Aida and the Audition

For our next and (I believe) final project, we are each doing an audition piece. This can be a song, a monologue, or a choreographed dance. Although most of us are doing a song from a musical, there is somebody doing a monologue and another doing a dance. This gives us an opportunity to showcase our strengths, because we have a wide range of choices.

I need to work on my vocal range and also my pitch. If I’m in the right mood, and feel the right way, I can have a wide range, able to sing soprano to tenor if needed. But there are often, especially more recently, times where my voice isn’t at its strongest. This is probably due to stress, lack of my lessons, and also breathing issues. Since I haven’t been to a lesson in a few months, I have stopped really working on my voice. In CATS, we don’t warm up with air exercises and using the diaphragm like I once did, and I have a harder time using my chest voice over my head or throat voice. (When I can use my chest voice, I can sing a lot better than when I’m not). I also need to work on pitch. I know that I have a tendency to sink below the pitch, usually a little flat. I am working on singing clearer and higher to avoid that happening.

My strengths lie in the alto range. When it comes to singing lower notes, I am stronger and can therefore demonstrate that strength. As an actress, I have to tell the story with my movements, and tell the audience a story with my movement and words.

I would like to do a song from Aida. The music for Aida was written by Elton John, so there is rock influence along with musical theater. I think this can show a director that I have a versatile voice, because I can sing rock, blues, jazz, and songs from musicals. This will also give me a chance to show the power in my voice - the stage presence it provides. However, since this is not a classic musical song, I will not be able to demonstrate a gentler tone of my voice - this song would not work if I was trying out for Annie. This also can show the weakness of my flexible range because it can go very high, and also quite low.

The music from Aida is a challenge. It requires extreme presence, feeling, and motivation, things I may need to work on. Nonetheless, as stated before, it will allow me to show a powerful voice and my lower range as well as some high ones.

I will need to pull of my audition piece as close to flawlessly as possible. The rock notes need to be strong, and the calmer parts still filled with emotion. I will need to leave everything i have out on the stage, to show that this is something I am dedicated to - This is to demonstrate my talents, and work on my weaknesses.

Final Scenes

Bo and Pattie - http://youtu.be/JB1xE569zIs

Rosa and Maria - http://youtu.be/PUuo0jyd-28

The Life Of Galileo: An Actress’s Take

       “Galileo, the Bible killer!”... or at least according to the citizens of Rome and the Roman Catholic Church in the play Galileo. The Cheshire Academy Varsity Players presented the show Galileo on November 13th, 14th, and 15th. It was in interesting story with many complicated aspects and characters, which may have been difficult for a high school audience to comprehend. The play was written by Bertolt Brecht, a man who believed in the truth. I, as an actress in the play, consider Brecht brilliant. All he wanted to do was create a better world by pointing out the flaws in our own. Unfortunately, I also feel like that wasn’t a message seen by the entire cast, and therefore not convincingly displayed to the audience - I think they could have been just confused. Overall, I really liked our acting skills and the ability to react as each individual character, but we could have worked on the delivery of our message - do not let yourself be oppressed.

         Galileo by Bertolt Brecht is about the fight between a scientist Galileo Galeili and The Roman Catholic Church. The story of Galileo is often romanticized in modern literature. "The great man who invented the telescope against the evil church"... but is that the whole story? the answer, friends, is no. You learn in the beginning that Galileo was not the inventor of the telescope. He actually stole the idea (with the knowledge that he was doing this) from and inventor in Holland, and learns about it from his student, Ludovico. The play demonstrates the truth about Galileo. He was not the man everybody thinks he was. His priorities were with his research, yes but they were more so with his own health. Food, drink, and self preservation were things he valued over his own daughter - Virginia. Virginia was a sweet girl. She believed in God and that her father could to no harm. However, throughout the play, this develops. She begins to see him for who he was - a vain man. Alas, she is too late anyways. By the end of the play, Galileo has contributed to science. But he died alone, in the church. Eventually, so does Virginia. Nobody knows what becomes of Ludovico after he left Virginia, but we know that all of Galileo's friends have abandoned science. The story works out for nobody.

         Each induvidual actor was amazing. Although we were speaking fast, and many lines could not be understood, we explained the story through expressions and reactions, and the audience could understand what was going on without catching every word.

         Since I was an actress in the play, I have more criticism than I do praise - I know this play well, and could see what was done wrong. However, the main error we had was not something I recognized until it was over...

         I have always been big on meanings. The songs I listen to have meaning, the things I do are trying to better the world... not always successful but I'm working on it. Mr. Aronson tried to explain "Epic Acting" to us. I got it, but not completely. The second night, he explained to us how we should talk to the audience - how most of us may be talking to another character, but in reality we are talking to the audience. That got me thinking about how none of my lines were really like that, and then about Virginia... who was she? I realized, after the last show, that she was the audience, in a sense. She was oblivious to everything - she walked in with the mindset of the romanticized story of Galileo the audience had. He was her hero - until scene 13. When she overheard her conversation with Andrea and she finally saw him for what he was, but too late to really do anything about it. This is what Brecht wanted the audience to do, only he wanted them to fix things before it was too late, before they experience the same thing as Virginia.

         I wish we had all caught onto the real meaning of Brecht before the end of the show, but for a highschool cast consisting of new actors we did very, very well. I'm excited for the musical and to do more shows like this in the future, for the older plays are new to me.

So many places to be and things to do...

          Our scene work is going well, for the moment. We've all learned a lot about body language, motion, and got deeper insights on who we are as actors. I, for one, discovered how hard it is to remain sad in a scene. In order for it to fully work you have to look the part - the whole way through. This means your facial expressions have to be pointed downward. Your eyes have to be sullen, not bright. Everything - from your eyebrows to your mouth has to portray sadness. This is extremely difficult for me to do. I'm only sad when I have a good reason to be sad - I've never had to fake cry or anything, which is why I struggle with Bo and Patti.

          In addition, I learned about how to show the characters backstory and motivation through my acting. Knowing these things made the acting more realistic - I could understand why something was being said and then even further know how to deliver that line. I good example of this is in the Rosa and Maria scene. I play Rosa, a pregnant teenager just telling her friend the news. When Maria finds out, she asks if "Johnny" knows. We determined that Johnny is her boyfriend, the one who got her pregnant. Then I decided that she didn't tell Johnny because she is afraid he will leave her - why would he want to become a father? All of this leads me to deliver my line "no" quickly, as if I'm hiding something (because I am). 

          I also learned the true importance of memorization. I used to never study lines when I was at home. I was often a lead, so all my lines were being repeated over and over again every afternoon at practice, or I had a smaller part where the few lines I had were easy to learn. Sometimes I didn't have any lines at all. This made memorization easy for me. The only thing I had to do was sometimes record them and listen. Now, I don't have drama everyday. The days I do have it, we might not me practicing a scene I'm in - I actually had to study the lines. I learned techniques, I learned how to do it, and even though I still struggle a little, I'm getting better. 

          Luckily, I'm working with friends in my scenes - people I know, people I trust. This has its advantages and disadvantages. A good thing is that I'm not afraid to open up and really act, like I can be in Galileo or anywhere else where I don't know the other actors extremely well. On the other hand, it can be hard to remain focused. You think of something stupid the other person says and next thing you know you're both dying of laughter on the floor. This doesn't help when it's already hard to remain focused on the depressing mood of the scene being performed.

          Another new trick I learned is the importance of using the space. In our scenes, we are the ones who determine where to enter, where to exit, ect... This allows me to figure out the best way to use the space so that I can portray what my character is thinking. I use this in the Rosa and Maria scene as well. When Rosa is trying to decide how to tell Maria she's pregnant, she gets up, and paces around the room a bit, looking away from her friend. This shows nervousness and fear to admit something to somebody she loves. 

          This has been a great learning experience for the whole class. I hope we will continue to do as well as we did today. 

- Sam Weed