Dear Dried Up Husk of a Blog,
I am sorry I abandoned you.
There are no readers, save the desperate ones that check every day to see if anything new has happened. I fear they too, have gone. Oh well. Que sera sera. We knew it would never last.
HOWEVER
My acting and tech journals are still part of my grades for their respective classes. I plan to shoot the bull for the days weeks I've missed and continue on.
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Acting Journal
3/4/11
Ivan went to opposite Canada for the week. He left us Robbie, who I'm not sure if he is a grad student or what. Anyway, we played some fun yet difficult games/warm ups that didn't totally end in disaster. We focused a lot on the rhythm of our radio pieces and I discovered mine to be much more different than I thought it was. It really has no rhythm. My partner sets up certain things and I totally destroy it. Perhaps that was the rhythm. Also, it was interesting to just get another viewpoint on acting. With Harris we never got an additional voice to teach us.
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Acting Journal
3/7/11
We had our short monday class today so we didn't do a whole lot. I love the game wink murder but I hate when Ivan gets involved. Moreover, I also in addition to enjoyed the jaw exercises as well also because.
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Tech Journals from 2/21/11 to 3/4/11
I have no recollection of these events as Iphigenia was happening and it absorbed my brain and soul. I think I remember something about building a floor unit? Something? Huh?
In terms of one's life, there are many priorities one has.
Food.
Shelter.
Being on time for run crew.
Unfortunately, a blog is simply not high on the list, though it does beat doing homework by a fair margin. I apologize for my absence and it will never happen again.
I've been called to the wonderous task of being on run crew for Iphegenia 2.0. Pronounced "effin vagina." It's about a bitch and the story that leads up to said bitch's demise.
[This bitch.]
For those unfamiliar with run crew, we are the ninja masters that make the back/fore/mid stage things happen. You were unaware how the wall mysteriously moved, but it did. And there was a person dressed in black doing it.
When you are on run crew:
the actors are stupid
the stage manager is stupid
the director is stupid
but you must internalize these feelings and be subservient to all because that is what God made you for and you will do it.
Of course, none of those aforementioned persons are stupid in reality, (quite the opposite) but when no one communicates and things don't get done it leads one to suspect. It's just frustrating.
Today, specifically, was terrible because it is the first day of what I hope is a two day AT MAX cold. I skipped class to try and regain some health points. Wouldn't you know I was fresh out of potions.
[I blame you]
Hallucinating is almost never fun, but doing it while operating machinery takes the ca--- no. we don't talk about the "C" word.
There's a ..ugh.. cake with about a 4 inch diameter that gets thrown apart by the actors and tossed about the stage. I never knew such a cake could cause such problems in my life. It simply doesn't mop up but we have to stay until the stage is no longer sticky. Literally every prop used in the scene has 10,000 crevices into which cake ahderes. Every night it's like the bouquet of flowers went swimming in icing.
It seems every day I do something worthy of humiliation.
There's a big, camo covered wall about 30 feet long and a foot wide that needs to move from scene to scene. It's on a track and I operate it. For reasons unknown, it has been named Hagrid and he is one temperamental son of a witch. I constantly need to adjust the speed and sometimes-
sometimes he just decides to go on break and not move.
STORY TIME
Yesterday, I arrived for our 12 hour rehearsal fresh faced and not knowing anything about the show. For some of my responsibilities, I was given Hagrid to operate. I knew not of his dark side.
Somehow fog machines came up in conversation and the person who is supposed to operate things like that said, "Oh f*ck fog machines," in a tone which suggested we weren't using one.
About midway throught the show, Hagrid simultaneously stopped responding to remote commands and smoke was everywhere. I relayed the info over headset and the run was stopped in a panic to investigate.
I'm gonna M. Night Shyamalan you here. It was the fog machine. What a twist!
There was your story. To bed with the youngins.
Today's moment happened with some united pre-show fail and people who have poor enunciation.
"Grant, there's a stippler...studio near you... stage left...move..."
"Uhh...what's a stippler?"
Nothing.
"Repeat, what's a stippler?"
Nothing.
"GRANT JUST GET THE STEPLADDER OF THE STAGE AND MOVE IT INTO THE STUDIO NOW"
"OH HELL I THOUGHT YOU SAID STIPPLER HONEST TO GOD"
so I creptily crept on to the stage and moved the damn thing...because it was exactly where the entire audience would see it if we had an audience. We talked about it later and apparently the silence was when the entire crew was laughing at me and had shut off their mics.
I anxiously wait for tomorrow's shennanigans.
[I am literally this excited for it]
Acting Journal
2/14/11
I was kind of out of it today. I forgot entirely how to get ready for school. It was a hell of a monday.
The group of three girl went today, and I couldn't help but want to kill myself. Ivan didn't stop them nearly as many times as he stopped me and Fred. I was all excited to come to class and see everyone get corrected as much as I did...and it just didn't happen.
Later Ivan said something about how he appreciated how they took the lesson he gave to Fred and me and implemented it in their scene.
hooray, I guess.
I liked what he said about imagining a movie screen when I'm saying a line that involves remembering something. The key is to imagining the screen playing whatever happened that you 'remembered' and it reads well from the audience.
Not gonna lie, I'm going to be nursing some wounds today. Yup.
P.S. Would anyone like a V-Day playlist?
So much of my funny material comes from my everyday situations, To clarify, things as weird as my everyday situations happen to real people about once every two months. There are people I know that will never go through the equivalent craziness of one of my weeks.
I went back to my old high school to see the school play. I wound up with four tickets, so I ended up taking two of my buds from high school. After contemplating and eventually rejecting helping with strike, we were on the road and decided to be white trash.
[Classy]
If I ever need anything ever again you may find me in Walmart's clearance section. It's a condensed Walmart that's even cheaper. I realize everything is there for a reason, and it's not trustworthy, but God help me if I didn't try and buy everything. Luckily my friends are trained for this sort of thing, and emergency procedures were implemented. I escaped Walmart's clutches with only a bar of Dove soap, (for men!) play dough, and a bag of mini doughnuts. My friend bought some IBC root beer for us.
We cracked open the edibles (the donettes, root beer, and play dough) in the parking lot and we were just hanging out. This big, long, kind of aqua van pulls out from their parking spot. The van, driven by douches, loops around the aisle, comes back, and drives slowly by us, the driver glaring daggars.
They pulled around again, and we saw their back winshield. In the frost, someone had drawn a dick, and an "I <3" next to it. Naturally, we burst out laughing and did so for several minutes until they drove next to us again. Slower this time. This is the part of the movie where the three stupid college guys get canned, so we high tailed it out o' there. I swear to all business they chased us around the parking lot and down the street. To make sure, I lost them and drove around the city some before going right home. I didn't want them knowing where we all lived.
I mean, it would be fine if Mr. Creepster knew where the other two lived, but they were in my car, so....
Acting Journal
2/11/11
Oh f*ck I can't even move. This acting class ruined me emotionally. I've just learned so much, my body is rejecting it. I'm shaking.
Zeke had another seizure within the first 5 minutes of class. The paramedics came and took him away, and Layla had to leave because she was so shaken up. I still had to do my scene. I was ridiculously unnerved even before starting. All the exercises Ivan had us do to calm us down only made me more worried. The more time I had away from my script the more I freaked out. I was pitting out.
It was so hard to get in front of the class and do such an intense, aggressive, emotional scene. I didn't realize. I thought I had done classwork before but not like that. Being chastized and corrected, growing, learning, having a moment in front of my peers is the hardest thing I've ever had to do.
He got on me for not specifying my line:
"I've seen pretty girls ruined. Handsome guys, just like the greatest guys, destroyed. Sometimes I feel like I'm on a force march. We all started out together and then people started dropping"
I visualized who that pretty girl was, and how she was ruined. She must have been my friend or someone I thought had a bright future. I named her Jeanette. I did the same with the handsome guy. David. Going over that line with a clear intention of what I'm saying made all the difference. I could see it on my classmate's faces.
We performed when Fred throws me to the ground and gets on top of me and threatens to punch me in the face. Ivan taught us how to fall correctly. It's important to do physical things correctly. Doing 8 shows a week would really jusr destroy whatever part of your body you were incorrectly hitting the ground with.
There was a moment when Fred is all up in my business. He's like a foot taller than me and if he wanted to get aggresive he would absolutely take me down. I broke character because I needed a line, but right before that I guess I moved my foot back. It spoke volumes about my instincts and my tendency to flee difficult situations. Just little tiny changes in posture can ruin or make a scene.
The weight of everything pushed upon me today is just too much. I'm going to go in the bathroom and have a breakdown to let it all out.
Acting Journal
2/9/11
I guess today's big lesson was following impulses. It's really obvious to an audience if the actor has a gut reaction to something and suppresses it.
I really don't learn much from exercises that don't directly involve me. That sounds selfish, but I learn more when lessons can be specifically applied to me.
I have a few moments in my scene with Fred that require instinct and gut reaction, it'll be interesting to see how that all goes. I thought I had to be off book today. I didn't.
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Tech Journal
2/10/11
I didn't understand that we even had an assignment until Tuesday. It wasn't until yesterday that I specifically knew what it was, and even then my directions were only on a facebook message. So I got it all done from 3:30 to 5:30, when it was absolutely due. Then I couldn't find a rubber band. I have 10 million at home but not here. Amy and I finished the flat and joined it with Allie and Carl's.
