We're All Rolling Down the Windows...

This week in class we have been working on scene performance. I will be performing two different scenes with two different people. The scene work challenges me to be serious and focused so that I can portray the heaviness in each scene. It is difficult at most times, but these are the challenges that push me as an actress.

My first scene is with Maddy and it is a conversation between a freshman and a senior. I play the senior and she is confronting the freshman after she had gone out with a senior boy with a reputation of a womanizer. The freshman is aware of his reputation, but thinks that she’s the one that the boy truly loves. I believe my character is an ex best friend of the boy, Bobby. She might’ve had a slight crush on him, but it was never going anywhere and she knew that. She had been up a few weeks ago with another classmate of the freshman’s who had just had her virginity ripped from her by Bobby. Bobby of course didn’t care about the pain and emotion he had left on the girl and left her for another girl, but this girl grew depressed. My character was up all night with this girl who I believe is a teammate or someone who lives in the dorm with her, if this were to take place at a boarding school. This girl was crying and debating jumping out a window to end her misery. The senior girl wouldn’t allow this though and comforted her through it. The result of confronting this new freshman girl was that she had finally realized that Bobby didn’t even see a winner out of hooking up with all these freshmen. So she went to go confront Bobby and also warn the other girl he happened to be with.

My other scene is with Sammy Weed, aka Weed Strong. It is about a boy and a girl named Bo and Patti. My character is Bo and Sam’s is Patti. They both had just suffered a tragic loss. Bo’s sister and Patti’s brother had died in a car from a carbon monoxide leak. Bo was able to get back to school even though he obviously is still grieving the loss and is in pain wishing he could’ve prevented it. Patti hasn’t been able to eat or even leave prison of her room due to guilt. There was nothing either of them could have done, but they still believe there was. So Bo came over to Patti’s house to check on her because she hadn’t been to school all week and he thought he’d see her there. They have a long conversation and Patti first wouldn’t let Bo in, but after some talking she finally let him sit down and poured her heart out to him. Bo was more a shoulder character in the sense of that he was there to give a shoulder to Pattie since she was obviously showing her pain a lot more than Bo was. These two scenes have very heavy topics and I’m excited to get to perform these in class.

It's Not Easy Being A Man

In class, we made a silent movie about a man who cheated on his main chick, with another woman. I played the man and it was quite the challenge. Being a man required less reaction and less smiling to avoid appearing too feminine. I learned that body language is more important than the words in some cases. This was the exact opposite of our monologues because we couldn’t speak. Instead we were doing extravagent movements that were way more than what I personally would have done in real life or even in a speaking performance. Facial expressions also truley show how a person really feels. When I would hug one of my girlfriends I’d show a face as though I truly didn’t care about either one of them. If I showed that I loved both of them, the fact that I’m a total player would not have shown through. For our first attempt at the silent movie, it was very difficult not to speak and to show my feelings through actions instead of words. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do, or where I was supposed to go for most of the time. As we kept working on it, our chemistry began to grow and we could inticipate each thing we would do. Lindsey would know when I was going to do a move on her and place my arm around her lovingly and Sam would know when to come in and sit down after my scene with my main chick. Soon our performances became an unwritten script and each of our parts and roles became more concrete. I would wave goodbye to Sam and then Lindsey would come in. It might as well had been an actual script we had blueprinted out and planned. We got more and more comfortable and relaxed and it showed in our final take. There were funny moments that worked well and made the show more exciting. When Maddie rolled her eyes and acted sassy while I was tried to flirt with her, it was both funny and an amazing facial expression on her part. Lindsey did a great job being in love with me and showing that to the audience. Sam also did an amazing job pretending to be in love with me and being that other girl who seemed obviously way more fun than the other. I think I did a pretty good job at portraying a man. I would totally date myself after watching the video! I think I showed the audience that I was playing all these girls and I didn’t care that they might get hurt. In the beginning I had a lot of trouble staying serious while flirting with Maddie, but I think as the process kept moving I began to get more and more skilled with it. I had trouble staying on task and staying focused at some times, but that’s just because I’m not the type to be serious and jokeless all the time. I like to have fun and I think we all did. In the end we had a great product that was funny, serious, and showed all our hard work and I’m super proud of it.