Ever felt the world stop and smile?

Les Mis. Last track of the show. Take out all the French stuff and character lines and that is the anthem of the future. Here's to our new world beyond the barricade.

My BACKSTAGE is out of reach right now, so the lessons on props and casting directors will have to wait. But as I learn, so shall you. That's the idea, anyhow. :P

Watched Waiting For Guffman and actually saw it this time (plenty of "holy shit, I don't remember any of this!" during the second viewing, though. Thank you to the Red-headed Slut, 2 glasses of champagne and 4 glasses of wine for that...). Brought to you by the creators of This Is Spinal Tap and absolutely hilarious. Community theatre is painfully awful (ask me about Kiss Me Kate sometime) - this movie makes it all worth the agony.

I could be developing a problem. I'm not sure yet, though it's been on my mind, but we'll wait and see.


My theatre lesson for the night, or, What I Learned About The Art Of Theatre 1/20 comes from rehearsing with my ACTF coach and scene partner this weekend. The ability to be real onstage involves focus. I'm a little rusty it would seem, either rusty or just not used to that level of focus.

For my Agnes of God scene for the Irene Ryans, my character is questioning Agnes about her mother, and as I ask questions about the abuse, my scene coach kept telling me to consciously think and analyze the responses, because any reaction, no matter how internal, is visible. If I am thinking, they can see it. If I am not thinking, they can see it. If I am not analyzing her answer and weighing the information against my knowledge as a psychiatrist, if that thought process does not occur, then the action that is seen is flat and uninteresting. At every single moment there has to be an acute awareness of every molecule of your being, and the intensity must never falter. Focus with all your might on reading these words, like as your read them you can burn them off the screen. Feel it like your whole body is blazing out your eyes. Do you feel the acuteness, that tension? That's what it should be like all the time. Every fiber of yourself intense and on point, not necessarily visibly, but your energy can be read as easily as your face. That's acting.

I found myself floundering in my lines because I was not entirely able to think those new thoughts and exist in that intense dual state and come up with the line with the right timing. It was like being given an extra set of limbs and not knowing what to do with them, or a filter being placed over my eyes and not having the ability to process what I saw around me. This sort of thing will just take practice. It's a cool feeling.


Waiting for Godot is being revived on Broadway starring Nathan Lane. Who's coming with me? :)