus.
Now the story: GUESS WHO DIDN'T GET KILLED! This girl right here! Guess who almost did? Like 14 kids. Alright so, my friend Marco turned 18 this past week and decided to have a party at Club Zoo, which is an underage club in Pittsburgh. UNDERAGE MY FOOT. Children (sketch children, not CMU kids) were smoking up a storm and actin' a fool. So, my girl Jenna and I classily rolled up in a Yellow cab, got the driver's number, went in and told the birthday boy happy birthday, then politely called the driver and said goodbye. We avoided all conflict. Then I went up to my room and wrote Jenna's grandparents a thank you note for taking me to dinner the night before. MEANWHILE...
Horror Story 1: My girlies Erin & Katie took the riskier route and stayed to party it out. They departed the club around 11 or so to get back for curfew at 12. All the cabs were getting snatched up at the club, so they walked down a block with a group of other friends to see if there were more cabs. Keep in mind these circumstances: it is STORMING, and they're in the middle of sketch Pittsburgh. All of the sudden this tough-going group of men come around the corner. The other friends take off running. BUT Katie can't run because of her broken foot! So Erin (and Eve, Erin's roommate) stay with Katie. BUT the tough men start running after them! They legit described it as that one scene in Twilight were Bella nearly gets raped (which sounds dumb but is accurate). THEN, by the grace of God, a cab pulled around the corner and they quickly got across the street to it. Creepy men followed. Luckily the cab driver was their Edward Cullen and told the men to leave. DANGER.
Worse Horror Story 2: So, same circumstances, outside club zoo, storming. This time a little after 11. A group of about 10 of my friends are frantically trying to get a cab, but they're all taken outside the club. Also, a group of girls were getting arrested so that created a transportation obstacle as well. They tried calling Yellow Cab but they were just getting progressively pissed and told them all their cabs were already in the strip district (where the club is). So, next option, look for a bus. They walked about a block before a bus finally stopped. They asked if the bus went to Oakland (CMU district) to which the driver replied "I can go close to Oakland!" The kids were just grateful for that much and got on. The bus reached the last stop and those kids got off in the middle of sketch-danger-middle-of-nowhere USA. They had no clue where they were. Then the police roll up. To help them? Oh no. To warn them that they're in a gun zone and that someone had just been shot 3 blocks down. The police couldn't help because they had to get to the gun shots. AWESOME FOR THEM, HUH? Now, the downside of this is I actually do not know how they ended up getting back. I think they called campus police and they helped. That's what I would like to believe happened. BUT they got back at 1:00 and were in BIG trouble. They're on "probation" (which doesn't sound like a huge deal) but I just feel sorry for those kids because of their awful experience.
I would have been scared for life. But it makes me feel thankful for how classy Jenna and I are. Just think, while these kids were nearly getting raped I was writing thank you notes. HA.
This was good and long. So I won't feel obligated to post again for awhile.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
The Sky Looks Pissed
First off, the title is from Ingrid Michaelson's "The Chain" which is the song of this summer. My girlie, Jenna Bilgore (bus buddy, life partner, O For A Muse of Fire enthusiast, bestie, etc) showed it to me on one of our many bus rides throughout Pittsburgh. The Public Transportation System is our best friend. This past weekend we wanted to go to Urban Outfitters. So we rangled up our other besties, Katie, Erin, and our Dungeon and Dragon clan (original intent was to give them a make-over) and ventured to South Side. TOO BAD THAT WAS IMPOSSIBLE (well not really because it eventually got accomplished). Point of the story: We decided that this was the song of our friendship, and because it's so catchy it's being adopted by the world. AND the sky here at CMU DOES look pissed! The weather has gone from being the 7th layer of hell to being this calmy maybe-I'll-rain-maybe-I-won't type of weather.
Classes have been in full swing. When I step back and look at what I'm doing I still can't really believe it. Let's start from the top:
MOVEMENT: OH HELL. HELL ON WHEELS. This class is not a joke. I love this class. It makes you extreme. We started out by being given the "O for a Muse of Fire" speech from Henry IV and were told to memorize it. Then, we adopted Slavo technique. Slavo is a jewel. Our professor, Matt (theatre God), has this drum and he beats out a rhythm... then to that rhythm you march in a rectangle to the set rhythm and say the speech to that rhythm. Very challenging. On a quest to get Jenna's money from the bank we practiced stomping this out in a hurrican, in the lounges outside our dorms, and the laundry room just to get alright at this technique. It's very difficult. Then we did Slavo squats (I think it's Slavo) which is basically a grandiose grand plie, only, again, you must stay to the beat. You have ten beats to go down and ten to come up, but stay with the beat! However, today was the highlight. We walk in and these african war chants are playing and we're just confused. Then Matt walks in and says "You better start stretching because today you will work like Mother Fuckers." There was no doubt that that was true. Oh. God. On. High. First, we did a technique (I don't remember the name of the creator) where you do these intense forms of cardio to get yourself completely out of breath. You have the option of kicking your straightened legs up to your waist forward or backward, squating down to the floor then leaping up into the air, jumping into the air and kicking your knees to your chest, leaping forward, backward, or side to side (like hopping on river rocks), hitting a plank then isolating a foot and rotating to the side and kicking that foot out then switching sides, or hitting a plank and isolating your spine into a curve or an arch. (I'm being so detailed so I can make those punks at Pine Tree do this & I'll remember.) Then after you physically cannot breath, you start in plastiques. Plastiques are hardcore isolations; all are done with EXTREME force, very very forceful. Here are the isolations: Head bob (you know the thing those black girls do in Hairspray in Welcome to the 60's? That's what it is), throwing your shoulders forward or backward, rolling a shoulder individually, thrusting your hips forwards or backwards (but it's a full body thing), rolling just the hips (not pelvis) in a circle, The grab (stomp down and grab in front of you then pull back), The Throw (same as grab but stop at your hip, just releasing your palm), The rope (same as grab but 2 handed), The fish (extending your hand then waiving it back to your hip), holding your leg up at a right angle and spinning your foot in the air, and.. and I feel like I'm forgetting one. But does all that sound too easy? Then recite the O for a Muse of Fire speech from Henry IV while you do it. The purpose is getting your focus off of the memorization of the text and fully embodying the text instead. Basically a "get out of your head" method. I can already feel my muscles aching.
Audition: just looking for monologues. It's really funny to see what the musical theatre kids come up with... it's... quality. Lot's of Michael Shurtleff fun. Again, all hail Anne Cooper... it's like a recap of her beautiful class.
Acting: So fun. We worked on open scenes. Jenna & I were partners and put together some INTENSE work. We're really excited by it. We wrap up our work on that Friday then start closed scenes. Today we did some sensory memory work, which I'm not a huge fan of. Previously, we've put on music and danced it out (which is exactly what it sounds like), Articulation exercises, and other various things that I can't really think of specifically now.
Drama Lit: I love this class. It is so deep and it has really surprised me at what I'm capable of. I'm reading a new play just about every other day, we're looking at analysis, dipping into really complex ways to look at a play. We finished our "12 step program" (ways to analyze a play), and have analyzed Lysistrata. HOWEVER I AM ON FIRE WITH ANGER. WE ONLY SPENT 20 MINUTES ON STREETCAR BECAUSE WE RAN OUT OF TIME. I am going to FIGHT for some Streetcar analysis time tomorrow. Other classes got to do way more then us, including analyzing Scene 10 and dividing it into beats... so not fair, right? I am determined, I've rallied troops to fight with me. I have also spread a lie that tomorrow is my birthday so I can do what I want. So I might use that to my advantage.
I'm too tired to type any more. I'm going to sleep and will try to post more tomorrow.
Classes have been in full swing. When I step back and look at what I'm doing I still can't really believe it. Let's start from the top:
MOVEMENT: OH HELL. HELL ON WHEELS. This class is not a joke. I love this class. It makes you extreme. We started out by being given the "O for a Muse of Fire" speech from Henry IV and were told to memorize it. Then, we adopted Slavo technique. Slavo is a jewel. Our professor, Matt (theatre God), has this drum and he beats out a rhythm... then to that rhythm you march in a rectangle to the set rhythm and say the speech to that rhythm. Very challenging. On a quest to get Jenna's money from the bank we practiced stomping this out in a hurrican, in the lounges outside our dorms, and the laundry room just to get alright at this technique. It's very difficult. Then we did Slavo squats (I think it's Slavo) which is basically a grandiose grand plie, only, again, you must stay to the beat. You have ten beats to go down and ten to come up, but stay with the beat! However, today was the highlight. We walk in and these african war chants are playing and we're just confused. Then Matt walks in and says "You better start stretching because today you will work like Mother Fuckers." There was no doubt that that was true. Oh. God. On. High. First, we did a technique (I don't remember the name of the creator) where you do these intense forms of cardio to get yourself completely out of breath. You have the option of kicking your straightened legs up to your waist forward or backward, squating down to the floor then leaping up into the air, jumping into the air and kicking your knees to your chest, leaping forward, backward, or side to side (like hopping on river rocks), hitting a plank then isolating a foot and rotating to the side and kicking that foot out then switching sides, or hitting a plank and isolating your spine into a curve or an arch. (I'm being so detailed so I can make those punks at Pine Tree do this & I'll remember.) Then after you physically cannot breath, you start in plastiques. Plastiques are hardcore isolations; all are done with EXTREME force, very very forceful. Here are the isolations: Head bob (you know the thing those black girls do in Hairspray in Welcome to the 60's? That's what it is), throwing your shoulders forward or backward, rolling a shoulder individually, thrusting your hips forwards or backwards (but it's a full body thing), rolling just the hips (not pelvis) in a circle, The grab (stomp down and grab in front of you then pull back), The Throw (same as grab but stop at your hip, just releasing your palm), The rope (same as grab but 2 handed), The fish (extending your hand then waiving it back to your hip), holding your leg up at a right angle and spinning your foot in the air, and.. and I feel like I'm forgetting one. But does all that sound too easy? Then recite the O for a Muse of Fire speech from Henry IV while you do it. The purpose is getting your focus off of the memorization of the text and fully embodying the text instead. Basically a "get out of your head" method. I can already feel my muscles aching.
Audition: just looking for monologues. It's really funny to see what the musical theatre kids come up with... it's... quality. Lot's of Michael Shurtleff fun. Again, all hail Anne Cooper... it's like a recap of her beautiful class.
Acting: So fun. We worked on open scenes. Jenna & I were partners and put together some INTENSE work. We're really excited by it. We wrap up our work on that Friday then start closed scenes. Today we did some sensory memory work, which I'm not a huge fan of. Previously, we've put on music and danced it out (which is exactly what it sounds like), Articulation exercises, and other various things that I can't really think of specifically now.
Drama Lit: I love this class. It is so deep and it has really surprised me at what I'm capable of. I'm reading a new play just about every other day, we're looking at analysis, dipping into really complex ways to look at a play. We finished our "12 step program" (ways to analyze a play), and have analyzed Lysistrata. HOWEVER I AM ON FIRE WITH ANGER. WE ONLY SPENT 20 MINUTES ON STREETCAR BECAUSE WE RAN OUT OF TIME. I am going to FIGHT for some Streetcar analysis time tomorrow. Other classes got to do way more then us, including analyzing Scene 10 and dividing it into beats... so not fair, right? I am determined, I've rallied troops to fight with me. I have also spread a lie that tomorrow is my birthday so I can do what I want. So I might use that to my advantage.
I'm too tired to type any more. I'm going to sleep and will try to post more tomorrow.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Bowling Alley of Death
SO CRAZY, we're starting week 2! I wish I could say times was flying but it's moving at an expected pace. Here are some fun adventures I've had this first week, mostly with my friends Jenna, Katie, Brian, and Erin:
Alright. So last night Jenna thought it would be so much fun to go bowling. That's good clean fun, right? What could go wrong? So we asked our friend Ramsey (who lives here) what a good bowling place would be. He told us that Forward Lanes was the closest. OH RAMSEY. So, Jenna puts it in her iPhone and off we go. We get on the bus (not a huge deal, it's necessary to take if you want to go anywhere in Pittsburgh) and look for our stop. Our stop was not that sketch, we had been there before. However, about 5 minutes into the walk I am ON EDGE. We are entering sketch city, USA. And the chumps I was with wouldn't go back! So I was faced with the decision to keep going forward into danger, or walk back through sketch town alone. I proceeded on. We passed a half lingerie half children clothes store (best part of town, y'all!) and then got to Forward Lanes. I was so afraid. We walked up all these stairs that were completely painted white to this upstairs bowling alley where we met the bowling alley worker from hell. He was so creepy. He had long, wispy, white hair and had a lazy eye. SO SCARY. And the bowling alley was SKETCH, we were the only people there. Then Katie asked if we could play our game with bumpers. The scary man replied "Are you mentally retarded?" Katie answered "No." he returned, "then you can't have bumpers." OH GREAT. WE'RE IN AN AWESOME ENVIRONMENT. I tried so hard to bowl so fast. Although, we found out Brian is a STAR bowler, that's basically the only positive from this experience. We got out quick and walked back to the better part of town in the scary night. I wish I had more details about that but I think my brain already blocked it out because I was so terrified. Then we ate coldstone and took a bus back to school. And we live to tell the tale.
Alright. So last night Jenna thought it would be so much fun to go bowling. That's good clean fun, right? What could go wrong? So we asked our friend Ramsey (who lives here) what a good bowling place would be. He told us that Forward Lanes was the closest. OH RAMSEY. So, Jenna puts it in her iPhone and off we go. We get on the bus (not a huge deal, it's necessary to take if you want to go anywhere in Pittsburgh) and look for our stop. Our stop was not that sketch, we had been there before. However, about 5 minutes into the walk I am ON EDGE. We are entering sketch city, USA. And the chumps I was with wouldn't go back! So I was faced with the decision to keep going forward into danger, or walk back through sketch town alone. I proceeded on. We passed a half lingerie half children clothes store (best part of town, y'all!) and then got to Forward Lanes. I was so afraid. We walked up all these stairs that were completely painted white to this upstairs bowling alley where we met the bowling alley worker from hell. He was so creepy. He had long, wispy, white hair and had a lazy eye. SO SCARY. And the bowling alley was SKETCH, we were the only people there. Then Katie asked if we could play our game with bumpers. The scary man replied "Are you mentally retarded?" Katie answered "No." he returned, "then you can't have bumpers." OH GREAT. WE'RE IN AN AWESOME ENVIRONMENT. I tried so hard to bowl so fast. Although, we found out Brian is a STAR bowler, that's basically the only positive from this experience. We got out quick and walked back to the better part of town in the scary night. I wish I had more details about that but I think my brain already blocked it out because I was so terrified. Then we ate coldstone and took a bus back to school. And we live to tell the tale.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
1st Week
HELLO EVERYBODY! I realize I have done a terrible job of keeping up with this, so here is my attempt now to redeem myself. (Note from the future: This is so long) I haven't been able to keep updating as much as I wanted to because these guys are working us HARD. This first week is a triumph. Now I just have to do this x6. I think that's do-able.
I am really happy with things here, however, if you had asked me this time last week, it would have been a different story. This week has been really hectic and frustrating but happy in the end. I expected CMU to be just like Interlochen. The Interlochen Experience: You show up, learn your schedule, become friends with the kids in your major, go to class & rehearse with those kids. What we were doing was challenging, but the whole process was easy. The CMU Experience: Show up with the world, never meet anybody that you're in class with, have intense classes, do homework, and make friends. A lot different. AND LET ME TELL YOU, trying to find an Acting Major was like finding a fish on dry land. There are 36 acting majors and 80 MTs. The world is MTs. I was so happy my Cabin 5 girlie Rachel was here with me, and my other fellow Interlochener Lindsey. It made things much easier that first weekend. Although, I have made some wonderful friends and I know we're going to have a great time this summer!
Classes in a nutshell:
Movement: No big deal, right? Just stretch and stuff, right? NO. THE TRUTH IS OPPOSITE OF THAT. First, I love this class. Our teacher is so much fun and is so wonderful. However, that does not change the fact that he is the most hard core. We have to run keeping synchronized breath (we're working up to half and hour), we do push-ups, sit ups, and pilates. We are MOVING! We also play fun games, too, and dance like Fazzi from the muppets. Some of our games include singing french songs and being bears.
Audition: Dear Anne Cooper, you would be so proud of me. In this class I am utilizing everything you've ever taught me. Love, Mackenzie. On that note, this class is very informative, and I can feel that it is getting more and more intense as we go along, but I feel like right now it's just a showcase for some IAC skills. We're still in that "easing into it" stage. We had to sit across from partners and tell stories about ourselves. Then we added obstacles like can't look them in the eye, can't use your hands, can't break eye contact, etc, to observe our behavior. We did some slates and commercials of our names. Soon we're getting into monologues. I'm looking forward to it.
Acting: This teacher is so precious and funny and I love her. We've been doing so many interesting trust games and ensemble building exercises. We stood in a circle and a person stood in the middle, closed their eyes, spun till they were dizzy, and ran with their eyes closed. The people forming the circle held hands and would say "beep" if the person was getting close to an obstacle that would hurt them. Eventually, you trick them, spread around the room, but continue "beeping", which enables them to move further, and they learn the beauty of trust. (this explanation could be longer but I feel like it's getting too long) We also did a game where we had a ball and two people in the center and one had to defend the other from getting hit with the ball. It was so fun. Then we had a circle of chairs, one person in the center looking for one empty chair. We had to work as a unit to keep them out of the chair. OTHER STUFF BUT I'M BORED WITH TYPING THIS SO I'M MOVING ON.
Dramatic Literature: This is my favorite class. I love everything about it. I really think this might be what I want to do. We're analyzing plays, and it is so much fun. We're really doing Dramaturgy, but that name usually has a lot of misconceptions so it's referred to as drama lit. Our professor is the BEST. So far we're doing a "12 step program to analyzing plays" and it's just so interesting. And it will be so happy, we'll be chatting it up and he'll be like "Let's talk about Ibsen" and my heart just explodes because that's all I could ever want. Plus, this is really happy, he asked me in the middle of class "You want to be a director, right? You just have that look about you." Well. Congratulations. My heart is actually your's.
Voice/Speech: I really can't tell too too much from this class yet. I think it will be one of those classes where you're like "This is pointless" then at the end realize it made you the best thing you could ever be and you don't know how. So far we have made our bodies "flow like rivers", "gurned" (made faces), and done some Stanislavsky breathing/relaxing exercises.
Styles: AKA Shakespeare. It is taught by Don (head of department), who actually knows everything. Want proof? Student: Hey Don, I was thinking about doing a monologue from The Merchant of Venice. Don: Alright, which one? Student: Where Portia is-- Don: Give me the first three words. Student: I Pray you Don: Tarry. Pause a day or two... sure, give it a shot. (PS this happened everyone would ask about a monologue). It's really fun learning about Shakespeare. We've learned posture and are doing class in corsets from now on, that will be a grand old time. Now we're on language and analyzing.
Directing: This class is another eye-opener to something I can really see myself doing. We had to create a "Light Lab Presentation" where we were given little to no instruction. Why? Because we are the creators, and our teacher wanted to see what we were capable of without boundaries. Our only restrictions: No words. at all. seriously. none. Alright, there's that. I actually was not extremely frustrated with this assignment. I was really lucky to get a really cute idea almost right away. I had "hand meet light" where a hand (think like Thing on The Addams Family) interacts with a flashlight. Sounds boring but was really cute, I swear. I got a lot of positive feedback and feedback day is Tuesday. So it was really nice to start off the class well.
AND TA-DA those are my classes. I feel like I have written a novel. I'll write about more fun stuff tomorrow. HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!
I am really happy with things here, however, if you had asked me this time last week, it would have been a different story. This week has been really hectic and frustrating but happy in the end. I expected CMU to be just like Interlochen. The Interlochen Experience: You show up, learn your schedule, become friends with the kids in your major, go to class & rehearse with those kids. What we were doing was challenging, but the whole process was easy. The CMU Experience: Show up with the world, never meet anybody that you're in class with, have intense classes, do homework, and make friends. A lot different. AND LET ME TELL YOU, trying to find an Acting Major was like finding a fish on dry land. There are 36 acting majors and 80 MTs. The world is MTs. I was so happy my Cabin 5 girlie Rachel was here with me, and my other fellow Interlochener Lindsey. It made things much easier that first weekend. Although, I have made some wonderful friends and I know we're going to have a great time this summer!
Classes in a nutshell:
Movement: No big deal, right? Just stretch and stuff, right? NO. THE TRUTH IS OPPOSITE OF THAT. First, I love this class. Our teacher is so much fun and is so wonderful. However, that does not change the fact that he is the most hard core. We have to run keeping synchronized breath (we're working up to half and hour), we do push-ups, sit ups, and pilates. We are MOVING! We also play fun games, too, and dance like Fazzi from the muppets. Some of our games include singing french songs and being bears.
Audition: Dear Anne Cooper, you would be so proud of me. In this class I am utilizing everything you've ever taught me. Love, Mackenzie. On that note, this class is very informative, and I can feel that it is getting more and more intense as we go along, but I feel like right now it's just a showcase for some IAC skills. We're still in that "easing into it" stage. We had to sit across from partners and tell stories about ourselves. Then we added obstacles like can't look them in the eye, can't use your hands, can't break eye contact, etc, to observe our behavior. We did some slates and commercials of our names. Soon we're getting into monologues. I'm looking forward to it.
Acting: This teacher is so precious and funny and I love her. We've been doing so many interesting trust games and ensemble building exercises. We stood in a circle and a person stood in the middle, closed their eyes, spun till they were dizzy, and ran with their eyes closed. The people forming the circle held hands and would say "beep" if the person was getting close to an obstacle that would hurt them. Eventually, you trick them, spread around the room, but continue "beeping", which enables them to move further, and they learn the beauty of trust. (this explanation could be longer but I feel like it's getting too long) We also did a game where we had a ball and two people in the center and one had to defend the other from getting hit with the ball. It was so fun. Then we had a circle of chairs, one person in the center looking for one empty chair. We had to work as a unit to keep them out of the chair. OTHER STUFF BUT I'M BORED WITH TYPING THIS SO I'M MOVING ON.
Dramatic Literature: This is my favorite class. I love everything about it. I really think this might be what I want to do. We're analyzing plays, and it is so much fun. We're really doing Dramaturgy, but that name usually has a lot of misconceptions so it's referred to as drama lit. Our professor is the BEST. So far we're doing a "12 step program to analyzing plays" and it's just so interesting. And it will be so happy, we'll be chatting it up and he'll be like "Let's talk about Ibsen" and my heart just explodes because that's all I could ever want. Plus, this is really happy, he asked me in the middle of class "You want to be a director, right? You just have that look about you." Well. Congratulations. My heart is actually your's.
Voice/Speech: I really can't tell too too much from this class yet. I think it will be one of those classes where you're like "This is pointless" then at the end realize it made you the best thing you could ever be and you don't know how. So far we have made our bodies "flow like rivers", "gurned" (made faces), and done some Stanislavsky breathing/relaxing exercises.
Styles: AKA Shakespeare. It is taught by Don (head of department), who actually knows everything. Want proof? Student: Hey Don, I was thinking about doing a monologue from The Merchant of Venice. Don: Alright, which one? Student: Where Portia is-- Don: Give me the first three words. Student: I Pray you Don: Tarry. Pause a day or two... sure, give it a shot. (PS this happened everyone would ask about a monologue). It's really fun learning about Shakespeare. We've learned posture and are doing class in corsets from now on, that will be a grand old time. Now we're on language and analyzing.
Directing: This class is another eye-opener to something I can really see myself doing. We had to create a "Light Lab Presentation" where we were given little to no instruction. Why? Because we are the creators, and our teacher wanted to see what we were capable of without boundaries. Our only restrictions: No words. at all. seriously. none. Alright, there's that. I actually was not extremely frustrated with this assignment. I was really lucky to get a really cute idea almost right away. I had "hand meet light" where a hand (think like Thing on The Addams Family) interacts with a flashlight. Sounds boring but was really cute, I swear. I got a lot of positive feedback and feedback day is Tuesday. So it was really nice to start off the class well.
AND TA-DA those are my classes. I feel like I have written a novel. I'll write about more fun stuff tomorrow. HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!
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