American Shakespeare Center

It has been a busy start to the week concerning both Merry Wives of Windsor and Othello. We had another dress rehearsal of Othello on Sunday Morning and started working on the blocking of Merry Wives which has been fascinating to watch. We ran the first half of Merry Wives yesterday and have now begun working on the second half after the interlude. It is really fascinating to see everything come together, especially after working on Othello. The world in Merry Wives is much smaller and so more detail and specificity is needed to create the world. The costumes are quite ingenious in how they are portraying the world. They are mixing a lot of Jacobian and Modern elements in the costume to help show the difference between young and old, native and foreign, and good and bad. For example Falstaff, a drunkard knight that has come to stay in Windsor temporarily looks somewhat like the leader of a motor-cycle gang. Different characters have different types of attire, older native Windsorians (a word I made up) are more traditional, whereas characters like Anne and Fenton wear more modern clothing that has elements of the Jacobian era but is not full Jacobian dress.

The other thing I have been working on is the paraphrase style that they use here. I have started working on Helena's monologue from Act 1 Scene 1 of Midsummer Night's Dream for an audition and I decided that I would use the method that ASC uses. It has been really amazing the things I have learned about Helena from the paraphrase just based on the words Shakespeare chooses for her.

Here's part of the verse from the monologue I chose:

For ere Demetrius look'd on Hermia's eyne,
He hail'd down Oaths that he was only mine;
And when this Hail some Heat from Hermia felt
So he dissolved, and Show'rs of oaths did melt.

Here's how I paraphrased it:

For when Demetrius looked on Hermia's eyes
He rained on me promises that he was just mine
And in this rain, so passion/love/warmth from Hermia believed
So he evaporated, and storms of promises did disappear


I really like this part of the paraphrase because I felt it showed a huge part of her character. She felt bereft because Demetrius was telling her he loved her and then stopped suddenly. Plus, earlier in the soliloquy she mentions that everyone else thinks she's beautiful but he will not even try to see it. He won't choose her so therefore he does not want her. He loves what he chooses not what his heart tells him.

I could go on and on about what I learned about Helena from this little bit but I feel like I should end this post somewhere. I'm still thoroughly enjoying my internship and I cannot believe I have to leave in a few weeks.

- Lauren Dentler

DAI Week Four Part Two

Day Nineteen started with Daily Practice without a leader. Part way through, one of the students sprained his ankle, so Joe stopped us and showed us all how to provide first aid to a sprained joint (compression, ice, elevation, rest). We then had staff showings of our work so far. The major feedback was that we must play dynamically, interruption is key to keeping the audience's attention, play the silences, be in the moment, and don't deny the reality of the situation. We met again from 5-6:30 to work through the piece.

Day Twenty started with Daily Practice without Joe. We then did written evaluations of the course and a run through of our piece. We had our final showings at Performance Lab. Our piece garnered a lot of laughter from the audience, which is the response we were hoping for. The major notes for everyone was that there was lots of energy, all pieces were successful, there were interruptions and plot turns in every piece, articulate characters, we played the environment, there were well developed costumes and plots, and the masks work better close together in the space. We finished with a post mortem discussion on the workshop and cleaning the river campus building.

Overall, I had a lot of great experiences, met some great people, and made new friends. There are skills, techniques, and philosophies I will take away from this workshop, and I'm sure I'll still be unraveling the things I learned for months to come.

Enjoy the Day,
Brandon Brockshus

The Drowsy Chaperone: Reflection

With the production finished and my internship over, I have had the time to reflect on my time spent as stage manager of a community theatre.  There were unexpected delights as well as cringe worthy moments.  There were brief moments of satisfaction as well as those of utter despair.  The one thing I can say with certainty, this was not what I expected.

From the first day meeting everyone, it was difficult to know my place.  Was I here to add opinions that would help shape the production, or would I be getting coffee and reminding actors of what days we meet?  I had high hopes for the impact I could make, but low confidence in the opportunities to do so.  After having watched the first rehearsal I was told I would be the stage manager.  My first thought was, “I’m going to have to Google that to see where my responsibilities begin and end”.  Having a general idea as to what this would entail I was worried that my voice would not be heard on ways I believed the production could be bettered.

As the weeks began to build, so did my confidence in my voice as an important part of this production.  I began to give notes and suggestions as to what worked and did not while viewing our rehearsals.  This is where the first major obstacle arose.  Not knowing my specific duties was brain-racking enough, but not understanding the director’s method was even more so.  This is not to say he was “wrong” in his directing style, it was just hard to see how we were going to be ready for opening night.

After a few more weeks, the technical side of things began to take shape.  Lights and sound were set and a week before our first show, we had tech rehearsal as well as our first time running through the entirety of the musical, oh and not to mention the first time we added in the orchestra.  The addition of all these things at once created a cascade of problems that needed to be corrected quickly (some never did).  As I began calling shows and making errors that would need to be corrected for the next show, I began to appreciate all the hard work so many people had put into making this production come alive.

The play of course went off with only minor blips and was enjoyable to work on and watch as well, but during the entire experience I did realize one thing.  I do not want to be a stage manager.  Getting the experience of working on the technical side of things gave me a deeper appreciation of the time and effort that is put into making a performance work seamlessly.  This was wonderful to experience and I am sure to use this knowledge as I continue to grow, but this is not the side of things I want to work on as a career.  I enjoyed making notes, reviewing the play, reading and rereading it until it felt like mine.  I loved talking to the actors, making suggestions on what to try.  I loved seeing what I had brought to the production come out through the actor’s performance.  This is the side of theatre I love.  This is what I want to do with the rest of my life.  This internship was wonderful in that it gave me actual experience working on a performance, but more than that, it showed me the love I have for the stage.

Actor's Gym - Aerial 5&6, Circus 5&6

Aerial Day 5

We worked on silks in this class.  Silks are silk knot without the knot, so two free pieces of fabric.  I had been waiting all summer to work on silks, so this was an exciting day for me.  Silks require more strength than silk knot does and the apparatus isn't as stable, so we work a lot harder to work on the silks.  We worked on some basic skills: climbing both silks, climbing one silk, wrapping our feet with an 8-loop, and a crossback straddle or butterfly.  Silks, silk knot, and Spanish Web use a lot of the dance skills I'm used to, so I feel more comfortable on these than I do on the trapeze or the lyra.

Circus Day 5

I completed my summer goal of being able to do a handstand.  I can now do a handstand.  Now that I can correctly get my body into the handstand position, I can work on balance and core strength to keep it longer.  This was the highlight of my class.  We worked on our floor work as usual, and then my group went to stilts.  Stilts are difficult, and understandably so.  You have to reteach yourself to walk with longer limbs than you are used to.  I felt like a baby learning to walk and took a lot of wobbly baby-steps.  I'd love to work on it again.  We spent so much time strapping in, there wasn't a lot of time to actually practice walking.

We worked on silks after that and worked on the same things we did the day previous.  Chris and I also taught ourselves to do this:

Chris is doing a crossback straddle in the silks and I am doing an inverted straddle.  This position is a lot of fun and I really like the way it looks.

Aerial Day 6

We worked on trapeze again today.  It was great to go back to the first apparatus we worked on to see how far we've come.  Trapeze was much easier for me this time because of how much more strength I have.  I still don't have the best grip, and that makes me nervous.  I'm now strong enough to get up and work, but I'm constantly afraid I'll slip off and I have to make multiple trips to chalk my hands.  I'm glad to see how much easier it is to work on the trapeze now though.  We did a lot of new stuff on the trapeze this time, including a new favorite, the coffin:



Circus Day 6

After floor work, my group went to work on juggling pins.  These are a little harder than juggling balls due to the way you have to catch them and the way they have to be flipped.  I was able to figure out how to manipulate one pin pretty well, but I had to stop at two pins.  There is a specific rhythm with two that will take a while to learn.  We went and worked on trapeze some more.  We did the splits, "the angel," and "the bird's nest."  These were all moves we did the day before, but it was nice to get a second chance to work on them.

Actor's Gym Day 12

Hello Everyone,

I wish I had more to say in this blog entry, but sadly I don't. the thing is yesterday in Circus we didn't really do anything that we haven't done before.

We started off doing our warm-up as usual. I am noticing though that I am getting more flexible. Not by much, but I am. And that is one of the things I was hoping to improve as the classes went on. Once we got to the floor acrobatics part it wasn't anything new. We worked on front handsprings again. I did get to work on mine which was nice. I tried to do it in open gym and it didn't really work out. I tried it just on the floor without the mat and I landed it.

Next when we split up into groups my group started out on juggling again. This time though we started juggling pins instead of balls. I actually found this to be a little easier. I don't know why but it was. This will come in really handy if I'm ever one of those fancy bartenders that throws the bottles around.

Then we moved onto trapeze. We didn't do anything new on this today because of time. I was disappointed.

That is all my brethren,

-Chris Grim

Actor's Gym Day 11

Hey y'all

The days are coming to an end, but as these classes are continuing the more difficult(in a sense) and more fun they are getting. They were already fun, but now it is beginning to be more fun. I didn't even know that was possible, but it is.

In this class we went back to work on trapeze. It really interesting to see how we all built on the experience we had already from the last time we did trapeze. I think it is safe to say that trapeze is my favorite thing we have done. I was amazed to see how much stronger I had gotten compared to the last time we did trapeze too.

Some of the tricks we did were a little scary, but exciting. I think part of it was that I was more comfortable on trapeze, I was excited to work on it some more, and that I work on trapeze stuff a lot in open gym. My biggest thing I need to work on is keeping my toes pointed, and making my moves fluid in between the tricks.

This time it was quite the workout. We were all over the place on the trapeze from hanging by or feet to laying on the ropes above the bar.(It's called the coffin. It's super cool) I definitely want to get some video of this. I am really excited to work on it again today in the Circus class.

Until next time,

-Chris Grim

Annie-The Reflection

    Well, the show, and all of the hard work is over. I'm already having withdrawals and it has been two days. I really can't explain how happy I am that I took this opportunity I was so graciously granted and what it has done for my outlook on theatre as a whole.
    But before I get into that, I will recap how the shows this weekend went. First, was Thursday night (Opening Night). We were sold out before the doors had opened; no tickets were left to sell at the show. That was such a great way to get the cast and crew hyped up for their first night of showing off their efforts. We all got together as a group in one of the rooms to get each other ready and get the energy flowing. The sense of community in that room was incredible. Everybody stood together thanking each other, hugging, and laughing knowing we were about to put on this wonderful show for people all over the county (as well as others). The show went quite smoothly and although there were one or two small mishaps, nothing detrimental occurred. It wasn't until Friday, which was also sold out, that we started to get a little shaky. While as I was backstage watching my orphans dance their little hearts out, one of the stage crew members was moving a flat being used, which knocked over a painting, which dominoed into kicking in the leg of the prop table. Talk about a freak accident! This caused literally all of the glassware/tableware as well as other random props to come crashing down. Thank goodness it was during a mansion scene, and we all joked that two of the maids were getting into it in the kitchen. Also on Friday night, when Annie comes up the stairs, she is supposed to run through the curtain in a fit of rage. Well on this particular night, the same said stage crew member was holding the curtain closed which caused Annie to become tangled and not get offstage as it was supposed to be executed. Both of these occurrences were corrected for the other two nights, thankfully. Saturday was about half-full, and Sunday was another sellout.
    It was hard Sunday night to sing "Tomorrow" at curtain call. As I walked out with my fellow cast members, I began tearing up. By the time we began singing, I was bawling; literally unable to croak out any words. Knowing that this whole process was coming to an end really hit me. I have met some amazing people that I will surely keep in touch with, and cannot get over the fact that I was able to be apart of such a phenomenal show. One of the directors said that this is the first time in her 12 years that she has ever had a sold out show, let alone 3 of the 4. Even reviews from audience members were so touching. I had several people come up to me after all the shows telling me, "That was the best show I've ever seen in this building!" or "Best show Carroll has ever put on!" But my favorite was when a bunch of the crew and I went to McDonald's after a show and an 82-year old woman (she told us her age) came up to us and said, "That wasn't a good show. That was a damn good show. You should take that thing on tour." I really can't describe the rewarding feeling of knowing someone was proud of your work and thinks so highly.
    This internship has been so much more than I ever expected. Honestly, going in I thought it would be a couple people from my community getting together to put on a youth theatre show with some average acting and singing. But it was so much more. There was a huge cast full of incredible talent from people of all ages and occupations. We had 7 year old girls/boys to adult doctors to a radio host to college kids all wanting to be apart of it. Taking on the roll of "Orphan Director" made me a bit anxious. Mostly because during last year's directing class, I was constantly doubting myself and my creativity. I would wonder how to put scenes together to really get that "AHA!" moment. Putting your own thoughts into something is really quite vulnerable. I love the metaphor Brad Dell used for the art of directing: It's like your baby. You feed it, you nurture it, and you watch it grow. You just care so much about it and you want everyone to love it as much as you do. I couldn't agree more. Putting so much time into one thing can be exhausting, and quite honestly, it was. It got frustrating having to put hours upon hours into something that, at some points, just wasn't working out as I had wanted. But then there were those times that I would sit down with my orphans and run lines and just seeing them get it, just seeing them find their characters was enough. I understand why directors go through the stress and absolute chaos of what they do. It's to work that passion of theirs into others and watch others get it as they have.
    I already miss my orphans so much. They were so good to me and brought me to tears by the end as we all parted ways. Thankfully, I got an email today from a director saying that we will be having a cast party pot luck this weekend and I'm looking forward to it! This internship really has made me realize how difficult, stressful, and manic being a director can be, but how absolutely worth it it really is in the end.

American Shakespeare Center

Merry Wives of Windsor has officially started!!!! We started on Friday with Ren Run Prep where I worked as "the prithee girl" (What I like to call myself) Instead of calling line at ASC they say prithee. The reason behind it has never really been explained it just what they do. The ren run went amazingly well on Sunday Morning and I felt really proud of the troupe. We started table work that afternoon on Merry Wives and we got to meet the director. On Merry Wives of Windsor we will be working with a new director Rob Clare from the Royal Shakespeare Company. Working with him has already been a pretty amazing experience. The director is really trying to get into Shakespeare's head and understand the clever word play that he's using to help the actors understand the characters. We worked for 4 hours on Sunday talking about the characters and trying to understand how Shakespeare set them up. (The actors already knew the script and knew their lines from performing the ren run so they had done a good amount of homework already.) It was really fascinating to sit in on the conversation and see what discoveries the actors made about their characters and the community of Windsor just from sitting and talking about the play as a whole. Merry Wives of Windsor has characters from a few of the history plays and this play was actually requested by the royalty at the time because of the character of Falstaff (presumably). It's an amazing play and the depth of the characters is fascinating. For example Falstaff, a portly drunkard, is a wordsmith and a genius one at that. It is a play of trickery and quite strong female characters who are not afraid to stand up for themselves. To be honest it reminds me a lot of I Love Lucy and I already have so many ideas that I've come up with during rehearsals and scribbled in my notebook for future reference if I ever get to be a part of it again. I can tell you a million times over this is a production I will never forget.

- Lauren Dentler

Reflection: Door Country

After spending my time up in Door county and helping them build the theatre that they have recently put to use for the inaugural season of the new artistic team, I have realized all that I have done for them and all that they have done for me. I have heard and read that this season is one of the best that they have seen up in Door county in a long time. Both plays are selling out, and the new theatre is definitely a hit. I have seen some pictures of the space now, and the way they mold it into the worlds of Macbeth's Scotland or Ferdinand's Navarre is awesome. They use the space and everything that we put together to put together a great looking show.
I realized that some of the things that I learned up there are already rubbing off on me. As I am working on some shows to perform down in Des Moines, I see that we are running some of the rehearsals like the way we ran our workdays up there. It is a really democratic structure and ideas are welcome and invited from everyone. Not everyone is good at everything, so using each others abilities to lift the entire group is necessary and an awesome experience. If everyone is working on something different at that time, you know that they are working towards a common goal. You know that the goal is so huge and important to everyone that you have no worries that they are working hard and will get the job done. I honestly believe that this mentality is something that is bringing our shows together, and it is something that helped bring the theatre at Door County together. This experience was very valuable to me, and I am hoping that with my last semester at Iowa State I can use what I have learned there, and wherever I end up after that.


-Drew McCubbin

Reflection: Pippin

     My experiences with Pippin were definitely what should come from a good theatre internship. The performance aspect was quite fun, once the show opened, and the choreographer aspect was an excellent first-time experience. However, I did have to learn some other things the hard way.
     First, my eyes were forced open to how different directors can be. Throughout my time at ISU, I have had the same couple of directors, both of whom I work with very well and understand their methods and processes, one of whom was my mentor/professor in Directing classes. Within those classes, I was taught how to direct in a particular way, a way that after two different experiences putting into practice made logical sense to me. But because of my limited range of experiences and how set my directing education was, I wasn't quite prepared for how differently directors can work; its a reality I should have seen coming, but due to my time with Pippin, the reality is becoming much more real to me.
     Second, I really learned how vital a number of things are:
          1) Collaboration - all of the team leaders need to be able to work together to create a strong and united idea for the production, covering casting, set and lights, music and dancing, costuming, and the direction of the show
          2) Communication - it is beyond imperative that each team member be in constant communication with each other throughout the rehearsal and design process - this prevents any major problems from occurring, and helps correct the smaller problems efficiently. In addition, it helps strengthen the powers of collaboration (see #1)
          3) Pre-Planning and Preparation - this one was taught due to the fact that a number of our rehearsals, sadly, felt like a waste of time. I learned that to maximize progress made in rehearsals, there has to be a lot of work done before rehearsals, and this goes for everyone involved - actors, the director, the choreographer, designers, and musicians. Many of us in the cast, crew, and band grew frustrated when our rehearsal time was used to begin work on something new; I know that this could be how the director likes to work, but many of us felt that there still needed to be work done outside of the rehearsals.
     Finally, my last major learning experience came from my opportunity to choreograph a number of the pieces in the show. I gained at least a basic knowledge of the choreography process due to a number of my dance classes, and here I actually got to put it into practice. With that, I began to find my own style of working. It also dawned on me how vital "studio time" is; having that time to create a dance where you actually work through it piece by piece. Dipping my toes into the world of choreography came with a whirlwind of information, and the realization of how hard it can be.
     However, I had a wonderful time working as a choreographer for this show. It was an incredible learning experience for my first time doing it; though I know I could have done more with the dancing if I had had more time, I did what I could with the time I was given, and it turned out quite wonderful. I earned a lot of positive feedback, and even a few things I could have improved on (which is always a good thing). I know more rehearsal time could have made it even better, but at one point you have to stop and let it thrive on its own.
     Overall, though it was a local production, my experience with Pippin as both a performer and a choreographer was one of the best learning experiences I could have had, and definitely one I needed. Though I didn't really want to learn some of the things I did, they only made me a better theatre-maker. One of the greatest aspects with this show, however, was the cast; this was hands down one of the BEST ensembles I have ever had the pleasure of working with. I got to work alongside many old friends, make new ones, mentor a couple "theatre newbies" and learn from some of the veterans. I thank them all for such a wonderful run of Pippin. So, even though the show came with more struggles that I expected, it still turned out to be one of the best learning opportunities in my life thus far, and for that I am forever grateful.
   

DAI Week Four Part One

Day Sixteen started with Daily Practice with Joe. We got our assignment for the final project, a devised piece, from Ronlin along with some explanation using poems, philosophy, and stories. We worked on painting the masks for the rest of the morning. Nicholette gave a presentation on her class's thesis project from 2010 on how a piece of theater lives (basically how they went about devising). They met for 9 hours a day for 8 weeks in 3 hour blocks. We don't have that kind of time, but she did have some really great advice on how to work, manage time, and meet goals. She emphasized the importance of the working atmosphere, safety, acceptance, and no self-censorship. She talked about personal daemons that are our genius. These daemons follow us around the room and give us our best ideas. They are intuition, the inner child, and the divine. Hers takes the form of Dobby the House Elf. That night, our group (the four cardboard mask people) met to play in the masks and come up with improv scenarios we could play with the next day.

Day Seventeen started with Daily Practice, but this time Joe just told us when to switch activities rather than leading us in every movement. This is so we can devote the sequence to memory and continue Daily Practice on our own back home. Our group did some character work just playing together in the masks. We came up with a short skit involving a villain that took a girl's lollipop then was chased by her father. Since this is what we had, we shared it during the afternoon staff showings. The comments the entire class received included find a way to be inspired by the dynamic mask, inhabit the mask with the whole body, respond and play to the reality of the situation, find clearly articulated actions that drive the piece forward, report to the audience, interruption is important, be clear about the situation, and find the identities of the masks. The film colloquium that night was a showing of MirrorMask. Ronlin emphasized the importance of contextualization not convention in our devised pieces.

Day Eighteen started with Daily Practice and tumbling. Our group played some scenarios under Nicholette's supervision. We worked on anti-mask where the character suddenly becomes something very different from what it was. We nailed down a narrative structure in our afternoon session. We settled on a hunting show as the proposal for our piece. We met again in the evening to play through the structure a few times.

Enjoy the Day,
Brandon Brockshus

American Shakespeare Center

It's now officially time for Othello to be put away for a little bit and move on to The Merry Wives of Windsor. It's a very exciting change-over because we have just finished dress rehearsals for Othello and they went well. The show is coming along quite nicely. The cast will still have rehearsals before previews start but since they are a touring company that performs three different shows, they need to start working on others before they go into previews. It's all very exciting Othello has been a great learning experience in learning about Shakespeare in one of his more familiar plays. Merry Wives is not quite as well known but will be an exciting adventure to undertake. I really enjoyed watching the cast work together for scene-work, fight calls, and music. The way they approached each other as actors and as a team was really impressive and shows with the story. They solve their problems quickly and efficiently which makes all the difference in the world. 

This week I also went to go see All's Well That Ends Well which was a really fascinating experience. I loved the way ASC handled it because it is definitely a hard play to figure out. It's labeled as a comedy but it doesn't always feel like a comedy. For example Much Ado about Nothing is hilarious and a lot of fun. There were moments in All's Well that weren't fun but quite honest and heart-breaking in a non-tragedy way. It's a little hard to describe. I can see where it would be considered a problem play in Shakespeare's canon. The cast and director made it quite understandable though, they helped pull the piece together and tell the story in a really cool way. I really liked the character of Helena, I thought she had a really powerful voice but I wished she would have been more powerful, she was very human. The characters that really made the show were Parolles and Lavatch one was Betram's friend and the other was the clown. They both had a great relationship with the audience, they were what made the play fun, and even though Parolles has some struggles of his own they way he handled his situation made him really interesting. He felt like a Don Armado type but not quite as Don Quixote as Don Armado is. 

So all in all I've had an interesting last few days at ASC, very busy but very fun. 

- Lauren Dentler

DAI Week Three Part Two

Day fourteen started with Daily Practice with Joe, then we had the day to work on our masks. I worked on being able to manipulate the eyes of the lion mask and put a backing to the amphibian creature's eyes. We had a meeting with Matt, Nicholette, and Joe late in the afternoon on the different programs offered at Dell'Arte. We got an overview of the year long PTP, 3 year MFA, 3 year AEP, and the cost of each. We asked questions on the admission process and requirements. They were very open and answered all our questions.

Day fifteen started with Daily Practice with Joe. We then had some time to put the finishing touches on our cardboard masks before performance lab. We showed the masks as characters with Ronlin calling out provocations and instructions. We made some really great discoveries on how the masks live and move.

There was an all day festival Sunday as part of the Annie and Mary Days, a local celebration of the founders of Blue Lake. It included a parade, a fair with vendors and live music in the park, and an outdoor showing of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Enjoy the Day,
Brandon Brockshus

Actor's Gym Day 10

Hello brethren,

I'm am writing you today, a day late, from the Starbucks in Barnes and Nobel because no one has paid the ill for the internet at my craigslist apartment. So that is just another added perk onto that scenario. Also it is way too hot out today and there is no AC in that apartment. So I am glad to be sitting here in this Starbucks.

Ok. Onto what really matters. The circus. We started out our class like we normally do with our intense warm-ups. We have been doing this stretch lately that is really painful for someone who is not very flexible like myself. It consists of me sitting with my legs spread apart and reaching towards the middle, and then someone lays on top of my back to push the stretch further. It's a doozy. Once we got to the floor acrobatics portion though I was a lot more comfortable. I am glad we didn't skip it this time. We did a lot of rolls. One thing that we did was something that Kathleen had taught me during Alice in Wonderland. and that is a backwards somersault into a handstand. I had to demonstrate and I did it really well, but I don't think I could have repeated that again. It was awesome. Beginners luck I guess.

After all of that we split up into groups again and we started stilts. The hardest part about stilts is just getting them on. I had a lot of fun with the stilts, and it came a lot easier to me than some of the other things we have done. Elizabeth and I made a new friend talking about Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes (band) and the show Death and Harry Houdini so that stilt practice was a lot of joking around, but learning still happened.

Next we moved onto Silks again. We did the same stuff we did yesterday again. It is still so hard. Sylvia tried teaching me this balay trick and it was just super confusing. It was a trick we tried to learn the day before, but Nate couldn't remember how to do it so we moved on. Maybe we'll learn it another day.

Elizabeth and I got asked to Usher for the Summer Intensive show. This people in the Sumer intensive are really good so I would gladly like to usher because we get to see the show for free. until next time my brethren.

May the odds be ever in your favor,

-Chris

American Shakespeare Center

As of right now I am halfway through my time at ASC and I can't help but be amazed at how quickly the time has gone by while working on Othello. We had our first run through today and will be starting open dress rehearsals tomorrow. To be honest I cannot wait to see how the public reacts to this show, it has been an amazing process to watch and be apart of and it will be exciting to start the process over again with Merry Wives of Windsor on Friday where we go back to the beginning with Ren Run Prep.

I've learned a lot this week about how shows run at the Blackfriar's theatre. It's pretty amazing to see what a difference it makes to the production when they keep everything in Shakespeare's traditional conditions. There are no stagehands working backstage and no dressers. There is a stage manager that works with the company on the road but the actors do a lot of the work required for on-stage or back-stage needs. The actors move and transition all props and all scenes, if a transition is necessary. The use of the stage is what makes moving and transitioning so easy for the actors. The stage is made of 3 doors/curtains that serve as the exits and entrances for various purposes. In the blackfriar's theatre there are two doors and then a wider space with curtains called the discovery space. I will post some pictures of the stage and the theatre so that you have a better idea of what I'm talking about. 

This week I've been taking line - notes and trying to help the actors, stage manager, and director  be word perfect. It is a requirement of acting productions at ASC that actor's be word perfect in order to preserve what Shakespeare wanted in his productions. Shakespeare was a wordsmith so he deserves to be appreciated for that.

The above picture is a view of the stage from the mezzanine level of the theatre. 

This is a view from the stage that I hope that one day I will get to view every night. 

- Lauren Dentler

Legally Blonde Opening Weekend

Legally Blonde kicked off with a great opening weekend. Everything has been going smoother backstage and onstage. Audiences seem to be enjoying themselves too. The most frequently asked question I get from people who have seen the show is the first costume change which happens on stage. Its actually very simple but the fact that it stood out means it was very well done which is always encouraging. Yay for the magic of theatre!
We've had the past two days off with another run of shows Wednesday(today) to Sunday.

Tech Week

Tech week is under way with Wizard of Oz at Fox Valley.  The show has come along really well in the last couple of weeks.  Last week was spacing and our first time in the theatre.  A lot of the kids have worked with Fox Valley before so they know the theatre really well, but it was fun for me to see the space.  It is a really nice theatre.  The back stage is a little funky and there isn't a lot of room, which is presenting challenges with a cast of 28 kids, but we are making it work.  It is also weird because we don't have a set for this show.  We are sharing the theatre with the main stage show so we have to use there set and sort of "make it work".  We have had many production meetings where we just sit and try to think of ways to make it look less like the inside of a house and more like OZ. Even though I am back stage during the show, Tim (the stage manager), let me learn how to mark and call cues.  He let me do that for a day while he went backstage so that I could see what it was like.   Tech started Sunday.  It is a sixty minute show but we only got through half of it in our allotted four hours.  We finished what we hadn't done on Monday and then started to run the show.  Yesterday we ran the show and worked on some problem areas.  I get to puppet the cow, witch and wizard shadow puppets.  It has been cool learning how to work with the puppets.  The Wizard is kind of hard to operate.  I have to hold him against the wall so that he doesn't wiggle while moving his eyes and mouth.  It really should have two people operating it, but we only have three people back stage and one of those people is designated as the mic swapper.  This process has been fun for me.  Tim has introduced me to a lot of stage managers around the Chicago area and I have been able to go help out on there shows and observe them during a performance, which has been enlightening.  Tonight we will run the show.  We have tonight and tomorrow left of tech and then we open on Sunday.  The kids continue to impress me. 

Annie Tech week

     Wow. I can't even begin to explain how happy I am with this show. We are officially t-minus 2 days from Opening Night. Monday after getting back from vacation I was a little anxious and nervous to see what had all happened while I was gone. Honestly, I couldn't have been more pleased. Cues were spot on, the energy was through the roof, and the lines were memorized. My fellow director gave everyone a standing ovation and announced that "we have a show!" Everyone is so thrilled with each others' work and it's showing.
    I have been officially named the "Orphan Wrangler" by fellow staff as I will be the one keeping the kids in their dressing room and giving them their cues. No pressure... I'm beginning to enjoy my part as the "masked announcer" more and more every day. My simple line of "And Jeanne Johnson; radio's only masked announcer." has been getting a lot of laughs which I appreciate!
   We worked on curtain call tonight which is always my favorite part of any show. I love the aspect of the whole cast and crew coming together as a community to recognize everyone's hard work and absolute dedication. Knowing we all have this one common interest in the arts is pretty wonderful. One more rehearsal, and then it's show time!!!

Actor's Gym Day 9

Hey y'all,

I'm going to keep this kind of short and sweet. Mainly because this class today wore me out more than any of the classes to date. today we worked on Silks, or as they are sometimes called Fabrics. This is similar to what we did before, but the difference is that the two separate silks are not knotted at the bottom like they were before. They are separate. This made it a lot more difficult. And exhausting.

We used some of the familiar techniques from before like climbing, 8-loops, and the star position, but they were definitely more difficult on these. These took an immense amount of strength, and the moves are just harder to figure out.

One thing that was really cool that Elizabeth and I tried was her hanging onto my arms as I hung upside down in the star position from the silks. I'll try and find a picture of this sort of thing.

Kind of like this, but a lot more grunting, and a lot sweatier. Our assistant tried holding onto me while i was in this position too and I was really sweaty and she said it was gross and we both kind of laughed it off, but it was a little embarrassing. 

Well I am assuming that we will be doing more of this tomorrow and I'm not really looking forward to it because I am exhausted...

Salutations,

-Chris

DAI Week Three Part One

We started Day Eleven with Daily Practice with Joe. We had class with Ronlin in the morning. He talked about tension and forces. We experimented with creating a structure using three sticks and a length of rope. We started our work with creating masks in the afternoon. I chose cardboard. Our first directive was to create the shapes cube, cone, sphere, and ovoid. This was an experimentation for us to better understand the cardboard. We then started making masks. We showed them at the end of the class period and found out we had really been making helmets. That night we worked on making actual masks.

Day Twelve started again with Daily Practice with Joe including tumbling. We worked with the cardboard in the morning and were given the requirements that the masks must work in 360 degrees, the eyes must come out and live, and the masks must not simply be protrusions from planes. We had an optional class with Joan in the afternoon on metaphysical masks. This work is to  -see clearly -inhabit the entire body -have specific attitudes -work with what's really happening. There must be a core behind the mask (the actor's head).

The film colloquium Tuesday night included The Two Journeys, a film on Jacques Lecoq's school in Paris. It showed the class's explorations of larval masks, verbs in different languages with movement, personal nature, and neutral masks. Ronlin talked about Artaud's plague and the way theatre festers in a person and ideas started in this workshop can manifest and come to realization years later.

Day Thirteen started with Daily Practice with Joe then we worked on our masks all day. Monday I started a wolf mask, Tuesday I started an amphibious creature mask, and Wednesday I started a lion mask with mechanically manipulated features. Wednesday night, we had a guest performance by the group Independent Eye called "50 years of Co-creation." It included three vignettes. The group is a couple in their 70's that have been performing together for 50 years, touring around the country. The three vignettes were pieces from their time touring. The pieces were very dream-like, existential, and employed puppets some of the time.

Enjoy the Day,
Brandon Brockshus

The Drowsy Chaperone Part IV

Well, it is time.  The shows have begun and I am running them.  The last few rehearsals gave me a great opportunity to learn the booth in terms of tech.  I was a little nervous as there were a few sections that if a mistake was made by myself, it might ruin the play.  We have a section where the lights go out on a singing note and it would be very obvious if it was before or after that point.  The same goes with the light going back on.  During a rehearsal I messed it up pretty hard and my good god it was terribly noticeable.  I will hand it to the actors, they continued without missing a beat.

It is strange to think that weeks of hard work have come down to five-two hour performances.  I suppose I get a little nervous before the shows because I want to do all the hard work justice by giving the actors the best opportunity to deliver their best performance.  The shows have gone great thus far with the exception of a few lagging spotlights, early cues, and scratching microphones.

I have been surprised at how exhausted I am after a show considering I’m just walking around checking the stage and microphones, then sitting for two hours during the performance.  It also doesn’t help that I have to drive an hour to get there and an hour to get back, but I’ve gotten used to that after having done that at least four days a week for 6-8 weeks.

As the last performance has come I am beginning to reflect on my time spent working on this production.  The goods, the bads, the time wasted, the time well spent, they all have left an impression on me and I feel I need to give that the time and reflection it deserves.  So, my next post will be my last of The Drowsy Chaperone.

DAI Week Two Part Two

Day nine started again with Daily Practice with Joe. We started with voluntary stretching then transitioned into an epic physical/movement forty minute exploration. We had class with Stephanie which included crossing the space toward another person, jumping in the middle at the same time, stopping, turning, saying the other person's name (their name or a made-up name), then an attraction or retreat to/from the other person. We then explored masks in the groupings of larval masks, found object masks, full masks, and half masks. We had the afternoon off for the Fourth but spent it in rehearsals for Friday's performances.

Day ten started with Daily Practice with Joe. We stretched, went through our walking sequence, then did headstands, back bends, and tumbling. Performance lab started with our event. Ronlin and the other staff noted that an event transcends the actual to the poetic, attention to detail is important, and an event includes a change in perspective for the audience. The three bag groups went next with the notes that we must believe in the creatures as beings, they must offer mystery, there must be fascination and surprise, and moments of discovery are key. The two large object groups went next. The staff noted the fluid dynamics of the structures, and the importance of exaltation versus manipulating the structures.

Enjoy the Day,
Brandon Brockshus

Legally Blonde: end of rehearsals and Opening Night

Costume changes finally started becoming easier and faster and allowing me to have more down time as I learned when exactly I had to go upstairs for changes.Wednesday night, which was preview night, was completely sold out with the best audience so far and also the show with the most hiccups(but hey what can you do?). Most of these happened because of crew blunders, like set pieces running into each other and not turning at the same time. Opening night the audience was not as loud and responsive as the previous night but the show moved more smoothly than it has in the past so thats great!
If you're in Des Moines come and see it! It's fun and worth it!

Actor's Gym - Circus Day 3 & 4, Aerial Day 4

I am a little behind on blogging due to being out of town for a week.  Here we go.

Circus Day 3:

I suck at tumbling.  My darn back messes everything up.  The instructor is right.  The handstand is the basis for everything.  And I can't do one.  Therefore, I can't do anything.  Not completely true, but the tumbling stuff is a lot harder for me than it is for anyone else.  The tumbling was incredibly difficult last week, maybe because there was so much of it and I get tired.  Long story short: Chris is good at tumbling, Kathleen is good at tumbling, and Elizabeth is at least trying.

We did unicycling in this class and it is a lot of fun.  It is very hard to keep your balance, as you can imagine, but it didn't feel like I had anticipated.  All of your weight needs to be in the seat, which makes sense if you think about it, but before last week I had never had to think about it.  We didn't get to explore very much of it, but I was able to wheel myself forwards and backwards a bit with a little bit of help.

We then did more silk knot, my favorite thing in the world.  Unfortunately, the stuff we worked on was the same as the class the day previous to this one, so I didn't get to learn anything new.  However, I got to show everyone in my group who had never done it before how to do it.  That's always fun, being the example.

Aerial Day 4:

We worked on Lyra today.  This is Lyra:



Chris hates Lyra.  I love Lyra.  Lyra hurts.  A bunch.  We learned how to get up and a few combinations, and eventually we moved to partnered Lyra, where two people are up at the same time like this:



Chris and I got to do duo lyra.  This is the first partnered skill we've learned, at it is tons of fun.  I thought I would be terrified doing it with someone else since I would not only be responsible for my own life, but potentially someone else's life as well.  It was a lot easier than I thought, and it was so much fun.  My legs are covered in bruises, but I think it was well worth it.

Circus Day 4:

We skipped tumbling today.  Thank the dear sweet lord.  Chris was bummed, but I was praising Jesus.  I was definitely not feeling tumbling today, especially because Lyra uses so much arm strength, my arms were sore from the previous day's Lyra.  Instead, we split up into our groups right away.  The ground skill today was tightrope.  Elementary school Elizabeth always wanted to learn how to tightrope walk.  Today, that little girl's dream came true.  I'm not half bad either!  That was super exciting.  I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to balance at all because of my back, but the balance I thought myself in ballet classes paid off because I can walk backward and forward and lunge on the tightrope.  Lots of fun for Elizabeth today.

We then moved to Lyra, which I got to demonstrate again.  Again, we did moves similar to the moves we learned in yesterday's class, which was fine.  More practice for me.  Lyra wasn't as frightening and new as it was yesterday, as is with most things.  Looking forward to practice the Lyra more.  Lyra is my second favorite thing, I think.  Even though it probably hurts the most.

American Shakespeare Center

Well it's been another great week here at ASC, we started off with photo-shoots at the beginning of the week, and we have been and will be working on various scenes from Othello the rest of the week. I've been busy observing different aspects and taking line-notes (and occasionally some blocking notes) during rehearsal. It is rather fascinating to see people's choices change from the ren run that we had last Tuesday. The director has started to play with the scenes and find cues that Shakespeare gives the actors to tell the story.

The photo-shoot on Monday was an interesting experience as well. We all hung out in the theatre to observe how the photo-shoot worked. Because there wasn't terrible much for a production assistant to do during that time, other than make sure people were there on time (they were). I had the chance to learn about the way they run their photoshoots. They tried to look for photos that showed the essence of the characters as well as the abilities of the troupe. The troupe did an amazing job creating various characters. I got to see everything from Scrooge in Christmas Carol (Part of their Christmas Season) to Othello and Desdemona, to Falstaff (Merry Wives of Windsor), to the Clowns of Henry IV Part 1. It was rather interesting watching the actors transition between characters during photo-shoot. The other part of the photo shoot that I found interesting were the costumes. Obviously they do not have the chance to use their costumes for the tour because they are in the process of being made, bought, or pulled from their stock collection, but they found items that represented the show.

Also this week I mentioned earlier that we are working on playing with different scenes in Othello. I have absolutely loved watching the actors truly discover their characters and step into their roles. The most interesting for me have been the Clown and Cassio mainly because they are roles that are either cut (the clown) or misinterpreted (Cassio) and that is something we have talked about throughout the process. We got to work with both of those characters a lot today. The first scene we started off with is Cassio's fall from grace ("reputation, reputation, reputation!") the director and the actor began talking about how Cassio's rank is because he is such an honorable guy (for the most part) his reference to reputation is not a reference to status but a reference to his honor as a high ranking military officer. The Clown has been fascinating to watch because the girl who plays the clown gets to play with the audience. Often the clown character is cut because people don't see the value of the clown, but I love it, it is a fun character to interject and comment on the play. It gives the audience an ally.

So in other words I'm learning a ton everyday. Next week we will begin working on Merry Wives of Windsor and then Henry IV Part I and I cannot wait for both of those plays because they will teach me so much.

- Lauren Dentler

Actor's Gym Day 8

Hey y'all,

So today was super exciting. Mainly because I got to cross something off of my bucket list that I have wanted to do for a while. The great thing about the Actor's Gym is that I am doing things that I have always wanted to do, and I am building up the courage to do the things that I may have been afraid of otherwise. I am really happy that I chose to do this.

Today we did our regular warm-up like we always do in the Circus class. These warm-ups seem to be getting easier. I know the difficulty isn't really changing, but maybe I'm just getting in better shape. Who's to say? We did a nice little game of handstand survivor. It is basically who can hold a handstand the longest. I was pretty proud of myself. I won one round. I don't know why, but I was feeling super competitive during this. I was a little disappointed today though. We didn't do any of the acrobatic stuff that we have done before. Mainly just because of time. I'll just have to hope for next week.

We did Lyra again today for our aerial skill. We elaborated on some of the stuff that we learned yesterday, and learned some new stuff as well. We did another double routine. This one wasn't any more difficult than yesterdays. It wasn't easier either. I went with Kathleen for this. It is just awkward trying to maneuver around on the Lyra anyway. Let alone having another person on there. We did learn some pretty scary and also very painful tricks. Some where you are hanging from the very top of the hoop and whatnot.

Anyway. So the thing I crossed off my bucket list that I have always wanted to learn was tightrope, or tightwire as they call it. I don't know why, but I have always wanted to learn this. I wished I was better at it, but just like unicycling it got easier the more we did it. It still needs work, but I am glad I got a start on it. It looks like a pain to set up, so I don't know how easy it would be to set it up for an open gym.

Later,

-Chris

Actor's Gym Day 7

Hey everyone.

Today at the actors gym was a tough one. After coming back from a nice little break, by that meaning spending the weekend in Ames, it was good to come back and get back into the swing of things. The break was much needed though. I was getting tired. Coming back though this class was a hard one.

Today we started on Lyra, or Aerial Hoop as it is sometimes called. Right off the bat our instructor told us how this one was going to be hard. It wasn't as difficult strength wise as it was more uncomfortable. There isn't a very comfortable way to do any of the moves. It is essentially a big metal hoop hanging from the ceiling. Surprisingly uncomfortable. Even though trapeze is the same material it is a lot easier.

The tricks on Lyra look very beautiful though. They are just very hard. One thing that we got to do though was a double routine. That being 2 people on a Lyra at the same time. I went with Elizabeth. It was a lot of fun. It is strange having to maneuver around the hoop and another person. This would be something I would want to work on again. Maybe at open gym if Elizabeth is up for it. The tricks in the double routine look so cool. Especially when the hoop starts inadvertently spinning.

I am assuming we will have more of this tomorrow. We usually do, but I am looking forward to the other things we will learn in circus like the acrobatic stuff tomorrow and other circus things. Until then I am going to be sweating my butt off here because there is no AC in this apartment.

Salutations,

-Chris 

Legally Blonde Day 1 & 2

Hey everyone!
So this summer I'm running wardrobe at the Des Moines Playhouse for their show Legally Blonde the Musical. We started at five Sunday night with our first run through with everything minus the orchestra. My job for this show is to mainly dress Elle since she has about 8 costume changes, most of which happen in Act 1. The first run through hit a couple snags, including the hardest ones of Elle changing into and out of her bunny costume. This requires the other dresser and I to help her completely strip down and fasten a corset on her, thank God its just a zipper and a hook, and throw bunny ears over her wig. Taking it off is just as much of a hassle. Since, to the audience, she is changing in her closet, the change has to be made on stage yet hidden from the audience since she does go topless for a millisecond while we take the corset off and bra back on. The first night didn't go so well since there was no scenery for her to hide behind and lots of people would be able to see her and us dressers very visibly which just ruins the theatre magic. The second night we rotated one of the scenery pieces so that we wouldn't be seen and it went a lot smoother than the night before.
I think that's all I've got to say for now. Toodles!

DAI Week Two Part One

All of day six was spent with Ronlin. We discussed the four elements of water, fire, earth, and air then split into groups to become the elements and to become things in the element. We explored earth more in the afternoon through becoming trees and digging through clay. Ronlin talked about the four different movements that correspond to the stages of life. The movements are reaching out, pulling in, holding, and release or sublimation. We also talked about the different intellectual, emotional, and physical parts of the anatomy. We were given the group assignment to create an event physically. I met with my group for drinks to talk about the event. We decided on something to do with the river and walked down to explore our options.

We met with Joe for Daily Practice again Tuesday morning. We did some quick stretching and rolling then had a handstand workshop. I can almost do one free of support from the wall. We worked with Ronlin in the morning. We worked with elements again then with props. We got another group assignment to bring these large stick and paper mache objects to life. We spent the afternoon with Joan working to move the pelvis over the feet. We worked with partners holding ropes around our waists and then along with balancing things on our heads to find resistance and balance. We then worked with full body bags made of stretchy material in the watershed. We talked about these bags as masks and becoming creatures and how they breath, move, and perceive the world. Ronlin revised our group assignments to choose among the three options of the event, the large objects, or the bags. I will stay with the event and add on the bags.

We had another film colloquium Tuesday night. This one was Rhythms of Earth from a study conducted by Alan Lomax for the Smithsonian on the different dance styles of the world. The study was in choreometrics, a field of ethnography, to build a global jukebox of dance. Different parts of the film discussed 1, 2, and 3 dimensional movement, styles of stepping, and how different cultures use the hand and palm in dance.

Day eight started again with Daily Practice with Joe. we did our walking sequence, rolling, stretching, and a handstand workout. We had Joan for the morning and worked more with the bags, observing each other's creatures. We had Stephanie in the afternoon. We worked in 5 levels of energy then individual work with masks Stephanie brought in, building characters on the spot. I met with the bag group and split into 3 small groups of 3. I also met with the event group and we worked out a basic structure for the piece.

More on week 2 later,
Brandon Brockshus

We're getting closer...Annie

     Hey everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend! Due to the 4th of July, we got the whole weekend off, including today. I will be on vacation this week and therefore will obviously not be at rehearsals. But, considering it is a week and a half until show time, I do know what will all be worked on this week.

     Tomorrow, the cast will just be line bashing. It's the adults that have been having problems with their lines so I think this is much needed. Having started working more with the adults lately, I've noticed they don't take this near as seriously as the kids do. I understand that they obviously have a life outside the youth theatre but it's frustrating as part of the show to see people not put in the bare minimum of effort expected just to get lines down. It definitely made me identify with the directors and even any teachers at ISU that get frustrated when it' apparent we haven't done the work needed. I want this show to be successful, and I know it will be. It's just hard to watch carelessness.

     On Tuesday and Thursday, we will be doing a full run through of the show. It's important to hit the trouble spots head on and hard now that we are so close to presenting this to the public. I think one of the biggest problems people are having is the fact that they don't have enough confidence in themselves for the part their playing and thinking they've bit off more than they can chew. For example, I've been working with Von who plays Warbucks and it's apparent he is having trouble with lines. His singing is spot on, and he's constantly going over his lines backstage. He's just having trouble memorizing lines. It's hard watching him struggle, but his improvement throughout this process has been quite significant. It's obvious he cares about doing well.

I'm just very excited to get back next week and see the progress. I can't believe how fast this has all gone. I will blog all about what I saw next week and hopefully I will be able to report some great improvements!

Until then!
Aly

American Shakespeare Center 2

It has been an amazing first week in Staunton!!!!! We have been so busy working on Othello everyday. This week has been focused on getting through the play and understanding Shakespeare rhetoric and how they influence the characters and the meaning of the play. I talked a bit about the process in the earlier post I made but now that we have finished up the first part of table work I would love to talk about it a little bit more. 

Shakespeare's rhetoric is so important to performing the play to its absolute potential, the American Shakespeare Center is a strong supporters of not imposing our own ideas on the play. Shakespeare used the words he did for a reason and we as actors, directors, and designers should not discount those words to create our own understanding of what we think is the "right" way to do Shakespeare. Shakespeare is well known in the theatre and literary worlds as being a wordsmith for a reason because the way he uses language is genius. Yes there are certain aspects of Shakespeare's work that does not fit or go together at points but we're all human. It's amazing to watch the director and the actors work because they have an exercise in which they paraphrase Shakespeare's words in order to get the nuance of exactly what he means. As a group they delve into exactly what he was trying to say about a person depending on the way he stated something or the word he used. There are many different interpretations of Shakespeare's work but this rhetorical analysis is what makes ASC so impressive because they know what they are saying, and they know how to emphasize and make their motives clear. 

I had some interesting theatre-going experiences this week as well. On Thursday night I celebrated the fourth of july by going to see a play at ASC called Return of the Forbidden Planet. If you haven't seen it yet I totally suggest you do. It is based on The Tempest but references every well -known Shakespeare play in a wonderful and genius way. Oh, did I mention it's also a rock musical??? And yes it is set in outer space, and yes there are great songs in it. If you've never seen it or read it you should there are many many great surprises that make the whole experience so much fun!!! 

Another play I went to see at ASC was Romeo and Juliet.  Romeo and Juliet was one of the best versions I have ever seen of the show it told the story beautifully. It didn't focus on condemning the youthfulness, nor did it condemn the adults. It showed how tragic society and hatred is. It was also funny. Romeo and Juliet is really funny play up until the last hour. There are so many productions that have missed the humor because a lot of people don't see that there can be humor in a tragedy but that is what makes the tragedy in Romeo and Juliet so jarring. These were two young teenagers who were laughing and having fun but it gets taken away so quickly. It was a beautifully done story and an impressive cast of actors. 

So that was my week, as you can see I've been really busy with my work and seeing shows, but it's the greatest work I could ever be doing. I love it here!! I've even started talking to some people about grad school that they went to trying to find one that might be right for me for acting. I can't wait to see where the next five weeks goes. This next week we will be working with the show and playing with it a little, I'm also planning on going to see the Shakespeare camps productions tomorrow as well as All's Well That End's Well sometime in the next couple weeks. It is pretty amazing here and I love this company. 

- Lauren Dentler

Pippin - Final 2 Weekends

     This past week we finally closed Pippin. As it is with most shows, each weekend grew progressively better.
     2nd Weekend: Friday had very few mistakes, and coupled with high energy from the cast and the audience, the show went exceedingly well.
     Saturday: Again a strong energy from the audience, and we all started to have a lot more fun going through the show. A minor goof occurred during Act II - the broken recorder Pippin tosses aside landed too close to the curtain, and during my sex duet, I fell down on it and shattered it - it was kind of funny, even though it hurt for a moment.
     Sunday was a different story. I don't know if it was the audience or the cast, but I felt absolutely no energy throughout the show - it felt dead. It made it harder to go through the show without that energy to feed off of, but we did our best.
     Final weekend: For Friday, I started off the show with a rather glaring mistake - I didn't properly prep the Pippin  banner for the beginning, and so we unveiled it backwards during the show - we quickly fixed it as the show went on, but it was just embarrassing for me - we quickly found humor in my mistake as the weekend went on. I also forgot my cue to move the pillar before the frolicking scene (because I was distracted), creating another unnecessary mistake. Luckily, I didn't make any more throughout the weekend. The plus from Friday night was that I realized I was getting a LOT faster in my costume changes, especially considering my primary costume consists of a corset.
     Saturday, I extra prepared to make sure I wouldnt make any more mistakes; as for the show itself, it felt like the energy came in waves - sometimes it felt strong, other times it felt dead; it kind of made going through the show a little harder. My energy was high at the start (thanks to the fact of having family in the audience), but again by the end it felt dead - even the frolicking scene was harder with such little reaction from the audience.
    Sunday, the final show, was definitely the best one. Both the cast and the audience and excellent energy - I know the cast put it all out there, ending the run with a bang. For me, the sex dances were the best ones yet, thanks to the audience energy - they really enjoyed them (especially the duet). Following the show, strike took a surprisingly short time, thanks to so many people working together. I am very glad that the show ended on a high note - it made this internship end on a positive note.

Actor's Gym Day 6

Hey y'all

Today at the actors gym we got to experience a bunch of different things, and expanded on things that we have worked on before. We did our regular warm ups like we do before every class. Sylvia our instructor keeps adding some things to push us more and more. I am still working on the things from beforehand, but my natural sense of competition doesn't want to fall behind. It is coming easier though.

After all of our warmups we started working on our cartwheels and such. I think I really did something weird to my hip in open gym last week trying to work on an aerial, or a no handed cartwheel. For some reason some things just start to hurt. But it's manageable, and a couple days off will be good for it. We started working on front handsprings. I used to do these as a kid, and I was impressed with myself that I still had it, and Sylvia was impressed too. That was a little comforting to know I can still do that.

After all of that we split up into our 2 groups. I was with the group that started on Silk Knot again. I am still sore from Silk Knot yesterday. We didn't really do anything different, just a different way of rolling up. This one was harder, and a lot more painful. We also did the painful way of doing a roll down. Painful for guys anyway.

After that we went over and started something I have wanted to learn for a while now. Unicycling. It was hard. Like learning how to ride a bike again. I want to continue to work on unicycling and get better at it. I don't know if I'll invest in a unicycle, but I may consider it.

-Chris

Actor's Gym - Aerial Day 3

Oh my goodness.  We started silk knot today.

Ever since seeing the production of The Magnificents at the House Theatre during my first Chicago trip last winter, I have been dying to learn how to do silks.  The routine was so exciting for me I forgot to breathe.  Now the fact that I can say that I know how to do it makes me want to jump up and down like a kindergartner.  Chris was making fun of my excited face when I was watching the instructor show us how to start.

A basic silks routine has two silks hanging side by side from the ceiling.  Silk Knot is where you tie a knot at the bottom of the silks so they stay together.  This is what silk knot looks like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugO2W4wvPFM

It's been interesting to look at Chris' strengths and weaknesses and compare them to my own.  Chris' upper body strength gives him an upper hand and things like trapeze and backwards rolls, where my dance background makes silks and Spanish Web much easier.  Oddly enough, it seems like Chris' happens to be more interested in things like trapeze and tumbling and I in Web and silks, even before we started taking classes.  Lucky for us, I guess.  We're both having so much fun.

Here is Chris doing silk knot today in class.  Couldn't get a good video of me today, but I should have one in a couple of weeks.  This shows most of the moves we learned in class today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnw8ILa572w&feature=share

In other news, I saw my second production at the House Theatre this weekend.  Death and Harry Houdini, a magic show and a play combined, just like The Magnificents.  Their aren't words that can fully describe my experience watching the show, but to keep it short and sweet, I was blown away.  For the longest time, I haven't been sure about where I belong in the theatre world, and that scares me, but I have never been happier watching a play than during those two shows at the House.  The Magnificents was a play with magic and circus arts and Houdini was a play with music and dancing and singing and magic and circus arts.  I want to do theatre like this.  I am so glad I decided to take classes at the Actor's Gymnasium because now I at least know that I'm headed in the right direction.

Actor's Gym Day 5

Hey y'all

Want to hear about what I did today? Okay. Today we began to work on silks. Silks are the large pieces of fabric that hang from the ceiling and you do tricks on them. I'm sure you all know what I am talking about. Anyway walking into class today there were about 6 silks attached to the ceiling. All of them had large knots in the bottom. We were doing a specific kind of silks work today called the Silk Knot. This has been by far the hardest thing for me. I am not very flexible so some of the positions we have to hold just don't sit quite right. Also there are a lot of things in this that are very uncomfortable for the male species, but the assistant Amy taught me a couple alternate ways to do some moves so it wouldn't hurt as bad. Thank god for that. Elizabeth said that this came rather easy to her where I struggled pretty good with it for a while. It still needs some work, but I started getting the hag of it by the end. I have a video that I will post a link to if you want to see what it was that we did today. Tomorrow we have our circus class, and I am sure we will be doing more of this. I love these classes, but I am worn out today...

Here's the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnw8ILa572w&list=HL1372820937&feature=mh_lolz

Goodnight everyone.

-Chris

American Shakespeare Center Blog Post 1

My first few days at ASC have been extremely informative. Monday was my first day and it consisted of meeting the touring company, and members of the costume, business, administration, education and a couple members from the residential troupe. I met so many people at the meet and greet and it was wonderful to see a group of people who came out to support each other so fully. Later that morning I went on a tour of the theatre and got to learn about what drove the members of ASC to start their company and build the Blackfriars theatre. The Blackfriar is the only replica of the original Blackfriars theatre that no longer exists in London. It was a theatre used by Shakespeare’s company also known as The King’s Men during their time at the Blackfriar. The theatre originally existed in a monastery in London but had to be disguised as a rehearsal room for a boy’s choir because the neighbors were worried about the trumpets being too loud. (A genuine complaint during that time period) During the tour I got to stand on the stage and it was an amazing feeling. At ASC they believe in preserving the conditions in which Shakespeare’s theatre was performed this means staying true to the text Shakespeare provided. Shakespeare was often influenced by the performance spaces his actors were in. At ASC they seek to preserve the space that the actors used and the lighting under which they get to perform. A phrase I have often heard is that they “do it with the lights on” they perform in full light there are no blackouts, no scene change lighting. They use the cleverness of Shakespeare’s words to create a magic in the space.

            The afternoon that followed was a very exciting one because I learned about something I had never experienced before. Throughout the day the cast of Othello had been working on a renaissance run (or ren run for short) which means that they all learned their lines beforehand and did the work necessary to come into rehearsal prepared to work through the show as a group and then present it to the director the next day. The actors that were not veterans had only just met the previous night and so they did not know anyone when they walked through the door that morning. It was pretty amazing to watch them work. My job was to sit back and observe which I personally felt was a great learning experience in and of itself. All I really wanted to do was hop up and do the entire play with them. They worked through  each scene and never did a complete run through until this morning where they performed it for their director and a small audience in the rehearsal space.

            After the ren run we sat down at a table to start tablework. Tablework consisted of going through each scene and making changes to different areas focusing on the text. They went through and paraphrased the scenes, stood up and read the scenes in exact verse, and then worked through the scene to discover things they had not noticed before. In these rehearsals it will be a much slower process to achieve the full show because it’s a way for both the director and the actors to go through the play and really understand what Shakespeare is trying to say.

            Being here is already an amazing experience. I have loved Shakespeare’s work since I was about nine or ten and I’m currently working through different scenes in Shakespeare’s Anthology to practice some of the methods I previously talked about. The work this company is doing is quite impressive and I am so happy to be apart of it. 

- Lauren Olivia Dentler