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Leanna's IB Theatre Arts Journal Journal continued. My Photos My Files More journalness.

3-4

March 6, 2008

Excited about auditions for the spring play! Looks like it’s going to be Our Town, which is…okay. Don’t hate it, don’t love it. It’s growing on me, though. For my audition monologue, I did this piece about a girl who got picked to talk to these people by her teacher, and she tells them how she doesn’t know why she got picked, because she’s not pretty or talented or anything like that. Perfect part for me, right?

I really want to see Aida but know it’s unlikely because I don’t think I can afford it. Some rich philanthropist needs to start a program that takes poor uncultured children like me to see musicals. That’s what I want to be when I grow up: a rich musical-loving philanthropist. With a farm full of happy puppies.

I think this journal is becoming entirely too free and open. In more theatre-related news, I’ve realized I enjoy Anouillh’s Antigone a lot more than I thought I would-it has some really great monologues in there, like the one Creon gives about the ship of state and such. I actually really enjoy Creon in both Sophocles’ and Anouilh’s Antigone-he’s just a cool character no matter which...

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2-28

March 6, 2008

We performed the script from A Month in the Country in class today, down in the TV studio. It didn’t go too badly. I felt bad because Jessie hadn’t memorized her lines, but who could blame her, she really had all the lines in that scene. I felt guilty about that, but she picked the script and the parts we were going to play, so I suppose I can’t blame myself. The hardest part about this exercise for me was figuring out the third step in the process from the book-I really don’t have a relationship with anyone like Vera does with Natalia Petrovna. I enjoyed the script, though, and now I’m sort of insanely curious as to how it all turns out. Maybe I’ll go get it from the library or something and let you in on the secret too. Oh great, I’m talking to my journal like it’s a person now.


Posted at: 09:44 PM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink

2-26

March 6, 2008

OH MY GOSH. I’m sooo glad that’s finally over!

Well, I didn’t ruin the show, all reviews have been positive, and I am quite happy with myself. I hear good things about the crew and stuff, but all I really needed was to feel like I did a good job.

Oh my gosh, so cheesy. Pretend I never said that, that’s so very Dora the Explorer. Anyway, so the only bad part is I didn’t get to watch the show as close as I would have liked to be able to, most especially Ritz. As I mentioned, that’s my favorite. The only bad part is I have that perma-stuck in my head now, and I can never ever have it on my iPod because G made it, and that. is. Depressing. I love the Taco version, but after that blast of magnificence how can I live knowing it’s gone forever?

Okay, I’m done being emo now. Suffice it to say, the show went well, and everybody did really good, and I’m still happy.

Of course, it could have ended better than the fiasco Sat. night, but oh well, everything’s okay now, right? Right. Yes. I love my daddy, but the...

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Posted at: 09:39 PM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink

2-21

March 6, 2008

Rehearsal for Nights of Broadway went all right. I’m still a bit off on Let’s Hear it for the Boy, and I’m really concerned about Puttin’ On the Ritz-it’s my favorite song and I just really don’t want to screw it up. I’m insanely nervous about One Vision as well-okay, I’m pretty insanely nervous as a whole, to be honest with you. I’m busying myself with running lights every chance I get and following 8-counts, which helps a lot. The show’s tonight-wish me luck!

Fortunately, I hit You Can’t Stop the Beat pretty dang well every time now that I took out all those extra pages that don’t belong in there and I don’t get completely confused with them. Looking at the lights now for Breaking Free, I just kinda want to go in and change them around. Just a little. You know how it is. I feel like, looking at it now, the all white really belongs at the end of the song and not second to last…If I could only switch those last two, I’d be as happy as a camper…Except for the crushing weight of that fat white book and that happy little go button. Don’t get...

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Posted at: 09:34 PM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink

2-16

March 6, 2008

Went to the tiny town of Lincoln, Kansas to see the premiere (finally!) of the movie that me and Dad are in. Bloody Dawn: The Lawrence Massacre-Exciting title, I know! I have pretty good scenes in it, it turns out. The movie as a movie is not the best I’ve ever seen, but it’s pretty good for low budget and dang better than the last one. After that, we went to a particularly laughable display in the courthouse-It was Lincoln Days, you see, so they had a bunch of guys dressed up as Abraham Lincoln there, including the guy who starred as Quantrill in the movie-ironic, no? First they had a "fashion show", which was…odd…and then Tom, our Lincolny pal, gave the Gettysburg Address, which was all right as Gettysburg Addresses go. Then there was the Abe Lincoln Look-Alike Contest, which Tom did not win. Then we left….

We were just tourists that day, I miss reenacting already. The sweltering heat, the twenty three layers of clothing, the hunger, the irritation, the people, the ropes, the shootouts with the balloons, everything. I guess I didn’t realize so much how much this meant to me until now. Maybe I should write...

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Posted at: 09:29 PM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink

2-2

March 6, 2008

I’ve been pondering ideas for my IB musical more lately. Don’t laugh, but I think the saga of IB would make a great musical-I already have several interesting songs in mind-concepts for them anyway, not actual full blown songs. There has to be stuff about the IB Theatre kids, of course, and the joys of the four-year plan, and Matty G talking to us about suicide…ahhh, good times. There will be a lot of freestanding scenery that can be wheeled/moved on and off, to change locations with little difficulty. And ToK, definitely have to squeeze in ToK…and CAS hours…ugh. It’s going to have a little group of main character that the show will follow through all four years of high school, and then perhaps at the end we’ll find out what exactly one does with an IB diploma.
Posted at: 09:22 PM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink

1-29

March 6, 2008

Just got A Streetcar Named Desire out of the library and read it to compare to when I saw it freshman year…It seemed shorter reading it, but that seems rational. I have to say I liked seeing it better, but I guess that’s why it’s a play instead of a book. I love the symbolism of bathing, I felt really smart as a little PIB 1 freshman spotting that. However, it may hinder me in my enjoyment of reading the play that I saw it performed two years ago, because while reading it I noticed that everything I read played out in my head with the actors I saw in it, and the scenery in the production, and everything. I’m sure that has just ruined me for life, I know.

It's srt of the reverse process, really, of what we went through for Chess, since for Chess, we read it and still got the excitement, the buildup to seeing it perfomed. I feel guilty that just reading it feels like a step down, but I suppose that shows 1. The quality of the production (I enjoy reading plays more sometimes than watching them i the production isn't all that good)...

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Posted at: 09:14 PM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink

1-25

March 6, 2008

I’M GOING TO BE LIGHT BOARD OPERATOR FOR NOB!!! That’s exciting. Could you tell?

Needless to say, I’m hopelessly nervous over this. I’ve never worked a light board in my life. I suck at reading music. But I do enjoy applying myself, so perhaps that will benefit me. I reeeeally don’t want to screw this up.

I have the big white light book. Oh. My. Gosh. It is so scary. It’s…big…and…white, and…full of music. Gads!

To think I wrote happily here in my little journal, innocent and free, a long time ago, "I think I’d like to learn a bit more about lighting." I guess I’m going to.

Besides that, in class we’re going to be designing lights for it I guess, so hopefully I’ll at least get our songs right. Well, hopefully I’ll get all of them right, but you know what I mean. I don’t envy Maddy her costuming job…seems scary. Don’t envy Riley his light designing job, either…also seems scary. Courtney’s job, of course, scares the crap out of me…Dancing…yikes.


Posted at: 09:12 PM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink

1-21

March 6, 2008

Thespian conference…ahhh. It’s amazing.

Workshops are…fantastic. Freedom is…fantastic. Shows are…well, sitting in the box is…crazy.

Workshops:

IMPROV:MASTER CLASS-took three of these, Character, Scenework, and Long Form. I only meant to take the first one, but I just loved it so much I kept going back. The teacher was truly amazing, and this has made me aspire to a career in improv. Not only that, but I actually feel that my improv skills have improved a great deal just from that. I had never truly just become a character, I was always previously trying to be funny as myself onstage, which is not the way to go. She also taught us all about "buckets" (which are reeeeeally entertaining, just for your information) and, animal spines, and just so many amazing techniques. As you can see, I’m still beside myself.

HOW TO WRITE A MUSICAL: I was a bit scared of this one at first, but it turned out to be really informal and really great, with just a few people there. We all collaborated on this song that could be from a musical…it was totally crazy and completely great for me-its great working with others…so kindergarten, I know. But our song...

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Posted at: 09:07 PM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink

1-15

March 5, 2008

I’m not sure about my feelings towards Stanislavski. I think I’ll plan on trying out his methods and then seeing how I feel about him, and them. I’m not sure I’ll ever want to have his baby, as the author of the book clearly does, but maybe I’ll gain appreciation for him-because that’s what the SL year is for, right, increasing our dramaturgical maturity? Of course it is.

The whole thing about emotion, how you use personal experience not to call forth the emotion in the scene directly, but instead call forth the memory and use the emotion, not the situation…I think I get it, but I’m not fully sure I do. I suppose it’s like those optical illusions that you have to look at out of the corner of your eye, but when ou look straight at it, it’s all weird…yeah.

But hey, it’s definitely better than scriptwriting. Don’t get me wrong, I love to write, but scriptwriting…for class…it sort of sucks up all my creativity. But hey, if we didn’t have to do that, I wouldn’t have gotten my happy little two person script which I love so much and haven’t titled because it didn’t seem pressing.


Posted at: 07:39 PM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink

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