Term 1, Week 3
First lesson in, I was picking a chair out of a stack of a couple of chairs and I picked one up and the other came off the ground with it, then that chair falls onto my big toe on my right foot.
I was in agony but I held back from screaming for a few seconds until the pain went away…
The pain didn’t go away, for 4 days my toe was hurting like hell, it was blue because the blood had gashed beneath the nail.
My other foot wasn’t any better… I had scrapes on both feet from swimming and one of the scrapes cut deep and became infected and achey for a few days alongside the big toe thing.
First lesson is a blur to me, I can’t remember what happened after the toe thing, I recall us wanting to block out a scene but we never got around to it.
Then throughout the rest of the week we blocked scenes, we got as far as Sophie’s memory.
I was intrigued by some ideas but there are a few recommended ones that I just don’t think my character works well with, such as in the ‘God? Are you God?’ scene where Ketu questions the Guide, he’s meant to slowly rise and then drop when she yells back at him but instead of just dropping to my knees I think I’ll incorporate Ketu dropping onto the floor in a startled manner and then crawling away from the scene to rise again, to symbolise his great anxiety towards the Guide.
One thing about the week that annoyed me a bit was the unexpected lunchtime class, I had a media class to work on stuff for media, to shortly be sent down to the theatre rooms.
I mean I don’t really mind but a bit of warning would be nice ya know? Not too fussed about it though.
Acting is fun, except I feel like I’m expected to learn the lines at this point, I’m not, and I personally think it’s a dumb idea to start learning lines so easy on.
Once I would know them then I’d have to keep them in my head for what, 2 months? That’d bug the hell out of me.
I don’t want people looking at me funny for seeming out of place when I’m the only holding a script for the introduction, that’d make me feel pretty uncomfortable.
I’ve already got a plan to memorise my lines well, the same thing I’ve been doing for 2 years; at a certain calculated point, 3 lines per day for however long it takes until it’s all in my head, and I’ll have a couple of weeks before the performance nights to master it fluently, so I think I’ll be fine thanks.
As for publicity though, I think it might be a bitch. The summary and the ad are not much of a problem but contacting The Age and organising stuff makes me a little paranoid, there’s probably a small chance of failure but I still feel like I don’t know what I’m doing and am a bit confused by that. Ah well, things’ll work out.
Another week down…
Coops Said,
February 25, 2007 @ 4:38 am
It is a little disappointing that almost the first quarter of your blog is devoted to you hurting your toe.
I must say however that I love your later feedback on character development. You need to speak up on these issues and not be afraid to look at how your character is developing in relation to everyone else.
Although I understand your comments about how you go about learning your lines, physical theatre requires that you get physical and this is really difficult with a script still in hand. I’m intrigued by your comment “in my head for what, 2 months? That’d bug the hell out of me.” To a degree, acting is about internalising the words and character over a period of time. Leaving the learning of lines to later in the process will mean that you don’t ‘own’ the character as well. It is also extremely frustrating to those you work with onstage and unfair to the production as a whole.
Hopefully this Tuesday’s session working on production tasks will allow you to feel a little more comfortable with the promotion task.
bukuru Said,
February 26, 2007 @ 6:40 am
To a degree I’m disappointed in myself for the toe thing too.
“I’m intrigued by your comment “in my head for what, 2 months? That’d bug the hell out of me.†To a degree, acting is about internalising the words and character over a period of time. Leaving the learning of lines to later in the process will mean that you don’t ‘own’ the character as well. It is also extremely frustrating to those you work with onstage and unfair to the production as a whole.”
I agree with you on the ‘owning’ of the character but alongside all of my expectations for other VCE classes and my extracurricular commitments, I’m very unwilling to keep pages of lines stuck in my head for 2 months.
I’m confident in my acting skills and believe that I would master the character and his movements to a sensible point during my memorising and in the 2 weeks I have to perfect the role prior to the performance days.
I don’t think that my peers would be too bothered by me being the only one relying on the script until a certain point, or at least I hope not…
I just don’t see how or why it’d bother them, they only have to worry about their own character as I am with mine, it shouldn’t put them off during rehearsals and even if it were to, I wouldn’t have a script during the actual performance so they’d be able to focus better then.