I met with Carrie briefly this morning after she finished teaching the Daily Acting Workout, and we discussed my frustrations. She said that of course at this point in my growth as an actor, I shouldn't expect myself to be able to step into a scene without rehearsal and be able to play actions without thinking about it. She also said that's what the rehearsal process is for, to work with the actions you've picked out, get familiar with them so that when you perform you don't have to think about them any more, you just do them. She also suggested another rehearsal exercise to try, which is either moving forward, standing your ground, or moving backwards as you say the lines. Don't think about it, just let your body move. We had done that in Scene Study in BCI, I'm glad she reminded me of that.
Then in class, Scott was asking us how our scenes had gone, (the ones we filmed Friday), and my partner voiced his positive experience, and then Scott asked me how I felt it had gone for me. (And this is where I admit that what I wrote on Friday about not liking to watch myself on video was mostly a cover for what I really thought about my performance.) I told Scott that I could see my performance had improved watching it back on the video, but that I felt I hadn't been completely connected to my partner, even though there had been some action/reaction, I had been intellectually choosing the next action I would play, and I really didn't think I did that well. (And that's what I had seen on the video, I had seen myself "playing" the scene, not really being and doing in the scene.)
So Scott talked about how when we're in a repetition, being present with the other person draws us out of ourselves and that we shouldn't be doing anything in a repetition. But in a scene, we draw ourselves out by focusing on doing something to the other person.
Scott also told me that if finding specific actions etc was putting me in my head, then I should just forget about that part, because it was creating clutter. I told him that when I do that, Carrie always asks me what am I doing to the other person. Scott replied that as long as I am really going after my objective, not just playing at it, I can react off the other person in the moment and I will be doing something to the other person. (Which my blog friend Don also noted in his comment on yesterday's post, thanks Don for your support!!)
One other thing that Scott said that I find very interesting, is he briefly talked about creating layers in a performance. He said layers are created when you're only focused on doing one thing, because that's when all this other stuff can happen while you're focused on doing.
So that was just the discussion before we started working. Repetition today was so much fun, I felt so happy and relaxed afterwards. (Yay for no more stress!) I was so surprised and touched and delighted by so much of what I saw in each of the people I repeated with. My favorite by far was one guy, after repeating with me for a minute, started moving from side to side in front of me, from right to left and back again, he would not stand directly in front of me. As he moved, it came up in the repetition that he was uncomfortable, and then he said, "You see too much." And that's when it hit me: "You're dodging me!!" I was absolutely floored, but it was so hilarious at the same time that he was physically attempting to dodge me, I couldn't stop laughing. And I wasn't laughing in a mean-spirited way, I was laughing because I loved his reaction.
I'm really getting a kick out of watching people's reactions. I was hanging out at Virgin Records with a friend a couple of weekends ago, and we were listening to CDs on the headphones. I had my friend listen to the CD I found that was a mix of middle-eastern ethnic and rap/R&B/techno, I thought it was really cool. So I gave her the earphones, and she started gently bopping her head side to side with the beat, but at the same time she looked confused and a bit worried. I had to cover my mouth to keep from laughing out loud in the middle of the store, her reaction just totally delighted me. And my sister's reaction to the pomogranite jello my Mom decided to make (100% juice plus unflavored jello), I was giggling over that for a good five minutes.
Anyhow, back to class. Scott worked with us some more on our scenes from last week, (Misery for me) since we will be auditioning with them in class tomorrow for the Advanced Program. We worked psychological gestures for point of view of our characters, for objectives, and for the moment before, and since Scott did not have any critique for me through these (where he did have some for my partner), I figured I was doing a pretty good job. And it felt better than previously, I felt fully connected to my partner, intense, although I was surprised that the actions we had rehearsed kept popping into my instincts. But then, Scott had all of us walk around the room, and he would call out partner's names to start their scene, and when he got to us, even though I thought I was pursuing my objective, Scott stopped us almost right away, and he told me to keep the pressure on my partner, not to back off. The only thing I can think is that by walking around, I wasn't as focused on my moment before, I wasn't as prepared to step into the scene as I might have been otherwise, and so I slipped into the habit of playing the scene instead of actually doing it. But we also go feedback from Carrie on Friday that the beginning of the scene wasn't as connected as it could be, so I guess that's our trouble spot, and since I have the first lines in the scene, it falls on me to fix that.
After class, I was supposed to rehearse with my new scene partner for the scene from About Last Night, which will be filmed on Friday. But, he was no where to be found. I called his cell phone, left a voice message and waited for 15-20 minutes. I called him again, this time he answered.
Me: "Hey, where are you?"
Him: "Are you still waiting for me??"
Me: "Yes."
Him: "Why?!?"
Me: "Because we're supposed to rehearse this afternoon."
Him: "I can't, I had to leave!"
Me: "You didn't tell me that."
Him: "I couldn't."
Me: "Okay. Goodbye."
When I had spoken with Carrie this morning, she told me that his blowing me off on Sunday, and bad attitude on Monday morning ("I know you're pissed, and you have every right to be, but I don't give a shit.") she told me that was inexcusable, and to let her know immediately if it happened again. So after I got off the phone with my partner I asked the office to contact her and let her know, and then 30 minutes later I got a call back from the office saying that I have a new scene partner. Huzzah!
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