Acting in Atlanta
Adult Acting tought by Chris Cole Harris
The final night of my 2nd class. As ever I enjoyed it and suspect I will go into withdrawals. Next class is in September. That is an awful long time away.
Chris encouraged me to look into commercials because I look like “every man”. I suppose I am rather generic. She did encourage everyone to start auditioning and often. Well good luck everyone. See you next time. I am going to audition for The Invisible Man at Kudzu Playhouse in August.
As we saw last Monday in Wandering, we had to figure out the who, what, where, when, why and “How does that make you feel?” Tonight we continued with that in setting up a “back life” for the character. We were asked to bring in photos of people, maybe from our childhood. The exercise was to pass around an interesting photo and tell a story of who, what, where, when, why and “How does that make you feel?” Each aspect of my story is based on “my point of view”. In character development you take that information, put yourself into the story and most importantly Own it!
Also I was paired up with Ryan to do a scene from Born on the Fourth of July. In this scene I played Timmy, a childhood friend who also served in Vietnam and was wounded. In this scene Ron Kovic and Timmy discus baseball and all their friends on the team and how they died. We will work on this for the next few weeks.
Tonight in class we did a Wandering scene. The scene provides very little information about what is really going on. This is where the who, what, where, when, why and “How does that make you feel?” come into play. We were paired off and had to run through these questions to determine what was going on for us. We first did the scene using only the script, then with the next go round, we could improve as long as we stated with our lines first.
Also, we learned that the words themselves are just a technicality. The emotion put into the words will give them meaning and physicality.
Wandering
A: Hello.
B: Where have you been?
A: Wandering.
B: Wandering?
A: Yeah, wandering around.
B: You pick the strangest times?
A: Look. I’ve got to get to bed.
B: I care about what’s happening to you.
A: It’s my problem.
B: Let me in.
A: No.
B: Please.
A: I’m scared.
B: So am I.
Today is the first day of a new class. My second with Chris Harris. I am excited to be in class again. It is amazingly fun beyond my expectations.
In class we discussed creating background for monologues. Who, what, where, when, why, and for all those apply “How does that make you feel?” “Who” can also have many other questions: “Who am I”? “Who am I talking to”? “Who am I talking about”? Monologues are statements to somebody, or an answer to a question, or simply a running conversation with yourself. The majority of the questions above apply in all situations, monologues, dialogues, other. So for example the monologue I did for class this night The Child by Anthony Giardina I needed to ask these questions:
Who am I? How does that make me feel?
Who am I talking to? How does that make me feel?
Who am I talking about? How does that make me feel?
What is the situation? How does that make me feel?
When am I? How does that make me feel?
Where am I? How does that make me feel?
Why am I saying/doing this? How does that make me feel?
Some of the answers are in the description (as seen below in the monologue). Others are answered in the monologues or dialogues themselves. Others you have to decide for yourself. But decide you must. It is important for character development.
Tammy’s birthday and I’m trying to get out of a job I do not enjoy. There is a part of True West where the character I play (Lee) is supposed to be frustrated. Well I can relate now. It’s been a week at this new job and I am trying to get out. Had an interview this morning and was in hopes that I could give notice today. I did not hear a thing. I left messages with the contracting firm and heard nothing. So I wait.
The part of Lee, the dialogue is near the beginning of Scene IV. He wants to get this thing done so he can get out and go! I so understand. We are studying Meisner and we are not supposed to pull from our experiences. I suppose the point is to remain in control despite outward appearance/emotions. (Not really the point, but I know better now.) And of course I have not memorized my lines yet. No excuse really, I just haven?t
Chris, last week mentioned having 4 or 5 monologues memorized/ready, so I suppose I need to choose a few. There is one I like from the original BBC version of Coupling. Steve rants over pornography.