All together now

Hey all, having joined the class late this year I've been behind in contributing so I'll discuss it all in one big shot here.

The physical comedy performances were an interesting bit on learning a character and learning to tell a story with that characters interaction with a given circumstance. I believe it helped me to understand more that it is what a character does that defines who they are rather than what they say. Words are too easy, action is deliberate and leads the audience to understand a character's motivation and insight as to who they are. The Mr. Bean bit that I performed also helped me to understand the sequential action, in other words how a character goes from one action to the next as a result of their personalities. It was a fun process to work through, and the research of different pieces helped me to see how vital the characterization was to each piece.

On the next note, the audition process is a beast of its own. Having gone through a handful of different experiences is funny to say i still don't know exactly what to do. The whole process is interesting because it is an interview and a performance combined. You get to do a show in front of some harsh critics, and that's alright. Watching people at the IRT audition was interesting because I saw a wide array of different techniques and what not. The most important lesson I learned from that is to make sure that you pick the right piece. Don't cast yourself as the guy you want to be, but rather the guy everyone else wants you to be. It was great to be able to hear what is going through the minds of the auditors because it let me knwo what they look for. Everything from voice, direction, and movement is critiqued and knowing that can help me prepare.

Being an athlete, the audition is interesting because it has a game day feel to it as much as a performance of a show does. It has this element because you spend time preparing and learnign what to do. It is the moment where you know what to do, it is time to execute. So it was familiar feel of things emotionally and mentally speaking. There was a heightened rush to it, and the feel is fun to me.

The last experience was good because I realized more about becoming the character. I memorized a piece, and made my performance about getting those pieces out there. This was a crucial learning experience because it let me know what I need to present my best attributes. One of the biggest things to accomplishing that is to make decisions about my character. I need to put my creative side to work in cohesion with my performance side. That is one of the steps I have to take in order to make strides in my auditioning and performing. Make choices about my character and invest in that character.

The audition Process

I thought that our final was a good experience for me. I did not realize that it would make me as nervous as it did. From waiting out in the lobby to standing out in front of the auditors, I realized how much more time I needed to put into everything. A large portion is of course the pieces themselves, but there is also the introduction that I know I could have done better on. When I walked out of Salter, I thought of multiple things that I could have and should have done differently such as slow down with introduction to the pieces that I had.

I was overall pleased with the pieces that I had, but I am not sure if I would use them within an actual audition because of some of the comments. I realized that a piece from a movie may not be the best decision, so I would consider getting rid of the Into the Wild piece. Then I did not realize how different it was to have a piece from a musical to present, but by the comments, it seemed a little strange.

Once again, I am glad for the type of final that we had, and I would do it over again in an instant. I could have perfected my pieces, and done a lot better job. I guess the only way for me to do that now would be to go to a real audition.

The Final Audition

So this audition process was a lot more intense than I expected. I really did enjoy and appreciate the real life feel the mock audition had though. I have never experienced anything like that before. I have auditioned outside of Wabash before but it still didn't resemble the big city cattle call auditions that this mock actually represented. I liked how each of the auditors have been in the exact situation that we were experiencing multiple times. It provided an insight to how actual casting directors would respond and act towards the auditions. Although nerve racking, I liked the rules and specifics that Cody gave us before our audition. They added the element of professionalism and competition and the constraint of rules helped to add to the sense of a high stakes audition. One thing that was really nice to have (obviously) was the feedback at the end of the process. I was kind of able to use the feedback as a sort of mirror. Every detail of our audition was payed attention to and responded to. I was able to absorb tiny details of my own audition like smiling and when to move my chair. This will hopefully prepare me for the nerves that will come with an actual audition in the future.

Auditioning

Auditioning to me is a two headed beast. On the one hand, it is very much like a marketing campaign for yourself. Talent is indeed part of this selling process but so is every detail surrounding the audition. The ability to show that you are professional, that you understand the business, and that you would be a pleasant and understanding person to work with is essential. The more you can present yourself not just as an actor but as a sought after co-worker, the more desirable you will be to those casting you. This is new element to the audition process to me and I have learned much from the information gained in class. In fact, I have learned enough to realize how silly, slightly unprofessional, and mildly embarrassing I may have been in the past. I plan on changing all that. The other head of this beast is that of the creative expression. This is the part that makes me the most nervous but is also the part I enjoy the most. The chance to display your art and talent o be judged by other is daunting but can also be tremendously rewarding. Your audition piece should reflect a portion of who you are. If that is indeed the case, then you also get to show off a bit of who you are as a person and what it is that you believe. All in all, the audition process is one hell of an adrenaline rush!

an audition

I have noticed that whenever I go through the audition process, I usually become nervous. I have realized that this does not seem to be the same for an interview, and I believe that this is due to the audience that sits during the audition. Every single audition that I have been apart of, everybody else auditioning would sit in the room as well. This added group of people seems to make me more nervous. The final for this class will be the first time of audition where I had to prepare something prior to going. I believe that this puts something new on the line because these are pieces that we have chosen compared to the pieces that I have normally read were just cold readings of the play.

Bringing it all together

Comedia was fun, and proved to be very challenging, physically. To actually become the character you wished to portray took more then just rehearsing lines. You actually had to practice the exaggerated ways of the individual. It was fun however, because you could take the character over the top, and it would only add the comedy.

Realism proved to be the most difficult of the three sections. Although physical actions were part of the scene work, most of the characterization relied on the depth by which you knew your character. You really had to “dig deep” and find out who your character was. If you did not know every little aspect of the character, it proved to be a difficult task performing the scene.

Clowning was awesome! It was a combination of physical and character comedy all rolled into one scene . . . except in silence. The most difficult part of this was memorizing the order of you “gigs”. But once you had that down, you were able to take off with the ideas set before you, and

Physicality and Psychology

Well these two components of acting really are like two peas in a pod. The psycho-physical continuum really is a powerful level of understanding. I had read about their connectivity last semester while I was studying Stanislavsky and believed it as truth, but it was not nearly so clear as it is at the present. This class has stressed the paring in each assignment we've been given. The fist assignment of comedia really forced us to understand the psyche of the character. If we didn't, the incredibly difficult and unique physical component of each character looked either half-assed or, in the very least, forced. This was nice because it was a beginner's insight into the necessary connection. It was also good to have it understood that early so that the more subtle realism could utilize the idea. Within realism, the drive to understand the psyche of the character led to breakthroughs in the motivations for the character. Any physical action in realism without a motivation looks, well, unreal. Which is the opposite of what we wanted. The next assignment, clowning, was wonderful blending of the previous two. It was still a comedic physical piece but not so cartoony and haphazard as comedia becasue of its incredibly detailed set of actions which pulls in the importance of motivations we encountered in realism. In the end, the hammering in of the connection has produced a reliable and stable method for characterization. To understand the physical side of your character you must know where thier head is at and in order to discover the psyche of the character one must pulls clues from the physical actions of the character throughout the piece. One feeds the other in a escelating spiral of creativity. It's pretty neat. When understanding this principle, the task of characterization does not seem so monumental. I have learned and enjoyed.