It's Friday and I'm sitting in Funk 'n' Waffles. If you know Syracuse, you know this is the only place to get breakfast at 2:26 pm. We got to sleep in today and will rehearse from 4pm-10pm tonight as that's the time Felix can work with us.
We slept in till 10:30am and had many dream stories to recount after spending last night seeing Inception (A must see if you haven't seen it already!) After waking up, we worked our way to the gym in a torrential downpour...and I'm not exaggerating. We had umbrella and raincoats buttoned and were still soaked through. I had two nice puddles on the pedals of my elliptical machine when I was finished.
After hearing the beautiful story that is Sarah Olbrantz's life pre-Syracuse, I'm here to catch you up on the on-goings of yesterday's rehearsal.
Act IV. Dear Lord - I don't think any of us realized the amount of thought and effort that would go into the physicality that is Act IV. We bring in a spectacle of Goddesses that we have shaved down to literally about two minutes of stage time and we spent the better half of five hours figuring out how this would be compassed. It looks great. We found a way to create a huge, beautiful Goddess with two actors, while creating spirit nymphs on the stage. There is a song and a dance and it doesn't take up half the show. Mission Accomplished. And we're exhausted.
Today we do the storm and music. We are so close to completely the shell that will be our show - and then we'll just fill it in with tons of fun and play. We have the storm today and Act V tomorrow. Act V will be a *itch - but if we go into it knowing that, we should be able to push through it.
I say this with brevity and love.
J x
Friday, July 23, 2010
Thursday, July 22, 2010
The Elephant in the Room
Dear Blog People,
I must keep this short and simple - we have thirteen minutes until rehearsal begins. We've started working off a new and rather fluctuating schedule. I haven't quite adjusted to the new routine and, therefore, have not allotted myself enough time in the morning for the lengthy blog entries I like to write.
Clip Fragments of what we did yesterday:
Massages. Voice Work. Massages. Voice. Script. Tablework - Act IV. Work. Work. Play. First half on feet. Work through. Logistics. Goddesses? Fools. Lunch Break. Elephant. Large Elephant in the room. Energy SHIFTS. Two huge muslin canvases. Hung from the light grid attached to the ceiling. Small break between the two canvases. How to play? How to enter? Exit? Can this canvas be a tree? Can Caliban enter from...? Sigh. Run I.ii. Work through Caliban entrance. Again. Again. Again. Feedback. Blocking. Feedback. End day. Plan for Thursday: Act IV. Friday: Storm (Act I.i) and music rehearsal with Felix. Saturday: Act V. Sunday: ??? :)
Will write later about today...and hopefully it will be more detailed. Love!
J x
I must keep this short and simple - we have thirteen minutes until rehearsal begins. We've started working off a new and rather fluctuating schedule. I haven't quite adjusted to the new routine and, therefore, have not allotted myself enough time in the morning for the lengthy blog entries I like to write.
Clip Fragments of what we did yesterday:
Massages. Voice Work. Massages. Voice. Script. Tablework - Act IV. Work. Work. Play. First half on feet. Work through. Logistics. Goddesses? Fools. Lunch Break. Elephant. Large Elephant in the room. Energy SHIFTS. Two huge muslin canvases. Hung from the light grid attached to the ceiling. Small break between the two canvases. How to play? How to enter? Exit? Can this canvas be a tree? Can Caliban enter from...? Sigh. Run I.ii. Work through Caliban entrance. Again. Again. Again. Feedback. Blocking. Feedback. End day. Plan for Thursday: Act IV. Friday: Storm (Act I.i) and music rehearsal with Felix. Saturday: Act V. Sunday: ??? :)
Will write later about today...and hopefully it will be more detailed. Love!
J x
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Trial and Error...mostly just error
Dear Friends,
I write this blog later in the day because we began rehearsals at 9am this morning. We need to pick up our muslin fabric that will serve as a screen behind which we can store props, costumes and our bodies throughout the show. We rehearsed for three hours and now have an hour lunch break in which Dana and Chelsea are going to get the fabric. When they return we will explore Act I.ii with the fabric and new props/costumes that Laura, Sarah, Dana, Chelsea and Stella purchased last night.
Yesterday we table-worked Act I.ii. We then walked through the exposition at the beginning of the scene and reviewed the physicality we had found to illustrate it while working in NYC. We stumbled through the rest of the scene, introducing a good majority of the characters. This scene took us thirty minutes to work through. Needless to say we'll have to polish it up and hope it runs at a shorter time...or else make some cuts.
The title of this post comes out of an idea we had for the expositional characters. They are a memory of Prospero's and an image of Miranda's imagination. We wanted them to be physically neutral - especially facially. We put black stockings over our faces to take away our facial expression. Unfortunately, the stockings were sheer and instead of hiding our faces, they only distorted them so that we looked like oompa-loompa pin heads...not the effect we were going for. Sarah, who plays Prospero at the beginning of this scene, couldn't play it seriously...neither could the oompa loompa pin heads.
We scrapped the stockings and found black masks that cover the face from forehead to nose. We'll try those out today...hopefully!
The muslin fabric will be a big help today. We hope to work through I.ii and/or feel out the Goddess' physicality in Act IV. It's time to get these minimal props and costumes into play so that the changes, switches and shifts can be quick and smooth and not take away from the limited time we have to perform.
That's about it. I'm sure this sounds like we're slow going, but if you could see Act I.ii and sat through the thirty minutes it currently takes to do it, you'd understand why.
After we figure out I.ii and Act IV, we only have Act I.i and Act V. They're going to be physically intensive, but we're really winding down to the end of the mounting process. Then all that is left is play. Felix left us with that last Saturday, "just play and enjoy."
...Guess we will. :)
Love,
J x
I write this blog later in the day because we began rehearsals at 9am this morning. We need to pick up our muslin fabric that will serve as a screen behind which we can store props, costumes and our bodies throughout the show. We rehearsed for three hours and now have an hour lunch break in which Dana and Chelsea are going to get the fabric. When they return we will explore Act I.ii with the fabric and new props/costumes that Laura, Sarah, Dana, Chelsea and Stella purchased last night.
Yesterday we table-worked Act I.ii. We then walked through the exposition at the beginning of the scene and reviewed the physicality we had found to illustrate it while working in NYC. We stumbled through the rest of the scene, introducing a good majority of the characters. This scene took us thirty minutes to work through. Needless to say we'll have to polish it up and hope it runs at a shorter time...or else make some cuts.
The title of this post comes out of an idea we had for the expositional characters. They are a memory of Prospero's and an image of Miranda's imagination. We wanted them to be physically neutral - especially facially. We put black stockings over our faces to take away our facial expression. Unfortunately, the stockings were sheer and instead of hiding our faces, they only distorted them so that we looked like oompa-loompa pin heads...not the effect we were going for. Sarah, who plays Prospero at the beginning of this scene, couldn't play it seriously...neither could the oompa loompa pin heads.
We scrapped the stockings and found black masks that cover the face from forehead to nose. We'll try those out today...hopefully!
The muslin fabric will be a big help today. We hope to work through I.ii and/or feel out the Goddess' physicality in Act IV. It's time to get these minimal props and costumes into play so that the changes, switches and shifts can be quick and smooth and not take away from the limited time we have to perform.
That's about it. I'm sure this sounds like we're slow going, but if you could see Act I.ii and sat through the thirty minutes it currently takes to do it, you'd understand why.
After we figure out I.ii and Act IV, we only have Act I.i and Act V. They're going to be physically intensive, but we're really winding down to the end of the mounting process. Then all that is left is play. Felix left us with that last Saturday, "just play and enjoy."
...Guess we will. :)
Love,
J x
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
We are such stuff as dreams are made on...
Hey Everyone,
I'm back! I told Sarah it was so lovely to have her write. It felt like I had a guest to my column. We were both talking about the different outlets we have to create. Sarah gets up and sings every morning before rehearsal because that's what she enjoys doing on top of every other creative thing we come up with through the day.
I realized, upon talking with her, that I look forward to getting up and writing...even if it is on a blog - but sometimes I write on my own, too. In fact, because I realized how much I actually look forward to this, not only will I be making the effort to write here, but to write for myself, too. So, thanks for reading and being a writing encouragement.
So many things. My dad texted me this morning with: "We are such stuff as dreams are made on..." This was his way of letting me know he has started to research the show. My adorable dad likes to research where he and everyone in his near vicinity is going so that we can each appreciate and enjoy every millisecond or where we are... (he's also told me about a whiskey shop in Edinburgh where I can, well, you know...) Anyway, this quote is a very famous one from the Tempest. It comes from our protagonist, Prospero, at one of his more vulnerable moments. And I think it blends right into what Sarah was saying yesterday and what we, as young artists, must acknowledge in the early part of our career. We are such stuff as dreams are made on. I guess I see this as absolute permission and absolute encouragement from the bard himself. We - artists - are the stuff that dreams are made on. And who better to dream than a creator? But doesn't it also reflect the life of a person - artist or no? We, people, are such stuff that dreams are made on. We each need a dream this early. This young. Freshly graduated. Why shouldn't we dream? And why can't a dream be built on us? It is a reminder of the necessity for our hopes for ourselves. ...Thanks, Dad.
Yesterday we all slept in nice and late. Hit the gym. Bought a Starbucks...well, I did...and used up all my Starbucks money. This morning I reverted to "People's Place" on campus which has cheap - and strongish - coffee. Tomorrow, I am restricting myself to instant. My mother asked me if I had ever had instant before. I replied, "Yes. And this stuff is in tea bags, so it brews in the cup." My mother winced.
We got our card for our zip car account. The account allows us to borrow a car for a certain amount of time and 'zip' anywhere we might need to go (in this case wegman's and target) The cupboard was getting bare, so mother hubbard was happy.
I don't know that I got to cover what we did on Sunday (since I took Monday off) so I will recap briefly by mentioning that we did a run through of Act II.i to Act III.iii. We did this twice and it took us about 45 minutes. We're not up to proper pacing, so I'm sure the time will be shaved once we start flying. The first run through felt very scattered. We stumbled through - grasping for lines, blocking. It was like a review before the test. We took a break and came back and it was much smoother. The lines were in better shape, we were solid on blocking and we were connecting in wonderfully sweet ways.
Today we mount Act I.ii. This will be ambitious. It contains the exposition, which we are choosing to illustrate physically. The meeting between master and servant and master and slave and the beginnings of the love story. Lots of magic to be had. We're very excited.
The promo video is done. I need the okay from the cast and then I can post it here, where you will all be free to snigger at its campiness. Please note: corny was an artistic choice. :P
This is Jana with Love. x
I'm back! I told Sarah it was so lovely to have her write. It felt like I had a guest to my column. We were both talking about the different outlets we have to create. Sarah gets up and sings every morning before rehearsal because that's what she enjoys doing on top of every other creative thing we come up with through the day.
I realized, upon talking with her, that I look forward to getting up and writing...even if it is on a blog - but sometimes I write on my own, too. In fact, because I realized how much I actually look forward to this, not only will I be making the effort to write here, but to write for myself, too. So, thanks for reading and being a writing encouragement.
So many things. My dad texted me this morning with: "We are such stuff as dreams are made on..." This was his way of letting me know he has started to research the show. My adorable dad likes to research where he and everyone in his near vicinity is going so that we can each appreciate and enjoy every millisecond or where we are... (he's also told me about a whiskey shop in Edinburgh where I can, well, you know...) Anyway, this quote is a very famous one from the Tempest. It comes from our protagonist, Prospero, at one of his more vulnerable moments. And I think it blends right into what Sarah was saying yesterday and what we, as young artists, must acknowledge in the early part of our career. We are such stuff as dreams are made on. I guess I see this as absolute permission and absolute encouragement from the bard himself. We - artists - are the stuff that dreams are made on. And who better to dream than a creator? But doesn't it also reflect the life of a person - artist or no? We, people, are such stuff that dreams are made on. We each need a dream this early. This young. Freshly graduated. Why shouldn't we dream? And why can't a dream be built on us? It is a reminder of the necessity for our hopes for ourselves. ...Thanks, Dad.
Yesterday we all slept in nice and late. Hit the gym. Bought a Starbucks...well, I did...and used up all my Starbucks money. This morning I reverted to "People's Place" on campus which has cheap - and strongish - coffee. Tomorrow, I am restricting myself to instant. My mother asked me if I had ever had instant before. I replied, "Yes. And this stuff is in tea bags, so it brews in the cup." My mother winced.
We got our card for our zip car account. The account allows us to borrow a car for a certain amount of time and 'zip' anywhere we might need to go (in this case wegman's and target) The cupboard was getting bare, so mother hubbard was happy.
I don't know that I got to cover what we did on Sunday (since I took Monday off) so I will recap briefly by mentioning that we did a run through of Act II.i to Act III.iii. We did this twice and it took us about 45 minutes. We're not up to proper pacing, so I'm sure the time will be shaved once we start flying. The first run through felt very scattered. We stumbled through - grasping for lines, blocking. It was like a review before the test. We took a break and came back and it was much smoother. The lines were in better shape, we were solid on blocking and we were connecting in wonderfully sweet ways.
Today we mount Act I.ii. This will be ambitious. It contains the exposition, which we are choosing to illustrate physically. The meeting between master and servant and master and slave and the beginnings of the love story. Lots of magic to be had. We're very excited.
The promo video is done. I need the okay from the cast and then I can post it here, where you will all be free to snigger at its campiness. Please note: corny was an artistic choice. :P
This is Jana with Love. x
Monday, July 19, 2010
TGIM - Our First Day Off!
In honor of our first day off from rehearsals, (mind you we all slept in 'til noon) Jana has also taken her first day off from blogging! This is Sarah! And I'm here to bring you my personal, end-of-week re-cap!
This week has been exhilarating, exhausting, yet most of all, educating. Everyone began in high spirits, ready to work. The days kept coming and the days kept going, each one a little more difficult to get through. Not that we weren't excited to work, there were many variables involved here! A) Most of us had to recover from traveling/adjust to the new time zone. B) Our show is very physical, AND we all seem to find it necessary to go to the gym after each rehearsal. C) Our living conditions are that of true bohemian artists, (3 of us are sleeping on air mattresses in the living room/kitchen of a school friend) and D)Syracuse, NY is very, very hot... and humid. Needless to say, these factors added up and began to take a toll.
So how does one do it? How does an actor jump over all of these hurdles and still bring a fresh, positive and lively energy to the rehearsal room? This is where I find myself "continuing my education."
The answer...? I'm still not sure yet. But, I do know that you have to take care of, and be kind to yourself. Lots of water, SLEEP, and good, healthy food have all been my saving graces thus far. I also find that once IN the rehearsal room, it's important to take a moment for yourself, see where you are that particular day, how you are feeling, acknowledge those emotions, and then leave them. You can't be completely present and ready to work if you are thinking about all of the other countless projects you want to be working on, or whatever it is for you personally. I know, our teachers tell us this all the time... but guess what? It's actually true.
The other biggest thing I am learning is that completely self producing your own show...? Harder than you think. I knew from the beginning that we all would be responsible for every aspect of the show, but this is TRULY an undertaking. In the same breath, the reward of being able to say that you accomplished something like this, far surpasses the difficulty of it all. I wouldn't trade this experience for anything. Yes it's stressful, yes it's hard work and yes, I'm exhausted. But I wouldn't have it any other way. I love creating theater. And any way I can do that is a blessing.
Someone once said, "If you love what you do, it's not work." And I guess that's exactly what I'm learning, every day. So there you have it! My, personal, end-of-week re-cap! Jana will be back tomorrow and who knows, maybe I'll make another appearance next Monday! ;)
This week has been exhilarating, exhausting, yet most of all, educating. Everyone began in high spirits, ready to work. The days kept coming and the days kept going, each one a little more difficult to get through. Not that we weren't excited to work, there were many variables involved here! A) Most of us had to recover from traveling/adjust to the new time zone. B) Our show is very physical, AND we all seem to find it necessary to go to the gym after each rehearsal. C) Our living conditions are that of true bohemian artists, (3 of us are sleeping on air mattresses in the living room/kitchen of a school friend) and D)Syracuse, NY is very, very hot... and humid. Needless to say, these factors added up and began to take a toll.
So how does one do it? How does an actor jump over all of these hurdles and still bring a fresh, positive and lively energy to the rehearsal room? This is where I find myself "continuing my education."
The answer...? I'm still not sure yet. But, I do know that you have to take care of, and be kind to yourself. Lots of water, SLEEP, and good, healthy food have all been my saving graces thus far. I also find that once IN the rehearsal room, it's important to take a moment for yourself, see where you are that particular day, how you are feeling, acknowledge those emotions, and then leave them. You can't be completely present and ready to work if you are thinking about all of the other countless projects you want to be working on, or whatever it is for you personally. I know, our teachers tell us this all the time... but guess what? It's actually true.
The other biggest thing I am learning is that completely self producing your own show...? Harder than you think. I knew from the beginning that we all would be responsible for every aspect of the show, but this is TRULY an undertaking. In the same breath, the reward of being able to say that you accomplished something like this, far surpasses the difficulty of it all. I wouldn't trade this experience for anything. Yes it's stressful, yes it's hard work and yes, I'm exhausted. But I wouldn't have it any other way. I love creating theater. And any way I can do that is a blessing.
Someone once said, "If you love what you do, it's not work." And I guess that's exactly what I'm learning, every day. So there you have it! My, personal, end-of-week re-cap! Jana will be back tomorrow and who knows, maybe I'll make another appearance next Monday! ;)
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Another Day, Another Post
Hey Everyone,
We've made it to Sunday! I remember last Sunday we had our preliminary meeting and then a day off on Monday before we started working on our feet on Tuesday. Everyone felt so restless on Monday and we all found ourselves brainstorming ourselves out of our minds with ideas, wanting to sprint into action...now we all realize we'll really need these Mondays to rest.
Today we're going to run the string of scenes we've worked through this week. Starting with Act II.i and finishing with Act III.iii. We will then begin tremendous work on I.ii, in which there is a ton of exposition, movement, puppetry and hypnosis. We don't have all of our props and costumes to explore with yet, but we need to tablework through this scene more thoroughly and mark out much of the movement. Because we have limited time in the venue in Edinburgh, we're shaving as much of the exposition as we can and replacing it with movement phrases so that the background to the story is still clear. This is a challenge. I think we've made some good decisions thus far, though.
Yesterday we polished up the Harpy, which is running very smoothly. It's such a force of power now that the thoughts are flowing and building on top of each other. The movement also corresponds directly with what the piece is saying, which is also proving to be very effective. We worked through the scene that surrounds the harpy yesterday and worked transitions in and out of the harpy, which are still tricky without basic costumes to work with. We'll see how the timing plays out once we've gone prop shopping.
Felix, our faculty advisor from the first show, came in to work with us yesterday. We showed him the physicality we found in II.ii, the drunk scene, and asked him to help us with specific transitions that we were only doing sloppily. He cleaned them right up...he really is magical. When we showed him the harpy, he said something in his dear Russian accent along the lines of, "it's good, not need my help." We're feeling confident with Felix's watchful eyes supporting us. He also gave us food for thought in how each character can have a "stock" movement, meaning if you tighten one area of your body and let the other muscles relax, you notice how that tight muscle changes and effects the movement of your body as a whole and creates a character. We found that if we tighten our butts, we have a really great Trinculo (the jester) walk. ...Try that one out at home. :P
I started editing the promo video yesterday. If I can get that up in the next few days I will see about some harpy footage. It will be brief harpy footage if I get it up because I want those of you who see the show to still experience an element of surprise.
We lost Dana's promo video footage - having the camera on while we weren't shooting her and having it off while we were - but we're reshooting her work today and will have that to throw into the mix, which will be quite helpful as far as editing the story goes.
Alright. That's that. Thanks for reading. For commenting. For making me feel like this is worth my time. :P ...I would do it anyway...I like it.
J x
We've made it to Sunday! I remember last Sunday we had our preliminary meeting and then a day off on Monday before we started working on our feet on Tuesday. Everyone felt so restless on Monday and we all found ourselves brainstorming ourselves out of our minds with ideas, wanting to sprint into action...now we all realize we'll really need these Mondays to rest.
Today we're going to run the string of scenes we've worked through this week. Starting with Act II.i and finishing with Act III.iii. We will then begin tremendous work on I.ii, in which there is a ton of exposition, movement, puppetry and hypnosis. We don't have all of our props and costumes to explore with yet, but we need to tablework through this scene more thoroughly and mark out much of the movement. Because we have limited time in the venue in Edinburgh, we're shaving as much of the exposition as we can and replacing it with movement phrases so that the background to the story is still clear. This is a challenge. I think we've made some good decisions thus far, though.
Yesterday we polished up the Harpy, which is running very smoothly. It's such a force of power now that the thoughts are flowing and building on top of each other. The movement also corresponds directly with what the piece is saying, which is also proving to be very effective. We worked through the scene that surrounds the harpy yesterday and worked transitions in and out of the harpy, which are still tricky without basic costumes to work with. We'll see how the timing plays out once we've gone prop shopping.
Felix, our faculty advisor from the first show, came in to work with us yesterday. We showed him the physicality we found in II.ii, the drunk scene, and asked him to help us with specific transitions that we were only doing sloppily. He cleaned them right up...he really is magical. When we showed him the harpy, he said something in his dear Russian accent along the lines of, "it's good, not need my help." We're feeling confident with Felix's watchful eyes supporting us. He also gave us food for thought in how each character can have a "stock" movement, meaning if you tighten one area of your body and let the other muscles relax, you notice how that tight muscle changes and effects the movement of your body as a whole and creates a character. We found that if we tighten our butts, we have a really great Trinculo (the jester) walk. ...Try that one out at home. :P
I started editing the promo video yesterday. If I can get that up in the next few days I will see about some harpy footage. It will be brief harpy footage if I get it up because I want those of you who see the show to still experience an element of surprise.
We lost Dana's promo video footage - having the camera on while we weren't shooting her and having it off while we were - but we're reshooting her work today and will have that to throw into the mix, which will be quite helpful as far as editing the story goes.
Alright. That's that. Thanks for reading. For commenting. For making me feel like this is worth my time. :P ...I would do it anyway...I like it.
J x
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