Classes

So I'm studying full time right now at the William Esper Studio and I'm already learning and changing so much.  In addition to my acting class that meets twice a week for 4 hours each.....i have Voice that meets twice a week, Movement meeting twice a week, Alexander Technique meeting once a week for 3 hours, Dance meeting once a week for 2 hours, and Mask that meets once a week for 4 hours. It's a busy schedule. Some of you may find this a boring post, but for my parents and others who act I wanted to give a breakdown.
Of course Acting is amazing learning Meisner technique. Stanford Meisner used to say, "Without spontaneity acting is like soup without salt: it's stale, flat, and completely unprofitable". And at the studio....Mr. Esper believes that the “real contact between actors comes when they listen to what they are saying to each other, and then respond truthfully from themselves, from their own point of view.” He subscribes to Sanford Meisner’s principle that what an actor does doesn’t depend on him, but on what the other actor does to him. He believes that this is the foundation from which all acting training should begin. It's just so interesting b/c we are in no way learning to act. They accepted people who can basically act, and we are now just learning how to get out of our heads and respond to other actors truthfully. We are learning to be more vulnerable. And it's really amazing to see what happens.
With my partner Jeff, over the past few weeks, we will just start a repetition with eachother and it just gets so crazy. Sometimes it gets to where we are screaming at eachother.....twice I've broken down crying b/c of something he said.....or b/c he's busy with a project and ignoring me. Before I know it, just by letting him affect me, I feel all sorts of different emotions surfacing. And it's great b/c we are still living in a somewhat imaginary circumstance, but we are just being spontaneous. There are no social restrictions. If he wants to yell at me that I'm a bitch and annoying he does it, and vice versa. And then we stop and go on, and I've really noticed myself opening up to having those emotions. I need to have them and to experience that b/c I will hopefully have characters that have those deep emotions, and the more free I am, the better my performance will be. And I learn so much just watching my classmates go. Seeing them each class open up more and grow....it's incredible.

My VOICE class is also changing me big time. We've mostly been focusing on breathing and how that is the biggest effector of our speech. I tend to have a nasal/high voice, and through my classes and doing my breathing exercises, my voice has already gone down. I now sound more refined and more grown up. SO exciting! We are now starting to get into the placement of our tongues and how that also affects our speech and how when we learn to pay attention to that we can more easily master different dialects. My teacher is great....Patricia Fletcher. She's worked with lots of great actors to help them perfect a different dialect for a movie.....and already my sound has changed. I feel more confident even when I speak b/c my voice is so much more refined.

Movement is my second favorite class to acting. It's so fun and also opens me up so much. The basic theory of this class for us is that......when you are performing, your body is a very expressive tool--somewhat more expressive than your voice.  We start just by laying on the ground for 10 minutes just meditating. Then he will start some music and we can begin flowing and moving with our breath. Whatever we feel....in our bodies or emotions....etc......we are told to say continuously "it's ok, it's ok, it's ok. no apologies, no judgement". This has really affected me simply b/c I have felt alot of judgement in my life over the past few years and especially months. I constantly question my decisions, so for me to tell myself over and over that it's ok, just really gets to me. I"m learning to forgive myself through this class. Then we just begin moving. I usually forget anyone is in there except myself. It feels so great to open up to music and move and dance and feel my body. Several times it has gotten emotional. Our bodies really tell a story, and listening to mine has been great. more on this later. I just had some girls from the studio stop by. Caitlin my greatest love is here!!!