ok. now i'm REALLY tired.
wow. it's been a hell of a week. massive script changes, massive blocking changes, changes to the Act break....dealing with TONS of new props, microphones, insanity... DAILY. it's very hard to synthesize that much new information on a daily basis. it's incredibly challenging and insanely draining. i haven't felt this many total mind crashes since I was in college. at one point, I had to turn to bill and say, 'i'm sorry, my brain just exploded, i'll get it right next time.' because, well, that's exactly what it felt like happened. i've never been more worried about going up on lines...i have up to 9 different incarnations of some lines swimming around in my head and sometimes the right one comes out and sometimes 1/2 of the right one and 1/2 of an old one comes out and sometimes I BLANK out completely, which is REALLY scary. i've never really had that experience before.... it's really terrifying. i guess it's one form of the 'actor's nightmare', something which, thank god, I hardly ever have. I think my non-actor friends have them more than I do..... ugh. I know it will all come together. somehow, it always does. this is just the crunch time. the scary time. i can't believe we have an audience tonight.
in other news, i had a audition for Streetcar Named Desire yesterday (yeah - that was fun to prepare for during TECH week!) for the part of Stella, who I actually prefer over Blanche. it went really well and i have a callback monday. wish me luck - i'm going out on a limb, by putting in print that i'd REALLY like to get it. it would be something so different from anything i've done for awhile and that's how i like things to be. :) keep me on my toes. change it up. (although maybe not as much as things have been changed up this week!!!!!!)
posted by arweena @ 12:38 AM
7 Comments:
Arwen - You guys did a Fantastic job. Couldn't tell that you guys get line changes everyday! TOP NOTCH performers you are. Your trapeze work was beautiful and I loved your reporter. Such a defined character! You should be really proud of yourself. Break-a-leg tomorrow. I adore Tennessee and I know you would have a blast and do a wonderful job with...STELLAAA....
P.S. Loved Marcia's sexy dance! You were so fabulous I wonderful if Bill will give you more lines for Marcia..I wanted to know more about her too :)
AMD
Yeah you know I was just thinking tonight about how words practically always "come" to you whether it's a script or song lyrics or even parts of books. I think first off, some people are just more word people than others. As a counterexample, not only do I not pick up words that quickly, even lyrics that I've written, but I'm intensely less interested in them in the first place. I like sounds and pictures more than words. Second, this visual analogy came to me (re: prior sentence) that you and folks like you are like diamond anvils. You can synthesize a diamond in a high-pressure anvil that simulates the depths of the Earth. When the pressure's on, the atoms turn into a diamond. Other people are like well bores. If a pipe in a well bore has too much pressure, it won't hold; it'll burst. You're lucky that your mind, through natural inclination and practice over time, is like a diamond anvil and not subject to blowouts like lots of other people. But you in particular, and I guess Dave, too, are also fortunate in that your analytical/mathematical sides are extremely strong as well. It's so great that you can take these natural gifts and hone them with hard work to produce stellar performances under the greatest duress.
That's crazy! That sounds just like a play that I'm in!
How bizarre.
=)
I greatly enjoyed the play, Arwen. I'm not sure I can gracefully articulate all the thoughts and feelings it produced in me, but it got me all going and wanting to see it again to comprehend even more. I think maybe I approached it a little differently from others, in that I immediately decided it was okay not to understand every reference and synthesize all the information. I figured we couldn't be meant to get it all, but to take it as more of a total experience. However, as it went on, more and more of the strands seemed to come together and to connect in interesting ways. I liked all the overlapping discourses, the science and the politics and the religion, the super-technical NASA vocabulary alongside the language of signs, omens and apocalyptic visions... I guess I am inclined to find those things fascinating, anyway. I think I would definitely get more if I saw it again, but on the other hand I think it has to be okay to see it and NOT get every last little piece. I think you kind of have to relax and let it wash over you and maybe give in a little bit to being somewhat disoriented at times. Hope this made sense :-)
PS
Aha, here is another way of putting it that occurs to me: all the little pieces are deliberately taken out of their original contexts and put together in a new way that is kind of like poetry. You can listen to it in a similar way you (I) listen to poetry at a poetry reading... you may think, "Oh, I'd understand it better if I had time to sit down and read it," but that isn't really the point of the experience. Similarly, in this play it probably isn't helpful to struggle to grasp _every_ piece of information, trying to place it back in its original context. I think if people tried to do that, they would have been frustrated. I thought it was sort of deliberately dislocating and I liked feeling that way, because it shakes up ways of seeing things, like poetry does--tries to make you see something in a new light that you are used to seeing in a trite way through the media that presents them (like, maybe, the blandness or triteness of news anchorpeople, reporting on something so colossal the brain can't really wrap itself around it). That seems partly like what this was about-- trying to get at the colossal and inexplicable in a somewhat indirect way, beyond what more straightforward language or a more straightforward narrative could do. You know, when you hear these stories described on the news it always feels so inadequate. This was trying to give you a more genuine experience by avoiding those trite paths, or by taking little clips of the triteness and throwing them in alongside other bits of text to reorient you and give you a more authentic experience of this really overwhelming and beyond-the-easily-graspable subject matter... okay, now this is waaaaaay too long, but those are just some of my ideas. Shutting up now.
Thanks so much AMD - i'm so glad you liked it. :)
and wow deborah - thank you. that was really just beautifully put and even though i feel more often like a dunderhead than not these days, those are very kind and supportive words to remember that people recognize that this stuff is hard. thank you. :)
and sarita - totally. what you're trying to explain is something that is sort of intangible...and i think a lot of this play is too....i've never experienced it from an audience perspective, but from what i've heard, it does sort of smack you in the face with a lot of words and information at first and over time you relax into it and can actually watch it bloom.... thanks for the thoughts.... :)
hi brent. i hope to sneak a peek of your dance belt tonight. ;)
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