News From the World Of Acting

I realize that I have long neglected to post anything regarding my acting class. This has not been from a lack of anything to post, but rather I find that after a class I need to mull things over ... and then I get caught up in something else. So the acting class tends to get pushed to one side, relegated to my Moleskine journal and not often mentioned here.

I shall rectify this grievous error and catch my Devoted Readers up on what has been going on.

When last we left the acting class, Rose and Jeremiah were either not showing up at all or cutting out early. Rose had rehearsals for her play at the college and as for Jeremiah, well, who knows. "Jeremiah is always the question mark," Jace said one evening. So this meant that Rose and Jeremiah would do their lengthy scene from Hapgood or Rose would work on a monologue and then they would depart. Thereafter, I would work on my monologues from Pygmalion, Othello and Coriolanus with Jace alone.

I was by now very comfortable working in front of Jace. She is director, critic and audience. But the lack of a wider audience was something that I grew concerned about. I knew that when Rose and Jeremiah returned from their endeavors or when I might have to perform my monologues in front of a large audience that I would likely crack up.

Last Wednesday, Rose was absent for unkown reasons but Jeremiah showed up. He worked on his monologue from Marat/Sade and then it was my turn. I was beginning to feel a bit nervy performing in front of Jeremiah when Jace said "Do you mind if John watches your monologues?" Well, yes and no. But I knew that I needed to get over my nerves and get used to performing in front of an audience, so I said yes. So John, Jace's husband came up fromt he downstairs livingroom and settled into the couch while I ran over my lines.

My first monologue is from Pygmalion. In this monologue, Henry Higgins is telling Eliza Doolittle what will be expected of her when she comes to learn proper grammar ... and win his bet that he can pass her off as an aristocrat at a ball. It's all bluff and bravado and great fun to do. I was feeling pretty nervy but in this monolgue I was able to channel that into my performance and I did a pretty darned good job. So good, in fact, that I got a round of applause. I believe I even impressed Jeremiah.

My second monologue is also from Pygmalion. In this monologue, Higgins is trying to persuade Eliza to return to him, but his arguments fall flat and in the end he blows up in anger. This monologue requires me to go through a range of emotions and when it was just Jace alone I was doing quite well. The nerves, unfortuantely, got the best of me in this one and I ended up blowing a line. Once that happened it all went down hill a bit. I tried again and forgot my line and finally had to resort to referencing the script. It wasn't so bad but neither was it what it could have been.

My third monologue is Iago's first monologue in Othello, where he takes the audience into his confidence and tells them he plans to wreck the lives of Othello, Desdemona and Cassio. It is short, to the point and marvellously villainous. Unfortunately, by this point I was very rattled and I just wanted to get things over with. I wasn't terribly satisfied with it, but apparently it wasn't thought too badly of.

Once I get used to having an audience I will be much better and hopefully Rose and Jeremiah will be in regular attendance next year. Jace tells me that she is going to try and lure Mrs. Psmith into the group.

I am also contemplating the idea of trying out for one of the local theatre productions next year.