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!