Wednesday, 2-16-11

Wednesday, 2-16-11

So I’m a little late in writing this entry, but I’ll still be talking about class yesterday. In Acting after we warmed up we worked the General Hospital improv. We ran through each of our improvs about twice, all simultaneously, and then Matt opened it up to us to expand from our scenarios and enter other rooms of the hospital.

Our scenario was that Stetson and Reggie found me unconscious in a park late at night and took me to the hospital. Bertha was the nurse that came to examine me. I revived, and after sorting things out in my head, realized I was late for a date that I had been preparing for by walking in the park to calm my nerves. I hadn’t eaten much that day so the fainting spell was probably just a result of a lack of nutrition or dehydration. I then made my exit as quickly as possible.

During the first few runs of this improv, I tried to be much more specific and free in allowing the animal to dictate my actions. At first I modeled my hands after claws to smooth back my hair and manipulate objects, but even that was too digit-oriented considering flamingos don’t really use their feet in that way at all. Matt suggested that I try using my fingers as little as possible—that maybe my character doesn’t use his hands as a way of showing his status. Like he doesn’t need to use his hands because other people do things for him, and his fingers are carefully manicured so he fears messing them up.

Taking a break, Matt had us go through the exercise again with a focus on our character’s vocalization, and encouraged us to try a dialect or accent. I adopted a sort of southern aristocratic drawl, and experimented with using my hands less and instead originating movement in my spine and head, which is beginning to work well. Flamingos lead from their heads and long, spinal, necks, so that’s an appropriate choice for the animal. I got into a verbal argument with another character after he insulted my pink shirt, which was fun.

The southern dialect didn’t really work that well though. What did work was trying to be less nervous and verbally fidgety, and more quiet and reserved—letting loose on the specific occasions when I did speak. That was nice. Matt suggested that I look at European accents though—German or Italian. He also suggested a Sydney dialect might be interesting. So I’ll be looking at those over the weekend.

We’re redoing our private moments for Friday, which is great, because I was wishing I got a second chance after Monday’s class. I’ll be taking more time to be decisive and specific as the animal, and try to bring in the physical things I did Wednesday.