Let's do it!

Rehearsals, at least in my opinion, have been a lot of fun! It's pretty awesome to see things start to come together, and as we tighten and smooth the play, it seems to get funnier and funnier, so that's good. I suppose if I'm honest, I also have some doubts as to whether or not we'll have all our lines down by friday, but whatever happens, it'll be fun, and will have been a great experience that I'm so incredibly glad we were able to have.

Comedy is a very physical art form! Well, when done right I suppose. While I personally wouldn't consider it a challenge per se, it's definitely been something that has required a notable amount of our attention. For the hodgepodge of participants we have, I'm actually pretty impressed with how convincingly I think we'll be able to do this!

At this point I think we'll have to focus mostly on the action scenes, since those are the ones that won't really work with script in hand. Let's do it!

-R

Rehearsals

This stuff truly is coming together. Watching the other scenes I am not in has given me confidence in this work that it is going to be funny. Ansel and Rick are freaking hilarious. I feel that although this class has taken a little extra time and attention, it will pay off in the end. Learning lines has been the hardest. Although I have the recordings which Professor sent us, I feel like my time is best spent when I am just running lines with everyone. I feel like the best way to memorize lines for me has been to break up my parts into sections and run them over and over and over. Ansel and Margaret have been great with putting in extra time with me so that we can get our stuff down. Although this will probably end up being a reading, I am doing my best to get these lines figured out. Like I said, all in all, the more I see in our rehearsals, the more confident I am in the production.

"There's nothing wrong with updating a little"

Although after reviewing the assignment I have several questions that I'll need to be asking professor Jeppesen, I can at least post my initial thoughts on what I might write about in my final paper.

My planned theme is:

Reviving Greek and Roman Theater for a Modern Audience!

It will be a collection of thoughts on how to make a tasteful adaptation of an ancient play. Not an expert guide by any means, just some thoughts. These will be based on historical aspects to consider, as well as experiential issues that arose in the production of our Amphitruo. It's really interesting stuff! Maybe our papers will end up posted here. If not, I might post a short summary of mine. The performance is only two weeks away! I am both excited and nervous. I hope we can prepare well enough by then.

-R

Final Paper Outline

At the end of the semester we will have to write about how this class helped us understand ancient drama, and I will focus on the following aspects: 1. Adapting a classic, 2. What makes a comedy funny?, 3. The spirit of ancient theatre, and 4. Authenticity.  I hope to show how going through this process has helped me not only understand the mind of the ancient playwrights better, but also in a way to live what they experienced as artists and performers. There is something to be said about how some things must be experienced, not just read about.

Time Marches On

Just a quick update on our progress:

The pressures of the end of semester are building right on schedule, but luckily we've been able to find a little extra time to practice, which was desperately needed in my opinion. We seem to be on top of the blocking now, and I'm very excited about the action scenes we'll be doing, particularly those involving the audience area. I just hope we'll have enough time to practice it enough to be able to perform it like I know we all want to, but either way, it will have been a great experience. I'm so glad the class wasn't cancelled!

-R

Progress 2

I am no actor. This whole blocking thing has been frustrating. Although I comprehend that it is important, I am still so far behind with my lines. I also find myself struggling to know how to even read my lines with all of the prompts in the script added by the translator which seem to be off. I struggle to pull off lines that I feel like I would never say in any situation. Clunky translation aside, little by little I am starting to find my way and hopefully will reach the point when I will be able to do my part well. Blocking is a chore, but I realize that if we don’t know where we are going on stage, there might be unforeseen blunders. I do not want to go on stage and look foolish. Fear is a powerful motivator to trust our director and get this down.

Our Progress

                   I'm feeling very optimistic about our progress! I think we have most aspects of our play planned for (props, costumes, etc) and now we just have to focus on rehearsal and improving our chemistry as a cast. I think that we should have a goal to be off-book (memorized) by a week from this Wednesday at least so that we can focus on blocking and fine-tuning without having to be concerned about lines. Thanks to our professor's hard work, I feel confident regarding the current status of our script. I think that any polishing it may need will come naturally during the rehearsal process. But from what I've heard in class so far, I really feel like everyone's' characters are starting to take form and that everyone is bringing a lot to the table acting-wise. Good work team! Now that we have a script- let's get down to memorizing!