Last Normal Day before Finals Week!!!

Greetings.

Today we reviewed all of the work we'd done over the course of the semester and gave positive and constructive criticism as is our style. We reworked:

• The nonesense poem
• The IPA work
• The final monologues
• Overall voice warm-ups

Hopefully we all do well next week. Monday our book reports are due, oh did you want a sneak peek? OK! :D

Stage Dialects

Introduction

As far back as I can remember I have always been fascinated by different dialects in media and performance. I seemed to have a knack for mimicry with my voice, especially now that I’ve taken a special interest in it as an adult. But it’s not nearly as easy as I supposed it would be when I was younger. My favorite dialects, from the beginning, have always been those derived from England. Like America, it had so many to offer because of its geographical diversity. Films like Marry Poppins, My Fair Lady, and The Sound of Music showed to me the many different sounds that England could produce. They also were the first to truly peak my interest in dialects. I knew that it would take hours of practice to truly cultivate a strong, believable dialect. Though, I never in a thousand years would have thought that the learning of a dialect could be broken down to a science as it is done in Stage Dialects, a book written by Jerry Blunt. 

Pretty intense eh? lol. See ya! :)

Monologues and Dialects Revisited

Greetings!

Today we showed off our hard work from over Thanksgiving break by doing our memorized monologues! And with dialects too!! It was fancy. I've been reading a book called "Stage Dialects" by Jerry Blunt. It's cool because it's taught in IPA, and that's what we've been learning all along in class!!! Makes it so much easier to be honest.

I'm trying to work on two monologues. The first is my old one from acting 1, Beneatha from A Raisin in the Sun. I was memorized, thank goodness, but still Sally saw where there could be some improvements. She pointed out that sometimes, putting emphasis on different vowels or consonants can completely change the tone of a monologue or the sound of a character. I tried it a few times, and of course I heard what she meant.


I'll keep toying with it.
Okay!! Gotta Go.

Cool Dialects Lady!!

Nov 7

I have recovered, slightly, from my earlier illness and today promptly worked on picking out a monologue to consider for final exam! I am caught between an old favorite and a new character that I've been suggested. I think I'm leaning towards Beneatha from A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. She's the old favorite:

Me?...Me?...Me, I’m nothing…Me. When I was very small…we used to take our sleds out in the wintertime and the only hills we had were the ice-covered stone steps of some houses down the street. And we used to fill them in with snow and make them smooth and slide down them all day…and it was very dangerous you know…far too steep…and sure enough one day a kid named Rufus came down too fast and hit the sidewalk… and we saw his face just split open right there in front of us… And I remember standing there looking at his bloody open face thinking that was the end of Rufus. But the ambulance came and they took him to the hospital they fixed the broken bones and they sewed it all up…and the next time I saw Rufus he just had a little line down the middle of his face…I never got over that…

That that was what one person could do for another, fix him up—sew up the problem, make him all right again. That was the most marvelous thing in the world…I wanted to do that. I always thought it was the one concrete thing in the world that a human being could do. Fix up the sick, you know—and make them whole again. This was truly being God.

Cruddy Day for a Voice

Greetings.

Today it rained a lot. It was cold and yucky. In other words: not very good voice work weather. And speaking of weather, I was under it a bit. I sat this class out and slept it off in the lounge or at least I tried to. It wasn't very comfortable so I ended up coming back and listening to nonesense poems anywho.

Voice was shy and

lots of cough drops

feeling ill

Bleh.