In the fourth week of rehearsal, the intensity was turned up! Carlos demanded energy and engagement from the student-actors; Steve White pursued precision and truth, Steve Cook contributed passion and love and Tom delved into conflict and desire in life-and-death circumstances.
Carlos gave a class on energy. When an actor is actively engaged with the things they want in the play, it is easier for the audience to be engaged. Carlos led the groups through a series of exercises that demonstrated how interesting and compelling an actor is when he or she is energized, engaged and pursuing objectives. On the flip side, the exercises also showed how easily the audience looses attention when the actor is merely reciting lines, or speaking without intention.
Steve White continued to refine stage fights and there are MANY fights in R&J! Steve Cook choreographed the dance at the Capulet’s party. The dance is set to tango music, one of Steve’s many specialties.
Tom worked through the play in pursuit of depth. He pushed actors to illustrate and highlight tension, action, drama and change. In Tom’s words, “the audience only understands change.” Without tension, drama, action and change a play is flat, uninteresting, and, in short, boring. The actors found conflict and change in places that surprised many of them. When an actor was successful at making a choice that highlighted conflict, the result was thrilling.
While the play is coming together, there is still a lot of ground to cover before the performance on August 6th (just one week from today!). In the final week of rehearsal the student actors will have to work harder than ever to perfect their lines, pursue their objectives, connect with their partners, make interesting choices. The task becomes 24/7 and everyone will have to keep working all day long - before they get to rehearsal, after they leave, while they’re on the train, drifting off to sleep – there is always time to work and grow! True artists are often obsessed with their work, drilling, thinking, doing, experimenting constantly. This last week will show who is up for the task…
This week was tough for me because I wanted to get in a deeper connection with my character. But after rehearsing it over and over again I was growing more and more, by the end of the week I found myself feeling the characters pain and I started to cry... I also loved how Carlos made us do an excersise that let us run the whole entire play in a VERY dramatic way.
ReplyDelete(I wish we performed it that way lol)
Learning to connect to a character is the reason why i wanted to come to Stella Adler! This week was tough for me because I had to feel the pain of losing a daughter, which I never felt in my life. Tom pushed me and it worked, when it came time for the scene when Juliet dies i felt it and its really not the best feeling EVER!! I even cried on stage which i thought would take me forever to figure out. The trick to it though is just being connected to your character and I thank the studio for allowing to me grow and make that connection!
ReplyDeleteThe fourth week was amazing, espically on friday with carlos exercise was entertaining and taught us alot. I cannot wait for the finishing touches to come to place.
ReplyDeleteYou can see the program and some of the students featured on New York Noticias at http://www.ny1noticias.com/content/cultura_y_sociedad/123161/academia-de-artes-forma-a-estudiantes-de-bajos-recursos?ap=1&MP4
ReplyDeleteThe fourth week was fun and intense, we've learned how to connect to our character better. Friday was especially exciting because of the overly dramatic warm up carlos made us do
ReplyDelete