Fundamentals of Acting class

I usually don't talk about my classes on the blog. But this one, I just had to mention.

Fundamentals of Acting: Ann elective for me. It also kept me associated with the theatre, because I did not do any actual shows this semester.

So anyway it was taught by Barbara Burgess-Lefevbre. And John Locke assisted. During the many classes we did a LOT of activities on stage.

Here are a few examples:

Example 1: Pretend to eat something.

One group pretended to drink tequila, and then pretended to beat up a pinata, and eat what they thought was chocolate, but it wasn't. It was poop. Some of them enjoyed every bit of it, others fell over dead.

Example 2: Convince Barbara to give you a dollar. Best one gets the dollar.

There were a lot of attempts. The winner was Corey Nulton. He said "I'm on a scavanger hunt, and all I need is a dollar bill from the most beautiful acting teacher in the world."

Worst one: Adam Dumkovich. He laid on the stage with a sign that read "Need money for booze, drugs, and whores"

Example 3: Create an Alien Race

You had to have been there to understand that one.

Example 4: Make a Soap Opera w/ newspaper characters.

So we made one. My character's name was Ryan. A 19-year old who had fallen out of a window at a party. As the story ran on, my character got into a car accident w/ Derrek Fererrick (Tom Baum), tried to join a band, but quit when because of dissatisfaction with his role. Talk about a string of bad luck. He also lusted after a girl named Melia (Suzanne Montecalvo), who had been shot, and my character, also attacked her shooter (Corey Nulton) frequently. In the end, Ryan committed suicude, when Melia wouldn't be his girlfriend. But I fucked up the suicide scene, by walking after shooting myself in the head.

Busted!!!

Then, there were two scenes and a monologue that were graded. The two scenes were partner scenes, and the class was divided into teams of two, for each of them.

First Scene: Lone Star

Partner: Pat Nagle

Synopsis: Two Texan brothers are reminiscing about the good days before the older brother (Pat) went to Vietnam. But while he was gone, the younger brother (That was me) slept with the older's wife. And the older brother was deeply upset to learn this, and was determined to make his younger brother deeply upset about it.

Other scenes for round one, included: A robbery, a movie writing, a teacher's lounge, a couple arguing about "Who's the boss?", and others.

Second Scene: Brother

Partner: Leslie Wiernik

Synopsis: A live-at home party animal (Me) is complaining to his visiting older sister (Leslie) about how crummy his life is, while she tries to convince him that he should "Shape up".

Other scenes for this time around included: A child abuser, an pre-abortion, an austistic brother, and others.

What a class. Well it's over now.

So, untill next time...