Cast, Employed, and Loving Life!

This week:

I had callbacks on Saturday and Monday. Saturday was for Henry VII. I had the opportunity to read for Anne in a small scene with another woman. I had a lot of fun. It ended up that she's also acting in my acting coach's next production he's directing, so we had a lot to talk about while we waited to audition. Small world. The audition itself was short and sweet. We went through it once, were given an adjustment and then did it one more time.

My Monday callback was for The Taming of the Shrew. I was called back for Bianca, but I stood in as a reader for a male role, then was asked to read for a small male role that the director was thinking of casting as a female.  I ended up reading for this role (Biondello) several times that night. I was given a lot of fun adjustments, such as, chase a butterfly!  It was cool to read the part more than once, and with multiple groups of people (it was a 3 person scene) because it gave me the opportunity to do something new every time.  In the end, they decided against having me read Bianca at all, which I was slightly disappointed about until I realized the roles I was reading for were comedic--which is something I'm never given the opportunity to do. I hammed  it up all night. I read for another small role as well before being the last actor to be released. I was very hopeful after this callback. I got to talk to the director about what he was thinking of for the cross casting of the show (he wants to get it down to 10 people, so everyone would play multiple parts), and it all sounded so exciting.

I got the call yesterday--I got the part! I'm so excited to be a part of the summer Shakespeare in the Park season! I'm employed for the summer, getting paid, surrounded by talented/experienced Shakes actors that are going to teach me amazing things, and I get to do COMEDY. It just doesn't get any better than that. I feel so lucky. The casting director who called me was so nice, and I'm very excited to work with them.

I'll be rehearsing through June, opening in July, and running through August!

In other news: I attended a Physical Theatre Workshop this week Tuesday that focused on Suzuki and Viewpoints.

These are two techniques that I've been wanting to learn since I first heard of them and I had such an amazing time with my first taste. Luckily, it went so well that the artists teaching it want to continue the series for a really affordable price!

These are movement based techniques. We worked on finding our center, isolating parts of our bodies, and engaging ourselves with a forward motion. I learned 'the stomp' which is a popular and useful Suzuki exercise. I learned a lot of things, but they're difficult to describe. We went over the 9 Viewpoints, but we only worked on a few. Since it was a beginning workshop we did a lot of exercises involving our neutral, centered positions. These are generally non-suggestive ways of standing that ground an actor and still keep them engaged. I plan on continuing the workshops!

They were taught by a member of an Australian physical theatre company called Zen Zen Zo, and a member of Two Hours Traffic, a local Seattle company that hasn't been producing much recently. I met some cool people, and I'm exciting to learn more. It was one of the first times since college that I felt like I was on the ground floor, breaking into something new and exciting. We were creating our own art, and it was so fulfilling in a way that I had forgotten. I didn't realize I had missed it so much.

I had my first individual acting lesson today. I'm starting monologue/audition coaching with the same coach I've been working with. Katie and I ended our scene study because we didn't have the time to work together. I'm very exciting to work on audition technique through monologues because I want to audition for grad schools this next year, I think, and I could really use the help. This week I did a monologue from The Miracle Worker, and I have a lot to work on.

My Physical Comedy class I was teaching had its performance this Thursday, and it went swimmingly. The kids had a blast, the parents were happy, and I'm exciting and relieved to be moving onto Shakespeare. I learned a lot from the kids. They wrote some great material, and it's amazing the amount of hilarity that can happen in one hour. Hopefully some of the same kids will be taking my Shakespeare class! It starts in two weeks!

Good deed of the week: I donated my bike to a loving friend!

For the first time in forever, I have a free weekend ahead of me. I have some auditions to work on, but aside from that I've got a ton of free time! Woohoo!!!