As you may know I was recently in a production of the play "the King Stag" at my school. We've been working on the play since September, and I must say it is nice to finally put it on. The play was in the "comedia del arte" style which involves makes and being very over the top. This might seem easy, but I can say one thing for sure, it uses up a ton of energy. "The King Stag" is the story of king Deramo and his search to find a wife, on the way dealing with the plots of prime minister Tataglia. I played Truffaldino the court bird catcher in love with Smeraldina, the obnoxious country girl, who doesn't necessarily love him back (yes i played a guy, again).
Every year I do a blog post after the play, and I thought that this year I'd show you all that went on before the play (tec week) rather than just the finished product.
Day 1 and 2:
Throughout all of the rehearsals we had been practicing in the Eurhythmy room. On the first day of tec week, I finally got to see the place where we'd be doing the show, the new gym.
Day 3:
Happy Birthday Eve! How are you celebrating? By staying at school till 9 pm! Yay.... Again, we had lots of standing around. I got to see my make-up for the first time! It was really bright and fun, it took quite a long time to apply though.
Day 4:
We had our first "dress rehearsal." I put it in quotations because we didn't actually get through the whole play, just the first half and only some of us were in costume and makeup. My voice was acting a little weird, almost as though it was going to disappear. We got to see My's makeup for the first time, doesn't she look lovely?
Day 5:
I wake up to find, I've lost my voice. It's opening night and I've lost my voice. What awful timing. My and I painting all the last minute masks and props and got into costume and makeup. Kim (our assistant director) and I decided that she would "dub" my voice for that nights show and hopefully I would get it back by the next day. The show went well, with only a few mess-ups. It was hard to move my mouth at the right time that Kim was speaking. She did a great job, after all she had never read the part before and didn't mess up once.
Day 6:
My voice began to come back, by the time of the first show on Saturday I was able to talk again my voice was just several octaves lower. I suppose it was perfect since my character was a guy. It was so nice to be able to actually say my lines again!
After the first show we all went to California Pizza Kitchen, which has become a tradition. We weren't aloud to take our make-up off between shows since it takes so long to put on, thus people who walked by us, most have thought we were part of the circus or something.
The Saturday night show was definitely the best out of the four. We had an amazing crowd and so much energy. backstage we were all running around like mad people.
Day 7:
Our final show. It went well, not the best, but still good! We were all exhausted, sleeping backstage until our scene. My had a fever and most people were coming down with colds. After the show we had to "strike the set" which is always a little sad and lots of work.
In all it was a fun experience, although lots of work. It was nice working with some talented actors like Julian who play Tartaglia. Although the play wasn't one I necessary wanted to do, I still really liked my part. Even though it was no where as big a production as
Pippin, it was still stressful and a ton of work. I don't feel that anyone in the play was ever to keen on the play itself. And to be honest I think that's the difference between a good and amazing play. The love for the play.
All I can say is, I'm rather happy it is over. Yes I will miss it a bit, but not that much. It was fun, and I'll smile looking back at it.
I wonder what we'll do next year.
Pictures by Andrew Neuhart, Martina Turner and Ms. Meyer.
There are some movies that I remember watching over and over when I was younger. When we're little we never seem to get bored of a story, or film, we like. The Great Race was one of those movies. I remember Ventana and I loved the film and would watch it over and over during the summer. About a month ago I thought to myself "What ever happened to that film?" so I went on Netflix and soon it was at my door. Now I only remembered three things about this movie: 1. It was about a car race. 2. Jack Lemon was in it. 3. There was a pie fight. The Great Race tells the story of two competitors: Doctor Fate and the Great Leslie who decide to have a race from New York to Paris. They are joined by Ms. Dubois, a women's rites activist who believes she can win the race, and mayhem ensues along the way. I quite enjoyed the film. It's not what you might call "a great film" but it is entertaining and good fun. It felt rather like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Bed-knobs and Broomsticks and even Start the Revolution Without Me. The film took place at some really pretty locations. There is a castle that I simple adore. It's always fun to go back and re-watch your favorite childhood films.
Greg recently got West Side Story through Netflix after I mentioned Corby (our director) was asking what our favorite musicals were. I really didn't know anything about West Side Story except the song "Tonight", that Natalie Wood was in it, and that it was a loose adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. So I had a fairly clean slate before watching it which I always think is good when seeing a movie you've never seen before. West Side Story is about two enemy gangs, the Sharks and the Jets, living in New York City. With the families of these gangs, Maria (in the Sharks family) and Tony (in the Jet gang) fall in love. I actually enjoyed it a good deal. There are so many good songs in it. Everyone was good in it as well, although it did have a bit of that "older film acting style" that is different to me, because I'm used to films nowadays. It was rather sad to me that neither Maria (Natalie Wood) or Tony (Richard Beymer) didn't sing their own songs, but were dubbed over. I will say that the dubbing was really well done for it never felt like someone else was singing.
There are a number of things that make a film a good one. The story, the soundtrack, if it is "beautiful" to look at and most of all, it has to have great acting in it. The film Into the Wild has all of those things and more. Into the Wild tells the true story of Chris McCandless who leaves behind his old wealthy life and parents to have an adventure in nature. He breaks away from everything to be with himself and experience the type of adventures we all dream of. It is a story about finding oneself and in a way finding out what life is all about. I though Sean Penn, the director, did a fantastic job. The film looked so wonderful and felt so real that I found myself believing I was there watching the events. Some of the shots were utterly gorgeous, they felt like the most amazing photographs come to life. The soundtrack was also very lovely. It was so calm and yet had a life and energy that really fit the story. It didn't over power, merely assist, which is what a soundtrack is supposed to do. I thought the acting was phenomenal. Jena Melone would played Chis's sister was great as always. She has such a sad wisdom in her voice that seems as though she has seen much of life, which was perfect for her character. I love seeing how William Hurt, Chris's father, whom I always see as softer characters had this hard strict edge. I felt as if he was a completely different person which means as an actor he was doing his job. Hal Holbrook was good as well for he was so natural. He had an odd wisdom to him that made me curious about the character. Emile Hirsh was so amazing to watch. He was really inspiring for me as an actress because I never felt I was watching an actor, only that I was watching Chris McCandless. He was so likable and relatable that you could understand why this character did what he did. It was a hard part to play and Emile played it perfectly. His performance makes me want to act and try things and push myself. There are many great performances, but not many actually inspire me to act.
