The Big '?'

Right so let’s dive in. The last two weeks have been majorly stressful. I think it will continue along in this vein for another 3 weeks at least. Let’s hope it calms down after that. So, showcase. Duh duh duh (scary movie sound effects). Well this was the big event. They have been leading up to this for months, saying that showcase is possibly the most important performance of the year. All sorts of fun encouraging things like that and 'you really want to have an agent by the end of the year, and showcase is the way to do that'. So the pressure was on. Music and scene finally chosen and rehearsed. The outfit chosen, and let me tell you that took a long time. Everything is blocked, teched and ready to go. Everyone is stressed and cranky. And we finally hit showcase week. We had three performances. Two on Wednesday and one on Thursday. I think they went pretty well. I felt pretty good about my performances but not phenomenal. I second guessed myself a bit, both because of the complications when choosing my song, and from the number of people who were directing. It was a case of too many cooks, especially towards the end. I think we worked on our scenes with 5 different coaches, and our songs with just about as many. So, needless to say not all of them are going to agree on what works. And well, it got a bit confusing! Especially when, as we got closer to the performance, we had more and more feedback and less and less time to actually work on the pieces. This is only natural, as the performance itself gets closer the director has to focus on the technical side of everything and rely on the work that has already been done. It was just tough with so many new voices chiming at the last second to assimilate and apply everything. Well it is over. I was content with my performance, and certainly pleased about the fantastic review I got in the stage two days later. I am less pleased about the fact that only 12 agents came to the showcase (after we collectively invited a couple hundred). I am a little bit disappointed that no one took any of my headshots or resumes. I can’t let this get my down though. Our showcase was held a good two months before most of those by other programs. I think this contributed to the low turnout. Also it is possible that those who did come are planning on waiting to see the other showcases before making any decisions. Well whatever the cause I haven’t heard from anyone yet, so its on to bigger and better ways of getting attention! Last week was filled with frantic researching. Our group research projects were due yesterday, and what with the showcase and all, no one really did any work on the projects until last Monday. So that was a fun thing. Scrambling to finish our project, which only vaguely resembled the one that we started out with while also trying to find ways to make it entertaining was a less than ideal task. I am not going to lie, this was my least favorite thing all year. I don’t want to think about it anymore, so I am going to move on to more interesting things. Next up on our class agenda are three sets of auditions. In order they are the Sondheim Prize, Sunday in the Park with George and our audition exam. Sondheim is next Monday, George the following, and I think the exam is the week after. Something like that. So, lots of stuff to work on. They finally announced who was getting called for which part for George. This has been a source of much debate since we have come back from Christmas. So it is nice to finally know. I really am ready to just be done with the wondering and get the auditions over with. They have drawn out the suspense more than long enough. Right so I was called in for several things, which is nice. I am going to get to audition for Dot which I was really hoping would be the case. I am also called for the Celeste one and two, Yvonne, Louise, Frieda and Harriet. So, lots of different things. Overall I am pleased with their decisions. What I am not so happy about is the fact that our course leaders cannot seem to proofread before they send documents to the entire class. So here's what happened. A few weeks ago, while we were still deciding what everyone was performing in the showcase, all of the students were sent what was supposed to be a schedule for the next day. What they sent was, yes the schedule, but it had all of their candid notes about the pieces that all of us were working on. This was a document that was obviously not meant to be seen by any of the students (We were immediately sent another e-mailing saying 'Important: don’t read that document!' so naturally everyone then went and read it). There were things on there like 'really amateur, he should try acting' and 'shrill' and 'boring'. Now it’s one thing that they made the notes, that doesn’t really bother me. It’s the fact that they sent it to everyone! That is sort of a big boo-boo. Now this time around it was not nearly so bad. When they sent us the breakdown of which sides everyone should look at, in the list of people called for Dot there was a question mark after my name. Bummer. You know, I have worked on the other side of the table, I know that with several people casting a show that not everyone is going to agree on each person. I am fine with the fact that someone had reservations about calling me for the role (disappointed, but fine). What I don’t appreciate is that then they made it public. I was the only person with a question mark, although I am sure there must have been other notes throughout the document that then got deleted before it was sent to us. They were just careless. It’s not really a big deal. I mean, I get to audition for the role, which is what I wanted. And it does give me an excuse to find out what exactly I can work on before the auditions, which in a way is kind of nice. It’s just that things are a bit rough with the course all the way around at the moment. There is a lot of unrest among the students, and most of it stems from stuff like this. Carelessness and disorganization. Well enough about that. Right now I am just trying to focus on getting all of this audition material up to scratch. So I have my work cut out for me this week, but it is the kind of work that I love. I am really ready to dive in and get going. My goal for this week, staying positive. Here I go.

Theatre News

I realized that I mentioned seeing a couple of shows a little while ago, and never gave a full report on them. I have since seen even more theatre, so I think it is time for a full run down. So here goes. Lets see I have seen (in order) Traveling Light, Matilda, The Lion in Winter, Noises Off, Mogadishu, One Man Two Guvnors. I feel like there may have been one more. I'll check my programs and get back to you on that. Right lets start from the top. Traveling Light. A new play, being performed at The National, about a young man discovering moving pictures in a village in a country somewhere vaguely Eastern European. Eventually he leaves and goes on to make his way as one of the first film directors in Hollywood. I went to see this with a friend of mine on a whim. With the Entry Pass program tickets are only 5 pounds for those 25 and under. A great deal, that I just realized that I am going to lose next week. (Oh man, now I need go see everything that is playing at the National this week). The idea was interesting, and once again the set was gorgeous, but I don't think the play itself worked that well. It was sort of a trite story line, and I am not sure they had decided exactly what they were trying to say. Also the story relied heavily on their leading man, who made the mistake of starting his performance in his highest gear. He had no way to grow or develop through the show. Also the cast as a whole couldn't quite decide where they were from- we heard a whole range of accents, including a truly atrocious American accent in the second half. Why is it that all Americans have to be from Brooklyn/Mars? I am sure this is what the Brit's must think of our English accents but still.... Right moving on. Next up was Matilda. Now this was truly wonderful! Based on the Roald Dahl novel, it was just lovely. Fun for the kids, but smart enough for the grownups, sweet without being saccharine. The kids were incredibly impressive. I have seen few adult ensembles with that level of focus. And they were totally adorable without being obnoxious (which is a feat for some child actors). The choreography was fun. The music was entertaining and enjoyable. The sets were gorgeous, based around fun bookshelves and scrabble tiles. It was just a delightful evening at the theatre. Sarah wants to see it at someone so hopefully we can snag cheap tickets so that I can see it again. After that Sarah and I got some nosebleed seats for the closing weekend of The Lion in Winter. And these were truly nosebleed seats, we were basically sitting on bleachers way way at the top of the theatre. I did fear for my life squeezing in and out of the rows! The show itself was fine. A perfectly respectable, while not earth shattering, production of the play. I do love that script so it was fun to see it live. However it is really hard to beat Katherine Hepburn and Peter O'Toole in those roles. All in all an enjoyable, if not inspiring night at the theatre. Right that is the backlog, now for this weekend. David came up to see my showcase (which I will get to eventually, I promise) so over the weekend we saw a few shows. He is such a physical performer so when it came out that he had never seen Noises Off that was the obvious choice. It was absolutely delightful. The show itself is an interesting phenomenon. The comedy is so specific, especially because it is so physically based, that productions necessarily have to be pretty similar. This didnt detract from the experience at all, but it was interesting to realize. There isn't a whole lot new that you can add to the show. That being said this production was absolutely wonderful. All of the physical bits were perfectly timed, and wonderfully executed. The second act of the show is perhaps one of my favorite pieces of theatre ever! So funny. I could have done without the little girl sitting next to us who kept leaning out between the ledge and the restraining rail of the balcony and obstructing the entire view, while making us fear for her safety. But other than that it was pretty much perfect. Then on Saturday, during our day trip out to Oxford, David and I stumbled across Mogadishu. We decided to buy tickets without knowing a whole lot about the show. It is brand new, and is just about to set out touring and will end up in London eventually. The show is about an altercation that took place at a sort of inner city school, a teacher breaking up a fight between students and getting thrown to the ground in the process. However one of the students involved accuses her of hurling racial insults at him in the process, and gets his friends to back up the story. The body of the play involves what happens after that, with the students, their parents and the school board, as people struggle to figure out who to believe while treading the fine line of political correctness. I thought the play, while not perfect, was really interesting. I think it raised some important and difficult questions. It certainly prompted some post theatre discussion! It was nice to see a play like that, I have missed that since leaving ACT. Most of the theatre I have seen here has been musical theatre, which often has a different aim. I miss those plays that push everyone's buttons! And last, but certainly not least, I went and saw One Man, Two Guvnors last night. Oh my goodness, it was so much fun. Starting with the band before the show (and throughout the play as well) the fun did not stop. The play was completely silly, tongue in cheek and self referential. Nothing was taken seriously. Everyone in the show was awesome. It was just a big party the whole way through. Some of the best moments throughout the evening were the unscripted bits (some of which it turns out are actually scripted, but I wont spoil those). At several points throughout the show the title character addressed the audience, in the first act it is all about how hungry he is. At one of these moments he asks if anyone has a sandwich and is about to launch into a tirade about food when someone in the audience actually offers him one. You could see the astonishment on his face. He played it off well but he was so amused at the situation. So funny! The whole evening was just wonderful. That's enough of that for the moment. I will post later about the last week, but at the moment I am swamped at work and I need to take advantage of my night in and get stuff done. Until next time!

And the reviews are in

From the Stage review "A second Sondheim number gives Katie the opportunity to shine as a comedy performer. On the Steps Of the Palace allows her to demonstrate, as is vital to any musical theatre performer, the ability to negotiate a strong narrative drive through the medium of song. Her scene with Antonios Dimitrokalis from A View from the Bridge, too, proved an excellent contrasting choice infusing the scene with a very real sense of longing." More on the showcase later.

Showcase Showdown

And here we are rounding the turn before the final stretch of this grueling process. There is no clear leader, no clue as to what the outcome of this race will be. All the entrants are flagging a bit, you can tell they are tired. The showcase is less than a week away. Final decisions have been made. Scenes are being cut shorter and shorter. The showcase order is being continually tweaked. And everyone is a little bit on edge. Either that or just plain exhausted. I think I fall into both categories. I am certainly ready for this whole process to be over. At this point in the game I am completely second guessing my song choice. My instructors went back and forth between two of my songs. They started leaning towards one and then the other, ending with a preference for the opener from Thoroughally Modern Millie. I asked them to give me another shot at my other piece, as I thought it might make me stand out a bit more from the crowd. I figure everyone belts, all the time. So if I bring in a Sondheim piece it is a bit more unusual. Also I love the song. However it is quite a bit harder than the Millie. They let me have another try at the song and in the end said that I convinced them that I could do it. So now I am singing On the Steps of the Palace from Into the Woods. One of my favorite songs from one of my favorite shows. However, now I am starting to get worried. What if they were right? Is the other piece a better showcase for me? What if I cant pull it off? Nothing terribly unusual about this. I just have to push through it. Also I cannot let my guard down on this song. I wanted to sing it, so I am going to do everything in my power to knock it out of the park. I just have to remind myself that I can do this! My scene I am feeling much better about. They finally settled on the scene from A View from the Bridge. I love the play, I love the scene, I enjoy working with my scene partner. However the scene does get cut shorter and shorter every time we have to bring it in. I think the scene still works, but it was a very difficult process cutting it down. It is hard not to feel like we have cut important stuff. I know that for this performance, which is directed towards Agents, the entire scene is not necessary. But it still a little distubring that we have gone from having a scene that was two pages long to one that is half a page long. But while everyone else is still trying to find things to cut, we have our final length. Which means that we can focus on fine tuning what we have rather than on what we still have to lose. So all in all, feeling pretty good about the scene. Now we get into the fun drama of the show running order. Now they have picked a tactic for this that I dont really agree with. There are 11 scenes, and 21 songs. They have generally arranged it that one person from each scene will sing directly after their scene. Part of that I understand. If an agent is interested in seeing one person in particular then all of their stuff is bunched together. However this does mean that if you are in the second half of the running order, like I am, you do not step on stage until the second half of the show. Now in a busy industry in a big city like London, there is a large possibility that many of the agents will not stay for the entire show. Even though it is only an hour. So for those of us towards the end.... well we will probably have a smaller audience. Which is a bit discouraging. Personally to make it a little more even I would think that you would want to space it out a bit. Those who have scenes in the first half should sing in the second and vice versa. Now our course leaders keep trying to assure us that no one will leave, but this is a little hard to believe as they have spent the weeks preceeding telling us that agents wont stay the whole time. I can just only hope that people will stick around. They also go back and forth between telling us this is the most important project of the year, that we really want to get an agent out of this, to then telling us that it is not so important. That getting an agent is not something we should stress about. I am sure it will all turn out fine. But they have done a pretty good job of freaking us out and messing with our minds a bit. All I can do now is just focus on taking care of myself for the next week. Trying not to stress, focusing my work as much as possible. Oh wait. Breaking news. We have just been sent our third or fourth revised running order. Now my scene is second. So strike all that stuff about being worried about not being seen! YAY! I have the rest of today off, and I have spent the morning at school working. So I am going to go find something fun to do with my time. Tomorrow we are back for rehearsals all day. Then Sunday is our day to recoup before teching on Monday. Then Tuesday David arrives for the week (which I am super excited). After that is the final stretch! Two previews on Wednesday, and then our big show on Thursday. After that David and I are going to have an awesome weekend full of theatre, exploring and a trip to Oxford. Such a nice reward to look forward to.

The Scene as it Stands

This week was all about narrowing down the choices for showcase We all started out with at least two scenes to present in class this week. We then spent time workshopping the scenes and brainstorming a few other choices. At the end of the week our acting coach and course leader sat down to narrow it down to one scene per person. This meant some reshuffling as well as cutting down the scenes. At the end of the week I unexpectedly found myself in a brand new scene. I am still working with one of my previous scene partners, but this scene was suggested at the very last second. Thursday morning Antonis brings in the script of Arthur Millers A View from the Bridge. He had kept looking at new scenes all week to try and find the perfect one, and this was one his roommate had just suggested. The acting coach suggested he read through the scene with one of the Americans in the class, and as I was handy I jumped in. Now all of the other scenes we memorized and put up on their feet. As neither of us had a chance to work the scene we just sat and read it. Even so, as we started reading, everyone in the room at that moment perked up and leaned in. It was actually rather exciting. Needless to say this was the scene that I ended up with. I am quite pleased with the scene. We cut it down over the weekend and jump in with both feet tomorrow. Now the thing about A View from the Bridge is that is not a terribly funny play. One might even call it a tragedy. So, I need to find a good song to compliment that, to show that I can do funny. Comedy has sort of become my strong suit this year so I want to make sure that comes through with the showcase. Right now we have it narrowed down to about 4 songs. Two of which need major cutting to get them under 90 seconds. I'm a little worried about that, as those two are my top choices. I've got some rep coaching tomorrow, we'll see how that goes. So that's showcase. Everyone is freaking out a bit. Ok let me amend that, I am freaking out a little bit. I am just assuming everyone else is freaking out as well. Our teachers keep emphasizing how important this is, and that we really want to have an agent by the end of the year, and that showcase is the way to do that. No pressure right? Oh, and this is my favorite part, we got to have a question and answer session with some industry professionals on Friday, two of whom were agents. Now in hindsight, these two agents don't really seem to be the kind that would be terribly interested in us graduates. I believe one of them represents both Colin Firth and Helen Mirren, I fit right into that type. However through the course of their Q&A session it came out that 1) they were more interested in going to BA showcases than MA, because we are old and over the hill 2) they aren't really interested in signing Americans because unless we sort out the visa thing we have an expiration date and 3) they aren't really interested in people who don't speak with an RP (think upper class British) accent so we should all find pieces in that accent to do for our showcase. I think that covers me in all three counts. What a wonderful way to start my Friday. The rest of the day was more of what I am used to hearing, but it was still a little disconcerting to get all of that information at once. Now, does this change any of my plans? No. Of course not. I knew this was going to be a tough career from the beginning, and I am not going to let two casting agents (out of hundreds I might add) discourage me. I just need to take a deep breath and get back in the game. So here I am Sunday night, gearing myself back up for the week. I am not totally sure I am ready for the week, but that hasn't stopped me yet. Hopefully by the end of the week we will all have a clearer idea what the showcase is going to contain. I think that will help, knowing exactly what I have to work on. This week in the wild world of Katie's theatre going: Matilda the Musical and The Lion in Winter (not a musical). Full update to follow.

On the Mend

Well, finally after a long recovery process it looks like both my computer and I are on the mend. I took my computer into the lovely IT people at Central and they fixed it for me. It did take two days, which was a little sad, but as long as I have it back I don't mind. My cold however is taking much longer to kick than this virus. Still not quite back on my game vocally, but almost.

This week was full of ups and downs. This term has so far been very different than the first two. For one thing is has been very self driven. Right now we are prepping for the showcase, which means that we are all looking for scenes and music. We have spent the week breaking off on our own and scouring the library for plays, only meeting as a class every once in a while to present what we have found. I feel like I haven't seen most of my classmates at all this term. This will change next week. We have a new acting coach coming in to work with us on the scenes that we have picked so far. On Thursday we sat down and made sure everyone had two different scenes to work on, which took a quite some time to organize I might add. We are meeting as a full class three times next week to workshop these scenes. I am looking forward to seeing what everyone has found. And it will be really nice to get on my feet and do some work. Everyone has been realizing that although we started with weekly acting classes at the beginning of the year, as we started working on other projects we stopped getting that type of coaching. The devised piece was mostly focused on putting the whole show together, rather than the direction for each individual piece. So I think everyone is looking forward to getting some feedback and workshop time again.

We are all cracking down on music as well. My music binder has gotten a complete overhaul and I am working on a ton of new stuff. Still not really having much luck finding pop-y stuff to sing, but I am ok with that for the moment. At first I was feeling really unsatisfied with the music I had found to work on, but after some rethinking (dumping a few, and finding a few others) I am feeling much better. Right now my book seems to be pretty split between contemporary music and some of the more classic musicals. I did realize, when I unwittingly brought only pieces by Stephen Flaherty to a rep session, that I tend towards certain types of music. So I need to branch out from that. But for the moment, as I am searching for THE PERFECT piece to sing for showcase, I think playing towards my strengths is fine.

Also spent some time working on the music for Sunday in the Park with George. They have yet to announce who gets to audition for what, but I figure 'no work is wasted'. Plus I want to be ahead of the game once we get to auditions. I know that I am not the only one who is doing this either, so I am not worried. I am feeling pretty good about the music. I am enjoying working on it, and I think when the time comes I can do a lot with it. I just need to remind myself that there are several other things that come before this show, most of which are more important than this in the long run.

Turned in my first big paper for grad school. Woohoo! Although their hand in process is a little bit weird. First of all no one really told us what the policy was (this was a problem across the board with every MA I believe). And we all found out that apparently we are not allowed to turn in things early. So the entire school had a 1 hour window during lunch on Friday to turn in their papers. Needless to say it was a little chaotic. We were forwarded an e-mail that was sent to all of the course leaders reprimanding them for our lack of knowledge about the hand in process. I think that is more their bad than ours. Oh well. We know now I guess. The rest of the papers are due on Monday,. They are written and edited, and now all that is left is to turn them in. I will be glad to be done with this for now, although I do feel good about the paper I wrote.

Meetings for our group projects tomorrow. Should be interesting, as I know this went on everyone's back burner as we all finished the essays. We did however spend two days sitting through lectures that were supposed to help with the project. A very LONG two days. Glad that's over. It is weird, because our course is on such a different timeline than the other MA's. I think for everyone else the project is not due until May. Ours is due in Feb. So while the other classes get to mingle and collaborate we are off by our elitist selves. I wish we did get a chance to meet with these other classes. I think that the collaboration would be both interesting and informative. Oh well you cant have everything.

Right now its off to Camden for lunch with my cousin, to enjoy one of London's rarities. A sunny(ish) day in January!

Sometimes I Really Hate Technology

Don't get me wrong, there's some amazing stuff there. But sometimes....
Like for example, the continuing saga of my laptop. My laptop had been freaking out all fall. So when the screen goes on the fritz during my Christmas break I decide to just bite the bullet and buy a new one. I figured that it would be safer that way. Then I don't have to worry about it dieing while I am in the middle of writing my dissertation.

So I get my nice shiny new computer and take it back to school. And its been a week, ONE WEEK since I got back, and guess what happens. I have contracted some sort of horrible evil computer virus. Thankfully I have the lovely Central IT folk to help me out. But they have been working on my computer now for the last hour and its looking no better. They seem confident that they will fix this today, which is very reassuring. But I mean come on! I just want to take my computer home and not have to worry about things crashing, or people stealing my identity. Plus I need to edit the three papers I wrote over the weekend so I can turn them in before Friday.

Right, enough about that. While I am sitting in the computer lab waiting for them to be done I might as well update. This weekend was neither terribly productive, nor terribly restful. I was sick for most of the weekend. Not horribly ill, or even bed ridden, just enough to feel crummy and unmotivated. So I didn't have much chance to work on any of my new music. I did however finish the many essays they gave us to write!

This morning was dedicated towards picking more scene material for the showcase. Tom and I started off the morning bringing in two scenes that we had glanced through. I thought for sure that Paul wouldn't let us do the scene from Arcadia (me being not actually English and all), however he really liked it, actually preferred that one to the other scene we brought in. So we'll continue to work on that. It has been really fun getting to see some of the other scenes people are bringing in. Many are from plays that I don't know at all, or only know a little bit about. Some of them, however, are plays that I know very well, and really enjoy. For example two of the guys in our class brought in a scene from Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman, which is one of my absolute favorite plays of all time. I only got to see a very brief snippet of the material, but I think it will be really great once they have gotten it on its feet.

At lunch they had an alum come and talk to us about his experience, which was really interesting. He is currently playing in Ghost, and will be in the upcoming Les Mis movie. It was both encouraging and intimidating to hear about his experiences after he graduated. But it has gotten me motivated to do more work prepping myself for that. I need to do more research into the business side of things here. They have been encouraging all of us to research agents and casting directors so that we know something about the people that might be approaching us after the showcase. Right now I am still feeling quite overwhelmed by the whole thing, but I think once I start doing my homework I'll feel much better.

Right, well off to check on my computer. Hopefully they will be done soon. I had so many plans for today that got sidetracked by this....