Day 15

This morning we got to start off our day in Voice class with Greg. Our group is especially lucky because we get to have this class first, stretching out our "oh-man-it's-the-last-day-of-the-week-and-I'm-exhausted" bodies, breathing, and relaxing, before going into any of our more stress-inducing classes. As we move from one modified yoga position to the next, our limbs involuntarily tremor and shake (or, that's the goal, at least), like when you are trying to do one last push-up and your arms quiver all over the place. Letting that tremor happen while breathing allows the breath to fill different parts of the body, and when you are in an unusual position, it can feel quite strange and vulnerable. We also did some partner stretching, and I am pretty sure I am going to be sore tomorrow.

Our second class of the morning was Audition with Joanne. We talked about headshots and resumes, and fortunately I had brought mine up to speed the night before. I also told everyone looking to get new headshots about The Rock Studio's current special (which is detailed on the image above). Then someone asked Joanne about how SCR became so damn successful, and she told us the whole story (read about it here: http://www.scr.org/about/scrstory.aspx) about how Martin and David and their friends started an acting company after college, moved it to Orange County, and became one of the most successful theatres in the country over a few short decades. It wasn't necessarily audition-related, but it was a pretty inspiring tale of overcoming the odds, which always seem to be stacked against you in an audition room.

In the afternoon, we had Advanced Technique with Hal as a combined large class. We briefly discussed Psychological Gestures, but mostly kept working on the imaginary life of our characters. One exercise involved imagining how a character would walk into a room, find a book, and open the book to find a note inside telling them that their greatest wish had come true. We got up in front of the class to act out what we had envisioned in our imaginations one by one, and it was interesting to see who decided to stick to what they had planned to do in their heads, and who decided to try something completely new once they were in the moment.