DAY 25

Another Friday! It's hard to describe how the breathing exercises in Greg's Voice class help to fill our entire bodies with resonance and sound. It's the difference between someone who is pushing to try and speak loudly from their throat or chest, and the person who seems to just naturally and effortlessly boom out sound from somewhere in their torso. After our hour and a half of de-structuring our breathing (forcing it away from a normal breath pattern through all of the tremor-ing), we all find ourselves in the latter, booming category.

In Joanne's Audition class, we spent the day doing cold readings in pairs. She (and several of our teachers this summer) have emphasized the importance of reading out loud every single day. We took turns reading scenes about five minutes long, and every time the sides ended we were all desperate to know what happened to the characters in the end. Since we can't all have a personal Joanne with a vast knowledge of great plays to make recommendations at our disposal, I thought I'd mention a few of the ones that we read selections from, although I'm not sure if they are all published yet: What They Have by Kate Robbins, Completeness by Itamar Moses, King of Shadows by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Happy Face by David West Read, and Incendiary by Adam Szymkowicz.

In Hal's combined afternoon Advanced Technique class, we could pick any combination of the techniques we've learned so far (movement qualities, imaginary centers, tempos, atmospheres, etc) two create characters. He set up a table and chairs, and we went up two at a time, with our characters and techniques in mind. One person sat down first, then the next came out and had to start the scene by asking, "You come here often?" It was really entertaining and interesting to see how many ways the scenario could play out, for better or for worse. It's fun for us to be able to use these ideas, which at first glance can seem technical or abstract, in an improvisation to illustrate how useful they can be when working on a "real" character in a production.

DAY 24

What advice did wildly successful television director Lee Shallat have for a room of aspiring actors?

"The best thing you can do is become a Buddhist."

She was only kind of joking- most of the advice she gave us was the encouragement to keep pursuing our careers, whether going to fruitless audition after fruitless audition or continuing to direct after a flopped show. She described her own initial failures and struggles when she made the switch from directing theatre to film without having any camera training as "being like a zombie... I kept coming back from the dead." That kind of perseverance has led her to direct such shows as Family Ties, The Nanny, Mad About You, Spin City, Arrested Development, The Bernie Mac Show, and Gilmore Girls.

She did give us some great audition tips for the world of film and television, and I'll list them here, as frantically scribbled down by a completely inexperienced film actress:

- The best ways to be seen by a casting director: Go to casting workshops, or be in an independent film that gets seen by influential people.

- In an audition, never feel like you NEED to get the job, or you will not be in the best mental place you can be, which is a centered, loose place.

- Read sides OUT LOUD on your feet a million times before the audition. It can never be stale or over-prepared... if you get the part you're going to have to do it in front of the camera a million times anyway.

- Read stage directions for character clues.

- Know where the character stands dramatically and psychologically in the scene.

- Be aware of where the "point" of the scene is.

- Don't "decorate" unnecessarily- if you're supposed to be the straight man, don't try to be funny.

- Don't ask yourself to get it perfectly right the first second: It's impossible. Just go in the moment.

-When you leave, let it go!

- Breathe life into the scene.

- If you are comfortable with it, they will be comfortable with you.

- They'll never tell you the truth. [Yikes!]

- DO NOT do a "stretch" piece in a general audition. Show off everything that's great about you, not your liabilities.

- Know who you are and how you come across.

Finally, one of my favorite bits of advice that she gave us was to put the "story you make up about yourself" (all the doubts and fears and self-criticism) out of your head. Keep the pure feelings (adrenaline, excitement), and be comfortable with yourself in them, because they will be there regardless, and use them to your advantage.

DAY 23

Today we were so lucky to spend the first half of our day listening to actress Marin Hinkle (most recently well known for her role as Jon Cryer's shrew ex-wife on Two and a Half Men) talk about her experience as an actress balancing theatre, television, and family.

She told us the story of how her early life led her to acting: Born in Africa to parents (a lawyer and a professor) who met in the Peace Corps, she spent her childhood as a dancer before an injury left her to focus on academics and college. Knowing she was unable to dance but still in love with the stage, she decided to enroll as a theatre major at Brown. I related so much to her description of finding the theatre as a place where you can be something beyond what your family situation (or expectations of being proper and academic) dictate, allowing you to be something beyond the "good girl." My favorite anecdote was her description of her attempt at playing Emily in Our Town, which was failing as she acted it from a dancer's aesthetic, each line fully expressed with body motions and big faces. Laura Linney, who was a friend a few years her senior at Brown, kindly told her over burgers, "... you could simplify."

She took that advice to get her MFA at NYU, and began working in regional theatres and Off Broadway. Her theatre career picked up, she got married, and got a recurring role on Once and Again as Sela Ward's sister, moving out to Los Angeles from New York. After that ended she returned to regional theatre work, and after finding out she and her husband were pregnant, landed her current role on Two and a Half Men. It was so interesting to hear about the differences she has experienced between theatre and television work. She described the television set as an often joyless, sometimes "soulless" environment facing deadlines with a business mindedness, not with the theatrical creative, ensemble process. However, this job has afforded her the opportunity to pay off student loans, buy a home, and raise her child. There is no room for discussion about her character, as she commented, "Clearly the writers are angry at their ex-wives."

Day 22

This morning we had Karen's Rehearsal class on the Argyros stage. It's so tempting, in such a big and intimidating theatre, to fall back to all of our bad actor habits to try and fill the space. It was also our last day working on The Three Sisters and there was a general sadness at being done with these characters that we've spent so much time with over the past month. I did one last Irina speech, and at one point at which I was sort of whispering/confiding in another character, Karen told me that such a whisper could not be heard at the back of such a large house. The cheat solution she offered me was to make the sentences on either side of the secret louder than normal so that the secret can be a normal volume, but still sound quieter and more hushed than the rest.

After lunch we had our final day of shooting Girl, Interrupted in Scott's Camera class. The last scene that we had to shoot was my close up. We did two takes, and after watching the playback we all generally agreed that the second one was better. One of my off camera scene partners remarked that it's always easier to have your best performance when the camera is not pointing right at your face. Scott seemed to take this idea to heart because he told me to do it one more time, just as a rehearsal run-through without the camera. We did it, and afterward he said, "Cut! Callie, did you know we were actually shooting?" I had to admit that I did- no one holds the boom mic for a rehearsal. It was a good directorial trick, though.

Lastly we had Hisa's Shakespeare class. I didn't present today, but I did enjoy watching my classmates perform and I think that I am going to use one of their monologues as my comedic selection: The Julia monologue from Two Gentlemen of Verona in which she berates herself for ripping up a love letter is funny even outside of the context of the show.

Day 21- WEEK FIVE

No class today in honor of the Fourth of July!

I spent some of my time off reading Rabbit Hole by David Lindsay-Abaire. Wow. I know I'm a couple years late on discovering this play, but, man, talk about writing some punch-you-in-the-gut-emotion into characters: A couple struggles in the year after the accidental death of their four-year-old son to redefine their own lives and relationships. I'm not a mother (and obviously Mr. Lindsay-Abaire isn't either) but the grief of a woman who has lost her child is heart-wrenchingly palpable in the dialogue.

Also, a note on the blog format: The date and time stamp at the top of each entry is the time at which I post it, not necessarily the day being described in the entry. If anyone knows a way to change it at the time of posting, let me know!

DAY 20

Friday! This morning we were lucky enough to have Voice class with Greg on the Argyros Stage, one of the two main stages at SCR. It was so cool to be in such a renowned space, and our group was especially lucky to have this class first thing in the morning to relax and get our voices warmed up before the rest of the day. Greg had some of us go out into the house to listen to others say lines from their monologues to see how the acoustics in the house sound and vice versa. Then we did our full Fitzmaurice warm-up of stretching, tremor-ing, and breathing while saying text. At the end of class we tried our pieces again, and it was amazing how much fuller and more supported everyone sounded.

Secondly we had Audition class with Joanne on the Nicholas stage. Today was a mock-audition, and we went through the class each pretending as if it was the annual SCR generals: Walk in the room, slate, say your piece, say thank you, and walk out. We also timed each person; an ideal audition (and the usual requirement) is somewhere between one to three minutes. I felt pretty good about my piece, which is a Pooty monologue (great character name, huh?) from Reckless by Craig Lucas. My next task is to find a good contrasting piece. Joanne suggested I look at plays by Theresa Rebeck, who I'd never heard of (sometimes I feel like an ignorant fool when confronted with all the plays and writers I've never heard of) but apparently writes great edgy and funny female roles.

In the afternoon we had a combined Advanced Technique class with Hal. We worked with the idea of Tempos for the first time. This technique works with the concept that each character has an inner and outer tempo, and the atmosphere they interact in has its own tempo. A character's inner tempo is the rate at which a character thinks, feels, visualizes, etc, and can be categorized as very fast, fast, normal, slow, or very slow. A character's outer tempo is the rate at which a character moves, speaks, handles objects, etc, and can be fast, normal, or slow. The tempo of the atmosphere, or its pulse or heartbeat, can be very fast, fast, normal, or slow. We all got to take turns making up characters with any combination of tempos. I chose a sharp old lady (inner tempo: quick, outer tempo: slow) and a bouncy little girl (inner tempo: slow, outer tempo: very fast). For those of us who didn't get to do a scene playing with Atmosphere on Wednesday, we got to go this afternoon. I played a scene in which my husband was leaving me, and I was trying to get him to stay. The first atmosphere was despair and the second, anger. Playing despair, I made myself cry again.

It's the small victories in life.

DAY 19

This morning we had a double Audition class with Joanne talking about the difference between film and television auditions versus theatre auditions. Personally, I still think that the film and TV audition process sounds much more nerve-wracking, probably because I've never done it before. When you think about it, it can either be awful or wonderful that your talent doesn't (really) matter and it's all about your look- on the one hand, not getting the job doesn't mean you didn't do well and so it's not personal, on the other hand, you can't really control your look, you just have to hope that you match the image in the casting associate's head. We also talked about how important cold reading skills are, especially in the film medium where you often have to cold read without knowing anything about the story or character. We practiced a bit with Luna Park, a book of unrelated monologues and scenes by Donald Margulies. (Note: Although it's usually not ideal to do monologues that aren't from plays for auditions, Joanne suggested that anything from this book would be alright because it is by such a well-respected playwright, not just an Acting 101 monologue book.)

After lunch we had Acting for the Camera with Scott, and we got to shoot most of the close-ups for Girl, Interrupted. It's an interesting experience being the out-of-shot actor, because (for me and some of my classmates, at least) there's less of that self-conscious feeling when you know you're not being recorded. It's also an interesting transition when, in all of your theatre training, you've been told to be "bigger" and then on film you need to "tone it down" or else you look like the world's biggest over-actor.

Lastly we had a Three Sisters Rehearsal class with Karen. She had given us the option of preparing a scene as a character other than the role we had been cast in for today's class. It was really fun to see people find characters entirely against their type and still play them wonderfully. My favorite was a transformation from Vershinin (leading man) to the Doctor (drunken old man). Karen even surprised one classmate who had not prepared an opposite character by asking her to go from Natasha (evil shrew) to Masha (heart-broken mess).

DAY 18

This morning's Improv class with Greg found all of us suddenly having a terrible time with the simpler games. A mid-week funk, if you will. We moved on to a new game, which was similar to one that we played in Hal's class a few weeks ago, playing with mock job interviews. One person would be doing the interviewing, and the other would have to come up with three distinct characters to interview for the job. It was interesting afterward to pick apart how some turns in their conversations had either helped or hindered the scene: Any time someone gave their scene partner good detailed information, it was greatly beneficial, but if the person didn't receive it or accept what they said as true (breaking one of the holiest improv rules) the scene tanked.

In Hal's Advanced Technique class we continued to focus on Atmospheres and Psychological Gestures. I feel that Atmospheres and the Qualities that we worked on in the earlier weeks have largely the same effect for me, just with different ways of using the imagination: Either that it comes from your surroundings or inside your body, whatever "it" is (the feeling you get from an atmosphere of power versus the carving quality feel similar to me). We worked on finding a Psychological Gesture for our Three Sisters characters, which can be hard to do for intellectual characters, and especially hard for intellectual actors. The gesture is supposed to be a sort of gut reaction to the character, in one simple physical movement, that symbolizes their objective and situation. A character looking for love while feeling trapped could perhaps lunge forward, arms outstretched, without quite reaching what they need. It can feel silly to do such huge movements that are not at all realistic if you think too much about it; it is more of an intuitive response.

In Hisa's Shakespeare class I got up to do my Helena monologue from All's Well. I was so focused on not being "promiscuous with my pauses" that I sped through it pretty quickly the first time around. Then she had me go back and do it again focusing on clarifying each image (and not moving my non-paper-carrying hand like a crazy person). I connect so deeply to Helena in what she's saying in this monologue, and I became a bit overwhelmed by it and unable to connect that emotion to the words off the page. By next class I will be memorized so that I don't have to be hiding behind the paper while I speak.

DAY 17

This morning we had a double-session with Karen, finishing up the speeches we each selected, as several people were absent yesterday. I think that we've come to the point in the summer where we're all hovering around emotional exhaustion, after about a month of this training and real life marching on as well: A few people had overwhelming emotional moments in class not found in The Three Sisters, but managed to harness it to use it in their work. Personal troubles always find a way to come at the busiest times, and I'm so glad that our class is being so professional and supportive. We all continue to try to connect our thoughts to the words, instead of having the thought in a pause and then speaking after the fact.

In Acting For The Camera with Scott we finished the close-ups for American Psycho and Ghost World and, I must say, I think I may have missed my true calling: The marker. Who wouldn't love clapping that little board and announcing what's about to happen? The power can go to your head.

I didn't do my monologue in Hisa's Shakespeare class today, but of course learned just as much from watching my classmates go. I love the way Hisa describes the characters, and when a Luciana (from Comedy of Errors) had finished the first time, she explained how the character would see the world, and finally settled on "She has kitten posters in her room, you know?" A big focus for today was using the structure of the language for our own creative purposes, instead of being tied down to a certain way of saying it.

DAY 16- WEEK FOUR

Our hour with Karen this morning was a little unorthodox as it consisted of brief one-on-one meetings discussing our personal progress instead of rehearsal. In my meeting, we agreed that the number one thing I need to continue to focus on is my vocal range and variety. Also, not slouching... my mother would be so ashamed.

We then had Improv with Greg for an hour, which felt strange because several people from our group were missing, for personal reasons or for auditions, so our team was a little off. We played the "Name Six" game and I couldn't think of famous bald men. As soon as the water bottle came back to me, I realized I could have just picked six Lakers and I would have been fine: "Kobe, damn it!" We also did an exercise where we each had to stand in front of the class and answer some sort of personal question. We had the option to lie if we didn't want to tell the truth, but we just had to convince the rest of the class. When it came time to pick apart who we thought had lied and why, it turned out most of our group had just told the truth. Clearly, we have no shame.

After lunch we had our normal, full-session Rehearsal class with Karen in which we showed off the speeches we'd selected for our characters. All of the women had to wear corsets for the first time, and I thought my ribs might explode. Turned out, it was a great tool for me because when it was my turn to do my speech, my hysterical laughter just about caused a panic attack for my lungs which made me able to cry, on stage, for the first time. That's right, ladies and gentlemen, not just shuddering and sounds to look like crying: real live water works. The next thing she had me work on was pausing less in between thoughts, or, as she likes to say, not being "promiscuous with your pauses."

Lastly, we had Advanced Technique with Hal. We worked with the idea of "Atmospheres" in which you imagine the atmosphere of your location or situation and absorbing the feelings it creates- for example, the feeling of reverence inside of a cathedral, or sorrow at a funeral. Going along with the church theme, Hal made us a sort of make-shift chapel using flats and blocks, and had us (and by us I mean the girls in the class) pretend to be nuns in a small Italian chapel, and the other half (the boys) be trouble-making, drunk American tourists. It was so funny to see how they could not keep up their shouting ways once they entered the atmosphere we were practically spitting out at them.

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.

DAY 14

This morning we had our Audition class with Joanne. We all went through our monologues to see the progress that we are making with them, etc, as some still need to be shortened a bit. We then started talking about pictures and resumes and letting Joanne look at them to edit them and make recommendations. When I saw everyone else's resumes I was too embarrassed to show mine today: It was formatted all pretty, with different colors and fonts. Apparently, that's not okay. So tonight I am going to re-do all of the formatting and show her tomorrow my new, black and white, standard edition resume. Also, she told someone else in the class that they needed to leave out their high school credits, and so I'll be taking off mine as well, which will make the whole thing a lot shorter. Sigh.

In Scott's Camera class we began filming the close-ups for our scenes. Girl, Interrupted didn't shoot today, so we were assigned different crew tasks. I was in charge of the script supervisor sheet, writing down the description of the scene and the time stamp for each shot, to be given to the editor so that he or she knows which take to print.

In Karen's Rehearsal class today we attacked Act IV of The Three Sisters, which is essentially where it hits the fan emotionally speaking. I did the Irina scene where she tells the Baron she doesn't love him and can't do anything about it. Karen had us (literally) run laps across the front of the stage and do it again, heart rates up and out of breath, and this time it was so much more high stakes and high emotions- we were both fuming. Then she had us put our scripts down and do the scene using our own words, which basically led to us shouting at each other. Then we moved on to the scene where Masha and Vershinin have to say goodbye to one another. Both actor pairs playing these parts broke my heart in this scene, it was so beautiful and heart-breaking. I played Irina both times, and the scene immediately following the kiss goodbye was so different each time, but both ended up with laughter through tears. The only down side to the class for me was when I asked what we were looking at through the fourth wall. As soon as it left my mouth, I knew it was a stupid question. Karen was not amused.

DAY 13

Today in Greg's Improvisation class we played a new game in which one person volunteers and sits in a chair in front of the rest of the class to show the life story of their character. The thing is, they have no idea who their character is, and it is up to the rest of the class to jump up and start doing a scene, in no chronological order, from any point of their life, giving the person clues as to who their character is. One person jumps up and starts talking about their life in the retirement home, another person gets up and asks them to prom, another person starts asking them for milk and cookies, and it becomes apparent what the relationships are in a matter of seconds: Grandma, girlfriend, mommy. The only time it didn't go well was when someone would jump up and start a scene without giving the person enough information about who they were or what the situation was.

In Hal's class we began to move on from imaginary centers toward the imaginary life of a character. This work is all about the imagination, and how you would imagine your character, when you see them in your mind's eye, walking, sitting, or gesturing. The physical posture of the actor/character affects us so much, even subconsciously. Hal had us say the simple line "What's the matter with me?" not with any particular character in mind, but in five different sitting positions. It was amazing how different the line delivery was in each position, without any motivation or circumstances dictating it. The difference between saying it with the head lowered versus arms extended up was the most dramatic and most interesting.

I got to work on my new monologue from All's Well That Ends Well in Hisa's Shakespeare class. It's funny how sometimes obvious things can be overlooked when you are working on just a monologue instead of the whole scene or play: I was so focused on what I was saying in the monologue that I completely neglected the relationship to the person I was saying it to- in this case, Bertram's mother. The monologue is more about Helena's relationship to her than it is describing Helena's love for Bertram. Which, now that it's been pointed out to me, is beyond obvious, but I had not even really considered it before. My new challenge, now that I've exchanged my own clipped way of speaking for a more drawn out vocal release for Shakespeare is to keep "fresh minting" each idea when it changes, shifts, or gets bigger. Hisa has such a great way of describing how each character needs this heightened language. My favorite quote from class today: "In this world, all we have is language. And occasionally poison and daggers."

DAY 12

Today we all left Karen's Rehearsal class completely high on our Three Sisters work. It was like everyone had their own revelatory breakthrough about their character. The literal and figurative coloring of our scripts really worked, and we were all able to find the most surprising range of emotions in seemingly one-note speeches. Even Karen was thrilled about it, and made us all breath a huge sigh of "finally! we did it!" relief.

In Scott's Camera class, we had to reshoot the master shot for Girl, Interrupted because when we were shooting last week, the memory chip reached capacity but the camera kept rolling, so we had no idea that what we were doing was not being saved. We re-shot our scene and finished up the last of the master shots for the other scenes. Ultimately (apparently) very little of these shots will be seen in the final product except to set up the first image as location and character spacial relations- everything else will be varied close-ups jumping back and forth.

Shakespeare with Hisa was helpful, as it always is. Even when you are not necessarily the person working a monologue or scene, it's often times easier to see what she's talking about when watching someone else go through it. When it's you up there, it can be harder to hear what she's diagnosing in your own voice. We only have time to get through about half the class, so I did not go today, but just listening to others work to achieve the "have the thought-need the words" reaction was very informative.

DAY 11- Week Three

This morning we had Improvisation with Greg. We played the "frantically name six of an item before the water bottle gets passed back to you" game, and finally, three weeks later, I got caught with the bottle. Name six of what, you ask? The last few weeks it's been things like movies featuring animals as main characters, musicals with one word titles, names of American first ladies. But the six items I was to name? "Restaurants that serve primarily chicken." For those of you who don't know me, my family owns and operates Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants. I am literally a third generation KFC kid. I swear I could not name one other chicken restaurant. In my defense, we never frequented the competition when I was growing up. El Pollo Loco? Didn't go until I was 18. Fortunately, we played another game so I could try to redeem myself. Our new task was to speak for a solid minute about some fictional topic he assigned us as if we were a leading expert at a conference. This was much easier for me and everyone was able to complete the minute with very funny success.

In Karen's rehearsal class we continued with our The Three Sisters rehearsal. Our current assignment is to go through the script with literal colors (pencils, crayons, what have you) to designate each thought with its own emotion. We are also continuing to discuss how to negotiate with directors and other actors via what Karen calls "self-defense acting." This involves backing up all opinions about your character with proof from the text, examples from previous productions, or famous articles or books. There's nothing worse than getting direction or notes from another actor, however, ahem, well-meaning they may be, and part of the negotiation is the tact to sometimes say "That's interesting..." and walk away, and to sometimes defend your choices until you get what you want.

In Hal's Advanced Techniques class, we talked about objectives. While it's a pretty basic idea in acting, it's sometimes easy to bypass for that very reason. The more specific an action verb can be, the easier time you will having picking tactics as to how you will complete that specific action to get what you want or need.

DAY 10

Where have the last two weeks gone? I feel like I only just got used to which staircase leads where and now we're a third of the way done with the program. This morning we did all kinds of crazy Fitzmaurice breathing, stretching, and voice work in the morning with Greg. Then we continued our Advanced Techniques with Hal combining our movement qualities and imaginary centers.

The real business of the day came after lunch, when we had a combined Audition class with Joanne all afternoon, which was a giant question/answer/lecture session about the ins and outs of getting jobs. So, without further ado, here are Joanne's tips and tricks of the trade, as frantically scribbled down by a non-Equity, non-represented actress.

1. Know what play you're auditioning for and who you are auditioning for- know about every person who will be in the room and what they've done (i.e. don't let the playwright be sitting in the room unacknowledged because you don't know what they look like).

2. Know the theatre and its history.

3. Don't pass up roles/auditions for better roles/auditions that "might" happen.

4. If you have an agent, tell them specifically that you want theatre work. Sometimes they don't pass on theatre audition notices if it's pilot season, etc, unless you've asked.

5. NEVER say you didn't read the whole play (I thought that was a pretty obvious one, but apparently it's a common mistake).

6. EPA stands for Equity Principal Auditions, and you can attend them (if they are not closed) if you are non-Equity.

7. If you are in contact with casting agents, keep them informed about what you are working on.

8. DO NOT be off-book for sides. Always keep them in your hands.

9. It is okay to say, "Can I start again?" if your beginning was miserable and you need to start over.

10. It is okay to send the casting director a thank-you note after the production in which they cast you, but is not necessary after the audition.

11. DO wear the exact same thing you wore to the audition if you are called back.

12. Dress the flavor of the role (Shakespeare: peasant top; Contemporary: T-shirt, jeans or movement clothes).

13. DO NOT wear or do anything to call attention to anything other than your performance.

And there you have it, ladies and gentlemen! Now let's all go get hired...

DAY 9

This morning we had our Audition class with Joanne. The woman is a genius. In a matter of days since initially meeting all of us, she found monologues that fit us each perfectly. She gave me a piece from Reckless by Craig Lucas in which the character confesses she is not, in fact, deaf and mute, but has just been pretending to be so to get the attention of her love interest. Other popular pieces were from Lobby Hero by Kenneth Lonergan, Oleanna by David Mamet, Hitchcock Blonde by Terry Johnson, and Autobahn by Neil LaBute. Everyone was very happy to be handed a monologue that was just right for them, as the process for finding one for yourself can take weeks... or just remain unfound.

In Scott's Camera class we shot the master shots of our scenes. It's really interesting for me to see the technical side of film in little ways, like holding the boom for a scene: I had no idea about any of it. We continued to work on our Girl, Interrupted scene, and I got to use Hal's "mentally disturbed" imaginary center technique. We'll see how well it worked when we see the playback next Tuesday.

Finally we had Karen's rehearsal class and worked through Act II of The Three Sisters. It seems like no matter how much research and prep I do, she still always comes up with questions that make me think, "How the hell did I not think of that before?" It is so fun doing scene work with such talented classmates, especially in a text that we all seem to be fairly unfamiliar with, stumbling through and making discoveries about the text together. Our voice teacher Greg played Vershinin for a while, adding an interesting (and obviously more experienced) layer to our group. Our homework for the weekend is to create a character bio in which we fill in all of the details, reasons, and answers that Chekhov didn't specify.

DAY 8

Another hysterical morning with Greg in Improvisation class. We played our usual games and learned a few new ones as well. As much crap as Greg gives us as we fail miserably during these games, he always gives us the most inspirational talks in the last half of class. He gave us a list of improv rules, including always making eye contact, trusting your partner, always adapting to changes/never denying information from your partner, being truthful, never physically fighting (which I think is kind of funny... he's obviously had problems with this in the past?), and knowing that there are exceptions to every rule.

We then had Advanced Techniques with Hal, who continued to work with us on "imaginary centers." Today we added a technique for playing mentally disturbed, which involves imagining the center far in the distance and giving it a strong magnetic quality. Watching Hal and my classmates focus their eyes this way, they certainly looked deranged, so I think it was a pretty good trick.

Our final class was Shakespeare with Hisa. I got to do my monologue, which was from All's Well That Ends Well. She showed me an even better Helena monologue two scenes after my selection that I will work on for next class. She also gave me the note that while it's great that I can speak Shakespeare in my own natural speech pattern, it would be better if I could draw out and elongate my words to match the heightened language with vocal emotional release, instead of my own quick, clipped pace of speech.

DAY 7

Today we had Karen's Audition class all morning, in which we got our roles for The Three Sisters that we will be rehearsing over the next four weeks. I've been cast as Irina, who is the ingénue of the sisters. I've never really played the ingénue before because I usually play the quirky/funny/outsider character (which is why I initially read for Natasha), so I'm excited to try something new and challenging... mostly because I have the worst time crying on command and this girl cries every other line. We had a discussion about the play based off of the research we had done over the weekend, and Karen tried to break us of the habit of starting any statement with "I think" or "I feel." I had no idea I started phrases that way, so it was a hard one to break. We read through the first act and will continue on to the second next class. Our big challenge is to find multiple and conflicting emotions in each speech, instead of just playing sad, happy, or angry.

Our next class was Camera with Scott. We are doing a scene from Girl, Interrupted and shot a couple practice runs of it. Scott recommended a great website to us, which is www.script-o-rama.com, and in it are hundreds of film and television scripts you can download for free. We had to replace one of our characters as one of our classmates had to drop the program, so the reading was a little awkward. The playback was also the first time I have really seen myself on film close up... wow. Are my cheeks really that big?

Finally we had Shakespeare with Hisa. There wasn't time for everyone to present their monologues but I learned so much just from watching others go. Overall, the challenge for us with this heightened language is connecting the sometimes foreign words to original thought, instead of "acting" and then reciting pretty words. We need to have the thought, need the language, and thus think, act, and speak all at once. Not as easy as it sounds. She also uses a great phrase which is "Fresh mint it!" meaning in a monologue, you have to keep coming up with fresh new thoughts and reasons to keep speaking instead of just waiting for the person to respond or marching off stage all together.

DAY 6- Week 2

I have a distinct feeling that any day with an Improvisation class with Greg is going to be my favorite day. I just laugh so hard the entire time. Again we were with both groups, playing large group games and then discussing how conflict and empathy on stage make for interesting entertainment. We played the "frantically name six of a category while a water bottle is being passed back to you" game again, and still no one was able to get all of them. We also played a game where you have to say a word that begins with whatever was the last letter of the word you were just given while sticking to a certain rhythm. He described improv as being "a playwright on your feet"- you create your own plot and circumstances; the team has to be able to play along with you.

We then had Rehearsal class with Karen, in which we had "callbacks" for The Three Sisters. I read for Natasha, and I am finding that my bad nervous habit is to read too quickly. It is interesting to see a group of really fine actors be called out on their bad nervous habits- we all have a distinct one we are now aware of and are trying to break. Even with my overly-speedy initial read I think it went well. We find out our cast list tomorrow. Not that there isn't any thing at stake here (again, please hire me SCR), but it is funny how seriously we all get about it when you label it "auditions"- even for a play that we will never perform. Also, we got to practice our audition schmoozing tactics: "Is there anything you would like me to know before I begin? ... Thank you, that adjustment was so helpful... Would you like to see it another way? ... Thanks so much, I really appreciate you calling me in to read... It looks like a very exciting project." Consider yourself schmoozed.

We then had Advanced Techniques with Hal, who gave us the idea of the "imaginary center," or the place where a character holds their "emotional and mental headquarters." From this center, which can be anywhere in, on, or around the body, a character trait can be built: Superman might have his in the center of his chest, leading the way with his perfect posture. This imaginary gravitational pull can also be used for more specific purposes, like drunkenness, in which case the center may be moving back and forth in front of you as you struggle to keep focus on it. Obviously, we all ended class having to come down from our fake buzz.