When You're Behind, You Catch Up

It's been a whirlwind around here this week, yet I feel as if it's gone in slow motion.

I worked on my memorization over the weekend, and I put together a 5 joke set for comedy class that I was extremely nervous about.

Tuesday's Comedy class went very well! Everyone's material was great and most of us had worked in a through line so the set was tied together. Professor L was impressed, and she told us our next assignment would be to personalize it. We needed to come into Thursday's class with a personal funny story. It could be a memory of an embarrassing moment, or just a comedic situation.

I was even more nervous about this assignment, and I had to get my best friend to remind me of all the funny moments in my life. I couldn't seem to remember any of them. I finally settled on the slightly less politically correct story of my fear of homeless people after a run in I had in Dallas with my friend Erik. Professor L wanted us to push out of the safe zone a little, and I felt like this story did that more than if I had talked about boys. I have so many great boy stories. Those will have to wait for another time.

Professor L really seemed to enjoy our personal stories. She laughed so hard she cried at some of them, and by the end of the class everyone felt much more comfortable about the idea of stand-up comedy, I think.

I'm definitely getting more excited about this class. I feel stronger knowing that I'm out of my comfort zone and that I'm still pushing myself to do my best. These are the kind of classes that teach the most, because they can teach me about myself, and they can teach me technique. I'll definitely be looking into some sort of comedy class when I'm in the professional world. Also, it feels great to not constantly be doing dramatic things!

Creating online media is going to be a really fun class, I can tell. I've seen examples of some of the students websites from the past, and they look great! They're fresh, clean, and professional. I can't wait to learn to code! We've been going over xhtml, and we're going to set up our websites next class. I was supposed to have class Thursday (yesterday), but it snowed 10 inches the night before and my teacher couldn't make it to school.

We really thought we might have a snow day, for once. It started snowing hard during the afternoon rehearsal on Wednesday, and so Director B canceled night rehearsal. She told us that if they canceled school that we would have to make up the rehearsal on Saturday. I'm really glad we had rehearsal last night instead, because now my weekend is free!

Rehearsal has been going great! We finished blocking Act 1 on Wednesday (after 3 days, love professional time), and we've moved onto blocking Act 2. We'll be off book Act 1 by Monday, and I'm already there! I'll be spending my weekend working more on character and interpretation. We're getting some of the main cast together this weekend so we can work together on our lines and interpretation. I'm really looking forward to that. This particular cast meshes really well together, and I think it might turn out to be my favorite experience yet at college.

Director B has been in great spirits, and has been very patient with correcting our dialects. The upper years have it in their bones more than the lower years, but even we mess it up sometimes. It's been a really fostering environment, and I've had a lovely time so far. The best rehearsals are the ones where you feel free enough to make choices (or mistakes as we call them most of the time). Director B has a very specific style, too. This is my third show working with her, and it was nice to come in knowing how she ran the show. She gives blocking the first week, and when you're blocking everything has to be done specifically as she's told you. Then once the cast is off-book, she allows you to make artistic decisions regarding your character. If you want to change a movement pattern, she'll let you decide what you like best. I enjoy her method, because it starts with structure, and then it allows you to grow into it.

The best thing about my college, I think, is having the opportunity to work with so many different directors. I've gotten to experience the way that many directors choose to work, and that is my preparation for the real world.

Speaking of the real world, the title of this blog post is referring to my growing worry that I'm going to run out of time to prepare myself for life after college. All of my classmates who weren't cast have been working on their auditions and headshots for the upcoming Midwest regional auditions, as well as finding internships and auditions in their chosen future cities. I come home from rehearsal and I work on getting my lines down, then on my homework (which thankfully hasn't been too much), or on my Warehouse advertisements. I know that 3 weeks from now is not too late to start. And I'm certainly not complaining about being cast, because I wouldn't trade that at all. However, I'm definitely working hard to remember that I can't get completely caught up in this show and forget that there are preparations to be made.

Speaking of preparation, I've given my verbal agreement to work somewhere this summer. I won't put any details here until things are finalized, but I did a lot of considering this past weekend, and I finally decided that this job was the best job for me right now. I'm very excited about it, and I'm looking forward to sharing the details later!

So this weekend looks like it's going to see some more snow, as well as the beginning of next week. Maybe I'll be able to sneak out and get some groceries, and maybe I'll just order in food this weekend.

I have Box Office and my first voice lesson today, which should both be a blast! I'm really enjoying working in the Box Office, and I've been put in charge of the headshot/biography board, which is really cool! I've got Acting for Film and Dramatic Lit today, as well. Acting for Film is looking like it's going to be a very educational class, and I'm excited to learn all the things I never knew about how difficult it is to act on camera. Wish me luck!

And before I go, here's a picture!



Besides the creepy eyes, which one day when I have time I'll fix in photoshop, isn't he just the cutest darn thing you ever saw?