This week were are working on our first round of cold reads for our final scenes. We will begin rehearsals and to start think openly in class about our process in the studio. Blog about where you are in your rehearsal process. Do you ever try what you practice at home? Do you feel that you have to do everything "right" before you can take a risk? Are you willing to follow your instincts in the moment, or are you constantly asking yourself if your work is "OK?" If you feel like touching your partner's hair in a scene, will you stop yourself? Try to drop your inner director this week and just take one risk. See what happens if you stop thinking about and analyzing what you are doing from moment to moment and just do it.
Over analyzing and over thinking what I “do” as a character is most definitely my block especially right now. I always feel uncomfortable in early rehearsals because I don’t know if what I am doing is “correct”. Forcing myself to be free to just do has been slowly getting easier for me the more I work, but it is a slow process. I always have to remind myself to just let go and do. So far in the rehearsal process we have only done the cold read, and have not as of yet gotten together. So in the mean time I have been studying my lines and working on my character analysis.
ReplyDeleteI've been working on trusting my instincts for quite awhile now. I still have some work to do but I know I have come a long way from where I was at the beginning of last year. Usually when I feel like doing something in a scene I just do it. My problem now is I don't come up with some of the little things to add to my character until the rehearsal process has gone on for awhile. It's not that I'm worried or scared to take the risk I just don't think of things until I feel comfortable as my character. That's something I know I need to work on and hopefully will be able to change with time.
ReplyDeleteThis is really a good blog entry for me. Not because I may have a lot to say but more the fact that I really need to work on this in my acting. I do this with pretty much everything that I do. I’m a real perfectionist and so I have trouble “dropping my inner director”. Even when I sing (and I’m working on this with my voice teacher as well) I tend to sing with my head involved. I am always thinking about what makes something sound right, or for acting, what makes something believable. I’m really trying to work on letting go and just doing it. I always do what I practice at home because that is how I go about organizing myself and planning it out. I find that a lot of what I do is not TRULY spontaneous. I’m always thinking on my feet and trying to plan out the next thing I do, and maybe what is going to make it look spontaneous. It’s an awful, awful curse. Improve really is a good thing for me and helps me think on my feet from moment to moment instead of for the moment ahead.
ReplyDeleteI know that the rehearsals that I have done, I have really been toying with using an accident or not for our scene. Just because when I watch the movie of our play it really made me feel that the southern accidents are needed to keep the real impact of the play. I know that when we did practice it with out the accidents and just in our regular Midwest accident it made the flavor of the play disappear. So i know that the next rehearsal I want to try to the whole scene with an accident so that it does give some of the flavor back.
ReplyDeleteI know that in class when we did our cold read it felt good but i know that I really need to reach down and find my character. Because now i am torn between what I saw in the movie and also what character I read through the play. Both are different so I am just at the place where I need to find a happy medium between both of those characters to make it my own so that the scene wont be a luke warm version of Shelby. I want her character to be burning hot right on with what I have developed!
I have been working on following my instincts. Many times I do not though because I second guess myself. I think that I have improved in that area. When I did my cold read though, I tried so hard not to speak in an actor’s voice. I did a great job not doing that, however I just sounded bored and blah. I need to find a middle point as to where I am still interested in the scene, but just reading it normal. I have been practicing at home and I feel that I have gotten so much better when I am alone. But when I am in front of my peers I forget what I have practiced and go back to the old ways. Breaking the habit is a tough thing to do but I am striving and pushing on to breaking it for good. From now on I am just going to take the risk and follow my instincts and see where they take me. If the decision I made is bad, then my peers will tell me. I feel that making a mistake and learning from it is better then doing nothing at all. I really feel that constructive criticism has been the key to this course and I am so happy for that.
ReplyDeleteI as a person am very controlled in my actions , although I am a very outgoing person I would probably be the last person to reach out and hug a scene partner. I feel that boundaries are important but this class as a whole has really helped me see I do need to take more risks when it comes to this industry. David took a risk the other day when we were doing the Will and Grace stuff with an accent and also his actions. Not only was it enjoyable it was greatly believable that he was in an actual audition and he was making this the one time he had to make this risky decisions and he did it. I would hope that with all the great examples this semester from my classmates I can learn to be more impulsive and risky. I have learned through improv to go with whatever is said and agree with something your told you have already done even if you would normally disagree which helped me get out of a bubble I had created for myself but now is just being more and more open to being comfortable with risk.
ReplyDeleteAfter rehearsing my cold read with Nick for Angels in America, we started with the script in our hands. I knew a lot about my character but reading it for the first few times made me nervous and doing so sped up how fast I was talking to him. We were stopped and told to put our scripts down and I was asked to slow down because my character is supposed to be on a lot of pain killers for the scene. I felt that doing this and improvising our scene helped define who my character was. During the scene I was told that I made a certain noise with the back of my throat that made the scene more believable. That was something I did mindlessly but can use for the final production. I need to engage in the relationship at hand while being drugged out of my mind. It will be difficult but with a lot of practice outside and during class time I think it will be one of my best performances as an actor in this class. I feel that I can bring more emotions out to this scene and the practice we had with crying will help a lot. I really need to work on bringing out the character and stop worrying about Taylor as a person.
ReplyDeleteThe first cold read that Joe and I did was of course worth nothing because I forgot my glasses that day and wasn't able to read the lines properly. The improvised attempt was far better though. I felt comfortable to bring my characterization of Austin in True West from Sam Shepard to life. It felt like a relief that I had no cumbersome lines that I could barely read. Even though it was an improvised version of the play it felt still closer to the play than reading the actual lines. We established a relationship and came up with possible actions.
ReplyDeleteWe me yesterday for working concentrated with no distraction on the scene. We red thew it again, made some blocking choices and established the room the scene will take place in. We thought about props and imaginary objects such as windows or demolished typewriters. Joe also helped me with the pronunciation of difficult words. The next rehearsal will take place tomorrow. We'll try be sort of off book for this one so we can make sure to work out more important things such as actions and tactics.
Of course I also work at home. I constantly think about how to stage feelings and moods or I just practice my lines. I don't think that taking a “risk” is such a big deal. The worst that could happen is that you make a fool out of yourself. We are a ensemble in private and everybody screws up from time to time. That's the case in your job as well as in life. The rehearsal (or Probe as Hagen would say) is meant for experimenting and finding out what to improve in order to be ready for the performance. Instincts are of course also very important for a natural and believable performance. If I come up with something I would do in this situation, or my character could possible do, I'll give it a shot. There is really nothing to lose but only to gain.
I have no trouble taking risks when acting. The trouble comes when I haven't made up my mind which risk to take. From the beginning of the rehearsal process, even before I've actually sat quietly and read the script all the way through, I'm already reading the lines almost out loud and thinking about various ways I can same them. Once I've gone through a few times, and I begin adding movement, I always try out a few different styles of blocking as I go through each run through. MANY of them feel incredibly suckish. But I have no problem taking those risks. Eventually you find one that feels organic more or less, and maybe you stick with it. Unless of course another movement, gesture, inflection, etc comes into your head that you want to try. That's half the joy in acting, is the opportunity to interpret your character and your piece in your own unique way. I suppose in a sense though, trying idea after idea is still a form of analyzing. But as long as it stays organic, and you're just going with your gut or feelings, it qualifies as a legitimate risk/trial. I know AS I'm taking the risk whether it worked for me or not. If not, I instantly feel awkward and that something is off, and hopefully I'm in a rehearsal setting where I can just ask to stop, back up really fast, and try again. It makes working with other actors often very entertaining. When you frequently change your own blocking or interpretations, they will change theirs to counteract their approach in some way. Often it leads to much more dynamic scenes and understanding of the scene plays its way out.
ReplyDeleteI think Danielle and I's scene went fairly well. I think sometimes we get so worried about if what we are doing is right that we forget to worry about what we are saying and feeling is right in that moment.
ReplyDeleteI think cold reads can be pretty difficult because it’s pretty much a guarantee that mistakes or mess-ups will be made, at least in my case. However, this isn’t something I hate because it tells me what I need to change and what I need to work on in the scene. There is always something I do in the cols read that I would not do in my polished final scene. Often I find myself second guessing my instincts in a scene when that instinct leads me to humor because I feel like I resort to that too much. At the same time I know I can execute humor in a scene very well. So, one might say that it’s my strength and my weakness, funny how that works out. I could just be babbling. Even though I might second guess myself, I’ll probably still go with it.
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of things I try to consider when I’m rehearsing at home. When I’m reading the piece, I find myself re-reading certain areas to explore every direction I could take in the scene. I also think about who my scene partner is and try to think about where that person would go with the scene. This is just something I do in this class because anywhere else, i.e. in a professional situation, I won’t be able to consider what my scene partner would do because I won’t know my scene partner.
In rehearsal, I generally give it my all. I experiment with different things and try not to get used to one way of performing the scene. I think spontaneity is a very powerful thing in theatre. A lot of times, I save certain ideas for the performance only. In my experience, it has helped make gestures or lines more powerful by not releasing them until the performance. The energy between you and your scene partner and the audience also makes a big difference. Sometimes I will unknowingly do something entirely different in performance because the anxiety and excitement will move me to. I always try to refrain from directing every little move I make. I treat rehearsals as a workshop where nothing has to be perfect, but it has to be sincere. I accept that I will make mistakes and discoveries throughout the process and that some rehearsals will be better than others.
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