Getting Ready for the Globe

This week was fully packed with intense lessons. Whether we were working with Robin, or working with our other Skills instructors, or even listening to a guest speaker, I feel like it all connected and validated everything we've been learning about Shakespeare these past 3 weeks. I can say that I've learned more about Shakespeare in these condensed 3 weeks than I have in any Semester or Term back in my undergrad years! East 15 did everything they could to prepare us for our Globe residency and I can honestly say I am more prepared now then I would have been 3 weeks ago without our Shakespeare Module.

We worked with Romeo and Juliet and Richard III with Robin this week. He's similar to Sonia in that they both say its the actor's duty to look over the script before putting it on its feet. However, Sonia is more about the sounds the words make to help clue the actor about what's happening. Robin is more of an advocate for looking over the text and making sure you understand what its saying before putting it on its feet.

Robin was then kind enough to let us have a short Introductory Workshop with Dickon Tyrrell, one of our directors at the Globe. He seems like an insightful and lovely man who's accomplished quite a lot during his career. He gave us a small taste of what it's going to be like these next 2 weeks working at the Globe and like any good narrator, he left us wanting more! He answered questions people had, told us a bit about his own career, and then discussed why he loves Shakespeare so much, which is always helpful to get me enthusiastic. I found out later in the week that I indeed will be working with Dickon in his Winter's Tale. The other group will be working in Phil Cumbus's Macbeth. I'm actually very pleased to be acting in Winter's Tale because it is a script I have never looked at before this Term. I performed Paulina's monologue in Act III in my Voice class, which was a great introduction to the show for me. Though I've never acted in a full performance of it, I have worked on Macbeth plenty of times in classes and workshops, including Ben Crystal's from last weekend. I feel confident about Macbeth and want to be challenged. Dickon seems to really respect and love the play, so I feel honored to be working on a fresh new story. It seems so fitting to me, as well, that we will be performing The Winter's Tale in the coldest winter London has seen in 60 years—I feel like I'm apart of history!

As I said before, it wasn't my Shakespeare classes alone that have helped me during these past 3 weeks. My other skills courses—Voice and Laban in particular—have contributed to this new confidence and readiness I feel about the Globe. Our Voice tutor, Cathleen, gave us Shakespeare monologues about 5 weeks ago and used this past month to give us pointers on how to vocally perform Shakespeare's text. She gave us useful techniques to bring life to the text, like moving around every time there's a new thought to experience truthful inflections in the voice.

Tracy, our Laban tutor, has flabbergasted me with the notion of using Laban with Shakespeare! I've worked on Laban long before coming to East 15, but I've never reached a point where I thought it would be possible to apply Laban to text! Of course you can! Why has no one ever told me this before?! I always assumed Laban was strictly for movement! Looking over my Paulina monologue, its hard NOT to see when she's Thrusting, or Wringing, or Pressing! It makes absolute perfect sense to me and this new information is still leaving me in a state of euphoria (which Laban would call a movement sensation of Glide)!

I am so grateful to East 15 and our Shakespeare Module. Everyone has contributed to this experience and I have never felt so prepared to start a brief residency at Shakespeare's Globe in London, England.

Fighting myself as an Obstacle

So, an Acting exercise from earlier this month, the Sleeping Partner, has been the most difficult task for me yet. I had a small talk with Sonia, one of my acting tutors, after I completed mine, which was the last of the day. She had given me feedback, not criticism, but heavy feedback that made me think about things I really don't like thinking about. I think it was because I was thinking this way (I wear my emotions on my face so I'm sure she could see how distraught I felt), she felt the need to approach me and discuss her feedback more with me.

Here's what I know about myself; I have a difficult time allowing myself to be vulnerable. I, the actor, Alariza wants to be able to be vulnerable truthfully because I would, frankly, be an even better actor if I could. I, the person, Alariza do everything I can to avoid being vulnerable. I like appearing strong and being vulnerable means being weak. The actor knows this isn't true, but I, myself, don't like being weak. I understand until I allow the person Alariza to be vulnerable, I the actor Alariza won't truly be able to be vulnerable, or at least take the biggest risks and acting choices. I'm so afraid of being weak, even in pretend, made up circumstances! I don't like feeling emotional pain. Give me Lady Percy, or Lady Anne—give me a disturbed Sam Shepard character—give me ANY character and I will cry, I will dive into vulnerability feet first! But once its me and its too real... I chicken out.

Sonia knows this about me. She called me out on it. I appreciate and respect her so much for telling me what I need to hear as an actor. I am my own worst obstacle. I was so positive and confident about my Sleeping Partner scene and had made bold choices.... up until the moment it began. No, up until the moment it was about to begin. At the last minute, I chickened out and re-wrote my circumstances. I always do this!!!!

Sonia at first said, “You have time. You have a whole year to work on it.” I looked at her and responded with, “That's not a lot of time at all.” She thought about it and replied with, “No, its not.”

I have been working on this for years. I know this about myself! Yes, Sonia tried to make me feel better by admitting that we all have baggage and all actors struggle with it, but it didn't help. I have suffered so much in my life that there is a mental block that stops me from feeling vulnerable and when I get in a situation that might cause me pain, I put my smiling mask on and walk around with my “Everything's going to be ok” attitude.

It sucks that I set myself up for failure yet again with this exercise, but I'm thankful to have a tutor to call me out on it and acknowledge its something I need work on. Now she knows. Now Robin will know. Hopefully, the three of us can help me with this mental barrier. I know that a year's work won't help much, but I'll be that much closer to confronting my demons. I'll be that much closer to being a great actor.

First Week at East 15

So much happened this week! This was what I had been looking forward to for months, ever since I've been accepted to East 15: the first week of instruction. I now have met all my tutors and have attended each of my courses. I am in group B. Let's see if I can remember who all is in my group: Ben and Ben, Connor, Matthew, Yeonha, Rafi, Zoe, Ingrid, Andrea, Andra, David, Nick, Marion, Jenny, JoJo, Kala, Ainsleigh, and myself. So I suppose I will now express how each other the courses made me feel and what I think about all my tutors.

Acting with Robin—I am so grateful my group got to work with him first. He seems, not only like a wise man who has so much knowledge and life experiences to share with us, but like a cool guy. There is something so comforting in his voice; he has a calm demeanor and a patient look on his face. Our first assignment with him was to do 3 activities in 15 minutes. We weren't to perform these activities, we were to just be ourselves and pick 3 activities that we can do in real time, with low stakes. He gave us The 10 Questions which is going to be a consistent frame of questioning during our training, whether we're with Robin or not. The 10 questions are:

1. Who am I?
2. Where am I?
3. When is it?
4. Where have I just come from?
5. What do I want?
6. Why do I want it?
7. Why do I want it right now?
8. What will happen if I don't get it now?
9. How will I get what I want? By doing what?
10. What must I overcome?
    So, because these activities had to be something we do in our own time, we were to omit the last 3 questions and stick with 1 through 7. He told us to keep the stakes low—as if we were home by ourselves without an audience. My three activities were watching an episode of Archer, cleaning my face, and buffing my nails. Now, this was much harder than I expected it to be. My circumstances were very basic and my stakes were low. I pretended it was late at night and I had just left the living room to retire to my bedroom for the night. My objective—to relax and enjoy some alone time before going to bed. Robin made a point of saying I chose a difficult activity—watching tv. It is a passive activity and we don't ever really examine how we perform passive activities, so acting “natural” is difficult. It was!

Tomorrow, we will begin working with Sonia and will have to perform the same assignment: we will perform 3 activities in 15 minutes, only this time, acknowledging the 4^th wall. We have to be specific about what the fourth wall is, where it is, and what we can see. This time around, I've changed my 2-7 of my 10 questions:

2. I am in my living room and kitchen in my house. They share the walls and the only thing that separate them is a door.....which we leave opened, even though we're not supposed to. The living room has a big window that sees into our backyard, and our kitchen oversees it as well. Our yard is shaped like a triangle, has a shed in the back corner, and there's this oddly shaped thing where we hang our drying laundry.
3. It is an early Saturday morning and none of my roommates have woken up yet.
4. I have just come from a morning jog
5. I want to slow my heart-rate and relax my body, especially my injured knee, and mind by performing mindless activities: stretching, making coffee, and washing the dishes. I want to complete this before anyone wakes up.
6. Its important not to just stop moving after your heart-rate is high. Its also important for me not to overwork my knee since it is still recovering.
7. I need to stretch right now because if I don't, my muscles will tense up and I will be sore later on. I also need to relax my knee because if I overwork it, more damage could be done. I want to make coffee right now because I don't want a headache later. I want to wash the dishes before my house mates wake up because I told them I would last night so I want it to be done before anyone wakes up.

My fourth wall will be those windows we have against the wall and I will see into the backyard. Since its early in the morning, I can still see the dew on the grass and I can see Connor's clothes hanging, still damp.... I hope Sonia likes what I've come up with.

Singing with Collin was intimidating! Its been years since I've sung in choirs and there are people in my group who have never held sheet music in their entire lives and already on day one we're learning, not one, but two songs! We learned “Comedy Tonight” from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and “What a Piece of Work is Man” from Hair. He even decided us up into 4-part harmony! I am pleasantly surprised I can still hit some of those soprano notes! I hit a high A! I am so proud of myself! I can't wait to see what happens this next week in Singing!

Context with Zois is going to be a great course! I feel I didn't get enough Theatre History or Context when I was an under grad, so there are things I don't know that I feel the other actors do. I had no idea who Grotowski is; I had never heard his name before last week. I know who Stanislavsky, Meisner, Suzuki, and Buto are.... and that's about it. So I made sure I took a lot of notes in that class. This is definitely going to be a course I have to take pages upon pages of notes or I will not remember anything. Damn my short term memory, or lack there of! I feel this is the course I will struggle with the most, as far as my poor short term memory is concerned. I hope I don't disappoint Zois.

Fabio and Marcin are two totally different Movement tutors. I like them both for totally different reasons! Fabio is more of the comforting nurturer, whereas Marcin is more like the strong soldier, or personal trainer. Marcin reminded me a lot of the actor who played Oberon at the Globe. He's so physically strong, but there's a kindness in his eyes that melts away the intimidation. He was accommodating to the fact I have a bum knee and let me sit out of an exercise..... I hate my knee, man! I'm so annoyed and disappointed with myself that my knee is keeping me from getting the same training that my peers are getting. On day one I already had to not do an exercise due to my knee..... Hopefully this won't occur every week in both my movement classes.

Cathleen, our Voice coach, is from Scotland and is so beautiful. I was relieved with her because she was the last tutor of Thursday and yet was the first hard-ass teacher we had all week. No bathroom breaks during class because “that's what your break is for,” and no sitting allowed. She didn't care if our legs were tired because we stood in the audience of the Globe the night before; she made a point of saying E15 trains good actors into great and strong actors, and that means discipline. We will have to get used to standing and strengthening our legs. I like her already! And I love her accent!!!!! She kept saying “wee”: we'll take a wee break, let's have a wee sit, etc. I love it!

I think I've been looking more forward to the Articulation course because its in this class we will be studying dialects and accents. Rebecca seems like such a cool, laid back, chick, and this is her first year teaching at E15. She's a newbie at the school like the rest of us, but not new to the profession. When she worked with me one-on-one and listened to my reading, she told me what I already know about my accent: I have a strong Californian accent and press hard on my R sounds. I tend to speak in the back of my throat and to speak in British RP, I need to bring the sounds forward in the front of my mouth more, to create a brighter sound. I'm so excited! Bring it on!!!

And finally, the week ended with Laban with Tracy. I realized I've been pronouncing his name incorrectly all these years. Well, we pronounce it differently in California all together, I guess. Its LA-ban, not La-BAN. She seems to be a calmer hard-ass. She looked down at Rafi for not wearing all black. Ooh, that's a good note to make for myself: Blacks for Movement and Laban. Voice= comfy clothes that you can move in, but it doesn't have to be black.

Wow, what a long and amazing first week. It was extremely kind of E15 to let all the MFA International students see a show at the Globe during their first week. It gave us this magical glowy excitement because in two months time, we will be performing there! We were all so tickled to be there, and the show itself was so amazing. I've seen Midsummer so many times now, and have been in it twice. I thought I'd be sick of it... but seeing the performance I did and that caliber of professionalism... it was humbling. I felt like we looked like children at Disneyland. This IS our Disneyland. We're here.... I'm here.... I'm in London, England, getting professional training by these incredible people. Who am I? How did I get this lucky? Wow....

I can't stop saying “Wow!”

Greetings from across the Pond

Well, its certainly been a while since I've updated here. To keep things short, I am now officially British!!!
Well, not really. I am an official Student here studying abroad. I have my UK Student Visa and everything! I am currently residing in Loughton, a suburban town 30 minutes north east of London. Yes, you read that correctly; I am living right outside of London!
I arrived here on (gulp) Sep 11th a week and a half ago. I was the first to arrive in my new home. We are a house of students all going to East 15 Acting School for their MFA (International) Acting program. There are 7 of us total: Myself, representing the SF Bay Area, Lindsay (Los Angeles), Matthew (Miami), Connor (Missouri), Joe (Guam), Alexey (Moscow, Russia), and Eleonora (Italy)! We are still waiting on one, but we are mostly all here.
So my adventures continue! I will do my best to update weekly. I know I was good about it before, so I will try to pick that habit back up!
Until then, Cheers Darlings!

Random, Short Tour

Hey everyone! 

So, Remember that show I did called Just So Stories? We finally had our random 3 performances, 2 months after the run had stopped. During that time, We had already rehearsed, performed, and closed Brer Rabbit, Papa Char and Baby Bupp were close to opening their show Pocahontas, and this tour took place during the tech week of the show I directed: Guys and Dolls. They did Load In without me! Argh :/

First we went to Castro Valley, to their Performing Arts Center that just so happened to also be a high school theater. This isn't the first time we've performed in a high school, but it had been a while in general since I had toured a show. I felt a little rusty being back on the road. I was deemed the Props Master and House Managing Liaison for our three day tour. The HM Liaison in in charge of communicating to the venue's tech team or HM team our company policies, the number of tickets sold to that show, and what to do in case there are extra people who want to buy tickets at the door.

The CV Performing Arts theater was beautiful. Seats about 500. The Staff there is super cool too; one of the girls gave me ice for my hurt knee and then gave me a lollipop for being such a good patient!

That afternoon we drove to Merced, CA. The motel we stayed at wasn't exactly the nicest of places I've ever been to. In fact, Baby Bupp and I got locked out of our first room; our keys didn't work!!! Wha?! So we were not only given new keys, but a new room all together because I guess no one could get into our room! Hahaha! 

It was a dirty motel right off the freeway entrance with very little in the immediate area. That being said, it was still so great to get away from the office. I miss that about tour. It's almost like paid vacation, only you're required to perform every morning and drive a lot. But it was so nice to be back on the road, even if we only had one over-night performance.

The performance space was in the Merced Theatre. This is a beautiful venue with 1500 + seats. Its got that same out-door charm that the Santa Barbara venue had. Just lovely, and the staff was absolutely grateful and cool. I really hope CTC decides to go there again!

Oh and another thing, if you're ever in the area, go to Toni's Courtyard Cafe for lunch! The bread is made fresh and daily. They're only opened for Breakfast and Lunch, but the menu is decently priced and the food is delicious!!!!!! I, being the social butterfly I am, even randomly met Toni and got everyone in my group a free cookie! If you write a yelp review for them, they provide free cookies! And the sugar cookie I had was scrumptious! :)

All that leaves left is Guys and Dolls JR. That came and went! It opened and closed last weekend. I was so proud of my cast of 30; my babies did such a great job. I was even told by my company bosses the show was a great representation of the work CTC does.

That's all to report.

Busy 2013 so far

I realize its been forever since I've blogged. However, its because I haven't toured at all this new year. Nonetheless, I feel its important to document everything that has been going on during these two months into 2013.

First, I was given the task of directing CTC's Great Spring Musical, Guys and Dolls JR. It has been so much fun and I know it's going to be an amazing show. I have a cast of 30 and they are remarkably talented kids. The show opens the last weekend in March at Monta Vista High School in Cupertino, CA! Come see it, if you get the chance!

CTC's show Just So Stories opened last month. We haven't done the show in weeks, but the run still isn't over. We still have 3 random days in March. I have no idea why we it was scheduled that way, but it was. I'm excited because it was the first show I actually got to be apart of a photocall. Our publicity photos are on the website, but I'll provide my favorites. Photos are taken by the lovely Marcia Lepler. My cast mates are David Endo, Corinne Bupp, and Charlie Shoemaker. Just So was a great experience and a show I felt adults and kids could enjoy.

I am currently working on Brer Rabbit. The show opens in 2 weeks from today. I'm excited about it because its the first time I'm working with a different director, Ben Brotzman, and its the first physical show I'm doing. I've never done tumbling work in a show before, not just at CTC, but in general. I've done stage combat and I was even the fight captain last summer for a 6 minute light saber battle.... yes, you read that right, but this is the first time I've ever been asked to get thrown all over a stage. Its hard work and I'm going home every night with fresh bruises, but I love the challenge and I've always wanted to do it! Oh, and its the first show at CTC I get to showcase my musical talents. As Brer Fox, I play the guitar and sing during the show. I play guy, so I volunteered to sing in a lower range than I'm used to—it just makes sense! But, in doing so, I discovered I can do a pretty sweet Elvis impression :)

Lastly, outside of CTC, I attended the URTAs 2 weekends ago. The University/Residents Theatre Association holds auditions in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco every year for grad school. I attended and received 3 callbacks/interviews with the Academy of Arts University of San Francisco, Savannah College of Arts and Design (SCAD) of Savannah, Georgia, and East 15 Acting School of Loughton, England....

Guess which one accepted me...?

I'M GOING TO ENGLAND!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so unbelievably excited and honored! I just accepted the offer last week, so there is much still to be done and to get informed about. More details on that as I get them....

Goodbye Elves and the Shoemaker

 “Elves and the Shoemaker” made it to Fresno again. I had been told Fresno audiences are some of the best. I completely agree because, let's be honest, Fresno isn't exactly Disneyland. The laughter and applaud in the Tower Theater was some of the best we ever received. Last time I was there I didn't get a chance to take a picture of the house; I only got a picture of the tower outside. This is what the interior looks like. I think it has a similar tacky 70's charm Bimbo's in San Francisco has. If anyone has been there before, you'd see what I mean.

And oh yeah, here is a picture of the Crest in Sacramento. As beautiful of a space it is, performing there is rather challenging. There are no wings, there's an underground crossover, and you have to climb up stairs to walk on stage. This made entrances with props difficult. But, once again, the kids made it worth it. This was a 1000-seater house and both our shows were sold out! It warms my heart so much to know budget cuts haven't completely wiped out school field trips! I think its such a special event for young students to experience live theatre!  

 The week ended with a day at San Mateo's city college. Their space is fantastically unique to the other spaces we've been to so far this season! The dressing rooms and greenroom are all above the stage on the second floor. To get to them, actors have to climb a narrow, spiral staircase! Walking up it wasn't too bad … going down on the other hand was a tad bit, um, terrifying!

Below is a view of the house.

 

Our final destination was the theater at Santa Clara University. I liked the color scheme of this space a lot. It looked like my hair in a way—there were brown chairs, a fraction of the seats were this faded blondish color, and a good portion of them were purple. I thought it was oddly beautiful. Saucy Stefan was telling me someone shared with him the reason why they colored the chairs that way was so if the actors looked out into the audience during the performance, they'd be thrown off on which seats were full versus empty. No actor likes seeing empty seats during a performance! How clever of them....

Anyway, on the last day, 12/18/12, I gave the cast and our lovely stage manager Christmas goodies! I baked a pie for Sleeping Beauty's closing day, so I wanted to something equally sentimental, but with holiday flare for the Elves crew! I gave them decorated goodie bags with cranberry-coconut bars, apple cake pops, and a slice of cranberry-orange pound cake. YUM! :) I hope everyone enjoyed them!

My next show is going to open the second week of January. Its called “Just So Stories” based on the short stories of Kipling. He wrote the Jungle Book, and won the 1907 Nobel Literature Prize. The language is unique, odd, but beautiful in our play. This show won't tour nearly as much. In fact, I think we only do home performances in Sunnyvale and day tours around the bay. I'm actually thankful for that because, as much as I love being on the road, I miss seeing my dog every day! I also miss hanging out with my friends, of course! And best of all.... I am going to be the Director of CTC's Great Spring Musical, “Guys and Dolls JR!” I am so excited and ready to sit in the director's chair again! I will make sure to keep everyone posted on how that is going! I LOVE Guys and Dolls, so this is going to be fun to be apart of. I'm honored CTC is entrusting me with this responsibility so early into my first season with them. I hope I make them proud!

Merry Christmas, everyone! And have a blessed and prosperous New Year! Congratulations to the world for surviving the Apocalypse on Friday! Take that, Mayans!!!!