a week of leaRNING AND FALLING BACK INTO THE RHYTHM (oops, capslock) of the show --
and let me say right here that i am growing sick of Romeo and Juliet. I have nothing to do during the show except watch unconvincing love/suicide scenes between chris and sarah. sarah driving me fucking nuts. i've been doing different things to keep the performances fresh -- staying "in the moment," if you will, but she's like an automaton -- she doesn't give you much new to work with, and she gives you the image of love and the image of mourning that i never really buy as REAL -- especially the more i see it. when she is onstage, she is 'sarah doing shakespeare' -- the semblance of naturalism is out the window, and her juliet, instead of being young and sweet, is kind of matronly and melodramatic -- her lady macbeth works a little better as 'matronly' (my favorite adjective for her), but sans seductiveness, sans fire.
Had a great performance yesterday, my favorite so far. Last show of the week, on the cusp of the weekend. we performed at Greensboro College High School - I guess the adjunct secondary school to the college -- and we found our performance space to be a little chapel -- methodist looking, or perhaps presbytyrian -- two aisles of wooden, velvet-padded pews -- a small stage where the altar and pulpit would have been -- it smelled like the churches of my youth, slightly musty, with adjoining rooms adorned with the portrait of some past pastor ... about 75 kids showed up -- they must have been high school seniors -- they were significantly older than any audience we've had so far (except the banker show) ... they sat scattered throught the pews.
The show changed significantly because of its space -- for one, because this strange setting -- us performing a gang of evil witches conjuring spells in macbeth, behind us a crucifix and the silver pipes of the church organ -- really seemed to give it some new energy; whether subversive or ironic, i'm not sure -- it also changed the way i did one of macbeth's monologue - i was able to underscore
"this duncan hath bourne his faculties so meek,
hath been so clear in his great office that
his virtues will plead like ANGELS, trumpet-tongued,
against the deep DAMNATION of his taking off,
... or HEAVEN'S CHERUBIM, horsed upon the sightless
couriers of the air, shall blow the horrid deed
in every eye that tears shall drown the wind ..."
in a much different way than i ever had -- also -- the acoustics of the small chapel allowed me to be quieter than i had ever been before -- allowed me to act in a somewhat more conversational town (as opposed to trying to shout it out to a gymnasium full of seventh graders. I really got off on it. it was such a breath of fresh air, and i think the closest i've yet come to the filmed Branaugh performances that first made shakespeare come alive to me.
After the show was over we answered some questions from the audience, and then one of the teachers singled out some students who had participated in some shakeperare monologue recitation contest -- the top three winners. They were'nt expecting it and neither were we. (we were sitting in the front row, in little 'deacon pews' -- as i sat down i called it a 'kissin' seat' and the girl behind me laughed) The 1st place girl got up there and did her ting -- helena from midsummer night's dream, and she kept fiddling with her shirt while she did the monolgue -- got through it passing well -- and the teacher commanded that we give her some feedback. Sarah jumped right in and something to the effect of, really try to see everything that you're saying, try to picture it in your head as you say each of these poetic images -- that's not the kind of direction i would've given, but i kept quiet and the girl sat back down -- as the 2nd place winner, a black kid, got up and i turned around to the audience and said, "does this feel like american idol to anyone else?" the kid, whose name was michael, -- you could tell he was shy, and really wasn't prepared to do this in front of us or his classmates -- said "i'm doing hamlet ... (and as an afterthought) from the play Hamlet," and he sort of chuckled to himself, and so did i, and joked, "from Macbeth." we laughed. He started the monolgue -- "Now will I kill him as he is praying," and michael pretty much looked right at me the whole time -- and it was clear he wanted someone to talk to, someone out in the audience. Something seemed missing, and an idea crept into my head. When he was finished, he started to sit back down, but the teacher told him to stay up there while we gave him notes. I stood up and said, "I'd like to try something." I asked him if he would do it again, not the whole thing -- but this time with me hidden behind the organists cubicle -- i told him that i was his uncle, and i was praying here in the church -- i told him to sneak in on me -- i found the prop knife that we use and handed it to him , and directed him to sneak in through a door on the side of the church. "I wanna go home," he half-moaned, in earnest ... I apologized and said, "we don't have to do this, it was just an idea," and then the audience clapped and i joined them and egged him on, sat back down by the organ, unseen to all but him, leaned over and grasped my hands as if in prayer, and called out to him, "remember, i killed your dad." that seemed to spark something in michael, and this time, when he came in to deliver the monologue, there was something more real about it -- it had contextualized itself for the kid, and he was really acting it now -- i've never heard hamlet done like that, with the cadence of ... well, an angry black man cadence, but it was totally believable, and when he was done, everyone cheered for him, impressed. Myself as well.
It made me feel proud, and gave me a hunger to direct again -- i think i would be a good director becasue i understand acting -- and this is the first time i've ever had a chance to try some little theories i've idly gathered and developed about directing: not telling an actor to do it in any particular way, but changing the circumstance, giving the actor something new to think about, and letting the actor find it -- if the actor isn't originating the performance, it will come across as "ACTING."
Yeah. So. That worked really well. The kids seemed like the coolest most intelligent audience we'd had so far, and they honestly enjoyed it -- a lot of them anyway. Told us so.
****
So I've been talking about getting an accordion, dreaming about accordions -- someties when i listen to songs i think of how an accordion would sound in there ... been plotting to purchase one, but i don't have a bank account, and my 'permanent address' is 3 1/2 ours away, and my car is having trouble and i need to get that taken car -- so 1st things 1st, right? And I screw'd my courgae to the sticking place and resigned myself to buying the accordion some other day.
BUT THEN
I drove to a local music store to buy some picks and a capo (I brought my guitar and mandolin back with me here) and low and behold, the first, the only accordion I'd ever seen for sale in a music store, an old Bellini Polka MAster, 124 button bass, piano style accordion, with a kind of banana-cream finish and yellowing keys -- mine for only $160. Came with the case. I bought it on the spot. Well, not on the spot. HAd to pour more oil into my car, sitting there in the music store/gas station parking lot, remove a plastic shield thing from the bottom of the car because one side had dislodged itself and it was scraping ... then went home, got two one-hundred dollar bills, and rushed back to the music store. All the keys work. On some of the lower notes, there is a grumbling, raspy tone, but i think it gives it character in a way. My first accordion. Been discovering things on it already. I'm trying to learn it by learning from other songs -- not necessarily accordion songs -- one CD in particular -- I picked up an album of Professor Longhair, the New Orleans pianist -- and have been pretty blown away by it -- so I'm trying to learn blues accordion basically. Which could be really cool if I could get it. I think I'm progressing, picking up things -- the bass button arrangement, and different pentatonic tricks on the piano side ... it's probably going to make me better on the piano to boot, once i can get the left hand and right hand to synchopate (alas, i am not a great dancer, either) ... it's like a portable church organ that breathes, and I've been making the most beautiful racket with the thing.
Well. That about brings me back up to date.
P.S. This has occured to me -- p'raps it was wrong of me to refer to my sexual life on a public access website. who cares, really. i'm just trying to be honest. and write about things that matter to me. i certainly keep most of my experience for myslef -- write it privately or for later sharing. Don't want to waste anyone's time just trying to keep in touch, keep updated. (yeah, so why the 5 page entry, brad?) but i'd appreciate it if certain LJ users in the Tri-Cities area respected the privacy of ... of ... ah, shit. you know what i mean.
Had a great performance yesterday, my favorite so far. Last show of the week, on the cusp of the weekend. we performed at Greensboro College High School - I guess the adjunct secondary school to the college -- and we found our performance space to be a little chapel -- methodist looking, or perhaps presbytyrian -- two aisles of wooden, velvet-padded pews -- a small stage where the altar and pulpit would have been -- it smelled like the churches of my youth, slightly musty, with adjoining rooms adorned with the portrait of some past pastor ... about 75 kids showed up -- they must have been high school seniors -- they were significantly older than any audience we've had so far (except the banker show) ... they sat scattered throught the pews.
The show changed significantly because of its space -- for one, because this strange setting -- us performing a gang of evil witches conjuring spells in macbeth, behind us a crucifix and the silver pipes of the church organ -- really seemed to give it some new energy; whether subversive or ironic, i'm not sure -- it also changed the way i did one of macbeth's monologue - i was able to underscore
"this duncan hath bourne his faculties so meek,
hath been so clear in his great office that
his virtues will plead like ANGELS, trumpet-tongued,
against the deep DAMNATION of his taking off,
... or HEAVEN'S CHERUBIM, horsed upon the sightless
couriers of the air, shall blow the horrid deed
in every eye that tears shall drown the wind ..."
in a much different way than i ever had -- also -- the acoustics of the small chapel allowed me to be quieter than i had ever been before -- allowed me to act in a somewhat more conversational town (as opposed to trying to shout it out to a gymnasium full of seventh graders. I really got off on it. it was such a breath of fresh air, and i think the closest i've yet come to the filmed Branaugh performances that first made shakespeare come alive to me.
After the show was over we answered some questions from the audience, and then one of the teachers singled out some students who had participated in some shakeperare monologue recitation contest -- the top three winners. They were'nt expecting it and neither were we. (we were sitting in the front row, in little 'deacon pews' -- as i sat down i called it a 'kissin' seat' and the girl behind me laughed) The 1st place girl got up there and did her ting -- helena from midsummer night's dream, and she kept fiddling with her shirt while she did the monolgue -- got through it passing well -- and the teacher commanded that we give her some feedback. Sarah jumped right in and something to the effect of, really try to see everything that you're saying, try to picture it in your head as you say each of these poetic images -- that's not the kind of direction i would've given, but i kept quiet and the girl sat back down -- as the 2nd place winner, a black kid, got up and i turned around to the audience and said, "does this feel like american idol to anyone else?" the kid, whose name was michael, -- you could tell he was shy, and really wasn't prepared to do this in front of us or his classmates -- said "i'm doing hamlet ... (and as an afterthought) from the play Hamlet," and he sort of chuckled to himself, and so did i, and joked, "from Macbeth." we laughed. He started the monolgue -- "Now will I kill him as he is praying," and michael pretty much looked right at me the whole time -- and it was clear he wanted someone to talk to, someone out in the audience. Something seemed missing, and an idea crept into my head. When he was finished, he started to sit back down, but the teacher told him to stay up there while we gave him notes. I stood up and said, "I'd like to try something." I asked him if he would do it again, not the whole thing -- but this time with me hidden behind the organists cubicle -- i told him that i was his uncle, and i was praying here in the church -- i told him to sneak in on me -- i found the prop knife that we use and handed it to him , and directed him to sneak in through a door on the side of the church. "I wanna go home," he half-moaned, in earnest ... I apologized and said, "we don't have to do this, it was just an idea," and then the audience clapped and i joined them and egged him on, sat back down by the organ, unseen to all but him, leaned over and grasped my hands as if in prayer, and called out to him, "remember, i killed your dad." that seemed to spark something in michael, and this time, when he came in to deliver the monologue, there was something more real about it -- it had contextualized itself for the kid, and he was really acting it now -- i've never heard hamlet done like that, with the cadence of ... well, an angry black man cadence, but it was totally believable, and when he was done, everyone cheered for him, impressed. Myself as well.
It made me feel proud, and gave me a hunger to direct again -- i think i would be a good director becasue i understand acting -- and this is the first time i've ever had a chance to try some little theories i've idly gathered and developed about directing: not telling an actor to do it in any particular way, but changing the circumstance, giving the actor something new to think about, and letting the actor find it -- if the actor isn't originating the performance, it will come across as "ACTING."
Yeah. So. That worked really well. The kids seemed like the coolest most intelligent audience we'd had so far, and they honestly enjoyed it -- a lot of them anyway. Told us so.
****
So I've been talking about getting an accordion, dreaming about accordions -- someties when i listen to songs i think of how an accordion would sound in there ... been plotting to purchase one, but i don't have a bank account, and my 'permanent address' is 3 1/2 ours away, and my car is having trouble and i need to get that taken car -- so 1st things 1st, right? And I screw'd my courgae to the sticking place and resigned myself to buying the accordion some other day.
BUT THEN
I drove to a local music store to buy some picks and a capo (I brought my guitar and mandolin back with me here) and low and behold, the first, the only accordion I'd ever seen for sale in a music store, an old Bellini Polka MAster, 124 button bass, piano style accordion, with a kind of banana-cream finish and yellowing keys -- mine for only $160. Came with the case. I bought it on the spot. Well, not on the spot. HAd to pour more oil into my car, sitting there in the music store/gas station parking lot, remove a plastic shield thing from the bottom of the car because one side had dislodged itself and it was scraping ... then went home, got two one-hundred dollar bills, and rushed back to the music store. All the keys work. On some of the lower notes, there is a grumbling, raspy tone, but i think it gives it character in a way. My first accordion. Been discovering things on it already. I'm trying to learn it by learning from other songs -- not necessarily accordion songs -- one CD in particular -- I picked up an album of Professor Longhair, the New Orleans pianist -- and have been pretty blown away by it -- so I'm trying to learn blues accordion basically. Which could be really cool if I could get it. I think I'm progressing, picking up things -- the bass button arrangement, and different pentatonic tricks on the piano side ... it's probably going to make me better on the piano to boot, once i can get the left hand and right hand to synchopate (alas, i am not a great dancer, either) ... it's like a portable church organ that breathes, and I've been making the most beautiful racket with the thing.
Well. That about brings me back up to date.
P.S. This has occured to me -- p'raps it was wrong of me to refer to my sexual life on a public access website. who cares, really. i'm just trying to be honest. and write about things that matter to me. i certainly keep most of my experience for myslef -- write it privately or for later sharing. Don't want to waste anyone's time just trying to keep in touch, keep updated. (yeah, so why the 5 page entry, brad?) but i'd appreciate it if certain LJ users in the Tri-Cities area respected the privacy of ... of ... ah, shit. you know what i mean.