Acting Journal IX: 2/17/15

Acting Journal: IX 2/17/15

From character concept to (soon to be) final execution, my part in the "open scene" I've been practicing with Jorge, has been quite a ride. Before i get too far ahead of myself here, gonna state what the lines are for our open scene.

Jorge: did you see him?
Jason: Who?
Jorge: you know!
Jason Do I?
Jorge: Come on!
Jason: NO!
Jorge:
Jason Don't do this
Jorge: What do you mean?
Jason: You do not want to know
Jorge: Forget it.
Jason: Sorry

Yes, i forget what one of Jorge's lines is in the middle, No, i'm not gonna miss my que on it. Our original concept was to do a "fight scene" with blocking, and stage combat, but our prof quiclky reminded us the point of this exercise is to build a beat. That scrapped quite a bit of excessive "backstory" that we started with. However, a lot of the basic "emotional tenor" remains, as Jorge, is questioning my character, and i'm trying to hide/deflect the question, until he leaves in a huff, and I regret him going. A lot of this has been developed in response to Don's comments on our demonstrations of our scene. The good news is that it is getting more and more solid with each and every practice.

Some things I've noticed about the preparation process:
No matter how much I practice, it seems that feedback from a third party is SUPER useful.
Learning which variations "resonate" with my partner is invaluable
It's easy for actors in a scene to get "fun parts" of their delivery "on" and not notice when other, important parts fall off.
Scheduling practice times are difficult, especially if health complications are involved.
Having an enthusiastic, helpful partner makes a big difference.
Also, learning more about your partner, helps me feel more comfortable with the process, and the role.