Acting is the single most stressed of the three disciplines at Carnegie Mellon. My acting teacher is a GODDESS. Her name is Jill Wadsworth and she has changed my life drastically in the last four weeks. Her playfulness, focus, and determination to help us succeed in our "goal setting" has shown me so much about myself as an individual and an actress.
(Me and Jill Wadsworth)
Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I wake up bright and early to get to class at 8:30 am (1/2 an hour earlier than the rest of the program because Jill wants us for as much time as possible) to warm-up and wake ourselves up. We work in the magnificent Rauh black box theater in the Purnell Center for the Performing Arts. The building is GORGEOUS and the facilities are like no other. It is truly a dream come true. Somebody is going to have to pull me kicking and screamin
g away from this place. ANYWAY, After warming up, we then read and discuss the New York Times, work on action exercises, play some games to get us out of our heads, and work intensely on scenes. Right now, we are in the middle of our scene work. I'm doing a piece from Twelfth Night by Shakespeare, during which I confess my love to a woman dressed as a man. Because of the specific style of the piece, I have to wear a corset every day we work (see on the left), and on the off days I rehearse in it. I never understood pain until this class! :) The workload for this class is crazy intense. Jill sends us lists every night of what we need to get done, and we do it without question because it's what we love to do, but it does take a lot of hard work and staying up late. I love every minute of it, though. I mean, it's why I'm here.
g away from this place. ANYWAY, After warming up, we then read and discuss the New York Times, work on action exercises, play some games to get us out of our heads, and work intensely on scenes. Right now, we are in the middle of our scene work. I'm doing a piece from Twelfth Night by Shakespeare, during which I confess my love to a woman dressed as a man. Because of the specific style of the piece, I have to wear a corset every day we work (see on the left), and on the off days I rehearse in it. I never understood pain until this class! :) The workload for this class is crazy intense. Jill sends us lists every night of what we need to get done, and we do it without question because it's what we love to do, but it does take a lot of hard work and staying up late. I love every minute of it, though. I mean, it's why I'm here.Another class that has to do with the acting discipline is Audition. I have it with the brilliant Doug Mertz. Let me try to explain Doug Mertz to you. On the first day, we learned eachothers names by writing our name with our butts for everyone. It was brilliant. Doug is an intense actor and knows his stuff... well. We read Michael Shurtleff's Audition... which is like the BIBLE of audition technique. If you are an actor/actress or aspire to be one... pick it up now. NOW. Our class consists of working on monologues, cold reading, practicing introductions (which I constantly mess up by infamously flipping my hair around), talking about the "guideposts" in Shurtleff's God-like wisdom, and fixing resumes and headshots. I have a lot of fun with "Moug/Mug Dertz" and the rest of the girls and have learned a lot through the class.
(My Audition Class!)
My Acting audition is on Friday, August 7th at 1:00 pm for Carnegie Mellon's College Drama Program. I'm nervous out of my mind, but enthusiastic that I've had this brilliant opportunity so far.
I'm off to bed, as it is 1:15 a.m. here and I have a vocal lesson, acting rehearsal, BOAL rehearsal, and lots of work/ shopping to do tomorrow.
LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE,
Caitlyn
