Feeling taxed today.
Last night, I fell asleep with droopy eyes over the loose pages of my script. I guess Dramatists (the publisher) could maybe consider using a printer with better binding glue because 1/3 of my pages have fallen out of my script...all the way up to page 27. It is a sign that I need to be working faster to get off book, I suppose. Regardless, it is a pain in the neck for me to try to keep up with all the pages much less have them in order... (Off book = memorized and not in need of dragging a script around the stage)
I awoke with half my head clogged and my lower back in the sort of pain that I only experienced in pregnancy. I presume this has to do with walking around in 2.5" heels for days as well as challenging myself with Blanchersizing. Regardless, it wasn't easy to physically accomplish the overloaded schedule I had for today...but I made it work. I finished it up with a 2.5 hour rehearsal in which we went over our blocking for the first half of the play.
Even though I am working so hard at memorizing, I felt like an idiot when I delivered any of my lines tonight (and there are plenty of them) because I wasn't focused on what I was saying more so than where I should be on the stage and how the heck I could get there with my back in this condition. I thought my voice sounded insincere and my body was far from Blanche moves--I'm wearing my granola-muncher Earth Shoes tonight to help my poor back & I know I seem so very short to everyone. It is done, now, though, and I can eventually hit the heating pad. I can take some solace in the fact this is volunteer work. However, paid or not, this phase can really "get" to an actor when in the memorization process. Sure, we are making discoveries as we learn out lines...discoveries regarding where our characters are really coming from and what kind of vocal and physical projection to make at any moment...but we are also ready to literally sling the script across the room because it sits there in our hands. It's the newly grown limb that we think we no longer need but can't quite let go of until we know our lines by heart.
So, anyway, in case you were curious: no. It is not all wine and roses. It is work. A labor of love...and we silently...sometimes vocally beat ourselves up for not knowing our lines. That was my tonight, and hopefully I will be better prepared for the second half of the play on Thursday.
And that's the truth.
Last night, I fell asleep with droopy eyes over the loose pages of my script. I guess Dramatists (the publisher) could maybe consider using a printer with better binding glue because 1/3 of my pages have fallen out of my script...all the way up to page 27. It is a sign that I need to be working faster to get off book, I suppose. Regardless, it is a pain in the neck for me to try to keep up with all the pages much less have them in order... (Off book = memorized and not in need of dragging a script around the stage)
I awoke with half my head clogged and my lower back in the sort of pain that I only experienced in pregnancy. I presume this has to do with walking around in 2.5" heels for days as well as challenging myself with Blanchersizing. Regardless, it wasn't easy to physically accomplish the overloaded schedule I had for today...but I made it work. I finished it up with a 2.5 hour rehearsal in which we went over our blocking for the first half of the play.
Even though I am working so hard at memorizing, I felt like an idiot when I delivered any of my lines tonight (and there are plenty of them) because I wasn't focused on what I was saying more so than where I should be on the stage and how the heck I could get there with my back in this condition. I thought my voice sounded insincere and my body was far from Blanche moves--I'm wearing my granola-muncher Earth Shoes tonight to help my poor back & I know I seem so very short to everyone. It is done, now, though, and I can eventually hit the heating pad. I can take some solace in the fact this is volunteer work. However, paid or not, this phase can really "get" to an actor when in the memorization process. Sure, we are making discoveries as we learn out lines...discoveries regarding where our characters are really coming from and what kind of vocal and physical projection to make at any moment...but we are also ready to literally sling the script across the room because it sits there in our hands. It's the newly grown limb that we think we no longer need but can't quite let go of until we know our lines by heart.
So, anyway, in case you were curious: no. It is not all wine and roses. It is work. A labor of love...and we silently...sometimes vocally beat ourselves up for not knowing our lines. That was my tonight, and hopefully I will be better prepared for the second half of the play on Thursday.
And that's the truth.
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