Thursday. Spoon River class this week was based on stories in CSftS. We had to pick one of the stories, personalise it and tell it to an assembled group of people who in real life were the class but in the imaginary circumstances were the audience at an honarary evening, either for you or for the 'person' who was being honoured.
My notes from T were that it was well presented, connected with the rest of the class but I could've chosen a story more from the heart. Fair enough. The speeches ranged from too personal and not connected to very emotional and connected. And everything in between.
It's a great feeling to work with someone else's story and make it yours (that's acting, folks!). Really starting to expand my horizons and build my actor's faith with this spoon river work.
Back home and worked through some casting stuff. I need to send my hs/res to Jim's referral.
Nice afternoon with Laura and her two girls who played with littl'un. The evening was mercifully quiet and we watched some Jeeves and Wooster. Nice...
Checked the festival website and, there it was in black and white, the film hadn't been chosen. Balls...

Wednesday. Early extra class. Scene analysis of The Man who couldn't dance (one act) with RC. Incredible amount of information portrayed by the playwright in just a few pages. It's an amazing process and VERY IMPORTANT as an actor to understand what the playwright is communicating to you in what's written. All of the information one needs is right there in front of you (without having to make a ton of stuff up)! You might say, 'oh yeah, sure, scene analysis is really important. Crap. I can just pick up a scene and know what to do, how to react and how to say the lines'. Oh baby, you are so wrong. Welcome to the land of mediocre acting, sunshine. You have just joined the ranks of 95% of 'actors' in the land. Basically, the 95% who refuse to take on board that you have to do the 'work' that is required of you to do a good job. Seriously. You have to KNOW how to break a scene down into the various elements (which I won't list here!) and KNOW what the playwright is saying about each character or else you won't really have a scooby doo about how you need to play the scene. You may think you do, but you don't. The casting director is looking for your 'insight' and 'intelligence' into the meaning of the piece, not if you can read lines or 'do' anger or sadness or something else ultimately unimportant.
After that, went to my regular class with S. Worked with Ced and did fine, possibly held back a few moments. I need to work on totally opening up, expressing everything, and not censoring anything. B had incredibly high marks from S. I'm concerned that there's a little click opening up in the class...
Back on the subject of scene analysis, S compared not doing the work on having your ABCs but not knowing how to say them or form them into words.
Fun and games with the neighbours later in the evening. Walls being banged, shouting and all that crap. We really need to move away from these arseholes.
I cannot just ignore it. It's driving me mad.

Tuesday.
Well, a bloody important stage audition today. It was in front of an incredibly influencial casting director who has cast a ton of stuff on Broadway. She was a sweetheart! Just her, her assistant and the pianist. I sang my song (which seemed to go extremely well) and we had a very nice chat for a few minutes. I think it went as well as it could have and I did my best so we'll see what happens. Which show was it for you ask, well, it comes in a tin and it rhymes with 'ham-a-tot'. The Sin City production, the US tour and replacements for B'way. So, yes, pretty important.
Went home and the littl'un and I headed for the NatHisMus. Don't you love 'Free Tuesday'. I do! They're doing something very cool there at the moment which involves wearing a small electronic box thing and listening to music as you walk around the museum. The very cool part is that the box receives info from each area so it knows 'where it is' and plays a selected track accordingly. Very cool, eh! Apparently it's all original stuff by some pretty talented musos. Check it out if you can. I think it runs for a few more months. Ran around for 3 hours and then home again!
Headed off to Songs and Dances for night two! The house was slightly larger than last night and they were equally appreciative of the works. The night went really well and my songs went..., well they were ok! Everyone seemed very happy again at the end of the night. I was thanked very much for stepping in at the last minute (my speciality!) and then I drove off into the night. Where was the space?

You can read all about this very very ambitious and incredibly cool urban project here. Not a cornfield.
It was definitely an experience. Another one to chalk up.

Monday. Off to class. Scenes with B & M.
Hardstuff didn't go too well and T gave us some preparation work with some imaginary circumstance to prepare with.
Prisoner on 2nd Avenue was great. Miche & I had a real life, hot as hell argument and worked the lines in. T thought it was just like a real argument and told us that's the way to rehearse. Great!
Spoke to Tony about the FF and he told me that my film HADN'T made it in. Ah, OK. He said that it was funny for 5 minutes but because there was no 'conflict' for the characters to work through (and Chad was always going to move on, whatever happened), the film ultimately had no real purpose and was way too long based on that. He said that it was no more than a funny 5 minute skit. OK, fair enough. The FF doesn't want me, I still think the film's OK and still great reel material (which is why I made it)! What do you think? Check it out here.
HWSM called to say that they had the F&S songs for my audition. Popped in and met Rick who was great! $10.95 later, I had two F&S songs for Tuesday.
Off to the show. The space looked great and the evening went really well. The space was filled with an 'experimental' theatre audience who moved around and pointed their chairs in various directions as directed by the action as the evening progressed. Lots of happy faces at the end.
My songs went really well and everyone said nice things! One girl even asked me if I was like a 'stunt singer, brought in at the end of rehearsal periods to bail out shows'. I don't think I had that much of an effect on the whole thing but it was nice to hear it.

Sunday. 8 hour rehearsal day for S&D in imaginary Places (ActII - Act I was done a few years ago). Got a lift in from Max, one of the dancers who's a incredibly nice guy.
It's being put together by Overtoneindustries.org. Ordinarily, I would run a mile from 'experimental' or 'physical' theatre because I've seen so much of it so badly done. This, however, is a very interesting collection of very disparate stuff (around 10 songs by 20 composers!) but put together in a very cohesive way. It just sort of works! My friend (and the Musical Director of the whole thing), David, asked me to come along and perform. Otherwise, I'm sure I would never have known it was going on.
Felt a little under-rehearsed (this is my third rehearsal) but it was great to be a part of the energy. I think it must be about two dozen performers including singers, dancers and musicians.
The pieces range from duets, trios and incredibly difficult and rhythmically nightmarish ensembles pieces. One of the numbers has a huge metal contraption called the 'War Machine' which 'eats' people (I told you this was experimental theatre, didn't I) and is pushed into the space by the performers.
The day was long and hot but ultimately very constructive. The producer was concerned that everything hadn't been rehearsed as much as it should but my thought is that as it's a 'workshop', the pieces aren't meant to be 100%, just in a form which is performable so the pieces can be seen and experienced - isn't that the idea of a workshop?