Last night's acting class was interesting. If I hadn't mentioned it before, apart from being a teacher at WCU, Dr. Hash is a professional makeup artist for the Wilmington Opera and has applied makeup to many artists performing in productions in Philadelphia and the surrounding area. She also teaches the theater makeup class at WCU, and you can tell from her discussion of the subject that she enjoys it, probably more than the general acting class.
So it wasn't shocking when she dragged us all into the makeup room last night to be painted. more
A hastily-written paper for my acting class on the play (musical) that we had to see. It was either this or Ten Little Indians, and this was sooner.
I had the opportunity to review the West Chester University Theater's presentation of You're a Good Man Charlie Brown on Saturday, July 8th. This production reinterprets the characters of Charles M. Shulz into a two-act musical, featuring in-character songs by each of the famous characters in Shulz's Sunday comic strips. Throughout the musical, the actors bring to life the characters and their all-too familiar skits. Presented in the thrust theater of the E.O. Bull Center, the stage presented some interesting challenges to the actors and stage crew. more
I performed my soliloquy for the class last night. It didn't go too badly. I messed up a line in there somewhere, but I think I covered it ok. The other soliloquies were enjoyable, too, overall better than mine. more
This is the bit that I have to have memorized for tomorrow's soliloquy testing.
Hi, Anne? It's Harry. That's right, Harry! I was wondering if you'd like to go out with me on Friday night. Catch a movie? You would? That's great. I'll pick you up at seven, babe. Bye!
Now. All I have to do is actually dial her number, and I'll have this down pat. Although... I've asked out the dial tone so many times, maybe she'll go out with me.
'Hi Everyone! This is my date -- The Dialtone.'
Okay, I can do this. I'll just take some deep breaths, pick up the phone, and call her. It's just a phone! It's easy. Millions of guys do it every day. I mean, the population would seriously decrease if guys didn't ask girls out on dates. Or vice versa. Oh jeez, I could get into trouble over that. What if she thinks I'm some kind of sexist pig because I want to ask her out on a date?
I'm too old for this.
At least I don't have to see her face when she rejects me. This way, she can politely turn me down, we can both hang up, and I can quietly bang the receiver against my head all night.
Pick up the phone. Pick up the phone. AAaarrrrg!
What's the worst she could say? She could say, "no." Would that be so bad? It would be so bad. It would ruin my very existence. What little existence I have, it would ruin it completely.
Okay. Maybe some pushups. I'll do some pushups and get some blood running to my head. Yeah.
Anne, will you go out with me? If you need some convincing, just feel my manly arms. I do a hundred pushups every day! Or maybe two.
Enough, enough, enough.
It's probably busy. That would make it easy. Yeah, it's busy. She's probably not even home. I could leave a message. I don't even have to talk to her. I have nothing to worry about!
I'm picking up the phone. I'm dialling her number. I'm... Oh my God, it's ringing!
Note that during this scene, I actually do two pushups, and end it by hanging up the phone and shirking away from it.
I was somewhat underprepared for last night's acting class. I spent a good deal of time memorizing the longer sections of my part, and didn't spend too much time memorizing the smaller lines. So when it came time to speak the short stuff, I messed those up more often. And then messing those up made me less confident about the longer sections, and then I totally blanked.
Ah, well. I'm much better now.
Class started off a tad strangely. We spend the first 15 minutes or so standing out by the box office arranging for tickets to the WCU production of "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown". I didn't have quite enough cash on me to pay for the tickets, so I just put two on hold for Friday. I think everyone else in my class who is going to see this show is also going to go on Friday with a friend or significant other. Weird....
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