The last week: reflection on a mini-adventure

Here it is: the Sunday before the last week of my time here at summer stock. I think I've done alright. I am happy with what I've gleaned from these weeks here. I've decided I should write down all the things I've learned so I don't just go back and do things wrong or change the things I've been doing right for the next time around.

Positive Attitude. 
Simple and something I've heard over and over again growing up, but man oh days is it effective.  I was so much happier and efficient at work (i.e. rehearsals) when I jumped into with no scoffs or rolling of the eyes (yes mom, rolling of the eyes).

Love of all.
Similar to having a positive attitude: having a positive outlook on the people you work with.  Every person I worked with this summer was great. But there were some who did not see the good in a lot of them, or they just chose to look past it at all the faults.   How can I work alongside you if A. I think you're stupid, or B. I know that you think I'M stupid? Best to just chose to not see the worst in everyone, even if they never did get their lines right.

You can't please everyone.
But you can sure try.

Apply, Apply, Apply.
This is the reason you spent $80,000 on your education.  Unless spending that much money you don't have gives you joy.  I found most of the things I did instinctively were the things I learned in High School from Talashia K-Yoder.  The college stuff I had to purposefully apply.  This also is closely related to Know your old habits and Constantly reevaluate your art. 

Give.
No matter how hard I was working at my own character, or lines, or projection, I had to give to the others on stage.  This company also liked the actor to give to the audience by turning out and speaking very clearly: a good tool to helping the audience understand, but not nearly as effective as fully committing yourself to everyone in the room. If I wanted to really know what my fellow actor was saying, the audience would be right there listening intently as well.

Time: an inexplicable concept

Well, here I am again scolding myself for not writing enough.

The opening of the last show of the season was this past weekend. It was a good weekend for me-I really enjoy the show, I was pleasantly surprised by a number of my friends and family who came, and I am beginning to realize my time here is dwindling.

With the show opened and the fact that I'm only called in during the day once or twice a week, it gives me much time to do...whatever.  Yesterday a few of us went downtown Indy and wandered around, shopped, ate, and watched the new Batman movie.  It was a great escape from itty bitty Frankfort and I realized that I missed being in a big city.  Along with escapades and vacation days, I'm starting to look ahead to the future more and what I need to accomplish.  Goshen College's fall mainstage is Urinetown and I'll be doing my Senior project with that show.  So I'm doing a lot of the production work in these weeks leading to auditions for that (it still seems like ages away). I am looking for jobs that pay me as well.  January still looks scary as I  currently have no assigned job yet, but I have options, and I have ideas, which is a better place than I was in earlier this summer.

So here I am: scrambling to get a whole bunch of things done in time for fall, but still wanting to soak it all in.

keep on movin'

Well, here we are, toward the end of the 44th season at Red Barn Theater.  After opening 'Perfect Wedding' We jumped right into rehearsals for 'Putnam Spelling Bee'.  What a joy it was to be done with those rehearsals for that CRAZY show.  Its fun now with an audience and we've had some great audiences this first weekend.  Adding about 15 minutes to the show holding for laughs was quite a surprise for me.  But the laughter is so invigorating and boosting.  The audiences have been right with us every night, ooooing and gasping and shouting out 'its her! its her!' or 'I love that girl'.  I should keep a list of asides we've heard the audience say from our vantage point on the stage.  So I'll admit it, its quite confidence boosting to have a crowd of people laugh at you and your work every night.  Reaction is what I love about theater.

And I'm loving rehearsals for the musical!  The director is very different from the last one I've had this summer, as he is much more hands on and vocal about what he wants.  I'm thinking this is largely in part to his job: the local high school theater director. Yes, the stress level is uber high and the voice has given out a few nights now, but I am invigorated by a great story and a great comrade to ride this last show through: my character, Leaf Coneybear.

Its a part I didn't know I wanted until he said the words 'Jay as Leaf' and then I think I'm falling in love.  Favorite character in a show thus far? Maybe so.

I have to admit though, it is still quite difficult.  One of the latest remarks the director gave me about character is that I (Jay) have a lot of confidence.  Leaf should have none.  So I need to back off a bit. So this weekend I've been mulling over how best to have no confidence but still have presence on stage without being campy and overacting.  Tips?

Life is good.  I'm working hard and enjoying most moments here in Frankfort.  I especially love it when people I know and love come out to visit/see a show (Doug and Mary, parents, Grandparents, Emily; it was good seeing all of you this weekend!).  Now I'm off to memorize and review!

keep on truckin'

Here it is, the morning after the opening of our third show of the summer, 'Perfect Wedding'.  I have had little time the past few weeks to do anything but rehearse and memorize for this show, so I have had little time to read, and do other things that I enjoy doing.

That comes with the territory though I suppose.

I am in the midst of a terrible cold that has plagued me for the past week or two, and that has hindered my work quite greatly no matter how much I try to overcome it.  Energy is low, projection is difficult, and it leaves me making frequent trips to the tissue box.  But I can feel my body fighting it off, and the past few days I can tell I'm getting better.

But enough of that.

It seems like just yesterday when I got the script for the show we opened last night.  I have discovered that the nightmares I have had in the past where I get the script for a show I have to do hours before it opens are almost truth in Summer Stock Theater.  8 days of rehearsal tends to have nightmare-ish qualities.   But it is so refreshing to be able to present a hilarious show and get a big standing ovation at the end of all of it.

And then we start it all over again today with rehearsals for the musical.

I love my job.

WHOA time flies

I think I realized this before, but this summer is going quick-like!

My last post was so long ago I haven't even talked about the second show of the season.  After 'Fox on the Fairway' opened, we immediately started on rehearsals for 'Rabbit Hole'. I was on crew for that so I had no memorizing and no stage rehearsals, just building set.  After the first show closed, we quickly tore down the old and set up the new, focused lights, held a few tech rehearsals, and jumped into opening night (2 days ago?).

Yesterday we started rehearsals for our 3rd show, 'Perfect Wedding'.  I have a rather large part, which is exciting, but requires much memorizing.  So that is my weekend. Sitting in my apartment, slogging through it page after page.

This character and script is MUCH more approachable for me than the last.  I also have experienced this director before - so I have a feel for his style- which saves a lot of time figuring out what a director ultimately expects. Its going to be a great experience: I have a good part, my friends are in the show with me (the other guy is my roommate and fun to be around), and I'm ready to get back on stage again!

insatiable curiosity

This week has gone by quick-quick.

After (most) of the cast memorized the show for Monday (4 days after we got the script), we jumped into running and perfecting it.  This week has been a huge week of ultimatums.  We have ranged from full runs to scene hash outs, too slow to too fast, not enough to too much.  But here we are at the end of the week-with 3 more rehearsals left till opening; and I feel as if we're in a good place.  As I reflect back on how I was feeling a week ago today, I am grateful for the progress I've personally made (its been a week of first timers: 2  week rehearsal period, playing in a farce, playing this type of character, living in a new city). Good grief, how in the world did I get through it all?

I think it was curiosity.

I just realized this today actually, after I spent some of my morning at the local farmers' market (3 stands on one block - Goshen, be grateful for what you have) and got to know some of the vendors there. I want to know how, why, when, where, who - its a time of 'sponging' for me both in my work and 'play'.  THIS is the performer's job: curiosity.

Anna D Smith calls it 'insatiable curiosity' in the 'Reaching Out' section of "Letters to a Young Artist" (p 81). She acknowledges that artists don't necessarily have to experience the whole ranges of emotions to convey them in their art - they just need to communicate them as if those feelings were their own.  Smith says it "is a process of reaching out from.  That is different from avoidance and denial, it is reaching out from your pain, to see and understand the pain of others" (p 81-82).

So my requirement as an artist is to soak, to exude curiosity, to converse with farmers at the market, to observe strangely dressed golfers, to seek the truth in my character no matter how awful he is.

That's why I love my work.  I get paid for my curiosity.

untitled

The following is the section called 'Rent' in A.D. Smith's "letters to a young artist":

"As an actress I feel that my identity is up for rent.  Not for sale.  But for rent."
p 54

I think about this a lot. But it is always comforting to end up at the line, "Not for sale." Even though I am giving all of myself to learn and create a whole new entity of myself on stage, it is not a permanent sell.

But what should I put up for 'sale'?  I am running into communications, experiences, stories, bits of wisdom and education that has potential to be temporary: for rent.  Where and when can I switch the sign?

I must dwell with this one some more. Advice?

Procrastination ya'll

And we're off!

Yesterday was our first read through of the first show of the season: "The Fox on the Fairway" written by Ken Ludwig. Its quite the fantastical farce.  I was thrown a role that I was not expecting to receive: Dickie Bell, an unpleasant 40-something full of bonhomie (what does this word mean?), owner of The Crouching Squirrel Golf Club, pompous, loud, preppy.... the list goes on. Not only does approaching this character leave me a little weak-kneed, but the shear mention of 'farce' sends me through the roof. YIKES.  It'll happen though: aren't we all loud, pompous and a little farcical at times?

But, today's LYA (letters to a young artist-Anna d. Smith) section is from her comments on procrastination.  The reason being?  Line memorization. Smith says many good things (like always) in this section but a few stood out to me:

"The main fuel for procrastination is thought" (43).  Sometimes we focus too much on HOW MANY things must get done rather than JUST DOING IT. So, to refute that tendency is to just do what needs to be done. Duh. Too bad we're blessed with a mind that thinks.

Smith uses the phrase 'active avoidance' a lot in this section. What am I actively avoiding in my life? Sure, the occasional dish in the sink, line to be memorized, and note to write, but really; what am I running away constantly from?  Not that this is a bad thing - I run away from bees quite often, and avoiding spam emails is a daily marathon - but I guess it could be as it takes up time from the things I want to be running toward.

Back to memorizing. Or maybe I'll go run. Active avoidance.

'Everything OK!'

Arrival at last!

Upon settling in yesterday evening I rode around checking out all that this tiny town has to offer.  How much you ask? nm. It seems to be very reminiscent of Goshen, only a bit smaller. I feel quite at home here, having gotten lost once on my ride and again this morning on my run.  I think that should be enough wandering for the rest of the summer.  My hub-points are as follows: home, Main Street Market (a member as of this morning; yay discounts!), library, theater. I would like to add one more but have not been inside yet:  a Chinese/Mongolian grill restaurant named 'Everything OK!' right outside our apartment door.  Come on down to Frankfort and you can try it out with me!

Official 'work' starts tonight.  I'm excited to know where all this is headed, as I know the past 24 hours have been filled with a lot of 'acquainting'- people and places.  The company that lives here in the apartments total 7. I think.  Right now there are a total of 2 guys and 2 girls.  I think the rest are coming later this week.

I decided to parallel these posts with a book I'm reading:  letters to a young artist by Anna D. Smith.  If you have it, I suggest you read each section with these blogs I will be periodically posting.  I'm going to start it off with the section entitled 'Exchanges' (p 43-46). Smith tells the story of her relationship with a boxer.  They open up to each other and find the other's art in a way they had not experienced before.  She ends the passage saying, "I think that tapping into the sheer joy of whatever it is that you do..., the sheer joy is what liberates us, opens the senses, the heart, the arteries, so that we feel that strong will to communicate that is greater than any chains we may have" (46).

God, let my joy flow with ease so that my communication both on stage and off is golden.